And Another One......

The sun is shining for summer.....workshops have been going well...the garden looks great...and I've managed to create another Fred!

We have a really super venue for our workshops at Bicester Avenue Garden Centre - the staff are lovely and their cake is fantastic - and apart from  a furniture 'glitch' which got dealt with - the last two Saturdays have been really super workshop days.  Feet ache a bit - but they'll recover...

Having reported on the first, now's the time to say a huge thank-you to the ladies who came along last week to the second workshop and created their own 'Little Vintage Toyshop'......not everyone was an experienced miniaturist or had been to a workshop before, but everyone was really talented and hard-working and took away their almost completed shop ready to fill with a whole host of vintage toys at their leisure. It was a really lovely day and we all enjoyed ourselves. 

Part of our little sales area

Somewhere in between the frantic workshop activity I managed to get Fred finished and off to his new home....you'll have seen his cousins in the past, but every little retired fisherman is different. He did also have furniture for his new home, but I completely forgot to take a picture of that....must try harder!

This week, believe it or not I've been making up kits again!!  This time Celia (my partner in Nostalgia In Miniature Workshops) and I have gone all garden creative and are heading to Cheltenham next week to join the club there for a half day workshop making gently faded  little back gardens. Should be fun  - just hope we don't get lost finding them as I'm the navigator. No pressure then!!

My garden is looking beautiful - you can't even see the weeds now unless you really look hard! Strawberries for Wimbledon and scented roses everywhere.....suits me. 

Veichenblau Rose

A black elder - the flowers look like pink lace

Poppies

Thanks for looking
Robin

Wasn't It A Lovely Workshop Day !

I've been talking ....on and on.... about  kits, and sore hands and the pleasure of our new workshop for weeks.....on Saturday the day finally arrived! We unveiled The Little Vintage Toyshop to our first group of creative ladies and they loved it!!

Celia Thomas and I - Nostalgia in Miniatures Workshop partners, great mates and unique kit creators had been beavering away for weeks as those of you who follow our respective KT Miniatures and Coombe Crafts blogs know only too well - and if you follow our Nostalgia in Miniature blog as well - you'll have been truly 'informed'!

Anyway on a rainy Saturday in Oxfordshire we rearranged tables and chairs frantically as the delightful Bicester Avenue Garden Centre opened for business, to turn a posh conference room into a working craft workshop area for the day.  As the first ladies arrived to drop off coats and bags, have a coffee and a little retail therapy before starting, we just about got there!!

A huge thank you to all the lovely, hardworking, cheery and talented ladies who participated - you were brilliant and we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did. We do hope that when you've completely finished and all your little toys are on the shelves, you'll send us a picture or two. Thank you also for your generosity for our Breast Cancer Campaign raffle - well done to the winners.

The first task was to turn a primed carcass into a shop......and they all looked great. A couple of snapshots right at the beginning of the day.

The shop in all it's glory - the frontage was inspired by a real antique miniature shop that we completely fell in love with at the Museum of Childhood at Bethnel Green last year and many of the toys are inspired by those on display there.

We  also reproduced old boxed toys and many others as well as original packaging after some serious (loved it) research and of course - we own a few ourselves....

A question that is often asked is whether we use exisiting patterns or designs - no we don't. These are created following serious research, muddled workbenches, years of experience and quite a lot of hot chocolate with marshmallows at our 'management/design meetings'. It works for us!!

Thanks for looking
Robin

The Garden's Always There

When I'm stuck for inspiration, want a break from crafting or need a five minute breather I wander off up the garden - even if it's raining. Dare I say .....my love for a garden does (just) pip creating miniatures. So at the moment it's a fight between the two!! Miniatures are winning this week.


Only a week away is the first of our Nostalgia in Miniature Workshops at Bicester Avenue Garden Centre - now there's temptation to start with - and apart from the inevitable last minute panic which involves counting kits, materials and tools and printing off instructions, we're probably ready (fingers crossed) and definitely looking forward to The Little Vintage Toyshop.

In a moment of madness I counted bead wheels - it's remarkable how many vintage toys were pull or push alongs when you include toys prams, scooters and the like - hundreds!!!!
Taken in a hurry, so not a great picture - I should have been packing them up ready to go, but here's a taster.

In other news, my footballing grandson has scored 8 goals today in the boys tournament!! Well done - a chip off the old block!

This 1/24th scale vintage footballer, more Stanley Matthews that Beckham, would love a new home - please email me if you'd like details.  The number on his back is 9.

And terrific news that Felicity and Ron who do such a great job of running the famous Thame Dolls House and Miniature Fair in February each year are taking on the mantle of Freda and George so that the biennial Haddenham Dolls House Exhibition will continue. Note for calendars - November 14th - if you live in the area.
There are always several super traders there as well, including Coombe Crafts and KT Miniatures amongst others. It's  lovely day.

Back to the garden - a wise lady always said that every walk in the garden should include pulling up weeds - even if it was only one. I try to do that and think of her.

 
By the way - a message to all the bloggers who post such fabulous pictures of their gardens - I may not always comment, but I do so enjoy them!!!

Thanks for looking
Robin