Thursday, 25th March 2010

I’ve been fiddling – a bit of ‘Show and Tell’

We’re leaving tomorrow to go interstate for just a few days to take a pile of things to Kylie’s so I have been having trouble settling to doing anything much on the Sea Shanty. Plus there’s not a great deal I can do until I get the flooring in and that hasn’t arrived yet.

But I have been fiddling on and off and although I haven’t finished I have decided to put all the little bits together and do a bit of a ‘Show and Tell’, as much to cheer myself up as anything else. So here it is with everything in place – sort of.


Today I finally got my act together and mixed some shellac and did the bedroom furniture and the railing on the stairs and balusters. Very nice it looks too, even unfinished.  And I did the outside bench seat and the additional bits to the kitchen furniture. So lets look at each room and see what we have.

First of all, the bathroom. Not for any particular reason except that I’m starting at the top left hand of the house when viewed from the back. As good a reason as any I guess. Looking at the left side there is a tiny shell-shaped holder for a sea-sponge in the corner, and on the wall is a shelf I made that still has to be filled with lovely bath salts, liquid soaps and the like. There will be more bottles and perfumes on the shelf below the cabinet that is at the front of the house awaiting them, and not attached to the wall yet. And of course we need a ring for a hand towel to hang from. The space between the hand basin and the front wall will be filled with the shelves that are the moment sitting in front of the house (well, at the back really vbg) – with yellow and blue towels, face cloths and hand towels neatly folded on them. The rest of the shelves need to be filled yet.

On the right you can see a pale yellow towel hanging from the towel rack, a blue laundry hamper is just in sight on the other side of the loo, and I have dropped the cistern of the toilet to make it a lower set one. It’s not a particularly modern house, but not totally old fashioned either.

Moving on to the bedroom, and I still have to add the knobs to the furniture. But I have had fun here. The wardrobe is full of ‘clothes’ hanging from the rack. You can’t see them all from this angle but I know that they are there and you can see more when you change directions but the camera won’t fit that way.

The second photo shows the books in the bedhead. Each one has a different coloured cover, and white pages or gold edges to the pages, even though it can’t be seen lol! It also shows the chest. I am very pleased with that chest. It is actually the coffee table from Pam Junk’s kit that I used in the living area. But I painted it pale grey-blue, gave it a wash of white, then added art work from Robin Betterly’s Dry Sink kit. It is perfect in the bedroom, breaking the brown and blue of the rest of the furniture.  Oh, and by the way - how do you like the Holland blinds in the bedroom and the living room?  I think they look neat and trim, providing privacy when needed but not obscuring the lovely ocean view.


And the Captn’s bed is all ship-shape and neat. Couldn’t be anything else, could it? I am still looking for the right fabric for the patchwork quilt though.


Going downstairs now, admiring the staircase on the way. Don’t you think the ‘timber’ handrail sets off the painted balusters really nicely?

First of all we will look at the kitchen. In here we have the Hoosier cupboard, spice chest (sitting at the front) and the ice chest that are from Pam’s Old Fashioned Kitchen kit. The door has fallen off the ice chest because I just sat it in place for now. Then there is the table and chairs and I forget just for the moment where I got that kit from. I'll have to check my Inventory.  Under the window is the dry sink from Pam’s set to which I have added an extra bit on the top and made a ‘stainless steel’ sink and draining board to go on instead. It occurs to me that a tap would probably make life easier for poor Mrs McGregor lol! Beside that is the dry sink unit from Robin Betterly but again I added another bit to the top and made a ‘slide out’ part for extra working space and a white counter top. There is an aga on its way for the kitchen so things might have to be re-arranged somewhat in here.

Also in front are the welcome sign (left), shelf with pegs, and chalkboard from Robin Betterly’s kit. And the lamp from Pam Junk’s living room set.

Moving on to the living room, there is the corner cabinet to the left, for which I do have a set of pretty plates to display and some other bits are coming. On the right the Captn’s desk might end up going, depends on how much room I need to leave for the pot belly stove that is also on its way. The Capt’n insists on sitting in his rocking chair, but the sofa and arm chair provide comfortable seating for Mrs McGregor and guests. The skirted table needs some photographs and a lamp on it, and a rug on the floor would be nice too – although living on a beach means lots of sand so it would have to be something easy to keep clean vbg.

To the left outside of the house are the settle that I did in blue with a white wash to match the corner cupboard. The original idea was to use this in the living area, with the rocking chair. And it might still end up that way! Perhaps with an armchair too – we’ll see. It's a toss-up between those and the sofa and armchair.  There is also a small dresser that might have to substitute for the Hoosier cabinet in the kitchen  if things get a bit tight once the aga arrives. I know it is a darker wood than the rest of the kitchen furniture, but then things don’t have to be a perfect match – I don’t feel so, anyway, and I really like this dresser.

On the right of the house is the collection of lobster traps and barrels, and also the barrel that Captn McGregor sawed in half to make planters for Mrs McGregor to use in the front of the house. Alongside these things is a nice bench seat that looks really attractive out the front of the house, though I’m not sure that’s where it will go, and a small shelf that is actually the dry sink that came in the Old Fashioned Kitchen (Pam Junk). Don't know if or where I will use that for the moment.


Other things I have but aren't shown here, to scatter around the exterior include a ‘rusted’ anchor, the bollards, a ship’s wheel, a life buoy, ropes, fishing gear etc. Inside there are still pictures, photos ,dishes, vases, more books, and some other bits to come. Anyone know how to do quarter scale knitting? And of course there are still flowers and the greenery to decorate the outside. And then there’s the beach and the water........

Monday, 23rd March 2010

And this one is here too....

As I said on the post for ‘The Washtub Cottage’ – they arrived today. Quite a small parcel – an envelope in fact, albeit padded – but with such possibilities inside! I’m rather intimidated by the thought of doing all that brickwork so perfectly though – it’s all marked out by hand! But the techniques learned from doing these projects are going to be so valuable, and the challenge will be worth it. These are not projects to be done in a hurry, or with a deadline in mind. These are projects to be done with care and precision. So I am not going to even attempt to do them for the Sydney Fair, I think. That is on the first weekend in May, which is barely a month away and to have one completed by then would involve a bit push. With everything else I have going at the moment that would mean things would get rushed.

Monday 23rd March 2010

They arrived today

I’m overwhelmed with riches – and have no time whatsoever to indulge at the moment vbg! We are taking a trip to Queensland in a couple of days to deliver a trailer and car load of household and personal goods to our oldest daughter, who has been able to rent a house in Toowoomba. So gathering her belongings sent from her sister in western NSW tomorrow, then those still at her cousin’s house on the north coast a couple of hours from us on Thursday, as well as a bed and fridge and various other things from here, and heading north. We will break the trip into two days since it is a 14-hr trip, so we’ll be away the best part of a week. It will be lovely to see her and the boys, but I won’t be doing anything substantial mini-wise until our return.

I'd be happier if she was closer to family and friends down here so we could all offer her more support.   But maybe (hopefully) when we return I'll be less stressed too, knowing she is more settled - and perhaps the migraines will decrease!

And when we come back I’ll have to make that big decision, won’t I? Which of these wonderful projects will I start on?.......

This cottage has four rooms, so that allows more scope for decorating.  I haven't had time to read through the booklets yet, but will indulge in that tomorrow in between appointments - it is great to have something to have while I wait vbg!  And it's a good way to 'expose' other people to the fascinating world that has us so addicted, as well.

Thursday, 18th March, 2010

Furniture for the living room

Captain and Mrs McGregor now have some comfortable seating in the living room as well as the rocking chair: tonight I assembled the armchair and sofa with the skirted table, a kit I bought from Pam Junk.  That is the lamp on the table by the way.  It is on its side because I haven't decided where to glue it yet.  And if I do glue it on the table at the moment it's sure to become dislodged and lost so I'll leave it for now.The blue fabric that came with the kit is perfect for the room, but the blue floral didn't go too well with the wallpaper.  Fortunately I had just enough left from the bed cover to use for that and to make a couple of little cushions for the sofa and chair as well. 

Ah yes, the bed.  Well, I haven't photographed it yet because I haven't done it with shellac.  But I have done the bedding for it.  Nice and plain and ship-shape, as befitting a Captain.  Still thinking about a patchwork quilt, looking for a particular fabric I have that would be perfect. It does however pose a problem: I have set my heart on there being a 'Mrs McGregor', and the bed is a single bed!  Not a narrow single bed though, so I think it might go in and I'll have to pretend it's a double lol!

Monday 15th March 2010

What a shame.....

........ to dull that lovely blue paint of the shingles with the ‘dirty’ wash, but it looks more natural I guess. Far from pristine but certainly not decrepit either. Just quite weathered. I am undecided as to whether I was too heavy handed though.....



The trim is on the roof, the roof is on, and I put a 'ridge cap' over the join of the tin roofing at the ridge as well.  The window boxes are attached as is the verandah and a little step and the shutters.  All the little details that took a long time today. And it has all received the weathering treatment. Except for the area under the verandah roof. I figured I could get away with leaving that pristine since it would be ‘protected’ by the roof.

On the verandah are two ‘planters’ made from a barrel sawn in two. Mrs McGregor will soon be planting some geraniums in those, I think! Her green thumb will be very apparent in the beautiful plants that have kept her busy during Capt’n McGregor’s long absences at sea before he retired.

Inside, the trim is on around the windows but I have held off attaching the trim around the door and around the floor until the flooring papers arrive. The windows don’t come through the walls all the way, and in the kitchen I wanted to have it a bit neater so I boxed it in and put in a window sill so I can sit a plant or something on it. It looks pretty good I think.

Peter was sleeping after working last night and I got all of that done while waiting for him to wake up, in between doing the washing and other bits and pieces. So I feel quite pleased all round.

Sunday 14th March 2010

Not a great deal to show for the weekend mini-wise. Last night wasn’t all that productive; I was too tired after being on my feet for a lot of the morning, doing the preparation for the pot-luck Fellowship Luncheon at Church. All I did was a bit more touching up of paint and washes on wharf and pilings. Oh, and made up the window boxes and painted them :) Then my darling brother massaged my feet for an hour. It helped my headache, that's for sure - no good taking medication for it, unless it's one of the true migraine tablets, ordinary pain killers don't do any good. But the foot massage does. It's wonderful.

Then most of today I was around at our house packing up my study, mainly the scrapbooking things, and some of the machine embroidery things in the workroom. I managed to fill six large packing boxes and am only halfway there! When Peter and I came back to the caravan so that he could have a shower and a bit of a sleep before he went off for a night shift at the hospital, I was really glad that I had the reason to come back then too. It was tiring work. But it’s good to see those bare shelves starting to appear.

After my shower (boy, that felt good!) I painted the roofing sheets for the Sea Shanty grey. It is a medium grey with some lighter and some darker grey sort of whirled through it so that it is not a uniform colour. I’ll see how it looks when it is dry, in the daylight. Then I fiddled around assembling the wharf. It didn’t take long since all the preparation was done. In fact it took longer to find something to hold it the right height off the table top than it did to add the pilings and wait for the glue to dry. I took the photo while some areas that I touched up were still wet, so it looks even more blotchy than it really is. But the 'weathering' on it isn't too bad, I reckon. Now that part is all done and I have painted some trim to go around the oval window in the bathroom but I was too tired to concentrate on getting the window trims on the insides of the windows tonight.

Friday 12th March, 2010

Wow, it went  well today!

Even though we had a lot to do today I was able to fit some bits and pieces in between other things. I am still adapting to the increase in medication which makes me dizzy, so when I need to sit down for a while I can do some; when I was waiting for the Church Bulletin to print out I could do some, and so on. Because I had done so much preparation previously I was able to put quite a bit together and made good progress.

So the roof went on both parts of the house. I had to put another coat of the brown wash on the underside of the bedroom roof first, to make it slightly darker, but it didn’t take long to dry. This photo shows the narrow trim going along the join between the roof and the wall at the rear of the wall, and the ‘beams’ which went in next, one in the apex of the roof, one on each side in the junction of roof and wall, and two more on each side of the roof.

I measured up the inside trim for the window and door before the roof went on, since it was a bit easier to do it then than it would be later on. They are cut and put aside for later, after the outside cladding goes on. I won’t put the door trim on until I get the paper for the floor probably.

The plastic ‘shingles’ for the cladding was really easy to add, except that there was not quite enough to cover the walls. I must have done something wrong along the way. The instructions do mention a 3” strip of shingles that wasn’t in my kit, so perhaps that's why. But I managed to get most of it covered, and there was about 1/8” left on one wall, so I covered it with an extra timber strip. Guess there’ll be a vine growing up there to make it less noticeable – not that it is very noticeable now.

The windows and door took a bit of careful shaving and fiddling to ensure the frames would fit inside them, especially the oval window in the bathroom. But once that was done the pieces went in easily. I had pre-painted them all and cut bits of clear plastic from some packaging for ‘glass’ so they were all ready to go. And I love the look of the white against the blue. Nathan came into the caravan and noticed the Sea Shanty for the first time tonight and asked what it was. I just told him it was a new house I was making and his comment was that it looked like the sea. I was intrigued, and asked him why and he said it was because of the blue and white. So I guess I’ve achieved my aim with the colour scheme.

I started on the trim too, but have only got as far as the side so far. I wanted to make a bit of a verandah for the front, rather than sit the house straight on the wharf. There was just enough grooved wood after I had trimmed the extra from the wharf so I cut it to size to match the roof and made a support frame for it from thin paddlepop sticks. It is just four sides with three reinforcing pieces going across inside it for a little bit of strength. I haven’t stained it yet. But I really like the ‘finished’ look it gives and am debating whether or not to make posts for the verandah as well.

I’m really pleased with so much progress especially considering I had to fit it in between a lot of other things in a very busy day! The only thing that I’m wondering now is the colour of the roof. I had been thinking of a copper roof (with paint to give a verdigris look) but I’m not sure whether that will be right with the colour scheme so I guess it will be a matter of trying out a few different effects on cardboard and testing them to see what looks best before I paint the roof pieces themselves.

Monday and Tuesday 10th & 11th March, 2010

The good, the bad and the frustrating

Most of Monday was taken up with appointments and with finally buying a new laptop for me. Of course all of that night was then taken up with installing programs on the new laptop and getting to know my way around with the new operating system. It’s great to have a new computer but not great to go through all the fuss of setting it up.

When I needed a break from that I took out the pilings and attacked them with a scalpel to rough up the ends a bit and work off some frustrations vbg.

Then on Tuesday I went to see the Neurologist.  In an effort to prevent the chronic 24/7 vestibular migraine I have from breaking through so much he increased my preventative medication. As a result I feel really hung over or something and the good news is that once I adjust to this level I then increase it by another half tablet. But if it works it will be worth it. I have been moving files from the old computer to the new one, which is enough to give one a migraine all by itself (grin). I can’t work out how to make it let me transfer from a backup done of my old computer (now defunct) on a different system to this one so I am manually transferring backup files that are essential .



So not a lot done on SS today – just painting the pilings with a wash of different colours and also doing the undersides of the roof pieces. I had left them because I wasn’t sure what effect I wanted: timber look or painted. In the end I have decided on painting the bathroom ceiling white and doing the bedroom ceiling with brown to simulate timber. I’ve let the wash be a bit streaky so it hopefully will have.  And I did the trim and the ‘beams’ a similar brown too in the hope that it will add to the ‘timber’ look.

Thursday, 11th March 2010

And so has Miss Marple's Cottage

....  at 7.30am today.  I was doing the Church Bulletin at the time, and wouldn’t let myself open the box until it was finished. How’s that for self control vbg? My new computer (bought the afternoon before yesterday) still hasn’t most of my ‘stuff’ on it so I have had to import files and now have at least this one on it. Here’s a photo of the many little bits in that box of wonderful delights. Isn’t it an exciting moment when you open that box and see a new kit there, full of possibilities? I was so eager to have a look that I put my full cup of coffee down on a tray I had on our bed as a flat surface for my portable hard drives and new laptop, to pick up the open box and go through it while having my coffee. In my hurry I didn’t put the cup down level and it tipped over – all over the tray, and all over the bed, right through the freshly-washed blankets and sheets! If I’d known I was going to do that I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble to make the bed this morning lol!



Once I took the photo I sorted the pieces using the diagrams in the very extensive instructions, and put each lot in separate plastic zip-lock bags, labelled with the section. There are some tiny, tiny pieces among them so I didn’t want to risk losing anything.


Now I am facing a big dilemma of course: I won’t start another house until I have gone as far as I can with the Sea Shanty. Of course I won’t. Will I? No, I will be strong. I will be strong! I will be strong! I will. I will!!!! I hope. But when I have done that, which project will I choose to do next? Decisions, decisions, decisions................................Sweet dilemma indeed!

Monday, 1st March 2010

It's ordered....

..... and paid for- yaaaaaaay! So today it’s big cleanup time after doing the MAK MAKE for Eva of GSOLFOT and then the start on the Sea Shanty. I have been neglecting my mini petitpoint lately because my vision is really blurry: waiting for my new glasses, have a bad headache – really a migraine that I am trying to control with tablets that sometimes take the worst of the edge off but it won’t go away, and I can’t concentrate. However as I learned with the Peter Rabbit Roombox, I can manage things in small steps. So hopefully soon I will be starting on this project too.  Overwhelmed with delicious things to choose from, and in which to escape from the family problems that are besetting us at the moment and causing the migraines!

As I think I said before, this one is a belated birthday present from my darling husband Peter, the TeaRose Cottage is an indulgence to myself and the Toadstool Cottage is an experiment to see what you get for so much less cost than the other projects - and a happy experiment too.  So as we say in Australia, I am a very happy little Vegemite at the moment!

Thursday 4th March, 2010

TeaRose has arrived – yaaaaay!

Now that’s excellent delivery time, I must say. It wasn’t even 8am when the courier arrived with the Tea Rose Cottage parcel. Soooo exciting – I couldn’t wait to open it up to see the contents. I was a bit surprised when I did open it for what first met my eyes was a piece of felt and a hank of what looked like human hair lol!

Further investigation revealed the laser-cut timber pieces for the walls, flooring, doors, windows (hooray - not plastic ones) as well as the landscaping kit, base, and that mysterious piece of felt and hank of hair-like stuff that I presumed was for the thatch.

The instructions are  detailed and beautifully clear, with illustrations, and the mystery of the felt soon became clear. This house is more demanding than the first quarter scale house I did, and indeed than the Sea Shanty that I am currently doing, in that not everything is provided and you do your own plastering of the outside. I am looking forward to the challenge that presents even though it is a bit – well, challenging! Not only the walls, and getting the plaster to do what the plaster is supposed to do, but the ‘thatching’ part as well, which is not going to be a quick process from the look of it. However I am not looking for ’quick’, I am looking for something that is an opportunity to learn new skills but which will still come out at a good standard. I tend to expect a lot of myself and even when learning new things want the end product to look good. Perfectionist, me? You bet your boots I am. It drives me crazy vbg!


I don’t have a ‘story’ for the cottage as yet, but I do like having furniture that is ’cottagy’ and classic or old fashioned, and I can’t bring myself to furnish this style of cottage in a modern style. So once I start on it, the cottage itself will ‘tell’ me what it wants its story to be.

Monday, 8th March 2010

I have eyes! - and the Toadstool has arrived

I picked up my new specs today and boy what a difference they make! I can actually see 40hpi silk gauze to stitch with just my multifocals in daylight (will have to check it out tonight once it gets dark) - and wearing my new close-work specs I can see the 50 or 60hpi being a possibility, so I might even attempt that in the future.

And this morning my delivery from The Quarter Source arrived by courier, with several lots of fabric, some turntables and some scribed wooden flooring. Unfortunately I had ordered the wrong flooring thinking it was the thickness of the wood, not the width of the scribing. But it's okay - I will use it for some 1/144th scale structures I have put away to do. Yes, I have some of those too! And now I need to order some more flooring.

After that delivery, I was surprised this afternoon when another package was delivered - this time by the postie. It was from Petite Properties, and had the Toadstool Cottage kit and book in it. The kit is a good sturdy laser-cut timber one, and the book has in-depth instructions for making the house and personalising it. I was quite right, the kit is just the basic walls. You add the beams yourself, and use air-drying clay for the walls, floor and roof so that will be an exciting challenge. I haven't decided yet whether to use the Creative Paper Clay or to use the ordinary airdrying clay. I have several packets of Paper Clay, so I feel I will probably use it. It is really nice to work with, and even though it lasts for a long time I don't want it to go off in our heat here.

Tonight all work on the 'Sea Shanty' was put to one side while I enjoyed having good 'eyes' with my new specs and spent heaps of time checking out the Toadstool Cottage kit, reading through the instructions a couple of times and working out any pre-preparation steps I need to take before I start doing it. then I checked out the TeaRose kit again, comparing the work they each require. It is nice to have kits that are rather more challenging - or at least involve different skills and steps than the ones I have done so far.

And I also explored the difference the new specs made doing some mini petitpoint - lately it has been a real strain trying to stitch and my vision has been quite blurry so I really enjoyed being able to see clearly and without extra magnification.

Of course now I have a decision to make: which of the three cottages will I start next? I have taken delivery of TeaRose Cottage and Toadstool Cottage and Miss Marple's Cottage should surely arrive any day now since they were all ordered within a day of each other. Eeny, meeny, miney, mo...................which way shall I go? I have no idea at this time! So watch this space vbg. But first of course I want to go as far as I can with the Sea Shanty.

Monday 1st March 2010

1:48 scale Toadstool Cottage

Getting a bit carried away here, I think. I found Fiona Broadwood’s site, Petite Properties, again today. It was one of my Favourites on my old laptop and it was great to find it again. And I went ahead and ordered Toadstool Cottage.


It will be interesting to see what is included in the kit for this house. It comes with precision cut pieces for the kit, and a book with instructions on how to finish and personalize it all.  I've included photos from the site showing the book (and the front view) and one of the house with the front wall removed, showing the inside.

It is a very reasonable price, much cheaper than any of the other house kits I have bought. In fact it is only about a quarter of the cost of the other kits. So I have more than a passing suspicion that there isn’t much in the way of brickwork etc supplied. However if I am happy with this house I want to gradually build up the collection as they are released, and to get the previous two buildings that have already been released as well. And I think that Miss Marple’s Cottage and TeaRose Cottage will fit perfectly in with them too.

This cottage is full of character and I'm really looking forward to adding it to my collection.  Have no clue what era I'll set it in as yet, just want to build it!

Sunday 7th March 2010

Feeling virtuous tonight - and deserve a treat!

Most of the day I was at our house packing up my mini workroom, to put the containers in storage. When the house is finally empty we will paint it, clean the carpets throughout and rearrange some of the rooms. Then as things are put back in the house I will be sorting and de-cluttering as much as I can – even my minis. They are okay as far as de-cluttering goes. And they were organised until my nephew and brother started packing it all up while we were away, and my nephew decided it was a better use of space to combine things into the plastic containers to fill them all right up! So now things are not stored in their nicely labelled - and categorised - plastic boxes any more, and I will have to go through and re-sort and re-pack everything. While I am doing that I will make sure that they have been photographed for the inventory I have of each of the items I buy.

So after seven hours of that, so stiff and sore I could hardly move I was glad to have a lovely warm shower and relax with the Sea Shanty. All the preparation last night paid off - the dado was ready to glue in place and the trim is ready to put on when I get some flooring for the bedroom and downstairs. I was going to put the trim on the ground floor ceiling too, but did the wallpapering in the bedroom instead. It looks really nice with all three rooms papered. The only trouble is that I had to join the paper because it was really meant for the bathroom and when I joined it I made the mistake of overlapping it from back to front instead of front over back so it is more obvious. Drat! But at least it is in a position where it is not too noticeable – and I will put a picture there if it shows when the roof goes on.

The dado looks crooked in the photo – but it’s not. I like the effect of the bedroom wallpaper: it has a pale yellow background, with just a very tiny blue design on it. So even though it continues the blue theme, there is also a brightening from the yellow. That yellow is also echoed with just a touch of the same colour in the downstairs paper. So it all ties together without being repetitive.

The bedroom furniture also looks really nice painted too – I’ve done it a medium brown colour, to simulate a timber effect. I also did the steps and handrail on the stairs the same colour. That looks really nice too, with the balusters and risers in the pale grey-blue. Now I have to find some fabric for the bed cover – I’m thinking of a simple patchwork quilt, in squares, so it’s finding nice fine fabrics that are in the right colours.

And to top it off my darling brother came over to the caravan and massaged my poor sore feet for over an hour, bless him!  Not only did it help the feet but because it massaged the trigger points in the feet as well I am now headache free - what bliss!  It cut my mini-ing time short but it was worth every second of it vbg!  Now are you jealous?!

Saturday 6th March 2010

More preparation and fiddly Details....

I’ve decided to go ahead with the dado, and to paint the bath blue on the bottom. The shelves (I really am quite pleased with those) will have towels etc on them in blue and white so it doesn’t matter that they are white. But I have shortened them, taking off the lowest shelf instead of putting a door on there as I had planned. And I made a clothes hamper from some embroidery canvas. I’ll see in the morning how that has held together – I painted it as I made it rather than gluing it and it seemed to hold.


So tonight seemed really fiddly, all preparation work: making the hamper, painting windows and doors, painting strips for window and door trim, ceiling and floor trim. And Peter had a look at the house that inspired my colour scheme (it’s just a few houses further around the cul-de-sac where we are staying at my brother’s) and I mixed up a new batch of paint until we both felt it was somewhat closer to what I wanted. So I’ve re-painted the shingles and they were nice and dry until I accidentally dripped some water on them and had to repaint!


I wanted to wallpaper the bedroom tonight too, but didn’t get that far. The second wallpaper that Claire kindly gave me is actually the one provided for the bathroom. I am going to use it in the bedroom, I think, but it is not quite long enough to go all the way around. So it will take a bit of thought as to where I am going to cut it for the join. But I ran out of time tonight.


However I have actually left the work area (caravan table) nice and organised for the next time I do work on it -I’m trying to get back into the habit. We’ll see how long it lasts – I do like to sit down to an organised work space and I’ve been slack about that over the last couple of years or so, once the illness became bad. I would work until I was overtired and then not have the energy or concentration to pack up properly. So now it is a nice fresh new start.

Friday 5th March 2010

Exactly whose stupid idea was it....

to paint the doors and woodwork white anyway?! I forgot how hard it is to get a nice coverage with craft paint on those plastic window and doors – especially doors. But I really like the mid blue and white colour scheme I have chosen, so am persevering. Fortunately I don’t want a pristine effect. Not too dilapidated, but not pristine either.

But it was far more rewarding to wallpaper the ground floor. The wallpaper ran a bit in the corner where some glue oozed out where I had to join two pieces, even though I (fortunately) took the precaution of spraying it with preserver first. I wasn't going to wallpaper the kitchen but couldn't find anything I liked for there. And I wanted to get the floor/ceiling in, so went ahead and did it and I’m pleased that I did.

Apart from that it's been a frustrating couple of days here! I spent a LOT of yesterday fiddling with free printable wallpapers from QC - the flooring ones are too small and none of them print out well. So I tried designing my own. The trouble is that the colours change as you make them smaller. So a couple of trees later I settled for what you see here for the bathroom. Except that they weren't tall enough to do the whole wall on the two taller walls. So smartie thinks - I know, I'll do a dado, or whatever you call it. So I spent ages cutting up balsa wood and making a dado, then cut the rear part too short so I'll have to put in a corner moulding - if I use it. Because after all that work I realised that the white bath doesn't really show up that well against the white dado! But I think the blue stripes all the way down are quite strong. Though I know the kit from England does have striped wallpaper supplied with the kit for the bedroom, and that is much bigger.

So my options are:
1. The walls with the white dado/wainscotting or whatever it is.
2. The walls with just the blue stripes

Again, the colours aren't quite the same in reality as they seem in the photos - they actually are a much better match. What will I choose? White woodwork dado or not? Decisions, decisions......

So now I have to decide about the bathroom and find something for the bedroom! Since there is a Mrs McGregor as well as a Captn McGregor I might even have to resort to a floral for that, though I'd prefer not to.

Thursday 4th March 2010

Well, so much for getting such a lot done yesterday! Apart from constructing the Captain's desk and getting the Sea Shanty to this stage (with 3 coats of white craft paint on the inside and I’m still not really satisfied) I spent the most of the time printing out the free wallpapers from QC, and trying to make my own flooring for the bathroom. Wasted a lot of ink and I'm not happy with any of them :-( So I guess I wait until I can order some flooring from overseas and that means I've pretty well come to a dead stop as far as the interior goes. I'll paint the bedroom furniture today and dress the bed up to the quilt stage - I don't have the fabric I have in mind to hand - and that will be it I think



Anyway after wasting a lot of ink and time, I came up with various tiles for the bathroom and settled on a mid blue. I did it as a table in Word, experimented with shading in different colours and made the cells as small as I could. Did the borders in white. Then I scanned the table and saved it as a JPEG file. Printed it out as a photo but on plain paper, in a smaller size.

Then I did another table, did just columns in shading to form stripes and then chose 'no borders' so it would be nice stripes. The trouble is that each time you make it smaller it gets darker. So I chose the lightest shading I could in that colourway of blue - and wouldn't you know it, instead of getting darker it got lighter! Grrrrrr! In the end though I think I have some striped wallpaper. Now I’m going to think about it overnight.

Wednesday 3rd March 2010

Exactly one month later, and today I actually did make a start. And it was a productive day too. I like to have a plan for each day – and all my years of teaching have reinforced that liking, because it was of course a necessity. Today my plan was to finish clearing up all the craft things from Sunday , organising some shelves in my brother’s garage to accommodate more efficiently my ever-increasing supply of mini stuff, do a scrapbook layout on the Peter Rabbit and Friends Roombox (bought the supplies yesterday then get stuck into the Sea Shanty.



Well, when I was teaching we were always being told that we had to be flexible and indeed it was a very rare day indeed that things went according to plan. And today was the same vbg. Not that it mattered – I had decided to treat myself to a day of self-indulgence and that’s what it was anyway. The sorting out went well, then following up something in an email I spent time on different mini sites and reading other emails.

Then I put the pieces of the Sea Shanty together in a preliminary 'dry run' with masking tape to see how they look. I tried out a few pieces of furniture to see how they fitted, and was pleased to see there was plenty of room for them. I also needed to make decisions about the stairway. I like stairways but in a lot of the photos it seems to obscure the view into the house. But in actual fact they don't block it all that much - so I went ahead and cut out the notch where indicated and have made the staircase.

It was exciting to actually start gluing the pieces together, as it always is, and while the glue was drying for each stage there was a lot of preparation I could do, painting the cladding, doing the grooved timber and stairs for the wharf with a grey/brown wash, and also doing all the lobster traps and the barrels I bought with the same. There’s lots of lobster traps. I bought five packets – (okay, so I got a bit carried away; I didn’t realize that there were 3 in each packet lol!). So they are spread out all over the caravan table at the moment, drying.

Then I started painting furniture for the Sea Shanty. The corner cupboard I did white a while ago hadn’t covered well at all so I did the inside in a deeper blue and the outside in a light grey-blue. When the outside was dry I gave it a bit of a dry brush with white, then added a bit of water to smudge it a bit. I also gave the settle the same treatment. I really like the results too.

I've made up a rocking chair and painted it dark brown, and assembled a hutch for the kitchen as well. I was on a roll and went ahead and also assembled some of the Captain's bedroom furniture while I watched another tele show - then of course was halfway through the kits so had to watch another show while I did the rest lol! When Peter is on night duty I am often rather naughty that way and stay up quite late. Yes, I suffer the next day but when the TeaRose Cottage arrived this morning I got a second wind again!

I decided to do one side of the timber bits with sanding sealer so that the surface is nice and smooth when I sand it. Tomorrow I will paint it all white before I wallpaper it. One of the first things I read ages ago when I started making minis was that if you paint a wall white before you paper it, the colour shows up better.

The table and chairs that I did before will go in the kitchen and the hutch will go in it too. I need a sink for in there, and a stove. I have to decide whether to use the ice box I got in the Pam Junk Old Fashioned Kitchen kit or to buy a fridge kit. And I might convert the old fashioned stove from that kit into an Aga stove - still thinking about that. I have one of the plastic bathroom kits and might use that for the bathroom, The pilings were mailed yesterday so they will take a while to arrive.

After a lot of thought I’ve decided on the colour scheme for the Shanty: I want it to be a mid to dark blue with white trim. I hope it will look nice and be different from the others I’ve seen. I’ve added a bit of dark grey to the blue I had to make the colour I wanted, inspired by a house in the cul-de-sac my brother lives in. I’ll weather the shingles that cover it with a dark wash too, because I don’t want it to be pristine. To me this effect is nice and ‘beachy’ and ties in with the blues used in the house really well.

But guess what? I never did get that scrap page on the Peter Rabbit Roombox done!

Wednesday 3rd February 2010

We have been back from our trip for six days now; Kylie and the boys went home Monday and yesterday we had time to get ourselves a bit more organized. It’s my birthday today, so what better day to start on the Sea Shanty adventure! It’s raining quite solidly on and off (a flow-on from cyclone Olga up in northern Queensland) so I am limited to what I can do in Terry’s huge carport or in the caravan, but that’s fine.


I have already taken everything out and checked the kit. The pylons are missing so when I have sorted out my computer and email problems I will contact Karen Cary and let her know. This first photo shows the contents of the kit. I am worried that paint won’t dry easily in this humid and wet weather so I’m trying to figure out what to work on first.