Lirael Dreams

I'm not in the mood for pictures... The lighting isn't good enough today and I don't really like using artificial light. The weather is gray and rainy (in august grrrr!) and it's just another lazy sunday, so the perfect circumstances for dreaming and fantasizing about miniature projects to come... Or about projects that will never happen for that matter LOL! Still, my imagination is never satisfied and my head never stops showing me these gorgeous places to go and creatures to meet. Sometimes I wish I could send dreams in envelopes......

Here's some things that I would love to make in miniature (or life size, as settings for movies that portray my stories!)

I can see a cosy cottage, worn with age in which an old granny lives and recieves her family for tea and chocolates. Wisteria covers most of the outside of the house and all of the rooms are decorated with pink roses, white lilies and red carnations. In each room is a cat doing something naughty or catching a mouse. On the first floor is a closed door hiding the stairs to the attic. There's a sign on it that reads "do not enter, grandma's boring stuff, nothing to find here". Luckily the cottage gives its viewer a peek onto the attic. There he or she finds old, singed furniture, big boxes marked "baby stuff" and loads of dust. It looks like there's been a fire, or better, like someone has been running around holding a torch. Hidden on the other side of a cabinet with squeaky doors we find the reason for all this mess.... a baby dragon, scaled and fierce, but with the inexperienced eyes of youth.

Or how about a pastry shop, luxurious and filled with gold items, worthy only emperors and kings. In the kitchen is a big woman with flower in her hair, busy trying to knead the dough for some pies she's making. Behind her is a waitress putting fresh baked cupcakes on a tray and through a door we see a heavily decorated tearoom with the finest porcelain standing ready on one of the tables. And at that table, in the middle of the room... Marie Antoinette and two of her friends. Can you picture it yet? The pastel colors, the gold trims on everything and the huge hairdesigns (I'm thinking, the ship-hat)?

Also, I have already collected some miniature bears, because I'm working (extremely slowly, but still LOL) on a bear-doctor-project. There's this old man, who is, to say nicely, mentally challenged. No wonder, his only friends for a 120 years have been his teddybears, who care for him as he runs his hospital and looks after bears that have been thrown out, neglected or badly put together. The only way he can remember his own name is by looking at the letters on the windows of his shop, but he nevers leaves the place, so he has come to call himself Egareven. If you would be visiting the shop and reading the writings from outside, you'd know it says Neverage, Bear Shop (or actually something prettier, but that will only be known to the world when I actually build the shop...so good luck waiting for that!).

I'm not quick to be someones fan, because it brings to mind images of young girls screaming and crying at boyband concerts and that's just too much for me. But I am keen on following the works of a mister Tim Burton. I'm sure lots of bloggers know him and if you don't please google images of his work! He is such an inspiration to me and never ceases to amaze me with his characters and settings. If you get to know his unique work a little bit, you can see his hand in everything he participates in. My favourite movie by Burton is definitely The Nightmare Before Christmas. I'll not bore you why, 'cause that would take at least an hour of reading LOL! But it has made me want to make a "Jack-Skellington-style" nursery. Dark and gloomy setting, with a touch of humour and a little baby Jack laying in his black crib playing with toy bats... Not for everyone, I know, but such fun to make a nursery not stuffed with sweetness and covered with cuteness...

Are these four enough for now? I have the plans and the visions, but I dislike building... However, kits and readymade houses are almost never to my liking, so I'll have to face the saw and hammer someday! For now I'll keep to finishing the beach getaway, hopefully in this lifetime...