Amsterdam

 Hello Dear Readers,

As I told you in my last post I made a day-trip to Amsterdam last weekend.
Purpose of the trip was to check whether the measurements of the facades of the canal houses and their ornamentation as I remembered it agree with reality.

Amsterdam was *cold and windy and -as expected- packed with tourists.
We decided we'd rather take the tram instead of going by foot.
The tram is public transport, fast and easy not to mention cheap.
It has stops on numerous places in the city.

Being cold to the bone at that time, I took the majority of  the pictures from within the tram. You will notice a glare from the window in some pictures. So they won't win a prize for beauty.
In some pictures it's like the top of the houses tilt here and there.
And they actually do.

It seems the harvest of pictures is meager, but I renewed and stored quite some GigaBites on the hard disk in my head.

After having a drink we decided there was time left to look for fabrics.
Throughout the years I have collected quite some silks, small and larger pieces, because I have no definite idea about the colors I will use in my house.
Or, rather, I have made a LOT of ''definite'' choices regarding upholstery in the past, only to learn they always change with time.
Because you can never tell on forehand whether you will need it in the future, I
played it safe and purchased some silks.
And because I liked the print, for the first time also some small pieces of cotton.

Left, on top: again a green-blue silk (again because I already have several silks in this color, though every piece differs a bit)
Left, in the middle is a dark blue silk velvet, very thin, maybe for curtains or upholstery of chairs
Left, under: a black and gold silk; I think it has a majestic look, but maybe too fancy to use for curtains and/or upholstery in my dh. We'll see.
On the right, in pairs of 3, the cottons. In the upmost right three theres's a touch of the green-blue silk color, so maybe I will use those for cushions.

So far about my day-trip to Amsterdam.
Next post will be all about minis again.
I'll probably show you what I embroidered and when there is progress on the storage room I will keep you posted too.

Have a great weekend,
Hugs to all of you out there,
Gee

*footnote: this post was censored by my kids :))

Bibliotheek1/ Library1

Het eerste vertrek is klaar, op wat kleine dingetjes na.
Het is een van de kleine kamertjes die ik vorig jaar aangebouwd heb.
Op de fotoos ziet u de bibliotheek.
De vloer, de muren, boekenkasten, het bankje en het trapje zijn gefineerd met frans eiken.
De vloer is naar voorbeeld van een vloer uit het paleis Versailles.
De meeste boeken zijn leesbaar; de kaften van de boeken zijn kopieen van echte 18de eeuwse boeken.
Elk boek is met de hand gebonden.
Onderin een van de boekenkasten staan 18de eeuwse spellen.
De prachtige rapieren zijn gemaakt door Jens Torp.
De openhaard is zelfgemaakt (daar komt nog een foto van).
De haken waar de gordijnroedes aanhangen zijn deel van een slot van een ketting,
de gordijnen en embrasse zijn van groene zijde.
De spiegels achter de lampjes en onderdelen voor de haard zijn gemaakt van onderdelen van een waxinelichtjes-houder.
De afbeelding achter het gordijn staat er tijdelijk, het is een afbeelding uit het boek Rococo in Nederland.


My first ever room is nearly finished, this is the library.

This is one of the small rooms I added last year.
Maybe I'll change this interior in future, once I have more experience regarding miniatures
but for the time being this will have to do.

The floor, walls, bookcases, the bench, all parts of the interior are veneered in french oak.
Inspiration for the floor came from a floor at the palais Versailles and took lots and lots of tiny pieces of veneer to cut and glue.
Most of the books are readable; the bookcovers are copies of real 18th century books.
All pages are sewn by hand into the bookcovers.

In the lower part of one of the bookcases you’ll find 18th century games.
The beautiful rapiers are made of silver and gold by Mr Jens Torp.
The rapiers (swords) are actually much, much prettier than in the picture,
the detail in them is beautiful.

The fireplace is handmade (pics will follow soon) out of cardboard and veneer.
The hooks on wich the curtain rods hang are part of a lock and chain.
Curtains and embrasse are made from silk.

Mirrors behind the sconces and parts of the fireplace are parts of a tea-light I took apart.
The picture behind the curtain is just there for the pics, it’s a picture from the book Rococo in Nederland.