A LITTLE bit of Christmas charm......

Quite little in fact - but packed full of elegance and Christmas charm! It's a quarter scale Christmas living room from Luci Hanson.  My kit arrived on Friday, just as Peter was ready to leave to come out to the country town where I had been for the last two weeks or so.  He brought it out with him knowing that I had been anxiously waiting its arrival.

This is what came in the kit:

Every single thing that is required for the finished roombox is included, except the batteries for the lighting.  The box has hidden strip lighting across the top front and the interior is removable.  

It's beautifully made.

And this is what it will look like once it is completed

Don't you love the half-round roombox?  Each is handmade by Luci's husband, and they are available from their website, Cascade Miniatures (click  here). 

We all returned home from our daughter's house on Monday afternoon, getting back around 7pm so were very very tired - I was too tired to even open the box again.  It was a 7-hour trip, not too many roadworks which was good.  I only drove for 1 1/2 hours this time, and almost completed a beaut little caddy pincushion for our daughter on the way - I love hand piecing. It would have been finished except I didn't have any stuffing for it. Pictures later.  Yesterday I attended the Christmas party with my mother at the nursing home where she is a resident.  I stayed with her for the rest of the afternoon so last night it was time to start catching up on the washing and today is the first chance I've had to get into the box of goodies again. 

There was an email from Luci this morning to say that some people hadn't received their page of illustrations to match the instructions.  I checked and sure enough, I was one of them.  So is my friend Jan in Bundy who is also doing the same project.  Our kits also have a plain square window instead of the one pictured in the model, and we don't like that nearly as much so we are going to replace the window.  That will possibly hold things up a bit for us, but I am trying to source the windows locally.  But there are things we can do without them

I decided I'd start with the fireplace - I'm still a bit too tired to tackle the armchairs and make a good job of them.  I started by painting the firebox inside brown then daubing black over the lower part.  I decided I wanted a brown surround like in the model, and did some brown on the bottom too.  It still needs more coats of paint, the flickering globe and the logs added, but here it is so far

I also painted the inside of the removable part of the roombox with a couple of coats of white craft paint.  Here it is with the window cut out of the false wall, and the Santa graphic adhered to the rear wall.

I cut the window opening out of the false wall and added the spacer pieces to the back of it.  

The spacer that goes under the window has greenery added on top of it, with white paint added for 'snow'.

It makes such a difference with the wallpaper added and the flooring paper added, doesn't it? The fireplace is just sitting there for now - there is a piece of furniture beside it, so I have to make sure that there is room for that before I glue it in.   once I have added the flickering globe and the rest of the flames and timber bits, I will run the wires through the false wall and out the rear wall and glue the fireplace permanently in beside the little table that goes there.  

I've cut out the rug and put it in place but I haven't stuck it down.  I'll wait to do that until I have done the furniture.  I just wanted to see it on the floor.

Not bad for one afternoon and evening's work!  How do you like it so far?