Clearance Sale.....!

 In preparation for moving Diminutive Dolls to its new home we've been busy having a glorious clear-out to make way for some exciting new miniature toys.

So from now till November 1st there are some wonderful special offers in every category on the website, with toys, dolls, games and playthings reduced by up to 50%!
 
http://www.diminutivedolls.co.uk

Orders placed between now and Monday (November 1st) will be despatched from Tuesday 2 November onwards.
There are some unmissable bargains but they're already going quickly so don't delay if there's something you covet. 

More information about the new home of Diminutive Dolls, along with details of an exciting Christmas project will be announced next week.

Exciting times eh?

End of Days.........

We had some apocalyptic weather here yesterday afternoon.

Namely this.....

  

Apparently it wandered along the seafront from Hastings to St. Leonards then made off towards Bexhill.  Now that's not something you see every day.

We also had a very sudden, dramatic thunderstorm, which seemed to appear from nowhere.  Sunny blue skies one minute, huge black thunderclouds the next.  Small Dog is not a great lover of thunder so she retreated under the blanket in her basket till the storm abated. 

Startling stuff.

In other news, Christmas catalogues are now forming the bulk of our daily postal delivery and while idly leafing through one of them at breakfast this morning I came across this....

 
Apparently it's written by a quantum physics expert (go figure) who adopted an extremely bright 'talking dog' who took to quantum theory like a quark to a gluon.  She (the dog) uses quantum tunnelling to get through the neighbour's fence to chase rabbits, and muses on the potential of quantum teleportation to catch squirrels before they climb out of reach.


Now.


Small Dog isn't the sharpest knife in the box (although she does have us extremely well trained to do her bidding with the merest tilt of her head or the application of Cold Wet Nose to any exposed skin surface) but she's the only other talking dog I know, so I thought I'd run a few theories past her to gauge her reaction.  


To paraphrase, she was fairly certain about Heisenbergz's Uncertainty Principle.  And by the time we got to  Schrödinger's Cat she was definitely on a roll, and all geared up to apply for a research grant to prove the theory that if you take a cat, and stick it in a box with a thing that will kill it 50% of the time, before you open the box, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time.


She is of the opinion that anything to do with putting cats in boxes, with things that might or might not kill them is a genius idea, and completely in line with her thoughts on quantum physics.


And there was me thinking that quantum physics was dull and incomprehensible.  If Small Dog can get a handle on it there may be hope for me yet.

 

Website update...........

Work continues apace on the latest incarnation of the Tower House Dolls website.  The site was first registered in January 2000 and over the last 11 years has undergone many, many changes.

The first available archived version is from August 2000 when the site was in its infancy.  Since then it has evolved in an organic although not necessarily methodical way (version from July 2005 ).

Last year PP completely redesigned the site in its current form making it much easier to update and administer.  This also coincided with my decision to stop making  1/12th doll's house characters, which I'd been doing for over 20 years, and concentrate full-time on smaller scale toys and dolls for doll's house children. 

During the transition period we had two websites running simultaneously, one winding down the 1/12th dolls and kits, the other showcasing my miniature toys - Diminutive Dolls.  However now that we no longer need both sites, we will be dispensing with the more costly option and closing the Diminutive Dolls website when the hosting package comes up for renewal in a few months time.  

So, next week (fingers crossed) the new Tower House Dolls site will re-open with our new ranges of miniature toys, games and playthings, along with some exciting new events in the offing.

However in the meantime both PP and I still have LOTS to do to the new site so I'd better go and get on.

No interweb-based displacement activity for me today.

No siree.

No by no nonny no.......

Relative calm.........

Poorly Daughter arrived safely yesterday, looking pale and ghostly but having survived the rigours of what passes for rail travel these days.  She was duly installed on a 'little bed' on the sofa, with Small Dog in close attendance in order to hog the blanket and they both napped on and off throughout the afternoon.  

This morning she is looking much better and even has some colour back in her face which is a Good Thing.  She's planning on doing more nesting today, which is just what she needs after a particularly painful and stressful week.

So, in between nurturing duties I am cracking on with work on the new website, more of which anon.........

Monday, Monday.......

Well, the good news is that my daughter was eventually discharged from hospital yesterday and is currently making her way down here to stay for a few days while she recuperates.

I don't envy her the journey by train from Essex down to Hastings but I'll be at the station to meet her and the Healing Paw Dog is on standby, having fortified herself with some breakfast cereal and milk purloined from my bowl.

I also need to step up a gear or two this week if we have any realistic possibility of the new website being up and running on 1st November, which is only next Tuesday.  We keep discovering things which need to be tweaked, and of course, the temptation to keep tweaking until something breaks is ever present.

Incidentally, over at Diminutive Dolls, I've been having a clear out and over the course of this week, in many of the categories, there will be bargains galore with toys and dolls reduced by up to 30%.  I'm still working my way through the site but there are already some opportunities to snap up a toy doll or animal at unmissable prices.

Right, must get back to work in advance of nursing duties this afternoon.  The Healing Paw dog is already gearing up......

 

Bad to worse..........

Just when you start to think that things are looking up and getting back on track, something unexpected will sneak up behind you and whack you over the head.

My lovely daughter, who had an appendectomy last weekend, was supposed to be coming down here today to complete her convalescence over the next few days, giving me the opportunity to do some hands-on nurturing, make dippy egg and soldiers, install the Healing Paw dog and generally do what mums always want to do whenever their children are poorly.

However, she has had to be re-admitted to hospital with post-surgery complications so she's stuck 150 miles away, back in limbo again, in pain, worried and completely stressed out.  She's been on and off 'nil by mouth' twice in the past 12 hours, is still having IV fluids and just waiting, waiting, waiting to be told what's going on.

Worst case scenario is that they may have damaged nerves to the lower bowel.  Blood tests have allegedly ruled out an infection, although apparently there could still be an abcess.  She was due to have a diagnostic scan first thing this morning but they've moved the goalposts and are now saying Monday.  

It seems that if you're going to be ill enough to need hospital treatment, make sure it's on a weekday (and preferably not a Friday) so that all the relevant staff are on hand to sort you out.  She had the same problem last weekend, with her 'emergency' surgery delayed for a day due to lack of staff/theatre slots etc.

Also, being in hospital is a stressful enough business at the best of times, but it's the total  inconsistency which is hard to bear.  Told one thing by one person, then a different thing by another.  Expecting to have one procedure imminently, then not being informed that the plan has changed.
I phoned the hospital myself this morning to try to find out what's happening (or to be more accurate what's NOT happening) and they seem to know about as much about her care plan as Small Dog does about simultaneous equations, which isn't much. 

So I'm just hovering by the phone, waiting for news, unable to concentrate on anything at all. I should be working on the website but that's not going to happen.  I might try and do some light dusting, or rearrange the bookshelves, or tidy up the workroom.  Something, anything just to try to keep the free-floating worry at bay.


Buggrit.

Brrrrr..........!

Really cold and frosty this morning..... we even had ice on the car windscreen!  Hard to believe that only a few short weeks ago we were basking in (admittedly unseasonable) temperatures up in the high 80s.

So autumn has now arrived with a vengeance and temperatures have plummeted.  What better time then, to have to have all your windows open due to them being re-painted. Good timing or what?

Small Dog has taken to her bed in disgust at the icy blasts blowing in from all directions and I don't blame her.  We finally cracked last night and put the central heating on for the first time since early April.  Admittedly the sun is shining from a mostly cloudless sky, but it's only 6 degrees outside at the moment so it can reasonably be described as 'cold'.

With all the windows in the workroom wide open, I've retreated to the 'relative' warmth of the office, to put in some work on the new website.  Time is ticking away and we have just 11 days to get it finished before it (hopefully) goes live on November 1st.

To coincide with the relaunch of the site, we will also be inviting miniaturists worldwide to join us in celebration of an old-fashioned miniature Christmas with our online vintage advent calendar.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during November we will have festive features, competitions, stories, giveaways, how-to's and lots more, not to mention a very special online Christmas workshop.

Then from December 1st right through till Christmas Eve there will be a new page every day with wonderful festive surprises, including a selection of new miniature toys and dolls, designed exclusively for the event.

Hopefully you will find much to inform, interest, amuse and entertain you, so look out for your special invitation in just 11 days......