All by myself

It has been a great year for Karl Edo. But with the success of Spook House, he found his shop too small to meet the increasing demand -- and he wasn't very happy with the location either. Not that he didn't like his neighbours in the building, like Osvald Halving in Gjengangere, Bart Ender Barton in the pub and Glenn Closenough and Sean Kommer'u in the adjacent assembly rooms. But the style of all of these businesses are a bit old fashioned if truth be told, and Karl Edo had for some time thought about building a real Spook House, and when it was opened to build on a ground nearby he went for it. His friend Arne Vaa wasn't hard to ask and designed a new Spook House for him in a jiffy.

After a busy spring, here is a proud Karl Edo in front of the newly finished building. And instead of a party, he's inviting you in to celebrate the opening with an Asian themed display, with some of his favourite design furniture, all in the Spook House signature colours red and white.

Credits: In this last year, I have received so many wonderful gifts from blog friends all around the world. I haven't had the time to blog about them so far, because of a very hectic spring at work, but I thank you all and have gathered some of the fabulous gifts in this post, and more will come in the fall. Tomorrow we're going to the UK on holiday and we will be away until the end of this month.

Arne Jacobsen seven chairs from Minimii. Super ellipse table is a selfmade gift from Cocco.

Shelving made of lego. I was inspired to make this after seeing this fabulous desk Carol (Pepper) at MitchyMooMiniatures made for me after I was so lucky to win her give-away! The drawers even open! Thank you so much, Pepper's husband (Salt?), for the draw!

The doll in kimono is a gift from Cocco. The lamp is an altered Re-ment lamp. The laptop is also by Re-ment. Seven chair from Minimii. Tiny Hello Kitty in a Japanese costume is a cell phone ornament. Selfmade George Nelson ball clock.

On the counter is another Hello Kitty ornament.
Inside there's a Re-ment plate and some moon lamps designed by Cocco.

Heart chair by Reac, a gift from Sans, I love it, thank you so much! The Piero Fornasetti plates on the wall are made using a photo from the Collectors magazine, a give-away I won from the fabulous Shopping Sherpa who was interviewed in the magazine and featured in the TV show as well! Sadly I didn't manage to make them as neat as she did hers. Shelf by Re-ment. Vases by Elisabeth Causeret and Re-ment. If anyone knows the artist who made the painting I would be grateful, I just found it on the Net. The facade of Spook House is (of course) made of lego.

I wish you all a very nice summer!
United Kingdom Come!

Meet Jon Line - On paper and on line

Recently Jon Line, Polly Line's little brother, came to town. He's studying computer science at the university (when he's not reading comics or building miniature ship models). Polly put her plans for a home office in her spare room on hold and turned it into a one-room apartment for him instead. Which means that the result is more her idea of the perfect bachelor pad than a nerdy student's idea of accomodation.

As you may can tell because it's so tidy, these pictures were taken before he moved in.

I had to take another photo of the kitchen to show Jon Line's housewarming gift. Can you spot it?

She invited Nora and Helmer over to meet Jon and to be the first to use her colourful new garden furniture. Jon's unhealthy complexion made Nora concerned about his health, but Polly said it just came from Jon staying indoors with his computer all the time.

The sliding windows to the roof terrace.

Jon Line in his typical position.


On sunny days he can be seen through the reflexion in his window.

Polly Line was asked to present her house in the Finnish magazine Nukkekoti, so the bachelor pad was decorated in a hurry before the deadline. She had many photos of her house from before, but none of them were in print quality, so she had to rephotograph most of her rooms -- and even the exterior. Here are copies of the six pages from the magazine:

The new outdoors photo was taken in late winter, so I had to recapture it on the livingroom table. Two bed sheets did service as sky.

Real outdoor photo

The new outdoors photo for the Finnish dollhouse magazine.

Credits: The furniture in Jon Line's apartment and on the roof terrace is mainly new and vintage Lundby. The sliding opening windows to the roof terrace are made of picture frames. Eames Elephant by Reac. Accessories are Lundby, Re-ment, Playmobil and Lego (the coloured drinking glasses on the terrace). The Donald Duck comics and the ships on the window sills are made by my son Bendik.

Stockholm and Indian Jazz funk

I still have little time for miniatures, the newest reason is that my daughter Mari performed with her dancing class at the annual show of the Communal Culture School today, and there's been much to prepare. She dances jazz funk and her class should all be dressed as American Indians, sort of, and I, who can't sew a straight seem, had to make her a costume! Luckily we found an old brown blouse at a charity shop, she also had some old brown trousers which could be used and finally our large collection of beads came in handy! Here is the end result, with heavy stage makeup and darkened hair for the occasion. The blouse hangs freely, it's just tucked in on the sides a little bit by her arms.

The concert house was full (about 700 persons) and being the proud mother I am, I have to tell you her dance group got the longest and strongest applause from the audience. I tried to take photos during the show, but since there were no lights except on stage, and we weren't allowed to use the flash, the camera decided to go artistic instead (if you look very closely, you can see Mari dancing to the left).

This weekend we'll be visiting family, so rather than showing the miniscenes I don't have, I thought I'd show you some photos from our holiday in Stockholm, Sweden. With all you folks out there with a new or old Lundby Stockholm dollhouse, I think it's appropiate you should get to know the eponymic city a little bit better :-)

Gamla Stan (The Old Town) skyline

A closer look

Stora Torget (the old Main Square)

Old Town streetviews

Down to the left from here is a nice little shop with lots of miniatures.

For those who didn't get enough pomp and circumstance last Friday, here's the Royal Mounted Pageantry of Sweden.

And for those who miss miniatures in this post, here's a weaver in a bottle. Genius!
(Seen in one of the many antique shops)

One of Stockholm's many islands; Kastellholmen (Castle Island).
We went for a walk around that and its neighbouring island, Skeppsholmen (Ship Island)

At Moderna Museet (the Museum of Modern Arts) anything older than 50 years is considered garbage and thrown away.

While the Vasa ship, which capsized and sank the minute is was launched is rewarded with a museum of its own.

Torsten likes garden gnomes.

We left just in time to miss out on the blossoming of the cherrytrees in Kungsträdgården (The Royal Garden).

A royal occasion

Yesterday Nora invited all the girls to come watch the royal wedding in the basement livingroom, chosen since it had the most regal colours! What she didn't think of was that the TV in the basement room was old-fashioned and small, and didn't provide the picture quality one finds in TVs nowadays. But no-one seemed to mind.

Almost all were there: Besides Nora, there were Polly Line and her cousin Carol Line, wearing a blouse with a heart in a weapon shield for the occasion. Also Nora and Helmer's respective aunts were invited; Fiolett paa Traadén (Aunt Violet's It Slip) and Dolly Barton. They both loves weddings in general, and royal weddings in particular!
Being a huge lover of festive occasions involving fancy outfits and hats, Karl Edo invited himself to the party as well. Cocco Flanell was there too, but like Karl Edo, she said she was just interested in the outfits.

But I'm not sure that was the case, because when the happy newlyweds kissed on the balcony, a unison aaah, was heard from all of the guests...

All the romance and happiness caused Polly's mind to go drifting. In her mind images appeared where Kate and William's faces were replaced with hers and her Doctor Whatson's. Oh, if only, she thought, but had no hope it would ever happen, that they would ever become more than good friends. Her daydreams were interrupted by Cocco, who, intrigued by all the fabulous masks on the wall, asked Nora if they were souvenirs, like so many other items in the room.

Nora told that they were a precious gift from her good friend Oese in Germany, and so was the large oriental floor vase by the TV. "I was so happy to get the masks" Nora said, "because I could never find the right decoration for that wall, and now ... don't they look just perfect there?"

Credits: The basement livingroom is a mix of vintage Lundby leather furniture, re-ment furniture, a selfmade bookshelf and finds from the last 30 years. Thank you, Oese, for the masks and the other wonderful gifts you gave me last year, and sorry for being so late posting about them! For unknown names and backgrounds, see who's who.