Friday, 18th June 2010

I had a lovely surprise today

Sitting here in the armchair in my jamies, doing the Church Bulletin for tomorrow on the laptop and the Courier arrived.  He always seems to catch me in my jamies - probably thinks I live in them vbg!  Today his delivery was totally unexpected - an envelope from my dear friend Jan in Bundaberg, Queensland.  It contained a magazine with an article about Miss Marple's Cottage  - a far more extensive and satisfying version than the little one I have been doing.  And it also had a little container full to the brim of the teeniest, tiniest shells and other beach-type things that I've ever seen in my life!  How thoughtful of her - I appreciate it soooo much!  Give Mummy Jan the biggest 'thank you' lick for me, Zoe!  How lucky am I?!!!

Sadly I haven't had a chance to put them on the sand around the Sea Shanty though.  It's been a matter of tidying up my mess after all the flower-making, and packing for the weekend.  So rather than mess it all up by rushing, I've left it until later.

However I have decided to post photos of where I'm up to at the moment with the Sea Shanty.  First of all, here's a view of the front.  And no, the seagulls on the wharf haven't dropped dead, lol - they are waiting for one of them to have a hole drilled in it's tummy so it can be pinned on a piling as though it is about to fly off (like the one on the roof).  Sounds painful, doesn't it?

I did the pilings at slightly different angles - it started off by accident and then I liked the look and kept them that way.  It sort of adds an appearance of age, yet they are sturdy and solid and don't look as though they will fall down.  Unfortunately as usual the true colour doesn't come out in the photo, but it's all a sort of grey-brown, with dry brushes of different colours in places.

I'm not happy with the sea yet - places need touching up so that the white foam isn't coming down the back of the waves, except for where there is back-flow around the pilings - I'm really happy with that part.

This closeup of the front introduces the ginger cat and you can see the 'Welcome' sign beside

the front door.  I'm glad I did the front porch too - I think it gives a great effect, and I prefer it to just stepping straight down to the wharf.  The tubs with the flowering shrubs in them look good I think, too. And I really like the way the fish sign moves on its chain.  The striped cushion on the bench under the kitchen window isn't sitting down properly in this photo but adds some bright colour to the front too.

Here is a view of the left side, showing a rusty anchor leaning against the side of the Sea Shanty, and  the vine that climbs up the side of the buiilding.  After a lot of thought and some discussion with my friend Richard I decided that there were enough flowers and the vine looked good just as it is. 

At the corner of the building you can see the calico kitten and a watering can.  Those tubs need watering to keep the lovely flowers blooming.

Further below on this left side are two more seagulls on the sand, one sitting and one standing.  I would like to put a larger group here, but the shop only had one packet and that packet only had one sitting and one standing.  I might check later on and see if they have more in.  Also, I would like to see if I can work out how to make tiny little 'birdprints' in the sand too.  A small rowboat is also pulled right up on the sand, safely out of reach of the tide, and I have some oars to add as well but keep forgetting to put them on!

Moving around to the right side, there are piles of lobster traps and a pile of barrels on the wharf.  Two pelicans, Percy and Peter, are perched on the lobster traps, hopeful of some tidbits perhaps? 

Now looking inside, and there's not a lot more that's been done in the bathroom.  It's still waiting for the shelving unit to be completed, bottles and jars added, a bath mat etc. 

In the bedroom I've added a wedding photo and dressing table set from Grace Shaw to the dresser.  More pictures for the walls are somewhere waiting to go up, I have a mat for the floor and there needs to be a perfume bottle on the dresser and somewhere the little clock for the bedside table has disappeared.

Here's a close-up of the top of the stairs.  I cut off the top of the bannisters, sadly, because I didn't like the effect of them crossing over the railings around the top of the stairwell.  I have kept it however and might still use it because I really like it.  I cut the bannisters so that they go in under the trim for the stair well.

Going downstairs now, and the lovely little aga stove is in place.  I bought this from Grace Shaw and it's by Jenny Wren.  I know I've shown it before, but here it is again vbg.  And on the wall is the chalkboard.  I see now I look at the photo that the shelf is on the floor instead of on the wall - isn't it funny how you notice things in the photos?

Next photo pans slightly to the right, showing the corner cupboard in place.  It now has a plant in a pot on top of it, cascading down over the side.

  There are display plates on the shelves and I keep forgetting to order that metal sailing ship ornament that I thought I'd ordered before and hadn't.

And lastly here is the sitting area, with the  pot belly stove, rocking chair and comfy lounge and armchair in place.

  As you can see, downstairs needs more detail as well.  There is a picture on the wall here but more are needed, a mat that I have needs to be reduced to go down in front of the sofa, and probably other little bits as I think of them.

So that is as far as I have gone for now.  I really need to get back and finish off those little details but with the move from the caravan to the house and all the dissarray in my workroom with things not being packed away and organised yet, I have no hope of doing it at the moment. 

Saturday 24th April, 2010

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the sea......

That's all I can remember of that song at the moment, but it seems appropriate vbg!  I'm taking an evening off tonight, because my back is really complaining and I can't stand up for more than a few seconds.  Hopefully it will be happier in the morning because we have another full day of painting scheduled.  That's what we've been doing - painting our (real life) house.  But I have sneaked in some more moments here and there (mainly in the morning waiting for loads of washing to finish before we leave to go around to our house) to do some more on the Sea Shanty.  Yes, I know I could do the washing at night, but not enough loads because we are getting back home very late - sometimes midnight - and I am too tired.  And besides, it gives me an excuse to mini, even if it is just a few minutes at a time.

I stripped off the previous lot of 'water' and did it again - this time being careful to do it the right way around.  The Capt'n and Mrs McGregor didn't seem impressed with going down theire steps into the waves, for some strange reason vbg.  I'm happier with the result second time around.  Then I did the sand.  The first lot was just a thin covering over the surface, and that would never do.  So once that was dry I added globs of glue where I wanted piles of sand and added spoonfuls of sand to that.  When that dried and I tipped off the loose sand that's just what it looked like - globs of glue with sand on them.  So I mixed sand and PVA glue together into a consistency something like icing sugar and spooned it on then spread it out and mounded it up a bit in places, adding some loose sand on the top.  When that dried it was far more satisfactory so I added another layer where I wanted more depth and even a third layer in places, allowing it to dry thoroughly in between each application.  Being shut up in the caravan all day  with our weather at the moment was perfect; we are having an Indian Summer with temperatures into the high twenties during some days even though it is nearly the end of April.  Beautiful.  Even at night it doesn't feel like Autumn sometimes.

 

I wanted the water to have little 'waves' around the pilings, and the sand to be built up a bit around them.  There is a larger pile near the steps and some on the steps as well.  When I was happy with the sand I anchored the standing seagull into the sand/glue mixture and added the sitting one when the sand had dried.

It felt like an enormous step forward when I was finally able to glue the Sea Shanty to the wharf.  Now I am getting somewhere!

The furniture is almost all glued in place too.  All of the kitchen.  Don't you love the aga?  It's by Jenny Wren, and I bought it from Grace Shaw of Virtual Dollhouse who now carries some of Jenny Wren's lovely handmade items.  I changed the cupboard - the slide-out shelf is now pushed in so you can see the lighthouses on the doors better.   

The pot-belly stove in the living area came out well; it's a white metal kit I bought from Grace too.  I haven't glued the furniture into place in this part yet, I am still fiddling with it. The Captain's desk has had to go, as I suspected it would :-( or else it was just too cramped.  I might get one of those boat-shaped bookcase kits from Karen Cary to go in there.  Or not. 

 All of the bedroom furniture is glued into place except the dresser - I want to add some items to the top of that so need to be able to take it out for easier access.

So - progress has been made in spite of acute lack of time!  Next step - flowers. 

Friday, 9th April, 2010

Who took off with my fingers.....

....and left me with 10 thumbs?  I did a bit more fiddling with printies for a while today, but  frustratingly all my fingers had disappeared and were just clumsy suasage-like thumbs!  It's bad enough doing fiddly printies in 1:12th scale but in 1:48 scale - well!  In the end I finally managed to get a couple of packets of things in the grocery line for the workbench, and some pictures for the frames.  There are more groceries to do but the eyes couldn't stand any more.  One of the printies is also an apron with sunflowers on it, which Mrs McGregor has draped over the back of a chair.

And that's what I get for doing the water when I have a headache.  I've done it back to front!  What do I mean?  The base is just 1" longer one way than it is the other, and somehow I turned it around the wrong way.  So when I put the wharf on it with the stairs in the logical place (ie where the most sand is) it is at the rear of the side instead of at the front.  So I will probably do it again.  Or else poor Captain and Mrs McGregor will have to have their house situated either with the entrance stairs at the rear or else with the house facing the shore instead of facing the lovely view out to sea!

Thursday 8th April, 2010

 I've been 'fiddling' again.....

I'm one of those people who can make great strides when things are straight forward.  But when it's something I'm not sure of, because it's new or whatever, I procrastinate.  And that's what I've been doing with my little white metal 'feathered friends'.  I wasn't sure how they would come out, and it was a bit of a fiddle getting the white metal prepared, and I couldn't be bothered getting our bird books out to check and make sure I got the colouring right....... But mainly I wasn't sure how well I would be able to paint them and was a bit nervous about them.  Now though things are moving on so well that it was TIME!  Yes siree, it was time to tackle those litttle feathered critters. 

And I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of painting them, after washing them in water with dishwashing detergent ( I read about doing that years ago with kits for fireplaces from Phoenix - don't know if it is relevant for these but it couldn't hurt!).  Then I sprayed them with the metal primer I had bought from the hobby shop a while ago in preparation for the great day.  It's a beautiful day, 24degC (75degF) even now late in the afternoon, so they didn't take long to dry.  Peter got out his bird books and we looked up the seagulls and pelicans that are local to our stretch of the coast here in Australia and off I went.  The results aren't too bad, either.

I had also prepared the white metal photo frames at the same time, so they are painted gold and ready to have wonderful works of art inserted. 

Then I asked Pete to help me do the 'ropes' around the pilings of the wharf.  I had purloined some of his string ages ago for this purpose - it is about the right thickness and is nice and dirty and discoloured so looks suitably 'aged'.  That didn't take long and looks great.

When he collected Nathan from the sheltered workshop he attends they went and bought some material for the base, so I experimented with the water made from foil while they were gone.

I spent ages on the internet saving free printies of famous artwork today for several of my houses as well as for the Sea Shanty.  And I also hunted through my collection of printies for different items to include.  Now all I have to do is make them all up lol!

On a roll then, so I painted two cats.  One is a 'giant' ginger called Thomas (I know,  such  an  imaginative name! Not.)  One is in a smaller scale so it is obviously a kitten, and it is a calico cat and really quite sweet even if she is a bit on the skinny side.

I am not however going to post photos of the animals and birds painted in detail, though here is one of them collectively on the wharf.  .  Mainly because they look fine to the naked eye but look disgusting in photos!  I guess that's because they are about  100 times their actual size in photos vbg.  So you will see them when I post a photo of them in position in the whole scene.  The poor pelicans kept falling over, they just would not stand up.  The seagulls are mainly in flight pose, but one is sitting and one is standing.  The 'flying' ones will be a little tricky to use, but I think I have worked out how to do it.

Not too excited about the 'water' either!  It flattened down rather more than I wanted it too, but considering it is right near the shoreline I suppose I could leave it.  Knowing me I probably won't though!  Here's a photo of it - still wet, so it will need going over in the morning.  And more white added to the tops of the little ripples - you could hardly call them waves.  I have some sand but it's not as fine as I would like, or as pale either.  I will have to put it through some sort of sieve and try to get the finest particles to use.  Or else visit a beach!  Hardly have time to do that though.  We bought this lot from a pet store, it is for use in aquariums.  I'll look around a bit more, maybe.

8th April, 2010

And it's about time too!

I've finally got those beams on the ceiling of the ground floor - forgot all about them for ages then didn't get around to doing them.

And I've put the flooring papers in.  I had to join them, which didn't please me at all, but I worked it so that once the furniture is in the joins will be covered.  Even though the joins show in these photos they are less obvious this morning.  When I took them last night the paper was still damp from the glue and it was under artificial light.

The trim going around the floors certainly gives a nice finished look and of course after I did all that I just had to try all the furniture in (again!) to see the effect and it was really pleasing indeed.  I love this little house - I say that for all my projects, which is nice since so much work goes into them - and am enjoying having something different. It's very exciting.

So now the inside is basically finished ready for the furniture to go in.  I still need the aga for the kitchen and the kit for the potbelly stove for the living room.  They will be here soon, as will some extra white metal ornaments  which  will be nice painted up and put on display.

Meanwhile, in between restoring files from my old computer and trying to find missing photos for my other blog so I can finish off the story of our trip (!!!!!) I am looking for other details too, to make the interior more personal and - some rugs, bits for the kitchen, and so on.  Even though the Capt'n and Mrs McGregor like things neat and tidy I want it to have that 'lived in' feeling.

And it's nearly to the stage where I can start working out how large to make the base - keeping in mind the need for minimum 'footprint' for display but not stinting too much on beach and sea either.  I'll use paper templates, I think, to see what size I like.  The perspex case will sit over the base, with a quite small moulding just outside it to keep it in place.  This moulding will be on a second base, mounted on a turntable so that all sides of the Sea Shanty can be easily viewed without removing it from the shelf on which I plan to display it.  The moulding will hide the turntable without actually touching the shelf.  Well, that's the plan, and we all know how my plans change vbg!

Thursday, 25th March 2010

I’ve been fiddling – a bit of ‘Show and Tell’

We’re leaving tomorrow to go interstate for just a few days to take a pile of things to Kylie’s so I have been having trouble settling to doing anything much on the Sea Shanty. Plus there’s not a great deal I can do until I get the flooring in and that hasn’t arrived yet.

But I have been fiddling on and off and although I haven’t finished I have decided to put all the little bits together and do a bit of a ‘Show and Tell’, as much to cheer myself up as anything else. So here it is with everything in place – sort of.


Today I finally got my act together and mixed some shellac and did the bedroom furniture and the railing on the stairs and balusters. Very nice it looks too, even unfinished.  And I did the outside bench seat and the additional bits to the kitchen furniture. So lets look at each room and see what we have.

First of all, the bathroom. Not for any particular reason except that I’m starting at the top left hand of the house when viewed from the back. As good a reason as any I guess. Looking at the left side there is a tiny shell-shaped holder for a sea-sponge in the corner, and on the wall is a shelf I made that still has to be filled with lovely bath salts, liquid soaps and the like. There will be more bottles and perfumes on the shelf below the cabinet that is at the front of the house awaiting them, and not attached to the wall yet. And of course we need a ring for a hand towel to hang from. The space between the hand basin and the front wall will be filled with the shelves that are the moment sitting in front of the house (well, at the back really vbg) – with yellow and blue towels, face cloths and hand towels neatly folded on them. The rest of the shelves need to be filled yet.

On the right you can see a pale yellow towel hanging from the towel rack, a blue laundry hamper is just in sight on the other side of the loo, and I have dropped the cistern of the toilet to make it a lower set one. It’s not a particularly modern house, but not totally old fashioned either.

Moving on to the bedroom, and I still have to add the knobs to the furniture. But I have had fun here. The wardrobe is full of ‘clothes’ hanging from the rack. You can’t see them all from this angle but I know that they are there and you can see more when you change directions but the camera won’t fit that way.

The second photo shows the books in the bedhead. Each one has a different coloured cover, and white pages or gold edges to the pages, even though it can’t be seen lol! It also shows the chest. I am very pleased with that chest. It is actually the coffee table from Pam Junk’s kit that I used in the living area. But I painted it pale grey-blue, gave it a wash of white, then added art work from Robin Betterly’s Dry Sink kit. It is perfect in the bedroom, breaking the brown and blue of the rest of the furniture.  Oh, and by the way - how do you like the Holland blinds in the bedroom and the living room?  I think they look neat and trim, providing privacy when needed but not obscuring the lovely ocean view.


And the Captn’s bed is all ship-shape and neat. Couldn’t be anything else, could it? I am still looking for the right fabric for the patchwork quilt though.


Going downstairs now, admiring the staircase on the way. Don’t you think the ‘timber’ handrail sets off the painted balusters really nicely?

First of all we will look at the kitchen. In here we have the Hoosier cupboard, spice chest (sitting at the front) and the ice chest that are from Pam’s Old Fashioned Kitchen kit. The door has fallen off the ice chest because I just sat it in place for now. Then there is the table and chairs and I forget just for the moment where I got that kit from. I'll have to check my Inventory.  Under the window is the dry sink from Pam’s set to which I have added an extra bit on the top and made a ‘stainless steel’ sink and draining board to go on instead. It occurs to me that a tap would probably make life easier for poor Mrs McGregor lol! Beside that is the dry sink unit from Robin Betterly but again I added another bit to the top and made a ‘slide out’ part for extra working space and a white counter top. There is an aga on its way for the kitchen so things might have to be re-arranged somewhat in here.

Also in front are the welcome sign (left), shelf with pegs, and chalkboard from Robin Betterly’s kit. And the lamp from Pam Junk’s living room set.

Moving on to the living room, there is the corner cabinet to the left, for which I do have a set of pretty plates to display and some other bits are coming. On the right the Captn’s desk might end up going, depends on how much room I need to leave for the pot belly stove that is also on its way. The Capt’n insists on sitting in his rocking chair, but the sofa and arm chair provide comfortable seating for Mrs McGregor and guests. The skirted table needs some photographs and a lamp on it, and a rug on the floor would be nice too – although living on a beach means lots of sand so it would have to be something easy to keep clean vbg.

To the left outside of the house are the settle that I did in blue with a white wash to match the corner cupboard. The original idea was to use this in the living area, with the rocking chair. And it might still end up that way! Perhaps with an armchair too – we’ll see. It's a toss-up between those and the sofa and armchair.  There is also a small dresser that might have to substitute for the Hoosier cabinet in the kitchen  if things get a bit tight once the aga arrives. I know it is a darker wood than the rest of the kitchen furniture, but then things don’t have to be a perfect match – I don’t feel so, anyway, and I really like this dresser.

On the right of the house is the collection of lobster traps and barrels, and also the barrel that Captn McGregor sawed in half to make planters for Mrs McGregor to use in the front of the house. Alongside these things is a nice bench seat that looks really attractive out the front of the house, though I’m not sure that’s where it will go, and a small shelf that is actually the dry sink that came in the Old Fashioned Kitchen (Pam Junk). Don't know if or where I will use that for the moment.


Other things I have but aren't shown here, to scatter around the exterior include a ‘rusted’ anchor, the bollards, a ship’s wheel, a life buoy, ropes, fishing gear etc. Inside there are still pictures, photos ,dishes, vases, more books, and some other bits to come. Anyone know how to do quarter scale knitting? And of course there are still flowers and the greenery to decorate the outside. And then there’s the beach and the water........

Thursday, 18th March, 2010

Furniture for the living room

Captain and Mrs McGregor now have some comfortable seating in the living room as well as the rocking chair: tonight I assembled the armchair and sofa with the skirted table, a kit I bought from Pam Junk.  That is the lamp on the table by the way.  It is on its side because I haven't decided where to glue it yet.  And if I do glue it on the table at the moment it's sure to become dislodged and lost so I'll leave it for now.The blue fabric that came with the kit is perfect for the room, but the blue floral didn't go too well with the wallpaper.  Fortunately I had just enough left from the bed cover to use for that and to make a couple of little cushions for the sofa and chair as well. 

Ah yes, the bed.  Well, I haven't photographed it yet because I haven't done it with shellac.  But I have done the bedding for it.  Nice and plain and ship-shape, as befitting a Captain.  Still thinking about a patchwork quilt, looking for a particular fabric I have that would be perfect. It does however pose a problem: I have set my heart on there being a 'Mrs McGregor', and the bed is a single bed!  Not a narrow single bed though, so I think it might go in and I'll have to pretend it's a double lol!

Monday 15th March 2010

What a shame.....

........ to dull that lovely blue paint of the shingles with the ‘dirty’ wash, but it looks more natural I guess. Far from pristine but certainly not decrepit either. Just quite weathered. I am undecided as to whether I was too heavy handed though.....



The trim is on the roof, the roof is on, and I put a 'ridge cap' over the join of the tin roofing at the ridge as well.  The window boxes are attached as is the verandah and a little step and the shutters.  All the little details that took a long time today. And it has all received the weathering treatment. Except for the area under the verandah roof. I figured I could get away with leaving that pristine since it would be ‘protected’ by the roof.

On the verandah are two ‘planters’ made from a barrel sawn in two. Mrs McGregor will soon be planting some geraniums in those, I think! Her green thumb will be very apparent in the beautiful plants that have kept her busy during Capt’n McGregor’s long absences at sea before he retired.

Inside, the trim is on around the windows but I have held off attaching the trim around the door and around the floor until the flooring papers arrive. The windows don’t come through the walls all the way, and in the kitchen I wanted to have it a bit neater so I boxed it in and put in a window sill so I can sit a plant or something on it. It looks pretty good I think.

Peter was sleeping after working last night and I got all of that done while waiting for him to wake up, in between doing the washing and other bits and pieces. So I feel quite pleased all round.

Sunday 14th March 2010

Not a great deal to show for the weekend mini-wise. Last night wasn’t all that productive; I was too tired after being on my feet for a lot of the morning, doing the preparation for the pot-luck Fellowship Luncheon at Church. All I did was a bit more touching up of paint and washes on wharf and pilings. Oh, and made up the window boxes and painted them :) Then my darling brother massaged my feet for an hour. It helped my headache, that's for sure - no good taking medication for it, unless it's one of the true migraine tablets, ordinary pain killers don't do any good. But the foot massage does. It's wonderful.

Then most of today I was around at our house packing up my study, mainly the scrapbooking things, and some of the machine embroidery things in the workroom. I managed to fill six large packing boxes and am only halfway there! When Peter and I came back to the caravan so that he could have a shower and a bit of a sleep before he went off for a night shift at the hospital, I was really glad that I had the reason to come back then too. It was tiring work. But it’s good to see those bare shelves starting to appear.

After my shower (boy, that felt good!) I painted the roofing sheets for the Sea Shanty grey. It is a medium grey with some lighter and some darker grey sort of whirled through it so that it is not a uniform colour. I’ll see how it looks when it is dry, in the daylight. Then I fiddled around assembling the wharf. It didn’t take long since all the preparation was done. In fact it took longer to find something to hold it the right height off the table top than it did to add the pilings and wait for the glue to dry. I took the photo while some areas that I touched up were still wet, so it looks even more blotchy than it really is. But the 'weathering' on it isn't too bad, I reckon. Now that part is all done and I have painted some trim to go around the oval window in the bathroom but I was too tired to concentrate on getting the window trims on the insides of the windows tonight.

Friday 12th March, 2010

Wow, it went  well today!

Even though we had a lot to do today I was able to fit some bits and pieces in between other things. I am still adapting to the increase in medication which makes me dizzy, so when I need to sit down for a while I can do some; when I was waiting for the Church Bulletin to print out I could do some, and so on. Because I had done so much preparation previously I was able to put quite a bit together and made good progress.

So the roof went on both parts of the house. I had to put another coat of the brown wash on the underside of the bedroom roof first, to make it slightly darker, but it didn’t take long to dry. This photo shows the narrow trim going along the join between the roof and the wall at the rear of the wall, and the ‘beams’ which went in next, one in the apex of the roof, one on each side in the junction of roof and wall, and two more on each side of the roof.

I measured up the inside trim for the window and door before the roof went on, since it was a bit easier to do it then than it would be later on. They are cut and put aside for later, after the outside cladding goes on. I won’t put the door trim on until I get the paper for the floor probably.

The plastic ‘shingles’ for the cladding was really easy to add, except that there was not quite enough to cover the walls. I must have done something wrong along the way. The instructions do mention a 3” strip of shingles that wasn’t in my kit, so perhaps that's why. But I managed to get most of it covered, and there was about 1/8” left on one wall, so I covered it with an extra timber strip. Guess there’ll be a vine growing up there to make it less noticeable – not that it is very noticeable now.

The windows and door took a bit of careful shaving and fiddling to ensure the frames would fit inside them, especially the oval window in the bathroom. But once that was done the pieces went in easily. I had pre-painted them all and cut bits of clear plastic from some packaging for ‘glass’ so they were all ready to go. And I love the look of the white against the blue. Nathan came into the caravan and noticed the Sea Shanty for the first time tonight and asked what it was. I just told him it was a new house I was making and his comment was that it looked like the sea. I was intrigued, and asked him why and he said it was because of the blue and white. So I guess I’ve achieved my aim with the colour scheme.

I started on the trim too, but have only got as far as the side so far. I wanted to make a bit of a verandah for the front, rather than sit the house straight on the wharf. There was just enough grooved wood after I had trimmed the extra from the wharf so I cut it to size to match the roof and made a support frame for it from thin paddlepop sticks. It is just four sides with three reinforcing pieces going across inside it for a little bit of strength. I haven’t stained it yet. But I really like the ‘finished’ look it gives and am debating whether or not to make posts for the verandah as well.

I’m really pleased with so much progress especially considering I had to fit it in between a lot of other things in a very busy day! The only thing that I’m wondering now is the colour of the roof. I had been thinking of a copper roof (with paint to give a verdigris look) but I’m not sure whether that will be right with the colour scheme so I guess it will be a matter of trying out a few different effects on cardboard and testing them to see what looks best before I paint the roof pieces themselves.

Monday and Tuesday 10th & 11th March, 2010

The good, the bad and the frustrating

Most of Monday was taken up with appointments and with finally buying a new laptop for me. Of course all of that night was then taken up with installing programs on the new laptop and getting to know my way around with the new operating system. It’s great to have a new computer but not great to go through all the fuss of setting it up.

When I needed a break from that I took out the pilings and attacked them with a scalpel to rough up the ends a bit and work off some frustrations vbg.

Then on Tuesday I went to see the Neurologist.  In an effort to prevent the chronic 24/7 vestibular migraine I have from breaking through so much he increased my preventative medication. As a result I feel really hung over or something and the good news is that once I adjust to this level I then increase it by another half tablet. But if it works it will be worth it. I have been moving files from the old computer to the new one, which is enough to give one a migraine all by itself (grin). I can’t work out how to make it let me transfer from a backup done of my old computer (now defunct) on a different system to this one so I am manually transferring backup files that are essential .



So not a lot done on SS today – just painting the pilings with a wash of different colours and also doing the undersides of the roof pieces. I had left them because I wasn’t sure what effect I wanted: timber look or painted. In the end I have decided on painting the bathroom ceiling white and doing the bedroom ceiling with brown to simulate timber. I’ve let the wash be a bit streaky so it hopefully will have.  And I did the trim and the ‘beams’ a similar brown too in the hope that it will add to the ‘timber’ look.

Sunday 7th March 2010

Feeling virtuous tonight - and deserve a treat!

Most of the day I was at our house packing up my mini workroom, to put the containers in storage. When the house is finally empty we will paint it, clean the carpets throughout and rearrange some of the rooms. Then as things are put back in the house I will be sorting and de-cluttering as much as I can – even my minis. They are okay as far as de-cluttering goes. And they were organised until my nephew and brother started packing it all up while we were away, and my nephew decided it was a better use of space to combine things into the plastic containers to fill them all right up! So now things are not stored in their nicely labelled - and categorised - plastic boxes any more, and I will have to go through and re-sort and re-pack everything. While I am doing that I will make sure that they have been photographed for the inventory I have of each of the items I buy.

So after seven hours of that, so stiff and sore I could hardly move I was glad to have a lovely warm shower and relax with the Sea Shanty. All the preparation last night paid off - the dado was ready to glue in place and the trim is ready to put on when I get some flooring for the bedroom and downstairs. I was going to put the trim on the ground floor ceiling too, but did the wallpapering in the bedroom instead. It looks really nice with all three rooms papered. The only trouble is that I had to join the paper because it was really meant for the bathroom and when I joined it I made the mistake of overlapping it from back to front instead of front over back so it is more obvious. Drat! But at least it is in a position where it is not too noticeable – and I will put a picture there if it shows when the roof goes on.

The dado looks crooked in the photo – but it’s not. I like the effect of the bedroom wallpaper: it has a pale yellow background, with just a very tiny blue design on it. So even though it continues the blue theme, there is also a brightening from the yellow. That yellow is also echoed with just a touch of the same colour in the downstairs paper. So it all ties together without being repetitive.

The bedroom furniture also looks really nice painted too – I’ve done it a medium brown colour, to simulate a timber effect. I also did the steps and handrail on the stairs the same colour. That looks really nice too, with the balusters and risers in the pale grey-blue. Now I have to find some fabric for the bed cover – I’m thinking of a simple patchwork quilt, in squares, so it’s finding nice fine fabrics that are in the right colours.

And to top it off my darling brother came over to the caravan and massaged my poor sore feet for over an hour, bless him!  Not only did it help the feet but because it massaged the trigger points in the feet as well I am now headache free - what bliss!  It cut my mini-ing time short but it was worth every second of it vbg!  Now are you jealous?!

Saturday 6th March 2010

More preparation and fiddly Details....

I’ve decided to go ahead with the dado, and to paint the bath blue on the bottom. The shelves (I really am quite pleased with those) will have towels etc on them in blue and white so it doesn’t matter that they are white. But I have shortened them, taking off the lowest shelf instead of putting a door on there as I had planned. And I made a clothes hamper from some embroidery canvas. I’ll see in the morning how that has held together – I painted it as I made it rather than gluing it and it seemed to hold.


So tonight seemed really fiddly, all preparation work: making the hamper, painting windows and doors, painting strips for window and door trim, ceiling and floor trim. And Peter had a look at the house that inspired my colour scheme (it’s just a few houses further around the cul-de-sac where we are staying at my brother’s) and I mixed up a new batch of paint until we both felt it was somewhat closer to what I wanted. So I’ve re-painted the shingles and they were nice and dry until I accidentally dripped some water on them and had to repaint!


I wanted to wallpaper the bedroom tonight too, but didn’t get that far. The second wallpaper that Claire kindly gave me is actually the one provided for the bathroom. I am going to use it in the bedroom, I think, but it is not quite long enough to go all the way around. So it will take a bit of thought as to where I am going to cut it for the join. But I ran out of time tonight.


However I have actually left the work area (caravan table) nice and organised for the next time I do work on it -I’m trying to get back into the habit. We’ll see how long it lasts – I do like to sit down to an organised work space and I’ve been slack about that over the last couple of years or so, once the illness became bad. I would work until I was overtired and then not have the energy or concentration to pack up properly. So now it is a nice fresh new start.

Friday 5th March 2010

Exactly whose stupid idea was it....

to paint the doors and woodwork white anyway?! I forgot how hard it is to get a nice coverage with craft paint on those plastic window and doors – especially doors. But I really like the mid blue and white colour scheme I have chosen, so am persevering. Fortunately I don’t want a pristine effect. Not too dilapidated, but not pristine either.

But it was far more rewarding to wallpaper the ground floor. The wallpaper ran a bit in the corner where some glue oozed out where I had to join two pieces, even though I (fortunately) took the precaution of spraying it with preserver first. I wasn't going to wallpaper the kitchen but couldn't find anything I liked for there. And I wanted to get the floor/ceiling in, so went ahead and did it and I’m pleased that I did.

Apart from that it's been a frustrating couple of days here! I spent a LOT of yesterday fiddling with free printable wallpapers from QC - the flooring ones are too small and none of them print out well. So I tried designing my own. The trouble is that the colours change as you make them smaller. So a couple of trees later I settled for what you see here for the bathroom. Except that they weren't tall enough to do the whole wall on the two taller walls. So smartie thinks - I know, I'll do a dado, or whatever you call it. So I spent ages cutting up balsa wood and making a dado, then cut the rear part too short so I'll have to put in a corner moulding - if I use it. Because after all that work I realised that the white bath doesn't really show up that well against the white dado! But I think the blue stripes all the way down are quite strong. Though I know the kit from England does have striped wallpaper supplied with the kit for the bedroom, and that is much bigger.

So my options are:
1. The walls with the white dado/wainscotting or whatever it is.
2. The walls with just the blue stripes

Again, the colours aren't quite the same in reality as they seem in the photos - they actually are a much better match. What will I choose? White woodwork dado or not? Decisions, decisions......

So now I have to decide about the bathroom and find something for the bedroom! Since there is a Mrs McGregor as well as a Captn McGregor I might even have to resort to a floral for that, though I'd prefer not to.

Thursday 4th March 2010

Well, so much for getting such a lot done yesterday! Apart from constructing the Captain's desk and getting the Sea Shanty to this stage (with 3 coats of white craft paint on the inside and I’m still not really satisfied) I spent the most of the time printing out the free wallpapers from QC, and trying to make my own flooring for the bathroom. Wasted a lot of ink and I'm not happy with any of them :-( So I guess I wait until I can order some flooring from overseas and that means I've pretty well come to a dead stop as far as the interior goes. I'll paint the bedroom furniture today and dress the bed up to the quilt stage - I don't have the fabric I have in mind to hand - and that will be it I think



Anyway after wasting a lot of ink and time, I came up with various tiles for the bathroom and settled on a mid blue. I did it as a table in Word, experimented with shading in different colours and made the cells as small as I could. Did the borders in white. Then I scanned the table and saved it as a JPEG file. Printed it out as a photo but on plain paper, in a smaller size.

Then I did another table, did just columns in shading to form stripes and then chose 'no borders' so it would be nice stripes. The trouble is that each time you make it smaller it gets darker. So I chose the lightest shading I could in that colourway of blue - and wouldn't you know it, instead of getting darker it got lighter! Grrrrrr! In the end though I think I have some striped wallpaper. Now I’m going to think about it overnight.

Wednesday 3rd March 2010

Exactly one month later, and today I actually did make a start. And it was a productive day too. I like to have a plan for each day – and all my years of teaching have reinforced that liking, because it was of course a necessity. Today my plan was to finish clearing up all the craft things from Sunday , organising some shelves in my brother’s garage to accommodate more efficiently my ever-increasing supply of mini stuff, do a scrapbook layout on the Peter Rabbit and Friends Roombox (bought the supplies yesterday then get stuck into the Sea Shanty.



Well, when I was teaching we were always being told that we had to be flexible and indeed it was a very rare day indeed that things went according to plan. And today was the same vbg. Not that it mattered – I had decided to treat myself to a day of self-indulgence and that’s what it was anyway. The sorting out went well, then following up something in an email I spent time on different mini sites and reading other emails.

Then I put the pieces of the Sea Shanty together in a preliminary 'dry run' with masking tape to see how they look. I tried out a few pieces of furniture to see how they fitted, and was pleased to see there was plenty of room for them. I also needed to make decisions about the stairway. I like stairways but in a lot of the photos it seems to obscure the view into the house. But in actual fact they don't block it all that much - so I went ahead and cut out the notch where indicated and have made the staircase.

It was exciting to actually start gluing the pieces together, as it always is, and while the glue was drying for each stage there was a lot of preparation I could do, painting the cladding, doing the grooved timber and stairs for the wharf with a grey/brown wash, and also doing all the lobster traps and the barrels I bought with the same. There’s lots of lobster traps. I bought five packets – (okay, so I got a bit carried away; I didn’t realize that there were 3 in each packet lol!). So they are spread out all over the caravan table at the moment, drying.

Then I started painting furniture for the Sea Shanty. The corner cupboard I did white a while ago hadn’t covered well at all so I did the inside in a deeper blue and the outside in a light grey-blue. When the outside was dry I gave it a bit of a dry brush with white, then added a bit of water to smudge it a bit. I also gave the settle the same treatment. I really like the results too.

I've made up a rocking chair and painted it dark brown, and assembled a hutch for the kitchen as well. I was on a roll and went ahead and also assembled some of the Captain's bedroom furniture while I watched another tele show - then of course was halfway through the kits so had to watch another show while I did the rest lol! When Peter is on night duty I am often rather naughty that way and stay up quite late. Yes, I suffer the next day but when the TeaRose Cottage arrived this morning I got a second wind again!

I decided to do one side of the timber bits with sanding sealer so that the surface is nice and smooth when I sand it. Tomorrow I will paint it all white before I wallpaper it. One of the first things I read ages ago when I started making minis was that if you paint a wall white before you paper it, the colour shows up better.

The table and chairs that I did before will go in the kitchen and the hutch will go in it too. I need a sink for in there, and a stove. I have to decide whether to use the ice box I got in the Pam Junk Old Fashioned Kitchen kit or to buy a fridge kit. And I might convert the old fashioned stove from that kit into an Aga stove - still thinking about that. I have one of the plastic bathroom kits and might use that for the bathroom, The pilings were mailed yesterday so they will take a while to arrive.

After a lot of thought I’ve decided on the colour scheme for the Shanty: I want it to be a mid to dark blue with white trim. I hope it will look nice and be different from the others I’ve seen. I’ve added a bit of dark grey to the blue I had to make the colour I wanted, inspired by a house in the cul-de-sac my brother lives in. I’ll weather the shingles that cover it with a dark wash too, because I don’t want it to be pristine. To me this effect is nice and ‘beachy’ and ties in with the blues used in the house really well.

But guess what? I never did get that scrap page on the Peter Rabbit Roombox done!