Moving on tomorrow

It's time to say goodbye for now to #1 daughter and her family, after staying with them for several weeks.  Peter and Nathan reckon they miss me vbg and want me at home - it is really lovely to be missed, and I miss them too.  We will call in to see #2 daughter and her family tomorrow.  They live around 3 hours' drive from here and it will be lovely to see them as well.  We are staying just one night there unfortunately, but the surprise is ....that Peter has decided that we will have a holiday ourselves before we go home!  Not sure where yet, but somewhere we can just veg out, Peter and Nathan can fish and play golf, I can just relax and we can all just be together.  It sounds blissful.


Meanwhile it is time to bring you up to date on what I have been doing.  Kylie and I have been doing lots of scrapbooking, and we each bought a Cuttlebug at a great price.  Then we went mad on eBay buying dies for different alphabets and embossing folders.  I especially bought some Christmas ones, and plan to make some special Christmas cards this year - a couple of the handmade ones I received in the birthday card/gift exchange particularly inspired me and I very much appreciate the effort that goes into making them.


And I have been mini-ing to, so here's an overview.


Eeny...
First, an update on progress with Church Farm Cottages.  There was a huge delay because I had to adjust the slope on the central wall (if you remember I put it in back to front); and also because the removable front and rear roof kept buckling.  So now I have fixed the central wall, the rear roof was flat and before it could get a curl on it again, I clamped it down to the cottage walls and kept it clamped until the glue dried.  


I also went ahead and glued the front to the pavement area, clamping it to the line of the pavement but it is still curling out of shape at the top, annoying thing that it is.  I have bought a different kind of air drying clay and will try it out to see whether it dries without the same problem.

As you can see, the front roof isn't done yet - because I didn't feel I had time to flatten it out.  I think it will be my first trial piece for the new clay.  I needn't have bothered with the caramel surround on the windows, I should have remembered that you don't see that part once they are in place.

Meeny...
When I became just too frustrated with the Church Farm Cottages and the curving pieces, I went ahead with The Cottage Stores.  This delightful cottage-style shop was impossible to resist, with its large picture window at the front and the extra side section with the entrance.  I am a sucker for windows with lots of panes in them, and the charm of the building in general caught me right from the start.  The only decision to make was the kind of store it would be!
  
The ample display window called for something special - it suggested quilts, dresses, weddings...or artwork.  And so The Cottage Art Store (at first called The Artist's Brush, and destined to be in one of the corner shops) was moved to these lovely premises.


As an art shop, it had to be bright and pretty, so the Royal Blue and cream colour scheme suggested itself to me.  The whole shop was completed well and truly before my battle with the lower panels on that blue door was won - or at least a truce was declared!  First the blue went over onto the cream, then the cream went over onto the blue, then the blue went too far....In fact the shop was completed and the next project was nearly so, and I was still battling those two panels!

But here it is, and it is beautiful.  Complete with some lovely red geraniums to attract passers-by, and paving to make it easy to stop and look into that lovely, inviting window.

Miny...
The next project referred to above is 2-4 Birchwood Avenue.  When Bea introduced this kit she was surprised by the interest it aroused.  It has a real charm - again, like all of Bea's kits!  I have made a slight change to it by cutting a space in each entrance hall floor to permit a staircase to go through.  I used the floor from 'Mulberry House' as a template for placement and size for this, and will also use the instructions for the stairs from Mulberry House and adjust them as necessary to fit this building.


I googled for 1930's wallpapers (I think I found these on Jennifer's Printables) and printed them out at 25% of their size.  I haven't finished wallpapering because my fixative spray ran out and when I went to buy some more there wasn't any :-(  I don't think this will be part of Ferny Creek Village because I want to decorate and furnish it in period style.

 Here you can see some brown areas, which will be garden beds when I 'plant' the flowers.  I have made them different - obviously the people on the right are far keener gardeners than those on the left  :-)

Showing openings for stairs

 I really like the floral wallpaper in the room that is partly done.  It was totally done but I had to move the central wall, so some of it had to be removed.
Mo...
Do I have a favourite?  No!  They are all really lovely, and I couldn't choose between them not matter how hard I tried.


Here they are all together:

 It's a dog's life...

Do you think she's comfortable?  I will really miss 'the Princess' - every morning when Kylie sees that the blinds of the caravan are open (my signal that I am awake) and Fluffy sees her heading a certain way that indicates that she is coming to the caravan, Fluff races frantically ahead, circling the garden bed several times on the way and stands quivering with excitement at the door of the van.  Then she races in and jumps onto my bed, smothering me with doggy kisses and climbing all over me.  I will miss my daughter and two gorgeous grandsons.  Cameron was so upset at the thought of us leaving tomorrow that he talked his Mum into letting him stay at home today, and Luke keeps saying how much he loves me and will miss me.  And I will miss being able to see Kylie and her family too.   And I will also miss this energetic little fluffball.