Sunday 13th June, 2010

Wow, look at me now!

Can't you just see the cottage saying that?  Today was 'mini day' - in between the usual chores that is, vbg.  MMC has sat there on my worktable all week, calling me, saying 'here I am, here I am' but I have been so busy that I have had to resist the temptation, hard though it has been.  Today was my reward! 

Well, actually I did manage to sneak in one day, cut the paper over the dormer opening and glue it to the window wall, but that was all.  It took all of ten minutes if that.  I took a photo of it this morning but it was straight on and when you look at it, it looks as though the whole dormer is done!  Last week I had glued the walls and roof pieces to the wallpapers so today I was able to attach them to the dormer.  Definitely a case of needing a practise run here, to decide where to trim the paper.

When I covered the roof pieces with the 'tiling' I tried to be as economical with the layout as possible, but today I still had to piece together the strips for trimming across the ridge of the roof, the dormer and the porch.  So it would be worth considering whether it is possible to cut them another way to enable a longer strip to be left.

After the dormer and the ridge capping was done, it was time to do the fireplace and the chimney. Here's the fireplace done - I will go back later and add black 'soot' to it. 

 I decided to add a bit of a design modification to the chimney, by putting a sloping piece between the bottom square and the stack.  I just cut a rectangular piece of cardboard, cut in for 1/4" at the corners at and angle of 45deg, and bent  the sides to the shape I wanted.  Then I taped it together with thin strips of masking tape and put some pieces of cardboad underneath it to support it.   The stack sits on top of it perfectly.  After all, I didn't want any miniature rain to puddle on the flat bit and cause a leak - the chimneys that I see usually have a sloping piece like this!

I haven't done the wooden trim around the fireplace inside yet, because I haven't heard back from Sue Heber  and don't know quite what I'm doing about the flooring.  I'm being patient for the moment since I know there are mini shows on in the states - hopefully that is the reason.

Aging the brickwork by adding a wash of cream paint as suggested by Sue seemed a good idea, so I did that next.  I don't aim for pristine - softly aged seems more natural.  And it also 'excuses' any less than perfect finish on things lol! 

Sue's instructions said to do inside skirting boards next but of course I can't do that yet either, until the flooring is done.  So I started on the conservatory.  I had already done the flooring with tiling paper, and am happy with the result.  There is plenty of wallpaper to do the walls and it looks really pretty.  I really love the trim around the wall under the windows.  The windows themselves in the conservatory are particularly nice -  the conservatory is the reason l in love with this cottage in the first place actually!  the walls and roof are so delicate and decorative.

Everything is coming together so well and I have realised I haven't got the furniture together to go inside.  I will have to seriously consider what I want to put in there.  Of course looking at the wallpaper it will be soft and pretty in the way of furnishing, and I have already bought a lovely ginger cat from Grace Shaw, handpainted.  I love making up kits of furniture rather than buying the resin sets but might mix the two for this project.  I guess I enjoy the 'hands on' part - although I love having craftsman-made items also.

Peter is working another nightduty tomorrow night so I will do some more minis tomorrow evening as well.  Yaaaaaaay!  It saves me from being lonely at least.