Kitchenalia.....

 I have been working on kitchens, and have made good progress, especially on the one for Gooseberry Cottage.  The name 'Gooseberry' suggested green to me, so when I was assembling it I chose green for the door and window ledges and I am going with green for the main colour scheme. When I did the lean-to greenhouse I was thinking of putting it with this cottage and hence I did the door to that green as well. 

First step was to decide which  of the kitchen kits from Debbie Young to use.  I had made up both of them to try them out.  In the end I decided against using either of them, and instead chose a cheap plastic set that had smaller items in it suitable for the layout.  I felt that the ivy green aga I had (from Virtual Dollhouse, it is made by Jenny Wren) would be perfect for the colour scheme, and give the room a real lift.  So the whole layout changed.

Using the aga called for a fireplace and since I want a door from the cottage into the kitchen through the wall the fireplace needs to be on the left wall (which means the chimney has to be changed).  Some pieces of balsa wood and some cardboard and a lot of fiddling and I had the basic shape.  I have some Elmer's  Wood Filler left over from doing the StoryBook Cottage - I love this stuff, wish I could find it here in Australia!  I am trying to use it up before it goes solid in the tube; it is starting to become difficult to squeeze it out now.  I used some of it to go over the wood and cardboard frame of the fireplace for texture and strength.  I closed in the top part to try and make the shape similar to the shape of the wall, using a piece of paper.  Then I 'plastered' over that as well, using the wood filler.  When that was dry I plastered it inside as well to give it strength.
 

I have some 1:12 scale tiles that have the ivy green that is on the door and a reddish-terracotta colour that goes well with the quarry tiles on the scullery floor. Printing them out in a reduced version, cutting and pasting and I had the perfect tiled back for the fireplace.  sorry the photo looks a bit washed out - I had my magnifying light on as well as using the flash.  The green is actually a dark ivy green.

The walls are cream and after briefly considering doing the cabinet doors in ivy green but deciding it might be too dark, the cabinets are cream as well. The benchtop, which is a piece of cardboard, is painted in various shades of green and some white.  Printing out a reduced version of the border tiles to match the tiles I used for the fireplace and more cutting and pasting and I had the perfect splashback for the bench and for the sink.  I finished off the top edge of the sink with some of the terracotta border from the

un-reduced copy of the tiles so the white plastic wouldn't show.  I tried painting the handles of the cupboards in green but it didn't look any good so it was back to the cream again.  I will try with gold tomorrow.

It still needed more colour, so the fridge ended up ivy green as well.

 I think It would be nice to have a border right around the top of the room or something, the top cupboard area is a bit bland,  but I haven't found anything suitable yet.   Ivy would be perfect.  Meanwhile some pots, a plant, something along those lines would do the trick I think.  It certainly needs something!

Still to come - the door of course.  Appliances - I have made a clock for the chimney above the stove (its a printie folded around a piece of cardboard to give dimension).  There are some shelves in the kits, but they look too bulky so making a smaller set for above the fridge might be the go.  A shade for the light, some dishes, Maybe a small dresser if I can work out how to fit one in.....

I'm quite proud of myself tonight. I  did some electrifying as well!  I've been putting it off - partly because I can't make up my mind about the kind of light shades to use. I know where to put the lights and how I want to go about it, but a simple thing like light shades had me marking time. I have wired the kitchen for the cottage (which is actually a side scullery) and also the house itself. Photos of the lighting tomorrow when I put the shade on - as you can see in this last photo I took some tonight but left the magnifying light on and the LED lights don't show up well.

Welcome Narina and thank you for the suggestions so far.....

Good morning - sorry for the delay in posting, I have a couple ready to go and just waiting for the things to be completed or photos to be taken.  Hopefully later today (Sunday here in Aus).
Narina I am so happy to see you here - thank you for signing on as a Follower :)  I went to have a look at your lovely blog - the translate function doesn't work too well sometimes and it didn't make it easy to read unfortunately but what I could understand was so charming.  I read that you concentrate on 1:12th scale, and so do several of the other followers so I have given that consideration when thinking about the draw.

I think that I will do 2 draws, one for 1:12th scale and one for 1:48 scale.  Everyone can choose whether to be in either of these or both if they like, once it opens.  I will give more information later on - but I have time to prepare the items yet, since we have a few more followers to go lol.

So I'd better get moving and finish off one of the items I am working on for my quarter scale cottages so I can take photos - more to come later, after finishing and after I go to visit my mum.

Welcome KayJay and Sue

I need suggestions please.....

It's very exciting to see the numbers of Followers slowly growing.  So welcome KayJay and Sue - it is lovely to see you here, and I truly hope that you enjoy your visits and leave lots of comments.  I don't get much in the way of feedback from my family.  Like so many of our families, they don't 'get it' so I particularly enjoy being a member of a miniature community.

I notice that other bloggers often have a giveaway when their followers reach a certain number, so I was thinking that if I reach 100 I will have one too.  If I do reach that number of course lol!

So - I need suggestions please, about the kind of giveaway that you would like me to hold.  What would be good to have for prizes?  What scale?  As you know, I do mainly quarter scale at the moment but I also do 1:12th scale.  Perhaps a draw for 1:48scale and one for 1:12 scale?  I do petitpoint in 1:12th scale only though.

Please offer lots of ideas because there's not much point in having a giveaway if no-one likes the prizes!  And if you want to encourage others to sign on as followers, we will reach 100 all the sooner lol.  And if you are one of those who read but haven't signed on, then now is your opportunity so you can enter the draw as well.

Mini hugs

Sandie



Flower Power

Well, I was a teenager in the sixties after all lol!    I thought I’d start to do a bit with the greenhouses, so started with the leanto one.  It looked so nice all pristine and clean but of course it had to be dirtied up so I got busy with a very dilute wash of water and dark brown.  Soon the glazing was grotty and the paintwork was patchy.  Suitably grungy, I figured.

I retrieved the staging from the demolished wooden Templewood greenhouse, and cut one of them down to fit along the side of the lean-to one.  Some of the flats from the same source, including the one I had in the pergola (with the little hand spade in it) are on the bench.  Two have been filled and have ‘labels’ to show what has been planted.  Also on the bench are empty seed flats, a watering can, more labels and some packets of seeds.

A shelf above holds snail bait, two boxes of fertilizer and some more seed packets.  The shelf is made from part of the piece cut off the staging when I shortened it. The boxes are printies. Under the staging is a large wooden box (made from offcuts) with newspapers and a gardening magazine (more printies – from the pergola).  In front is a bag of seed-raising mix (printie again, stuffed mainly with a bit of tissue topped with 'soil').   A spade is sitting near the door. I think a broom is needed too, to sweep up the soil that has been spilt over the floor!

Two 'tomato' plants are growing in the raised garden bed at the end.  the leaves are actually from a half-scale rose kit from Templewood Miniatures (Fine Flowers in Miniature) - I just used the smallest ones, on a framework made from bits of wire from flower kits.  The 'stakes' are slivers of timber I shaved from a tongue depressor.  I will probably add another thinner bench along the open side of the green house, with a row of seed flats with more 'advanced' seedlings in them.

then I moved on to Rosebud Cottage.  I had a sheet of fine metal rose leaves from Suzanne & Andrews, which I have been saving to use on the verandah trellis here.  These are lovely delicate and lacy leaves, very special.  I used some of the straight edging as the stem at the bottom of the climbing rose,

and cut some of the little branchlets off the four strips of petaIs that come in the sheet. These little bits I could add to different places to get a pleasing effect.  I used the half scale roses from Templewood – itseems impossible to get large quantities of quarter scale roses, which is surprising. 

 The suggestion was to make up the roses leaving off the last two rounds of petals so that is what I did.  I also used some of the second last round of petals to make buds, and found that the sepals were fine to use for them.  The roses came in a bright orange-red, but I painted each one with burgundy for the smaller ones, and each of the larger ones with burgundy in the middle and randomly in places on the petals to give a closer colour to the house and also variation in shading.

The metal takes a while to glue into place, so it took a while but it was well worth it, I think.  I love the way the burgundy of the roses goes so well with the trim on the cottage which is Folk Art colour 754, appropriately called 'Rose Garden'.

Thank you!

Still can't post a reply to your comments!

I'm so sorry that I can't add a comment in reply to your comments - don't know when Google will get its act together, it's been ages now.  However I do want to say Thanks all for your messages - I know you understand!  And your suggestions are all great.  I feel much better this morning, and the idea of a neglected greenhouse is perfect, as is yours Chris, of ordering a new one.  And yes, I am grateful for a husband that wants to kiss me goodnight (and hello) - I couldn't have a better man in my life, believe me.

Also I want to welcome another new follower - Gemma, I am so pleased that you came to visit and signed up.  I hope you enjoyed your time here, and that you come back often and leave comments too :)  It's always so good to receive feedback from others who enjoy minis. 



Well - at least I have the photos!

It's totally wrecked :(  !

My greenhouse from Kathryn of Templewood Miniatures has been destroyed.  Totally by accident, but very thoroughly.  It was in a partial box on the lounge beside me, and my darling husband brushed by it to kiss me goodnight as he was leaving for night duty this evening.  He stepped back and we both heard a crunch then another crunch.  Looking down I saw the remnants of my greenhouse under his foot!  He was suitably apologetic but doesn't understand how upset I am. 

For ages I couldn't bring myself to look to see what damage was done.  When I finally did, things were just as bad as I feared - pretty well all of the glazing bars on the sides are broken in at least one place and pieces are missing in lots of places.  It didn't even occur to me to check the soles of Peter's sneakers before he left the house for little pieces - I was too shocked.  And it's been raining for several days so any little bits that were caught in the tread of his shoes has probably been trodden into the mud. 

 I have scoured the carpet thoroughly and can't even find all the pieces to fill in the breaks, .  I have found the little decorative bit that was broken off the top but there are still lots of pieces gone from the sides. The bench supports are broken off and in several pieces, and the roof has gaps in it everywhere.  I rang Peter and asked him to check his shoes but I think it's too late. And I think the damage is too extensive anyway so at the moment I can't think want to do. I am so upset and sad. 

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty

Queen's Birthday Holiday in Australia

Australia is celebrating the Queen's birthday with a public holiday weekend.  So - Happy birthday Your Majesty!  I admire our Queen very much indeed, and hope her reign continues for a long time yet.





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!