A Mess of Flowers

Flowers have been on my mind lately. First, I received some lovely ones for my birthday earlier this month from three different people, all different versions! They are currently brightening up my office, and I hope I can keep them alive.

My other flower musings have been related to Amy Merrick, a New York City-based florist and stylist who does gorgeous work. I love looking at her Instagram feed, reading her blog, and hearing about her latest projects, like doing the flowers for the recent celebrity-studded dinner for the Punk fashion exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum! She is truly an artist and I find her photos very calming and inspiring.

(Photos from Amy Merrick's Flickr stream)

All this flower exposure prompted me to use some beautiful heavy-weight "Flurry Sunshine" paper from the Paper Source in  my Lundby Stockholm. This also gave me the opportunity to use my new minimodernistas ball clock, given to me by a dear friend (another birthday gift!), as well as a cowhide-print Eames chair, a blind box purchase on Mother's Day at Toy Tokyo. The black-and-white artwork by the chair is a miniature photograph from my work colleague K., who knew I'd find a use for it :)

Here's to flowers!

Credits: Desk is by Dragondee; chairs are Reac; plant and wastebasket are AG Minis; vase is a dollhouse show find; arc lamp is an eBay find; grey rug and magazines are by The Shopping Sherpa; dog is Schleich; desk rug is a coaster; ball clock is minimodernistas. Accessories are Michaels, Re-ment, Toy Tokyo, and AG Minis.

The time it took me: 34 minutes

A Detour Down Pinky Street

I am guessing that some of you out there are familiar with Pinky Street dolls, made by Baby Sue and Vance Project of Japan since 2003. Pinky Street dolls have a huge, enthusiastic following. At four inches high, they are best suited for 1:18 or 1:12 environments, and have interchangeable parts that you can mix and match to make hip figures with street cred. I first saw them in modern doll house scenes on Altera's blog a few years ago (I miss your posts, Altera!), and I thought they were adorable. You can see them in action on her blog here, here, and here.

To learn all about Pinky Street gals, pinky-street.com is a great resource.

Now, I am generally not a doll person...my scenes are usually uninhabited. But, when I saw two Pinky Street dolls in the Kinokuniya book store in Los Angeles in March, I bought two! They were $10 each, and had some charm. I finally got around to taking them out of their packages for their maiden voyage to the Kaleidoscope House.

Introducing...

PK008A Lisa/Risa

and

PK017 O-hara

I set up a few different scenes with 1:12 and 1:18 scale pieces to see what might work best. I think 1:18 is a better scale...these are petite gals!

The Pinky girls split!

Hope you enjoyed my little detour down Pinky Street!

Credits: Diner benches and clear side table cube are by AG Minis; kidney shaped table is Ryan's Room; green chairs are Creative Playthings; rabbit head is a Christmas ornament from Anthropologie; planter is Manor House Miniatures; plant is Playmobil; flooring is origami paper; pillow is by Megan of Modern Mini Houses; coffee table is made of two kitchen stools by brinca dada, turned on their sides; guitar is Nodamegakki. Accessories are AG Minis and Lilu Shop on Etsy.

The time it took me: 32 minutes for all the set ups

VERO Seeblick: Sea View

Another VERO dollhouse has captured my heart! It's hard not to be charmed by a VERO. I already have two: a 1966 beauty and a mod, two-story early 1970s one. I've had my eye on the lovely one-story "Seeblick" or "sea view" for quite some time, and when Annina put hers up for sale, and I could not resist. It's a bit beaten up, but still has wonderful life and karma (Annina is such a talented miniaturist, stylist, and photographer).

It's an insane purchase, since I literally have no room for it. I managed to clear off some space adjacent to my Bodensee in order to put it together. As Rebecca noted in her post from a few years ago, you need to be an octopus to get it all screwed together! I struggled and dropped the tiny screws more times than I can count, but it finally came together. I took some quick first shots after setting up a living room and bedroom. One day, I will bring it upstairs into natural light for some better images and backdrop.

Until then...

 

Credits: Chairs, couch, bed, footstool, and sideboards are vintage German; coffee table is vintage Brio; outdoor chair and Arc lamp are eBay finds; green rug is a felt coaster; bedroom chair is Reac; globe light is minimodernistas; bedding is by The Shopping Sherpa. Accessories are Re-ment, dollhouse show buys, made by Dragondee, and TOMY.

The time it took me: 52 minutes (not including assembling the house!)

Sneak Preview: Custom Designer Dollhouses

There has been a ton of happy, excited buzz in the dollhouse/miniature community (especially among us modern fans) about the forthcoming Kaleidoscope Ball auction to benefit the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, specifically its Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute. The reason?

TEN. CUSTOM. DESIGNER. DOLLHOUSES!

That's right, TEN custom creations--spanning styles from modern to Italianate--as imagined by some of the country's leading interior designers, architects, and landscape designers. The houses are mammoth in scale, and measure roughly 6 x 3'. You can read more about the auction, designers, and other background on Mini Modern and Modern Mini Houses.

I traveled to Los Angeles on spring break with my family and *really* wanted to squeeze in some dollhouse time and get a sneak preview of the houses. By some miracle, it worked out! On Friday, I visited the warehouse of where all the houses are being fabricated. There were five houses on display, in varying states of completeness. Each of the houses was designed by Richard Manion and Robert Meiklejohn of Richard Manion Architecture.

The house that is farthest along is the "Contemporary Beach House Two," with interior design by Chris Barrett and the team of Ron Woodson and Jaime Rummerfield. 

She's a beauty, eh? The craftsmanship is amazing and the designers are putting some nice touches on the airy spaces. The furnishings were lovely, and came from a variety of sources. I immediately noticed gems by Paris Renfroe, minimodernistas, and ELF Miniatures, and then some pieces that were either made from scratch by the woodworking shop, or were re-imagined with new parts, like this dining table and this Arc lamp -- both were re-fitted with new pieces.

It was also cool to see pieces that were being painted, sewn, polished, and fitted for the houses.

While I was there, I met Chris Barrett and Jaime Rummerfield, and enjoyed seeing them work. It was interesting to observe the challenges that they were encountering (how to style that huge entertainment unit??), as well as see the obvious fun they were having designing these small spaces. They pointed out the custom modern artworks they created for the house, inspired by the work of Cy Twombly and Franz Kline, and they also accessorized the spaces with sculptures and other objects.

It was great to see such creativity and inventive use of materials, such as the glossed marble wallpaper and the steel door for the garage!

I also met Stephen Block, who was there working on the landscape design for the beach house. Here's his living "mood board":

He also spoke about the challenges of working so small, but deriving a lot of satisfaction as it continued to evolve. Here's a quick video of some behind-the-scenes work on the size of the property on the back of the house.

I cannot wait to see how it turns out!

There were four other houses in the warehouse that were getting ready for their closeup.

The Italianate House One (Lonni Paul and Adam Hunter)

Lovely stairwell! And that table...!

The Italianate House Two (Mark Cutler and Cari Berg)

The Georgian House Two (Tim Campbell)

The Contemporary Beach House One (Jeffrey Alan Marks and Elizabeth Dinkel)

There were five houses not on display: Modern House One and Two (sad not see those!); Georgian House One; Brownstone House; and Monique Lhuillier NY Flagship Boutique.

I am told that $20,000 is the expected price for each of the houses. Some of the houses will be available for bidding at the Kaleidoscope Ball auction on April 17, whereas others will be sold in a special charity sale on One Kings Lane. All proceeds for both sales will benefit the UCLA/Mattel Children's Hospital Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute.

Hope you enjoyed this little preview! I look forward to sharing more!