How do you turn a seagull into a galah?

It’s not too difficult, actually. A bit brutal though – because you have to cut off its beak. A seagull’s beak is straight, and a galah’s beak is a parrot’s beak so it's curved. I wanted to have a bird on the roof of Kate’s Café and I had these seagulls but I wanted an Aussie parrot so I decided on a Pink and Grey Galah. It took a bit of experimenting to get the right pink for the tummy but we got there, and with a couple of our bird books beside me I was able to paint two seagulls. Then, showing no mercy at all, I cut off their beaks and stuck them back on facing downwards. When they were dry I sanded them into a rounded shape – sort of - and painted them white. And there you have it: two seagulls who are now pink and grey galahs!



Kate's Cafe Completed

I have called this building, 6th in the Town Square series, Kate’s Café rather than Coffee Kate’s as it was named in the kit. It is so sweet; I really like it and love the way it has turned out. It’s one of my favourites. Yes, I know I say that about several of them, and that’s because several of them are my favourites!

The kit arrived the afternoon of the 10th November and I did all of the assembly except for the finishing touches – but it has taken until now to do those.

I have become cleverer with experience vbg and now the first thing I do when I start on the buildings is to detach the plastic pieces and spray them with the primer. That doesn’t take all that long to dry so I could do both coats of spray paint on them that night as well. They were still not totally dry after the final coat when I put them into the shop but were okay to handle. I had to wait until next morning to add the green paint on the shutters and door though.

The structure is quick and easy to put together (and I have become familiar with the routine too) and this time the exterior finish is ‘stone’  which is a nice change. All the finishes have been different so far and I like them all. While the glue for the stone was drying I painted the shingles, which I wanted to look like slates. I didn’t snip them irregular lengths for this building. Debbie’s instructions said she mixed an equal amount of a brown and a grey to get the colour for the shutters and door, and she did the roof in a dark brown. I wanted something different, so I thought I would adapt a darker version of the brown/grey for the roof. I tried it against the stone and it looked fine so I went ahead with it. I really liked the effect I achieved on the shingles, with the base colour, some brown streaks, and highlights of a darker grey and two lighter greys.


Once the paint had dried I shingled the roof and tried it out, sitting the roof on the walls of the shop. It didn’t look any good! Too much grey. So I added a lot more brown to the mixture and some black to make it darker, and painted all over my nice effect. The colour suited the stone colours perfectly but I had lost all the highlights. I went over it all and did some but it’s never as effective when it’s done later. Never mind, the overall effect is okay.


In the drying time for the shingles I was able to put a couple of coats of white paint on all the furniture and to wallpaper the interior. I put the flooring in, and tried out the furniture and didn’t like that either! So then I painted all the furniture brown. The chairs are just the ubiquitous brown plastic ones, but I painted them to match the rest of the furniture and left the backs white, which looked nice.


After the roof was attached, the window and door went in, grass and ‘vines’ were added and hey presto it was almost finished! I left it overnight for the paint on the plastic pieces to thoroughly dry and finally went to bed. I hadn’t felt at all tired until then, I was on such a roll but when I was sitting up in bed typing up my Journal and then playing some solitaire it finally hit me in a wave. Not surprising I guess since it was now 2am and I’d been awake since 4am!


Next morning I mixed some sage green and white and made a pretty colour to highlight the door and shutters. I also repainted the backs of the chairs with the same colour. Rummaging through my quarter scale bits and pieces I took out a little vase of pink flowers and a hanging basket that I bought at the Sydney Fair in 2009. I wanted to use this green and pink as highlights, to pick up the colours of the flowers in the pretty wallpaper. I also had a couple of dishes that I hadn’t used in the Sea Shanty, and they look good on the dresser but I needed more crockery to dress the place up and some ornaments as well. And a menu for the table.


And I made a curtain for the window – some silk tulle and lace make a pretty curtain that perfectly suits the place. It’s the first curtain I’ve made in quarter scale, and it was quite easy in the end. First I glued the lace on the bottom of the tulle. When it was dry I doubled the top over so that it was the right length for the window and ran a row of tiny running stitches across the top. After that I trimmed the excess off and gathered the curtain to the correct width.

Some PVA with water added could then be brushed on with a stiff paint brush, and the curtain moulded with my fingers to the shape i wanted. I put it on a piece of polystyrene to dry. Then a line of glue across the top of the window to hold it in place. I was going to add a spot at each lower corner of the window but it isn’t necessary.


The kit came with pieces for the shelf for the wall, the table and the hutch. The chairs as I said before are ready made. The doily came with the kit as well. It has made up so nicely and I would love to just pop in there for a nice morning or afternoon tea, wouldn’t you?

Showing sign & hanging basket

The following Sunday, I made a sign for it with green lettering and a little cup and saucer. Not much would fit on the sign because it is so small, but I wanted something. It took ages to find some clipart that I was happy with, and even longer to find a font that I liked but would still come out clearly when printed out in such a small size. Several that I tried were not clear once printed out. The picture and the lettering are done in a darker shade of the green I have used, and there is a border around it in the same green.

Special of the Day

I found another nice clipart that had a teapot, cup and saucer and some cakes and it was mainly pink. I thought that it would look nice and pick up the pink of the flowers in the wallpaper so I reduced that right down and made some menus. One is on the table and there are several on the dresser. I also used the same picture at the bottom of a notice board outside for the special of the day.

And there it sat, until today – just lacking those last couple of things. So I decided that had to change! Hence the seagulls and their transformation into galahs – poor Silver (named after my nephew’s childhood cat) felt pretty silly sitting on that step looking up at nothing. When it came to putting them on the roof it became obvious that it wasn't going to be very easy for Silver to see them, so I put them in the vine at the side instead. They feed on the ground a lot but I didn't want them to be caught by Silver and eaten.  One of those cheeky galahs is peeking around the side of the shop teasing the poor thing - doesn't he know that cats can climb?  And jump?

I have had the plates for the dresser for ages now, but was not keen on the prospect of correcting their  wonky s/hapes from when my darling helpful husband punched them out (which by the way was better than I would have been able to do). But over the last few days I have trimmed and sanded with an emery board until they are reasonably round. No - don’t you dare look too closely vbg. I had them all ready and then upset the tray that I was working on and of course

Interior - right side

some went missing. After a frantic search all were present and correct except for one. So a replacement will have to be made for that. Rather than risk losing any more however, I went ahead and glued them into place. Or tried to – when I went to put the largest ones in, they were too big. So the smaller ones went in for safekeeping and it was back to trimming and filing for the largest ones.

The two decorative plates have been moved to the shelf on the opposite wall, and I also added another vase of flowers. A framed picture is on the wall above it and another one is on the wall between the window and the door.

Interior Left side

 And Kate’s Café is ready for business.