Double Trouble

Is lots of fun!

Val, a friend I met online through some miniatures groups, flew over from South Australia to stay at my place a couple of  weeks ago.  That’s no small thing for her to do, by the way.  South Australia is halfway across Australia and Sydney is on the east coast.  So I was very excited that she would come to spend time doing minis with me.

We met her at the airport on Monday.  For Val it is a 2 1/2 hour drive to Adelaide airport, so to catch her flight she was up at 5am ready to leave by 7am, only to find when she arrived there that her flight was delayed by 2 hours.  By the time she arrived at Sydney Airport at 5.30pm it had been a very long day indeed. 

Val is great fun, and we had a wonderful time, with just so many laughs.  I don’t know why I tidied the house before she arrived – dragging out all my minis that are works in progress to show her means that the lounge and dining rooms ended up looking a total mess lol!  But it is such fun to share them with someone who loves our hobby as much as I do.  The photo below shows some of the mess!

We  haven’t just spent our time doing ‘show and tell’ either.  I set up a worktable in the middle of the lounge room and we sat at that.  We got busy making flowers, Val in 1/12^th scale and mine in 1.24^th scale.  These are Vals - mine aren't finished.  The birdhouse is and half of the geraniums are but I still have the rest of the geraniums and need to add the ivy to the wire around the birdhouse.

We made some quarter scale armchairs, based on kits I had from Pam Junk.  For these we used balsa wood and toothpicks and they came out really well.

 Val made up a tiny kit for an arbor from Petite Properties.  It surprised her that it went together so easily and that even though it is quarter scale it wasn't at all difficult to do.

 I assembled a lovely little Welsh dresser kit from Templewood Miniatures.  I love this series of kits, the wood is just beautiful and the kits go together like a dream.

And  a 1:24^th scale play table with a train set - I've done one of these before in 1:48th scale and I must say it is a whole lot bigger in 1:24th   scale :)  They are heaps of fun to make and decorate, and to decide how you want your little train to be positioned.  I can just imagine it in a little boy's bedroom, can't you?

Val had made a lovely writing bureau in 1:12th scale from a tutorial on 1inch minis by Kris.  This is a great site, with lots of tutorials.   You can find it here   We adapted this tutorial  to 1/24^th scale and made one each.  Val's is on the left and mine is on the right in the photo below.

Before Val left for the airport to return home we posed for a photo with the products of our 'playing' for the week.  Here we are, standing in front of a cabinet that holds some of my quarter scale buildings:

and here is a close-up of what we are holding in our hands (I forgot the Welsh dresser at the time) but you might be able to see the foam in my left hand, with the geraniums constructed so far.  They are a bit hard to see but there are several in there.

Val worked on her FlowerPot Cottage, learning how to do the clay on the walls.And we experimented with the flint finish that some Petite Properties have..

Val also came ready to shop, and her visit included a trip to a model railway shop, a hobby shop, a hardware store and a craft store , looking for materials that aren’t so easily obtained in the little village near where she lives.

We had planned for her to give me a lesson in dry stone wall building – in quarter scale!  Ian, Val’s husband, is a stone worker and builds stone walls and stone houses for a living and Val helps him so I would have been guided by an expert in the field.  But when we were at Bunnings we forgot to get the gravel/stone to make the wall with!  And we ran out of time anyway.  So that will have to wait for 'next time' :)

And she came bearing gifts too, as if coming all the way from South Australia to spend time with me isn't enough by itself.  A beautiful fairy will be a treasured feature of my mini garden

A tiny scarecrow bead will keep watch in my Petite Properties farm - he's only around 3/4" tall, so doesn't look his best when enlarged like this but he's really cute.

Two  teapots make the perfect outline for clocks in the kitchen of the Fairfield and another halfscale house.

Val makes pincushions and gave me these two pretty ones.  Don't you love the little house and garden on the larger one?  Wonder why she thought they'd be appropriate? :)

Also some greenery and dried flowers for my mini gardens, an antique half scale sewing machine and stool, some tiny turnings, leather and upholstery fabric pieces for carpets, beads.  These trumpet-shaped beads suggest interesting possibilities

And a pretty little knitted set of bonnet, booties and panties from Jeanette Fishwick in Tasmania.  I have emailed you Jeanette, but I want to thank you again here - these are just delightful. 

Then at the end of the week we drove Val back to the airport, for her return flight home to her hubby.  I was sad to see her go - life goes back to a household of three males and me now, and I am the only miniaturist.  Nathan is very keen though, and Val has talked him into buying a kit for a halfscale house, so I can see that we'll be busy helping him with that.  

Thank you Val, for a wonderful week, lots of laughs and lots of mini-ing!  We'd all love to have you come again - and bring Ian with you too!