My Dolls Houses

I signed up to Yahoo Regency yesterday and found tre first posts I had to read were about dolls houses I felt right at home! So I decided I would post a few pictures of my own on here as it is meant to be about me and mine
I've been collecting and making houses since the seventies, when there was only one shop in London and evrything had to be made from whatever I could scrounge.I even spent hours while in America searching out doll house shops with my lovely old aunt (long since gone)
Since then I have passed a couple of houses on to my grand-daughter and my brother's grand-daughter as the space has become limited since we moved to the cottage but I still have three good sized ones and quite a lot of room boxes - and there is another room box sitting on the bottom of the stairs waiting for 'someone' to cut the shapes out for the walls!

The First Emperor meets Mills and Boon

Today I trundled up to London to add my contribution to the 100th anniversary of Mills and Boon by lending the British Library items for the centenary exhibition of M&B at Manchester Library in June. Typical of never throwing anything away! I had gift items and even old rejection letters! It was also a chance to see the fabulous Terracotta Army assembled by the 'First Emperor' of China 2000 years ago and they were awesome. I was really taken by the painted replica of how they would have looked at the time glistening with brilliant colour in their thousands round his tomb. What an amazing sight they must have been!
The downside of the afternoon was then walking down Oxford Street to get to my favourite haberdashery store just off Bond Street. OK from Tottenham Court Road tube to Oxford Circus has never been exactly smart but it is more like a third world street than modern London, filthy pavements and tacky stores and not one person looked even faintly smartand most simply didn't look clean. I was very pleased to reach MacCulloch's premises. That place has not changed in the forty years I've been going there! I swear it hasn't. And it is still full of fashion students bumming samples for their projects (London School of Fashion is just across the road) Happily I found just what I was looking for - and a few bits I really wasn't but simply had to have - well - I have sold off a lot of stash so of course it needs replacing!

Why Anna Melinda?

Some people have asked why Anna Melinda? Well it's the name I use on my dress labels when I make clothes for other people as well as myself. I prefer a label as the dry cleaners take the item seriously! I put a size tag in as well (and no - I don't cheat!!) I had the labels made some time ago I think they will last for years, great excuse to make new perhaps?

This week I have been selling un-used fabrics on ebay and making up some my daughter had going spare. I now have yet another dressing gown and another nightdress, neither of which I need but whatever... The fabric was sitting doing nothing! I am getting quite a tidy cupboard - for the moment.

Memories of things past

I found some very old banners in the cupboard today - made for the TV production of Antony and Cleopatra which Trevor Nunn did for ATV in the seventies. I made them as my ex was the designer and he didn't know anyone else daft enough to tackle them. Now I am wondering what to do with them!

Mixed media

Had a great day yesterday and spent a day off visiting the Thames Valley Sewing group at a get-together in Reading. We all took lunch contributions and bits of stash(in the hope of slimming it down) and gossiped all afternoon. What a treat to talk sewing without anyone's eyes glazing over! Needless to say I brought back more than I went with! Some great silk dupion from Gabrielle and Jap silk from Pat, navy velour and loads of magazines too.


Today I thought I would take some pictures of my various hobbies and here are the results. I haven't included knitting or the cross-stitch box I have just finished, or the crewel work chair covers I have just started - those are for another post!
I started the dragon in the seventies (from Golden Hands) and never finished it. My daughter (then a baby) finally finished a year or so ago, so it was a UFO for thirty years IS this a record?!!!

My books I have postedto remind me to get going on High Kicks and Harvest Festival, because I have booked myself onto the course dear Annie Burgh is running at the Watermill at Posara in Tuscany. I have until late August to get a respectable amount written and edited into shape - more later...

Dinner with the Stars

Well not quite but last night we went to the House of Commons for dinner with an MP.The grandeur of the building quite takes your breath away, soaring gilded ceilings and marble floors (must be hell on the legs after a day) and lots of staircases with green (for Commons) and red (for Lords) carpets. We ate in the Churchill Room overlooking the river and walked the famous terrace afterwards before going in the gallery to watch a division take place with all its rituals. Being an important bill even at 10pm the House was packed, Ken Clark, William Hague, Michael Howard,Peter Hain, David Cameron and Kate Hooey. And Ian Paisley was tottering about being very aimiable to everyone. Certainly a special evening

Music Hall Medley

Last night (and Friday night) I helped out at the village music hall. I did some costumes for them and seem to have been sucked into the group! So Saturday night found me behind the bar and I even pulled my first ever pint both of lager and beer! Lager was harder because it is so fizzy but I did it, and no-one complained. Wallking home through the village at midnight after a few drinks with the cast and crew in the hall I suddenly thought how lucky I am to live in such a safe place. Even though we have only three street-lamps in the whole village it is totally safe to walk around even at that hour - and we have two pubs in the village street. Mind you most of the punters are still in them at that time!
It is good to have entertainment in the village. The group performs for local clubs and charities, last night was the British Legion and Friday it was the Tennis Club. They sell the tickets, the guys perform and everyone has a great time, on their own doorstep and very few need to drive home. Actualy the more they consume the better the performance - according to the Master of Ceremonies!
Braughing is a very social village, there are umpteen societies and clubs most meeting in the village hall or the quaintly named 'Old Boys School' (which was used as a location for Foyles War a few years ago. A lot of local people care for the village. One old gentleman trots up the street regularly collecting litter in his plastic bag and the two pubs keep their frontages immaculate. It has got harder for them since the smoking ban as the smokers cluster outside the front door for a fag now instead of smoking inside. It gets a lot noisier than it was before as they have also had a fair bit to drink but so far we haven't had any real trouble