A day at the fair...

...well a few days actually!

Last week I spent a few of days at the Arnhem Dollshouse Fair.  My friend and I signed up for a Chris Malcomson class, making a Dutch wall table from around 1705.  During the first day of class we worked at building the basic structure of the table, veneering and making a start on shaping the table legs.

I booked a wonderful hotel room in Arnhem with a huge roof terrace overlooking the Rhine river.  The weather was gorgeous so we sat outside with a cup of tea working at shaping our table legs. 

Friday morning, sunrise over Arnhem as seen from our hotel room roof terrace.  Isn't this absolutely glorious?  I assure you there was no trickery involved in this shot!

Tha table apron after a few coats of shellac.  Just look at that shine!  The table top had just had a a first coat of shellac and has been sanded down.

 My table legs nearing completion.  It is quite difficult to get them all looking the same! 

Chris had given us Cuban mahogany from a broken old box of around 1740 to make the legs.  I love the idea of the wood having so much history already.   The wood may even be hundreds of years older as of course we don't know when the tree of which it came was felled.

After the class was finished Friday afternoon it was time to hit the Fair.  Even before the first night was over, I managed to spend a big chunk of my budget.  On Saturday I did some very careful shopping and went home with only 10 cents left in my wallet.  Well done to me for resisting to go to the cash machine or pulling out my credit card!

I never have enough time at the fair, even though I am there for two days.  There is just too much to see, too many people to  talk to.   It was lovely to meet a few fellow bloggers, like Debora from http://petitpunt.blogspot.com/,  Peiwen from http://oiseaudenim.blogspot.com/  and Audrey from http://www.bopeep.nl/BoPeep/Welkom.html

Here is a quick shot of some of my purchases.  Many of the items I bought are to go into this new house I am working on.  Here you see the table I made in Chris' class (it just needs a final coat of shellac).  On the left you can see one of the lights I bought from Ray Storey, who was at the show in person.  He is such a lovely man, always full of great stories to make you roar with laughter.

On top of my little table are some bottles and glasses I bought from The Little Dollhouse Company from Canada.  They come over each year and bring us a lovely collection of miniatures to choose from.  In the scene I am planning for this room I would like to have two Martini cocktails.  I got the glasses, now I still have to mix the cocktails!