A bit more on Washtub Cottage....and other drama

Today was rather an emotionally exhausting day for Peter and for me.  Peter needed to go into the city centre (Sydney) to renew his Nurse's Registration for another year.Now that we both qualify for a Senior's Card and get concession fares  it isn't worth the cost of petrol when he can get a cheap fare.  If he can catch an express train  it takes a bit more than an hour to get into the city.  Yes, we are a long way out west!  Still part of Sydney, but Sydney encompasses several other parts that are 'cities' in their own right.

Pete caught the bus to the station, showing his Senior's Card for the concession fare, and returned his wallet to his pocket.  When he arrived at the station he went to get his wallet for the train fare and it was gone.  So you know what was involved for the rest of the day: search the area, then returning home so he could report the loss to all the relevant parties. It was bad enough losing the $100 that was in the wallet but it was worse losing his licence and other things in there.

He reported the loss of licence - no problem sir, just bring in your birth certificate and apply for a replacement.  Yes.  Well.  We have our birth certificates safely filed in a folder packed away - somewhere.  Well you say, no problem - get a duplicate!  Not so easy.  Peter was born in England, not Australia. So  after a couple of fruitless hours in the hot room without airconditioning we had come to the conclusion that today we would have to pull everything out and unpack it all to find it.  He can't be without his driving licence.

Quite upset by it all, he cancelled his night duty shift.  Then several hours later we had a phone call - someone had seen the wallet as they were entering a motorway quite a few kilometres from where it was lost (stolen?).  They had been good enough to stop and pick it up then contact us to let us know.  They live a long distance from us so are going to post it and we should have it in a couple of days.  What a relief!  The money was gone of course. But the other things in it are even more important.  Once they are back we can let the police know that the licence has been returned (hopefully) and all will be well.

As you can imagine, all this delayed progress on the cottages.  However once things settled down I did get a bit done.  I am quite pleased with the floors of both now they are painted:

Washtub Cottage - ground floor

Toadstool Cottage - Ground Floor

I also painted the ceiling for the ground floor of Washtub.This was an interesting exercise.  As I've said before, I am not very good at cutting in when painting - I used to be, but my multifocal glasses now seem to make it difficult to judge.  So as I painted the brown it got onto the cream; when I painted cream, some got onto the brown.  And so it went.....

But in the end I decided enough was enough, and went on with 'distressing'  the cream areas.

So it was pleasing progress - but again not a lot achieved on Toadstool Cottage.

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 :-)

Toadstool Cottage and Washtub Cottage started

 I want to show you the progress as I build two cottages, Toadstool Cottage and Washtub Cottage.  So I will share my Mini Journal for each as I go.  I won't necessarily be doing the same thing on each step-by-step of course, but I have started them together while I had the Creative PaperClay out.


But first, to go back a bit in time for Toadstool Cottage and take some notes from my Journal:


8th February 2011
It will be an interesting experience working on this cottage because I plan to work on it at the same time as I work on Washtub Cottage. It seems crazy but I’ll see how I go. I want to do this cottage because I love it, but I haven’t been able to decide what to do with it. Last night, or in the early hours of the morning, I was unable to sleep and trying to decide which of my desirable quarter scale properties would provide the most promising premises for a couple of lovely ladies to take over for a quilt shop (having decided that I needed another one because the Town Square shop was just too small for everything). The solution was there for me – Toadstool Cottage of course.


Both it and Washtub Cottage provide the spacious quarters I want. Plenty of room for lots of fabrics, quilts on display, a classroom area, books for sale, notions and accessories and necessary items.  Even room for a refreshment area for that necessary break. But there were advantages for Toadstool Cottage. As I said, I haven’t been able to decide what to do with it. Its ‘story’ hadn’t revealed itself to me yet. Then the name ‘Toadstool Cottage Quilts’ was rather quaint, hinting at woods and fairies, whereas ‘Washtub Cottage Quilts’ didn’t have the same charm to my mind.


So it was decided. It means of course that I cannot do the inside with the dark and weathered effect to the extent that I’d like to do, but I have heard that the whole neighbourhood is delighted that this charming and historic house has gained a new lease of life as well as adding so much to the opportunities for using valuable artistic and practical skills, not to mention increasing the opportunities for social interaction. It appears that this venture will be most successful!


9th February 2011
First step was, as usual, to type each step of the process up on a separate page of a Word document. I take a photo of every step for my personal mini Journals, and then summarise from this for my blog. I have always taken photos of each step and Journalled for every miniature project I’ve done and it is fascinating (for me) to look back over them. I have them in display books; they are for my interest and document my growth in this amazing hobby.


19th February 2011
I had hoped to have started before this but tonight I finally did the PaperClay on the ground floors. This cottage has fairly regular flagstones on one side and irregular stones on the other so it was all freehand and easy. I’m quite happy with the result and will leave it overnight to dry. .

I know it's not the clearest of photos, the paperclay was still damp and white is not easy to photograph with a flash but it gives a bit of an idea. 

I spent quite a long time considering whether or not to ‘update’ the cottage floors by doing them in timber since it is going to be a modern patchwork shop.  However in the end I decided to go with the original floors.  If need be I can cover them with ‘timber’ later on.

And now for Washtub Cottage:

8th February 2011

I’ve finally plucked up the courage to make a big effort to tackle Washtub Cottage. I’m not happy with my efforts at the brickwork on the Corner Store and want to make sure that this lovely cottage turns out more to my satisfaction. I know I should see it as a growth process, and indeed I do but I also know I could have done better. I was impatient and didn’t wait until I got a proper scribe for the clay and I also rolled the clay too thick and should have re-done it. So I have learned from that. I don’t want to end up with a feeling that I can’t do the clay work properly. So while I want to do Toadstool Cottage as well to make it a Quilt Shop, I also want to do Washtub Cottage because I love it.



Tonight I went through all the kits and made sure that the four of them each had its own full quota of pieces. I was a tiny bit concerned because the plastic bags tend to split and there were a few adventurous pieces floating around in the container. Fortunately none had escaped and all were returned to their respective bags and those bags secured more adequately.


Then I went through the Washtub Cottage book and read the instructions once more. After that I typed them out, one to a page. That is so I remember to take photos of each step for my Washtub Cottage Journal. Highlights from the Journal will be posted on my ‘Snippets’ blog and shared with my readers. Goodness knows, it’s about the only real encouragement I get apart from Jan and other mini friends on my groups!



It’s only 12 weeks now, I think, to the Sydney Fair so it’s time to get serious about the things I am going to exhibit. I want to exhibit Flower Pot Cottage but I am not going to construct that until Washtub Cottage and Toadstool Cottage are done. So that’s roll-up-the-sleeves-and-get into-it time. Because there is also the Town Square to landscape and the other shops still to go, there’s the other 1:48th cottages to do and display and there are a lot of quarter scale flowers to make!



Only had two hours’ sleep last night, so had plenty of time to think and plan miniatures among other things (from 11pm to 6.30am). But I still haven’t decided which other cottages to exhibit.



19th February 2011
Had hoped to have started this cottage before now but tonight I finally took the first step and did the ground floors in Creative Paper Clay for both Washtub Cottage and Toadstool Cottage. Washtub Cottage has a quarry-tiled effect on one side and flagstones on the other side. It is painstaking work doing the quarry tiles 1/8” apart but I’m quite pleased with these ones. I have made a more satisfactory scribing tool by taking a duplicate small stylus I had, and sanding it down to a very fine sharp point.at each end  It was surprisingly easy if time consuming, and well worth the effort.  Now I have a proper scribe instead of trying to use a wooden skewer or toothpick it makes things much easier and the lines much finer. 


It was difficult to get a good photo of the white clay for the floors with the flash. However I want to photograph every step so here we are:

Keep watching this space - hopefully each day will show some progress on one if not both of these buildings!  And there'll be more interesting photos as they grow.

And here's the next one....

But first I must welcome Pacqui and Sherry.  Thank you both so very much for becoming Followers.  I really appreciate you taking the time to visit my blog and for signing on.  Please do feel free to leave comments - it's such fun to share with other miniaturists!  I truly hope you enjoy reading my ramblings and that you'll visit often.


And now here it is – China Cottage, the 10th of the Town Square series and one of the prettiest, I think! Yes, again. The beauty of miniatures is that you can use colours that you can’t use in real life – just as some real life colours don’t work in miniature. For the China Cottage I used Folk Art ‘Rose Garden’ which is a rich but soft rose pink, and exactly matches the darker print on the wallpaper. I am disappointed that the colour hasn’t come out true in these photos of the cottage first built.

There was no greenery supplied with this cottage, the model had the base painted to match the green used on the trim. But the plastic ornamentation for the apex of the roof and the verandah more than made up for it! I chose to do the verandah section of the base in brown to resemble timber, and painted it to try and get a wood-grain effect. I decided not to highlight the posts on the verandah because by now I was a bit ‘over it’ all, having made a big boo-boo with what was supposed to be the second coat of white. As I was spraying it on, it looked rather odd and so I checked the can again to find that I was spraying not another coat of paint, but another coat of primer. It was making the first coat of paint all runny.


Several fiddly, sticky and frustrating hours later I had removed the gluggy mess and was able to start again. Then to top it off when I did the highlighting on the front door it would not go nice and neat like it did on the French Knot. So I left good enough alone vbg!


And here’s the interior of the completed basic shop (with the dresser straightened up – did you notice in the previous photo that it had fallen over?)

This second view of the interior showing the left side in has my hand to again give an idea of the size (or lack of size) of these shops. Even for quarter scale they are tiny.

The little dresser is lovely, and was part of the kit supplied. The next photo, of the right interior, shows the shelves that were also supplied. I decided to ‘offset’ mine on the wall. I was undecided whether or not to use the shop counter and till, but put it in these photos anyway because they came with the kit.

So that is what the shop looked like once it was constructed. The next step of course was to add my own bits and pieces to it.
 And here is the interior, after I added the bits and pieces. I ended up putting more wallpaper in the top section because the white looked a bit stark. And I put some of the flooring paper on the ‘floor’ as well. I made a shelf out of bits of left-over siding used in reverse, painting it brown to give contrast to the plates, and put four left-over plates on it instead of using them on the shelves inside as I had at first intended.

Here on the left you can see the dresser, with mainly blue plates on it. And I have put the blue teaset on this side, with those mischievous little cups sitting innocently in their saucers as though butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths! More about those shortly.

On the right I ended up with mainly pink – not by design, at first I was going to put the teaset in front of the pink and white plates and put something else on the lower shelf.

The plates were easy to make. A while ago by a stroke of luck I had found that some embroidery floss cards that had come with those plastic boxes divided into little sections that I’d bought to store my assembled quarter scale furniture in, had holes punched in them. But the punched-out pieces were still in them. And they were exactly the right size for plates. So I had painstakingly removed all the little circles and stored them away, and now they came in very useful.
 I found some photos of plates among my files and printed them out on normal printer paper. I had previously tried doing this on photo paper then punching them out, without a great deal of success. This time I cut the circles out (which I don’t do terribly well) and glued them to these perfect little rounds of card. When totally dry I gently rounded them a little with a stylus on a computer mouse pad then painted them with a semi-gloss fixative (didn’t have gloss or would have used that).


The teasets weren’t so easy. Why do I say those cups are mischievous? . They are plastic and come nicely attached to a stem, with the teapot on the top and four cups and four saucers on the sides. Painting them was easy enough, and I even did a gold rim around the cups and a gold handle and knob on the teapots. Then came the tricky part. They are the teeniest, tiniest little cups you ever did see, and trying to get them to sit on the saucer is a true exercise in patience! They do it beautifully for you at first, just to lull you into a false sense of security but they are only teasing! As soon as you put that little drop of glue on the saucer those cups show their spirit of mischief and get up to all sorts of tricks and you begin to think they’ll never stay put. In the end I did get them to stay but not necessarily in the positions I wanted them in.


I’ve taken a couple of close-ups of the dresser and the shelves. Looking at the dresser I realise that I haven’t put the tiny knobs on the drawers yet – I left them off while I was adding the plates so they wouldn’t be dislodged by the handling. Now I’d better put them on.

And here are the shelves on the right side.

I’ve used the same pink as I used for the exterior, and you can see that it matches the pattern on the wallpaper exactly.


So the interior is completed except for a couple of things to go on the counter – I rather think it looks a bit bare.

I did add some grass to the exterior, but haven’t added any greenery to this shop. I will end up with three (yes, three) of these darling buildings, but they won’t all look the same by the time I mix and match the bits with the two extras of other shops I will also have, and one of the differences will include the use of vines – so keep watching this space lol! It’s only ten weeks to the Sydney Fair so I have a lot of work to do.


In this photo the colour is more true, but a tiny bit dark.

And where is the cat, you ask? Well, even if you didn’t ask, here she is:

Sitting on the grass enjoying the sun, in the way that cats do!

Here it is....

.....just as I promised. 'The French Knot', number 9 in the Town Square series.  The name is Debbie Young's tribute to mini needleworkers who inspired her with a love of miniatures years ago, with a display of lovely rugs done in French knots.  In some ways I would have liked to have made this a sewing shop rather than a quilt shop but I only realised this morning that I could easily have done so because I have ordered extra 'China Cottage' kits and one of those would have made a great quilt shop.  Never mind, it will make a great haberdashery shop too if I decide to make one.

I took more photos in daylight and the colours have come out better.  I really do not like these energy-saving lights for photography. The views of the front and the side show that I really went to town with the flowering vines in the window boxes. 

And there is also a vine on the side wall.

I really like the green colour of the exterior; it complements the colours in the wallpapers really well.  Here is an overview of the inside.

A closer view of the right interior.  The quilt shelves on the ground floor are a kit from bjs miniatures, and comes with 5 dozen 'rolls' of paper fabric.  I have wrapped slightly different lengths of the 'fabric' around the cardboard pieces to vary the thickness of the rolls.  The bottom of the shelves had to be trimmed just a little to fit into the ground floor, and instead  of packing rolls of fabric under and on top of the shelves as well as really tightly into the shelves, I used some of them in the shelves supplied in the shop kit as well.

On the left side of the shop this view shows the wall display of sewing accessories that I showed you before.  I have cut  off the cutting mat section and put it under the windows.  My poor mini customers would not be able to reach the top of the display otherwise, it was right up to the ceiling.

On the first floor there is a sweet wall hanging on the wall.  Unfortunately the baskets of 'fat quarters' that were on sale don't fit on top of the shelves of fabric after all, so that needs some re-thinking.  The wall on the right still looks a bit bare to me. There are more cutting mats on display against the wall, on that side, but there needs to be something higher on the wall.

The table has clear signs that someone is starting a new project, with fabric spread out ready to cut and more fabric folded to one side.  The accessories are part of the lovely little table accessories I also showed you in an earlier post.  I haven't used them all, some I've 'hoarded' for another project.  I've just used the cutting mat, ruller and cutter.  The ruler and cutter are ready for use.  And the fabric is on the left because, like me, the stitcher is left handed and the ruler will be held on the right. 


You know by now that I always have a moggie in my projects and I'll leave it up to you to spot Mr, Dapper.  He's a lovely well-behaved gentleman, called 'Dapper' because he looks so smart in his black and white suit.

Back to the ground floor and the quilt rack has three quilts on display.  This was not glued in place, so that the photos of the wall display could be taken. There are three quilts on the rack, the middle one can't be seen all that well in the photos but of course the side ones can.  Here is side one:

And side two:

The quilt rack was a kit, and I am not sure where from at the moment.  The quilts are printies.

The shop kit came with little packets with pieces for the two small shelf units on the first floor, the table, and a rectanglular bit of wood for the spinning display rack with a white metal bit for the legs.  Here is a close up of the finished result for the spinning rack showing two of the sides:

And here are the other two sides:

First I made some 'pegboard'.  This was just typing a series of fullstops in a tiny font with two spaces between for a length of about 4" on the page of a Word document.  The next row I moved over 2 spaces and did another row the same, but the dots were offset (my husband insisted they had to be offset so I had to re-do the first lot I did vbg).  I printed this out but it was too large so I printed it again but this time set my 'options' to 'reduce by 50%' and it came out okay.

That part done, the timber sanded smooth top and bottom and painted, I wrapped the paper 'pegboard' around the wood and glued it.  Then I gave it a light spray with the fixative that I always use for anything printed out to stop it fading.

I had printed out a variety of mini patchwork book covers and patchwork patters and made the books up by folding them around some card or paper of various thicknesses.  Then I painted them all with some satin finish Modge Podge.  The fun part of course was to attach them to the display stand.  I have quite a few left over to use on another occasion if I want to.  The stand base will be glued in place, but a pin going through a hole in the base into the stand will allow it to rotate.  I'm really chuffed with this little accessory.  In fact I'm really chuffed with this whole little shop - another sweet one to swell the ever-growing collection.  And I can't resist showing you the inside once again.

Happy Valentines Day

I wish you all a happy Valentine's Day and hope it went just the way you wanted it to. 

Peter worked night duty last night and I was looking forward to a day of Valentine minis with one of my online groups - lots of wonderful Valentine workshops and activities planned for the weekend.  But it wasn't to be!  Unexpected problems with my son's laptop took up all my time and the day was gone.  He was very brave about it, but soooo disappointed.  It is frustrating too because it is a new laptop.

So I will have a belated Valentines week this week, doing the workshops that I didn't have a chance to do on the weekend and perhaps even setting up a little vignette to bring out next year vbg.

I did notice tonight that I hadn't taken photos of the Town Square quilt shop yet to share with you.  So I took some, and the ones of the front came out really well, the ones of each side of the interior came out well, but the ones of the interior with all the pieces added in didn't.  Peter laughs at me because I usually take 3-5 shots of any one thing, but that is because I find that the first shot often isn't the best angle or might be blurry or whatever.  But it is very unusual to have all the photos blurry.  So I will re-take them tomorrow in daylight and  share them then. 

So bye for now and I'll talk to you again tomorrow!

Welcome new followers!

Hello and welcome to two new followers - Chris and RiS from RiS' Toybox.  Chris it is such a pleasure to see that you've signed on here - you've been an inspiration to me for some time now.  I love the result of your latest vignette, doing the 'Winter Chores' scene by Joann Swanson.  You've done such a lovely job of it.

 And RiS, welcome to you too.  I had a peek at your blog and was enthralled by your latest project - so much to see in that one room, so many clever details.  I will have to go back and spend more time browsing further.

I have a couple of little teasures to show you to today. I'm not very active at the moment because I have German Measles (or something!), but I managed to make these a while ago. The shelves measure a bit less than an inch, I guess. 

 I bought several of these little quarter scale clothing kits from Jean Day a fair while ago now, and have opened them and looked at them quite a few times.  Here is a photo of one of the 'newborn' outfits before I have cut out the pieces!  I kid you not: the whole piece is only an inch square! 

The two I have made up were not that tiny but they were tiny!  Perhaps they didn't look so intimidating because they came with pieces for the shelf and for some books.  Here is one for another outfit with a shelf, alongside the newborn outfit shown above.  You can see that the outfit itself isn't any bigger necessarily, but it isn't as intimidating when there is a shelf and some books printed on the fabric as well.

Fortunately the first one I did wasn't quite so small and delicate or it might have scared me off totally vbg.  It is the blue one shown in the first photo and is called a Snowman Suit.  The second one I did was for a younger baby so was more delicate (the sleeves wouldn't quite go around a toothpick).  It is called a newborn  antique gown and coat with bonnet.  They came with some sweet little books to sit on the shelf that also comes with each of them.Aren't they gorgeous?  They will go into my quarter scale baby shop.  I have three or four more of them to make up as well.  The range that Jean has isn't as wide for quarter scale as for 1:12 scale (yes, I also have lots of those) but they are really worth the effort of making them up.

Bad blogger! And another new follower to welcome.

I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged anything!  And when I had a look today, I see that Shelly has signed on as a follower - welcome, Shelly, it is lovely to see your familiar name here.  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog and for becoming a follower.  I hope you keep popping in often to share my mini ramblings and add your comments too. 

As we've said here before, it is so nice to share our hobby with people who understand our addiction and who are actually interested instead of getting that glazed look of 'Oh no! here she goes again!' when you try to share something mini with them.  I don't have anyone local in RL so the contact I have with you wonderful online mini friends means more to me than I can express.

So much has happened and I kept thinking I'd post, and there are even some drafts that haven't been published for one reason or other, but I guess that the first thing I'll do is update you on the progress of the Town Square shops.

First of all the structure of the Claytons Christmas Shop is finished except for the roofing.  This  dormers won't have the windows, shutters and little roofs on until then either .  I thought that I'd do the roof in dark grey slate but I'm not sure about slate with a shingled finish on the exterior of the building.  So I've just left it for now because I've been unwell.  We thought it was heat exhaustion but it has lasted too long so it appears to be some sort of bug.  It's left me very drained and lacking energy anyway so it is difficult to make much in the way of decisions when I am really tired.

Here's the shop so far.  I think it will be called 'Say it with Flowers'  even though it's not very original.  I left the shutters off the main window for now, it will be easy to add them later if I decide it needs them.  I really like the colour of the paint I've done it now.  and no, your eyes are not playing tricks on you and neither is my camera - the roof is crooked!  How it came out that way I do not know.  The photos I took last night show it sitting straight; these ones that I took this afternoon in daylight to show the colours better - it is crooked.  So I must have bumped the roof last night and not realised it.  Not quite sure what I'll do to fix that - since it's all wallpapered I'm not sure whether the microwave trick will work this time.

I really like the interior.  Obviously the red striped paper and the green striped paper that suited the Christmas theme that the shop is intended for weren't suitable - or maybe they are okay but since I have already used them I didn't want to repeat the colouring for the interior.  I already had this walllpaper and to me it suggests a trellis in the garden.  I wanted something fresh and pretty but not overpowering - the flowers will obviously be the feature in the shop.  The ceiling in the attic is painted white but I think I might go back and paper it as well.

And you'll notice that I've included a fine-tip glue bottle in all the photos this time, just as a reminder of how tiny the shops really are.

The quilt shop, called 'The French Knot' is another really delightful shop.  If you look at the basic shape of the different buildings you'll notice a 'mix and match'  process going on.  And very effective it is, too.  The quilt shop is actually the same basic shape as Dickens Books, but given a totally different treatment to the exterior it isn't obvious.

There are two window boxes provided.  Not sure yet whether to use the second one or not; it is all ready to go if needed, for this or for another building.

The green is Sage Green mixed with white, same as I used for the Petite Properties Corner Shop.  And I'm very chuffed that I was actually able to do the panels on the door with paint and get it right first go - YAAAAY!  I used the toothpick method as suggested and this time it just jelled for once.

Inside the pretty colours continue, with a green and blue stripe downstairs and a pretty floral upstairs.  The paper upstairs covers the ceiling as well.

The furniture that came with this kit was a counter and a turning display stand for downstairs, and a table and two small bookcases for upstairs.

In anticipation of this shop's arrival I had gone ahead and bought quite a few things.  Lots of white metal bits from Grace Shaw of Virtual Dollhouse, and some tape measures as well.  From BJs Miniatures I bought a sewing accessories display floor stand; a kit to make a shelf with 5 dozen bolts of 'fabric' ; a tall double quilt display rack; a sewing accessories wall display and a table set of sewing accessories. 

 Here is the wall display - beautifully done, with so much detail as are all the pieces from the same maker.  Notice the ruler above it.  Each of the packets on the top layer of the display (there are two or three layers for each) is nicely coated with a matt finish that makes it quite firm, then dimensional glaze used to give appropriate shape to the packet.

And that's fine for the shop display but of course each individual stitcher needs her own equipment.  This lovely little display measures less than an inch square - as you can see, it fits case and all within one square on my old painting mat.  Sorry about the daggy condition of said mat - it is the one that I normally keep for 'dirty' work and although I do clean it you wouldn't think so.

Look closely at the set of goodies - that tiny, tiny container actually measures about 1.5mm across yet holds not just one but two pairs of perfectly formed metal scissors as well as the other pencils and things in it.  That tiny rotary cutter is made of metal and is perfect in its appearance.  the mat is not just paper, it feels like a plastic of some sort.  The sewing book, ruler and reels of ribbon complete the set.  I won't necessarily keep all of the items together on the table where the person is working, it depends on what she is making.

But that wasn't all I bought.  Apart from the white metal thimbles, small spools and sewing machines from Grace I bought tape measures, needle packets (so sweet!) and various other bits associated with sewing.

Then there are the quilts.  Quite a few quilts in fact, from several sources.  And very nice they are too.  And of course I searched the net for printies, as well as my own files.  So there are printies of even more quilts, of quilt books and of sewing books, of sewing baskets and of sewing-themed notices and borders.

You've probably guessed by now - it all ends up being too much for one little Town Square quilt shop.  As a result, I am looking at those Petite Properties cottages that I am about to start making up with an eye to which one would adapt to a nice large patchwork shop.........

As I've been looking at the exterior of these two shops I am reminded that next shop (The China Cottage) is on it's way from Debbie Young.  I ordered and pre-paid for it back in October or thereabouts, along with the second 'O Christmas Tree'  forgetting that I'd already requested two of them from Judith Dowden.  Obviously I will honour that request, and will have three of the china shops.  I'm quite delighted about that, because of all of the shops this one has the prettiest details structurally.  I'll decide on which of the other shops to order an extra one of, and will use some of those details on that shop to change its appearance.  I might even use some of them on the Flower Shop as well.  And it gives me extra opportunities to swap doors and windows as well to ring further changes.  It means I'll end up with 15 or so shops for the Town Square, and that's fine too.  Lots of avenues to explore yet!

I Could Open A Furniture Shop

Last night after we moved a lot of our things back to the house from the caravan (the vast majority was my stuff: minis and some scrapbooking and crochet) – I was too tired to do anything much. I put several loads of washing on, and started to sort out the minis I brought home. Not for long though – soon I was assembling some of the furniture kits from BJ Miniatures. Now between these and the ones I showed you the other day, I could open a furniture shop LOL.

This lot is practically all dining furniture. I ordered them because I had a heap of bedroom furniture and sofas but was very short on the dining room side. I fell in love with the variety of furniture on BJ Miniatures – such delicate designs on the chairs, and different from the furniture I already had.

The background isn't the most effective I could have chosen, but it was what was to hand since after all our visitors, almost everything else is either in the washing machine, on the clothes line, waiting to be washed or waiting to be ironed!


Among the kits are several in the Jardin range. First, the Jardin Bench and Table.

 As well as including a ruler in the photos, I’ve deliberately left quite a bit of background around these pieces, to emphasise how tiny they really are,



There’s a Jardin dining table and two chairs, which are perfect for a small space.

And in the same colour wood, a Jardin rocker and table.

Then there’s a Hepplewhite Dining Set, in mahogany.  This is a nice elegant suite and I would like to do a cabinet in the same finish.

Now isn’t this next one an elegant design?  It’s a Ribbonback Dining Table and chairs in walnut wood with cherry inlay.  It’s so pretty.

Less formal in character is this Cottage Dining Set in cherrywood.  This one presented a real challenge to get the legs positioned evenly but we got there eventually.

And to finish this grouping, there is a China Cabinet in Golden Oak.  First, straight on:

Then, slightly at an angle to show the sides:

I thought last night that the mirror for this was damaged. This morning I emailed the Steinkes and asked whether I could obtain replacements for this and the chiffonier mirror. Judy was most gracious about it. Then I finally put my brain into gear and re-read the instructions. It sunk in that I was supposed to remove the protective film from the mirror back as well as the shelves – and guess what? The marks were on the protective film, not the mirror! In fact the mirror is excellent. It’s not true glass but you wouldn’t know it. This cabinet is, like the rest of the furniture, great quality.

Just like the previous lot of furniture, and indeed much more furniture I haven't shown you,  it all still needs to be sprayed with a protective finish. Hmmmm – that will be interesting with the mirrored cabinet! I will do all the furniture together that is already stained. The whitewood furniture that I showed you previously won’t be sprayed until I determine the finished colour to suit whatever home it will find.

So now I also have a good supply of dining furniture to put into those quarter scale cottages I have been building this year. In the meantime I might just put it all into one of my properties as a temporary furniture store.

The Christmas shop that isn't.

I started this post on Tuesday, so it is out of order but never mind.   

Our daughter and grandsons left for home today.  and of course the Fluff Ball as well.  I shall miss them all, even the Fluff Ball who insists on sitting on my lap even in 33degC heat!  It is wonderfult to have our family around and to see them every day, and I have been quite sad all day. I'd love to post a photo of my gorgeous family - I am so proud of them all.  But I have a policy of not putting photos of my grandchildren on the web. However here is one of the Fluff Ball instead, in one of her favourite if not very elegant, poses.

She has been clipped for our summer heat but she still finds it hot, and so do I.  When it gets too hot like this she cuurls up on my knees instead and resists if anyone tries to remove her vbg.  I think Cameron will be very happy to have his dog to himself again! 

Even my husband Peter was getting won over to a degree - here is one we snapped of him with 'The Princess'

And yes - that was her position, not posed.

Today  Peter was asleep after doing a night duty so apart from some basichousework there wasn't a lot I could do here in the caravan without disturbing him and I didn't want to go back to the house today.  So I kept busy doing minis.

I've already told you about finishing the Town Square Sunflower Garden Centre, and last night I also started on the second of my Town Square Christmas Shops.  You might remember that I ordered one directly from Debbie Young as well as the usual one from Judith Dowden, so that I would be able to make one up in time for Christmas.  Judith's don't arrive until the last week of the month.

I'm so pleased that I did too, because I really like the shop and it also means I get an extra tree, table and tablecloth and of course the shelving unit and landscaping.

Last night I constructed the walls and added the shingling to them.  I painted them in Folk Art Periwinkle Blue but didn't like it at all this morning - it wasn't what I consider to be periwinkle at all. So I've re-painted it all a different blue, and now I can't remember it's name.  But it has more of a touch of mauve to it.  Here it is at this point:

Sorry - I know that blue on a blue background isn't ideal but it's the only colour I have at the moment.  The ceiling is done, the eaves are done in a lighter blue.  I inserted the ground floor ceiling/1st floor while the glue was drying on the walls, even though they were also supported by lego blocks.  I wanted to make sure it all set perfectly square.  But I haven't glued it in yet because I have to find some wallpaper for it.  I can hardly use the red striped paper that came with it, now can I?

And why did I paint it blue?  Because it is having a change of personality, that's why.  It's not going to be another Christmas Shop - it will be a flower shop!  I must be start raving mad of course because that means lots and lots more flowers but it will look really pretty......