Update

Well dear friends, I promised you photos after Sunday of the shelves in my studio.  So here they are:

Aren't they looking good?  And here's a photo of my minis on the shelves.

What's that you say?  You can't see any shelves?  Just a bare wall, you say?  And no minis on the shelves either? Let me look again.  Yup, you're right.  It looks just like a bare wall to me, I can't see any shelves either,  That's because there aren't any!

But it's not quite that dire - the sink cupboard is finished except for the door that will cover part of it, and th e sink unit being put into it.  So are there minis on those shelves?

No,  are right again, that's not minis on the shelves, it is tools.  Not my tools - my brother's tools and my hubby's tools.

But some of my quarter scale minis and my Fairfield are in the cubby.  Yes siree, they are - or at least they were for Sunday, to make room in the house while we had guests.  Here they are:


Two rows deep and several layers high on the desk (and under the desk too).






This is the large table that takes up two thirds of the right side of the studio, it has tools over half of it and under all of it.  I have boxes of minis on the rest of the top and all across the front of it behind the door.





A trestle table is set up in front of the stack of timber for the shelves, with the big drop saw under it as well as heaps of large boxes of minis.







The Fairfield and the Town Square on on the trestle table along with some containers - I've tried my best to keep relevant things together but it hasn't always worked so well because the menfolk decide that certain boxes can be moved to make way for other things.




Nicely arranged and organized, aren't they?  Not!  Don't know how on earth I'll ever sort it all out again.  And the thought of bringing it all back into the house is rather daunting too.

You might detect a certain note of, shall we say - cynicism in this post?  I wonder why?! Sigh.  But it was nice to have those boxes out of my lounge room and dining room as you can imagine - and I was able to vacuum my floors properly too, so the house feels clean for a change :)

Sunday (yesterday) was an enjoyable day, made even more so by the unexpected and most welcome addition of our youngest daughter Kirsten, our two granddaughters Grace and Chelsea, and the 'bump', or Herbie as Kirstie calls her unborn baby.  She is 17 weeks pregnant with her fifth child.  It was also great to have my Mum here and show her what we have all been so busy with these last seven months.  It is difficult for Mum to get out and involves hiring a wheelchair taxi, so we tend to visit her at the nursing home rather than have her here too often.

Mum was really interested in seeing the Fairfield that I've been talking about, and of course the studio and the paved area.  I get my love of pretty gardens from her too, so we had a good discussion about what I had planted in there.  My brother has no time for gardens - he gets that from my dad.

And the garden is making pleasing progress even if the studio isn't!  On Thursday Peter and I spent the day clearing up the building mess from the back yard and the cubby (what a job!), and planting some more plants.  The mandevilla will now climb up in front of the verandah post, and hopefully will enjoy being out of the pot it's been in for the last couple of years and will bloom profusely with it's pink flowers with a deep pink throat.

 The scaevola is putting on some growth and is a really pretty colour.

A lot of the buds on the philotheca 'Winter rouge' are bursting open into their pretty star-shaped flowers.

The little marguerite daisy has been blooming ever since we put it in.

Even the little Federation daisy has recovered from being butchered when being transplanted from it's pot and is blooming away, sweet little thing that it is.

The lavender is putting forth some blooms now.  Is this an English lavender?  It's my favourite kind.

 And the Lavender Sidonie has recovered from the shock of being planted out into the pot and is blooming away beautifully.

I have deadheaded the dianthus and they are looking a bit bare now but hopefully will give another flush of flowers.

Isn't the  Diascia looking lovely?  It's filling out just so well and draping over the sides of the pot beautifully.

The paving was finally finished on Friday, with all the half bricks that needed to be cut being put along the edges of the rows.  Peter and I had planted the gardens on either side on Thursday. The lovely camellia sasanqua 'Little Jen' has virtually finished its first flush of flowers but there are quite a few buds that will hopefully come out soon.  This is a pretty little camellia with a weeping habit and blooms for a long period.  It should look nice against the grey of the wall.  To the right of it that tiny plant you might be able to see among the sugar cane mulch is a ground cover with white flowers on it, then there's a dwarf buddlea under the window.  It only grows to about 80cm high and wide.

 When this stick with a topknot of  leaves grows up it will be a beautiful Chinese Tallow tree and provide some shade for this paved area as well as spectacular autumn foliage.  It is supposed to reach 8m height and 3-5m width. We had a good talk on Thursday, the tree and I, and I explained just what is expected of it.  At the moment it is only about 5ft tall but the branching at the top promises to give good shape later on.  We really could have done with the shade yesterday, it was so hot that it was actually a bit unpleasant to sit on the paved area for long.  We'll have to buy a cheap temporary gazebo to put over the table and chairs for a while I think.

The cinerarias in the middle of the wheelbarrow aren't looking their best at the moment - I have deadheaded them and more flowers are coming up from underneath.  Our youngest granddaughter Chelsea also did some deadheading on Sunday.  She loves the garden and is often out among the flowers at her house.  They will look better in a couple of days.  But the violas are still gorgeous, draping over the sides of the wheelbarrow beautifully even if they don't look quite as good as they did a couple of weeks ago.

Not a bad show considering that it was still winter when these photos were taken!  Yesterday, Sunday, was the 1st September and so the first day of spring.

I love pretty flowers but I'm not a good gardener.  Hopefully with these plants being outside the cubby and with me passing by every day I will notice what needs to be done and will take the time to do it, deadheading and weeding and watering as required.  It will encourage me to take breaks from sitting for too long like I do indoors.  I have a kitchen timer that I want to set for every 30 minutes and take a 5-10 minute break to get up and walk around - I am far too sedentary.  Since I've been more active working on the studio I can fit into clothes that I haven't been able to wear for three years.  They are still tight but I can wear them.  I need to do more activity even when I am able to mini again.  Not only to lose weight but also for better health.

Here's a quick overview of the front of the cubby as of Thursday.  First the left side.  The pickets still aren't fixed in place on the verandah - you can see that they are all uneven.  I just put them there to see the effect again (changed them from the right side to the left) and they have moved.  And you will notice that the window and door trim still isn't done.  Sigh.

It's starting to look quite pretty though, with the plants.  The hanging basket will be lovely soon, when the blue lobelia start to bloom and contrast with the white flowers in the centre.  And the sweet peas are supposed to be just perfect for hanging baskets but I don't think they know that they're supposed to hand down :)

I'm really looking forward to the climbing mandevilla being in bloom up the left post..  We do have other little plants that I want to put in among the larger plants too, or along the edge of the garden to hang over the sides of the railway sleepers.

Now the whole front.  sort of anyway - there was still a trestle table with some long lengths of melamine covered compound timber shelves on it when I took this photo on Thursday, blocking a complete view of the right side.

And here's a view of the paved area at the side.  Our garden table and chairs need a complete sanding and re-oiling, they are rather neglected at the moment.  We like the grey aged look but they do need attention.  So does the garden bench that we've moved to the paving from under the jacaranda tree- I have my eye on a wrought iron bench for under the tree.

As you can see there is quite some way to go yet even though the paving itself is done.  The lattice screen on the left will be reduced in height to about 6 foot, and three more panels will be put in so that it goes all the way to the back fence to screen off Peter's shed and the area behind it where things like wheelbarrows etc are stored.  We have planted the first of the star jasmine plants that will grow up the lattice but it's hard to see in this photo.

The front of it needs to be made more attractive and will have a frog pond to the left and a step put across a large part of it.  It's quite a high step at the moment.  We're also looking for some sort of rail to make it easier for Nathan to get up and down.  I've put some thin plywood over the window for now until I buy a blind, to prevent the heat from spoiling my minis.  I think I'll get a traditional shutter for the exterior too.  And as I said, we need some shade - maybe a sailcloth or gazebo.  Today Peter and I will be planting some lilly-pilly plants across the back fence.  They will grow up to cover up the ugly fence and to provide a screen from the back neighbours as well as some nice greenery as a backdrop.  The new growth is a lovely bronze-red too, so it's very attractive.  We might even spray paint the fence the same dark grey as the trim on the cubby to tie it together and make it a nicer colour.

So - I am learning patience my friends!  There's still a lot of painting I could do on the cubby, and it needs to be done before the weather gets too hot.  And there's still some gardening to do before the weather warms up too much too.  And hopefully the menfolk will get the shelving done soon as well.