I finally manage that jigsaw puzzle photo shoot after previous distractions...

Dear All
As you may well have gathered now....I rarely stop when it comes to St. Hils!  So you all may remember how I WAS in the throws of setting up a photo shoot with this lovely 1/12 scale wooden jigsaw puuzzle made by Jacqueline Crosby (and no.....she does not appear to have a website sadly for me to direct you to which is a shame as her work is amazing) which I bought at one of the previous Miniatura Shows at the NEC in Birmingham when I was distracted by Miss Enid!  The blog, as you remember, then took a completely different turn as so very often happens with St. Hils...

You can see above the best photo taken of my little scene...............

I am not sure WHY Magnifi-Cat decided to sit IN the lid to the puzzle.......perhaps he doesn't want them to put the puzzle away once they have finished doing it.......I really have NO idea!  He is being a bit naughty too as he has not alerted Priscilla Jane to the fact that one piece has fallen on the floor.

I have not quite worked out what I will use this photo for because a puzzle is not a "game" is it so I was unable to include it on my Games Afternoon but when I had seen it at the show I still wanted it as it looked so cute.  Andrew chose the picture as it had rabbits on it.  Andrew thought that children would naturally love a puzzle with rabbits on so that was the one I chose.  I have loved including my Mallard family....ie son, daughter in law and father in Ernest, Esme and Eric.  Esme and Ernest are very thoughtful holding the photo up for Priscilla Jane as she does the puzzle so that she won't forget what the picture looks like.  Eric is well..........doing what Eric does best.........ie standing by observing quietly all that goes in St. Hils during his stay.  I am sure that GP, Sepp, Snowy and Syd are giving Priscilla Jane helpful hints too.  I hope that Magnific-Cat lets on that he is guarding that jigsaw piece soon.............

I have to confess to having thoroughly enjoyed my trip into fantasy land again in the form of St. Hils......it surely beats a day in the office.  As I tell my work colleagues.......................being completely batty and insane at home is the ultimate secret which helps to maintain my ultimate sanity..................long may it continue......................

I am hopeful of another new page soon featuring Aunt Sal's Teas..........I have been commissioning things from my sister, Catherine of Dollshouse Heaven  (DO visit her as she has some new things for sale.............she is very busy restocking her site so it is well worth a visit) so please pop back to find out more....................................
Till the next time
PS Have included a sprited out part of the above photo below for you to see the beautiful puzzle picture better..........apologies on behalf of Syd who would insist on standing in FRONT of it so you can't quite see it all..................

Tom took those Valentine's Day card photos - how clever he is!

Hiya Everyone!

I have had quite a time this late afternoon trying to take ONE decent enough photo of Tom holding his camera and Prisiclla Jane holding the Valentine's Day card (available on ourDownloads page now!)  which has herself and Grace on holding their own design Valentine's Day cards.  What a nightmare it was despite my new camera (Canon Ixus 980) being a more up to date and "cleverer" model than our last one (Canon Ixus 750). 

WHY the focus has to go to the BACK of the scene even when the face recognition software highlights one of the dolls' faces as it did Tom's I have no idea.  Tom's face is identfied by the camera software but as soon as the button is pressed to actually take the picture the focus suddenly points to the back...arghhhhhhhhhh.

I am not sure you would all appreciate me including all the failed shots here........but you can understand my frustration when you get this below for your troubles......

Isn't this photo a wonderful clear photo of the back display units?.........well yes it is.........but that was NOT what I intended!  I took it with flash so you would seriously believe the camera SHOULD have "seen" that the obvious subject/s were in the foreground!
At least we can be thankful that our cameras are now digital and we no longer waste time AND money when it comes to the price we used to pay to have all those films developed. 

As if the camera and its annoying foibles were not bad enough I just had to contend with the ever present joy of my clumsy big fingers knocking things over too.  Let me explain.  You can see that there is a cat bowl in the background in the photo above.  Well whilst I had already posed both Tom with his camera and Priscilla Jane showing off the photo with herself and Gracie in with their own design Valentine's Day cards, I suddenly had a brainwave.  I could see Magnifi-Cat our church cat hiding behind the stairs whilst sitting in his basket so my immediate idea was pretty simple ie: move cat whilst sitting IN basket to the right so that he could then feature in the photo.  Ah........it may SOUND a simple manouvre..........................WRONG!
In the process you will be shocked and surprised to know that I not only managed to knock poor Tom over but also the guestbook and delicate and tiny quil pen and holder (made by Danny Shotton) went flying off our beautiful William and Mary period table (made for me, by the way, by the late Harold Cudsworth) at the back too!  So I had to move everything out of the way in order to see the tiny quill pen and ink pot which had fallen on to the floor.  You will be pleased to know though that I DID find it.  The next job was to scoop up the tiny skiny quil pen into my clumsy hand and deposit it at its jaunty angle in the pot!  Job done............eventually!

This above is a close up of both the guest book (Dateman Books) and quill pen and ink pot on the William and Mary table..
For you to have an idea HOW small this pen and ink pot are I have just asked Andrew to hold it in his hand whilst I photographed it......................

Now you can see how tiny it is you can imagine my horror at any idea of it falling into the pile of our carpet...............but so far nothing as catastrophic has happened fortunately and for that reason I like to keep it right next to the back wall of the church.......just in case........

I realise I detract from the theme of my blog........please forgive me but I do have a terrible habit of wandering...........

Where was I?  Oh yes.  I was meaning to tell you that Tom is, as you may know, the church photographer, and so he enjoys the use of his grandfather's SLR camera. (made for us by Dave Tayler)  He wanted me to let you know that HE took those two photos that appear on the Valentine's Day cards that you can all now download and send to anyone you feel would enjoy recieving one.

He is SUCH a show off as you can see above!  He is showing his camera off to Prisiclla Jane and explaining HOW he managed to take such a great photo of her and Grace.  I have to apologise for Magnifi-Cat......I haven't quite got him in the picture have I?  However he is quite happy in the background sitting quietly in his basket.........................as you can see.

I have been called for my fish and chip tea............................but before I go I just want to let you know that, as readers and followers of my blog, I am letting you all know you can download your very own 1/12 scale miniature St. Hilary's cards and 2010 calendar for the little people in YOUR dollshouse to enjoy..............HERE! (right click and "save target as" to save down to your computer or simply click and open it directly in your browser)
I WILL be putting this pdf file with the cards and calendar on to the main site soon........but just thought I would let you as my readers preview them for me.................any problems or ideas to improve them let me know in the comments box...
Till the next time
PS If you have visited our website you will have gathered that I have taken MORE photos of Priscilla Jane and Tom since writing this blog earlier and was also strangely more successful in including Magnifi-Cat as well.......alongside our dear Eric and GP too........because one of the photos is now on our Home page

Gracie insists on doing her bit for Haiti.............

Hiya Everyone
I am afraid I just HAD to write today because Grace is so keen to let you all know what she is doing herself to help raise funds for the Haiti appeal...................and guess what it is....................making and selling Gracie cakes of course!

I caught her a while ago (as you can see below - a result of me putting her back in the church after taking her out of the tearooms......a complete but beautiful accident which helped spawn this storyline idea!)  sitting quietly on a pew in church looking as if she was in a complete reverie.........clearly something was on her mind...................

I didn't have to wait long though.  You see most village churches have pubs next to them.........but NOT St. Hils.........oh no..................................St. Hils has a lovely teashop called "Aunt Sal's Teas". 

Gracie LOVES to make her "Gracie Cakes" of course but not just to give away to her new Sunday School friends but also to sell in aid of any favoured charities that she has a heart for.  Naturally she and her mother were completely devasted to hear about the earthquake in Haiti so her mother asked the person who owns "Aunt Sal's Teas" if they would mind selling "Gracie Cakes" in aid of the Haiti appeal.....................needless to say they gave her a really big YES!

Alice recently was offered a little Saturday job as a waitress in "Aunt Sal's Teas" so she made sure that she was in the shop when Grace arrived as you can see........................................  Whilst Gracie is putting her cakes out on the cake stand that Alice has found for her, Alice is staring at the very very old photo above the fireplace..............................it is actually the photo (in reaility a miniaturised photo of my great grandfather - ie my father's paternal grandfather who was a choir conductor in Wales) that Ambrose brought along during one Heritage Weekend.  His father allowed the proprietor of the teashop to have it in the tearooms which was really lovely of them................

Whoops....................another stray into fantasy land................however I have to confess that the idea that Gracie would want to sell her special secret recipe "Gracie Cakes" came to me suddenly yesterday afternoon and it just "felt right" to include this.  I had thought of putting this on the home page of St. Hils......................but instead I felt a blog more appropriate because we want to highlight the appeal.

For those who want to contribute Gracie has found you all a link...........ie http://www.dec.org.uk/ this takes you to a site which also includes other appeals too so you can choose to support which ever project or appeal touches your heart.........................

I expect you are all wondering WHY I decided to call my tearooms "Aunt Sal's Teas"?   I was named after a great aunt on my father's side and she was called......................"Sal" - hence "Aunt Sal's Teas". 

This teashop is actually the downstairs shop in an Anglesey Dollshouse we bought in a dollshouse shop in Stratford upon Avon some years ago now.

Andrew, my long suffering husband, decorated the house for me and we used some pink paint (we used those sample pots in Homebase!) and we mixed  with tetrion which gave a nice textured result........a bit like pebbledash which was the idea.  I had decided on pink for my house because some of the very typical Essex cottages are often rendered in pink outside and, as Andrew was an Essex boy and we initially lived in Essex when first married,  it seemed the obvious thing to do.  I have got a piccie of Andrew in the process of painting it too somewhere but it is is "pre-digital" so it would have to be scanned in for you all to see it.  
The name is actually taken from the person I was named after - a great aunt on my father's side.  Of course she was known as "Sal" so our tea rooms became....."Aunt Sal's Teas".

You can see the frontage of this, my original dollshouse, here and yes..........the name has been painted on by none other but myself!  It has NO proper windows so I guess, for the time being, it will have to be a fairweather tearooms and only open on a lovely warm Summer's day.................................  However you all may remember that I did mention this dollshouse on an earlier blog...................so to complete the picture so that you can see how the tearooms now look inside I am including a couple or so photos below....................

As you can see have an aga under the stairs but no old fashion copper kettle's to heat up on it as yet...............so that will be a "must" before our dear Miss Enid can bring any of the children along for a visit to show them some old fashioned table manners.................  You can also see some blu tack too which had dried to a hard mass which fell off in one hard lump when I removed it.......

I hadn't realised how faded hour wallpaper had become..............as you can see hear "Aunt Sal's Teas" is in need of quite a lot of refurbishment..........but money is tight at the moment............

Whoops - another fanstasy land trip........sorry about that one!  I could tell you more.........about my 1/12 scale silver cutlery and more because each of my Stokesay Ware cups and saucers sports a Mike Sparrow silver teaspoon too..........................but perhaps I will leave that till later.................

Till the next time.......

PS All these photos were taken using my Canon Ixus 980 - automatic setting with macro and automatic flash - hand held with image stabliser set - not bad ay?  Well I am pretty chuffed with them..................cos if you saw how hard it was to negotiate the clothes horse, ironing board etc in the bedroom where the dollshouse currently resides...........

And WHAT is Robert Alexander playing at here?

Hiya Everyone
It has been so cold in the UK the last couple or so weeks......the ground has been quite hard and icy. It is thankfully a bit better now and all the snow has virtually gone...........................perfect weather to play...............well.......FOOTBALL!

I was hunting in my "tub of bits" (in reality an old margarine tub minus the lid lost ages ago!)  alias the less precious St. Hils props when I came across a prop that has not been used for ages........in fact I can't remember WHEN it was employed.  Guess what it was............a football of course and it belongs to none other than......Robert Alexander!  He used to bring it to church quite a bit during the Winter months despite warnings from the vicar not to do so.  He never received the message that football is to played OUTSIDE!   However after his family acquired his pet dog, Georgie, he had all but forgotten about his football............until, of course, I reminded him!

So here he is under the bell tower complete with not just Georgie but also...........well Prince too.  I have a nasty feeling that Prince is going to pounce ANY moment here and nab that ball off poor Georgie before she manages to give it back to Robert Alexander.  Robert Alexander IS naughty though because we are sure the vicar will be none too impressed if he catches sight of this football after believing Robert Alexander had learnt his lesson...
We hope that someone comes along soon or there may be some irreparable damage in poor St. Hils!

Rita is still sitting upstairs as you can see..........but in view of what is going on here you can't blame her can you?

Oh dear - a stray into fantasy land again......sorry about that.  I was almost forgetting to tell you what I was hunting for in my "tub of bits".  I was wondering what Miss Enid would carry her bone china tea service to church in?  You see - she MUST have something serviceable mustn't she but what?  I had thought of a cardboard box  and yes - I do have one in miniature.  However she is too quaint and dainty to use such a bulky unsightly box to carry such a beautiful exquisite tea service.  Back to the drawing board on that one......................but I still have time to create my Valentine's Day which I plan to include.............a red rose....................bouquet of roses..................Valentine's Day cards...........................Valentine's Day heart shaped cakes.........................a pair of gloves and purse....................................shall I go on?  In fact I am planning to pull out my whole Valentine's Day arsenal in terms of props!

Anyway - just been called by my poor long suffering husband who has to put up with my obsession with St. Hils and all things miniature......my supper is now ready!
Till the next time..........

Miss Enid is missing something.....................and WHO has it?

Hiya again everyone!
As you all have probably gathered now I am ALWAYS busy doing something with St. Hils.  I HAD intended to do something with this wonderful miniature dollshouse size wooden puzzle I bought from Jacqueline Crosby's stall at the Miniatura Show held at the Birmingham NEC last March.  There I was posing my baby Clarissa and Priscilla Jane under the bell tower with said puzzle turned out and on the little wooden tray I bought a while back now.

Suddenly though I happened to look at Miss Enid as she was still posed for one of the last photos on our Patronal Festival and could immediately see her complete with bone china tea set..........after all she has such a "quaint look" as my husband, Andrew says of her, that one can see her drinking her tea out of a bone china cup complete with matching saucer, bone china teapot, milk jug and sugar bowl.
So the rest was easy......and why..........because years ago when I bought my first and only other dollshouse with a shop down below, I HAD to have the shop all set out as an old fashioned tea shop.  That inevitably left me with the matter of the tea service so where did I go?..............to Stokesay Ware of course and I homed in on the Sovereign Blue range straight away! 

You can see Miss Enid here as I have her on our Home page today...........complete with lid of said Blue Sovereign teapot..............but..................no pot!  However I am going to let you out of your misery here and tell you WHO has it........................

Ambrose of course!  You see..............Miss Enid never minds having her tea in one of the church's cups but she does also particularly enjoy a good cup of tea in a REAL bone china cup which has been poured from a REAL bone china teapot!  She says it never tastes quite the same in an ordinary mug or cup!  Ambrose offers to fill the teapot directly out of the urn which fortunately has just boiled!

I do have some real siliver cutlery from Mike Sparrow  who is an excellent miniature silversmith too so I will have to fetch a couple of teaspoons to go with the two cups and saucers set on the tray here.  I am not going to let on WHO the other cup is for....................but all will be revealed on my next new page.....................

I would love to show you a photo of my old dollshouse BEFORE it was ransacked to provide props and resources for St. Hils............because the tea shop downstairs looked really lovely with home made table cloths made by myself   (crochet cream edgings using ordinary sewing cotton around some green velvety material I found somewhere!) with a centre piece crochet doily and candlestick......oh yes......AND place mats with Mallard ducks on!   I am you sure can see that a theme was already emerging here which has taken even more shape as I have developed St. Hils!

Perhaps one day I will set it all up properly and have our "children" visit with Miss Enid as she wants to teach them some good old fashioned table manners?  However.........before that can happen we need some lights as my old dollshouse has none!  It is yet another job on my "to do" list...............sometime in the future as per usual!

Now if you will excuse me I am going to leave you for now because I have some important work to do putting my church back in order after taking those two photos...................................

As you can see...........it looks a terrible untidy mess.  I DO think though that our Miss Enid looks VERY dignified given what is going on around her.......wonder if she may give me a hand?

Till the next time!

St. Hils ventures into a Brave New World............

Hiya Everyone!
Just to confirm..........I HAVE bitten the bullet and added our new drop down menu to our site.  Comments were generally favourable so it feels the right way forward.  It is so easy to stick with the old and feel comfortable but it is also good to be able take on new ideas and this really does, in my opinion, work better than our old site. 
Thanks again to those of you who visited the trial pages..........

I have to tell you all though that the transition has been far from easy.  I confess that I uploaded the pages and as soon as I tested them "live" found bugs.......so I edited the bugs found and re-uploaded them........to find another bug or page missed off!  There are so many pages now it is easy to miss some out!  I have set three templates too so every time I found a fault in the one menu structure I had to go and correct it in the other two! 

If anyone DOES find any bugs do let me know.........................oh yes.......for ease of reference here is the home page ........http://www.miniaturechurch.co.uk/
Till the next time

Work in progress..............my new drop down menu trial for you all to test

Hiya Everyone
I have been quite busy again today.  As I have been saying I have been working on migrating St. Hils website into Expression Web which is the latest web design package from Microsoft.  I have had a great day today because it was a day off work to await the electricians come to replace our old duff storage units.  So what did I do to while away the time............work on my new drop down menu for St. Hils.
I have ONLY uploaded two pages - ie the home page and a new site map which I created because my stats suggest at least 60 of my last 500 page loads were made using the browser, Internet Explorer v6.  Unfortunately IE6 does not support this kind of drop down menu created using cascading style sheets so the site map link has been provided for those who still use that browser.

This is the home page with the new drop down menu: St. Hilary's trial home page - the new site map is the last in the drop down "Welcome" menu on the left.  The "Welcome" button takes you to the home page wherever you are and I have also added a home like to the banner image too so if you click that it takes you "home" too!
You can see a screen shot of the home page with the "welcome" drop down menu in operation here.

The "css sheet" or to give it's full name "cascading style sheet" was actually  not written by me at all by Stu Nicholls so it is a bit of a "cheat" really.  However I CAN assure you I completed a full drop down menu tutorial so know the full mechanics of their creation which is really quite simple when you work it all out.

Anyway folks - I am happy for any feedback on this one so if you have any other ideas let me know - and if I have apparently missed a page off too I would also love to know!
Til the next time
PS Electricians DID come early this morning and yes they DID fit said pair of storage heaters........but minus bricks.........so we are still awaiting their arrival which is still supposed to be today!  Guess the extremely cold weather has meant a real run on storage heaters and said bricks that go inside...............lol