Room 2 - Marble Hall

The second room to come as part of Hungerford Manor is the Marble Hall, the grand entrance to the Manor.  It is a lovely panelled room with a marble floor, and has the grand staircase on the right and the Chinoiserie Salon on the left.  The Drawing Room is attached to the rear of the Marble Hall.

After some discussions that have taken place on a couple of groups, I have decided that it might be an idea to show how some of the kits I do that look quite complicated are actually so well cut and planned that they aren't difficult if taken one step at a time, so I photographed each step of this room as I did it.

Because I know from the Drawing room that the ceiling moulding takes several coats to cover with the light paint, I thought that I'd start painting it right away so that I could put a coat of paint on it in between doing steps on other parts.  The sample ceiling had been painted with different colours and I really liked it and decided to do mine the same.  First I traced around the moulding onto the ceiling.  I did forget to take a photo of that part so I re-traced part of it on the underside of the floor.  If you are a quilter you will recognise the double wedding ring pattern.

In the photo below you can see it after I painted the leaf-shaped sections with three coats of Semco 'Rich Blue'.  You might note that I've gone over the pencil lines.  That's because when you trace inside something it naturally is a little bit smaller, and I wanted to allow enough overlap that no bare timber would be seen once the moulding was put into place.

When all the blue was dry I started on the red, doing three coats of Semco 'Antique Red'.  I know it looks pretty grotty like this, with the bits of bare wood showing but have a look at it with the moulding piece placed over it to test it out.

In between doing the red and blue, and the other steps (walls) I had been doing the moulding with Ceramcoat Ivory paint.  It took four coats to get a good coverage of this piece, sanding lightly between each coat.  I haven't glued the moulding down here, I just wanted to check that no bare wood showed and that neither of the colours showed where they shouldn't

This is the moulding by itself.

The trim for each of the walls came like this.  Each trim is in the correct place that it needs to go on the wall.  This is the sheet for the right wall, and at the top it has the trim for the doors.  In the archway are the pieces for the wainscot panels.

I did the left wall first, as instructed.  The black area is where the fireplace goes.  You can see how the trim is set on the mdf wall.  I only used the trim on one side of the door because I'll have this door closed and on the other side I'll use the door and the trim for the adjoining room.

Now I'll take you through the process step by step - it's not as complicated as it appears.  I didn't take step-by-step photos of the first wall, but I did for the right hand wall.  First of all you remove the main border and the trim from the sheet and match it against the wall, making sure the edges meet.

Then all the interior parts are removed by cutting through the little tabs holding them in place and the outer frame is glued onto the wall.

The next frame is just to keep the inside trims in place so it is not glued, just put into the outside frame.

I held this frame in place with painter's tape so it didn't move, then glued the outside part of each section inside this frame.

Once the glue had bonded a bit the placement frame is removed.

And here are the trims perfectly in place.

The next lot of frames is put inside those frames, but not glued because they are again simply placement aids for the central pieces.

The central pieces are glued into place.

And the placement pieces in between are removed.  Then the wainscot trim is done the same way on the lower section of the wall, using the upper trims as guides for positioning.

Yesterday I googled Tudor panelled rooms and I saw a photo of two that I really liked.  I know that they are much grander than the manor but they did give me some ideas, including extending a cream cornice down the walls a bit to the top of the panelling.

So I decided to do that for the Hall.  I didn't decide until after I had glued the dentil trim on to the top so for the other two rooms I painted the underneath first and also did a coat on the dentil trim each time I did one on the ceiling moulding

Here's the left wall with the dentil trim glued on, and also with the fireplace sitting in place but not glued on.  Another thing I checked when I googled was whether the panelled rooms had stone fireplaces like I thought I remembered seeing on television and those photos both did have them.  So I played around with paint colours until I got something that seemed an okay colour for the white stone I wanted and gave the fireplace three coats of that.  Then I added the teeniest bit of grey (leftover from my playing around with colours) and sort of stippled/dabbed in circular motions with that over the white.  When it was dry I did it with black, first drybrushing to get a less definite look on the sides of the fireplace and on the hearth, and the tiniest bit up over the front as though the fire has smoked over the years, then doing some areas with straight black.

After all that it was time to commence painting to get some sort of wood effect.  The method Gayle suggests is to give everything some coats of mid-brown so I used  Nutmeg.  Here's the rear wall,

the left wall

I meant to take the right wall but ended up taking two of the left wall - I have a foggy brain at the moment! :)  That's one of the ways that grief is manifesting itself.  That and a feeling of detachment from life.  But back to the manor house.

Today I started by going over the Nutmeg paint with what I thought was burnt umber but I had picked up the wrong tube and it was a much darker colour called coffee.  I painted over the nutmeg colour, using an old raggy brush,, and going in a direction that the wood grain would go.  Then I dampened the brush and rubbed it over the centre of each of the raised panels, removing some of the paint as though age had darkened the corners and recessed edges. In some areas I was a bit enthusiiastic but the overall effect is okay, and most of the flat panels will be covered with paintings probably.  It actually looks worse in the photo than it does in reality.

Then I glued the cream moulding to the painted ceiling, and the marble paper to the floor. putting them under some heavy books to flatten them while I waited for the paint on the walls and doors to dry.  I had to leave for an appointment and didn't have much time when we returned, but there was time to put a final coat of cream on the dentil moulding and that dried quickly.

It doesn't take long to assemble the roombox once all that is done and once again it looks spectacular.  Altogether different from the Drawing Room of course, but quite a dramatic room even though it has come out considerably darker than I had intended the panelling to be.  I really like this room.

The door in the left wall goes to the Chinoiserie Room, the arch on the right wall goes to the Grand Staircase and the double doors at the back (which fell of when I was taking the photo and I didn't notice) go to the Drawing Room.

I'm glad I did the colours on the ceiling though, and I will definitely look for something that looks quite bright for the upholstery.

 And I really like the effect of the dentil moulding done in the cream as well.  The ceiling doesn't quite meet all the walls so I need to touch up the gaps with cream paint.

All in all I'm really pleased once again with this room.

Room 1 - Drawing Room

I was really excited when Gayle Baillargeon of Petworth Miniatures sent out a newsletter last year announcing that she was planning a new quarter scale kit, called Hungerford Manor, consisting of 24 single rooms that would be available on a subscription basis, one a month starting from May this year. The rooms can be used as stand-alone roomboxes or can be combined to form a complete manor house.  There will be a lift-off front, but the sides and back will be open for viewing, or that was the plan last year.  I immediately signed up for the subscription.  I intend to buy every room despite the fact that the price for us in Australia is $67 US including postage for the room itself.  Then there's the furniture.  However I figure that I can afford that each month, and to buy a 24-room mansion kit all in one go would be very expensive indeed.

On the ground floor there is a Marble Hall,  Grand Staircase, and Chinoiserie Salon at the front.  At the rear there is a Music Room, Drawing Room, and Dining room.  In the west wing there is a Study, a hall and a Library, and in the east Wing a Kitchen with Butler's Pantry and a Garden Room.

On the first floor front there is a Tapestry room, Ballroom and the staircase.  At the rear there is an Egyptian bedroom, Guest bedroom, bathroom, and French Provincial room.  In the east wing a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom and in the west wing there is another bathroom, sitting room and bedroom.  There are also four attic rooms that Gayle apparently doesn't count.

In April 2015 there will be a catch-up month when anyone who has missed one of the ground floor rooms and decides they want one can order it before the first floor rooms start shipping.

And the quality of this manor house is just outstanding!  The instructions are excellent, everything fits together perfectly, and the finished rooms are stunning.  I can only spend a few hours each day on minis so it took me four days to do the first room, which is the Drawing Room, but here are some pictures of the finished result.

Overview of Drawing Room

Right wall

Left wall

Showing ceiling

The walls are done in Burgundy, and the ceiling, cornice, pilasters, and other trim are all done in Ceramcoat Ivory.  The colours are even richer in real life and the whole room is quite stunning.  I have actually done the doors and didn't realise until I had uploaded the photos here that I haven't put them in - I meant to tape them into place.  I won't be installing them permanently until the adjoining rooms are finally attached.

I have done the furniture for the room as well.  There are four wall sconces, four chairs, some tables, and mirrors.  I've painted them all in gold but I haven't done the faux painted marble on two of the table tops or upholstered the chairs yet so I'll wait until that is all done before I take photos with the furniture in place.  Before I upholster the chairs I have to find where I've put the fabrics I keep for miniatures.  They don't appear to have arrived in the studio, so I have no idea where they are.  Sigh.

Today I've been working on the second room, the Marble Hall.  Hopefully I'll be able to show you tomorrow.

Hello everyone - lots to catch up on!

Well the Tasmania trip is now just a memory, except that once I get my new computer sorted properly I can finish the blog posts about it.  I'd love it if you visited http://SandraFromSydney.blogspot.com.au and left a comment on some of the posts.  There've been some comments via emails but virtually nothing on the blog :( so I'm not sure what exactly people enjoy or what not to blog about when we travel.

After returning from Tasmania we had a few days in Sydney: enough time to visit my mother, have a problem with the water supply to the caravan fixed and pack for Grey Nomads Camp on the north coast of New South Wales.  We had a wonderful time there and enjoyed seeing three other couples with whom we camp each year.  One of them was the couple that travelled around Tassie with us.

Happy News
We had only been home from that a couple of days when I came down with a nasty tummy bug but the following week we had two new additions to our family in the form of 6-month old kittens who we called Max and Chloe.  They were the second litter to the ginger male and female cats next door and despite it not being good timing I just couldn't resist these two.

 Aren't they gorgeous?  Max is the ginger and Chloe is the tortoiseshell.  At first they were both very shy because they had been outside all the time and only handled a little bit when they were fed.  They were hardly socialized at all.  We are keeping them inside until they are used to us and we have them desexed, microchipped and vaccinated so the surroundings are totally strange to them.  They spent all their time hiding on the dining chairs behind the tablecloth.  But I made a point of patting them when I fed them and after two days Max became quite sociable and this became his favourite perch.  Chloe still wouldn't have any voluntary contact when these photos were taken.

Spoil my cats?  Me?  Never!  They just rule the house, that's all :)  We persevered and after a few weeks Chloe started to watch Max on our knee, as though wondering whether she was missing out.  She began rubbing up against our legs and asking to be petted, especially around the face and under the chin.  Finally about a week ago (ie after 5 weeks) she started tentatively putting one leg on our lap.  And eventually she became really game and now sits on our laps too.  In fact sometimes we have both of them on our lap at once and they wonder why they run out of room ;)

Sad News
In that week after getting over the tummy bug I was able to visit my mother a couple of times and promised to come back again on the Friday.  It was distressing to see how much she had deteriorated in the time we had been away.  But on the Friday I came down with a very sore throat so was banned again.  It quickly turned into bronchitis.  On Sunday 22nd June a week and a half later I was still quite ill with a very bad cough when we had a phone call from the Nursing Home to say that they were worried about Mum's condition.  I was getting ready to go when we had another call to say that she had passed away.

So the next week was very busy with funeral arrangements and preparation, clearing out Mum's room at the Nursing Home, designing and making the Order of Service booklets and the Guest Books, and all the things that have to be done.  My family and friends were wonderful and so helpful and supportive.  I still feel quite numb and detached from everyday happenings, and find it hard to be motivated to do anything.

Trying to do 'normal' things
I ran out of funeral-related things to do then I had had the computer tech fellow here to show me how to move my laptop info from Windows 7 to Windows 8 (grrrrr!) , and during the school holidays we had two of our grandsons here for a couple of days the first week then our oldest granddaughter here for a few days the second week.  We bought her a sewing machine and I taught her how to use it.  She chose a pattern for a tote bag and one for a dress, and fabrics for both and I showed her how to follow the pattern and sew them.  She was so excited and proud of her efforts and we were proud of her too.  I'd post the photos I took of the end results but they are on my phone and it has the sulks after Peter drove over it with the car - twice.  Ooops.

Then I was trying to get my studio more organized, thinking that it would keep me busy.  When I am stressed that's my way of coping - just keep busy.  However I found that I couldn't concentrate on what to do, couldn't decide where to put things, couldn't think.  So I dug out some miniatures and started on those.  I am not getting the same pleasure from doing them that I normally do, but they are keeping me busy and that's the main thing at the moment.  They demand that I keep my mind on them as well as keeping my hands busy and that helps.

I have put off doing the painting on the studio until the weather warms up again.  We have had temperatures down to -2 here in the mornings and the days at the moment are quite cool.  July is our coldest month and we are having a fair bit of wind which brings the chill factor into play.  Last winter I nearly froze doing the main painting on the studio and I don't want to do that again.  After having had the bronchitis I have felt cold all the time unless I am in bed and the cough just doesn't want to go so I'm not going to work out in the wind.  But hopefully I will soon have some mini progress to show you.

We are on the move again

At the moment we are touring Australia's smallest state, Tasmania.  So for the next three months, please visit here to follow our adventures.  We are having a great time and I'd love to hear your comments on that blog.  If I manage to get some time to do any minis however, I will certainly be posting on this blog as well so stay tuned!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas

My apologies for not posting before the day, to wish you all a very happy Christmas.  So now all I can say is that I hope you all had a wonderful time with family and friends, celebrating this special occasion.

I have been absent from the blog for a while.  Family events have kept my darling husband Peter and myself rather busy lately.  It was thought for a while that our oldest daughter might have a brain tumour but we thank the gracious Lord that this is not the case.  However it did involve us along with our long-suffering son Nathan driving out to her home in the country to look after her two boys for a few days while she in turn drove the 6 hours to the coast to our good friend's house to stay with her and go to the appointment the next day (another 2 hour's drive).  A painful electrical test of every nerve in her body that determined that the problem is indeed confined to her leg.  So there is a diagnosis but no explanation of the cause.  Even a whole raft of blood tests have failed to find a cause.  But at least they have ruled out a lot of unpleasant possibilities!

My mother has also been in hospital twice  lately, with life-threatening conditions and is very frail.  We took Christmas dinner to the nursing home to her this year.  I reserved a large room there that has a stove, oven etc, and we took all her favourite Christmas foods.  One of the nurses helped my brother bring Mum along with her oxygen tank down to the room and Mum enjoyed having so many members of the family there: my brother Terry and his two sons; Peter and myself and our son Nathan, daughter Kylie and her two boys Cameron (11) and Luke (7).  Our younger daughter Kirsten is away camping with her family at the moment but visited Mum when she came down for an early Christmas celebration a couple of weeks ago, along with her four: James (12), Grace (11), Chelsea (7) and Michael (4).  Camping when 30+  weeks pregnant would not have been my idea of fun but Kirstie takes it in her stride!

I was very fortunate mini-wise this year and received the furnishing kits for 'Choices', one of the kits I have from Suzanne & Andrew.  So it will be great fun to put it all together: the house and all the furniture.

But the greatest blessing of course was spending time with family.  And today (Boxing Day here in Aus) we are having a picnic with some dear friends.  It is a 3-generation friendship now, because our daughters are still good friends and in turn our daughters' sons are as well.

So I wish you and yours much happiness, whether you celebrate Christmas or not.  And I pray for you all that 2014 will bring health, laughter, friendship and happiness too.

And now to pass on a Christmas giggle.  You've probably received this as an email, it does do the rounds.  But it always gets a laugh from me:

Merry Christmas To My Female Friends If I were ol' Santa, you know what Id'd do I'd dump silly gifts that are given to you And deliver some things just inside your front door Things you have lost, but treasure before. I'd give you back all your maidenly vigour And to along with it, a neat, tiny figure. Then restore the old colour that once graced your hair Before rinses and bleaches took residence there. I'd bring back the shape with which you were gifted So things now suspended need not be uplifted. I'd draw in your tummy and smooth down your back Till you'd be a dream in those tight-fitting slacks. I'd remove all your wrinkles and leave only one chin So you wouldn't spend hours rubbing grease on your skin. You'd never have flashes or queer dizzy spells, And you wouldn't hear noises like ringing of bells. No sore aching feet and no corns on your toes, No searching for spectacles when they're right on your nose. Not a shot would you take in your arm, hip or fanny,  From a doctor who thinks you're a nervous old granny. You'd never have a headache, so no pills would you take. And no heating pad needed since your muscles won't ache. Yes, if I were Santa, you'd never look stupid, You'd be a cute little chick with the romance of a cupid. I'd give a lift to your heart when those wolves start to whistle, And the joys of your heart would be as light as a thistle. But alas! I'm not Santa.  I'm simply just me, The matronest of matrons you ever did see. I wish I could tell you all the symptoms I've got, But I'm due at my doctor's for an oestrogen shot. Even though we've grown older, this wish is sincere, Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year.

Quarter scale glamour

I am fortunate enough to have four of Cynthia Howe's shops: 'Posies' the flower shop, the Chocolatier, the Patisserie and the Dress Shop.  So I've been putting them together, but not doing the filling part yet.  I have been 'talking' to a couple of people lately and promised them that I would post photos soon so here they are.

Each of them is done in the same way for the body and lighting so after the first one I was familiar with the procedure even though I did of course follow the instructions to make sure.  And the fronts are similar in their dimensions as far as depth goes but each has significant variations.  So here they are, first the Chocolatier or chocolate shop, with the front on.  The raised engraved panels on the door and below the window as well as above the windows is so delicate and pretty.  I have lightly brushed it with white to bring it out but didn't do as good a job as Cynthia did on hers I'm afraid.  I also have to tidy up the bronze paint on the columns.

For all of these shops I used sample pots of  Dulux Colour Solutions interior/exterior paint.  For the Chocolatier I used Placid Blue for the exterior and Bright White for all white areas.  Being sample pots these paints have a low-sheen finish, so they are not quite matt but not shiny.  For the bronze parts I used craft paint.

For the base of all the shops I used craft paint, first painting them with Ceramcoat Hippo Grey, then while that was still wet, using a coarse bristled brush to dab randomly with Americana Mississippi Mud, Americana Light Avocado, Apple Barrel Country Gray and Ceramcoat Norsk Blue, dabbing them so they meld together to give a mottled effect.  When the paint was dry I gave them a coat of Jo Sonja Satin varnish.

And now with the front open.  Isn't it pretty?  The wallpaper is so elegant and delicate at the same time.  The flooring is marble.

 I haven't added the hinges to attach the fronts to the bodies of any of the shops yet.  And no, the shop is not 'wonky' ;)  I must have been holding the camera at an angle as usual so it makes it look as though the shop is uneven.  I thought I had corrected it but apparently not.  I am also disappointed that having the shops against a white background has washed out the colours somewhat.

Here is another shot with the lights on.  It shows the pretty lightshades.  Each of these kits comes with a full lighting kit: all the LEDs needed, grommets to put in the ceiling to put the lights through, battery and switch unit.  The wires for the lights go into the top section of the body of the shop, and the top lifts off to allow access.

Then the second of the shops, the Patisserie, with the front on.  See the pretty panels under the front windows?  And the gold lettering on the sign?  I love the door too, and the trim around the large window and the door.

For the Patisserie I first used Dulux  Fairy Wings, which looked just the soft pretty pink I wanted when I did the first coat over the primer coat.  But when I did the second coat it was too bright and 'fairy-floss-like'.  So we went back and bought another pot of Fairy Wings half strength and that was perfect.  Again, I used the Dulux Bright White for the white parts.

And here is the inside. The pretty faux 'office' at the rear of the shop is built-in.  Isn't the fretwork shelving around the top delicate and pretty?  I seem to be using those words a lot but that's exactly what they are. The flooring for this shop came as self-adhesive squares that were put on individually.

And here it is with the lights on.  You'll note that there are four lights in this kit: two in the mirrored display unit at the rear of the shop and the two lighting the shop itself.  The glass in the door by the way is frosted, and engraved with the word 'Private'.  I think the 3-D effect of the wainscotting is very attractive too.  The area was first painted white and Sylvia had included the laser-cut wainscotting to go over it.

Now 'Posies', the Flower Shop.  Somehow I've managed to lose the little flower decoration that goes on the left upper section, which is a bother.  If worst comes to the worst I'll have to stencil another one on, using the outline of the original that was removed from the backing.  The decorations are 3D and really charming. It's annoying when things go 'walking'!  Don't you love the awning at the front?  Cynthia included some fabric and instructions for painting one's own.  I reduced the width of the stripes by half the suggested with, and used the same Reddish Brown that I used for the trim and name of the shop instead of the shop colour as Cynthia did.  I actually did two awnings because there was sufficient fabric for that, and did one with the green and this one.  I compared the the look of both and Peter and I preferred the appearance of this one.

If you look closely you might see that the window and door are both engraved.  The window has 'Flower Shop' on it and the door has a nice little stylized floral motif.  I tried hard to get a photo of the engravings for you last night but they kept coming out really blurry.

The green I used for this shop was actually chosen by Peter.  I had several dark green sample chips in my hand and couldn't decide.  He chose this one, Dulux Highland Green,  and I'm glad he did - it's really nice.  The cream is Dulux Pollinate (half strength) and the brown is Dulux Reddy Brown.

 And here it is with the front open, showing inside.  I notice now that I haven't put the trim around the window and door, so will have to do that.  The border around the top is optional but I thought that it was really appropriate for the shop and very attractive too so I was more than happy to use it.

And with the lights on.

Lastly, the fourth of the shops is the dress shop.  And yes, the trim on the large left window is missing.  As I removed it from the plastic bag that the trims were in only half of this one came out - and the other half was not in the bag, nor had it dropped out as I removed the sheet of trims because I opened it over something to make sure I caught everything.  I will write to Cynthia about this and one other item as well.

This shop is again painted in the Dulux Placid Blue and at first I did the trims in Dulux Pink Tulle, a soft peach colour.  However it looked washed out so I re-did it in Dulux Surprise which is the next darkest one on the colour chip and I was surprised when I was looking at the dresses supplied to go into the shop that the blue and the apricot ones match my colours exactly.  I hadn't taken them with me when I chose the paints, and only looked at them together last night.

And now with the front open.  Don't you love the trim around the windows and the shelves under the windows?  I'm not happy that the piece across the front doesn't meet the cover in this one - for most of the shops I realized that this was the case early in the process and moved the ceiling up a bit so that this piece would meet better.

And here it is with the lights on - so pretty.  I love this wallpaper.

I am really happy with the shops despite their shortcomings.  Being a perfectionist means that nothing is ever good enough really because nothing is ever perfect.  So I am never really totally happy with anything.  But I am learning to be accepting of a reasonable result.  Sort of.  They certainly do look pretty and if you don’t look too closely you don’t notice their shortcomings.  I have been 'talking' quite a bit to Sharon Goldsmith lately and her advice was to just be happy that things are done.  So Sharon, I am putting that advice into action ;)

I am also re-instating the quote for my email signature that I used for a while - and it prompted quite a bit of discussion from people who have the same problem as I do.  It says "Better to get the project done with plan B, than to never start because of 'perfectionistic paralysis'.  And that expresses me perfectly - I often avoid doing something because I think it will be hard or that I won't be able to do it well enough, and then when I do gather up the courage to attempt it I find it is easier than I thought it would be.  Or that it comes out better than I had thought it would.  And as I said above, I am also working on doing things even if the result is not the standard that I want it to be, and on being happy just that it is done!

Cynthia Howe shops are not cheap but they are just so well worth the money.  And remember, I pay a lot for shipping to Australia, and they are still worth it.  She includes so many beautiful details that the finished result can't help but be something special.

I have also worked on quite a few of the pieces of furniture to go in each of these shops and tomorrow or the next day I hope to show these to you in situ.

Welcome Sharon

G'day Sharon, so lovely that you have signed on as a follower of the blog - thank you very much indeed!  We have been talking quite a bit lately and I really appreciate the nice things you have said about my work.  I am so pleased that you enjoy visiting here.  I have enjoyed getting to 'know' you a bit better recently.

Sharon does the most wonderful kits in 1:48th scale.   You can find her work  here.  At the moment I am waiting for the arrival of the Country Comfort Bed & Breakfast cottage kit from her.  It is such a sweet little house and I look forward to adding it to my collection.  I already have several furniture kits from Sharon and am really pleased with all of them.

It is always such a pleasure to see that someone else has joined as a follower.  It is so rewarding to know that people are interested in the little projects I do and your encouragement means so much to me.  Thank you all, my friends, for your support.  It is so motivating to to see that you have visited and especially to receive your feedback.

Hello Leanne; and I will be back soon!

I noticed that you have also joined my blog - a huge thank-you for being so interested.  It is lovely to have you here and I hope you enjoyed your visit.  Please do come again, it is so motivating to have other people with whom to share my interest and little mini projects.  The feedback from all you lovely readers is just wonderful.

Azaelia in our garden

Real life has taken up pretty well all of my time lately.  My mother has been in hospital for the last three weeks, quite ill with an infection, along with her chronic breathing difficulties and her congestive heart failure.  It is quite a drive to get to the hospital so takes several hours out of the day.  It is difficult to see her degenerate mentally as a result of being so ill and I have to come to terms with the fact that she is 88 and has so many problems and probably won't be here all that much longer so I am emotionally drained by it all.

I have however been doing some petitpoint when I am able to do so, working on birthday items for our birthday swap group on Phoenix_Makesminis and the lucky message prize for Miniature_Haven.  I will post a photo of the gorgeous little crocheted doily and jug cover that I received for my prize for winning the lucky message.