Small Wonder

Feel the need to check out Lilliputian housewares? You’re in luck. Victoria MacKenzie-Childs’ miniature mansion is on display today at Neiman Marcus, Fashion Island Newport Beach, and Friday at the Cornelia Park store at South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa.

The three-story Le Petit Palais is filled with quarter-scale replicas of MacKenzie-Childs pottery, furniture, glassware, linens and tiles. A dozen gilded rooms occupy the 8-feet-wide-by-7-feet-tall palace. Check out the vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom. There’s also a working oven, spiral staircase and dumbwaiter.

Designer Victoria MacKenzie-Childs will attend both events to sign pieces from her Home Collection.

Neiman Marcus, (949) 759-1900, Ext. 2011; Cornelia Park, (714) 549-2900.

Kitchen Itch

What’s one of the most damaging sounds in the kitchen? Metal utensils scraping a frying pan.

There’s a solution: Wearever’s new line of scratch-resistant cookware.

Metal spoons, forks, spatulas or whisks won’t nick its nonstick surface, the manufacturer reports. The protective core is coated with ScratchGuard hardeners. These form a barrier that prevents scrapes and cut-throughs.

The cookware is available at department and specialty stores.

But before you toss your old pots and pans, consider entering Wearever’s contest. Write a 100-word description of how a nonstick fry pan, skillet, saucepan or any other piece of cookware was scratched in your home.

Send it, along with a photo of the cookware, to Wearever’s Let Your Guard Down Contest, P.O. Box 3156, Elgin, IL 60121-3154. Deadline is Jan. 15.

Shining Season

Need a little fairy dust sprinkled throughout your home? Target’s holiday home collection has the silver and gold touch to add to your fantasy.

Start with the silver: The discount store offers champagne flutes, goblets and wineglasses dressed in silver swirls ($4 each). Chargers and dinner plates ($5-$9) go hand-in-hand with silver-leaf napkins and napkin rings ($3 each).

For a golden touch, consider a hammered glass, gold-rimmed bowl ($25) and a white Vienna tablecloth with gold snowflake design ($10-$20).

Available at Target stores.