Mini Marathon

Having worked out a good schedule to work towards completing Hungerford Manor and lots of UFOs so I could display them at the Retirement Village where my mother used to live – and also just to get them finished – I found that I couldn’t go on with Pickett Hill as scheduled because I couldn’t find the instructions or some of the parts.  So while I am sorting through the studio I went on with the next item on the schedule, right?  Wrong!

Instead I took out a pile of USOs (unstarted kits) from Petite Properties and decided to embark on a Mini Marathon doing those and some UFOs as well.  So I started assembling a whole pile of them – pretty well all of the Petite Properties ones I had waiting to be done, in fact.  

So what are they?

1.     Le Petit Palais.

This is one of the UFOs, on which I was working before the first room for Hungerford Manor arrived.  This is as far as I had got to, and I was waiting for some items to arrive before I could go on with it.  This is the first building in the mini marathon – most of the items I’ve been waiting for have arrived and I hope the rest will come soon so I can complete it.

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

2.     Thimble Cottage.

Such a cute little cottage, it has a charm of its own.

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

3.     Snowdrop Cottage

This cottage has a nice little side room and a pretty picket fence.  I have been looking forward to starting it.

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

4.     Post Office Cottage.

Complete with a traditional phone box beside it and a post box on the front wall.  I haven’t decided whether to put the post office in the front or not yet though I think it would be a shame not to.

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

5.     Cemetery Lodge

Standing at the entrance of the graveyard, this is the residence for the person responsible for the Cemetery lived with his family. He kept the register of who was buried in the Cemetery and where the grave was, collected any money owing for the upkeep of the grounds and was responsible for the grave diggers and groundsmen.

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

6.     Book ends

I love the idea of using minis as home décor and these are a nice way of showing off some  minis which have a practical use.

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

7.     Bay Tree Manor

I think I ought to be called ‘Mrs Lose-it’.   I bought the instructions for this building up from the studio to the house to look at them and decide whether I wanted to change the internal layout.  And I promptly mislaid them!  So I have constructed it to a basic stage mainly by instinct.  But I did find them later - folded along with another set of instructions, so I will have them for the last part of the construction.

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

8.     The Crow’s Nest

The Crow’s Nest is quite different from the rest of the buildings released by Petite Properties.  It’s name suggests a water-side property, and I automatically envision fishing nets and a boat nearby.

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

9.     Daisy Chain Cottage

I loved the first Daisy Chain Cottage I did so much that I had to order a second one.  Will I think of a way to make this one look somewhat different or will I make them twin houses?  You’ll have to wait and see ;)

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

10.  Blackberry Farm

I’ve been collecting lots of things for the farm for quite a while but there’s still lots more to do.  It’s another building that I’ve really been looking forward to doing.

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

11.  St Thomas’ Church

The church will be a beautiful building when completed.  No photos as yet, sorry.  I’m still at this stage debating whether to do it with a stone and flint finish or a stone finish.  Eeny, meeny, miny, mo……

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

12.  Tanglewood House

One of the buildings I started while on our trip to Tasmania.  Again ‘Mrs Lose It’ has misplaced the wooden beam section for the side walls so I’ve obviously packed them away in a different container.  I thought I’d put all the minis from the caravan into the studio but I’ll have to have another search.  And continue to organize the studio aka the cubby.

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

13.  Parsnip Cottage

The second of the buildings I started in Tassie.  I really like the details in this cottage – it has windows in the rear and the scullery to the side, as well as stairs.  I love stairs.  We live in a bungalow as do the majority of people in Australia so stairs are a novelty for me, though at my age I guess my knees would not appreciate them J

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

14.  Bluebell Cottage

This is a tiny, cute little cottage.  I couldn’t resist adding it to the mini marathon.

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

15.  Privet House

Rounding out the number of buildings to 15, is Privet House.  

Photo from Petite Properties Ltd. Online Shop

So there they are - and again, please note that the photos are from the Petite Properties Online Shop, they are not my finished projects.

Day 1: I started to assemble as many of the carcasses of the new buildings as I could.  I did most of them except the farm, the church, Privet House and Daisy Chain Cottage.

Day 2: was spraying day.  I gave the shells of the houses 3 coats of acrylic sealer, inside and out.  This was a big job, because there were so many pieces by the time I had the shells of the houses, then the roof fronts, roof backs, and house fronts.  And while they were drying between coats I was doing stuff around the house - and found the instructions for Pickett Hill.  So that's one of the items found at least.   Yee-haw!

Day 3 and Day 4: were painting days.  I spent my mini time painting on these days: using white emulsion paint on the interior of the houses, the ceilings, inside the roofs, and inside the removable fronts.  And that brings us to today.  I still haven't finished this step.  In between days 3 and 4 of minis I had a housework day and took all the minis that had gradually crept into the house from the cubby (ie the studio) including all the mini marathon buildings, back into the cubby.  Each house and the things associated with it are in its own basket, labelled with the name of the project.

So why am I doing all these buildings together?  Because I want to get them all assembled and ready to furnish and instead of doing them one by one and ending up with UFOs because I become distracted by other projects. I will do them all together.  I will probably decorate and light them at this stage as well, and do some landscaping.  Then I will take them one by one and furnish them.  Let's hope I don't end up with another 15 UFOs!!!!!!

How long will I spend on them?  It depends.  I was due to start on Pickett Pond next week with my dear friend Jan but she is having a tough time at the moment with a very sick pet who is a treasured member of the family and I will wait until things are settled there and Jan is ready to start on Pickett Pond before I do too.  My heart really hurts for her at the moment and I wish I could help her.  In the meantime I will (hopefully) finish off these projects and not only tick off some UFOs but also complete some USOs to add to my village :)

Room 3 - Chinoiserie Salon

As I come to each room I think 'This is my favourite room so far'!  Each one is just so delightful and such fun to do.  The Chinoiserie Salon is no exception.  During the 16th and 17th centuries it became very fashionable to have rooms with furniture and ornaments from China and Japan, and papers framed on the walls also from the Orient.  It was called Chinoiserie, the French word for Chinese.

Hungerford Manor has a Chinoiserie Salon next to the Marble Hall.  Here are the walls with all the trim attached, before it was painted.

Isn't the detail lovely?  So intricate.  For this room all the trim was glued on before painting.  Then everything was painted with Ceramcoat Ivory and the raised trim was highlighted with a gold felt pen.

And here it is when that was done and the painted paper panels were attached, then the room was assembled:

Overview of completed room

Right wall, with door leading to Marble Hall

Rear Wall

Left Wall, with door leading to West Wing

Showing ceiling

 Isn't a lovely room? It is a shame to cover those pretty panels with the furniture - especially the central one with the Chinese Display Cabinet that goes there.  I have finished all the furniture but am not happy with the colour of the finish on it so am sanding it back and re-doing it all.  I will post photos of all the rooms with their furniture when I have upholstered the chairs for them.  I am waiting for the fabric for some of them to arrive so it will be a while before I can do it.

I have also been working on the Music Room and will hopefully have the photos of that posted tomorrow.

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.