Kensington Dollshouse Festival Part 2

The Monday after the dollshouse festival was a fun day in London. Mr. T2S and I headed to the Victoria and Albert Museum. With the museum map and a limited amount of spousal patience, I quickly devised a route through the museum that allowed us to see a small sampling of the extensive collection.

Several architectural models interested me, but I was attracted to this one because it is contained within a traveling box.

Architectural model of Pitt House; Sir George Gilbert Scott and W.B. Moffat; 1841.

I like the traveling box!

The ceramics exhibition was breathtaking! You may wish to click on the images to see the details.

Dish with peas; England, Staffordshire, about 1820; Minton's factory.
Bone china painted in enamels and gilded.

Vases with naturalistic flowers; England, Staffordshire, 1830-1840; Minton & Co.
Bone china painted in enamels and gilded.

Tile panel with vase of flowers; Delft, Netherlands, 1710-1750.

Also in the V&A museum, I found the same model of my first boombox in one of the display cases. Yikes, am I so old, that a purple, plastic boombox with mint green and peach "play" and "stop" buttons for the cassette tapes, is now a museum piece? 

This colorful diva of a stereo rocked my world with Madonna, Starship, and the Bangles.  Graphic via stereo2go.com

I quickly forgot about the 80s, as we headed to Covent Garden. It was a pleasant surprise to find a Ladurée shop! And even more pleasant that Hubby and our friend indulged me with a box of the scrumptious macaroons! The three of us stood in the square and moaned with pleasure as we sampled the flavors. Not a bad ending to our trip!

Kensington Dollshouse Festival - Part 1

I'm a little late in posting about our trip to Kensington Dollshouse Festival. However I want to share some photos of just a small portion of the fantastic work that we saw at the festival.

We had a short, but pleasant trip to London. It was our first time taking part in the Kensington Dollshouse Festival. We shared a table with Andrea Thieck, whom I think is one of the most stylistically diverse artisans I've met. Everything that she makes – from watering cans to LED lighted minerals – is a perfect replica of real life! And she is a delightful person as well.

Andrea Thieck

Of course, I did a bit of shopping between helping customers. How can one fight the urge to scoop up everything in sight, when it is all new and different?? Fortunately, I was able to control myself... ahem.. to a certain degree.

New items for the kitchen of the Tuscan Villa. 

Andrea thoughtfully found the bowl in the photo for my Tuscan Villa. It is by Sally Meekins. 

Every kitchen needs a few storage containers. The leather hanging bottle, wooden bucket and wooden storage container are by S & S Eismont.

The preserved tomatoes and onions and other glassware are from Country Treasures.

Not surprisingly, one of the busiest tables was Petite Properties. I fell for a lean-to greenhouse kit. It is going to be attached to my 1:48 flower shop. And then there was the impulse buy... a 1:144 Tulip Cottage kit. It was just too IRRESISTIBLY CUTE! 

1:144 Flower Pot Cottage Kit. Photo via petite-properties.com

I met Georgia Marfels from Germany. I can best describe her work as humorously dark and magical; it makes you want to look closely at every piece. The dissected frogs brought back memories from high school Biology class!

Georgia Marfels

One of the best parts of traveling to the festival was meeting artisans that I hadn't previously known about. One such person is David Provan. He makes incredibly detailed wood turnings and metal pieces; including this window hardware. He patiently explained how to install one of his door latches in my Tuscan Villa. 

Window hardware by David Provan.

Andrea introduced me to Jana from Germany. Her books are works of art. Pictured below is the Van Gogh's House pop-up book.

Janas Minibuecher. Photo via janas-minibuecher.de

More from London in the next post!

Kensington-Here We Come!

We are just about ready to leave for our first show in London. I'm excited! To commemorate the occasion (well...to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee...really) I thought it would be fun to do a little collaboration with Ruth Stewart. She made these delightful cakes and cupcakes. Do you see the tiny gemstones? Ruth has such a colorful and fresh approach to her work; I can't help but smile when I see her desserts!

If you will be attending Kensington Dolls House Festival, please stop by our table and take a look at Ruth's work!

The Texas Show and Our First Workshop

It was a weekend of firsts for Mr. T2S and me – our first trip to Texas, our first time teaching a workshop, and our first Texas BBQ! We enjoyed them all!! Everything in Texas seems to be a bit bigger, including the hospitality.

Our weekend began with teaching a workshop. Eight fun ladies signed up to create the vintage style Christmas hutch with glitter houses. We had a great time assembling the houses and electrifying them. And I'm not embarrassed to say that I learned a lot from our students!

 

Mr. T2S and I had just enough time to set up the table before the show preview. We enjoyed meeting new people and seeing the work of some of the top miniature artists. I even had a few moments to do a bit of shopping. I was happy to see Helen David. Since I was a young girl, I've admired her gorgeous flowers that are arranged so thoughtfully. A former florist, she pays special attention to the design and historical accuracy of the arrangements and the containers. I treated myself to the tiniest stem of lilies of the valley.

Lilies of the valley by Helen David

I also chose a basket of mushrooms from Autumn Leaf Studio. Even though Mr. T2S told me that some of the types of mushrooms are not appropriate for an Italian scene, I plan to use it in my Tuscan farmhouse anyway.

Mushrooms by Autumn Leaf Studio. Basket by Al Chandronnait.

Tomorrow we are off to London for the Kensington Dollshouse Festival. We will share a table in the ground floor hall with Andrea Thieck. If you will be at the fair, please stop by and say hello!