wishing you all a very Happy New Year xx

On the 7th day of Christmas my special friend gave to me.............

Well if you have been following you will know that I received a scrumptious crusty loaf from my friend Gill...........and what did I wish for...........a jar of Auntie Dot`s home made lemon curd...........well just look what I got today, the dolls house faeries must have been listening and granted my wish!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as usual there was double wrapping but in my excitement I opened the entire thing before taking my photos so hence the second photo shows my second layer already opened...

with lovely lemon paper too!!

a sweet little metal carry case for a jar of strawberry jam and a jar of lemon curd......

each with its own teeny traditional cap....

yummy yummy for my tummy......my favourite preserve

so sweet.........and every pun intended!!!!!

Now to get that loaf and pretend I am 4 years old and its MONDAY!!.........mmmmmmmmm!!!!!

Happy New Year 2014 everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!

hugs Virginia xxx  

On the 6th day of Christmas my lovely friend gave to me........

well just look for yourself.......

 as ever wrapped twice......do you think Gill may suspect that I would be tempted to peek!!!!!!!!!.............me peek.....NEVER!


Gill I absolutley love this sweet plate rack.....there are tiny hooks for the tea cups along the bottom rail, and it will be perfect for my, as yet not started, "Lavender Cottage"........a sweet little home that will have everything in either white, lilac or lavender, the perfect property for a flower kit of a Lilac bush that I purchased a while ago..........you have just witnessed the birth of a project !!!!!

 and I love the tiny floral detail it is beautiful.....

a closer look at the tiny cup hooks

This is completely hand made and I adore it, as I have said previously, items made by a person has a bit of them included which makes the item all the more special........thank you so very much Gill

Well we are now half way through the 12 days of Christmas which means there are 6 more wonderful surprises to go..........such a wonderful selection I cannot possible start to guess what will come next............if you want to see as much as I do then come back tomorrow...

Don`t forget to go and see Gill`s parcel openings on her blog, Teeny Tiny Things......I know whats coming up for her and I am so  excited for her!!!!

Happy Blogging, hugs Virginia xx

On the 5th day of Christmas my generous friend gave to me...........

before I reveal the photographs I have to tell you this fact about my childhood.......

I grew up in a small hamlet where almost every one who lived there, was related to every one else.....a hamlet of coal miners and their familes, Sunday was of course Church day, and Tuesday was Ironing day, but in between there was Monday and Monday was Wash day, and because the fires were well stoked to get hot water it meant the ovens were also very hot....hence the opportunity to BAKE!!!! there were scones and flat cake (similar to Eccles cake), there was cut and come again cake, there were tiny fairy cakes and rock buns, there was apple pies and cherry pies when they were in Season, there were meat pies (leftovers from the Sunday roast) and there were jam tarts!...........and then there was my favourite.....crusty, warm, melt in the mouth, BREAD!!! nothing like it with freshly patted butter that just melted into the warm, soft, doughy white centre of the loaf......and I could get a piece smothered in butter and home made jam from every Aunty`s house from mid morning, on a Monday, until early evening mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I can smell and taste it right now!!!!! When I started school at the age of 4, I always looked forward to the school holidays and especially MONDAYS!!

Enough said but you will realize just why I love this tiny miniature from Gill.....

as ever the anticipation.......

 Gill always wraps twice!!!!

 fresh baked crusty bread, yummy yummy for my tummy.....how I wish I was 6" high with a pat of butter and a jar of Auntie Dot`s homemade lemon curd...

I will have to watch little fingers in the kitchen with that sharp knife............

REALLY couldn`t you just go a slice of that bread??????????

Thank you Gill, I love it.

Don`t forget......go see Gill`s gift for today

Happy Bloggin hugs Virginia xx

On the 4th day of Christmas my good friend gave to me..............

I have never had presents to open this far into the celebrations before and I have to admit, I feel like a little girl again, so excited!!!!

 My first hat box, and how pretty it is, can you believe I actually do not own any hat boxes even though I have several ladies who love hats!!! in fact the Lady of the house in my Victorian Mansion is very partial to hats so this can be the start of her collection..........

But what is this....................????????

there is something inside...........????????

 can you see???????  Oh my!!!!

it is the dearest little pink Summer bonnett, so the Lady of the house will have to make way to her youngest daughter who will just squeal with delight when she sees this beautiful Summery bonnett just the right size, colour and style to be worn at the Village picnics on the Green, or even the famous village cricket match held every year in mid July!!!! 

Sorry I digress into my little world with excitement..

I hope you can see the detail, the hat is made from straw and detailed with roses of various shades of pink, with the softest pink ribbon.....

a much better view than the end of my finger, Gill can you tell this has just made my day....the hat box thrilled, but this tiny little bonnett is such an added bonus...thank you my good friend xxxx

Do not forget to visit Gill and take a peek at what she is going to open today....you can find her in the list of my blogs under Teeny Tiny Things or go to http://teenytinyminiaturethings.blogspot.co.uk

and leave her a message just to let her know how much you like what she has done for me, that`s if you want to??

Happy Blogging

hugs Virginia xx
ooops nearly forgot to say " a very warm welcome to my new followers" thank you for joining me xx

On the 3rd day of Christmas my sweet friend gave to me.................

the excitement of opening another gift parcel

and there are two......thanks Gill

 

A set of 4 lovely decal plates, in one of my favourite colours

And in the second of todays parcels this rather nice mat, that I think will go very nicely in one of my 1:24 scale houses as it will be just the right size to become a bedroom carpet rug.....

So with rug and plates this makes for a very lovely 3rd day swap.....thank you so very much Gill, I am thrilled yet again xx

come back tomorrow to see day number 4....and don`t forget to visit Gill at http://teenytinyminiaturethings.blogspot.co.uk

  

On the 2nd day of Christmas my true friend gave to me............

Here we are already on day 2 of our Miniature Christmas swap..........and what a lovely surprise this morning when I opened my 2nd parcel, Gill has certainly taken a great deal of thought over choosing what to do for me...my dolls houses vary, I have an 18 room Georgian mansion, an 8 roomed Victorian Town house, a Victorian Mews dwelling with 8 rooms, all in 1:12 scale, then I have a further 6 houses, some in 1:24 scale and some in 1:48 scale.......the smaller scales are more like fantasy houses than period dwellings, but none of my houses are "modern" and Gill must have found this out at sometime, hence her choice of miniature gifts for this swap.

I can hear you saying, Oh Virginia, get on with the photos!!!!! well here is today`s beautiful miniature

 the detail is lovely and I especially love the Pheasants on the chair seat, the male in his magnificent plumage along side his paler mate...

 the carving on the back of the chair is wonderful, in fact Gill if you are reading this I could do with another!!!!! (only joking)

  Don`t you just love the matching cushion, I DO!! ........Thank you Gill, another delightful and treasured miniature xxx

Hope you will join us tomorrow to see day 3.                                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~............~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Happy Blogging.....hugs Virginia

On the 1st day of Christmas my dear friend gave to me..............

First let me say a very Happy Christmas to each and everyone, hope your day is filled with joy and happiness.....

Now, before I reveal the 1st parcel a little bit of background info.

Gill and I met through the selling of our specialty miniature making, mine being miniature knitting and Gill`s.....her glorious prams....Gill commissioned two, teeny weeny cardigans from me, and if I remember correctly they were 1:24 scale, one pale pink and one baby blue, when they were ready, for the purpose of posting, we found we lived within a short distance of each other so, with teeny cardigans in hand I drove over to Gill`s to deliver them only to discover, to my delight, that Gill made Victorian perambulators, well I was hooked and commissioned her to make me one straight away, it is my pride and joy..........

Enough chit chat lets get down to opening of the 1st parcel......well almost because I need to show you something first........

          

These are the parcels that I received from Gill 

 and here are the parcels that I gave to Gill.....now for the 1st of my 12 days of surprises...

Can I just say here..........I LOVE SURPRISES!!!!!!

                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

inside the red wrapping paper I found this...Oh Gill the anticipation is too much....

OOOoooooo a tiny candle and holder......just like Wee Willy Winky, beautifully hand made......there is something about hand made that gives me a tingly feeling, Gill took time out of her busy life to set aside some just for me, and this is not just a wonderful miniature, it is part of Gill, Thank you so much dear friend....but I`m not finished because as you could see with the photos there were two tiny parcels to open so here is what was in the other..........

 I am amazed at the detail and the wonderful faux patina on these darling little photo frames, they will go very nicely in my Victorian mews house, a property that, although I have had it for over a year now, is still, very much, a work in progress.

  

 so here we are, the first of my 12 days of Christmas swap........who is a lucky girl........ME!!!!

thank you for wanting to read my blog, but if you want to see what Gill got today you will have to go to http://teenytinyminiaturethings.blogspot.co.uk and take a peek......Happy Blogging and remember.....come back tomorrow to see day 2 

12 days of Christmas.......

well here we have my 12 tiny Christmas crackers all ready to make their way to my wonderful friend Gill of http://teenytinyminiaturethings.blogspot.co.uk 

Tomorrow I will be winging my way over to Gill`s house to drop these off and pick mine up......on Wednesday, yes Christmas day, I will start by opening my 1st day of Christmas parcel.....Gill will be able to tell you when she is starting if you go to her blog above, and by 12th night, Epiphany,  I will have my final gift to open.........hope its not 12 lords a leaping, in our tiny flat there is little enough space as it is!!!!!!

....I have had a sneak preview of my tiny parcels but of course the contents are still wonderful surprises just waiting to be discovered. I am so excited because, even though Gill and I have known each other for a while, neither of us have done this before......so ladies and gents.......watch this space!!!!!

Sorry for not being here much lately.......we are having a new bungalow rebuilt to cater for my husbands wheelchair needs and it is taking much more of my time than expected...but I have some exciting news.
At the beginning of this year I asked my "mini" friend Gill of Teenytinyminiatures to be my swap buddy for a MINI CHRISTMAS SWAP for the 12 days of Christmas, and guess what she said YES!!!! so we will be posting on our blogs over the 12 days of Christmas while we open and discover the little surprises we have made for each other, I am so excited....I would love to hear from you about our tiny gifts and so that you can follow Gill as well, you can find her at http://teenytinyminithings.blogspot.co.uk
Keep watching and happy blogging xxxx
date of first blog to be decided, but I will let you know in good time xxx