It's lonely without the family

Welcome to two new followers: May from ilovelittle things and to minimariba (tried to find a blog but couldn't).  I'm so pleased that you came to visit and thank you for signing on as followers.  May sells delightful mini food.  I bought some goodies before Christmas from her Etsy store and have just bought some more, including a tin of macaroons.  When we have moved back to the house I will take a photo of the delicious items I bought earlier, and also some things I bought through Grace Shaw of Virtual Dollhouse.

The floods in Australia have now reached Victoria, and my daughter is on the second leg of her trip back to Toowoomba in Queensland today.  I am anxious to hear what she finds there - her house, the conditon of the roads, and the town itself.  When I was there in September, which is spring for us, the Festival of Flowers was on and Peter and I visited parks and prize-winning gardens.  The whole place was a showpiece of beautiful flowers.  I know that one of those parks at least bore the brunt of the inland tsunami and the flood.

It feels very empty without our lovely daughter and grandchildren.  And of course the Fluff Ball.  And to add to it, today is the first of the three days a week that our son Nathan works at the sheltered workshop so he is not around either.  So we are emptying the annexe for the caravan and in between downpours of rain, we will start the dismantling process and leave the walls and floor to dry in my brother's car port.

Trying to find minimariba's blog I ended up following links that were listed under her profile and I've discovered quite a lot of gorgeous blogs.  I really want to upgrade my blog here and among the links I have come across one that might help with that so I can see that I will be spending lots of time trying out ideas from it.  More details later.

But today I thought I'd share a photo of the Town Square with all the buildings so far. It's not set out properly of course, and only on a temporary board.  When I have almost all the buildings I will arrange them so that the colours of the different building are pleasantly balanced and set up the board properly. Here are the buildings so far:

Town Square - first eight buildings

The plan is to have the board with all the landscaping done, and positions for each building marked.  The buildings won't be left permanently attached for now, until I decide where to display it at home.  But for the Sydney Fair in May it will be easier to transport like this.  I hope. 

The only one I haven't fully completed inside is the first that arrived: the pet shop.  I do have everything I need for it.  In fact I have too much for it and that's the hold-up.  I am still working out how to put it all in, or what to leave out.  Better start working on it again soon.  It is becoming annoying that I have the rest done and the first still isn't

Here it is, finally!

It's finished - almost, anyway.  The Sunflower Garden Centre is open for business at last.  As you approach over the gravelled front yard, you are welcomed by a wheelbarrow planted with a variety of flowers, a seat under the window offers rest for tired feet after wandering around the grounds choosing your plants, and the cheerful namesake sunflowers grace the little garden near the front door.


Welcome to Sunflower Garden Centre

If you happen to peek down the left side of the building as you approach, you might catch a glimpse of a little birdhouse tucked into the vine growing on the side wall.  If you are particularly fortunate, you might even see one of its inhabitants.

Upon entering a scene of mischief can't help but catch one's eye.  Toffee, the ginger cat, has chased a little mouse up onto the potting bench, knocking some pots down in the process and making a mess of broken pot and potting mix on the floor below.  The mouse has taken refuge in an overturned pot and Toffee is investigating.  Oh dear!

The shop itself is inviting with its cheerful sunflower wallpaper, daffodils in a pot on the potting bench and a sunflower garden clock on the wall.  Two more floral garden clocks for sale sit on a shelf on the left wall. 

On the right wall is a series of shelves, with bulk boxes of lawn seed under them, snail bait and fertilizer on the shelves above.  Further up is another shelf as yet unfilled, with pegs that will have gardening gloves hanging from them soon. 


The seed packets offer a wide variety of possibilities to beautify your garden


Beside those shelves is a rack of seed packets, each of which is 2.5mmx1.5mm and which took as long to make as the shop took to construct, or so it felt !   A large business-like watering can is sitting on the floor beside it.  I had a whole lot of tools to add as well, but there isn't room for them so I will keep them for other gardening scenes and for my greenhouse.  Here are more photos of the rear, with a ruler to show again just how tiny these Town Square buildings are.

At the rear of the building I have an extension as well, suggesting part of the yard.  Some bags of pine bark and potting mix on one side suggest that section of the premises.  On the right is a Flowerpot Man, which I've photographed and posted about before.  I just love him.  I was going to put a rack of flower seedling there but I think he's better.  So obviously the seedlings, plants, pots and all the rest are further down in the yard.

I am really happy with the way theSunflower Garden Centre  has turned out and I hope you like it  too!

How to reduce stress

While I have been waiting for the family to do different things so we can get going on what we had planned, I’ve been watching the 24hour coverage of the floods on the tele. I can't ever sit and just watch tv at any time, I have to keep my hands busy -. and if I am stressed even more so. So I've been keeping busy by making up some kits that have arrived recently from Karen Benson and from BJs Miniatures, all of them 1:48 scale. They are not completed yet, the horse needs the paint touching up, they all need varnishing and their knobs added, and there are still more to do but I've taken photos to share progress so far with you.

First, here are some things for the Toy Shoppe (from Karen Benson) that I haven't made yet.

A Butterfly Seat, also from Karen Benson Miniatures (#Q750A).


This is done in a metallic purple, and yellow contrast. The feelers are done in metallic antique gold.


I have a second Butterfly Seat, and am considering doing that one in burgundy and maybe metallic silver. It will depend on how it looks when the paint goes on – colours that look great when put together don’t necessarily look good when put on to the wood.

An Elephant Cart, also from Karen Benson Miniatures (#Q207). I have included the ruler in these photos in order to show the size of these delicate little things. There is so much detail for such a small object. The wheels turn on their axles. The blue on the cart needs another coat of paint, but I am happy with the colour scheme.

This is the second of Karen’s rocking horse kits (#Q109) I have made. The photo shows clearly that I need to touch up the paint on the poor fellow. The first horse is sitting outside the Town Square Toy Shop (Village Toys). There will probably be others in the future as well; every nursery needs a rocking horse so when I have a nursery…..

The buggy (#Q208) is also destined for the Toy Shoppe, if there is room of course. In Australia we call it a pram. Hopefully I will have some dollies for the quarter scale children in the shop as well. Now they will be tiny. Hmmmm…..

Naturally, every child needs a Toy Chest and this one is from Karen Benson, from her second site, The Quarter Source (#Q719) Not sure whether it is destined for the Baby Shop, which is in the Corner Shop, a nursery somewhere or the Toy Shoppe.

The artwork on the front of the toybox is really sweet.

Now for the furniture. First of all, there is a shelving unit kit with 5 dozen bolts of fabric. The cardboard centres are pre-marked and just need cutting apart, and the ‘fabric’ is cut out and rolled onto the cardboard. The full length of each strip doesn’t need to be wound on, so I’ve kept the leftover bits to fold and put on shelves or in cupboards for my quarter scale stitchers.

The whole 60 bolts of fabric can be squeezed in and on the shelves but as you can see I haven’t tried to do so. I have put 36 or so on the shelves and will put the rest in other places to spread the effect. I left two of the bolts partly unwrapped, as though they are in use. I have plans for those two.

A Cottage Window Seat, from Karen Benson Miniatures (#Q334). This is such a pretty piece, with the engraving on the front. I haven't decided whether to leave it this colour or to paint it with a wash. I think I'll pad the top to match the upholstery of whatever room I put it in.

The blanket chest matches it (#Q303). Isn't the engraving lovely? The drawer is removable and the lid is hinged. If you look closely you can see the tiny pins that go through the holes on each side. Those pins had a mind of their own, let me tell you!

The ice chest is from BJ Miniatures. I really love the attention to detail in this piece. Even the back has the same detail as the sides, and the little brass hinges add so much to the realism.  The handles are made from brass wire. It didn't take me long to shape the wire to the correct shape, but it took longer to get the ends through the holes than it took to assemble the whole ice chest .

Aren’t the Hampton dropleaf table and chairs elegant? They are in cherrywood and will be the perfect space-saving solution for one of my fortunate people!


This set will possibly go into Honeysuckle Cottage, though several of the cottages have limited space for dining.

The Hoosier Cabinet is from BJ Miniatures as well. Again, lots of clever detail in this piece. See the funnel under the cupboard. It has an oak finish, and I think I’ll simply give it a spray of satin varnish and leave it like that.

The Secretary Bookcase turned out well. I wasn't going to use the pictures of books in the bookcase section but when I had glued them to the blocks provided and pressed grooves between each book, they looked surprisingly realistic. I did add some thin plastic to the door. There is a problem with the mirror on the secretary section; half of it has a damaged surface so I have to work out what to do about that. Perhaps a vase of flowers to cover it up.

The chiffonier (BJ Miniatures) has a mirror at the top in a really nice decorative frame. It will provide good storage for my quarter scale people without taking up a lot of floorspace.

As you can tell from the ruler in the photo, the ladderback chairs and table set is larger than the dropleaf table and chairs. It has an oak finish and I hope it will fit in the English Cottage from Debbie Young. Probably with the other oak-finished kitchen furniture too. They all have the country cottage feel about them.  They look a bit wobbly in this photo but that is the pillowslip on the surface, not the chairs.

I’ve done two more rocking chairs (#Q109). They are identical even though I bought one from each of Karen’s sites and they have different codes. I have a great fondness of rocking chairs in miniature despite the fact that with my problems with dizziness and vertigo I can't bear to sit in one myself. They project a picture of peace and restfulness, and I like to have them in evidence

I am a little surprised that this lovely little piece from BJ Miniatures is simply called a ‘Cupboard’. None of the drawers or doors open which is a pity but the detail more than makes up for it. And the white ‘glass’ in the doors has a really nice geometric pattern on it.

 I thought Karen Benson’s Cottage Back Porch Cupboard (#Q124) was interesting and that it would make a good addition somewhere. Maybe a kitchen – or a back porch as its name suggests.

And this Winslow Hutch in oak (BJ Miniatures) is a bit different from the others that I have, so it's good to have a bit of variety in my furniture. I think it will go nicely with the ladderback chairs and table.
















I do have other dining suite kits to make up, and look forward to assembling them. They are much more formal in nature and I see them more in the John F Craig Mansion and other slightly grand or at least formal settings. There are also quite a few chairs and lounges to upholster and assemble. And of course there are flowers - there will probably always be flowers lol! I'll be very happy to start putting furniture into those empty cottages and adding accessories to make them look homely and lived in.

The orders included several of those accessories. I bought a few things to see what they are like and I am very impressed with them so will be buying more. After all, I have a lot of houses, cottages and shops to fill


The Sydney Fair is held on the first weekend in May. It is the largest Fair in Australia and the only one I get a chance to go to. I need to decide for sure which items I will be exhibiting and concentrate on getting them properly completed: furnishings, accessories and landscaping. So it will soon be decision time.  Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo.  It's like choosing a favourite child!


Stay tuned - hopefully I'll have those other dining tables and chairs assembled real soon to show you.

My constant cry: so many minis to do, someone PLEASE send me more hours in the day and more days in the week LOL!

Amazing stories among the heartbreak.....

My heart feels like it is breaking at the moment with the floods happening here in Australia.  Even a week ago the area flooded was larger than Europe from England to past Greece.  Now it has stretched even further.  A lot further.  And will go even further still.  Queensland takes up around half of our eastern coast, and most of the state is flooded with the waters also extending down into New South Wales.


A wall of water 8 metres high rushed through Toowoomba on Tuesday with no warning, causing such devastation.  It has been described as an inland tsunami.  Toowoomba is located on a plateau 2,000 ft above sea level and when the water reached the edge it of course went over, causing total destruction below. 


As you know, my daughter Kylie lives in Toowoomba.  Thankfully she is still visiting us in Sydney at the moment.  I keep thinking that it would have been all too possible that if she had gone home when planned she and her two boys could have been shopping when that water went through, sweeping cars around like matchsticks and clearing shops of their contents.  We could have lost all three of them.  But there was already flooding occuring there.  A friend from two houses up sent us a photo of her back yard - just a sea of water.  And they are on a hill!  She checked Kylie's house and it appears to be okay at the moment - another blessing.


Now Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland is flooded, the water will rise again tonight with a King tide.  I have friends and relatives in Brisbane and other nearby places but can't contact them.   My friend in Bundaberg is safe but there is no food on the shelves in the shops, and long queues for petrol at the service stations.  In Dalby (an hour from Toowoomba) we have friends who have been flooded in for a few weeks now and another lot of water is on its way overland to them.  They manage a farm and their boss has airlifted supplies to them but they are in dire straits if this new lot of water is bad.


I could go on but want to share a story that was on one of the news feeds on the internet.  Here it is:


'Of all the startling images to have come out of the Queensland floods, this has to be the most unusual — a green frog hitching a ride on the back of a brown snake.

Computer technician Armin Gerlach was visiting friends in the flood-hit town of Dalby, located in the state's south-east, last week when he spotted the unlikely pair.


"I felt amazement, I just couldn’t believe it," Mr Gerlach told ninemsn.


Mr Gelach said a friend who had been affected by many floods told him animals often helped each other out during disasters.


"It's quite common when you have animals in floods or fires or disasters, they actually get together and don't do anything," he said.


"[My friend] has seen foxes and rabbits forget their hunting instincts during natural disasters," he said.


Mr Gelach said he and his friends were inspecting flood damage on the property
 
Sorry that it's not a great photo.  It's the best I can do, copying from the internet picture.  A brown snake by the way, is not only deadly, it is very aggressive!  It is one of the few snakes that will attack a human whereas most snakes will run - well, slither - away rather than confront a person.  But a brown snake will stand it's ground and attack.  So that makes it all the more remarkable.
 
There are many incredible images that will stay with me from this flood.  The tv channels all have 24hr coverage of it, so there is a lot to see.  But this is one of the images that brings a smile to my face!   
 
Another is of a bronze statue of one of Queensland's legendary football heroes.  He is still alive and was out helping people today.  But his statue is at the largest stadium in Brisbane, and someone had dressed it in a snorkel, mask and other swimming equipment!  It's great to see that even in the face of such disaster people can keep their sense of humour.  

The wet season is still only part way through so there is still a lot of rain to come, cyclones are hovering off both the east and west coasts.  There is more flooding in the near future.  It is already the worst natural disaster the country has ever experienced.

As the Premier of the state said 'We are Queenslanders. They breed us tough north of the border. They knock us down but we get up again/' Queensland, this New South Welshman (woman) salutes you and your spirit!  And the rest of Australia will show the same spirit, I know.

It's finished but I'm not really happy with it!

First of all - Welcome Beatrice!  How nice that you came to share my mini adventures.  I do hope you will visit regularly.  My family and friends look blankly at me as if considering whether I need to be committed when I talk miniatures so I truly love sharing with like-minded mini friends online.  Please feel free to comment and keep in touch!

To continue the story of the Corner Shop.  I showed you the walls glued and clamped.  Here it is without the clamps on.  Those front edges need retouching with paint, but I'm showing it warts and all.

Walls assembled

 

Saturday evening it was time to face up to the part I had been really, really nervous about doing: the clay on the exterior.  Not the clay itself, but marking the bricks onto the clay.  I do have a mould to use but it is at the house and inaccessible at the moment, not here at the caravan.  And I knew that doing them by hand I would not get them remotely even.  And sure enough I haven’t!  So they are rustic to say the least vbg.  I did one wall of the shop body and the front wall, and the pavement.  I left it to dry before I did the other side because I was squashing the first wall anyway just doing the different parts of it.

On Sunday  morning I did the second wall.  As you will see from the photo it has a fairly bumfly (uneven) surface, which I decided I liked and would leave there, because I felt it added to the character of the building.  The bricks aren’t even – again, I did them individually by hand.

The same morning I went over all the previous surfaces I had done with Paper Clay with a sort of slip of clay to fill it in a bit because as you can see from the photos a lot of the indentations are too deep.  That worked quite well, which was encouraging.  It is just a bit of Paper Clay mixed with water to make a very thin mixture and painted onto the surface.

Then it was on with the roof while those pieces dried again.  I am pleased with how the roof turned out.  In the heat of the day it dried quickly and by the time I did the second part of it I could paint the first part. 

I had another look at the first side of the house and decided that it wouldn’t do.  So I chiselled the clay off it and redid that side.  I am happier with the results now although again not altogether satisfied. And the bricks are a bit large.  With that it was time to go around to the house and babysit the boys while Kylie visited a school friend.  So I left it behind at the caravan.  At least it  gave it all a chance to dry thoroughly.

Still not happy with the bricks but I painted all the walls.  I’m quite pleased with the painted effects, just not the shape of the bricks themselves.  The photos don’t show the colour properly, it is more subtle in reality.  

Monday 10^th January

Tonight I was able to do the strips on the shop front and sides.  Thinking about the windows for the shop, I decided that I wanted to be able to display things on the window ledges on the ground floor.  So I put the plastic on the outside rather than the inside of the walls.  Then I did the strips of card over them.

And here are the front and sides of the shop, painted ready to distress.  I did the front door as well, it is the black rectangle at the right of the photo.

And here it is with the distressed finish added.  First of all a view of the front.

Now showing the side window.

Here it is with the front removed, so you can see the interior of the side window.  Won't it be a great spot to display things?

 It looks so much better with the distressing done.  It gives the shop real character. I want the inside to be pretty pristine, because it is a shop for baby wear and it needs to look clean and fresh and inviting.  But it is an ‘old’ shop and should show some wear and tear outside at least vbg.  Besides, shops are rarely spotless on the exterior so it makes it look more realistic.

I do keep looking at those walls though . I might even redo the entire brickwork yet – yes, I know I’m a fusspot but I like to do things the very best I can and I’m not totally happy with the brickwork on this shop. It deserves better.

I already have quite a few things to fill the shop, just have to decide for sure what to call it (I have some ideas but if you have a suggestion please offer it) and gather the bits together, finish making them and put them in place.  But for now I am on a roll constructing!

I just couldn't help myself!

Welcome Patty, from Mini Babies.  Your blog is beautiful and I hope you enjoy visiting mine as much as I enjoy visiting yours.


And yes, I couldn't help myself!  I started on the Corner Shop while I was in Toowoomba in September last year. I got as far as doing the ‘floorboards’ on the first floor and painting them black, ready for the brown to go over it, and doing the paperclay on the ground floor ready to paint. Then I became involved in doing minis with our grandchildren and one of their friends. After that I had pneumonia and I haven’t got back to the shop until now. I want to make it a Baby Shop. No, not where you buy babies–  a shop that sells goods for babies. On the ground floor I envisage nursery furniture and maybe some baby accessories. On the first floor I will have some baby and young children’s clothes and other accessories.


Now I have been able to make some more progress on it. The creative paperclay on the ground floor was well and truly dry by now vbg. I hadn’t been terribly happy with the evenness of the tiles I had marked out on the surface.  But a bit of sanding to clean out the grouting lines made a great difference, evening up the size of the tiles and smoothing things out and it looked really good. I did photograph it but the squares don’t show up, despite photos taken at night with the flash and during the day in natural light. I suppose I should have used the macro function but I didn’t think of that.


Because the paperclay dries stark white I first painted it with a wash of grey for the grouting. Not entirely the same colour, some areas I did slightly darker than others. When that dried, a coat of terracotta paint sponged over the tops of the tiles, a couple of different browns over that and a touch of black. I think it looks pretty good.


The first floor was also done as far as the floorboards being stuck on and painted black. So all I had to do was to sponge paint them in browns, and again with a touch of black.


So here they are:

Our youngest daughter Kirsten and her four children left to return home today, and it seems quiet without them. Kylie and the boys will be here for another week yet, which is great. Today Kylie and Peter were out shopping, along with Nathan and young Luke. It was just Cameron and me in the caravan. He was happy to play games on his mother's laptop so I had a quiet day too and did some more on the shop.



The next step is to work on the inside walls. I had already done the first part of this, which is to put strips of card backed by double-sided tape, across the two sides and the back wall, to form the cornice for the ground floor ceiling. Last night I did a couple of coats of antique white on the walls. Today I did the rest of the steps with the tape and here is a photo of the results:

It is amazing the great effect you can get with strips of card stuck to a flat surface! I haven’t added the handles or finger plates to the doors yet. And I haven’t put the Perspex on the window yet either because being me, I will wreck it when I do the paperclay on the exterior.


Next I painted the first floor with Sage Green mixed with Antique White. This gives a pretty, pale green, similar I realised to the colour we have painted our house. I am quite pleased with this colour and I think it will give a nice background to the things I want to put in there. I added slightly more Antique White to the mixture and painted the ground floor in a paler shade. I like the difference even if it isn’t very great. The colour doesn’t show up very well in the photo, the day was quite dull and the flash went off.

Once I started to glue the walls to the ground floor I found that there was a problem. In fact there were a couple of problems. Firstly, even though I had carefully measured the floor against the walls several times to mark its level so I could add the strip of card for the skirting board, it was too high.


Second, and probably the reason for the first, I already knew about but hadn’t realised that it would be a problem. The ground floor piece was slightly buckled – it probably happened when the paperclay was added to it because I had noticed it when I took it out yesterday to work on. When I measured the floor against the wall I must have held it slightly at an angle because of the curve.


So the walls came apart again, the skirting boards came off and new ones went on. They were painted and when dry the assembly started again.

I haven’t cropped this photo because I want to show you the nifty gluing box that Peter made me. Actually you have been seeing it for a long time now – I drape a pillowcase over it and use it as a background for photographing minis. So it serves a double purpose. It has a perfect right-angle corner to support taller s pieces as they dry. It can be used this way for taller walls or the other way around so that the side where the floor now is is uppermost, for shorter walls or larger floors. It’s great. He’s done a couple of variations on it for me but this one is the one I use the most for quarter scale.  Before I took this photo I sat holding the floor hard against the flat surface and hard up against the walls to try and flatten it and hold it in place as much as I could.

As you can see, I haven’t aged the interior of this one. I figured that a baby shop needed to be fresh and crisp inside. I did do the woodwork with dark brown in all the cracks to suggest shadow but except for the cracks around the door, it has all been painted out.

Now the walls are all in place, the first floor is in place as well to keep everything square, and I have left it to dry thoroughly.

 I used clamps since I don’t have any elastic bands here in the caravan. I am looking forward to the next part, which is to do the clay work on the exterior.  Excited and nervous as well.  I do have a rubber mould that I bought expecially to do this brickwork but being super organised I forgot that I had bought it for this purpose and put it away in the plastic tub in which I store the stencils and moulds!  It really doesn't pay to be organised vbg.

Stay tuned - we'll see how I go doing the bricks by hand.  Scary prospect.

Yule Tide Shop Progress

Our son Nathan gave me the Petite Properties Yule Tide Shop for Christmas. Gorgeous boy that he is, he loves to give me minis as gifts. And I love choosing what he'd like to give me vbg! Because we have our daughters Kylie and Kirsten and our six grandchildren staying at our house at the moment spending time with them is our first priority so I didn’t hop straight in and start on the Yule Tide Shop on Boxing Day as I otherwise might have done.



However a few days ago I did spend the evening painting all the pieces of the kit. I chose to do the walls in Regency White paint – just ordinary indoor house paint. It is a colour that I use a fair bit for my minis. Sort of an antique white. For the timbering I used a burnt umber with a wash over it of extremely diluted black that was left on for a short time then partially wiped off.

Last night I did the floors with strips of paper, using the same technique that is described in Bea’s instructions for The Corner Shop and Washtub Cottage.

Floors done with 'floorboards', painted and aged

And I did part of the removable front section, the part with the windows, ready to attach to the front wall later on.

Window unit ready to add to front section

Tonight we came back to the caravan early after having a picnic lunch and afternoon at the river in Penrith. The children were all tired after lots of running around and riding their scooters on the bike track there, and their mothers were tired after a big day too. So I had longer to work on the shop and have almost finished it.  Didn't set out to do so, but once I started it things just took on a life of their own and I had to keep going. 

Parts of front section ready to join together

 With everything prepared ahead I was able to go ahead and assemble it quite quickly. While the glue dried on one part I could work on another part. When it was put together there were areas that needed touching up with paint, and while that was drying I worked on the tiling on the roof.

Here I cheated. I have lots of strips of shingles left over from the Town Square shops so I used those, snipping off just a few corners for a more worn appearance. I wanted them to be slates so they are painted a mixture of black, dark brown and white. The brown helped the colour blend better with the timbering and the colour of the exterior.

All parts constructed

The exterior is ‘weathered’ mainly with dark brown and the merest touch of black, using the dry brush technique. In some areas I then went over it with a stiff brush that was slightly damp because I wasn’t happy with the first result. This let me blend the colour a bit more subtly.

So here it is, with all the parts. As you can see, there is still snow to add, the pavement to finish and I’d like to put a fireplace inside. I’m also toying with the idea of lighting it but haven’t worked out what I want.

Yule Tide Shop - nearly there.

I know Bea put a lemon beside the Yule Tide shop on the Petite Properties site to give an indication of it's size, and I should have put a ruler there for the same purpose.  When I take the final photos I will do so.  No good putting a coin there, because if you don't live in Australia that won't mean anything to you lol!  Just as a US or British coin or a Euro don't mean anything to me.  So I will use a ruler.  But it is tiny!!

Finally at midnight my husband Peter insisted I leave it and go to bed, because every day is a busy day at the moment with all the family here.

I really am delighted with this little shop. I’m not sure what it’s function will be yet, but would really like it to be something to do with Christmas.

Happy New Year to you and your families

I wish you and your family a year of good health, love, happiness and lots of laughter.  And of course many minis as well.  Remember that we cannot give to others unless our emotional cup is full - so take some time every day for yourself even if it is only a short time.  Recharge your emotional batteries.

Welcome Paula - thank you for taking the time to share my mini adventures with me, and for becoming a follower.  I hope you enjoy your visits here and pop in frequently - please feel free to leave comments.