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.