Gardening 1:1 and 1:48

and still waiting for the clay to dry...

Actually it did dry, and at first it seemed that we were having success in beating the warping bug, but during the last stage as usual the familiar curving appeared.  So now the side and base have been dampened down and are sitting between two layers of foil, covered by a breadboard and under a weight (my 10L container of water to be exact - I have to buy water because the water here is disgusting and doesn't agree with my tummy).  An added benefit is that using that container doesn't take any extra room - which is scarce anyway in a caravan vbg.  So there are still no photos of those pieces, sorry!

This is the second try, I had the front under there as well for the first lot but it meant that the weight wasn't concentrated enough so I have removed that for now.  

Peter and Nathan went home yesterday after lunch.  I won't see them for another fortnight or so and Nathan was a bit teary.  He hates that I'm not there at home even though he is mostly in his room playing X-Box when he is home.  But with him getting teary I managed to wave them off the broke down and had a real sob.  There are many times in the first 10 years of his life (over 30 in fact) that the girls had to do without me at home while I spent anything from a few days to weeks on end with Nathan in Hospital while he had tests or more surgery so now it is Kylie's turn.  It wasn't easy to leave the girls then and it's not easy to leave him now but that's the way it is.

On the positive side I am loving having time with Kylie and the boys.  And Kirstie and her four were up over the weekend and that was great too.  Our littlest one is growing up so fast, as the baby of the family always does!  Soon he will be 2 years old and it seems like yesterday that he was born.

The title was 'flowers' and you must be wondering by now - What flowers?'  Well, on the 1:1 side, Peter tells me that the garden at home is doing well.  No, of course he didn't think to take photos! 

On the 1:48th side however there is a lot to show.  Well, at least I've spent a lot of time on it, even though it doesn't take up much room lol! 

First, I planted some poppies on the right of the garden, along with some daffodils.  Here you can see the size of one of the groups of daffodils.

On the other side of the path is another group of daffodils along with the primroses.  I've propped the front of the Cottages against my glasses case to hold it up and you can see that the front has quite a curve to it.

The left side of the middle garden has a gardenia bush that took me three evenings and most of yesterday to make!  These plants might be small but they certainly are time-intensive.  I buy all of my flowers as kits from Susan Karatjas of sdk miniatures LLC.  Her web address is http://www.sdkminiatures.com  and her site is worth visiting.  She has kits for 1:12th, 1:24th and 1:144th scales as well as 1:48th scale.  And she does lovely furniture and other kits as well.  If you order from her please tell her you heard about her from me.  My very largest order ever went missing - worth over $200.  When it didn't ever turn up, Susan replaced it for me, and did so with much grace.  I had bought several other things since that order and we worked out adjustments to the original order and she was very patient with that process too.

And this next photo shows the sunflowers on the left of the garden, with a ruler to show the size of them.  This is only a narrow space and I haven't decided yet whether to add the Cottages to a larger base.

So here we have an overview of the garden and front so far - and no, the front of the cottage isn't really on a slope vbg, its the way it is propped I guess.  I have tidied the clay up a bit on the front, and re-scribed the bricks but they really aren't the best job in the world.

Here it is again, with a ruler - the front is 9" long, which is quite long for a Petite Properties building.  But then it is two cottages in one.  

and looking down on the garden you can see that there is still a lot of 'white space' so there is still a lot of garden to be planted.  I have made a bunch of tiny little white flowers and pink flowers with leaves, and will put them in as fillers when other plants are in place.  the delphiniums are on their way.  And I'm working on a vine that will go up the division between the two surfaces and spread across the two buildings.  If I don't go crazy first lol!  It is a clematis vine and if you consider that it took me days to do the leaves for the vine that went over the trellis on the arbor for the giveaway you will understand the task I have set myself.  I go cross-eyed doing those leaves, which are around 1mm each and have to be glued individually to the stems.  And I want to put a vine across the whole building?  I must be mad!!!!  Perhaps ivy would do?  If you see ivy instead, you will know I have admitted defeat.  Ivy is painstaking enough so it's not really an easy out but it is less insane than clematis.

And there's also another flower wheelbarrow.  It might not be used in this garden, I just felt like doing one.  Here's a view from one side

And from the other

And from the top

So that's what I've been doing for the last few days when I've been mini-ing!  I'd love to have been painting but until the clay is dry that has to wait.  


Did you notice I said the base was drying?  That's because I did the floors too - forgot to mention that!  On the ground floor I've done flagstones.  Mainly because I don't do quarry stones well.  Scribing 1/8" squares is not my strong point.  If I manage to get them even going one way (and that's not likely) I mess them up going the other way, when it drags the clay out of shape.  Yes, I know I could draw them on but I prefer them in clay.  So I've done flagstones.


On the first floor I did floorboards, using strips of thin card in the method I learned for the Corner Shop.  I find that the card used to support stockings in their packet perfect for use in PP kits, and since I only wear stockings once a week to church in winter, I carefully hoard any of these that I get.  I was congratulating myself on remembering to make them go the correct way this time, and was showing them to Peter when I realised that I had done them on the wrong side of the timber!  Oh well, it just means that the wall will slide in back to front and I might have to adjust the roof line so the roof fits properly. 


What is it with this cottage?  I seem to make so many errors!


And guess what?  A parcel arrived for me on Friday from Petite Properties with The Cottage Stores and 2&4 Birchwood Avenue kits plus some furniture kits!  Things are humming here lol!