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Wednesday 13 March 2013

Back in Bavorov

It may be a long time since my last post, but when we unlocked the museum door on Monday, it seemed hardly any time at all since I locked it and left it in November.

We is me and butterfly, whom many of you know, and we have arrived in the Czech Republic two months before I normally come to prepare the dolls house museum for its official opening in May.

And I am delighted to announce that at long last the museum actually has a name - Small Worlds.    My thanks to everyone who struggled along with me to find a name that would work in both languages.   This one works better in English than Czech but I am content with it.   Having a name has meant that publicity material can now be prepared.   I am immensely grateful to my daughter-in-law, Laura of Laurart, who is designing the artwork (if you hurry along to this post on her blog you could be in with a chance of a delicious prize, just for leaving a comment).

And my thanks go as well to Abbeybufo of Stitchwords who in an idle moment peeling potatoes (hmm, is that really an idle moment?) not only came up with the name but also the blurb for the flyer.  


At the moment, as you can see from the photos, all is chaos in Small Worlds.   The first thing we did on Monday was to make drawer dividers from cardboard boxes so that we can sort everything into findable places.   I swear that such boxes are made far stronger than most modern furniture.   

Butterfly has a non-working finger at the moment, just what she needs with much dolls house crafting ahead, and it made cutting the slits in the strips very painful.   But by the end of the morning all 13 drawers were equipped with dividers and the terrible job of unpacking and sorting the multitude of shoe boxes could start.  Bear in mind that I have not seen the contents of some of the boxes for more than 12 years........


When we left yesterday afternoon for a well-earned rest, the room looked like this.   Some good friends were coming in the evening to pay us a welcome visit and we coaxed them to Small Worlds first so that we could have their help in moving on to the next stage -getting the shelves up along the wall at one end of the room.  

Like everything we are doing in there at the moment, something else had to be shifted first - in this case many dolls houses.

The trusty Ikea shelves, undaunted by their move from being bookshelves in the UK, are much easier to put up with three or four people and apart from some gentle hammering where too much paint had been applied, they went up quite smoothly.


It wasn't until today, when butterfly was shifting houses onto them, that we discovered nearly all the houses needed the shelves to be just a little further apart.   

But in fact it doesn't matter since this is all work in progress and there is much more shifting around to come in the next days and weeks.    We have now come home for another well-earned rest (four minutes walk from Small Worlds to my house) and the room now looks like this -

Butterfly reckons we have made good progress......actually I think she is right but the next few days are fairly daunting as we continue to unpack and sort.   Once that is done we can get on with the fun stuff of renovating the houses!    


Tomorrow evening, the carpenter (who, along with his delightful daughter, featured in this post) is returning to put up the final set of shelves in the space we cleared today.    We could do it ourselves but would probably end up not on speaking terms so it seems worth the small amount of money it will cost!

I'd like to welcome those who have come to visit my blog from Words and Pictures - I hope you will continue to follow the ups and downs towards a dolls house museum in the Czech Republic and will enjoy the journey.   And welcome back to all my faithful followers - I am sorry that posts have been few and far between in the past weeks but I can promise that there will be many more posts  as things begin to fall into place here.........

15 comments:

  1. So pleased you are safely there and that things are progressing. Good to see the latest pics of what 'Small Worlds' looks like now. [Curtseys in thanks for the acknowledgement, too!]
    When I'm doing things with my hands - like peeling potatoes - it leaves my mind free to wander over all sorts of things, and Small Worlds was the one floating on the surface that day - Ruth

    PS the deleted post was the first part of this, but I wanted to add to it and it wouldn't let me 'reply' to my own post!

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    1. Well I'm very glad that potato peeling is so fruitful!

      I tidied away your deleted post :-)

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  2. I can relate to all those tasks you've described, including the constructing dividers with a gammy finger, and shelves needing to be just that leetle bit further apart! Butterfly is right - you're making very good progress, and it will be (as you're doubtless saying) Wonderful When It's Done. Congratulations to all concerned!

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    1. There has been a certain amount of "will be wonderful when it's done" but it does look like a long, long trail at the moment.....

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  3. It's exciting to share in what Alison's Mum is up to, and what the two of you share. I love Dolls Houses and look forward to future instalments and pictures,

    Lucy x

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  4. V exciting! Look forward to blogs with "Goodness - look what I found!" and "What do you suppose THIS is?" as you unpack the Treasures of Ages.
    Will try not to feel too proprietorial now the museum has been officially named after me ;-)
    xx

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    1. Oh good grief! So it has.....that's very funny (and I fear completely unintentional since it was Abbey that came up with the final name :-)))

      We've had quite a lot of "What on earth is this?" In somewhat more fruity language at times....

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    2. Oops, I should of course have said "Abbey who....."

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    3. I imagined that your language might have been other than I suggested lol.

      Went to a S4TB this afternoon in a new venue, a very nice residential home. I went to the loo and there (well, in the corridor leading to the loo, not actually IN it), forlorn and unloved, was a dolls' house. No residents, no furniture :(

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    4. Make a bid for it on my behalf? Although I rather think we may have too many properties already :-( But I can't bear to think of alone and unloved houses.....

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  5. Well you have done a ton of work already,it must be like a treasure hunt unpacking all those boxes you haven't seen in so long.Now isn't that always they way you set it up and it has to be moved.. I went to Laura's blog and oh my goodness what a talented family you are her work is fabulous too.I'll be looking forward to seeing your museum come together. Have a great day...

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    1. Thank you :-) Day off today as painter in there doing the few things we brought from UK. Back in there tomorrow....

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  6. Things are really taking shape there, can't wait to see the progress, especially when you start to restore the houses, we love all things miniature.

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  7. I am new to your blog, I enjoy your daughter Alison! This is a daunting adventure and how lucky you are to be working together for a beautiful project. I hope you enjoy your time recreating the houses and this museum will be loved when it is done. I will check back for photos of the houses, very fun!
    Have a great day,
    Kelly

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  8. this is my first visit to your dolls house blog and I look forward to seeing everything set up, hope you show some close ups of the houses.
    janet from WOYWW #16

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