Holiday Swap, Dremel Trio and Stokesay!

Hello!  Sorry I've been neglectful, but I'm deep in preparations for the Halifax Summer Opera Workshop which I run and stage direct for.  We start up on Monday and there's loads to do!

First of all, the WONDERFUL minis from Paky arrived for the the Holiday Swap!

Look at these!  They're all handmade and so beautiful, so sweet!  The beach bag is full of everything I'd need - a towel, a newspaper, and look at that little shell charm ... I love the little thongs, and the perfect bikini, too!  And there's even refreshments :)  Paky, thank you SO much for all your beautiful work -- I'm honoured to have received it and will treasure it always :) 

Next, my Dremel Trio arrived.  After Casey blogged about it, I had to have one of my own :)

It's a plunge or turn saw, plus a router plus a sander, and I love it!  I've got a lot of doors and windows to cut out of plywood for this house, and I knew I'd appreciate a tool like this one :)  On my first trial run, I can say that it works really well. Like any turn saw, it cuts with a spinning bit, not a blade (this is how you can just plunge it into the plywood and start cutting windows, say, without drilling holes first).  This means that it pulls to the left, all the time -- once you get used to that, it's pretty easy.  I found running it on a high speed but cutting really slowly increased my control of it.

My first order from Stokesay Ware arrived yesteday, and I'm dumbfounded by the perfection of these miniature plates.  They're SO thin, it's incredible.  And the detail ... everything is perfectly in scale, and you know how hard that is to find in dishes. Thank you so much, Catherine, for ordering your own and inspiring me to start my own Stokesay collection :)

My first wallpaper order arrived, from Itsy Bitsy Mini in the US.  I ordered three sheets each of three pattens and I love them all!   I've got more wallpaper on order from various suppliers, and now I'm desperately trying to make up my mind which room gets which pattern!

I think I'm going to use this Jacobean blue and white pattern for the dining room.  It will be half panelled with a wainscot so the wallpaper will just be on the upper half of the room, but here's an idea: