More on the gardening theme......

Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

Well I don't know about Mary's garden, but apparently in the village of Ferny Creek they are keen on greenhouses!  First I put together the lean-to greenhouse kit from Petitie Properties

I also have the full greenhouse kit but decided that I would first do the quarter scale one that I have had for some time from Templewood Miniatures. This one comes with staging and some seed trays as well, so it is different in layout from the Petite Properties one, which has a raised garden bed at one end. It is nice to have variety. I have painted the PP lean-to greenhouse, but will leave this one timber at least for now, and just distress it a bit.  According to Kathryn of Templewood Miniatures, good English greenhouses are often made of cedar and oiled every few years, resulting in a colour that looks like the mahogany that this one is made from. 

The base of this one is removable to provide access.  I covered the base with railway landscaping gravel to provide good drainage!

The next night I finished the Templewood one and did the full greenhouse from Petitie Properties.  The blue on the door has come out looking quite different from RL - it is rather darker in reality.

and the seed flats that come with the timber greenhouse

I took a photo of the three of them together.  They aren't weathered yet, and need to be, but I was really pleased with them and wanted to show them to you!

So it has been quite a productive couple of evenings (pun intended lol) - now if only those seed trays would produce mini plants, it would save me a fortune in plant kits!

Thank you for the lovely feedback

Blogger/Google is having problems...

At least they know about the problem, which is something I guess, but it appears that it has been going on for some time now and they haven't fixed it yet because I have been trying to thank you for the lovely feedback on the pergola post.  It is great to receive feedback as you know, and I do appreciate it. And it's nice to know that someone has a look at the blog occasionally lol!

The competition that wasn't .......

I'm such a duffer!

No, I haven't been rustling sheep or cattle.  For those of you who don't speak Australian, if we call someone a 'duffer' it is a way of saying that they've been silly.  I can sort of see how it grew from cattle or sheep duffing - after all, they are both pretty silly things to do too, especially in the days when you were likely to get shot for doing them!

So why am I a duffer? Because I was making a pergola for a club completition.  Closing date was the end of last weekend.  My structure was done (I had chosen to do mine in quarter scale), but I was waiting for flower kits to arrive to do the decoration.  Then the organizer asked whether another week would help people - I was very pleased, but didn't take in the rest of the email, which apparently said 'please let me know'!

So here I was during the week, working hard on my entry.  I didn't have my laptop on very much for several days because I was busy backing up my old one, then using the transfer program to move everything to the new laptop, backing up my email program and transferring it to this new one, installing programs on the new one and all the rest of the fuss that goes with a new computer.  And I was slack about keeping up with my emails.

I completed the furniture and accessories for the interior.  There was a table and bench made from scratch, using the bits that are left once laser-cut pieces were removed for furniture kits.  I always keep these because the wood is nice and thin and comes in useful for all sorts of things.  The pots are bought plastic ones, just painted and 'aged', the tools are made from card and the rest from printies.

 Some ivy grows up the lattice on the side, made using the few bits of leftover kit I had.  Railway greenery covers the dirt in the garden at the bottom since I didn't have the flowers I had planned to put there. 

With some wire that was left over from other flower kits, and some petal shapes that I 'stole' from my hollyhock kit, I created a pretty little floral decorative wreath (I love doing these)

Then an order arrived from Judith Dowden, with a couple of flower kits that she happened to have, including one for a hanging basket with a fuschia plant and a hanging basket with a philodendron plant.  I made up the philodendron

I have almost finished the fuschia too.  There was also a kit for a camellia bush in a pot.  I made that up as well, but 'planted' it in a half scale pot I already had, because I wanted a nice large one.  I ran out of leaves for this plant, then on Friday my part-order from Susan of sdk miniatures also arrived, with another camellia kit and I used leaves from that to bulk out the shrub.

Of course the artist needed an easel, table and stool.  I used a kit for the easel and did the table and stool from scratch, using scrap bits of wood again, mainly from the ever-useful tongue depressors and match sticks. A sketch pad and pencils were necessary as well (printie and bits of wire painted blue).  The pencils keep getting lost.  Perhaps the kitty has taken them off somewhere.

All I had left to do was the clematis vine to go over the roof, when I was pretty shattered to see an email announcing that since no-one had asked for an extension, the contest was closed, and there was a winner :-(  That's what I get for not reading thing properly and for being out of touch for a few days!  It was very hard to keep my motivation going after that, but after a bit of thinking I decided that I would do the clematis anyway.  Now that's no mean effort, let me tell you!  For a quarter scale clematis vine, the leaves are around 1/8"  or 2.5mm long.  The flowers don't take long to do, but the leaves are more tedious.  First you paint one side of the sheet, let it dry.  Then the other side.  Let it dry.  Go over each little leaf and gently rub it with a small stylus to round it slightly then remove each leaf from the sheet.  After that is done, it takes around 10 minutes to add enough leaves for 1" (2.5cm) of the fine wire.  To do the vine for the top of the pergola probably took me 3 days if I put all the working time together.  Here it is:

It's not the best of photos, and I need to add more flowers to the vine yet - I think there are only about 18-20 or so on there at the moment.  But I've had enough for now.

 And here is the finished project.  I decided that I would add my trademark cat to the scene, since it wasn't for the competition any more (or I couldn't have added it).

Overall view with artist's easel etc.

View inside as seen by the artist

 Looking in from the right side of the pergola

So starting from the beginning of the whole process, at first I made a very rough drawing of what I wanted, in order to get some idea of measurements.  They were very unprofessional and undetailed.  At one stage I wanted to be an architect and I do have a tendancy to draw detailed  plans of anything I am thinking of doing but this time - well, this time that didn't happen!  But it gave me something to work from.

The whole thing is made from tongue depressors - the wood isn't bad and it's reasonably easy to cut into thin strips that don't break too easily like balsa wood does.  I  didn't have any timber the right size for the four square 'pillars' that would be the main supports, unless I used some balsa wood that I had.  But I thought that the balsa would probably colour differently from the rest of the timber, so instead I cut strips from the tongue depressors and glued them together to make square pillars.  A bit of trimming and sanding to get them all the same size and thickness afterwards and they were okay.

The 'roof' of the pergola was going to be peaked to provide a bit more interest than a flat roof.  I tend to fiddle and experiment to work out what works, so that's what I did here, until I found the angle that I liked for these pieces.  Once the angle was cut I could cut all the pieces to the correct length and glue them into their v-shape.  I find that using a mixture of tacky glue and pva gives quick grab, fast drying and strong joints.  More fiddling and experimentation to work out where the cuts had to be made for the half joints in both the joists and the rafters, and finally all the pieces fitted together.  Another piece through the middle of the rafters at their peaks helped tie them together and hold them in place.  Then I added some 'battons' over the top of the rafters.  Some lattice on the left side to provide extra privacy/windbreak and support for climbing plants and coonstruction was done.

And here it is, finished but unpainted:

And after its first coat of paint:

Then after it has been weathered and distressed:

It really does pay to read instructions.  While thinking about the project I had been trying to decide on the scene that would go into it.  Wedding? Christening? Birthday? Romantic meal? Lazy afternoon? Sunday morning breakfast?  Chidren playing cubbyhouse under a table?

In the end I decided that perhaps I'd just have a normal outdoors table and chairs, but have an artist's easel set up there too, with a work of art in progress.  The artist's sketch book, paints etc could be on the table, there would be lots of scope for accessories as well as scope to decorate the pergola with flowers.

Then I thought of the surroundings - how about a studio with french doors opening onto the paved area where the pergola was, with more artist's equipment inside?  So I cut the base, made a raised flower bed for one side, ready to cover with paper clay later when I did the paving on the base and set about cutting pieces of card to make the studio.  It was only when I was ready to put the studio together that I paid attention to the nagging doubts that had been trying to get my attention.  I checked the rules of the competition - oops!  No background or landscaping allowed, simple the pergola alone on a simple base.  Only the things on or in it permitted.  Big change of plans coming up vbg.

So.  The base was cut down to just fit the pergola on, covered with paper clay and paving stones scribed into the clay.

And here is the raised flower bed - not for the competition but I will use it for the setting with the pergola.  I also covered this with paperclay, and scribed it with 'stone' to tone with the flagstone on the base.

I had made up the ivy and was ready to attach it, but after considering the pergola itself for some time I decided that I wasn't happy with the colour of the timber after all.  I didn't feel that things would show up well - everything was too brown.  So it went into the microwave to soften the glue and I was able to remove the pergola from the base.  With the glue so soft and malleable I was able to re-shape it all and get it square again too, which pleased me no end.  Once it had cooled and the glue had hardenced I painted it with my ivory house paint, and was so much happier with the result.  My brother (who is a builder) is also impressed, and has declared that he'd like some extending fluid so he could park his landrover under it vbg!

Now it was time to start the flowers and vines to decorate the pergola itself.  Since the only decoration has to be in or on the structure itself, I wanted to make the most of it.  Hanging baskets, a shrub or two in tubs, and a flowering vine over the roof seemed obvious sources of interest and colour.  The idea of gardening in process gres from the desire to provide the artist with a subject to sketch, that could easily be seen by the 'viewer' for the purpose of the competition. 

And where is the sketch?  Well, I'm a bit 'over it' at the moment, so I didn't do a sketch to put on the easel.  So it appears that the artist and the gardener have both gone off for a cup of coffee, taking the sketch with them vbg.  I do hope that the roots of that little plant lying on the newspaper on the table don't dry out too much! 

 And I wonder whether that little cat will succeed in pulling the gardening magazine down off the stool?  Hope he doesn't get into the seed flats.

I hope you like my pergola - even if I didn't get to enter it into the competition I have a nice addition to one of my quarter scale houses, I think.  And next time  I will read the email notices rather more carefully lol!

Welcome new followers...

It's so lovely that you have signed on !

I do hope you have enjoyed your visit and that you will come back frequently to share my mini journey.  At the moment I am working on developing my 'village' of Ferny Creek, and it grows as fast as Bea and Tony of Petite Properties release new kits in quarter scale. I an expecting the courier any day with the latest arrivals: the lean-to greenhouse, the full greenhouse and my third side scullery.  And of course I have kits from other makers to add to the collection too.  So please do stay tuned and feel free to leave comments  :-)



When 5 x 1 = 3

Crazy Maths?

... well, not really.   And I haven't made a mistake either vbg. I have been working on five of my new Petite Properties kits. They aren’t finished yet – I want to work on the lighting for them and decide what to do about lighting for some of the other structures I have already made up.   I also need to complete the cottages I constructed for the Fair that were built but not decorated inside. And of course they all need furnishing, and so does Washtub. So there’s a lot to do and to enjoy. But since I can at times be a bit reluctant to get the clay out and make a mess I thought I’d do the basic shells all together. It’s nice to take my time though and to not have any deadline. Especially since I have this persistent ear infection that really makes me feel off at times, and I am being very slow to get things done.

First there's Barnacle Cottage. Here it is so far,  with the front on, though the trim still has to be added. It is cream outside and inside at the moment but probably won't remain that colour.

 

And here is the interior, though none of the inside pieces are glued in yet. I won't put them in until I decide how I want to set it out. 

Then there is Orchard House. Again, the roof won’t go on until the lighting is completed. The flooring isn’t glued in yet either, to allow for wiring.  I did both the base and the first floor in floorboards this time, to provide a bit of variety.

I did the side scullery with a brick finish to go with the finish on Orchard House and it looks really different from the one I did in stone for Gooseberry Cottage.

I had ordered the side scullery to go with Windy Hill Croft.   Since I was using the clay I went on with the croft anyway,  and I have ordered another side scullery to go with it too vbg (that will be the third)...so here it is so far:

Windy Hill Croft will be a farmhouse, and I already have a few animals from Mini Gems to go on the farm - apart from the kitties that I put in every structure I do, in whatever scale it is.  I’ve done this building in a similar finish to the worn whitewashed stone on Washtub, like the sample that Bea shows.  Only not nearly as well, unfortunately!

And finally, Halfpenny House. I've done a bit of kit bashing on this one, cutting the front wall in half then cutting it again and adding the window from the ground floor to the first floor to give a second window upstairs. The ground floor will have full-width French doors opening on to a paved area.

Again, I've done the 'wooden' flooring on both the ground and first floors, using Bea's technique of strips of paper painted to simulate floor boards.  I've used double sided tape on the back instead of gluing them on, and find that works really well.  I really like this method - thank you Bea!

The final photo I have is because of a discussion we had on 'The Beehive' today.  When I use the clay, I always find that the mdf warps.  Even though I have tried various methods of sealing it - sanding sealer, gesso, primer/sealer and combinations of these, it still warps.  So with flat pieces I let the clay dry, and any warped pieces I spray on the non-clay side with water then put them on a flat surface (both sides protected) and put a heavy weight - books etc, on top for 24-48 hours.  When I did Halfpenny House I foolishly assembled it then applied the clay to the right wall and it ended up with the wall curling mischieviously outwards at the top, separating from the back wall and ending up way out of shape.  That is more difficult.  So here is what I do in this situation - the wall is still sprayed with water and then protected, and the whole thing is clamped to the table.

Hope showing the photo makes the explanation a bit clearer. 

So why does 5x1=3? Easy - it's because Barnacle Cottage will stand alone; the Croft will stand alone (except that it will eventually have a side scullery). But Orchard house, Halfpenny House and the Side Scullery are all being combined into one dwelling. And I'll be adding a bit more in the way of embellishment as well, later on. How is it going to be arranged? Well, my dear readers, you will have to check back and see lol!

And in the meantime I am also working on another project for one of my online clubs -- but it has to remain a secret until after the end of the month. I have completed the building part and am trying to do the decorating part and have run into unexpected supply problems so I'm not sure how it will pan out. As usual I will just have to give it a go and see. So once again - stay tuned, there are developments in the wind!

Welcome Nuria - and I'm so fortunate!

Welcome Nuria

Hello Nuria, and welcome to my mini world - I have visited your blog and am fascinated by your house.  You are fortunate to have a husband who is interested in miniatures as well.  I tried to sign on as a follower there - unsuccessfully - but will do so as soon as I can overcome the language barrier.  I am grateful that I can translate the posts themselves but the page to become a follower doesn't translate.  Never mind, I will work it out vbg.

So why am I so fortunate?

Well, because my husband has been spoiling me lately!  He bought several new containers for the cottages so we could display them at the Fair.  I had the larger one in which we put the group of Petite Properties, but Peter had the one for the Town Square, the one for the English Cottage and one for the Sea Shanty (which I didn't exhibit, but used for two other houses) - all made in time for the Fair.  Isn't he a lovely man?

Not only that though, he knows that the small screen on the computer I've had for the last year and a half or even less has been annoying me very much.  It is only a 13" one, and I thought I would get used to it but it is so restricted when I am on the net, and can't see enough of pages, and on so many other occasions too.  It is a great laptop, with good RAM, 500GB HD (which we thought would be quite adequate since I have several external hard drives) a 64bit operating system, great graphics card and an LED screen plus other features that are top notch.  But the limited number of USB ports was annoying, the size of the screen was much more annoying and the HD has slowed down because there is so much on it - and yes, I have removed lots from it, regularly defrag it and do the housekeeping things.

So today we went shopping for a small storage unit to put my little containers for quarter scale bits and pieces in, for more convenient access on the shelves.  But Peter went to Penrith instead of the local shops where I thought we were going, and we went to a large store where they sell (among all the other usual things) - computers!  I came away the excited new owner of  a laptop with a 16 1/2" screen, an external HD (USB3.0, which is 10x faster than the USBs that I have now) plus various programs.  We decided to Flexi-Rent this laptop, and as part of the deal I get a tablet (not an iPad unfortunately, it's a Samsung) and a mobile internet at very low cost which means that Peter will now have a mobile internet too.  And to top it off, a whizz-bang surge protector board that I've wanted for ages but haven't bought before because they are expensive.  All in all a lovely surprise - and wonderfull spoiling!

To top off a lovely day, the courier came just before we went shopping, with my parcel from Debbie Young with the new kit 'The Avalon' plus some furniture kits. 

Since my order of bits and (quite a lot of) pieces from Grace Shaw arrived yesterday, my lovely son Nathan gave me the Petite Properties Orchard House and Halfpenny House kits for Mothers' Day on Sunday, and I also bought Windy Hill Croft and another Side Scullery (and they arrived on Thursday - just in time), I have plenty of lovely things to play with.  But I have started on Barnacle Cottage first, and am trying to organise my work area yet again.

But what a lovely day!  Now all I have to do over the next few days is to back up my laptop, get my new one set up (I'm typing this on it, so I have begun to do so), and learn to adjust back from a small keyboard to a larger one again vbg.

Today is the second Sunday in May and for us in Australia that means it is Mothers' Day.  So to all mothers, whereever you live, and whatever date you celebrate Mothers' Day in your country, I wish you a day filled with love and happiness.

I was in charge of the Bible study meeting yesterday morning and I chose to have a segment on mothers as part of it, with a short quiz on mothers in the Bible, and several quotes regarding mothers.  Here are a few of them - I'm sure you have heard most if not all of them:

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while but their hearts forever.

Sweater (noun): a garment worn by a child when it's mother is feeling chilly.

The phrase 'working mother' is redundant' -- Jane Sellman

All mothers are working mothers - Author unknown.

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children - Charles R. Swindoll.

The formative period for building character for eternity is in the nursery.  The mother is queen of that realm and sways a scepter more potent than that of kings or priests.

If you have a mum, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been.  Robert Brault

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all my life.  Abraham Lincoln.

Children are a great comfort in your old age.  And they drive you to it faster too!

So -  I hope you have a very  







Welcome Sonja.......And recovering

Welcome Sonja, thank you for signing on as a Follower of my blog.  I hope you have enjoyed visitng and will come back often.  Please feel free to leave comments - I love sharing with other miniaturists and getting feedback from them as well.

Recovering from the after-effects.....

....no, not what you think!  It's the after-effects of preparing for the Fair - and of the Fair itself lol. Jan and I worked right up to the time we took our display items to the Exhibition Centre on Friday.  The Town Square base had some problems so I decided to do some further work on it on the Saturday night after Sabbath and take it over just for Sunday.

Getting to the Fair was an adventure in itself:

Jan and I had worked out how we would arrange the table, putting things on different levels so that the buildings that needed to be viewed from both sides could be seen clearly, and those that were just viewed from the front were in a position that was suitable.  I had drawn up a plan of how we would set it out, everything was packed (except the Town Square) and we set off.

Peter took most of the buildings and covers in our Pajero 4WD and we followed him in Jan's hire car, testing out how her new GPS performed.  It was perfect, following exactly the route that Peter took (he knows the way).  Until that is we were nearly there, and the roads were blocked off!  The Sports Centre is part of the Olympic complex at Homebush and because of other events, the two main roads we wanted were closed.  Unfortunately the GPS can't be told that little fact, so Jan was pleased that Peter knew the area well.  He was able to find another way in, so we finally got there.

Setting up our table:

Setting up our table we were soon glad that we hadn't brought the Town Square with us because we changed the display a little bit and Nerida, the organiser of the Fair decided we needed a second table vbg.  Felt a bit greedy.

This view is from Sunday; on Saturday the second table (with the light blue cover) was bare.  Setting up took a while, but the display looked nice when we were done. 

 It was also a nice surprise that four ladies along with two of their husbands came along - they are fellow members of The Beehive (Petite Properties online group), had read about the properties I was making and wanted to meet me in person.  They had a good look at the PP that I had brought along and all felt that they are even better in real life than in photos - and are going to order some for themselves.  So for Sunday when I came for the day I typed out little labels with the names of each property and the fact that they were Petite Properties kits so that people who wanted more information could see it.

Disaster!

On Saturday night Peter and I tried to fix the problem with the base for the Town Square.  We stayed up until 4am, but it just got worse and worse, so we finally decided to give it up as a lost cause.  On Sunday morning I was up around 6.30 and had a bit more of a go but still got nowhere. 

In the end I packed a smaller board that I had, which was just painted green.  I didn't worry about all the trees that I have been buying over the last few weeks either, sadly.  Such a waste of time and effort.  So the display of the Town Square wasn't nearly as nice as it could have been.  Very disappointing.  But the buildings still attracted a lot of attention in their own right which of course they deserve.

And I still have more shops to add to the Square as well - several more, in fact.  They are extras that I bought plus one that was a gift.

At the Fair

Sunday was extra special for me because Peter and our son Nathan were there too.  Nathan wanted to buy some items to furnish a roombox he started years ago.  It will be Beauty's bedroom from 'Beauty and the Beast' - his version of course.  He used some of the money he received for his birthday (which was on Saturday) and bought an inexpensive doll, bed, dressing table, wardrobe and carpet for the roombox. 
I spent the day on my feet, and in spite of strict instructions from the chiropractor that I was to spend no more than 15 minutes at a time walking around before sitting down for a while, I did overdo it.  But I still didn't get around all the sellers before my money was totally spent lol! Here are some views of the trading tables, from the entrance near the blue tables at the lower left of the first photo

On the far right of this second photo are the exhibition tables. They are down the right wall and across the bottom of the hall (out of view) with a second row parallel to the right wall.

There were fewer traders this year (result of the disasters that have hit Australia this year I guess) but all those who were there did good business.  I thought the number of exhibitors was down too, but the quality was excellent.  I'll show more photos in another posting. Our exhibit was well received, and people were fascinated by Jan's Sea Cliff - the details in it, and the structure itself.  The fact that it is a modern house was popular too, and I heard people say how they would like to just move right in. 

The Petite Properties also attracted lots of attention.  I was told by Jan from Goulburn, one of the new people I met on Friday, that on Saturday they had even more interest than on Sunday. 

 I wish I had the little information tags on them on Saturday as well, but Jan did a great job of telling them where to find the kits.  So between us we conducted  a terrific publicity campaign lol!  The WIPs (works in progress) were mostly in one case.  I didn't put the shop roomboxes in there, due to lack of room, but I had plenty on display without them.

Toadstool Cottage Patchwork had it's own display box.  I am really pleased with this one.  There are still some details to add to it - but after all, Sarah and Alice are in the process of setting it up, so more progress can occur over time.

For now the scullery of Gooseberry Cottage is serving as an art studio.  Rachel Workman is refurbishing Rosebud Cottage's interior (lots of refurbishing going on in Ferny Creek, isn't there vbg?) so she is renting the scullery until it is completed.

Gooseberry Cottage and Flowerpot Cottage were back-to-back in the display case.  Flowerpot was sadly minus its extended garden, due to those flowers from the US still not arriving  :-(  The base is prepared, grass 'planted', tree is growing vigorously and the seat, chairs and table underneath it ready for someone to rest in the shade.  But the flowers are lacking.  So I haven't attached the cottage at this stage.

After the Fair
Yesterday (Monday) I spent recovering, with painkillers, and  a hot water bottle in close contact with the small of my back.  I itemised everything I had bought at the Fair for my Inventory (did I really spend that much?) and today I' had planned to be taking photos for the same.   And yes, I do keep an inventory of my miniatures.  One for each order/vist to a store and a second one by category which has each item with a photograph of it (if it's a kit, of the finished item) and its location in a building or dollshouse.  Yes, I know - obsessive.  But Nerida, the owner of the miniatures store who introduced me to the wonderful world of real miniatures nearly 14 years ago, told me right at the beginning to keep an inventory - and a journal of each project I do.  I have heeded her advice, kind of, ever since.  The only thing is that I'll have to burn the inventory before I pass on or my family will have collective heart attacks at the amount of money I've spent over the years lol!

Today it was off for a back treatment.  Then it was on to downlading the photos from the Fair, and  planning what is needed to finish off those properties that are not yet completed,,,,,and of course there are those kits in their boxes or bags still calling out mournfully 'What about me?'  Oh well, there's plenty to plan.  And maybe the courier will arrive this week with my new order from Petite Properties (Mothers Day present from Nathan) or one of the other parcels I am waiting for.......