Just couldn't stop today!

Soooo much accomplished!  I  am getting so much pleasure from doing this cottage.  Today - or I should say yesterday I suppose since it is now 3am - I was on such a roll and despite a few setbacks and spilling my glass of water all over everything twice (tired = clumsy even if I don't feel tired) the walls are painted and assembled.  I did them in parchment, with talcum powder mixed through the paint to make it the thickness of cream then used a fairly coarse brush as though it was a  stencil brush to put the paint on with a little bit of texture.  Not as much as when I do the exterior of a building with the same technique - then I make the mixture much thicker, and make a more definite texture.  But I wanted the surface of the walls not to be completely smooth, to add to the rustic feel.  Then I distressed the walls a bit.

The door is fitted to the dividing wall for the ground floor.  Here it is being tried in place.  I've made it so that it sits open.  You can just see the faint distressing on the walls here in this photo.

The ceiling of the ground floor went in, and the cottage was really taking shape - it was very exciting.  Peter went off to work around this time - his hospital has 10 hour night duties and it takes nearly an hour to drive there and then to take report, so he leaves quite early.  As I've said before, I'm not very good at going to bed early if he's not home to nag me, and I was really on a roll so I did the dividing wall for the first floor then started the clay work on the little entrance section while I waited for all the glue to dry properly.  Even though today is cooler than it has been, it is warm enough that it set solid within a reasonable time.

So I went ahead and started to do the clay work on the exterior side walls.  The main problem I had with that was to prevent the clay from drying out too fast while I was scribing it.  I am hoping that it will actually dry with a few cracks in it to add a bit more authenticity. 

While I was doing the clay work I watched some shows I had recorded on the DVR - by the time both sides were done I was partway through one of the shows so naturally I 'had' to start on the front of the cottage!  And here it is, all freshly covered in it's coat of clay, and of course it probably won't be dry enough to paint tomorrow  - I mean today - since it is so late - early - but it's done and I can't express how satisfied I am!  Here it is showing all the pieces, from the right:

And - drum roll please - ta-da- here it is from the left side, just because I like this side better vbg.

I hope the markings show up - they seem to.    I love the windows in the front, don't you?  The curved tops are a really nice touch.  When I was putting the clay on the front I spent a long time working it around the inside of the window openings, making it as smooth as I could on the rounded top and as straight as I could on the other three surfaces.  They are not perfect and I didn't try to make them so, because that's not how I envisage them.   But they are such a sweet feature.

The story for this cottage is slowly revealing itself to me, but I won't reveal it yet.  And now it is nearly 3.40am and I suppose I really must go to sleep or I'll be too tired and  won't be able to do anything later today, let alone minis!

Keep watching this space!