Last week I wrote a post about the hobbies I have outside of dolls’  house collecting. This week I thought I’d give you some recommendations for places to visit, things to do and some of my favourite shopping sites, for the other things girls love, it’s all about having some diversity in life.

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In 2007, The Dolls House Emporium introduced Lake View.  A radical change from the traditional view of a dolls’ house, Lake View featured a full height window and mezzanine level. Fitted out with a spiral staircase and designed to be the perfect modern residence with open plan living, Lake View really was a bit of a departure from the previous dolls’ houses.

A grand design in miniature, we’re sure Kevin McCloud would approve.

As we write this, there’s glorious sunshine outside so let’s hope it continues for the rest of the month!

What exciting offers to we have to keep up the heat? For this month only, we’re making you a very special offer where you can choose FREE lighting to add that lovely sparkle to your dolls’ house.

If you want to choose the lights yourself, you can do so up to the value shown with the dolls’  house details. Just choose which lights you’d like, add them to your order and remember your wiring kit or socket strip and transformer.

Prefer to keep things simple? You can have the lights as shown in the photograph of the dolls’ house and you can still have them FREE! Just order the lighting set listed with the dolls’ house details. Dolls’ house kits are supplied with the copper tape method for wiring and QuickStyle houses are supplied with the socket strip method for wiring (the wiring channels are prepared for you).

If you need some help with lighting, just check out our masterclass and quick guide.

But don’t be blinded by the lighting offers, you can also enjoy FREE postage and packaging on all orders over £25 this month, up to 84% off furniture, accessories and dolls, and receive the latest in our 30th Anniversary Plate collection, the Lake View, FREE with all orders over £25. Phew! We’re working up a sweat just thinking about them all.

Now, we know that a lot of our customers aren’t lucky enough to live in the East Midlands, but for those of you that do, we wondered how many of you would be interested in participating in a workshop, hosted by us and held in our shop in Ripley, Derbyshire.

The workshop would be geared to help you get your Dolls House Emporium dolls’ house built, decorated and lit. With our experts leading the workshop, you’ll be taken through the necessary steps. There could be a season of workshops, or just the one, it depends how many of you lovely people want to come along.

Suggested programme would be something like

1st session – Dry build

2nd session – Lighting is Easy!

3rd session – Decorating

Start time around 6pm and finishing about 8.30-9pm

If there is enough interest we will put a programme together, we could also include some tips on styling and furnishing your dolls’ house.

Let us know what you think!

Whilst the sun is shining, I’m pretty realistic that most of us aren’t going to be doing too much mini-ing. The fact is that you can’t always take this hobby outside, parts of it yes, but not the whole thing.

So today I thought, instead of talking about dolls’ houses  I’d talk about something I do instead of mini-ing, or maybe that should be as well as. One of the best ways for me to relax is with a four legged friend, preferably one with a mane and tail, but I’ll take a wagging tail and wet nose too. Whilst dolls’ houses inspire my creativity and allow my mind to wander into past and future times, horseriding and dog walking help me to remember that there is a world outside home, work and four walls.

I think it’s something to do with comunning with nature and having a connection with another animal. This connection doesn’t always work perfectly, my horse bolted down the tarmac road with me this weekend and gave me horrific visions of us both sliding down the steep hill looming.  This was shortly followed by a momentous break through when she walked past the offending pile of fly tipped tyres which had caused her to shoot off in the first place. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to the way animals act, we just have to take it our (and their) stride. Another little lesson learnt.

I also think it’s pretty healthy to have a combination of hobbies, things that provide different distractions for us, I’d love to know what everyone else gets up to besides dolls’ house collecting so please do tell me in the comments slot below.

Amy

Amy Gutierrez is the Marketing Controller for The Dolls House Emporium. She’s the proud owner of a Classical and a Tudor Manor and when she’s not mucking about in miniature she can usually be found on top of a horse or in front of a computer.