Efficiency Kitchen: some years ago I bought an item from a now-retired miniaturist that you might be able to copy. It was a fridge about the size of a smallish north American kitchen cupboard, with a sink and also a hot plate built into the top. I believe it's a copy of an existing thing, but I've never seen one. Very compact.

Frances, Erin, Ontario

Efficiency Kitchen: I built in a little, narrow kitchen in my fabric store - I think it's in the pictures on my website (the Simpson Construction Company link). I used the porcelain sink that stands on legs cause it's not as deep as the sinks in cabinets. Then I had to build an apartment sized refrigerator and apartment sized stove cause as far as I know, there are no manufactured ones. Maybe someone like Hammer n' Smith makes them, but when I built the store I was interested in low cost so I made my own. The doors don't open but they look like a stove and fridge. I made the fridge counter height so it wouldn't block the view of the back of the room and I made the stove one of those little 24"; (in real life) ones with no space between the burners. I used pieces of paper clips for the door handles on both of them. On the fridge, I painted it all white except for the top - I linseed-oiled a piece of basswood for that so it would have a ,butcher block,top. I was pleased with how it all turned out and even ended up receiving a couple of orders for the two appliances. Hope this helps. :)

Mary Lynne in Huntington, WV

Russian nesting dolls: At the Allentown PA show in May one of the dealers had them and I got two sets. The 5 nested doll set: the largest is just over one inch high, a tad large, however, the smallest is the size of a peppercorn, as Helen of York indicated He also had a smaller, three nested doll set which is about 3/4 They were very reasonable and exceptionally detailed, with even the smallest doll fully painted (I had to look under a magnifying glass to be sure). I paid very little for the two sets. He also has porcelain dishes and figurines and Faberge style eggs which are somewhat large but would work for 1" scale I
His contact information is: Alex Telyatnikov, ABE Universal Vending, P. O. Box 654, Fogelsville PA 18051-0654. e-mail is russiantreasure@hotmail.com phone is 610-366-9434 and fax is 360-838-6216.

Unknown

Worthing, England - New shop: I am from England. Worthing in West Sussex to be precise. I have 4 houses the latest being a 6 roomed Georgian mansion. The reason why I am writing is because I have just found this wonderful new shop here in Worthing. Its called Ginny's Attic. Its situated in South Farm Rd.Tel no:01903 522599. I found it quite by accident of course I had to go in to have a look! They are the most friendly helpful people I have ever met although new to miniatures have a vast stock of accessories, houses, room boxes craft materials including wood & haberdashery.

Liz Taylor from England

Miniature Horses: There's a number of horse artisans on one of my Yahoo! groups ModelArabians@yahoogroups.com You can also find artisan links on the American Model Arabian Horse Association web site at: http://www.amaha.itgo.com/

JoLynne

Petite Princess Furniture: I recently found this website for Petite Princess items: http://www.yesterdaystoys.com/petite.htm

Stacy-Marie Torres

Floor Boards http://adamovminiatures.comhas the best selection I've seen.
Steve and Kara build a lot and are great about giving advice. My current project is the Buttercup Cottage kit. We decided to use first floor and roof provided with the kit, but covered the upper side of the floor and the under side of the roof with boards cut from 1/32" x 3/8" strip wood. We're also using this size, which can be cut with scissors BTW, for the shingles.

Chrissy

Flaws: I know every flaw in my dollhouse and nobody has ever spotted them. If you want to see if a flaw is obvious, take a photo. That's how I find out what looks bad and what doesn't. I don't know why a photo works better than seeing it in person but for me it does.

Carol

Paper to Wood: you can apply wallpaper flooring to any primed floor with wallpaper paste. I'd first spray the front with fixatif like Patricia Nimrock's sealer. You make have bubble or two due to the wet paper stretching. Don't try to get them out after an initial wipe over with a slightly damp cloth. The next day the bubbles will probably disappear as the paper shrinks when it dries. Otherwise, just slit the bubble in the pattern and put in tacky glue with a syringe and carefully wipe over it with the dampened paper to make sure you don't have glue sticking out.

When everything has dried overnight, add Hermes Super Sealer (at your miniature shop or I have it). This adds a shine to the floor and makes it look like linoleum

Deanna

Simulated brick: I had purchased a sheet of Rossco brick for my wine cellar in a deep red color. Then I bought more for the kitchen. I wanted to match (more or less) the terra cotta color of the tile floor to a brick wall. This brick product was just great for painting. I used the tip of a small brush to change the grout color and the flat or side of the brush to apply several shades of terra cotta, just grazing the top surface and allowing some of the base color to show through. The resulting texture and variation of color is just perfect! I think this product would be especially nice for used brick. Many dealers sell this, but if you want to see a picture, go to http://store6.yimg.com/I/suzisdollhouses_1643_20413388 It is flexible and has a vinyl like texture, but accepts both stains and paint

Kathy from Tustin