Weddings In the Air

To Tie The Knot

Is it any Wonder that with all the Media interest in the Royal Wedding, even the Brides-To-Be in the Mini World are caught up in the excitement? Magazines and TV shows are filled with the details of Royal Weddings in the past.... and speculation about this latest Wedding is on Everyone's mind! WHAT will the Bride's Gown LOOK like???? Well, Pollyanna is NOT immune to the Romance and Excitement of a Royal Wedding! That it is happening while she is planning her OWN Wedding just adds to the fascination! The BIGGEST question has to be What the Bridal Gown will look like.... and we cannot know the answer until the Wedding Day! But we can WONDER...... and we can read the magazines.... and we can think about the different styles of Wedding Gowns.......

Will it be Modern or Traditional? Will it be simple or elaborate? Will it have a Long Train or be sleek and short? Will it be silk or satin or covered in intricately Knotted LACE? And of course, as she wonders about the Gown of the Future Princess..... Pollyanna must also inevitably think of what sort of gown SHE would like to have. And of course, her Mother, Joanna is here to help her with her plans! Joanna remembers visiting the Lovely Old Dollhouse when SHE was young... and she remembers a trunk or two in the Attic that had old gowns and bits of lace from generations before... so they go have a look........ This is one trunk that Pollyanna has NOT searched through!

And oh, MY! LOOK at what is inside! This is a Treasure Trove!

Just LOOK at the Beauty of this piece of LACE!

"And this one too" Exclaims Joanna!

"And just look at the workmanship on THIS piece" exclaims Pollyanna!

"It looks HAND MADE!"

Dear Readers, you MUST forgive me if I bore you with a great many pictures of some scraps of lace that I have been collecting for Ages! I came across these pieces while looking for material to send to my Sister. To tell you the truth, I had FORGOTTEN about many of these pieces! Including the piece Pollyanna is holding..... crocheted by YOURS TRULY in my teens... but more on that later! First I must show you my collection! And I must confess that I really know very little about the different kinds of lace... or even how to tell if it is hand or machine made.... But I ADORE the delicate patterns and minute workmanship of lace......

(Please remember to click on the photos to enlarge them!)

I know the evocative words like "Chantilly" and "Brussells","Tatting" and "Open-work", "Bobbin Lace" and "Crochet Lace" and "Fillet" Lace...... but I really have NO idea how to describe the differences!

Here are a few tiny scraps of some very lovely old lace.......

And these little squares are what I THINK is "Fillet" lace.... (correct me if I am wrong!) and each little square is only about one inch to a side..... aren't they sweet? I have no idea where I got many of these.......

And here is a lovely old handkerchief with a wide border of lace... stitched patterns on a ground of netting ..... which wraps around the entire handkerchief with no apparent seam!

And a fragment with a very interesting pattern...... this looks to me as if it MIGHT be "Bobbin Lace"..... only because the little leaves are "woven" in a way that I imagine would require a bobbin to produce......

And this is a rather large piece with a pattern worked on a netting ground....... it looks like it was once a shawl or "fichu" to wear over your shoulders....

And another similar type.... and I'm ALMOST certain that this was a part of my Mother's wedding dress... a lace jacket over the bodice....... My Mother was not afraid to re-purpose her Wedding Dress after the Wedding!

And another very elaborate piece that I think must be "Bobbin Lace".... but I really am not sure at all!
Yet another lovely pattern.... maybe a tiny bit too large a scale for a miniature Gown......

And another piece worked on a netting "ground".

I do not have much of this.... maybe just enough for a Veil?

And More......

And this is SUCH a delicate piece......

But I think Pollyanna does like this piece of HAND Crocheted Lace.........! You will laugh when I tell you that it took me a minute or two to recognize this lace! But I remember experimenting with making tiny crocheted "doilies" for my dollhouse back in my teen years... and I made a couple of lengths of lace trim as well! When I saw this, I had to hunt for my tiny crochet hook and try to see if I remembered how it was done.......

Here is a close-up....

And here is the newest piece of tiny hand-crocheted lace..... along with the crochet hook....

See how lovely it looks on Pollyanna?

And while we are at it....

Let's see how she would look if we dressed her in a Gown made from the handkerchief......

Tell me TRULY.... can any of you imagine Cutting up this handkerchief to make a doll gown?

Or should the gown be made of simple layers of chiffon.....

Maybe with the crochet lace for a border at the hem.......?

Or perhaps a fancy lace over-dress layered over the chiffon.....?

Or should the gown be a mass of frothy tulle? And a cloud of tulle for a veil?

Or should it be layers of gauzy netting stitched all over with flowers and pearls....

So Old Fashioned..... with a very LONG Train.....???

HOW on Earth can one DECIDE?

So while we are all awaiting the Royal Wedding.... some of us are more than a little curious about the choice of Gown... and whether it will INFLUENCE the choice made by Brides to follow! And perhaps you can forgive SOME for Dreaming about Weddings... Royal or Not!

There ARE Weddings In The Air!

Easter Morning In The Chapel

Happy Easter To All

In the Middle Ages in Northern Europe, Easter came at the End of the Long Harsh Winter, and the Season of Lent was a season of natural deprivation and Fasting. This Must have Magnified the importance of a message of Eternal Life and Re-birth, arriving with the return of Spring and the planting season. There was HOPE after All! In such a spirit I will take you to my Castle Chapel where the humble Castle folk are observing this Ancient Holy Day.....
I had HOPED to be able to show you some more of the Chapel ceiling painted.... but Alas, I have not finished it in time. The only thing I have to show you are the addition of a few Treasures for the Altar. You can barely see them in this photo.... but there is a small silver Cross-shaped Reliquary which is rumored to hold a sliver of the Real Cross.... it is hinged and opens to a small cavity inside for keeping priceless treasures! And the other Treasure is the Open Book I won from Erica Van Horn for helping her with a name for her shop..... it is Exquisite! (Thank You Erica!!!)

But it is Night here in the Castle Chapel.... Easter Eve, if you will.... and the Candles are lit in the Chapel while the devout keep their Vigil through the Night. In these times before the invention of Clocks to tell time, the Day was counted from sunset to sunset, with the Evening or Night part preceding the Day. Thus "A Night and a Day" meant the full cycle that we now call twenty-four hours. This explains why the "Eve" of so many Holidays is when the Holiday Begins!
So, here in the Chapel it is Night and those who await the Dawn are thinking about the Crucifixion and the Suffering of the Beloved Christ.......

Gazing on the painting on the Chapel wall....

And Wondering about the Miracle that follows....

Perhaps the humble folk catch a glimpse of the Gilded pages of the open Book on the Altar, and even though they cannot READ, or even understand the Words spoken in Latin that are read by the Learned Clergy...... they cannot fail to feel the AWE that the PICTURES and tales inspire.....

Perhaps Some of the Castle Folk are Keeping the Vigil through the night with Chanting and Prayer......

And PERHAPS some of them only arrive at the earliest Hours of Dawn to keep the Watch....

When the Candles of the Chapel are Extinguished and ALL the World is in DESPAIR........ and Hoping for that first light of Dawn...... do YOU see it just faintly lighting the windows? And DID you hear the First Bird of the Dawn Chorus?????

And the MOMENT when the Sun rises over the horizon and strikes the Chapel Windows.....

The MOMENT we have ALL been waiting for! As the light streams into the Chapel....

And SHINES upon the Painting of the Crucified Jesus.... as though to say.. "I have NOT died! Look around you! You ARE forgiven!"

And the Reader gazes, transfixed and humbled by the Beauty before him, and proclaims ....

"He Is Risen!"

And while I know that Easter Dawn reaches MOST of you well before it reaches this side of the World... I thought you would still like to see this Glimpse....

Easter Morning In The Chapel

Take Two

Blog Anniversary and Just LOOK What I Found!

It was just one year ago, Dear Readers, (give or take a day or two!) that I began this blog, and NEVER in my Wildest Dreams would I have imagined One Hundred and Fifty Six followers, nor could I have guessed the number of delightful mini-lovers I would "meet" here in blogland! It has been an adventure that FAR surpasses anything I imagined when I began. I am planning on making something for an Anniversary Giveaway..... but I have been so consumed by the Little Cottage project that I just completed, that I can't quite think WHAT I will make! So you will have to be patient with me while I get it figured out. I will be sure to let you know when I do!

Meanwhile, I have something I MUST show you!
Do you see the top picture? (I am sorry it is a bit too dark..... I was impatient and didn't take it with the lights on!) Doesn't this house Look FAMILIAR? No, it is NOT the Lovely Old Dollhouse with a new paint job! But doesn't it look ALMOST just like it? I really could not believe my eyes when I saw it at that Very Dangerous To The Pocketbook Miniatures Store that I go to...... It was just SO similar to The Lovely Old Dollhouse in SO many ways!
The very same day that I had shipped the Little Cottage to my Sister, I stopped by the Miniatures Store because I was feeling a little blue and needed to cheer myself up. I had NO intention of buying a Dollhouse. I ALREADY have Plenty of dollhouses I am building.... NONE of them finished..... But then I saw this house, and well, it was like a SISTER house to the Lovely Old Dollhouse!!!! And when the Old Gentleman said it would cost only $25.00, I was hooked! I HAD to have it.... no matter that I don't have room in my Little House for another sort of Large Dollhouse! So it came home with me. Yes, it is a fixer-upper.... but it has "good bones" like the Lovely Old Dollhouse........ They have almost exactly the same dimensions.... this new one being just an inch or two shorter and narrower.
Here is a picture of the Lovely Old Dollhouse before I had fixed the door or built the windows....

And here you can see the New Old Dollhouse for comparison .......

(I will have to figure out what to call it!)

You can see that the facade is charmingly irregular.... but I have seen houses with this sort of non symmetrical window and door arrangement in this part of the world. Sometimes in the Colonial Era it meant that the original house was smaller with the door in the center and then an addition was built on one end.... I really think it adds a lot of character! And this house also has dormer windows in the attic..... Do you even know how many times I have pondered adding dormers to the Lovely Old Dollhouse??? They are a slightly later style addition in the evolution of the Colonial Home design and were uncommon in the oldest houses.... at least in this part of New England!
Here you can see the inside of the house...... it is made from MDF rather than plywood..... but it is all in relatively good shape. The wall partitions are not inset with a dado, so they have all come loose and can be re-positioned as I see fit.....

Here is a closer view of the attic with the dormer windows (with acetate window panes) and the floors have a self adhesive wood grained shelf paper which badly needs to be removed.......
And the attic floor does not span the full width of the house and will need a section added.... but that should be very easy to do!

Here you can see inside the rooms in the downstairs.... old paper and acetate windows (some of which have fallen off).... this room is probably the kitchen....

This is the entry hall....... there are no stairs..... hmmmm, does this sound familiar???? And the only inner connecting door leads off this room to the front parlor.......

Which is already the SAME green that the Lovely Old Dollhouse parlor is painted!!!!

And upstairs is a blue room..... very similar blue to the hallway in the Lovely Old Dollhouse.... I think this room is currently supposed to be the bathroom.... the wall doesn't stay up properly....

And this room is probably the Master Bedroom.... the wall is positioned directly over the downstairs wall.... but I think a former owner had it moved over to create a much larger room.... the wallpaper extending into the hallway next door gives it away........ So, you can see, there is a great deal of POTENTIAL.... as well as a great deal of work ahead!.... But I just could NOT resist!

Oh, look..... someone is coming to look the house over.......

Did I tell you that Sally May's husband Chip is a building contractor and he renovates old houses for a living? He thinks this is one that Sally May should have a look at.......

Okay, so it is VERY dark and gloomy inside at night with no electricity....!!!!

But he really wants her to see this house.... he just has a feeling that it could be special..... with the right amount of work...... he has just the fixtures for the bathroom already in storage.......

He can imagine just how they would look.......

And the bedroom with the wall moved over.... would make a great room.......

He wants to make sure Sally May can see what he sees in the old place..........

She can imagine their furniture fitting very nicely......... it would be so nice to get their stuff out of storage and have their own house........

And the kitchen..... with TWO lovely big windows

And the pink wallpaper is okay for now.....
until they can get it all fixed up that is.......

Pink is Sally May's FAVORITE color........!!!
She can see the kitchen sink under the sunny window.....

"I think you're right, honey..... we should buy this house.....

if you don't think it'll be too much work....?"

"Too much work?" he scoffs.....

"Nah.... it'll be a piece of cake, Sweetheart.... You'll See!"

New blog year..... new old dollhouse to fix up.........

This Must be Take Two!