Wednesday 3rd March 2010

Exactly one month later, and today I actually did make a start. And it was a productive day too. I like to have a plan for each day – and all my years of teaching have reinforced that liking, because it was of course a necessity. Today my plan was to finish clearing up all the craft things from Sunday , organising some shelves in my brother’s garage to accommodate more efficiently my ever-increasing supply of mini stuff, do a scrapbook layout on the Peter Rabbit and Friends Roombox (bought the supplies yesterday then get stuck into the Sea Shanty.



Well, when I was teaching we were always being told that we had to be flexible and indeed it was a very rare day indeed that things went according to plan. And today was the same vbg. Not that it mattered – I had decided to treat myself to a day of self-indulgence and that’s what it was anyway. The sorting out went well, then following up something in an email I spent time on different mini sites and reading other emails.

Then I put the pieces of the Sea Shanty together in a preliminary 'dry run' with masking tape to see how they look. I tried out a few pieces of furniture to see how they fitted, and was pleased to see there was plenty of room for them. I also needed to make decisions about the stairway. I like stairways but in a lot of the photos it seems to obscure the view into the house. But in actual fact they don't block it all that much - so I went ahead and cut out the notch where indicated and have made the staircase.

It was exciting to actually start gluing the pieces together, as it always is, and while the glue was drying for each stage there was a lot of preparation I could do, painting the cladding, doing the grooved timber and stairs for the wharf with a grey/brown wash, and also doing all the lobster traps and the barrels I bought with the same. There’s lots of lobster traps. I bought five packets – (okay, so I got a bit carried away; I didn’t realize that there were 3 in each packet lol!). So they are spread out all over the caravan table at the moment, drying.

Then I started painting furniture for the Sea Shanty. The corner cupboard I did white a while ago hadn’t covered well at all so I did the inside in a deeper blue and the outside in a light grey-blue. When the outside was dry I gave it a bit of a dry brush with white, then added a bit of water to smudge it a bit. I also gave the settle the same treatment. I really like the results too.

I've made up a rocking chair and painted it dark brown, and assembled a hutch for the kitchen as well. I was on a roll and went ahead and also assembled some of the Captain's bedroom furniture while I watched another tele show - then of course was halfway through the kits so had to watch another show while I did the rest lol! When Peter is on night duty I am often rather naughty that way and stay up quite late. Yes, I suffer the next day but when the TeaRose Cottage arrived this morning I got a second wind again!

I decided to do one side of the timber bits with sanding sealer so that the surface is nice and smooth when I sand it. Tomorrow I will paint it all white before I wallpaper it. One of the first things I read ages ago when I started making minis was that if you paint a wall white before you paper it, the colour shows up better.

The table and chairs that I did before will go in the kitchen and the hutch will go in it too. I need a sink for in there, and a stove. I have to decide whether to use the ice box I got in the Pam Junk Old Fashioned Kitchen kit or to buy a fridge kit. And I might convert the old fashioned stove from that kit into an Aga stove - still thinking about that. I have one of the plastic bathroom kits and might use that for the bathroom, The pilings were mailed yesterday so they will take a while to arrive.

After a lot of thought I’ve decided on the colour scheme for the Shanty: I want it to be a mid to dark blue with white trim. I hope it will look nice and be different from the others I’ve seen. I’ve added a bit of dark grey to the blue I had to make the colour I wanted, inspired by a house in the cul-de-sac my brother lives in. I’ll weather the shingles that cover it with a dark wash too, because I don’t want it to be pristine. To me this effect is nice and ‘beachy’ and ties in with the blues used in the house really well.

But guess what? I never did get that scrap page on the Peter Rabbit Roombox done!