Shows - Orlando Miniatures Festival, Orlando, Florida, USA

Apologies - trying to replace the photos in this drove me crazy - I am sure the objects will turn up as I go along with the project.






For the third year running I 'did' the Orlando show and had a great three days learning and shopping and working.  If you want to know more go and visit my Dolls House Show blog.  Meanwhile here are the things I bought for The Gate House:

These little gems came from Stewart Doll House Creations 

No idea why I wanted this but looks as though it might be useful.  Almost as thin as a CD width, gold sticky tape

Tiny bottles of no-hole beads

Sweet little freebie added to my bag

From the Quarter Source/Sally Manwell stands I gathered up the following items.  I am not sure which is Karen's and which is Sally's.  The hugely practical wood and turntable are decidedly Karen's as she very kindly brought them to the show for me to pick up.  I think that is very generous when it is all of a $7.50 order and you have to remember to do it, sort it out and pack an awkward shape in the rest of your stuff.  

Lovely realistic Christmas tree.

So sweet and one of those serendipity purchases.

Double bead trim just 3/64ths" wide.

What I hope will be my bathroom bead board. 1/32th thick.

Mmmm, thinking about this........

I also bought some lovely daffs from Clara's Cuties but they are over in my Chocolat blog.

I will share the practical stuff I bought here as I actually don't have a blog to cover that - hard to believe, I know.

These all came from Pam's Supply Source:

Wanted one of these for ages - magnetic jig.

This was recommended to me - instead of tacky wax - a re-stickable glue.

I know these will be useful for holding small stuff.

I have some in the UK but none over here.  Sanding sticks.

Not a lot of shopping by some people's standard but every one a wanted gem!

Flooring and trims - A Trifle Small

This is where I have become officially 'the crazy lady'..........but it's not my fault.......I bet they all say that.

When I was going to do three houses over here I ordered my favourite flooring from A Trifle Small (what was once Molly's House).  So a lady who lives near to me in the UK sent a packet of stuff to me here in Florida and, now I'm no longer doing the American houses, I will be taking it back to the UK.  The best laid schemes o' mice and men (and miniaturists) gang aft agley.

Nevertheless it gives me another chance to show you the great real wood flooring I got from her.  The 'floorboards' are one eight of an inch wide, giving a real life measurement of six inches, which was a floor board standard for a very long time.  It looks like the 1/12th stuff I get from Jennifers of Walsall which I am pretty sure is from Houseworks here in the States, but I don't see this quarter scale on their site.

dark walnut

The dark walnut is my favourite and seems to make it into all my houses - so far only in the 1/12th scale, but it was such a joy to see it in Quarter Scale.  I usually just finish it with a couple of coats of matte water-based B & Q varnish and it looks lovely.

light wood

This is its light companion.  I have finished this to look like cheap pine and also painted it for painted Victorian floors in bedrooms - it could be aged, stained or finished a zillion ways. 

too white?

I have seen this tile and the next one on a couple of other sites, so they are not as rare as the wood flooring but if you are buying wooden floors from Angela you may as well get the rest. This or the other one might be the bathroom floor.

too checker board?

The third tile I will definitely use somewhere, probably around the bath or behind the washbasin, or maybe kitchen splashbacks... mmm?  It seems a shame to waste such a nice small tile; how often can you find that?

My last purchase was four pieces of coving which had a definite home in the Georgetown Row House I thought I was doing.  I am not sure they have a place in The Gate House as both the cottage and the gate tower would have been stone built.  Admittedly the walls have been plaster-boarded internally sometime in their lives so maybe someone had coving in the living room?

Such a shame not to use such nice stuff, good quality, well shaped and, most importantly for me (Mrs Fussy Britches), in perfect scale.