Found My Muse

Late last night for some inexplicable reason I went up to my office and started work on my artists studio.  I thought it was the Storybrook Cottage house, but found it was not.  I started it a while ago and put away because I found out as I was working on it that it was not 1:12 and I didn't know how to handle that.  I has posted that here and got some great feedback about taking out the second floor and treating it like one room, so I did that as well as putting back the window openings on the second floor and then put it away.

I had decided that I would do this little one as a thatched cottage and went to the Internet to look for pictures and found this one.  It really struck me and I decided that I would try to copy it as much as possible.  My little cottage does not have the addition on the side but it does have a bay window there, so that's fine. I like the little flowers on the trellis and saw one like that at an online miniature shop I have gotten things from before. The inside will be an artists studio so I will be collecting and making things to go inside.  Of course as with all new projects I stayed up half the night because my mind was swimming with possibilities.

So for now I have to finish the structure and then work on the decoration.  I found a great tutorial online for doing the roof with coconut fiber and it looks pretty easy.  I was agonizing on the exterior finish, but the white stucco is great and I already have the textured paint I used on another project for that.  So it appears that I am all set.  Now all I need is to make the time to do it.

An Award!

First I want to apologize for the lateness of this posting.  Things have been so crazy in my real life right now.  Thank you so much to Jamie at http://jlilroomer.blogspot.com/ for giving me an award.  It is my turn to give it to 5 others.  So here goes:

Tiny Treasures
A Life in Miniature
Bear Cabin Miniatures
It's a Miniature Life
Beautiful Mini Blessings

Thanks to new followers

A big thanks to my new followers. I am sorry I wasn't able to thank you earlier, but here goes. Thanks to:
- Maija from Finland. Her site is at http://iidasanttu.blogspot.com/. 
- A follower from California whose blog is at http://myrealitty.blogspot.com/ who writes of her 20 houses. 
- Karin whose blog I can't seem to locate. 
- Sylvia from Spain whose blog is at http://miniaturasnatasylvia.blogspot.com/and has won some awards and has some lovely pictures on her blog of her work.
- Michelle from Belgium whose blog is at http://michelle-minithings.blogspot.com/http://michelle-minithings.blogspot.com/ and has a really cute bathroom she is working on.
- Angeles from Spain whose blog is at http://elrincondebaldu.blogspot.com/and has some darling pictures of baby clothes on her site.
- Cheryl from Hawaii whose blog is at http://aminiatureplace.blogspot.com/ and is venturing in to some really small scale things.
- Cynthia from Pennsylvania who's a writer, a minaturist and web designer and has an Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/BriarwoodMiniatures
- Susan from Australia at http://minicrochetmad.blogspot.com/ who does the teenist bears I have seen.

A big thanks to my new followers!

Almost Done

Finally got the astroturf for the garden and put that down.  Got a cute little birdbath and put that in the garden. 

The last few steps are putting the resin in for the pond, getting or making a few more plants for the garden, and getting a few more touches for the inside. 

Other shots of the cottage:

Inside

As you may remmber, I have been kind of snowbound with the weather in my area of Pennsylvania.  So since I was inside, I worked on the inside of the cottage.  I have mostly completed it.  I have to get some kind of threshold for the slate entryway, get the light on the side table plugged in, put in the baseboard, fix the chandelier, and of course add some kick kacks.  But for the most part it is done.  I really like the light, airy feel that the place presents.  If I had a cottage in lifesize I think I just might decorate it this way. 

I can't wait until I get the grass for the garden and the resin for the pond.  I made my own fish, a little bigger than the one my son made, and have that in the pond.  I have to get some pastels to shade them as they are too yellow, but for my first attempt I think they work.  I also made a little birdhouse and a shepard's hook that it hangs on, which you can see to the left of the picture.  I found the house at PrintMini and glued that onto balsa wood and then constructed it with an eye pin from my bead collection and it looks kind of cute. 

So now I am completely dug out and will have to go to work tomorrow.  Oh well, a holiday is coming on Monday and there's the weekend, so maybe I'll get some other things done.  I have to wait until some more supplies arrive, though.

More Garden

Two posts in one day!  Well as I said earlier it's been snowy all day and we aren't really supposed to go out on the roads, so what better to do that minis.  I have been working on the garden most of the day and after the shrub I made a daylilly and did some other small things.  The flower was from an article in Dollhouse Miniatures, issues 10 and 11 by a woman named Jo Bevilacqua about how to make a summer oasis called "Leni's Garden Wall".  This daylilly is made with 28 gauge copper wire and paper petals.  You take a length of it and twist 3-4 loops of it to create the stalks, add the petals, paint the wire with acrylic paint and fabric glue, and then put on the leaves.  I was unable to located the smaller wire she suggested for the stamen, so instead I didn't put those in, but I followed most of the other directions and I think it turned okay.

In the picture of the side yard you can see a fish in the pond.  My son made that and right now it's lying on its side but will be swimming once I get the resin to fill the pond.  I tried to make another one, but was unable to, so maybe the fish will be the only one.  Maybe I will get him to make another one.   

Shrubbery

I tried my hand at a shrub today.  I came across a blog that gave instructions of doing one by taking some floral foam, spraying it with adhesive, and rolling it in model railroad foliage.  Well spraying really didn't work, so I ended up tearing up small sections of the foam and dipping it in the fast grab and putting it on the foam.  I doesn't look too bad.

It's snowing again in this area.  I had driven in to work early this morning and the roads were pretty good at that time, but things got really bad and they let us go - those who actually made it in.  I am glad I left when I did because now they have declared a state of emergency and I could have gotten stuck at the office and been really unhappy.  So now I am home and able to work on my house.  I am happy.