Thursday 4th March, 2010

TeaRose has arrived – yaaaaay!

Now that’s excellent delivery time, I must say. It wasn’t even 8am when the courier arrived with the Tea Rose Cottage parcel. Soooo exciting – I couldn’t wait to open it up to see the contents. I was a bit surprised when I did open it for what first met my eyes was a piece of felt and a hank of what looked like human hair lol!

Further investigation revealed the laser-cut timber pieces for the walls, flooring, doors, windows (hooray - not plastic ones) as well as the landscaping kit, base, and that mysterious piece of felt and hank of hair-like stuff that I presumed was for the thatch.

The instructions are  detailed and beautifully clear, with illustrations, and the mystery of the felt soon became clear. This house is more demanding than the first quarter scale house I did, and indeed than the Sea Shanty that I am currently doing, in that not everything is provided and you do your own plastering of the outside. I am looking forward to the challenge that presents even though it is a bit – well, challenging! Not only the walls, and getting the plaster to do what the plaster is supposed to do, but the ‘thatching’ part as well, which is not going to be a quick process from the look of it. However I am not looking for ’quick’, I am looking for something that is an opportunity to learn new skills but which will still come out at a good standard. I tend to expect a lot of myself and even when learning new things want the end product to look good. Perfectionist, me? You bet your boots I am. It drives me crazy vbg!


I don’t have a ‘story’ for the cottage as yet, but I do like having furniture that is ’cottagy’ and classic or old fashioned, and I can’t bring myself to furnish this style of cottage in a modern style. So once I start on it, the cottage itself will ‘tell’ me what it wants its story to be.

Thursday, 25th February 2010

1:48 scale Tea Rose Cottage

Yes, another project! What a great day for ordering today is: first I ordered TeaRose Cottage from Judith Dowden of In Some Small Way, in the UK. Who wouldn’t fall in love with this beauty? Here is the photo from the site:

Can’t get more traditional and English than this, can you? It’s so sweet. The cat isn’t included in the kit, nor is the birdbath but everything else is. I also ordered a length of hedging to go around it instead of a fence this time.


So I am looking forward to receiving this parcel – it is already on its way! It is the last kit Judith has in stock, and I was relieved that she still had it after I have been off the air for so long.


And the second thing? Well, Peter also got me to order my belated birthday present! It’s Miss Marple’s Cottage from Sue Herber. I haven’t heard back from her yet, but keep watching this space.......................