....and your tour continues

More furniture to show you today

But first a question:

If anyone knows how to get rid of the 'word verification' step when people leave a comment, could they please email me and let me know? I spent most of yesterday looking for the way to do it without success.

And now:

Welcome back. Come with me while we continue our tour of Pickett Hill's unique and lovely furnishings. While we are in the dining room, let me show you the Coop - as I have told you, the front cannot go on permanently until items are placed inside and I am waiting for some items to arrive from overseas. Here it is without the front on. The shelves are papered top and bottom.

The sides have this lovely worked timber on them to match the front doors.

And here it is with the front just held in place temporarily. Isn't it delightful?

Moving on to the living room now, first of all I was going to show you the Reading Nook. The story that comes with this kit is really funny, and easy to relate to. The trompe l'oeil books have a reason behind them, and so does the tiny seat in front of them. However I forgot to take a photo of it, which is slightly annoying because I've taken photos of everything. I'll do it tomorrow.

The story for the daybed is also delightful, as is the finished daybed itself. Couldn't you just snuggle up on it and doze? As usual with a kit from the Betterleys, the artwork is delicate, detailed and beautiful, like the kit itself.

Here it is without the cushions on it, so you can see the details more easily.

This is true also of the side table. In the half inch (1:24) scale version the drawer opens, but in the

quarter scale (1:48) size it doesn't. The artwork however includes the drawer lining and the little extras to go into the drawer, so I will use these on the desk. Look at this side view. It has more artwork on it, and see how delicate the legs are.

Now we will pause for a moment to admire the beds for La-dee-dah (the cat) and for Miss Lydia Pickett (the dog). She owns the people in the house.

Here is La-dee-dah's bed

And here is Lydia's bed.

And in this closer view you will see that she has left a couple of her favourite doggy biscuits there for a snack later on.

Just around the corner from the living room, in the hallway, is the apothecary chest. This is a sweet piece of furniture

and was a lot of fun to make up. The story for it is related to the story of the two benches on the front porch. I love the 'something extra' in the form of two little boxes that were provided to cover and put on top of it. I debated whether to put them one on top of the other but that would not have shown both to their best advantage so I've put them separately. In between I hope I've left room for either a vase of flowers or a small lamp.

And here is the shelf that goes above the chest. I haven't added the plates yet, when I do I will show you. Or maybe not :)! The smallest of them are soooo tiny, and I don't have a punch that small so I've been putting off trying to cut them out. Hope I don't totally mess them up

Upstairs in the Studio is the Artist's Storage Cabinet, where Mum has all her craft things organised. Remember how I set it on fire? Well, after a bit of patching, painting and glueing, this is what it looked like.

Yes, you are quite right - one of the frame surrounds around a small door is missing. And after adding the artwork it looked just lovely. Then, as instructed, I filled it with 'stuff'.

In miniatures, the mini person has to be rather untidy so that we can see what is in the various drawers and containers, otherwise everything would be very boring and uninteresting, and the scene wouldn't look 'lived in' at all. So with the addition of all the window seat, rolls of fabric, spools of ribbon and lace, the boxes and the little crates filled with 'stuff' (most of it provided in the kit) it now looks like a busy crafter's area, doesn't it? Notice the sewing machine, all threaded and ready to go?

Did you notice that there are 5 crates instead of 6? that's because people like to bump my worktable and knock things over. Even things in containers get spilled. The crates have landed on the floor so many times I've lost count. One morning I found that one had disappeared. A week later I found just one side on the floor so apparently it met with a sad end under someone's foot! And no, the men in my house (husband, son and nephew) do not notice if they feel something little under their feet - they just crunch away. Like with the greenhouse. And yes, I did hunt, and hunt, and crawl everywhere on my hands and knees looking for it.

To finish our tour for today, let's step outside again and have a look at Miss Lydia Pickett's doghouse. It is pretty special, with its trim reflecting that of the house itself, and even a windvane on the roof.

And at the back there is more gingerbread trim, plus a sweet little oval window, just like the oval window in the house. How special is that?!

And if you could look inside you would see that it has this lovely carpet, showing what a very special dog Miss Lydia Pickett is!

Still to show you: Emma's bedroom and Robbie's bedroom, and the kitchen. I can hardly wait to show you - they are so gorgeous! And of course, the bathroom screen and the Reading Nook. So - till next time (probably tomorrow - but now it is nearly midnight) -