It's lonely without the family

Welcome to two new followers: May from ilovelittle things and to minimariba (tried to find a blog but couldn't).  I'm so pleased that you came to visit and thank you for signing on as followers.  May sells delightful mini food.  I bought some goodies before Christmas from her Etsy store and have just bought some more, including a tin of macaroons.  When we have moved back to the house I will take a photo of the delicious items I bought earlier, and also some things I bought through Grace Shaw of Virtual Dollhouse.

The floods in Australia have now reached Victoria, and my daughter is on the second leg of her trip back to Toowoomba in Queensland today.  I am anxious to hear what she finds there - her house, the conditon of the roads, and the town itself.  When I was there in September, which is spring for us, the Festival of Flowers was on and Peter and I visited parks and prize-winning gardens.  The whole place was a showpiece of beautiful flowers.  I know that one of those parks at least bore the brunt of the inland tsunami and the flood.

It feels very empty without our lovely daughter and grandchildren.  And of course the Fluff Ball.  And to add to it, today is the first of the three days a week that our son Nathan works at the sheltered workshop so he is not around either.  So we are emptying the annexe for the caravan and in between downpours of rain, we will start the dismantling process and leave the walls and floor to dry in my brother's car port.

Trying to find minimariba's blog I ended up following links that were listed under her profile and I've discovered quite a lot of gorgeous blogs.  I really want to upgrade my blog here and among the links I have come across one that might help with that so I can see that I will be spending lots of time trying out ideas from it.  More details later.

But today I thought I'd share a photo of the Town Square with all the buildings so far. It's not set out properly of course, and only on a temporary board.  When I have almost all the buildings I will arrange them so that the colours of the different building are pleasantly balanced and set up the board properly. Here are the buildings so far:

Town Square - first eight buildings

The plan is to have the board with all the landscaping done, and positions for each building marked.  The buildings won't be left permanently attached for now, until I decide where to display it at home.  But for the Sydney Fair in May it will be easier to transport like this.  I hope. 

The only one I haven't fully completed inside is the first that arrived: the pet shop.  I do have everything I need for it.  In fact I have too much for it and that's the hold-up.  I am still working out how to put it all in, or what to leave out.  Better start working on it again soon.  It is becoming annoying that I have the rest done and the first still isn't