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!

Progress on Washtub Cottage

Welcome to my newest follower, Kylie - my oldest daughter.  She has been promising to look in on my blog for a while now and in fact while they were here at Christmas the boys were very interested in Sunflower Garden Centre (especially Luke) and they had a look at the finished result on the blog after they went home.  It is lovely to have you as a follower darling - hope you visit often to keep an eye on what your mama is up to vbg!

Today I did a bit more on Washtub Cottage, but only on the ceiling/floor of the first floor.  The paperclay isn't really perfectly dry yet and it had cracked in one place on Washtub's floor.  So I patched that up with some more clay and left the floors of both cottages to dry some more.

A lot of time was also spent trying to work out a problem.  One friend told me that when she tried to see my full profile on this blog she got a message that the page was dangerous.  Apparently a lot of people are getting this message on their blogs at the moment when they try to add photos etc, and it seems to be a malicious prank of some sort.  I was unaware of it because I don't get the message - only people who try to access my profile, apparently.  Let's hope Blogger fixes it soon!  I couldn't find out on the forum how to remove the message or fix the situation.  If anyone knows please tell me!

Peter was going shopping and I asked him to buy me some craft matchsticks and a piece of balsa wood - it is easier than trying to find mine in the workroom at the moment, especially in the heat today!  That meant I could do the beams on the ceiling of the ground floor piece. I got quite enthusiastic about this and not only attacked the balsa wood main beam with my craft knife to rough up the edges but did the same on the matchsticks too.

And here it is with the first coat of dark brown paint over it.  This will be followed by another coat of dark brown, then light brown, then cream.

While the paint was drying (it didn't take long!) I cut the pieces for the floorboards on the top side which of course is the floor for upstairs.  As recommended I do this by eye so that they are not perfectly regular .  In later projects Bea uses a method of just drawing on the floorboards, but I really like using the strips of paper and have used them in the Yule Tide Shop as well.  I didn't paint this lot with black though, I thought I would try it with dark brown to see what the effect is like. 

Apart from being a bit bumfly where I removed a couple of pieces because I kept forgetting to make joins in the 'floorboards' it has come out really well.

When this paint dries properly I will sponge on light brown paint, dragging it in the direction of the boards to give a grain effect, which is the method that is used in all the projects.

I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get to do anything on Toadstool Cottage today, but we are all very tired.  It was another warm and humid day today.  Last night stayed at 26degC all night and it was very humid too and we found it difficult to sleep.  We are expecting a southerly change about midnight tonight - that for us ibrings a cool change, and it will be very welcome indeed.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a more productive day, seeing progress on both cottages :-)