Welcome....

I've been in the garden today as it has actually stopped raining.   The first sun for ages.   I've just cut these peonies from the garden and I thought I would share them with my new followers.   

Thank you for visiting my blog.   It's nice to have you here and I hope you like what you see.

Progress has been a bit slow with the Tea Rooms but I've been revamping the Gift Gallery as I wasn't too happy with the way it looked.   This meant removing all the "stock", giving some of it a makeover, adding some new bits and putting everything back.  It's very tempting to put everything in the same place as it was before and I'm trying to avoid that for a different look so I'll be back some time soon with pictures to let you see what I've been up to.

It might not look a lot...............

Given that I was at a mega Miniature fair at the weekend and have already stated elsewhere that I made loads of purchase, this little offering doesn't look a lot but I can assure you, what's here will let me get on very well with The Tearooms in the coming days.

I need the fabric to dress a bed and make blinds (not sure which one I'll use yet), skirting boards to finish it all off and lovely little pictures for the Gift Gallery from a Belgian exhibitor.

It's unfortunate I forgot to ask the sellers if I could post links to their sites but if anyone would like to know who I purchased anything from, please ask.

I'm stuck.........!

Sometimes I just sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits...........

I feel I must apologise to all my followers here as there hasn't been much activity with The Tearooms of late.   The trouble is..........I'm stuck!   I should be decorating the living quarters in the roof space and I bought a lovely carpet at the York Fair in November.   I've also got a sofa and a chair for the room but I'm really struggling with where to take it all next.   Do I paint the walls or paper, if so, what colour?   Do I match the carpet or do I match the furniture?   

To match the carpet is a tricky one as I need to get to a fair to see paper and fabric in real life.   Too many times I've chosen something on-line, only to find that it's the wrong shade.

The more I look at the room and what I've got so far, the more confused I get.   I've tried walking away from it and concentrating on something else (hence the long gap between posts) but that hasn't worked and I'm no further forward.

Inspiration will present itself in time - it usually does and I'll have a bit of a eureka moment - but I felt I had to post something to explain the lack of progress!

Happy New Year!

A very Happy New Year to all my followers - thank you for making this fun! Irene x

Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas to all my followers and I wish you all you wish yourselves.    Irene X

Yum, yum!

Don't these little cakes look yummy?   They arrived today (hurrah, the post in Scotland is moving again) from France.

I chose these two little cakes from the lovely selection offered by Paris Miniatures.

It was very difficult to decide which little cakes I would have - they are all so mouthwatering.

Thank you Emma - I love them!

Another gift for the Gift Gallery.......

I'm taking my time searching for items to fill the Gift Gallery.   There are so many lovely individual items out there made by some very clever people, it's very hard to be selective.   One of these beautiful little items arrived today.   It came from Janny of art of mini.

As you can see, it's a tiny little sewing kit set in a tiny little sauce boat. There are pins, a little spool of thread, scissors and a thimble. It's just beautiful - I like it VERY much.

It's little items like this that are setting a standard for the Gift Gallery and I'm having so much fun searching for  all sorts of different minis of equal quality.

Thank you Janny - it's beautiful and I love it!

I'm also waiting on wallpaper for the living quarters of The Tearooms but I think it's been held up by all the snow we've been having here.   I have been collecting bits for those rooms and hope to have something to show you all shortly.