Welcome to Quayside my town by the seaside!

WELCOME TO QUAYSIDE MY TOWN BY THE SEASIDE



Thank you for visiting my blog and thanks even more if you decide to follow :-) I really do enjoying doing it and love to share my projects with you all! In the village at last count I had 18 houses, 14 little roombox size shops, 3 half houses, and 1 half church (half being just a front!) there's also 1 quarter of a house (just half of a front lol) 2 market stalls, 3 market carts and beach huts on the beach although theres always seems to be room for just one more!

I also have a my 1st house a traditional Victorian manor which is very special as it was bought with money left to me by my beloved Nan. There's also my witches house and a witches shop. I also have a lovely Honeychurch house which is my Christmas shop and house and my latest venture a little vintage cottage. But the bulk of my property empire is Quayside, my little Cornish seaside village full of lovely individual cottages and all its wonderful residents. This has become a real labour of love and has turned me from a Dolls house fan into a complete and utter addict! The links below will take you to each of my houses and I especially hope you enjoy your visit to Quayside :-)


Wednesday 27 February 2013

New houses 2 & 3 and lots of new pics!

Its been a major busy time in Dollyland for the past week! Theres been lots of changes and more changes and hmm no thats not right change it again!! I think I finally have it how I want it although its not quite perfect!! The tables at the front have worked well as they are a bit lower so it helps to make the room not feel quite so opressive!! Although if you ask Bethany i'm not sure she would agree!! I have managed to get all the houses on one side and all the shops and commercial premises on the other side so it feels like everything is in the right place!! With all the new arrivals last week it was a bit of a nitemare getting it right but I am nearly there!!

This is the best pic I can get of the whole room to give a perpective of just how many houses there now are! By moving the Bistro to the front it made it feel much more like a village.


Not quite such a neat view from this side lol I need to get my curtains done to hide all the gubbins underneath!


Unfortunately the lady Selling Spinney Brook decided to hang onto it, I dont blame her it was a lovely cottage! I had planned for that to be the new larger pub so have been trying to see where else I could fit it in. I have put one of the other new cottages, Primrose where I had intended Spinney Brook to go and it fits quite nicely. Sadly though as its 4 inches wider so have had to lose Bobs garden from the side of Lavender Cottage. I had intended on making it into the pub but the seating and bar won't fit so for now it is just empty til I get some inspiration!


The Old Rectory also arrived last week and is totally gorgeous!! Its just a little different to all the other houses yet still looks part of the village and looks wonderful next to the chuch. I just love it to bits and really grateful the same lady decided to part with this one as I really LOVE it!! It must be sad to sell them though and can't imagine how hard it must be when you love something to let it go. I just hope she knows they will be treasured in my village and the fact they have a history makes them just a little bit more special :-)



The inside is lovely its been so beautifully decorated! The darker papers are perfect for the style of the house. It was actually much bigger than I expected inside so my single vicar has now found himself a new wife and has his single bed upgraded to a double!


The vicars wife is getting all glammed up as the Mayor is coming over for tea to discuss parish business!


I love this photo of the upstairs the light caught it just perfectly! The feature ceiling looks wonderful! Its a little bare at the mo as I dont want to fill it with the wrong things and I also need to replenish the DH funds after a bit of a spendathon lately!
 

I had to have this sweet little sampler from the lovely June as it was perfect for a vicars house!


The scene stealer here though is the stunning patchwork quilt made by my wonderful friend Deb. It is just perfect and the sqaures are just so tiny, I don't know how she has the patience. It really is beautiful though and way surpassed what I had imagined it would look like!! I can't thank her enough it is truly beautiful! The bed is stolen from the fishermans house as he didn't need a double anymore. Its a nice one from DHE and really sets the quilt of to its best!
 

Next up is the new house that was the 1st to arrive last week. After repainting it in the white and purple I had to decide what to make it into. The pretty papers inside just seemed to be crying out to be a bridal shop so I thought why not if thats what it should be then thats what it will be!


I used to have my Wishes and Dishes shop and really missed the name its just always stuck with me! I thought if I moved the Bridal shop I could move the china shop too and Wishes and Dishes could live again!!!! It took 3 days of persistant nagging to get the signs done but they were worth it!

The little room to the left will be an office come staff room so that will get some more bits and pieces to fill it out. It needs a nice white desk and somewhere for the staff to hang their coats. Becky is on her break and making a quick cup of tea!


Next room is Dishes the downstairs sales floor. I cannot tell you how much NOT fun it was moving all that china!!!


I needed a display unit for all the china but I didn't want to glue shelves to the wall as it would ruin the paper. I had a shop unit on Ebay for sale and had an idea to use that and glue the shelves to it making a huge display area that wouldn't spoil any paper in the making! It worked really well and I managed to get most of the china onto it.

 
 
Upstairs is the bridal shop which looks much better all spread out you can really see everything much better! Theres a couple of empty shelves to be filled with treasures as I come across them.




Having the little room at the side made a perfect dressing room. The lovely silk chaise and matching stool can be seen much better now. I just need to find another one to go in the other room!



Last but not least I got a lovely frame from the carboot sale at the weekend for 50p! You can,t see it on the photo but it actually has hints of green that match the walls. Its perfect for my Dolls house crosstitch. It looks great with the goreous sampler from Caroline at Cinderella moments. The word dream is quite appropriate because thats how every idea in Dollyland starts out.....although if you ask Bethany its now a bit more of a nitemare!!




Thursday 21 February 2013

New house number one!

Well the first of my new houses arrived safely today. It had a bit of damage to the chimney which was a shame. They must of plonked something heavy on top of it and it had pushed the chimney pot through the side of the chinmey itself. Not to worry though a bit of polyfilla and its all sorted and now you would never know. Its always such a relief to open the box and find them in one piece so  bit of damage is always easy to sort!

I knew it was yellow but it was a much brighter yellow than  I expected. Nothing wrong with yellow but it didn't really look right with all the other houses. The interior wood is also all white so I thought it would suit being white on the outside too. After deciding to do that I also thought if I was going to repaint it I could change the colours of the door and windows to something a little different as it looked a bit similar to Lavender Cottage. Funnily enough the name on it was Lavender Cottage so sadly I will have to rename it as I can't have 2 with the same name Bob would get most confused!





I had a pot of a nice dark purple/grey colour and thought that might look nice against the white. Luckily the acetate on the windows came out really easily so that made the job a lot less hassle!


I'm really pleased with how its turned out. It looks like a different building and now it really fits into the village well. It def has a shop feel about it so it will be a homewares store. I am thinking the Sea Breeze Cottage would be nice name so it might end up as that unless I think of something else!!


Its so beautifully decorated with really pretty papers so I will be keeping those! This will be the 2 shop floors.....
 

....and downstairs will be an office with a staffroom/ kitchen upstairs.


I also just had to show you a gorgeous little Dolls house crosstitch I bought from a good friend on Facebook. Its so lovely I just couldnt resist and it will look lovely up on the wall in Dollyland!

Tuesday 19 February 2013

I have been beyond bad!!!!

Dollyland is in a state of chaos at the moment and so far this morning I have managed to avoid it but I need to face it after a quick catch up on here! Why is it in such a mess you ask??? Well I have been bad....actually way beyond bad not even sure theres a word for it!!! although I'm quite sure my OH could give you a few

It all started quite innocently last week when I saw a lovely house for sale on Julies Ebay page. I thought it would make the perfect vicars house and look fab next to my church front so I decided I had to have it! I moved all the houses around and just managed to squeeze it in.

The Old Rectory!



But oh no not happy with just that was I!! Julie pointed out that someone was selling one of her older ones on Ebay so I had to go and look didn't I!! I love her older ones as they have pretty papers etc so i emailed the seller who said she would add a buy it now price for me. I must have refreshed that page 100 times that night to make sure I didn't miss it lol! So now a dilemma it won't fit! Something has to go so sadly I decided to sell the big french style shop as it really is much bigger than all my others and stands a good 6/7 inches taller. My friend Diane is having it so I know its going to a good home.

Not sure of its name as I can't quite see it on the photo!



Ok still with me?? Thats two in and one out....but does it stop there oh no thats too easy!!

Julies good friend occasionally sells some of Julies older houses and I foolishly asked if she was selling anymore! She was a little black and white one that would make the most perfect pub so my ability to not be able to resist struck again! No idea where that was going so I would need to have a think about the layout!



The next day Julie emails to say was there any chance I could just fit one more in as she needed a new home for one she had. Well if I moved everything around I could maybe just about fit one more in!! In case you are wondering I am so totally not made of money lol but I had sold my Fairbanks and had a huge clear out on ebay so I was a little less broke than normal...'was' being the operative word there! I am more than glad it will be part of the village as Bethany said the other day she really liked it and just maybe that might be enough to get her interested!!


So thats why Dollyland is in a mess! There are 4 new houses due to arrive in the village. Last night I had to take out every house and put them in the kitchen. That didn't impress Bethany as she was doing dinner and had about 5 inches of space to do it in! They are all back in now but I need to face the light (groan) I hate reconnecting all the lights I only did it last week and it took me 2 hours then! I have plans for most of them already The thing is I absolutely didn't think I could get anymore in and yet theres 4 coming!! I really have stretched the room to its limit though and there really is NO MORE ROOM!!!!! !

I did actually have a tiny moment of I have gone too far last night. I loved the layout as it was and felt maybe  I had spolied it by getting just a few too many. But I have it sorted now and its ok if a little busy lol but then thats village life!!

Monday 11 February 2013

The Cupcakery Bakery

I have very almost finished my little bakery I am just waiting on one more little thing but postie has just been and its still not here so I couldn't wait any longer to take some pics!



Here is the inside in all its gorgeous pinkness!


My counters arrived from Maggie at the Dolls house shop in Inverness. She really was a lifesaver as I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't had any left......there was no plan B lol! I already had the tall counter and really wanted the 2 smaller matching ones so thank goodness she still had them, although  I was very lucky she only had one of each left!!!


I decided to stick with the white wire stand rather than spend money on a new one. I have made this a little retail area with jars of homemade frosting, cupcake books and I made the little apron, all for sale.


Here it is slightly turned so you can see it better.


The tall counter now matches the 2 smaller ones.


It always surprises me just how much you can fit into such a small space!!


The little clock on the wall is just printed from Google images and stuck onto a button.


Theres a few more jars of cake decorations some little nail art flower slices do the job and look so effective for pennies!
 

I wasn't sure whether to put signs on the counter but decided against it and added some pretty Cath Kidston paper instead. I made the little boards for the cupcakes as they came on round plates which meant I could only fit 2 in so having the boards meant I could then fit 3 in giving a much better choice for the customers.

The cakes are all made by FRAN from Ebay I was going to have a go at making them but hers always look so good and I was lucky to win them all for a really good price so thats my justification!! The flake cakes aren't really cupcakes but they were so cute I couldn't resist! The cute little cupcake bags were from the lovely LUCY on Ebay. I could prob have made them but the money goes to a good cause so that was an good enough excuse to buy them!!


The little tongs, cake slice and glass cake stand were from Ebay and are lovely! The thing I am waiting for is some little CK tissues that I will cut up and make little serviettes to fill the basket on the counter.


I think all I may add is a little food mixer painted pink of course and that will be it! Its been so much fun to do and I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I did making it!!!

I may have been very very naughty today...........I will tell you why soon :-)