Arnhem

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...

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

(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

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!

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

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???

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!