Milan

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...

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

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

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

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!