I can hardly believe it

I won

What exciting news today - two emails from 'Pretty Made' , one thanking me for commenting on her blog and wishing me luck in the draw.  Then another one saying - guess what, you have won! I visited her blog and she even has a photo of the random number generator.  I was the second-last person to join the draw, I think, and I have never won anything on giveaways.  In fact, I don't win anything on anything! 

So here are more photos of it, and I'm excited to say that soon it will be winging it's way from Finland to Sydney.  How cool is that!

Welcome....

Welcome to 'Pretty Made's Fancy', the newest follower and member of our mini community here.  What a nice name to have for your blog - I will certainly be visiting again, it looks fascinating.  I really like the bed you have made.

I promised that I would also mention your giveaway on my blog and it is a great one!  Even though it will be drawn tomorrow (1st May) there is still time to enter.  It consists of two lovely components, a pretty veil

And also the bouquet shown in the photo below.  Aren't they lovely?  They'd certainly look good in my Bridal shop, that's for sure!  Though I am never fortunate when it comes to entering give-aways.  But I try.  One day maybe.

Today was my "baby's" birthday.  He was 23.  It is only yesterday that I was posting about him turning 22, and the memories of the drama of his birth 13 weeks early are still fresh in all our minds.  The 17 weeks that followed with him in NICU, undergoing 7 operations on his brain are also fresh in our mind, and again we give thanks to our Lord that He had His hand over Nathan all the way through.  Nathan went through many crises during that time and the next ten years, and he is truly a miracle child - well, I can't say child any more, can I lol?  We are more grateful than I could ever express for the joy our children have brought into our lives, including him.  And today was a chance for us to remember how fortunate we are, even though it was spent preparing for our trip.

I promise that I'll post some photos of the house soon - it was going to be tonight, but it is now midnight and time for bed.

Some progress.....

Some of the lavender wallpaper has arrived, the designs I ordered from the Betterleys. Not sure if it is just what I want at the moment, the stripes are very stripey and the mottled is a bit pinkish! But the rest of the papers and carpets should arrive from Judith Dowden soon. I have ordered the set that she sells to go in Dove Point Cottage, even though I will be ordering another set for that cottage too. So I will end up with two cottages done in lavender!

Two chimneys from Petite Properties have been cut down to fit the living and dining rooms. The mentlepieces are painted brown for timber and the rest left plain, ready to wallpaper.

I love lavender, but I tend not to buy a lot of fabric or accessories in this colour for some reason, so I don't have the large number of resources to fall back on that I usually have for a house. Going through my container of fabrics I found a very dark print, and covered the lounge with it. My vision for the living room is to have it quite light, with two white armchairs but the lounge giving a dark contrast. The floor, mantlepiece and some side tables give a timber accent, and there will be a rug on the floor. I'll decide on the wallpaper when I have a range to choose from. Cushions will be in lavender floral, white, and hopefully as much variety as I can manage.

Not happy really with the bedroom furniture, I gave it another coat of white, thicker this time. Then I tackled the bed. I would have preferred the purple check to have been a micro check, but I used it anyway and dressed the bed with it. If you want to see how I did that, have a look at the page I have done giving step-by-step directions. Not sure whether to use the same print to fill in the door of the wardrobe or use some of the wallpaper. Each of them will have to be tested to see.

After experimenting with furniture layouts, I have realised that the arch from the hallway to the living room wouldn't allow the layout that would show things off in the best way. So that plan has to be changed - I'm glad it hadn't been finalised.

I've also assembled two wall hanging plant holders, and a garden tote kit, all from MJ Miniatures. Once they are painted I will post photos of them.

Seem to be marking time

It feels as though I'm not getting anywhere much at the moment, and I'm becoming restless with the project again, as usual when I can't just get in and get it done. However, when I stop to really look at what I've completed it's quite a bit even though it mightn't show.

First of all I re-painted all the brickwork. I'm happier with it now - it's a softer, lighter colour. I didn't mind the darker colour but I do prefer this lighter shade.

The front door is in two shades of lavender and I've rescued a cross piece from a broken french door to use in the top glass section. The porch from Rosebud looks nice against the softer colour. The pavement has 'gravel' over it, and the soft gold colour of that complements the colour of the house really well.
When you remove the front it's rather overwhelmingly lavender at the moment, but it won't stay quite like that. The hallway will remain painted but the two bedrooms will be wallpapered, hopefully with papers that have predominately white backgrounds to show off the furniture. The righthand bedroom furniture has had a wash of white paint over it, the wardrobe will have either gathered fabric inserts in the doors, or paper.

The dining room, on the right side of the ground floor (below) looks a bit crowded with the dresser in there - I think it will be better in the breakfast room. The dining room also looks quite bare with just plain white furniture in there. By the time I add a pretty carpet, vase of flowers, pictures, some sort of small table with bits and pieces on it, hopefully it will look more shabby chic. Suggestions are very welcome!


Above you can see the chest in the first floor hallway. It's a toy chest from the twins' childhood. I think I'll do it with a timber finish for a bit of a change. The walls keep moving out of place, but when the attic floor is installed they will be glued at the top and hopefully will stay in place.

The archway to the living room on the left of the ground floor is just a temporary one while I figure out how I want it to be. It also has just it's first chair at the moment. There will be another chair beside it and a sofa opposite, with a coffee table in between. I am hoping to get a fireplace in there but I doubt there'll be room.

And here is the removable rear wall. I am very happy with the French doors here. Because they are so very fragile I have put two of them together to give a bit of strength. There will be a larger area off the back, for entertaining.

First floor rear of the house has the bathroom on the right. I need tiles for this room so it won't be completed by the end of April in all likelihood.

First floor left is the study - the wall for this room is still drying. The two layers of matboard have been cut and stuck together, now they are weighted down until the morning. The bookcase looks lonely in there, and that little white piece under the timber on the left is the top of one of the desks.

Down on the ground floor there won't be a dividing wall. It is the combined kitchen/breakfast room. The vegetable bin and pie safe also look a bit lonely in there. The kitchen kit is on its way though so hopefully it will arrive before we leave and I can fit it out.
So: what have I done? Repainted the stonework, put in the stairs, done most of the walls, one of the interior doors and the skirting in the first floor hallway. I've repainted the walls with a colour that is more lavender than it was before, adding blue to the mixture because I felt it was lilac rather than lavender - too pink. I matched the colour to flowers from a couple of our lavender plants.

Of course doing that, I got paint on the floors, so I repainted them too.

I have made a front door and adjusted the French doors, fitting both. done the front pavement. Trimmed one side wall in the rear because it was 1/8" higher than the other.

Repainted the lavender furniture and washed it with white. Done a second set of stairs and fitted them - finally!

Filled cracks and bumps and hollows. Really, I thought that extending the house would be no more work than when I did two houses at the same time. I was wrong.

Maybe now I've shared with you I'll feel more like getting on with it. I think I might take a bit of a break tomorrow night - well, tonight because it is 1.30am - and do something else. I think I lack confidence doing shabby chic too, and that's not helping. So I really would value suggestions please, specific ideas for each room.

Progress report - and secret revealed

I had hoped to have more to show you by now, but I've been a bit lethargic at night and fiddled a lot without actually getting much done. So I decided I'd show you anyway how things are going.

First here is the front, with the painting done. It is darker than I'd intended but I don't mind it. The door is just sitting there and will need some adjusting, the pavement area needs some work and the trellis porch will be cream, not white as it is painted at the moment.

front view

And here is the surprise. Here's a view of the rear wall. The removable rear wall. Why do I need a removable rear wall?

Rear wall

Because I have doubled the size of the cottage......

Here is the front of the house, with an altered back roof, and one of the internal walls just sitting in place. Here you can see the hole in the first floor for the stairs to go through, and the hallway between the front and back sections of the house.

This is still the front of the house, again with two walls just sitting there, not glued in place, and the attic floor balanced on them but not straight as you can see.

The front of the house has a sitting room off the hallway on one side, and a dining room on the other side on the ground floor. The first floor has two bedrooms. At the moment all rooms are painted lavender. I am waiting for some wallpaper to arrive but it won't be here until nearly the end of the month, so I wanted it to be presentable until then and to give me a guide to the colour I was working towards for accessories and furniture etc.

The attic is accessed by a fold-down attic ladder. You can't really tell here but I've distressed the flooring with a very thin black wash.

Below is the rear section of the house, which won't have an attic. The rear roof obviously is part of an extension that was done at some time in the house's history, hence a different roofline.

This section has a kitchen and breakfast/family room on the ground floor, with a toilet at one end. The first floor has the bathroom and a third bedroom which Claire and Caitlyn have made their study since it has a nice outlook over the back yard and the creek.

Now I need to get on with the rest of the walls and doors, and the furniture. I am waiting for the kitchen kit to arrive, but have bedroom, living room, dining room furniture and the bathroom items. Beds need dressing, other trims need doing - still a lot of work, and time is running out.

So what do you think of my 'surprise'? I wanted a house that has more rooms in it, and more dimension. I guess Pickett Hill and the John F Craig House have encouraged my already-existing preference for that. No, I won't be doing it for every house, but I am enjoying it for Lavender Cottage.

Clay work finished

This is my second Washtub Cottage. It's name 'Lavender Cottage' is a bit of a clue about the colours that will be used in it. I know it wasn't on my original UFO list for April, and in fact I didn't consider it a UFO because I hadn't even begun it. Then I read on 'Quarter Connection' that a USO (unstarted object) can be classified as a UFO, - so I guess it does come under that heading after all.

On Saturday night I did a lot of glueing and painting - it felt as though it would never end. In truth I think I was avoiding the clay work. But on Sunday night I tackled the clay. I have taken the advice of Sharon Goldsmith (http://bysharonminiatures.com) and sprayed both sides of all pieces that would be done with clay, three coats of acrylic sealer on each side. That was done on Friday so it was thoroughly dry by then.

Here is a photo of the removable front (I've done the sides too of course).

I know it's not the easiest to see properly unpainted, but I can't do that for a couple of days until it is well and truly dry. As you can see it is still very rough. Once it dries it will have a bit of evening-out in the windows and other areas that need it, then I will lightly re-scribe the lines between the 'stones' before I paint it. Meanwhile I might be able to work on the inside a bit more, and get some more furniture ready to go into it.

Caitlyn and Claire couldn't be put off any longer, they have waited long enough, and you must admit it is difficult to get on with life when you don't have anywhere to live so I'd like to have this ready to furnish by the end of the week.

But I also have a surprise that I'm not telling you about yet! Two of them in fact :)

From our house to yours

Wishing you all a blessed Easter

Whatever your faith - or if you

have no faith, Easter is a lovely time of year. After Christmas it is the longest holiday, and for Christians it is a reminder that we have a precious hope.

I wish you and your family a wonderful time over this holiday, however you spend it. I hope you have lots of sweet treats and of course lots of minis!

Hugs and

I've been reprimanded well and truly

The twins, Caitlyn and Claire McNee, saw my list of objectives for April and gave me a good talking to. "Birchwood - okay," they said, "fair enough. But Pickett Hill? That's quite a new project. And we've been waiting for you to finish our house for over a year now! We really feel that it ought to be done first."

So, obedient builder that I am, I have put aside the other projects and have concentrated on Lavender Cottage (aka Washtub Cottage #2 with porch from Rosebud Cottage #2). Last night I spent ages putting together another one of Karen Carey's staircases. Then I found that I had to cut the stairs and the bannister to make them shorter and that is a challenge in itself. It also makes the stairs a bit steep but I have to leave room for a door in the two walls on the ground floor - I want a hallway with a wall on each side.

It took all night adjusting the stairs to the correct height, adjusting the bannisters to the correct height, sticking the little bits in that kept breaking and finally painting it with the first coat of white. Doesn't sound much for a whole evening, does it? Sigh.

And why did I do all of this at this early stage in the proceedings? Firstly, because I started it while Peter was off buying some spray acrylic sealer for me to use on the pieces. I didn't expect it to take quite as long as it did but having started it of course I had to keep going. Second, because I needed to work out exactly where to put the hole in the floor for the stairs to come through to the first floor from the ground floor. And of course how big to make that hole. Whew!

Actually though I remember now that it wasn't quite all I did last night - I also assembled the porches for both Washtub and Rosebut Cottages and painted the Rosebud one with the first coat of white. I'm not sure what colour it will end up being - I'm waiting for the girls to make up their minds, at the moment they can't quite agree :)

There's a surprise element to this house that I don't want to tell you yet, but hopefully I'll be able to show you tomorrow or Saturday night. It makes it pretty special, or at least I think it does. So keep tuned.

Started on April's UFOs

and welcome Chelle....

Thank you for showing an interest - how nice to see that you have signed on as a Follower. Do please have a look around, leave some comments and tell me what you like.

The number of Followers has reached 174 now - it's lovely to know that so many people are sharing this mini journey with me. It is great to hear from you when you leave comments, and to get to know you bit by bit as we 'talk' together, and I visit your blogs too, or we correspond by email or on our groups. It seems no time since we reached 100 Followers and I had a giveaway, now it seems time to start thinking about the next one.

I have decided on April's UFO's. First is Pickett Hill. I won't order any of the few remaining furniture kits until I return from our holiday though, or the landscaping. But there's just the shingles and external trims to do, as well as the final coat of paint on the exterior. I estimate that it will take about 5 days to finish.

Second is the Birchwood Cabinet. I have assembled the furniture for all the rooms except one, but I haven't added artwork or finished off the accessories etc. So let's say 7 days for Birchwood.

Third was going to be one of the two Daisy Chain Cottages. But I've decided that instead it might be the second Washtub Cottage I have. Last night I prepared it and the second Rosebud for the clay to go onto the walls, and I want to swap the porches on them. I was considering swapping the roofs too but they are slightly different lengths. It will be decorated in shabby chic style. Keep checking here for progress. I have already painted a bunch of furniture pieces green, tonight I coated them with pink, and they will receive their final coat of white before I rub it back to reveal the different coats of paint. This project will take at least a good week.

And I have probably been over-ambitious, but the fourth project is a Halfpenny cottage that I had made up while I had whooping cough but I wasn't happy with the brickwork on the side walls. I have chiselled the clay off the walls, and sealed them with glue. All I need to do now is redo the side walls with clay, because the front of the house is okay. The inside is painted and ready to decorate and furnish. So I will furnish it as much as I can with the furniture I have - not sure if I have enough kits of the appropriate kind, but I can make a good start.

So there we have it - four weeks worth of work, 6 evenings a week well and truly accounted for. Let's see how I go. If it is not possible I will have to leave the fourth project until I get back from holidays.

Wish me luck - and keep tuned!

March is over....

Did I meet the deadline?

I chose Pickett Hill and Cockleshell Cottage as my UFOs for March. With my back problems I've had to forget about Pickett Hill and concentrate on Cockleshell. Did I meet the deadline? Well, sort of. The landscaping isn't done yet, but that doesn't seem to worry the seagulls on the roof. The rustic bench at the front of the cottage provides a comfortable place to sit and watch the day break or sunset or talk to friends.

The curtains on the window in yellow and white strip give a bright and cheery contrast to the blue of the cottage, and match the curtains that cover the front of the cupboards under the sink and the preparation bench. Upstairs Uncle Bill has settled for a Holland blind that matches the coverlet on his bed. Somebody is a seamstress obviously -- a relative perhaps, or a friend?

Upstairs Uncle Bill has his bedroom and a well organised workroom. He has started building a new boat and it is set up on a little stand he has made, on his worktable. The hole in the left wall above the two pictures is where the light will go when it arrives.

His supplies are stored on the shelves - paints and brushes in the green box and other supplies in tubs with labels: fittings, sails, glues, tools, timber and rigging. A model sailboat sits on top of the shelves, and pictures of his first two model boats hang on the wall above the worktable. The shelf under the table is bulging with plans for boats, and the boat-shaped bookcase is full of reference books.

Uncle Bill's bed is made neatly with it's blue checked cover. The drawers in the bedside table hold neatly folded clothing, and a larger chest (on its way) stands under the front window against the wall. On the wall above the bedside table is a photo of Uncle Bills beloved fishing boat 'Lovely Lady', which he sold when he retired.

Downstairs I've still not found the plates and kitchen appliances that I have put 'somewhere safe' so poor Old Uncle Bill doesn't have anything to eat off at the moment. I'm sure that as soon as I start on something else I will find those though, and the shelves for the china can go on the wall above the preparation bench. That bench has actually had to be made shorter to fit, if you compare it to the photo of it in an earlier post you might see that it is slightly different. I reduced it by 1cm, added the lower shelf (which was going to happen anyway), and made the curtains open further to give a clearer view of the frypans and saucepan.

I've also changed the kitchen table for a different one.

It took a lot of fiddling to make the cupboard to set the sink into, but I'm happy with the result. It's less than 2cm wide.

This photo gives a better view of the pots and pans in the cupboard.

And here is a better view of the cats enjoying the fire.

Uncle Bill is out walking the dog at the moment, but before he left, a huge smile lit up his weather-beaten face and his blue eyes sparkled as he patted me on the shoulder and nodded as he told me that he is very happy indeed with his little home.