In A Nutshell

I've finally got round to adding the nutshell fruit bowl to my Etsy shop, Diddies: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Diddies

If you are interested you can find much more information about the fruit bowl, and get yourself a 20% discount code here: http://diddiesatetsy.blogspot.com/ at the official blog for Diddies.

I'll be back later, hopefully, with some more progress on Bruion and The Bakers Dozen.

See you later!

Progress On Bruion!

Hey everyone!!

I hope you've all had a good week and a constructive weekend!
I've been extremely busy this week with college work, hense why there's been no progress to post up... up until tonight!

Today I had a bit of a wobble over the brick work on the bakery. Thankfully, yet again the lovely folk on the DHE forum helped me see that the brickwork was authentic, and they told me to stop expecting perfect.. not in those words, but it was a general hint in some of the posts! So I soldiered on with the stencilling and now leaving the brick work to dry over night, ready for sanding and finishing tomorrow. So I wont show you now, as it doesn't look anything special, but I will show you hopefully tomorrow if all goes to plan!

Now onto the real reason for this post... Bruion. I've finished the painting on the inside, and outside. So today, while I can't do much else on the bakery, I decided to glue on the beams.

Here's what it looks like so far on the outside:

Ignore the gaps in the mossy roof... I have to buy some more mossy stuff to finish off the otherside of the roof and then I can fill in the gaps. Looking pretty good so far is it not? :D

Well, considering I was on a roll... I decided to go ahead and make something else. Now you all know I am terrible with wood, but I just about managed to make some windowsills. They were easy to make and took about 5 minutes! Fabulous stuff :D

Here's some photos of how they turned out:

You'll have to excuse my dad there! hehe

I'm currently making something else wooden. Considering I'm on a roll tonight, why stop? I might just carry on until I have no wood left!

See you tomorrow

Bits of progress, here and there.

Hi everyone!

Okay so it was Tuesday since I last posted. That's so long ago! And I have to be honest, not an awful lot has happened since then.
I'm still poorly with the cold. I've been sneezing and blowing my nose a lot today, so I think I'm starting to get it out of my system. Yay! Kind of wish my nose was a body part I could de-attach and leave somewhere while I worked... but then I'd lose it and look pretty strange for a while...

Anyways, enough of that. In between studying, sneezing, sleeping and sniffing Olbas oil - I've been doing just odd bits of work on The Bakers Dozen and Bruion. Not an awful lot, but every little helps - or so Tesco says.

I've been painting the outside of The Bakers Dozen gray, ready to do the brick stencilling. It still needs a second coat, but I can do that in the morning. I've also painted the inside of the extentsion. Here's a photo:

 The Georgian's didn't have many colours, not until the Regency times anyway. I found this shade of colour on a website that showed you different colours the Georgian's had. I thought this would look good in the bakery part. It's a colour that will open the room up a bit, as it isn't very big. Everytime I think about furniture, I have to remind myself it's not as big as The Olde Post Office kitchen. I really like this colour, although in some lights it can look too pinky. It's a homebase brand tester post (I never get the big tins or the expensive stuff!) and I think it's called Ballet. I might have to dirty the colour up a bit as I go along with the project, I don't want it to look too new and fresh.

Last night I painted the roof of Bruion. I've had a change of plan. My original idea was to thatch the roof, but during my research, getting some inspiration, I came across a few fairy dwellings that had mossy roof's. I've been doing that staring thing again. Looking at Bruion with unusually wide eyes while my tea gets cold and I've decided Bruion would look a lot better with a mossy roof. It would look more woodlandy I think... I hope anyway.

Here's the painted roof photo:

This colour is a Wilkinson's tester pot and it's called Oak Leaf. I usually use Wilkinson's colours and they are so unbelievably cheap and I'm usually in that area of town. This is actually a really lovely colour. I'm not usually a fan of green, but this colour is very calm and pretty.

Tonight I grabbed the bag of moss I found in Homebase and thought about sticking it to the roof. Only problem was, the moss was more like thin string. No. Didn't like it. So I put it back in the bag, gave it to mom as a late Christmas present (not that she appreciated it much) and dug out some other stuff I'd bought to use as grass for the downstairs part. Here's a photo:

Much better! The box I had filled just under half of the roof space and I pulled it apart and did it bit by bit. I'm really pleased with the effect so I've sent my mom to the model shop tomorrow to buy some more. This stuff is actually used for bushes on railway models. My brother got a model trainset for Christmas. I took him to the model shop to spend his Christmas money and found this. I don't think it'll make good grass though, looks a bit thick. But it's perfect for the mossy look! What do you think?

Tomorrow, I hope to get the rest of the roof done, and the second coat of gray paint on The Bakers Dozen.

See you tomorrow!

Brick Work Completed On The Bakers Dozen Extension

Hi everyone!

Today, I've been working super hard to get the brick work finished on the extension to The Bakers Dozen! I'm really pleased with it so far, as it was my first attempt at using the brick stencils from The Brompley Craft Products supplier. I used their flemish bond stencil and their red brick compound. It's come out beautifully.

Here's a photo of what it looks like now:

The window and door is not glued into place yet as I still have to paint them. I placed them in just to give you, as well as myself, a general idea. These will be painted white. I also placed the roof on to give another general idea. I'm going to be applying roof slates to this so hopefully this part of the bakery is going to look pretty swish.

Over the next couple of nights I'm going to be painting the rest of the bakery outside grey, ready to do the brick work on it on Friday. I'm also going to paint inside this part of the bakery if I get the time to do so.

Hopefully, if college work is kind to me, I'll be able to add some tiles or wood flooring to this building at the weekend!

I'm at college on Wednesday's and Thursday's, so I only have time to do mini work in the evenings. I'm suffering from the cold that's going around and the nights are dark; living in a cottage you can understand lighting isn't always great. So please bare with me!

Fingers crossed, I'll be back tomorrow!
Good night
xx

It's Snowing!

Here in Lincolnshire, UK I woke up at 7:30am to see snow falling! Yay! We've already got about an inch on the ground in such a short time, and so far it hasn't stopped for a pause!
Here's a couple of photos for you:

As I've seen from some of your blogs this morning, there's a fair few people who are wanting the snow, De from Delighful Mini's - I'm looking at you!

The photo on the left was taken from my dining room, showing the back of our house. You can just about see the surroundings around our land through the flurry. Very pretty!

The photo on the right was taken out of my kitchen window. Usually, we can see the Lincolnshire wolds out in the distance. But as you can see - no wolds, just trees and snow flurries!

Click the photo's for a better look!


I'll hopefully be back later with some progress photos. I have no excuse not to, I've already started the brick stenciling on The Bakers Dozen!

See you later

x

Good Evening Everyone

Today, I had the chance to show you lots of pictures. Pictures including the new Etsy item that will be listed within a few days, the progress I made on The Bakers Dozen and a few idea's I've come about for Bruion. But, I've decided to change my plans a smidge.

My blog is going to undergo a small make-over. You may not even notice it unless you visit every single day, but I'm making a lot of changes for the New Year. My Etsy shop, Diddies, will be going under a small make-over too! :D

So I apologise for not showing you any photo's today, I promise there will be an exciting blog post for you all tomorrow!

See you tomorrow!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I'm sorry that I dont have anything miniature related to post today, but I would just like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! I hope 2011 brings you all health and happiness as well as lots and lots of mini's!!

See you tomorrow xx