All Miniature Models

Locals know it as Maison Bellaflora, though the postman still calls it “that balcony house on the corner” because he refuses to carry four separate sacks of tiny seed catalogs up the steps. According to neighborhood lore, the house was commissioned in 1899 by Madam Celestine Bellaflora, a widowed botanist, part-time collector of strange orchids, and full-time believer that a house should bloom as enthusiastically as its owner. She wanted sunlight in every room, air on every l

Locals call this hut The Lantern Reef Rest, though older villagers still insist on its original name, Tama Oru’s Tide House, after the fisherwoman who founded it sometime around 127 years ago, depending on which uncle is doing the storytelling and how many grilled pineapples he has eaten...

I visited Pasadena for a garden bloggers conference, and it lodged itself in my brain in the most pleasant way. The architecture, the gardens, the weather—honestly, it all felt a little unfair to the rest of us. This miniature brings that same feeling back. And later in this post, I’ll walk you through how I’d approach building something in this spirit, so keep reading before you run off to glue a cereal box into a villa...

In the old quarter of Moonmist Lane, tucked between a teahouse and a shop that only sells paper umbrellas when it rains, stands Full Bloom House, a floral shop said to have opened in 1912 during a spring so fragrant the neighborhood goats refused to leave. According to local gossip, the founder, Madam Lin Pei-hua, could coax blossoms out of almost anything...