Bats Received and 50 Follower Announcement

Last week I received a package for a giveaway I won from http://tudordollhouse.blogspot.com/ . I apologize for  not posting this until now, but I have been working a ton of hours! Thank you, thank you for my batty goodies! I love them to death!

Eventually the tower room in my Villa is going to be sort of an alchemists lair, so these will fit right in! The hand-stitched pillows are adorable and look at the tiny little beads on the necklaces! The book is so cute I may have to put it in my bookshop till the Villa is done.
 

I especially love this little bat stool-my favorite! It is just divine! The detailing is awesome! Love, love, love it!!

Thank you soooo... much!!

And...in keeping with the spirit of blog giveaways I have decided to do my own when I get 50 followers :)

Faux Copper Flashing

I am so excited to finally be starting on the Villa! Santa was very good to me and brought lots of goodies for it, including an entire kitchen. How on Earth did he fit it in his bag?! I will save all of those surprises for a later post.

In keeping with the Italian Villa styling, I am finishing the roof in Spanish barrel tiling- I ordered some plastic sheeting that simulates those tiles, but vastly underestimated how much I would need (the Villa is huge!) so I am waiting on another package to come.

I love copper detailing on roofs and decided to make the overhang reflect that (only the edge and underside will show.)

I had a few rolls of foil type strips that were very gold on one side and silver on the other. Copper strips can be pretty expensive and since I already had this material, why not use it? After gluing it along the edges I painted over it with copper colored acrylic paint. I may add some "age" to the paint later.

Shiny gold before paint.

Muted copper added to edges.

Building Resource Questions?

Does anyone know of a good place to get hardware (doors, windows, staircases, etc) for odd sizes? The floor to ceiling height for my villa is 11" and the arched windows and doors are not standard. Any suggestions?

Just in the initial planning stages now, but can't wait to get started on it!!

Designer Fabric Samples Rock

Today I made a trip to Jo-Ann Fabric store with the sole purpose of finding a simple green canvas fabric to use for awnings for the bookshop. That part was easy. Not getting side-tracked by the myriad of other fabrics, not so easy.

I managed to restrain myself from buying several until I stumbled upon a clearance rack of designer home interior fabric samples. These were intended to be special order fabrics, but I guess they had been discontinued or something so they were selling all of the samples for two dollars each. The samples are about 20" square, so that is plenty of fabric for miniature making.

I chose three really cool fabrics. They will all go in the Villa eventually. I am thinking of the striped one (Waverly) for accent chairs, the green satiny one (richloom) for pillows and I love the woven one (Phifertex- a vinyl coated wicker weave retailing for $49.99 a yard!) as an area rug.

While browsing a French Interior Decorating magazine I found these cool chairs. They look like they would be fairly simple to reproduce/modify in miniature. I love the clean simple lines. Who knows, they just may end up (possibly with the striped fabric) in the Villa someday...

Simple green awnings coming soon..

The Villa Has Arrived

I am absolutely on cloud 9 over the architectural model I got on craigslist! It is truly a marvel! I'm still in shock that I got the entire thing for $65!

So in love!!!

For being 40-50 years old it is in good shape, but will be a ton of work-- a total labor of love! I bought this house planning on it taking several years to finish and I don't want to rush one single moment.

I have always loved the juxtaposition of old and new. The house is screaming to me to be made into a rustic French or Italian Villa. My plan is to make it look like an old well-loved house with a modern clean interior (my idea of a dream house).

I adore the arched windows!

Now the research begins.. coming up with ideas and inspiration. So fun!!

Second floor

First floor. Still trying to figure out how I'm going to open it up for accessibility.

I think the "basement" is probably unusable space since it's sloped, but I love the idea of finishing the exterior of the foundation (probably in stone)

I Heart Craigslist

I have scooped up the Deal Of The Century!! And sure to be the project of my lifetime!!

I am SOOO... excited and I get to pick up the masterpiece on Sunday. It is a 40-50 year old HUGE architectural model. I have tons of ideas and can't wait to see it in person.

Here are a few teaser pics.. It is SOO.. Awesome! Solid wood 3.5 ft sqare, ceiling to floor height is 11", so I think it will be fine for 1:12 scale, very solid wood and has a custom table that goes with it! Can you tell I'm totally excited?!  :O

Bookstore update- shingling is almost complete. I will post some pics soon.