Lilyelf miniatures

Philadelphia Miniaturia Part 4 - Philadelphia

2011-11-14T18:55:00.000-08:00

Okay so after the Chicago show when my good friend Dru first took me to the Michaels store... I was kind of hooked - think Hobby Craft but far less expensive! At this show Eleanor, who did our workshop kept coming in with little treats for me from a local Michaels store...so on Monday we decided to use the ipad, get a map and go in search of the wonders we may find!

I was hoping that I could find some remnants of Halloween craft items for our witches - I was not disappointed! I managed to buy about 40 rolls of ribbon that are just perfect - I even got some fab fake fur animal print ribbon in purple - can't wait to use it!

As we expected the store was next to a mall so we had a great time looking around and buying things - we were very good in the book store and only bought 3 books each - I got a fantastic costume reference book which is going to come in very handy for some dolls we plan to do for Chicago!

Oaky, so you have had 3 positive uplifting posts about how great everything was...Now I get to complain! We took a cab to the mall and the driver gave us his card... admittedly we did spend hours in the mall and he didn't answer when we called, so we called the company. We were promised a cab in 15 minutes... 30 minutes later we call again to be told the guy came and we were not there so he left!!! We couldn't have been any more there - we were not difficult to spot, in fact we were almost on Christmas card list terms with the security woman who kept driving past us!

They again tell us 10 -15 minutes, again 30 minutes go by, so we give up and go into the mall and ask at the information desk for another cab company - we call them and yes you guessed it we get told 10 -15 minutes!! By this time we were thinking we may need to walk 5 miles or call the hotel for a rescue mission lol and then a cab pulls up from the original company and it turns out he was the night guy and he only just got the call!

We then had the cab ride from hell as he had his wife/girlfriend in the cab and they wanted to talk so we were subjected to the really loud Radio and oddly they had an aversion to music so we kept getting adverts! We were both so pleased to see the hotel again lol - although I still have the ribbon and the books so it was worth it!

I have to say it made me think twice about being adventurous lol I can't believe it was so difficult to get a cab in America!!

The view from our hotel window, you can't really see it but there was a lake and all the trees had beautiful atumnal colours - it was lovely to look out on it every day.

On our last day we set out to some local shops as there was a Christmas Tree store - I love Christmas as does my mum. I would have loved to bring her lots of things back but we just didn't have the room, maybe next year!

I adore cheesecake of all descriptions, so I was delighted that we made it to the cheesecake factory! The menu is extensive - Aidy was overwhelmed with the choice and the food was delicious. Although the portions are so huge that we took one piece of cheesecake to go.

These displays were so cute - wish we did them here :( All the houses looked fab too!

Me holding all the bags!

A view of the city as we left for the airport

Despite my teeny tiny complaint...we did have a wonderful time and we really look forward to next year!

Philadelphia Miniaturia Part 3 - The Show

2011-11-14T12:20:00.000-08:00

http://mikebarbour.com/dolls/index.php?main_page=index

http://www.miniatures.org/newsite/index.php

http://www.whitehorsestudio.com/

http://www.rainbowhandandkathy.com/

http://www.standingpeopledesigns.com/

http://www.jamescarringtondolls.com/

http://www.sirthomasthumb.com/

Our Steampunk Flying Contraption

- By Aidy and Roz

The contraption - Aidy wanted to make something special for the show, at first I resisted as we had only 3 weeks to get ready because of the issues I had looking after mum and dad, we had very few dolls, no time and I was thinking there was no way we could make a huge piece, make dolls and get ready for workshops!

He eventually persuaded me and we split the workload so I made the balloon (I didn't think I could make it but he insisted) over a wire armature, sewing each square of fabric in place before ageing it with paint effect - it took 5 days to make and I have to say by that point I was glad to be done with it lol. I also dressed the dolls in a steampunk style - so much fun! Oh and made the bird lol

Aidy did all the moving aspects of the piece, he sculpted the dolls, made a cabin for the boat, did all the painting on the boat and funnels and brought it all together. It works on mains electricity or batteries and he really is very good at getting these things to work well!

The show opened on the Friday night and almost at once our stand had a great response. Everyone loved our latest steampunk contraption and it soon became the talk of the show with people bringing friends to come and look at it - so maybe Aidy was right after all - shhhh don't tell him I said that - he isn't allowed to be right often!

We sold the piece before anything else - it really was a huge success and we have lots more ideas planned for Chicago, in a similar style. - despite my protests about making this one, they really are fun to make and allow us to be really creative which is always a good thing!

The Friday night preview was so much fun, there was great food on offer, even for us picky vegetarians, we had a lovely spot for our stand in the ballroom and we were next to the IGMA sales table (the work on offer was incredible) and Susan and Charles from Sir Thomas Thumb, they were really lovely and it was nice company for the weekend. We actually bought a butterfly from Susan and Charles for our butterfly catcher and he sold right away so it was the perfect finishing touch! Everyone was so excited and happy to be at the show and there was such a nice atmosphere.

It was so nice to just have to go in a lift at the end of the night and get some rest - even if getting the lift took some time lol - so many people!

Saturday was another really good day for us, we had great sales and a really positive response from people who had seen our work before and those who didn't know us at all. We also kept getting people telling us to go and look at Mike Barbour's dolls as he was doing steampunk pieces too - he was getting the same thing all weekend lol so we did eventually see each others stands at the odd quiet moment. His work is wonderful - not that he had a lot of pieces left by the time we got to see his stand.

It was nice to see Kathy and Brian, from Rainbow hand again. Their stand looked amazing although by the time we took the pictures they didn't have a lot left on show!

Deb Mackie, White Horse studio, had some great pieces too, every time we went to her stand she was busy or taking a quick break so we captured this shot at the end of the show ;)

Bear and Alisa of Standing People Designs were at the NAME event making the magazine rack alongside us - little did we know how amazing their own work is - it is truly wonderful, detailed and just perfect miniature replicas of the real thing. I love these kind of miniatures which if they are photographed on their own you couldn't tell the scale of them - just perfect. It was also nice to meet another couple who share the workload ;)

We were near Jamie Carrington which is always a pleasure, his dolls are just at another level all together and his 1:24 dolls are unbelievably detailed - how does he do it?!? He is so lovely though that you just have to admire him for the artist he is and accept that we have a long way to go!!! We finally joined IGMA because Jamie kept telling us we must lol and it is one of those things we just have never got round to doing so we are now members at last!

Aidy and Jamie spent most of their free moments sat outside the hotel smoking (naughty I know) and probably putting the world to rights...nah I think they just like to natter lol - I had more sense and stayed in the warmth! I found myself wanting to go to bed at around 9 ish and the air conditioning kept giving me a bad head, I guess we Brits are not used to it!

Sunday was a shorter day and it was quiet enough so we could both get to have a quick dash around the show, we didn't take pictures of all the wonderful things on offer as we just didn't have the time. The quality throughout was of a very high standard and could suit all budgets. Every customer I talked to was just loving the whole event ;)

We would like to thank Kim and everyone else who made the show possible, all the wonderful people who had such lovely things to say about our work and all the other exhibitors who were really supportive, welcoming and very friendly. We had a fantastic time at the show, it was a lovely venue, well organised and everyone was so friendly! If you get the chance to go next year we can recommend it as one of the best in the world.

Philadelphia Miniaturia Part 2 - NAME

2011-11-12T10:58:00.000-08:00

The night before the show opened, NAME had their annual gathering, with an evening of goodies (we got flashing badges which we loved and lots of sweet treats!), demonstrations, round tables and even photo shoots of people sitting on the moon lol

It was all free even to non members and everyone was so friendly and welcoming!

You could choose from a wide range of projects - you could even make them all if you wanted to!

It was so lovely for each NAME member to give up their time to teach a mini craft not to mention all the preparation that must have gone into organising each tables activities.

We made a 1:24 scale magazine rack - Aidy and I never get time to enjoy the hobby as we spend all our time either working in the real world, making dolls or going to shows -so for me this was just wonderful!

We were both delighted with our little creations -although I have claimed both for my collection ;) and we would like to thank all the people who made the night such a fun event! We shall be back for more next year!

Please take the time to have a look at their website http://www.miniatures.org/newsite/index.php

Philadelphia Miniaturia Part 1 - Workshop

2011-11-11T15:01:00.000-08:00

Well, we didn't give ourselves long to recover from Arnhem - just a day lol and we were on the way to Philadelphia. We arrived mid afternoon and had a night to settle in before we got to work!

I was lucky as I had day two of the workshop so I had a little time to adjust but Aidy had to get straight to work ;) As usual we had a lovely group of ladies and it was a really nice way to get to know each other - we had a lot of fun!

Pam and Eleanor already knew what they wanted to make - Pam wanted to make a crocodile for an ongoing project she is doing for a flower show, a select few have the honor of making a miniature scene complete with flowers and plants - it sounded like so much fun and she has a huge list of characters to make in order to get it finished - we are just sad we won't be at the show to see the finished piece as she has put a huge amount of time and effort into it already.

Eleanor had to make a witch as she adores all thinks spooky! Eleanor is already a customer of ours and now she is most definitely a wonderful friend as we both sing from the same wacky witch sheet :) we had so much fun over the week and we would like to thank her for the little gifts she bought us and for taking us out to find shops and for a wonderful dinner - you really must come and stay with us!

Ann and Carol where happy to let the character just appear from the clay - Ann ended up with a lovely older man however once the show was open he got her into lots of trouble as he decided he just had to have accessories! She did manage to stop him from owning a dog that was $550 and instead got him one for a more reasonable figure lol. Carol made a rather down and out chap, everything had gone south and he was a tad bit down on his luck so she spent part of the show looking for park benches and other accessories he may own. It was so nice to see them both so attached to their little people.

We had a lovely dinner at the hotel with Pam, Carol and Ann and it will be good to catch up with them all next year - we can't wait and are already planning what to make next!

New work - Sept/Oct 2011

2011-11-11T13:49:00.000-08:00

We wanted to do something a little different this year... so we made some elves ;) These two are naughty!

Norman...he looks a little grumpy but I am sure he is nice really!

Rag and Bone man

Bag Lady

Rowena The Cupcake Witch

The Butterfly Catcher

Prunella & Percy

A day of fun with Grandad

I love this guy...so cute!

Kath and Sue

Vincent and Raven - steampunk vampires!

Hope you like them!

Arnhem - and proof that most miniaturists are slightly mad...

2011-11-11T13:21:00.000-08:00

Linda managed to have the right expression - although she did have a good point when she said she wished she could get her legs to do that!!

I think this is my 'just you wait expression' lol as I glare at Aidy and his camera!

Well, we actually forgot to take pictures of the show...but Aidy (and no surprise really) did manage to find his camera for this moment! Every Saturday some of the exhibitors get together for a meal and this year Serge was prepared...he didn't just select Linda and I but any willing (I use that term loosely) lady in the room! To give myself and Linda credit we were the only ones at our table who would allow such a thing ;) must be the fact we are both Manchester born and so tend to accept all of life's situations with...well I like to think some grace but looking at these I am not so sure lol

Anyway, back to the show... we had a quiet one this time and it did seem to be mixed with some people reporting a great show and others not so much - however as it was the weekend just after all the Euro doom and gloom we didn't do as badly as we could have!

We are already planning for next March and we will be doing workshops as well...

Cotswolds miniature weekend

2011-10-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

Well, we managed to make it to the miniature weekend in the Cotswolds - and we had so much fun! We again had a lovely group of ladies who were all very friendly and had such great ideas for the characters they wanted to make - It is always so much fun seeing what little people appear out of the clay!

This year we had everything from a pretty Edwardian lady to a drag queen :) and every doll turned out really well and so full of character. It is amazing to see what can be achieved by people who have never sculpted or dressed a doll before.

Again it was a great event, very well organised and the venue is a really nice place to spend the weekend. Everyone who came seemed to go away very happy with everything they made - there was a lot going on! We would like to thank Karen, Gillie, Wendy, Clive and everyone else who made the weekend possible - especially as we were not very organised in the run up to it because of recent events at home which meant we were not always around to answer emails!

It was so nice to catch up with friends old and new - especially Sally Watson and Kathy Brindle (who we only get to see once a year!) they always make us laugh the entire time we spend with them!!

It was also so nice to work with Wendy again, who did our workshop last year and this time she really managed to achieve what she set out to make - she also brought along a doll she had made in her own time and he was so impressive!

We would also like to say a huge thank you to Kath, Wendy, Jenny, Karen, Linda and Caroline who made the weekend what it was - you were all so lovely and eager to learn and your little dolls turned out wonderfully! We look forward to seeing you all again at fairs or at the next miniature weekend ;)

We are now getting ready for Arnhem and Philadelphia Miniatura - we have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline and a lot of new characters - I will post pictures as and when I can :)

update...

2011-08-26T04:39:00.000-07:00

To say Aidy and I are hurt is an understatement, yet again we are hearing that people are gossiping about us and making up false stories and accusations, this does not surprise me as we are used to this behavior from other so called professionals on the scene. The fact that we are quite private people and do not air any issues for all to see seems to give people the green light to fill in the gaps. I am annoyed that I have been made to feel a public statement is required and I really wish people were not so spiteful and quick to judge.

Things are extremely difficult at the moment, I am now looking after my mother and father and my aunt full time, two of whom have alzheimer's, my mother is almost blind and has cancer along with a catalogue of other very serious health issues and things are far from easy. They have another carer who shares looking after them with me but she is also now very ill and has had to have a lot of time off sick - this means I do not get to go home at all during these periods and yes, Lilyelf has slipped way down on the list of priorities and for that we are sorry. We do not like to let people down, but as the current situation is ongoing and we have no clear idea of when things will improve it is hard to make plans for shows - we are both needed to run Lilyelf, Aidy cannot do it alone.

We are currently aiming to be able to do October fairs onwards including
Arnhem, York and Philadelphia, this unfortunately means we will be missing Stafford, Falkirk and Miniatura so we are sorry for any disappointment this may cause to our customers. As soon as things improve full attention will be given to Lilyelf.

Those of you waiting on commissions, Aidy is working through them, however I need to find the time to dress them, so we will get in touch with each of you and give you a realistic date for completion - yet again we are very sorry for any disappointment this may bring but things are beyond our control at the moment.

I hope this will put people in the picture and allow us to concentrate on issues at hand.

Hello...

2011-08-15T06:02:00.000-07:00

It has just been brought to my attention that there is talk that we have gone out of business - this is not true.

We have not been around because of family health issues and I am having to spend a lot of time away from home because of it. This has obviously impacted on Lilyelf but we are working through the current situation and hope to be back giving all our attention to Lilyelf as soon as possible. We are working on commissions at the moment as time permits.

We will be unable to do some fairs because we just do not have the time to make all the dolls to fill the stand - I will post an updated fair list soon to keep you aware of all that is going on.

1:24th scale....

2011-04-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

Well I have to admit I have never been a fan of 1:24th scale as I have found it lacking in detail but I am now quickly being converted to the benefits! I don't know if you have taken the time to look at previous links the Herdwick Landscapes website but if not and you are interested in the smaller scales you should!

http://www.herdwicklandscapes.co.uk/

Kate and Peter are such lovely friendly people and always have time for a chat, they mainly make houses based on actual ones scattered around the lake district national park so they are realistic and true to life - they will however also make commissioned pieces and have just recently made a mouse house which was truly wonderful!

They have just started making kits and soon 1:48th houses will be on the way! They also run workshops so you can make your very own house or room box - please see their website for details.

A finished kit - furniture not included

Kate showing what you get with each kit, they come with all the parts you need to make the finished piece, you will only need glue, paint and a few basic tools.

The exterior walls are finished with a stone effect for you.

The kits are very reasonable in price and if you feel daunted at the prospect of making one kate and Peter will make them up for you for a little extra - more kits will be available soon so keep a look out for them!

If you do take the plunge and buy one of their kits or houses, you can then buy a huge range of handmade furniture which Kate meticulously researches, plans and then makes from wood - they really are full of detail and again are very reasonable and complement each house perfectly. Kate is always adding to the ever expanding range.

They also offer a lighting service for those of us who fear all things electrical or anything complicated! You can have that worry taken away!

Herwick Landscapes will be at the Kensington Festival this May :)

Chicago part two

2011-04-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

Well I am pleased to say Chicago was not all drama lol... all our dolls arrived in one piece and we set up and were ready by the time the show opened! The doll room was filled with a great atmosphere and everyone was very friendly and welcoming which was nice and put us at ease.

We were next to Jane Davies who was lovely and had such beautiful dolls on her stand but sadly Aidy never got round to taking any pictures so please have a look at her website to have a peek at her work - http://www.jsdartistdolls.com/

Jane was being helped by a wonderful lady called Pat who I have to say was one of those people you meet and instantly adore - she decided she was going to adopt Aidy and I and now insists we go and visit her :) I was so pleased when she bought my favourite piece on our stand - the witch with the flying pram (you can see pictures here http://lilyelf.blogspot.com/2011/03/miniatura.html) I know she will look after them so it was not as difficult letting them go!

We sold our walking steampunk contraption in the first hour of the preview show! And we went on to have good sales especially as we have never done a show or any promotion in the states - we were delighted by the end of the weekend and have already booked and paid for next year - we also now have a much better idea of the American market which should come in useful for Philadelphia Miniaturia :)

On our last day we went to a fabric store where I found lots of treasures some of which will be for sale at fairs - I also found some ribbon that will be perfect for all thing witchy!

We also had a delightful lunch cooked for us by Dru and it really was one of the best meals we had in the entire two weeks - Pat even ate the leftovers lol - I was also greeted with a huge cheesecake at the end of the show so I really was spoiled :) Thanks Dru *hugs*

Dolls that just make you smile! By talented artist Bev who sells as http://www.longefellowesdesigns.com/

Her stand just oozed character!

We spotted some steampunk pieces on the Rainbow Hand stand - such talented miniaturists!

Debs was another very talented artist who had a wonderful stand filled with delightful characters! Debs also saved the day by helping us out with a very much needed customer address after the show had ended! http://www.whitehorsestudio.com/index.html

Roberta we seem to be following her around the world lol and her stand in Chicago didn't disappoint :) http://www.miniaturedieurosia.it/

Pat who as always made us laugh throughout the weekend!

http://www.brentwoodfairs.com/Dolls%20House%20Fairs.html

Kate makes the most wonderful 1:24 scale dolls who hold such detail and character!

http://www.kdesignsdolls.co.uk/

Lisa with two of her risque dolls lol aren't they just delightful!

http://www.dreaminminiature.com/

Jamie holding one of his fabulous characters and true to form he managed to make the weekend pass with much laughter!

Last but not least we would like to say a huge Thank You to Tom and Leni Bishop who gave us a lot of help and support with a small issue before the show and were as usual professional to the end with all aspects of running the show - we look forward to next time!

Chicago Part one...

2011-04-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

We were already going to visit Chicago for two weeks before we found out we had a space at the show so here is the post of our first week and a half there. In some ways it was disastrous lol as everything that could go wrong did from a taxi driver in a bad mood when he saw our luggage (we had six cases), lack of visa for mum which had been paid for so we had to pay again at the airport, 3 searches on mum at the airport ( and seeing she is disabled and not in the best of health at all it was no fun), terrible in flight food lol mum had an almost frozen ham sandwich at one point - one perk of being a veggie we didn't get one! Being evacuated from the hotel (at this point we didn't know why) and as nobody came to get mum out Aidy risked taking her in the lift - I took the stairs and had no choice but to leave the hotel as I was ushered outside so we got split up and my friend was on the 20th floor so I had to worry about them all- eventually Aidy and mum managed to find me after about 20m so we were all relieved to say the least. We eventually caught up with Dru who had been interviewed for the local news lol. We arrived at the wrong terminal on the way home and having to get all bags to the correct one (we now had 9 lol) and as we had to take a train with no luggage trolley, I was almost trapped and sent to yet another terminal!!! Excess baggage costs, mum being given a ridiculous seat right at the back of the plane which she had a very difficult time getting to and a very bumpy flight finished the trip... But we made the most of it and all in all had fun!

On the plus side I got to meet one of the nicest people I have the pleasure of knowing so a huge thank you to Dru for showing us around and driving us all over the place :) and the show itself thankfully was the only good luck we had!

A first View of the city

A picture taken round the corner from our first hotel downtown

Me realising I have been caught by the camera!

Aidy delighted to have a decent cup of coffee

Not too sure what is on offer here...

By night...

A day out at the Zoo

Aidy wanting to take part... was tempted to leave him there.

I adore Polar Bears

I guess I almost measure up lol

This guy knew he looked good - he kept on striking a pose!

We had a gas leak right outside our hotel so we were all evacuated - and it was the coldest day - no fun at all but on the plus note my best friend made the news lol

We went out for a medieval show - was lots of fun even if our knight didn't win :(

http://www.medievaltimes.com/

More to follow...

Late post...Arnhem

2011-04-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

Leaving Newcastle

Me trying to decide if I could manage to sit down on a chair this large!

A view of the church the fair was being held in

Meeting Kate and Peter for a drink the afternoon before the workshops

Aidy being his usual self outside our hotel lol

Aidy's sculpting workshop in full swing

The finished faces - they all turned out with such different characters!

Me attempting to give a quick master class on wig making - Not sure how helpful this was as I was covered in glue and hair by the end of it lol

A view from our stand at the show

Another view from behind our stand ;)

We were lucky to be standing next to Penny Tomson. She is a lovely lady whom we almost forced to join us for the meal that happens after the first night of the show for exhibitors - I think she was glad we did in the end! Please take time to look at her wonderful work and as with all things miniature they are even better in real life - such detail and oh so tiny! http://www.penny-thomson.co.uk/index.php


The Dream in Miniature stand always makes me smile and this time Lisa had lots of fantastic new dolls for us to look at - she really knows how to have fun with miniatures!

http://www.dreaminminiature.com/


Kate and Peter with their one of a kind special commission for the show - a 1:24th scale mouse house! It was stunning and I wanted to move in! The tree was sculpted by Peter and it was so good that when he told me it was carved from oak I believed him!! The tree grows right inside the house and part of it forms little steps for the lucky inhabitants - needless to say their customer was delighted with it. Check out more pictures of this wonderful piece on their website -

http://www.herdwicklandscapes.co.uk/html/house_projects.htm#MouseHouse


Roberta is a lovely lady from Italy who makes the most realistic miniature tiles and pottery - I was lucky enough to be given a set as a gift - thank you again for your kindness!

http://www.miniaturedieurosia.it/index_eng.htm

Serge is a delightful character from France who we have been lucky enough to meet before at the last Arnhem show - I will try to find his contact details as he makes such detailed pieces.

Pat Kay and Jamie Carrington. Poor Pat had to put up with Jamie and I having a good old laugh at her expense but it was all done with much love and she took it all with grace and good humour! There were tears at some points - not sure what the customers thought of the rowdy English bunch lol


Pat again holding one of her dolls, she has such a good eye for all things miniature and her stand really is a treat to look at, she has work by artists from all over the world and the high quality shines through. Pat does not have a website for sales but she does run the well known Brentwood fairs and she attends York, Kensington, Arnhem and Chicago to name a few others.

http://www.brentwoodfairs.com/Dolls%20House%20Fairs.html


Jamie looking fabulous! We have been making dolls for almost 10 years now and this was the first time our paths crossed and all I am left thinking is why did we have to wait so long? Jamie really is a wonderful, friendly and very supportive member of the miniature community and I am sure those of you who have had the pleasure will agree his company is a delight - he certainly brightened my weekend no end! I am also thinking of moving in with him so I can discover his costume secrets - if he was not so nice I would be green!

http://www.jamescarringtondolls.com/


Aidy with his sales face...no wonder all the customers have disappeared!

We had a great time, we had good company and once again the customers responded well to our work. We look forward to doing it all again in October!

Miniatura...

2011-03-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

Andy Hopwood :)

Lois (Mollies Exclusive Designs) eating crisps lol

Peter (Herdwick Landscapes)

Jenny (Kastle Kelm Miniatures)

Jenny's stand - looked great as always!

Andy Hopwood (organiser) and Mark (The Dolls House Builder)

Helena (Solway Miniatures) who had the stand next to us

Another picture of Herdwick Landscapes stand :)

Annie Willis (Fine Designs) I wanted ALL the cats! Fabulous work and lovely people who we were lucky enough to be next to all weekend.

Our new dolls

Falconer

Mariachi Automata

Steampunk moving contraption

Gretel & Poppy our newest witches

Vanessa & Maisy

Something a little naughty!

We have just got back from Miniatura and as usual we had a fun filled weekend although I was in a lot of pain for most of it :( Aidy went on a painkiller hunt though so all was well in the end!

Although sales were down compared to last time (understandable with all the doom and gloom we are facing these days) we still had a great time and our new work got a fantastic response from stand holders and customers - think everyone found something to make them smile ;)

Now we just need to get ready for Arnhem this weekend - nothing like a bit of pressure lol, Hope you like our new work!

Some Good News...and mass panic!

2011-03-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

Well, we have just had it confirmed that we have a table at the Tom Bishop Chicago show! We were told they may have a space for us but no promises (we are delighted as when we first asked about this show a few years ago there was a huge waiting list) - Thank you to Tom and Leni for fitting us in!

Now, we were already heading to Chicago to go to the show and to meet some very special friends who live there so this is a nice bonus although we are a tad bit panicky as we have two huge shows before we even make it to Chicago!! I have informed one friend that we may have to take over their oven to make dolls lol

On the plus side it has got me feeling all creative and inspired and a huge list of dolls to make has been devised - although I have to say Aidy did go pale when I thrust the list in his direction!

So, to those of you who had not yet figured it out...yes we are totally insane - Miniatura, Arnhem, Chicago, Edinburgh and Madrid all within 2 months lol! I will try to find the time to show you our new dolls!

Website Update and some new work..

2011-02-25T09:32:00.000-08:00

Well we finally managed to update our website - it has been long overdue! http://lilyelf.com/ We have not yet managed to put the haberdashery side of things on the site as it is such a huge job but it will be done by the end of April - I hope lol

We have also launched some new little characters such as the one pictured above and these are available on our website or at the many shows we will be doing this year - so far they have proved very popular but then they are very cute ;)

We are also working on lots of special dolls for Miniatura and Arnhem, those of you who have been following us for awhile will know we always do a large moving piece for Miniatura - well watch this space for previews of this years work. I think our stand will make a few people smile or at least that is the plan!

Aidy is also teaching a doll sculpting workshop at the Arnhem show on the 25th March there are a very limited number of spaces left, please contact us if you would like to take part.

If you are going to either show please come along and say hello it is always nice to see a friendly face. Okay back to work for me these dolls don't dress themselves lol ...

Milan

2011-02-17T10:43:00.001-08:00

We have just been to the doll house show in Milan - http://www.miniaturitalia.it/index.html
We left home early on Friday as we had to fly from Manchester to Zurich and then onto Milan. Everything was running smoothly until the first plane was delayed by 40 minutes which meant when we landed at Zurich our connection was already boarding - a mad dash through the airport, passport control and a second trip through security (which we were really stressed about at the time as we were sure the flight was going to go without us)! When we got to the gate four other people were in the same situation so they sent a minivan to take us to the plane - we did get some unimpressed looks from the other passengers who must have thought we were sidetracked by duty free shops in the airport lol

Thankfully the rest of the journey was okay, and after a 3 hour car drive, two planes and a 40 minute train ride we got settled into our hotel and had the most awful food imaginable (it was from a take away lol)

The show was held in 3 large rooms, The venue was actually really nice and easy to find and had excellent transport links - it faces Milan Central Station. The organisation of this event was just perfect and you could not ask for better. The tables are well laid out, lots of space for the public, the miniatures were a nice mix and very high quality all in all it was a great event.

We had a really good time at the show, had good sales, met lots of lovely people and we are already planning next years trip!

Aidy took lost of pictures - enjoy lol

Emil - Fabulous Photo frames which include a miniature scene

Angie & Frank www.Angiescarr.co.uk

The Alps taken from the plane on the way home ;)

Our stand and me ;)

Kirsten Hemmehøj

Ulla Vestergaard

Elena http://www.mondodifavola.blogspot.com/

Sabrina and the cutest miniature at the show!

Silvia Bolchi - I love her work! Take a look at the website - I loved the rings with the teeny tiny butterflies in them!
http://www.thebutterfliesshop.com/

Robin & Margaret - http://www.mclew.net/

Silvia Cucchi - Beautiful food!
http://www.silviacucchi.com/

One of the rooms at the show

Milan central station inside and out ;)

We are now getting ready for Miniatura and Arnhem so if you are going to either show please come along and say hello ;)

sorry...

2011-02-17T08:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry we have not written for a long time the end of last year was a tad bit hectic to say the least! Firstly we lost Internet and phone connection for an entire month - was no fun at all - this has resulted in us having to change providers and thus our phone number - we do however have the same email address!

Then we decided it would be fun to be ill so we had a nasty flu type bug for 3 weeks (this started on Christmas eve) and the after effects lasted a few weeks making work the last thing we wanted to face.

I had booked mum and dad into a hotel near us so we could go shopping in the sales and mum had a fall in the hotel, broke her leg in two places, had emergency surgery and ended up in intensive care so we had all of new year going to and from the hospital spending 6 hours a day there as the round trip was 2 hours and we wanted to be with her for all the visiting hours! Thankfully she was only in hospital for just over a week and has now had her cast off so slowly things are returning to normal!

And just to top it all off, we like most of the UK had way too much snow...and with everything going on we actually forgot to go to the Stafford show! We got the dates wrong lol and thought it was a week later than it was! I am using the excuse that I aged in January so it must have messed with my brain a tad bit!

So a belated Happy New Year to you all - hope it is a good one for you xx

Further post to follow with news of a show we just did in Milan and plans for 2011....

York, Snow and some new dolls

2010-11-29T09:41:00.000-08:00

Well, we managed to beat the weather and get to the York dollhouse fair ...the weather however decided to close in towards the end of the day and I thought we may be sleeping at the venue! They closed the fair around 30m earlier than advertised because it was getting so bad!

I was amazed at how many customers ventured out and although not as many as would normally attend this show it was still fairly busy all day ;)

We were so happy Julie, Ruth and Julie made it to the show and I am very happy you all arrived home safe and well...Aidy said it was very bad taking you to the train station so I thought you may miss the train!

We had a cold but good show although the journey home was very eventful and a tad bit hair raising at moments. It took us over 3 hours to do a journey that usually takes a little over one hour! But we did get home, poor Helena of Solway Miniatures had to call the AA out and spend a night in a B&B and only got home at noon today!

Now we just have to hope we can make it down to London at the weekend for kensington ;)

Me trying to clear the car of snow outside the venue
It was falling faster than we could clear it

Aidy and me looking cold and ready for the job at hand!

Other news...

One of our customers is making a Christmas street scene...it did start off as a nativity scene but each year it grows and grows so now we are working on the street scene ;) We were commissioned to make four dolls who would fit such a scene and were allowed to come up with our own ideas! So here are two of the dolls we made (we also made a little girl having fun in the snow with dad)

A lady all wrapped up for Christmas shopping

A Chestnut seller - the stove lights up

Some new dolls for York/Kensington

Another Candy wizard

Ivy the Christmas witch - witches love Christmas too you know ;)

I have wanted to make this for ages - I made a mouse version last year and now here is the cat version!

We have also launched a very exciting range of tiny characters from cats to rabbits to mice lol all very very cute and they almost sold out at York - pictures to follow soon!

Hope those of you who also have snow keep safe, warm and well ;)

Back from Madrid

2010-11-18T02:31:00.001-08:00

Long post alert and lots of pictures!!!

Okay we are back from our trip to Madrid. Tired, cold and a little bit stressed but safe and well ;) Cold because our boiler has decided to quit :( so lots of jumpers, hats, gloves, cardigans - I hate being cold -so you get the picture, until the nice man comes to fix it! Tired because we have not stopped for what feels like months and stressed because we have 3 more shows and nothing to sell - okay maybe a bit dramatic but it feels like we have nothing left to sell ;)

Madrid was cool but not as cold as here, for me it was perfect I hate being too hot too lol I know, I know never happy! We managed to get the best seats on the plane thanks to Helena's determination and we got them on the way back too - I hate flying at the best of times so happy pills and the best seats were the way to go!

We went on the Friday and settled into the apartment and then trundled along with all our suitcases to find the hotel where the show was being held at. We found this easy as we all remembered where it was from the May trip. Although we were all very tired we were pleased we set up on the Friday as it took the stress out of the weekend.

Helena was in the first room and we were in the larger one - good job too as the room Helena was in was like an oven and everyone looked like they may melt half way through the show! The show was very busy on the Saturday and had a great atmosphere. The first thing we sold was the wizard sweet seller - I was sad to see him go so now have to make another version! Sales were good and steady on the first day although we sold more dolls than fabric which was different to the last show we did - no two shows are ever the same. Sunday was a slower start but still got fairly busy and this time we started to sell the fabrics and it was a slow doll day!! But we had fun, it was worth doing and we shall be back in May!

A new look for Aidy? We saw this wig in a shop window and just had to share ;)

Aidy looking very tired after a long weekend!

Me looking relieved it is all over!!

Our wonderful friends Grace and Mel who are always happy to translate for us! It was so good to see these two again ;)

Our stand on the Friday set up - all ready to go!

Now, those of you who know me well will also know I LOVE Shoes!!! So how could I walk past this beautiful stand? I couldn't lol I had been passing it all weekend and admiring all the wonderful shoes and hats and wondering if my life size feet could somehow be shrunk to 1:12th scale alas this did not happen no matter how hard I wished for it so I settled for a lovely chat and a picture instead!

This was a delightful stand full of such beautiful old fashioned toys - I just had to buy one ;)

We finally got to meet Jesús who follows our blog and we follow his ;) http://loutrec112.blogspot.com/ please take a look! He makes such beautiful characters full of life and joy - you can see the love he puts into each creation! Although we spoke very little Spanish and he spoke very little English, with the wonderful use of mime we shared the admiration for each others work ;) We also should have had him on commission as he kept bringing people along to see our stand all weekend - Gracias Jesús, esperamos verlos la próxima vez!

These next two pictures are us being daft in the apartment - I think we were on our way for day two and the excitement had made us slightly madder than we are already!

I promised we would take lots of pictures - so here they are!

Madrid by day

Madrid by night ;)

And finally hello and welcome to all our new followers ;)

More new dolls and a very scary witch

2010-11-11T20:22:00.000-08:00

Well, we were asked at pudsey why all our witches were nice, happy and friendly so we decided to make this scary witch for a change! So here is Lilith, she looks fantastic but I wouldn't like to meet her on a dark night lol
Alberich, the sweet selling Wizard. He has a very friendly and kind face

and all the little witches and Wizards love a visit to Alberich's sweet shop ;)

Dumbledore

Annie, she looks so sweet sitting on her bench ;) i love how Aidy has captured the look on her face and the little twinkle in her eyes!

Full shot of Lilith

We were asked to make another doll like the one we made while in Arnhem and we wanted to make one to take to Madrid so here she is with the pram the first should have had lol - this one is for sale but we are making one without a pram for the commission too ;)

All these dolls are packed and ready for the trip to Madrid - I will be back soon with lots of news and pictures - I hope!

Madrid preview

2010-11-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

Tudor lady

Gwen

Agnell

Here are some of the dolls we have made to take to the Tom Bishop show, Madrid, this weekend. We have some more on the way :)

Agnell was such joy to make, our good friend Helena from Solway Miniatures found us the green vespa in a local shop and knew we could have fun with it.

We couldn't decide who would own such a thing but Agnell soon told us it was hers ;) It is a pull and move bike so she looks like she is really riding it!

We just need to finish a few more dolls, pack and we are ready to go! Really looking forward to it, the show in May was great and all reports indicate this one should be even better. I will take lots of pictures to show you when we return!

Arnhem Show

2010-11-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

Hello All, we just got back from a weekend away in Arnhem - we had a stand at the show http://www.arnhemshow.com/ We had a great time! We sold 5 dolls in the first 30 minutes of the Friday night preview. As the show went on we had a problem of not having a huge range of dolls left - we have Pudsey this weekend and Madrid on the following weekend - so I dressed a doll behind the stand (pictured above) but as soon as we put her on the stand on the Sunday, she sold! The ink was not even dry on her price tag lol so she is officially the quickest ever selling Lilyelf doll ;)

These are some great witch/wizard items we bought or received as gifts at the show. We met a lovely couple Bianca & Leen http://www.hetdroomsleuteltje.nl/ as you can see from the small selection above they have a great talent for making all things spooky! we hope to work with them in the future.

As you can see their stand looked great too!

Another view of their stand.

We finally met Christine from cw poppets http://www.cwpoppets.net/ Christine was also invited to attend the Dubai show so we became friends through our blogs as we got ready for the show - sadly it never happened but I was delighted to meet her at the Arnhem show. She had a wonderful stand with unique characters who you just had to smile at! The picture above is of her husband Alexander having fun at the show!

I am sorry that this was the only picture of the cw poppets stand we managed to take :( but at least you can see them both having fun! They are from Germany so it was good to meet them both at last. We had a great time with them and some of the other British miniaturists at the buffet meal on the Saturday night we got strange looks not only for our topic of conversation which included having body parts in the oven but because we were all laughing so loud!

This picture is of Bob from Country contrasts running away from the camera! He really didn't want his photo to be taken lol http://www.countrycontrast.co.uk/ He was actually in a lot of pain during the show and could hardly stand for most of it - he has a trapped nerve in his leg and really was suffering by the end of it all.

This was Doreen having a mad moment - she had a difficult show as she had to set up and run the stand mostly on her own, plus she had a very bad head cold - they really were going through the wars! Now they have to get ready to run Pudsey at the weekend.

Their stand looked good enough to eat and I had to buy a couple of things as props for dolls so watch this space!

http://www.doreenjeffriesdollshousefairs.co.uk/index.php

This was Herdwick Landscapes stand. It was Kate & peters first time at the show and their stand looked great as you can see. They make some of the best 1:24th houses and furniture on the market. All the tiny furniture is made out of wood not the like the flimsy cardboard alternatives you sometimes see. The attention to detail is incredible!

They were staying on a houseboat on the river Rhine while at the show ;) it sounded like a lot of fun! They also came to the buffet meal and we had such a good time - we can't wait until march when we get to do it all again!
http://www.herdwicklandscapes.co.uk/

We caught this snapshot of Peter ;)

And this one of kate at Helena's stand! Helena had come across to Arnhem with us, we all squeezed into our car and shared a cabin on board the ferry. We had a really nice time with lots of laughs along the way.

Helena was having the same issues we were and had to make moulds behind the stand to keep up with demand - she kept selling out of them! She is also just as mad as we are as she has another 5 shows to do before the end of the year, as do we, including doing pudsey and Madrid!

These two pictures were taken on the way into Arnhem on our last day - it was such a beautiful autumnal day Aidy had to stop and take them ;)

This was in a shop window and the following picture is a close up - it was amazing!

Aidy, me and Helena outside the hotel, we had just come back from a day out shopping to pick up all our luggage. As you can see we are all wrapped up against the cold - I had 3 jumpers, a full length coat and hat and I was still freezing!

We headed to Rotterdam to meet the ferry and had a nice night with some of the other brits traveling home - we ended up with just us three and Bob & Doreen - some very strange pictures were taken involving Aidy's hat and scarf but they are on Aidy's phone and I may not be allowed into any of Bob and Doreen's shows if they are published lol and Helena may never speak to me again!!!

And finally, as soon as I arrived home I had to dress this little chap for a very overdue commission! Luckily i managed to get him done in time for the post! So, now you know what us and some fellow bloggers have been up to...I need to go and dress lots of dolls for pudsey and Madrid!

Cotswolds Miniatures Weekend

2010-10-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

We have just got home from a great weekend away. We were invited to instruct at the first Cotswolds Miniature Weekend - and if you didn't come along I would recommend it for next year! There were many different workshops going on and everyone had a wonderful time and went home with lots of new creations and minds crammed full of ideas of what to make next ;)

Aidy made me take part in day one - sculpting - Not my area at all and at first I was very reluctant but I grew to really enjoy myself. My character changed throughout the day and ended up turning into an elf type! I will try to get him finished and dressed so you can all see my first person sculpt - Don't worry I will not be taking over Aidy's job any time soon!

One of the finished dolls

A doll well on the way to being finished

A grumpy butler in the making

Getting things right!

What should I wear?

We had a wonderful group of students who were more like old friends by the time the weekend came to an end! We were sad to leave lol. We would like to give thanks to karen and Gillie and all the others involved in making this event happen - they all worked so hard and it showed - Thanks guys!

Concentration!

Time for a natter!

This picture was when we all worried - Our precious heads were going into the oven! We had all grown very attached to our little people by this point!

Also I would like to say a huge thanks to Wendy, Pam, Jo, Kazumi, Sheree, Janet, Sue, Sabina and Pat who were all wonderful and such good fun! You all helped to make our weekend one to remember!

I would also like to say a huge thanks to Sally Watson and kathy Brindle who made our night on Saturday - we were lucky enough to sit next to them at the meal and we have not laughed so much in years - You could not ask to meet two nicer or more fun people - I don't think they exist! thanks again you two!

Get ready to watch out for next years event and book early - it is going to prove very popular!

http://www.cotswoldminiaturesweekend.co.uk/

Miniatura

2010-10-05T12:21:00.001-07:00

We are back from Miniatura ;) The pictures above are of me (even though I tried to avoid it - and why is it always me having pictures taken?!?) and of my great friends Bev (Beverley Read) and Lesley (ooakdiddydolls) who were sharing their first stand at the show.

A lot of people thought the show was very quiet compared to other years and in some ways I would have to agree that numbers did seem to be down on both days. The weather was very bad on the Sunday not sure if this had an impact or not?

We had a good start to the show as we sold all four preview witches as soon as we put them on our blog (it was also really nice to meet fellow bloggers at the show ;) ) and then we had a very good response to the ones we made to replace them! We also sold our show piece in the first few hours and we were asked about it by lots of other people who fell in love with the silliness of the concept!

A lot of customers also remembered Battish Airways from last year so it looks like we are now getting recognised for making strange moving contraptions lol but we had a lot of fun with both and are already thinking about the next piece as we would like to have something on display at Arnhem, Madrid and kensington.

We had a very good show all in all and sold a lot of dolls this is good and bad lol as now we have so much to do for Arnhem at the end of the month!?! I know, I know never happy :p

I am also pleased to say that Lesley had a very good show selling lots of dolls and taking just as many commissions - it was so great to see her doing so well and getting the boost she needed - I have been bullying her into doing fairs for years!!

Bev also sold some of her wonderful cakes and dolls and while she was at the show her son got her website up and running please take a look http://beverleyread.co.uk/ It is always great catching up with these two and we don't get to see each other as often as we would like.

We stayed in the same hotel as Lesley and her sister Tracey and had a nice meal with them and my mum and dad who had also travelled down for the show. So at least we had lots of time to natter and put the world to rights =)

I love Miniatura and would say it is one of my favourite shows to do, the atmosphere is always great and you get to meet lots of lovely people and catch up with friends and customers so now I can't wait until we get to do it all again in spring! A huge thank you to all of you who did take the time to stop by and say hello it was so lovely to see you all =)

More witches!

2010-10-01T12:21:00.001-07:00

These first two pictures are our first ever 1:24 scale witches - they really are adorable in real life and are around 2.5 inches.

Lucinda - The puppeteer witch - she has a little ghost and death puppet in each hand both sculpted from clay.

Hope you like the last of our Miniatura preview - the car just needs to be packed and then we are ready to go! Looking forward to meeting those of you coming to the show ;)

Miniatura show piece - Witches Flying Machine

2010-10-01T03:23:00.000-07:00

In traditional Lilyelf fashion we decided to make a moving piece for this years Autumn Miniatura! It is not the easiest thing in the world to photograph though so if you are at the show please come along a take a look.

The bat wings move up and down and the oars rotate to look like they are helping to fly the balloon. As you can tell Gertie, Bernadine and Crandall have all the possessions they need for the long journey ahead - although Crandall was lucky to make the flight!

This will be available for sale at the show and is of course a one of a kind piece. We hope you like it - more preview pictures of other dolls to follow...

Witches!

2010-09-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have yet again neglected to write! I have had flu for one thing and life keeps finding ways to keep me busy for another lol We both took quite ill at the Falkirk show and I ended up asleep behind the stand for most of the day - we missed the fair at Haydock the week after as we still felt rotten! Sorry to those of you who missed us at the show.

The above picture is of me at the Stafford fair on Sunday lol think the look says it all I had only had an hours sleep the night before! One day I will manage to get a full nights rest before a fair...

We thought we should show you what we have been busy working on the last few weeks - we are in a witch theme at the moment and having great fun thinking of ideas for new characters and props - these will all be on show at Miniatura - hope you like them ;o)

We are also working on a few special pieces and if I have time I will give you a sneak preview - they are very much working progress right now!!! We are also working on lots of other new characters so if you do manage to make it to Miniatura please come and say hello!

We are back...

2010-08-21T08:34:00.001-07:00

Hello all, Sorry we have not been around for so long - a lot has been going on! My mum had to have 3 operations to remove kidney stones so that was a lot of trips to the hospital and a heap of worry as she has so many other health issues - happy to report that although in some pain she is recovering well =)

Secondly we had our 7th wedding anniversary and mum being the star she is treated us to a holiday in kos for 2 weeks! We had a holiday of a life time as we met so many new wonderful friends. I will post pictures and tell you all about it in my next post but...why the cat picture?

Well, Kos has hundreds of stray cats and dogs all over the island and we met a wonderful lady called sue who is trying her best with a small team of friends to really make a difference to the lives of these animals. We met because we saw a cat who had a lot of eye problems and we wanted to help him - our rep was useless and basically told us to turn a blind eye pardon the pun, and that she was a dog person anyway! Well having two cats at home we couldn't bear to see it suffer so we fed it when we could and set out to look for some help - we found sue! Who gave us some eye drops for the cat ;o)

Sue is originally from Ireland in fact she was born not far from where my family live over there so I knew a friend when I found one lol but she has lived in kos for 9 years. Sue sits out EVERY night on the small strip which has bars and restaurants in Tingaki Kos you can't miss her - she has a table with information in lots of languages telling people about the problems, pictures of dogs and cats that need help and she usually has one or more dogs or cats with her to try to find a loving Forever Home for them( I must point out that the people taking the animals are vetted and not just anyone can walk away with a cat or dog) - luckily lots of German and Dutch people can re-home these animals easily, once they have been vaccinated and given a passport the animals are good to go!

It was so wonderful to see people wanting to help and we even met a lady who had re-homed a dog the year before and she proudly pulled out his picture from her purse to show us how happy he was and how happy he had made her. We also a met a lovely German couple who were rescuing four dogs who had been running around in a pack near where they were staying, they felt they had to take them all to keep them together.

Sue currently has 14 cats and at the time we were there she had four dogs (2 were pups) although one has now been given a new home. Her life revolves around her job, meetings with officials, looking after her own brood and sitting out all night - she does not spend any time for sue!!!

Sue invited us to her house and asked if we could help with the IT side of things and we felt it was the least we could do...so I spent a day making her a website please take a look and help if you can http://animalrescuekos.com

she had a great idea to raise money for a very much needed sanctuary on the island so the animals waiting for a home have a safe place to go - a facebook appeal to get 1 million people give just 1 euro each. Please get your family and friends to take part =)

I have just spent the day putting all the information for the cats on the website and some images are upsetting - the person in question who has the 60 cats (if you do take a look) has a restaurant and him and his wife can't bear the thought of putting the cats down so they now have 60 - sue has a friend who is going to get them sterilised to help the situation - but they really need a loving home!

ARK (the name of the charity) has a programme of sterilisation which obviously is going to help stop so many new strays taking to the streets but heartbreakingly at the moment due to lack of a sanctuary the cats/dogs have to be put back on the streets after they have had the operation as there is just no where to keep them while they wait for a home.

The charity aims to build a rescue centre with a visitors centre and education facility but they need funding and land. They have been in talks with the local government but these things involve a lot of red tape and take time.

So on that note...we came home and rescued two more cats who needed some tlc so we now have 4 fur babies - (ours were rescued from here not kos as the uk has 6 month quarantine) they had been needing a home for 2 months so we felt we had to help if sue could do it so could we! We are going to constantly do all we can to help sue and the animals of kos...

We will be launching some cat, mice and maybe dog dolls very soon to help raise money for this very worthwhile cause ;o) so watch this space!

new lisitng on ebay

2010-06-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

As we have no fairs until the end of July we decided we should make our long list of outstanding commissions and list some dolls on ebay!

Meet Hattie the candy witch who is available for sale on the following link

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190409646931

We will be adding more dolls tonight and tomorrow so watch this space. We never normally have time to list on ebay as we are always working towards a fair or making commissions, so we are going to make the most of our free time!

Scottish miniatura

2010-06-13T10:15:00.001-07:00

We are back from Scottish Miniatura! We had a very successful show although we did have some free time to natter to Bev on the DAME stand and Helena (Solway Miniatures) who was next to us ;o) The picture above is of a 1:24 Dobby and Harry Potter which we made for a customer to collect at the show - Harry's hair was not as fly away in real life lol and the customer loved them - think they were one of the most difficult sculpts Aidy has done and he huffed and puffed his way through them ;o) but now he is thinking of trying 1:48 sculpts!!!!

Scottish miniatura is a great event if you can make it, the venue is nice and it is always well attended. There is also a nice mix of stands and lots to buy.They also run workshops which are around an hour long and so you can go away with something you have made at the show.

Well, now we can relax until the end of July so we are planning to get all our backlog of commissions done and get the back yard sorted out so we can let our two cats go out and play! We also have a new sofa on the way so the living room could do with some decorating - we are thinking purple lol.

Goodbye Dubai hello Spain lol

2010-06-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

Well, we had the same email the other exhibitors received yesterday telling us Dubai Doll Art Exhibition has been cancelled due to lack of funds! On the negative side we will miss Dubai and a great opportunity and obviously this is a huge disapointment.

However it is also a relief as we don't have to kill ourselves making 50 pieces of work in the 2 weeks we have left and we were still lucky enough to have been short listed to one of only 4 miniature artists, and maybe there is always next year? All the great ideas/dolls can be used for Miniatura, Arnhem and Madrid at the end of the year so nothing is lost ;o)

So what will we do with ourselves now the panic is over? We now have time to go on holiday so we are taking mum to Spain next week to stay with her sister, I won't miss my mums operation on the 6th July (she is having a kidney stone removed) and Aidy and I are going on holiday for two weeks as yet destination unknown - first time we have had a holiday just the two of us for 6 years!!!! So in the end things happen for a reason and that reason will be time spent with family and loved ones ;o)

Now to get ready for Scottish miniatura - only two days!!!

Cotswold Miniatures Weekend

2010-06-08T13:21:00.001-07:00

We have been asked to take part in this fantastic event along with some very talented miniaturists! This is a great opportunity for you to come along and learn a variety of new skills not to mention having a weekend away in a beautiful part of England ;o)

'Many of you will have attended small courses, workshops or club events whilst some of you may have been to larger events such as the BMW’s or the EMMA Gatherings. Others will have been confined to working alone or with the aid of the Internet and going to occasional fairs. Our weekend aims to offer a rewarding experience for miniaturists, the chance to take workshops with well known tutors and at the same time socialise with like minded people for a whole weekend. You register to attend the event and choose your workshops. This includes a small fee to cover the facilities and refreshments during the day. Any workshop fees are payable direct to your chosen Tutor. You will need to arrange your own accommodation if needed'

Please take a look at the website for more details ;o)http://www.cotswoldminiaturesweekend.co.uk/

Back from York Dollhouse fair

2010-06-07T04:17:00.000-07:00

We love York dollhouse fair as we have such lovely customers and friends we can have a good natter with! It is always a successful event for us, but we thought at the start of the day it was going to be a quiet show - thankfully we were wrong and we did better than usual but we have noticed that some fairs are quieter than usual.

We were okay in the end because we sold some dolls and took some commissions and it seems we need to go into animals lol I have always liked making animals dressed as people but I am admittedly not as good at making them as I would like to be (although mine have always sold) but now I can get Aidy to give them a try ;o) as they are orders! So on the to do list is Toad and Badger, the march hare from Alice in wonderland and Peter Rabbit plus a family of humans in 1:24 scale.

The picture is of The Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter which I made for Miniatura a year or so ago. They are mouse sized as the story features two mice sneaking into a dolls house and being very annoyed that the food which looks so delicious is in fact made of clay!

The winner is...

2010-06-05T03:56:00.001-07:00

Sorry this is late, I was away at my mums and didn't have the time to post! Well, the names were put in a 'hat' (A cup really lol) and the winner is Ascension, Congratulations!!!! Please email me with you address and she can be on her way to her new home. lilielves@aol.com

Thank you to all who took part - we would love to offer runner up prizes but at this moment in time we are frantically getting ready for York (which is tomorrow), Scottish Miniatura and Dubai but if you can wait until we get back for us to make you each a little something, then email us with your address and we will send you each a little gift when we get back from Dubai which will be mid July.

Thanks again!

3 blogs in one day...Dubai

2010-05-27T09:08:00.001-07:00

We have been invited to exhibit at the Dubai dollhouse and doll art exhibition. This is an incredible honour as only 15 artists worldwide are selected. We are truly blessed to have been asked to be a part of something so exciting! We have only 5 weeks to get ready!!!!!!! The exhibition takes place between the 25th of June and the 10th of July and this is the second year of the exhibition.

We will have around 30 - 50 pieces of work on display and available for sale, they will be very special one of a kind pieces and we will show you pictures of some of them as soon as we can. We will also be holding talks and demonstrations in the evenings/weekends along with the other very talented artists who have been selected.

We really are delighted and a bit shell shocked to have been asked to take part! Needless to say we will be very very busy bees for the next few weeks as we also have York dollhouse fair and Scottish Miniatura before Dubai and we are doing workshops at both - wish us luck as I think we will need it - does anyone have any spare elves they can let us have?

Back from Madrid

2010-05-27T08:38:00.001-07:00

We are back from a brilliant 6 days in Madrid! The picture above is a very dodgy shot of Aidy, James (my father-in-law) and me enjoying the sunshine! All the other pictures are just random shots from this wonderful city.

We also went with Helena of Solway Miniatures and her daughter Ev so we all shared an apartment. They were both golden by the end of the trip!

We arrived last Wednesday and walked all over Madrid seeing all the stunning architecture and we met lots of very nice people from all over the world. We all only have very basic Spanish but we seemed to be understood okay!

The Tom Bishop fair was on the weekend and we met such wonderful people including Graciela and her daughter Mel from http://brunsteinminiatures.blogspot.com/ who were some of the nicest people we have ever had the pleasure of meeting! They helped us so much with translations and I was lucky enough to come home with some of their beautiful creations ;o)

The fair was really good and we had so much fun! It was fantastic to be able to take our stand out of a suitcase =o) Our work had a great response and the Spanish doll house Magazine want to do a feature on our work as the editor just loved our dolls, she was also such a nice, warm and friendly person to meet.

We had a stand next to Karon Cunningham who has a very successful Dolls House and Miniatures shop at 15-16 Pulteney Bridge, Bath, BA2 4AY. Check out her web site
http://www.karoncunningham.com/ so it was nice to meet a fellow British Miniaturist!

Helena also had a fantastic fair, selling lots of her beautiful creations so we will all be going to the November show! We managed to spend all the money we made as we have not had a holiday for around 4 years so we just made the most of it and Aidy was chuffed as he bought a rather fetching hat and some funky new shoes lol!!!

We came back to some very exciting news...

Blog Giveaway at last!!!

2010-05-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

We are so bad at blogging! I am so sorry you have had to wait so long for this giveaway but we just got back from Madrid so I thought I best get on with it ;o)

This is our wicked witch, we have not named her so you can give her the perfect witchy name ;o)
All you need to do to take part is follow our blog and leave a comment to say you would like to be included in the giveaway - simple!

She is made from porcelain from our own moulds and was poured, cleaned and fired by Roz and Aidy, painted by Aidy and wigged and dressed by Roz, so a joint effort!!!

I hope you like her and I am sure someone will give her a nice spooky home - we will pull the names from the a hat next Thursday to give people time to take part.

Good luck!

Lots of news very little time!

2010-05-11T16:14:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I am a very bad blogger!!!

We just seem to lose so much time lately and find it impossible to get things done, mind you a lot has happened since our last blog ;o)

We were both ill after spring cleaning lol and had flu like symtoms for around two weeks and we had an elderly relative staying with us so no time to rest! Our car decided to give up on us even though it is only 3 years old so we had to wait 3 weeks to get it fixed (combination of waiting on garage to fit us in, parts and tools to remove the old parts) - thankfully she is working a treat now. Although we did have to hire a van for a few shows as we could not fit our stand, us and elderly relative in the car fixed or not lol

We have been to two fairs, Pudsey which was our best yet and Edinburgh which was a great show as always. The pictures above are commissions we made for the Edinburgh show.

We were asked by Jill Bennett on behalf of the BTG to become part of the committee for the British Toymakers Guild which we were delighted to accept.

Today we had a very exciting offer but we need to work out the details before I can shout about it lol so watch this space....

We are also looking forward to our trip to Madrid to stand at the Tom Bishop show next week providing Volcanoes behave themselves ;o) so lots of new dolls ready to go on an adventure.

We are also helping to set up a local dollhouse club - first meeting is on Monday so that is something to jump up and down about as I have wanted to join a dolls house club ever since I found the hobby!!! Finally I will have time to make stuff for my own houses - I have already demanded a Dobby from Aidy as pictured above so fingers crossed I get one lol anyone from the local area is very welcome to join so hopefully I will get to meet lots of people with the same passion for all things mini ;o)

We also have to get ready for York and Scottish Miniatura as we have a huge list of commissions to be ready for both shows so lets hope we can find a few weeks extra to make everything!!!! Where does the time go?

And last but not least I have made the witch for our givaway but need to take some pictures for you...she was going to be a good witch but she sold at the workshop we did a few weeks ago so I made a new witch and she wanted to be nasty so if you take part I hope you have a spooky corner to put her in ;o)

Good luck to everyone standing at Kensington and have a great day to all those visiting the show. Right, off to get the camera!

Spring cleaning & Madrid

2010-04-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry I Have not been around all week - we decided we needed to spring clean and decorate the spare room and our bedroom. Needless to say we are in a total mess! We both wish we had not started!!

We now can't wait until we head off to the Tom Bishop show in Madrid next month! Sun, Sea, Sand, Cocktails and Miniatures what more does anyone need? We are going for 6 days and the show is on for two so we feel like we are having holiday as well as working lol

We are going with Aidy's dad, Helena of Solway Miniatures (who also has a stand at the show) and Ev her daughter. We are all sharing an apartment so it should be great fun ;o) If any of you can make the show please come along and say hello!

We have friends booked to house and cat sit lol so no guilt in having some time away!

I promise we will have a witch to give away in the next few days :o)

I also want to show you all a fabulous little dormouse I won on ebay we just need to get finished with all this cleaning and find the camera ;o)

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T03:17:00.000-07:00

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter, I hope you are all having a lovely day! I am off out with mum and dad for a meal so no washing up ;o) I think we are having a curry which is a bit strange for Easter Sunday but it will taste great!

We will be having a witchy blog give away this coming week - just need to take some pictures - so please check back for details.

We would also like to say hello to all our new followers on blogland and facebook, it is so nice of you to join us!

Back from Miniatura

2010-03-30T01:15:00.001-07:00

I am so sorry we never managed to preview our new dolls before Miniatura, we were just frantically making them and most were headless until the day before the show!!!

We had our best ever Miniatura and we sold more dolls than we have ever sold in one go at any fair so we were delighted by the end of the weekend. We had a lovely couple who bought five of our dolls to take back to Germany including the Obama's and our CDHM competition witch so that was lovely. Another lady bought five dolls as well and we sold out of Seth's and had two Maggie's left by the end of the show. We also had a few commissions and lots of other sales of one or two dolls so really a fantastic weekend.

My mum managed to get to the show and was staying in the hotel right next door to the venue, she really is not very well so I was really happy she made it as I know she always feels left out! I picked up a beautiful Georgian house for her after the show which she had won on ebay and it is HUGE - good job we hired a van! She had great fun at the show buying dolls, wallpaper and light fittings for her new house. I am delighted as I have been trying to get her into the hobby for years! She is our biggest fan lol

Sadly I was very tired from working so hard in the run up and my legs were playing me up so I was glad to get home by the end of the show ;o) But now feel ready to do it all again!

It was lovely to see Mrs Parnell who is one of our first customers and she even brought us Delicious chocolate orange biscuits which went down a treat with a cup of tea when we got home so thank you Margaret!

Our Porcelain dolls were a huge success (the picture above are all porcelain dolls) and most people could not tell the difference between them and our one of a kind dolls. So all that hard work was worth it!

We were lucky to be next to so many DAMES and all of them had fantastic displays but I think Jenny Kelm stole the show! She had such wonderful characters as always and her hubby Mike had made some truly fabulous items.

Lesley also had a fantastic reaction to her mad Hatter and a Sweeney Todd working display she had loads of pictures taken and had lots of interest in her work.

Helena made a beautiful tea party on top of a top hat - mad Hatter style and that also got a great response ;o)

A very warm welcome to all our new followers =o)

Right we had best get back to work as we have a lot of shows coming up over the next few weeks, although we hope to have one day off so we can go and see Alice in Wonderland!

Countdown....

2010-03-10T01:18:00.000-08:00

Well, not long to go now until Miniatura! Not panicking just yet but we still have so much to do ;o) We are very excited to announce the launch of our very own porcelain dolls sculpted, moulded, cleaned, fired, painted and dressed by us so you can only get them from us!

Aidy has really managed to keep the detail in the faces and they really look like a Lilyelf doll except in porcelain so we are delighted as we have been asked to give it a try by quite a few people ;o) We are still making our one of a kind dolls but they will be more special and a real collectors piece. We still take commissions in both mediums.

We have been so busy experimenting with different faces and expressions and now for once we will be able (hopefully) to have a full stand of all types of dolls!

When you hand sculpt each doll it takes so long that stock is always limited and there are two of us working at them! We just can't make dolls quick enough and we only had around 10 dolls for sale at our last fair!!! So we hope that our very detailed and high quality Porcelain range will allow us to offer a larger selection at a very competitive price, as I can get on with pouring and cleaning them while Aidy makes one of a kind dolls ;o)

We have a very special offer to Launch them at Miniatura - We are offering a limited edition run on two characters based on two of our most popular dolls (we always get asked to make them but it is impossible to get the exact look as they are ooak sculpts) Seth (pictured above) and Maggie (Pictures coming soon...)!

Both dolls will be available at the incredible price of just £39 each - Supplies are very limited and we have already had a lot of interest so get to our stand early or get in touch by email.

The rest of the porcelain doll range will be priced at around £49 - £89 per character depending on the complexity! No two will be dressed the same as I find this very boring, so you will still be getting a ooak costume!

We will launch two new characters at every large show at the price of £39 so you can really get a good collection going!

I will try to post some previews of new porcelain dolls everyday so you can see what a wide range we will have - wait until you see the witches! We just did a witch workshop using porcelain witches and everyone not only made a fantastic witch but they loved them! I will tell you all about it later... I best get back to work!!!

Workshops 27th and 28th Feb

2010-02-14T14:12:00.000-08:00

A quick note to remind people of the workshops taking place in Glasgow at the end of the month. You only have two weeks left to book places! Please check out this previous blog post for more details http://lilyelf.blogspot.com/2009/11/details.html

We have some news of new dolls and Miniatura previews coming up soon! We are also going to hold our first blog give away so check back for details ;o)

Also, we have a long waiting list for commissions at the moment so if you want something special and quick we can't make any promises but we will do our best to fit you in!

Missed opportunity ;o(

2010-02-11T09:32:00.000-08:00

Wanted by the BBC and we missed it! Story of our lives! We switched Internet providers last September and one result was an inbox full of missing emails which we only discovered last night. Besides the commission orders and emails of thanks there was a very unexpected email from the BBC asking us if we would be interested to appear on a new series!!! This was sent on in November so sadly we have now missed the deadline - we are both gutted but cheered by the fact that the man from the BBC thought our dolls were 'Brilliant'. Maybe we will be considered again in the future - we can dream lol.

We have decided to start over with our website so it will be a few weeks before it is fully up and running again with all features!

2010-02-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

Dolls House Storage System
Designed by Lilyelf Miniatures

Coming soon in DollsHouse and Miniature Scene Magazine, (April #190 and May #191, available 25th Feb and 25th March 2010) this fantastic project to build your own dolls house themed desk tidy!

Inspired by a gift dispenser for the Christmas table from Aidy's childhood called 'the galleon' (you'll have to read the magazines to find out why!), this project is intended as a fun and functional desk tidy for all those little bits and bobs that haven't yet found a home; but would be ideal as a seasonal centrepiece or even a first dolls house for a child, which they could make themselves (with a little help with the cutting!)

The project is simple and fun to make from easily available materials following the clear step-by-step instructions with photographs of each stage printed over the two issues.
Keep checking back for some sneak previews of some alternative designs!

Available Soon: Dolls House Storage Project – The Kit! Exclusive to Lilyelf and Dolls House and Miniature Scene!

A new year...

2010-01-06T14:19:00.001-08:00

Hello and a very Happy 2010 to you all! Well, sorry we have not been around much lately we still had loads of work to do before Christmas and still have loads to do now lol But as it is my birthday today, the big 30, I thought I would pop into blog land and see what is happening!

We have so much to do this year and we will be sharing our new work and ideas with you all as soon as there is something to see! We are waiting on some orders to arrive and then it is back to work ;o)

I hope those of you in the UK are managing to keep warm and safe. It is very cold here and the snow has now been around for over 3 weeks! More is on the way according to the weather reports so no plans to go too far lol although we are supposed to be heading to a fair in Stafford at the weekend!

A very warm welcome to all our new followers ;o) May 2010 be a great year for us all!

A break at last!

2009-12-02T04:09:00.000-08:00

Well, no more fairs until next year lol - well next month really! York as usual was a fantastic show for us. Aidy was fully booked at his workshop and had to get extra chairs to squeeze everyone around the table ;o) He was in his element lol and Deborah who runs the show kept telling me what a good job he was doing!

I really like the york venue as there is lots of space, it is well run, advertised lots so loads of people make the trip and there are around 100 stands so lots for people to see while they are there. We have a nice following at York too so it is always so nice to meet up with old customers.

Now we just need to make 6 more commissions before Christmas including a swimming pool??? Not sure how we came to be doing that but she is a lovely lady and is now a friend not a customer so how could we say no? I will show you lots of pictures when it is finished!

We had a great commission for a hells Angel while at york so looking forward to making him too but we have until the new year for that one!

And finally I am off to a wedding in Ireland tomorrow - Aidy and my dad are staying at home so it is just Mum and I making the trip and I hate flying so not looking forward to that at all!!!! But I do love Ireland and most of my family on my mums side live there so it will be nice to catch up!

Hope you are all finding the time to relax before Christmas ;o)

One left!!!!

2009-11-24T09:05:00.001-08:00

Well, we had an exhausting weekend! We travelled down to London to stand at the Kensington Christmas Festival and then went back up to Manchester to stand at the Altrincham show on the Sunday - Madness lol

Kensington was well worth the trip ;o) and we had a customer who came all the way from Denmark to collect a doll. Her friend had bought one of our characters in Arnhem and so she had to have one too. So as soon as the doors opened she found us and luckily she loved him ;o) and she even promised to let him travel back home in style lol

We had a great show and as we were next to the cloakroom we had people passing our stand all day long! One problem with this is we now have a very empty stand, almost no dolls and no fabrics and only less than a week left until York - Major PANIC!!! We have 8 orders for dolls which are being collected at the show and we are doing a workshop! Sooooooooooooooooooo much to do this week and I am not home as I am with my mum all this week!

But the end is in sight and then we can relax...well almost! Aidy is giving up work to work full time on Lilyelf from next year so very exciting times ahead!

Welcome

2009-11-19T02:12:00.000-08:00

A very warm welcome to all our new followers and a huge thank you to old ones! Sorry we are not posting much at the moment but we are just so busy with work, shows and commissions.

We had a great weekend. We did our very first talk to a dolls house club on Saturday and for me it was a bit daunting (Aidy being a Teacher had no such worries) but they were all such lovely people that I soon felt at ease ;o) and we even sold a doll and lots of fabrics and bits and bobs which was unexpected but nice!

On Sunday we had a stand at the Brentwood fair in Edinburgh http://www.brentwoodfairs.com/

Although quiet compared to the same show earlier in the year it was still well worth the trip to Scotland! Thanks Pat ;o)

D-A-M-E also had a stand run by Beverly Read and they did very well too so thanks to everyone who sent items along to sell, you did the group proud!

Sorry there are no pictures as everyone forgot to bring a camera!

One down...four to go!

2009-11-08T04:30:00.001-08:00

Well, we are back from Pudsey. It was a very strange show as it became very busy around lunch time and then went quiet early afternoon, which never happens at this show! It normally stays busy all day. It was bad on the sales front for most people around us which again is strange for this event but maybe all this credit crunch talk has finally hit?

Doreen always runs a very good event and this time was no different as she got the public in - they just left early! They raised a huge amount for Children in need too, which is fantastic, I think it was around £800! So there is one very good positive about the show ;o)

We were lucky in that we covered costs and have four people who bought dolls and are picking them up and paying for them at york at the end of the month! It seemed lots of people were saving money until York this time. But then times are hard and what we sell are classed as Luxury items! We also had 6 bookings for our workshop ;o)

We have been very lucky as Lilyelf and have not felt the pinch so you have to take the good shows with the bad!

Roll on next week at Edinburgh, I love the Scottish shows!

The picture is of Priscilla one of our cats looking most unimpressed at having her picture taken!

Getting ready....

2009-11-06T09:19:00.001-08:00

Not for Christmas as the picture suggests, but for the last 5 shows of the year! Yes, 5 shows in 4 weeks, we must be mad!?! Although Christmas will be here before we know it... and I have yet to make 10 Christmas cakes for family and friends, not to mention go to a wedding in Ireland...PANIC!!!

We are really looking forward to Pudsey tomorrow (http://www.doreenjeffriesdollshousefairs.co.uk/leeds-fair.php) as we have so many friends who stand very close to us at the show so we get to have a lovely chat and plenty of laughs throughout the day!

We have made some new characters for the show but not many as we have so many commissions we are working through to meet the Christmas deadline! It is at times like this that I wonder why we do what we do??? Oh yeah...because we love it!

I have loved 'meeting' so many talented artists through blog land, online groups and Facebook, it is truly amazing what some people can do with a few simple materials! I love seeing what you are all up to and WIP pictures, so we are going to try to return the favour by making some tutorials and taking some WIP pictures of our own to share some of what we do! Although we are not the most organised and we tend to forget to take pictures as we get caught up in what we are doing!

We hope to get the website sorted out as soon as we can. It has become a tad bit neglected of late, but it should be up and running soon! We have lots of very new exciting things planned for next year if we find the time to do them and we can't wait to share them with you! December is going to be a very very busy month...

Workshops

2009-11-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

Details..

The Glasgow Dolls House fair run by Pat Kay of Brentwood Fairs are holding workshops at the Premier Inn, Glasgow on Saturday and Sunday, 27th and 28th February 2010. The fair takes place on the Sunday. http://www.brentwoodfairs.com/

Saturday all day: Gardener and vegetables with Lilyelf and Solway Miniatures.

In the morning you will learn how to sculpt and paint your own ooak Gardener with Aidy of Lilyelf Miniatures, 9am to 12.30 pm.

In the afternoon you will dress and wig the Gardener ( approx 2 hours) with roz of Lilyelf miniatures and then you will make his wheelbarrow of vegetables with Helena of Solway Miniatures. At the end of the day you will have a gardener with all his vegetables to take home. Students need to bring an apron to protect their clothing. Cost £50.00 minimum 5- 12 students.
Please bring you own lunch.

To book a place please email Lilielves@aol.com or solwayminiature@aol.com

***

Saturday all day - Regency Doll, circa 1812 with Hazel Dowd

Doll ready made up ready to be dressed in a Regency Gown; underclothes in fine lawn, trimmed with lace, stocking with garter, viscose for hair. Ballerina style slippers. Students will be shown how to wig the doll. The clothes patterns will be pre-cut to save on time but extra fabrics will be included in the kit. Please bring your own scissors. Cost £45. - minimum 8 students. ALSO A MUST : Bring your own lunch!

***

Saturday all day - Old Liverpool 3D scene with Joe Wareing.

The students will make a 28cm x 20cm x 8cm deep framed 3D scene wall hanging showing a frontage of an old Victorian house which still exists in Liverpool to-day. I assembling this project you will learn finishing techniques for brickwork; tiling and stone effects using ready available materials. Various methods of colouring will be used and the knowledge gained can be applied to any future projects of your own. All materials, tools and accessories (NOT THE DOLL) are included. STUDENTS NEED ONLY BRING AN APRON TO PROTECT THEIR CLOTHING Cost £50.00 Minimum 8 students. Please bring your own lunch!

***

Saturday all day; 1.12th scale porcelain Doll with Isabelle Wood
Make and assemble a Porcelain Doll.

***

Morning classes

Saturday: 9.am to 11.30am French Style patisserie cakes and mini cakes. with Solway Miniatures. No equipment required - everything is included.
Cost £8.00

To book a place please email solwayminiature@aol.com
***

Saturday: 9.am to 12.pm Dress a 1/24th Tudor Doll with Lilyelf, Doll and Fabrics provided - no equipment required - everything provided. Cost £35.00

To book a place please email Lilielves@aol.com

***

SUNDAY:

9 am to 12.30pm Simple Bead Bags with Joan Wareing. These bags are very simple to make, even for a complete beginner. If you can hold a needle you can make these bags! The simple method used can look completely different by using beads of varying size and shape. The kit will contain needles; extra fine Nymo thread; a special soft beading mat; enough beads ( of your choice) to complete three bags and written instructions for you to use in the future. There will be extra sets of beads available should you wish to make more bags. No Equipment needed - everything is included. Cost £10 - maximum 10 students.

***

Sunday 9 am to 12.20pm Jams; Pickles; Marmalade and Preserves with Solway Miniatures. All jars will be provided No Equipment required. Cost £15.00 5 - 15 students.

To book a place please email solwayminiature@aol.com

***

Sunday 9am to 10am, Learn to make removable wigs with Roz of Lilyelf. No equipment required Cost £10.00. 5 - 10 students.

To book a place please email Lilielves@aol.com

***

Sunday 10am to 12.30pm Learn to make a variety of Hats with Aidy of Lilyelf.No equipment required.Cost £10. 5 to 10 students.

To book a place please email Lilielves@aol.com

***

For workshops without contact info, please contact Pat Kay at pat.kay@tiscali.co.uk

Places are limited so book now!

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T06:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween to you all! I hope you all have lots of wonderful parties to go to, we are staying in with some nibbles and the TV lol Both parties we were invited to are at least 3 hours away! I do love Halloween and I am reminded of some very strange parties from my teenage days ;o) with some even stranger costumes!

I was going to make pumpkin soup or pie but no pumpkins left in the shops! That will teach us to wait until the last minute. It is odd to see Halloween become ever more popular in England but it is a good thing!

Have a spooky time whatever you are doing!

Griselda

2009-10-30T09:30:00.001-07:00

Griselda is now for sale in our Etsy shop - All very new to us! I hope you like her ;o)

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33528798 it is unusual for us to list dolls as we mostly sell them at shows or on a commission basis but as it is Halloween tomorrow we thought we would offer our last witch for sale - we do have lots more witches planed - we love making them!

Welcome to our new followers, almost 5o now! Thank you to all our followers for taking an interest in our work =o)

We had a great day yesterday, went to Bury Market with mum and had tea and cakes, saw my gran and had more tea and cakes lol then we made a surprise visit to Julie and Ruth's dolls house club (only Julie the organiser knew we were going) we had talked about it in Arnhem but they thought we had decided not to come. We had a wonderful night and yes, more tea and cakes lol

Julie's dolls house collection is just fantastic and it made me ashamed of my empty houses back home lol I must try to get some work done on them over Christmas! She has spent years collecting the perfect miniatures for every scene and the little bear and pram she bought in Arnhem finished the little girls room off perfectly - they were worth all the money they cost!

Thank you for such a warm welcome girls, I just wish I lived close enough to be a member but going off last night, we would never get anything made lol see you all at Pudsey!

Arnhem

2009-10-28T09:56:00.001-07:00

Well, we are back home! We had a fantastic weekend and it was well worth all the effort to make the show.

We left on Thursday from Newcastle to Amsterdam, I didn't quite get seasick but I went to bed very early feeling quite green lol the 2 tablets I had, just about managed to keep me from actually being sick!

We woke up bright and early and after a much needed coffee and orange juice we disembarked in Amsterdam. None of the roads matched the map so we found the fair by dumb luck rather than by skill lol

But Aidy managed the drive really well and remembered to drive on the wrong side of the road lol We found the venue and I was given a really sweet miniature Russian doll to celebrate our first time at the show - I always wanted one of those!

We were placed facing Lynn (Matlock Miniatures) Bob (Country Contrast) and Doreen Jeffries so we had a laugh with them all weekend as we see them at all the English fairs. Every time we looked across to them they were all either laughing or eating something lol Aidy kept them entertained with his antics.

We were not too far away from Pat kay and Dream In miniature so it was really nice to see friendly faces.

As the show opened, One of our regular customers came up to us (we knew she was going to the show) and she asked if we knew where her hotel was, well we were delighted to find we were all staying at the same place, although we had failed to find it earlier.

Ruth, told us she had been to Germany and back looking for it so we said we would all go together at the end of the show, it took us 2 hours to find it as we spent most of the time stuck in a one way system lol We were all ashamed to realise the hotel is 8 minutes from the show! We were so happy to finally find it, but had to make do with a sandwich and drink from the bar as the restaurant was closed ;o)

The next morning we all had breakfast together and Aidy and I were having so much fun we nearly missed the start of the show! We had a great day and sold some dolls and lots of other bits. I was sad to see Gwendolin and Percy sell, but they are going to Denmark and the lady who bought them was lovely! We sold our gardener to her friend so that was really nice.

Our work got a fantastic response and we now have a some new customers to add to our ever growing fan base. We ran out of all our postcards!

We had a lovely meal with Ruth, Dot, Julie and Robert, but we all missed Ruth's daughter Julie who had stayed back at home in England. We had a very funny waiter who loved the fact he could make fun of us English lol so we never laughed so much for a long time, we all had a great night!

We managed to have breakfast with them again and then another mad dash to make the show, we had another great day and we were sad when it was all over.

We had to rush to catch the ferry home but made it with time to spare and the crossing was not too bad going home, we even had a nice 3 course meal on board.

We can't wait until next October when we get to do it all again and the best bit is that Ruth, Julie, Dot, Robert and Julie (Ruth's daughter) are all thinking of going again too! They made our weekend more than just a show, so thank you to you all we had a ball!

Check out ooakdiddydolls...

2009-10-20T15:08:00.001-07:00

Check out the wonderful work of Lesley Hughes http://www.ooakdiddydolls.moonfruit.com/ She makes such fabulous dolls! Since her recent appearance in a miniaturist magazine she has been inundated with commissions which is fantastic to see as she is such a lovely person and she has been a very good friend to us.

We met Kev, Lesley's husband for the first time at Miniatura and he is just as lovely as she is! I am sure you will agree Lesley's work is very good! Please take a look at her all new and improved website which now has an online shop.

She will have work for sale at Pudsey and Edinburgh as part of the D-A-M-E table.

Keep up the great work Lesley!

Getting ready for Arnhem

2009-10-20T02:32:00.001-07:00

(Pictures - A closer look at the Battish Airways Characters)

Well, we are getting ready to do our very first show abroad ;o) in Arnhem. We were supposed to do this show last march but I had an operation just a week before and I was not fit enough.

Better luck this time! We leave on Thursday So, the ferry is booked, hotel is paid for, we have a stand at the show, Sea sickness tablets are bought lol. All we need to do now is finish 6 dolls and pack the car and then we can be on our way!

The most important thing is our cats Cilla and Elvis and they are being looked after by some very good friends who will stay at our house for the weekend so that is one less thing to worry about!

The nice thing about doing this show is that not only are a lot of our friends from the British fairs standing but one of our favourite customers is also going to be there so that will be really lovely and it is her first time at the show too.

It is a 3 day show, well, one evening and two full days! Lots of well respected names from all over the world will have stands so I am going to have loads of fun looking at all the wonderful miniatures - you never know if we have a good show, I may get to buy some lol although I always buy things for our dolls such a fancy fabrics or unusual trimmings and not for my own collection!!! Mind you it is nearly Christmas...

It looks like a great event and we have heard only positive things about it so we hope to have a really nice time. It feels like a mini holiday anyway! We will take lots of pictures to bore you all with when we get back and we will give a full show report :o)

http://www.arnhem-poppenhuisstad.com/us/us.html

Miniatura

2009-10-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

Battish Airways!

We had a wonderful show, it was great fun and went by far too quickly! Well, here is our show piece 'Battish Airways' it took all summer to make but the response we had was well worth all the hard work! It moves up and down, the bats flap their wings and it lights up lol

Aidy had to carry it up and down the show to take it to the 'studio' to have pictures taken by the magazines, miniatura and the local paper lol so his hands were killing him by the end of the weekend as it is heavy! It does all come apart and pack neatly away inside the boxes it stands on but there was no time to keep on packing it away ;o)

It was so nice to see peoples reaction to it and a lot of them thought we must be daft (which we are) to come up with the idea in the first place! We have had lots of really nice messages today telling us it was the best thing at the show and that made our day as some very talented people loved our work. We also had interest from some shops who liked the idea of having it as the window display!

We hope to have it on display at Arnhem, Pudsey, York and Kensington so if you are around and would like to see it please come and say hello. It is for sale but we would like to have the chance to add a few more finishing touches to it first as we ran out of time!

We also had a great time as we were surrounded by all the girls from D-A-M-E and Helena of Solway miniatures so lots of laughs in our corner of the show! We all stayed at the same hotel and 5 of us had the same room so you can imagine how much fun that was too lol good job we get along so well! Edith from delicious delights also kept on popping by to say hello as she did not want to miss anything ;o)

D-A-M-E had a fantastic and well deserved response from everyone who stopped to have a look at our display - The members really did a good job!

We would like to say a huge thank you to the following people, Bev, Lesley, kev, Helena and Simon for helping with D-A-M-E and all the D-A-M-E members who sent work to display or came to see us all at the show.

We would also like to thank Andy Hopwood who also continues to offer great support and encouragement to both D-A-M-E and Lilyelf and obviously works so hard to not only to help run such a successful event, but to promote the hobby to anyone who will listen!

Roll on march!

Busy, busy, busy!

2009-09-20T04:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been a few weeks since our last post! We just have so much going on at the moment and both of us are chasing our tails ;o) Our website should be up and running properly over the next two weeks or so, we are having some new features added for us by a very good friend and talented website builder!

Well, the picture above is of a witch we made as a gift for a very special customer of ours, in time for the Stafford show, she was delighted with her ;o) and this lovely lady made us a shawl, hat and basket and brought us some wonderful chocolate things to eat in return, which was unexpected but very nice. Thank you Margaret - we shall see you at Miniatura!

Talking of Miniatura, we have a ridiculous amount of work to do - today's list includes, dressing 6 dolls, flocking 50 mice, pouring porcelain dolls, cleaning and firing them and making a cauldron and that is just my list - Aidy has his own!!! LOL that is why I am here...to escape. I may get a 1/4 of my list done today if I am lucky ;o) I bet we are not the only ones with daft lists like these ... I know a few people who are quietly panicking!!!

We are so pleased that we are next to the D-A-M-E stand and we are also next to Helena of Solway Miniatures, so if you are standing or visiting the show you can find us all on L6-L8. We are in the middle at L7 lol

We are going to have something very, very special on our stand all being well ... just a few more dolls to make for it ... It will be available for sale and will never be repeated by us and will hopefully (if it works out) be a nice talking point and be one of the many high-lights of the show - I can't say more as it is a surprise!

Falkirk show

2009-08-31T16:25:00.001-07:00

Well, we had another fabulous Scottish fair! 3 Scottish fairs in a row that have just exceeded our wildest expectations!!! A Huge thank you to Pat of Brentwood fairs for organising such a great show ;o)

Another huge thank you to our ever-growing Scottish customer base you make the trip worthwhile at every show! We had two customers pick up some commissions (both have bought our dolls before) and we had an order for 4 more dolls and a camel from one of these customers so that was great and I am sure we will have fun making those.

We have had a lot of knocks this year with mum being ill and a lot of petty playground antics from a few people who should know better but our customers speak for us and continue to support us -that is all that matters! We also have lots of very nice friends on the miniature scene who it is always a pleasure to see and we have a lot of fun with!

Mum is doing well, she has more treatment in October but I am keeping her busy on facebook games LOL

It was so nice yesterday as we were surrounded by D-A-M-E members and we were next to the D-A-M-E sales table and Helena of Solway minis who is also a member so we had lots of laughs all day. We were all really pleased that every single member of DAME who sent items to sell sold at least one item and it was the first sales table we have had as a group so CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who took the time to send work to the show!!!! WTG Girls and Boys!

Now panic sets in as we have so many large shows coming up including our first trip to Arnhem and Miniatura which we love to do. So thanks to everyone who has been there for us through all the bad and good times ;o) especially Lesley Hughes of Ooakdiddydolls and Beverley Read who have been beside us at every turn - You are both wondeful people and very special friends.

The dolls above are two new characters for the shows ahead!

Where does the time go???

2009-08-23T10:08:00.001-07:00

Where has this month gone? We have been so busy it is hard to believe it is almost September. But what a lovely summer we have had. Most of our outstanding commissions are finished or at least sitting naked on my table and waiting to be dressed - this is the racing driver who now happily lives in the Isle of man -

We have made some wonderful new characters who will be on show this Sunday at falkirk and the following weekend they will be at Stafford ;o) We also have a very exciting and extremely large project which will be on show at miniatura it will have loads of characters and really will be something worth coming to our stand to take a peek at - pictures to tempt you coming soon!!! Lets just hope it fits on our stand LOL

It has not been an entirely worked filled summer as we have had lots of guests coming to catch up with us which has been really good as we have had a nice break without having to leave the house and we still have one friend staying with us ;o) Now Aidy's dad is also on his way for a weeks stay - this means lots and lots of visits to bookshops and interesting places we find along the way ;o)

Hope everyone else is having a great summer, even if the weather is not always nice!

A rude commission...

2009-07-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

We have just finished this commission for this gentleman who is about to be spanked! We had a lot of fun making him as it is something very different for us! Although my dad was shocked when he saw the pictures lol so this is the censored version!

That is why we love doing commissions as you never know what you will be asked to make ;o)

6th Wedding Anniversary

2009-07-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

Well, today was our 6th wedding anniversary;o) So we decided to go shopping, have a meal and see Harry Potter.

We bought loads of books and I was delighted to find Alan Bennett 'Untold Stories' for £4.99 brand new - it was reduced from £20.00! We also got loads of work related books with pictures of people or sewing techniques ;o)

Then we went for a mexican meal and we had just had a few sips of our drinks when the fire alarm went off! so we had to go outside and wait for the all clear. Around 10 minutes later we could all go back inside. Our food order arrived a little late but the food was delicious! Then we asked for the bill and it was FREE!!! So that was a nice anniversary gift that we were not expecting!

We then went to see Harry Potter and because our meal was late we missed all the adverts - perfect ;o) We were both unimpressed with the pace and the love plot got a bit sickly at times but it did look great. Now we are full of dolls we just have to make so back to work tomorrow ;o)

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Witches

2009-07-21T18:42:00.001-07:00

We have just finished this piece 'you are never too old to learn to fly' It is one of those sculpts that has been waiting to get out for a long time ;o) She is now sold but we would make a similar idea if requested.

Gwendoline and Percy are collecting mushrooms for a spell! We have just listed them on ebay - something we never do with our OOAK dolls as most of our work is either stock for shows or commissions!

You can see them here http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190323210781&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

We hope to start listing dolls on ebay, etsy, CDHM, D-A-M-E and fuzzb in the next few months as we are members of them all but never use them!

Our main aim for this summer is to try to keep our website updated and keep on top of all our commissions as at the moment we never have any spare time to make the long list of ideas waiting to pop out!

We have six weeks to get organised ... HELP!

Candy Witch Workshop

2009-07-15T03:10:00.000-07:00

We are running a workshop with Helena of Solway miniatures to make a candy witch!

Witch Workshop
28th July 2009
10 am - 4 pm
Holywood Trust Community Hall
Holywood, Dumfries
(Map will be provided at time of booking)

Sculpt, Paint, Wig and Dress a Witch and make her candy tray!
You will spend the day with Helena, Aidy and Roz who will each take you through a stage to complete your very own candy witch. It is a full day workshop, Coffee, tea and biscuits will be provided but please bring your own lunch.
Costs £50 per person for everything you need to make a witch, all tools and materials are provided.

To book this workshop or one similar contact us;
Email: Mimeworkshops@aol.com
Phone: 01388 451 539

http://mime.yolasite.com/

First 1:24 dolls

2009-07-12T13:32:00.001-07:00

This is our first attempt at 1:24 scale dolls. They were a real challenge to do! It was hard finding fabrics small enough and Aidy found the sculpt very difficult to do and still keep detail. It is amazing how small the face and head have to be in order to stay in scale - a lot of people make the head too big. This was advice we had before we started and now we can see why it is so easy to get it wrong!

These are a commission hence why we were mad and gave it a go ;o) But we did have fun and now we have the summer looming, we may make some more! We already have a few people interested in what we make next lol so watch this space.

In 3 days Aidy breaks up for the summer (he teaches) so we are going to spend the time making dolls and keep our website updated for once! We have lots of exciting ideas and some irons in the fire so our blog should also be more active...well maybe lol

We are at a show in Altrincham on Sunday so we will try to take lots of pictures to show you all. It is a really nice fair as we get to meet up with lots of friends and some regular customers which is probably one of the best parts of doing fairs!

Pigeon update

2009-06-30T05:29:00.000-07:00

Percy has left us, so I hope he will now find his way home. He was obviously just tired and in need of food and a good nights sleep, bless him ;o) so although sad as we won't know if he makes it or not, at least we gave him a good chance.

Pet Pigeon???

2009-06-30T04:45:00.000-07:00

Hi all, we have a new pet...Percy/Phillis the lost racing pigeon who was found last night by the annex door and it was too tired to move or fly away...sooooooooooooo after a lot of scratching our heads out came a cat carrier and in went Percy. We then googled 'what to feed a Pigeon' and 'what to do with a lost racing Pigeon' and we had a look in the cupboards for Pigeon friendly food so out came the rice and sunflower seeds!!! Percy then spent a night on the kitchen floor with seeds and water to munch on ;o) It was worrying as it was just sat there doing nothing...do pigeons do stuff??? But today it had eaten everything we put down for it and was bright and alert so we decided to clean the box out before Aidy went to work ... outside ... Pigeon is now on the roof and won't come down =o( so not sure what to do now. I have googled 'how to get pigeon off the roof' but not really into shooting it down!!!! And it says on lots of sites that the owner will just kill it as it failed to get home. Is this true??? So what do we do now???? Can't let it be killed, can't keep it on the roof...

Our first Goth...

2009-06-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

Meet Raven Snakebite ;o) she is our first ever Goth doll. She is already sold as she was a commission piece but we had so much fun making her we are going to make lots more similar characters. We hope you like her.

New characters

2009-06-22T01:06:00.000-07:00

Hello! Sorry we have not posted anything for ages, we have just been so busy (which we are not complaining about)! We just have so many commissions these days that we are constantly chasing our tails but it keeps us quiet lol

But we thought we would show you these 3 new characters the witch is not quite finished yet but she will be available soon, the other two were commissions so are sold. We had a lot of fun with these 3 and I have to say I have a soft spot for Gwendolin the Witch :o) She has glass eyes so has a very nice twinkle to her and they make her look a lot more realistic - this is only the second time we have used them but we now think they look better than the painted eyes. Mind you it depends on the look you want ;o)

We had a wonderful phone call on Saturday, a gentleman asked if we would make a doll for his wife as she was too embarrassed to ask us - she wants a man bent over a chair with his trousers pulled down as if he is being spanked and she even wants hand marks on his bottom lol so that should be a lot of fun to do!! That is why we love commissions so much, you just never know what you will be asked to make. Has anyone else had any strange requests?

Update

2009-05-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday was a long day! Mum and I were at the hospital from 9 til 5 so a days work for some ;o) Mum needs another operation to remove some more of the growth they thought they had removed (apparently they now think some was left behind) and will be having more tests and scans over the next two weeks. So lots more days spent at the hospital...

Mum wanted me to say thank you to all those who have emailed and sent cards to wish her well, it means a lot to us both ;o)

The staff were all lovely and we had lots of cups of tea made for us and mum even got a free lunch so not all bad!

So, now I can hide myself in dolls again until the next visit...we have a new witch on her way ;o) maybe you can meet her tomorrow...

Darwin

2009-05-15T14:50:00.001-07:00

Well here is Darwin ;o) who hopefully made it to Kensington in one piece. We offered him up for auction as we couldn't make it to the show. He did not want to play and refused to get dressed for a few days but after a good talking to we got there! Hope you like him, he is the second Darwin we have made but both are different as they are both ooak sculpts. The first one played fair and got dressed right away and was sold at Miniatura ;o)

Now back to commissions...

Trying Times

2009-05-14T01:05:00.000-07:00

As some of you know my mum was diagnosed with cancer two weeks ago today. She had an operation to have a growth removed around a week before and it was found to contain cancer. So the last two weeks have been awful as we have not known how bad it is or even if she was lucky and they got it all there and then.

We finally got the dates for her scans and other tests, a week today so we at least now have something to work towards. So positive thoughts please! I bury my head in the sand over these things so will try not to think about it until next week when I have too ;o)

I have passed on all the well wishes from the girls of DAME and CDHM and mum wanted me to thank you all. It does help to know people are thinking about you!

So, we have pulled out of the Kensington Showcase as we just could not put the time and effort into making something special to display and to be honest our mind has not really been on Lilyelf. We are just working through commissions while we wait for news.

Things are not helped with my own health issues and now my dad is having problems with his recently replaced knee - I think Aidy is the only healthy one!!! Oh, and the cats appear to be healthy too ;o)

If anyone is going to Kensington or any other big show we hope you all have a great time and sell everything!

2009-05-14T00:49:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Wendie for our first award ;o) and for showing me the way to revamp our blog...don't know why we were pink!

We would like to pass it on to the following,

Back to Wendie for being so thoughtful and nice as always!

To Eileen, who makes some of the best pieces of art in doll form I have seen and she is lovely to go with all that talent ;o)

Lesley of ooakdiddydolls who is a very dear friend and has always been there through the good and bad times. She also makes fantastic characters!

Jill Miles, who makes some of the best food around and is one of the nicest people I have met through fairs. She also gets this award for allowing me to look at cakes and not gain any weight!

And to all those who have taken the time to follow our blog ... is that cheating?

New characters

2009-05-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun making these two! The witch is carrying a tray filled with spooky biscuits made by Helena of Solway Miniatures, her website http://solwayminiatures.webs.com/ is well worth a look!

We are known for our man in the bath having his back washed and we wanted to do another one but very different to the original so here he is, rubber duck and all ;o)

Hope you like them both!

It is nice to put a bit of fun into your sculpts and be daft. A lot of our work is commission based so we are working to a set list of requirements which can be a lot of fun too as sometimes customers come up with ideas you would never have even thought of, whereas making dolls for shows can be a chance to make all those dolls you think about just before you fall asleep and those that you add to the growing wish list and lets face it, it really is a chance to be silly;o)

I would like to say a quick thank you to all the girls on D-A-M-E who have been very supportive these past few weeks in what is a very difficult time ;o). Life is good at throwing up new challenges and upsetting situations but I know me and my family have all the support we need to get through the testing times ahead - so thanks girls you are a great bunch!

Edinburgh

2009-04-20T02:54:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we were in Edinburgh at a Brentwood fairs show. We had one of our best fairs ever and took more than we did at miniatura which is just amazing!! Now we have a very full order book and we were just getting to the end of the last lot of orders LOL. Think it must have been the shock of the warm weather - brought everyone out for the day! Hopefully it is a good sign for all us makers that things are picking up and the doom and gloom of the credit crunch will soon be in the past.

The picture is of the Obamas - unfortunately Michelle is now alone as we sold Barack but we will make her another husband so she is not lonely! We did have complaints that we split them up LOL

This weekend we are at Pudsey so now we have to have a busy few days making as much as we can, in our now, very cluttered and messy workroom - I knew tidying it was pointless!

Back to being creative

2009-04-07T07:36:00.001-07:00

As you can see the workroom is now in a state to be used for making dolls again! So today is a making day!! We have a show on the 19th of April and no stock as we sold out of almost all our dolls at miniatura and what we had left sold the week later ;o) At least we can make some new characters!

It is difficult finding the time to create as we have so much going on, also being involved with the wonderful group D-A-M-E takes up a lot of time but it is worth it to see how happy all the members are.

We also have been asked to take part in the Kensington Festival showcase, and CDHM (another wonderful group) have asked us to be featured in a magazine article so it is all happening at once...as usual! We also would like to start contributing to AIM's online magazine as we have had to prioritise other things above it and feel it is only fair we now do our bit.

It is a good job we spent the time to tidy the workroom as it may be some time before we can do it again! Hopefully we will have some new characters to show to you soon...if we find the time to make them all ;o)

Spring Cleaning?

2009-04-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

We woke up today, sun pouring through the windows and had that sense of everything being good with the world. So what did we decided to do with this great day...spring clean the workroom!

Now I am all for being tidy in theory but it is just not practical is it? I mean I need that box of offcuts of fabric on my desk and no I can't do without the box of hair... the glue needs to stay, so does the selection of silk ribbon...Why did we start this again?

On the plus side I have found things I forgot we had but now I need to keep them out for fear of losing them again! I admit it I am a messy worker but I know where to find things and frankly I am suspicious of anyone who can work in a tidy space...what are they doing? Where is the signs of activity??

Anyway back to it...this is just the tea break ;o)