Town Square Toy Shop Finished Too

Village Toys

On 5th August I wrote about doing Village Toys, and just to remind you, here are photos of the shop as it was then:







As part of my push to finish of some of my UFOs,  in October I did most of the things for the shop, then on 5th November I did the last couple of items and it is finished - yaaaaaay!  It is unusual for me to do those last few things for a project so I am very pleased with myself. I usually seem to get to just those final little details and not quite get around to them.  But on that day I made a jack-in-the-box for the remaining space on the lower shelf on the right. It is all of 2.5mm square vbg. Well, it is quarter scale after all! It is hard to see in the photo but you can see it in RL. Just. After it took me over an hour to make. And I used a couple of 'picture books' I had made and not used in the bookstore on the shelf as well. So here it is now, overall:

And here is a close up of each side:

The clown on the lower shelf was a gift from Judith Dowden when she sent the kit. Below the shelf is a tricycle that I bought ages ago ready painted

And I also bought the teddy bear on the counter ready painted. He is quite special and I wish I could remember where I bought him - I must look through my inventory to see. The teepee and the pram are white metal miniatures that I painted. The dollshouses are one of several I have of Pam Junks 'Row of Houses' and the shelf that came for them to sit on is on the other side of the shop, with toy boxes (printies) on it. More printies for toy boxes are in the attic.

 Under the counter Pickwick the cat is sleeping, securely away from boisterous children that come into the shop. It was hard to photograph him but you can see him in real life.

You can also see the lovely little rocking horse out the front, made from a kit by Karen Benson. It invites lots of kiddies to come and sit on it and to be enticed by the goodies inside the shop too.

This shop is delightful and I really had lots of fun making things for it.  In fact I enjoyed it so much and have several things made up that I couldn't fit in there that it was a large factor in my decision to buy Karen Benson's Toy Shoppe.

Here are some of the other toy kits I  made up and couldn't fit in:

The individual cars in this racing track are only 1.5mm long - if that!  There are two of each car and they need to be glued together. The wheels are painted on by putting a black dot on with a toothpick.  

I also have a train track (with train and landscaping) on a table but haven't made it up yet.   

The ride-on airplane was going to go under the shelf where the tricycle is, and the tricyle was going to go outside.  But the airplane was a bit large, so it is ready for the Toy Shoppe as well.

In contrast, this little elephant (a kit from Suzanne & Andrews) is so tiny that it is hard to photograph without it coming out blurry.  There was actually plenty of room for it to go into the shop, but after spending an entire afternoon making it and it being such a lovely little thing, I didn't want it to be in a position where it wouldn't be seen to its best advantage.  So I made the jack-in-the-box instead and this will go into the Karen Benson Toy Shoppe, in a position where it will be more visible.



And of course every toy shop or collection has to have a little red wagon!

There are more kits that I haven't made up, and even more to come.  Once I decided to order the larger Toy Shoppe, I needed to fill it, after all vbg!  So that was the perfect excuse to get those kits that I had looked at and liked but resisted.  Hmmmmm - wonder what the real reason for ordering the shop was: the desire to have those kits, or the 'accidental' ordering of it? LOL. 

Another Town Square shop finished

Antiques With Class



21st November, 2010

‘The old schoolhouse at the end of town has been replaced by a modern building, but no one could bear to tear down the old one. Luckily, in miniature, we are able to be historic preservationists with very little effort. This abandoned schoolhouse is .....(now ) .... an antique store, another symbol that we appreciate and enjoy old things, not get rid of them.’ This is the delightful introduction to Antiques With Class, the fifth in the Town Square series from Debbie Young.

I was somewhat disappointed with this kit in some respects, mainly because it came with absolutely no extras. This is the first one that came without any counter, till or shelves. It could have done with some shelves at least, and perhaps a chair to put outside as in the illustration. However once the extras are put in and around it, the shop will look delightful.

This is what it looked like when I had completed the shop as it came in the kit:

Can't help but love the shape of this shop!

Ready to fill - nice atmospheric wallpaper too.

And here is the outside once I had added some bits and pieces to it:

It has no window so looks rather bland outside, but fortunately I had a spare brown plastic chair and have painted it with a slightly distressed finish. The rug that is rolled up over it is a printie, and I have painted the back of the rug with a light tan so that it looks like the backing of a rug rather than just white paper.

Moving inside - after all, the outside is only a taste, isn't is? - and here is an overview of the interior

Overview of interior



I had a Captain's Desk that I made up from a kit from Karen Cary, planning to use it in the Sea Shanty but there wasn't room so I was pleased to be able to find a spot for it here. There is another attractive rolled up. 'rug' (also a printie with the back painted) leaning against the wall near the desk. A white metal clock painted up beautifully, white metal picture frames look good with pictures behind them to complete the right side.  And here is a better view of just the right side:

Close-up right side

On the left hand side I made a shelf for the wall, and filled it with books. Under that is a small table (made of balsa wood and a part of a toothpick). The chair that is there at the moment might be replaced by one the same but upholstered in a different fabric. I bought two of these kits and upholstered this one for Honeysuckle Cottage, but the second kit keeps going walkabout on me. I find it then it disappears again. Cheeky little thing it is! When I do catch it, I want to upholster it in a darker colour - either a darker blue or burgundy or something that looks nice. I have ordered some more kits, so Honeysuckle Cottage won't be lacking in chairs. The quilt is a yet another printie, and the 'hanger' is part of a toothpick painted gold. On the table is a box that I just made freehand from card, painted and 'aged'. Then I cut out some plates that I had printed off and glued to photo paper (it makes excellent light-weight card) and rounded the centres a bit with a stylus. They have moved themselves a bit too closely against each other but since I sat them in a bed of glue there wasn't much I could do about that.

And of course I have a cat - that's mandatory. This one is called Patch (yes, I know, not very imaginative - perhaps it is worrying me that Patch the dog is still missing vbg) and is a white metal cat painted by Grace Shaw of Virtual Dollhouses.

Isn't the quilt a pretty design?

What do you think - will I change the colour of the chair or not?  I've rather grown to like the lighter blue as time has gone on.

 I would have loved to have had room to put in a dresser as well, that would have been just perfect but there was no way I could squeeze it in unless I left out the desk or the chair.  And when I did that, it looked more like a room than an antique shop.  So I reluctantly left it out.
And that has finished off the Antiques shop rather nicely. I think it’s come out quite well, and of course every Town Square needs an Antique Shop!

Completing the Town Square Shops

Dickens' Books

At around the 25th of each month another of these these darling little shops arrives.  It doesn’t take long to make them up. Then comes the fun part of filling them with goodies.  

While I was visiting my darling daughter and grandsons in Queensland (turned out to be a 5 week visit, which was great to spend so long with them) I did the Dickens Book shop,  which arrived the day I left. This is one of my very most favourite shops, with its timbered front and aged look. Here is what it looked like when it was done ( I wrote about it in September):

Front view - shop completed in September

Interior view in September, ready to fill with goodies

As you can see I did the furniture that came with the kit as well. The bookcases and counter came as kits, the desk and chair are the ubiquitious brown plastic furniture just sanded, painted and aged. I decided that one cat would be on the chair up in the office, and a naughty one on the bookshelves downstairs. Here’s the interior with the furniture just sitting in place – not glued in so the bookshelf downstairs isn’t sitting straight.

I also made a whole lot of little books to fill the shelves. Once I arrived home I couldn’t find most of them! So I made a whole lot more. These are mainly covers folded around layers of paper or around card of different thickness, and cut to size. I ended up with far too many books so I am well supplied for other projects vbg. I had even made two piles of books glued together but didn’t use them. Snowy is upstairs on the office chair keeping it warm while Mr Dickens steps ououtside for a moment, and Tiger is up to his usual tricks, climbing the bookcase downstairs and knocking books down onto the floor. Mr Dickens won't be happy at all!  Here it is, completed:
 

View of interior overall, finished

Interior finished showing left side - and that naughty Tiger!

View of right side interior - Snowy looks comfy.

And somehow Patch has gone walkabout from the front. If you see him, please send him home. Mr Dickens has put a ‘lost dog’ sign outside, in the hope that he will turn up again. It was made in a text box in an Office doc so I can’t import it here, but it has a picture of Patch and says “Lost. Brown and white spaniel. Reward for information leading to his return.’ .Tiger and Snowy are really missing Patch too. Perhaps that's where Mr Dickens is, out looking for that wandering pooch?  I do hope he finds him!

I've been a busy bee

Advent Swap

This is one of the reasons I haven’t been keeping the blog up to date. Not the only reason by any means as you will see, but one of them. Recovering from pneumonia was another reason, but mainly I have been putting most of my time and energy into doing the Town Square shops to finish accessorising them and doing the Advent Swap.

Before the sudden and unexpected demise of SaHMC, one of the online groups I belonged to (it has spawned two groups in its place), we had organised an Advent Swap and most of us decided to go ahead with it. So I have been making gifts for this. If you don’t know what an Advent swap is, it is like an Advent Calendar only with gifts for each day. The idea is to wrap up 24 small mini gifts. These can be any scale decided on by you and your swap partner. They can be Christmas items if you want but mainly the sort of things you’d give as Christmas gifts – only mini versions.
 The 25th and final gift, for Christmas day, is a bigger one, in value at least. You post the whole lot to your partner in time for the first one to be opened on 1st December.
 This was great fun to do though I did underestimate the time it would take to do each day’s gift. Each parcel is labelled with a number – the date on which it is to be opened.

Doing these things was not only fun but it was interesting to find things that would be suitable and that I was able to make. Several things I had in mind had to be discarded because of time constraints and other quicker items substituted, or items for which I had the materials, or which worked out more successfully. Being a fully paid-up member of Perfectionists Anonymous of course it took several tries for some of them and I’m not totally satisfied even now. However I very rarely am.


Would you like to see them? I wish I could have a little window to click on to open but I don't so here they are:

What's that?   Well, yes of course they are all wrapped up! I couldn’t show you the gifts all nekkid and unwrapped, could I? Can’t spoil the surprise for Jane lol!


I hadn’t quite finished when I took that photo. But you can see that being me, I also spent a lot of time on the wrapping. I printed out Christmas bags and boxes in different sizes, each gift was wrapped in gold tissue, put into its box or bag of appropriate size and numbered. Then I went crazy with gold gift tie, on most of them at least. I just love curly ribbon!


Then the next step – what to put them in? I had a posting box but didn’t want to just put them straight into that. So I made a box to go inside, covered it with gold giftwrap. The little gifts fitted perfectly in two layers.


I didn’t want all those loops and curls to get too crushed so I made a removable tray with legs the appropriate height to keep the layers apart. A lid over the top and it all fitted snugly into the postage box. Who, me – obsessive? Whatever would make you think that vbg? I just hope that Jane gets as much enjoyment from the gifts as I did in making them.

How lovely!

What a lovely surprise

Well friends I have to apologise – it’s been so long since I’ve updated here. I have sooo much to share with you.

First though, it was such a lovely surprise to come to my much-neglected blog and see seven new friends here.  Very warmest welcomes to Bea (Fiona Broadwood), Alenka, Casey, Marisa, Christine, Vicki and Lainie.  I am taking a quick lunch break at the moment - we are packing our caravan for a week away, so I hope to catch up with all of you while we have our holiday.  Thank you so very much for taking the time to visit my blog. I hope you enjoy sharing my mini adventures and that you will come back regularly. I promise that there’ll be more frequent posts from now on.

I’ve done so much lately that I’ll do a post for each one and catch up over the next few days. But this time I want to show you my new acquisitions – I’ve really gone overboard with these lately.

First there was the Toy Shoppe from Karen Benson. I actually

didn’t mean to order this one LOL. I put in an order from both of Karen’s sites, but one of the sites had really high shipping charges and besides, I wanted both orders to be combined. So I emailed Karen asking whether that could be done. She was so sweet and prompt in responding – in between flights on her holiday no less! She mentioned something about the shop. What shop? I wondered. So I checked my order. Sure enough, I had put the incorrect number on my order. I had a good look at the shop and decided that since I had so many toy kits it would probably be a good idea to leave it – so I did. This is the photo of the Toy Shoppe and no, I haven’t started it yet.  Though I must admit that I have assembled some toy kits and boxes that I didn't use in the Town Square toy shop  that will do nicely for it.  And I also assembled a kit of shop furniture ready for it.....

Then there is Debbie Young’s English Cottage. This is also in quarter scale. I love the shingles she has provided for this kit, and the upstairs wallpaper but will possibly change the downstairs ones. Isn’t it a lovely cottage?

I’m such a sucker for the English Cottage look – consider the types of house I already have: Rose Cottage (Miss Marple’s Cottage renamed); Tearose Cottage and even Storybook Cottage. And of course Honeysuckle Cottage.






But wait, there’s more! Now I just have to show you this quarter scale mansion from Debbie Young. It’s the John F Craig, based on an actual house .This particular acquisition will be a challenge to assemble but what a delightful challenge!

And next is the 1/12th scale Garfield by Greenleaf. I was delighted to discover that Grace Shaw of Virtual Dollhouse not only had this kit for a very much reduced price but that shipping would also be much less than that charged by Greenleaf.

 By the way, do you notice a similar theme with these two houses? Vbg

The Garfield is 1/12th scale and it is a BIG house. There is no possible way I can put it together at the moment or display it when finished either. But I'm not as stupid as that sounds - the plans for my studio in the backyard are drawn up and after lots of nagging - erm, gentle reminding - my husband finally rang the Council the other day to find out the requirements for submitting them, what details they needed for the location of the building on the land etc.  And guess what - because it is less than 4x4 metres (just!) we don't have to submit plans at all!  So we don't have to wait for approval and best of all, don't have to pay the $300 submission fee either.

I have loved this house since I first saw it too, and that love has remained for several years. It has so many rooms, so much gingerbread and it is so beautiful.  It has taken me a long while to save up for it even at this greatly reduced price, but it is a dream come true.

And there is a 1/144th Garfield too, so of course I had to have one of those to go in the big Garfield too.

You know by now that I am a great fan of Petite Properties quarter scale kits.  And as soon as 'Mulberry House' was released my order was in for that.  So that one has arrived as well. 

And I also ordered the shop roombox kit - it arrived in the afternoon and I had completed it by the time I went to bed!  That will be in another post. 

Now I am just waiting for Petite Properties new Yule Tide Shop to be released on 4th Dec!  My son is giving me one for Christmas and I am very excited about that too.

Now I know what you are saying: that's all fine and good, but they are a bunch of UFO's at the moment! What have you been doing apart from spending money?  Well, I have been doing heaps - and will tell you about that too over the next few days, hopefully.  Hubby is getting impatient about my long lunch hour so I'd better go help.  Keep tuned!

Wednesday 15th September 2010

G'day, my name is Buddy

I'm an Australian Yellow Bearded Dragon.

 My relatives vary from dark grey and sometimes reddish-brown, yellowish-brown, or dark brown in skin colour depending on the variety but I am a very special type - or so I think. 

 Here is a photo of one of my relatives.  Not nearly as handsome as I am!

When I came to live with my pet human Jesse, I was 6 weeks old and 10cms (4 inches) long.  Now I'm three years old and measure 34cms (around 14inches).  When I am fully grown I will measure a full 24 inches or 60cms.   We're called 'dragons' because we puff out our throats and look very fierce when threatened.  We also open our mouths very wide and that makes us look even fiercer.  And aren't our spines impressive?

I eat crickets, woodies (a type of native cockroach that live in woodpiles), mealyworms, fruit and vegetables.  My favourite foods of all are lettuce, pumpkin, strawberries and - most of all, sweet corn.  I'm a bit skinny at the moment just coming out of winter, but I'll soon fatten up a bit.  Here Kylie is hand feeding me.  I really enjoy being hand fed.  Spoilt?  Me?  What do you mean?  I am only getting the treatment I deserve!

I came to visit Kylie today because my pet's mum is her good friend.  And Kylie's mum Sandra took these photos.  I must say they don't do me justice - silly goose left her camera at the caravan and had to take the photos with her phone! So of course I had to have a good look at the phone to see what she was doing.

Aren't I a handsome fellow?  Do you think the photo above  is my best side?

Or do you like this view better?

See how I like sitting on people's shoulder?  It helps keep me warm as well.  In the wild I like to bask on rocks and things to warm up.  That's because I'm a reptile, of course.  When I came to live with Jesse I lived in his bottom drawer at first,and that was fun.  But now I have an enclosure that has rock walls on three sides and a glass front.  It has an earthern floor and rocks in it.  Heating and temperature contol keeps it very comfortable for me.  Jesse's family has to have a special licence to be able to have me live with them. 
  
Sandra took HEAPS of photos, trying to get a good shot of me eating some corn.  But I fooled her - I shoot out my sticky tongue so quickly to grab each kernal, just like I catch an insect, that the best she got was a few blurry ones he, he, he.

So it was very nice to 'meet' you.  I hope you enjoyed it too.  Life is certainly interesting having Jesse as my pet.  I get to have all sorts of adventures.  Bye for now.

Sunday, 12th September, 2010

Welcome Lainie and Marlene!

Hi Marlene and Lainie and welcome to my blog.  I hope you enjoy it here and visit often.  I really appreciate you taking an interest in my ramblings vbg.

Mini-ing with Shailee

Something different to share with you today. Our grandsons Cameron and Luke were intrigued with the latest of the Town Square series (Dickens Bookshop) that I did here while visiting, and want to do some miniatures. I promised them that when Pa arrived I would ask him to cut some of the thin MDF I have so that they could build something.

In the meantime, our daughter Kylie’s neighbour and friend Fiona and her two daughters also came to admire Dickens Bookshop and the younger one Shailee (pronounced Shay-lee) in particular was keen to do some miniatures too. Fiona asked whether Shailee could come and watch me do some work on my miniatures, then remembered that she had been given a kit for a small wallhanging of a fruit and juice shop in a frame.

So Shailee brought the kit down to the caravan today and I helped her put it together. Shailee is just nine years old, and like many of us has been making small things out of foil, cardboard, fabric, paper and other bits and pieces for quite some time. This is her first ‘formal’ introduction to miniatures and what fun to be the one to introduce her to the pleasures of this fascinating world!

She was surprised that it wasn’t as difficult as she thought it would be and as you can see in this photo she really concentrated on it. I showed her what to do and then she did it herself. I did help some of it but she did 90%. Not a bad effort at all!

Shailee was very very proud of the result, and so was I – of the result and of her efforts too.

I asked permission of her mother then Shailee herself before I included photos of her on this post. They were both happy for me to do so.

And by then the boys had returned from bowling with Peter. I cut some of the MDF scraps to make shelves for them like the shelves in Shailee’s vignette, and they started to glue them together. Cameron is 7 and Luke is 4 so their patience can’t be expected to last as long, but they got them glued partly together. They were waiting for me to cut more shelves and for the glue to dry and went off to play, and will finish them tomorrow or the day after. And Peter will be cutting something else for them tomorrow as well.  I am really looking forward to doing some minis with them as well!

Friday 3rd September & Sunday 5th 2010

Fourth in the Town Square series.....

…….is a bookshop, aptly called ‘Dickens’ Books’. It is a building with real character, stucco finish with and timbering outside and one of my favourite wallpapers used upstairs inside.

The kit this time came with a desk and chair to go upstairs, and kits for two wooden bookcases and a sales counter as well as the till. Sunday was Fathers Day here in Australia, and Kylie and the boys spent the day with the boys’ father so I was happy to have the day to work on the Bookshop and I certainly got a lot done.

Here are the ground and first floors with the stucco and timbering on the outside. The door and windows are put in without glue while the timber is added. Then the stucco goes right up to the edge of the openings for the door and windows. I did get stucco on the timbering, and scraped it off. But I still needed to touch up the wood with paint again. And then I needed to touch up the stucco again as well vbg. Which was fine because I decided that I wanted the stucco a bit lighter anyway – it had dried slightly darker than I expected.

I chose to do more of the exterior and interior decorating than the instructions said before joining the two sections together and it certainly made it easier to wallpaper the ground floor. This next photo shows the inside of the two sections. The side walls and ceiling of the first floor had not been papered at this stage. They are done in one strip. The ground floor has been done in the co-ordinating paper supplied.

Here you can see the two sections joined. You might be able to see that I dry-brushed areas of the exterior with a bit of brown to ‘weather’ it a bit. This is an old building, so it can’t be pristine but it is occupied and I don’t want it to be decrepit either.

When I sprayed the windows and door I first did them with the plastic primer, than absent-mindedly did them with white spray paint as well. That was on Friday, so I left them over Saturday and today (Sunday) I sanded each of them and did them the correct colours: brown for the outside windows and door frame; blue for the outside of the door; and latte for the inside of the door and the inside windows.

And here is Dickens’ Bookshop. Well, so far anyway. Still a few things to go.

 I want to make a sign in slightly different lettering than the one provided but haven’t chosen the font yet. The wooden sign is painted and ready though. And I feel that there needs to be a ‘scroll-y’ metal arm holding the sign rather than just putting it up on the front, but I need to experiment a bit. I think I could make that from a sliver of tea-candle holder metal, and being away from home I might have to buy a pack of those to get some.

The Spaniel at the front is from Grace Shaw, who showed the most amazing patience with me when I was working out an order for animals to put into ‘Feathers and Fur’ Petshop for the Town Square. She really is the most amazing supplier! Grace painted this gorgeous Spaniel for me
specially. I am more of a cat person than a dog person (apart from loving the little white fluffball that has adopted me) – hence having a cat or several in each mini project I do, but I do also love spaniels and have been owned by two in the past.

Today I also constructed the bookcases and serving counter and painted and ‘aged’ the desk and chair. I have glued the desk and chair in place upstairs but haven’t glued the bookcases or counter yet, hence the bookcases are on a lean and look crooked. I need them to

be accessible to add the books and the things to go under the counter.

On the tall bookcase you can see the grey cat that has climbed up so she can look down and observe all the happenings from her lofty perch among the books; and upstairs a pretty white fluffy cat is enjoying a snooze on the warm chair seat – perhaps the shop owner has just risen from that chair and the seat is nice and warm. Finishing touches needed of course: books, books, books and more books; something to go on the wall; some vases of flowers; paper to wrap purchases in; paperwork for the desk; ornaments perhaps for the desk etc.

This one is another really satisfying little building for the Town Square. It is now 5th September, so the invoice for the next in the series will be arriving probably tomorrow or the day after. I wonder what that one will be?

Thursday, 2nd September 2010

Kylie's Christmas Stocking

The first Christmas Stocking I did for my family was this one for Kylie, our oldest daughter.  Just as Kirsten later chose the design she wanted for her stocking, Kylie chose the chart and I did it on (I think) 14 count Aida cloth.  The two stockings are very different and each reflects the taste of the girls.

Looking at the date on the stocking, I did this one in 1993.  It was quite a complex one to do but it's really beautiful.  The colours are really rich - it has come out slightly pale in this photo.

If you haven't seen the one I did for Kirsten, I have already blogged about it - it will have the same label 'Counted Cross Stich' as this one does.

And just to show that it is real life, and not miniature, here it is with a ruler beside it.  This ruler has both inches and centimetres.  So you can see that the stocking is more than 12 inches (30cms) long.  Proof that I do do things other than mini petitpoint lol!

And today I ordered another full-sized stocking for one of the grandchildren.  Either Cameron or Luke.  I already have one for one of the boys,

Before we came away I sorted a lot of my cross stitch and put all the Christmas stockings in one place.  I haven't found all of them yet, they are in another large tub in the storage container so when I go back to Sydney I will rummage through it until I find that one as well.   I really would like to get going on the stockings for all the grandchildren.  The only stocking that had the project, the chart and the threads all in one place was the one for me!  That's what happens when someone else packs things for storage. 

Monday 30th August 2010

A little fluff ball has adopted me

Kylie and the boys were given a little ball of fluff about three months ago, and the boys insisted on calling her 'Fluffy'.  She is a cross Shitzu/Maltese and was the runt of the litter.  The breeders had to get rid of her because they had the maximum number of dogs permitted, but no-one had bought her so they gave her to Kylie. 

Fluffy was spoiled by the breeders and continues to be one very spoiled little doggie indeed.  She is very small even for the type of dog she is, but that doesn't stop her from thinking that she is a big fierce guard dog and she protects her family and property against all comers with defiant barking lol!

She has adopted me and loves to climb up on my lap, where she quickly learned to lie down and not fidget.  When she gets too warm she climbs off and this morning she squeezed between me and the arm of the lounge while I was reading the comments on the blog.  She was thrilled that finally someone sat still for more than a minute to cuddle her. 

Things are not good for our darling daughter, in fact they are more complicated and stressful than we even realised before we came to visit, so I just hope and pray that my visit here will be supportive for her and I can offer some help.  I won't talk about it, but I can show you photos of the gorgeous little Fluffy.  These ones are not the best quality because they are the ones that Kylie sent to my phone but they are a start. 

Right at this moment Fluffy is cuddled once again at my side, since my lap is occupied by the laptop.  Earlier she was draped around the back of my neck and licking my ear.  Not my favourite thing, I am more a cat person than a dog person but if I ever did have a dog one of these little white fluffy furballs would certainly tempt me.

Peter has just finished moving the caravan to a better spot on the wide grassed footpath outside the house.  We were planning on bringing it through the double gates into Kylie's back yard but when we measured the opening he decided that there really wasn't a lot of leeway (about 4 inches) and considering he would have to manouver around a tree to get into the gate we decided to give that a miss.  Instead we have moved it further forward so that when he and Nathan leave tomorrow I can access the gate more conveniently to go into the house.  And he is making the van more level by using the big wedges.  So I will now go and set up again.