Old Generals Farm - Some Progress

Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry I haven't posted for a few days. Life has been a bit crazy and it's left me feeling fuzzy headed - like I'm drunk, I can't quite focus on anything right now and my head seems to be buzzing like my thoughts are having some kind of rave party in there.

First of all, the interesting bit - Old Generals Farm Progress - my little brother helped me cut out the panels. We spent two freezing cold evenings in the garage cutting out the panels until we ran out of MDF. There are still a few panels left to cut out, but I wont get to do these until next week now, at the very earliest.

This is what's been achieved so far. These aren't glued into place yet, so they're propped up with various items to show you the size and shape of the house.

 

Then "Best Friend" Thomas had a play with the panels and did some glueing...

 

 

Yes... I did say "Best Friend" Thomas...

This is why my head is fuzzy. Something isn't right here.
But I guess only time will tell - hopefully it will heal and sort my head out.
I'm glad he's back, but his reasons for his silent treatment were beyond childish, and I just can't understand why he's making up with me now, after a month of ignoring me - and why he never thought to ask my side of the story, instead he believed all the lies his so called "friends" gave him and what hurts the most - the lies are totally out of character for me, so I thought he'd know me better. I guess not.

Anyways, I'm going for a walk. Old Generals will no doubt have no new progress until next week sometime, but hopefully I'll find something interesting to tell you about in the meantime.

Bye!
ox

It's Over!!

"But...please... give me another chance... I promise, I'll be good this time."
"No, I'm sorry. It's done. It's over."
"I can change, please, just one more chance."
"You're always under my feet. Everywhere I go you're there! I need some space and time away from you. I'm sorry."
"Please don't throw me in the trash... It's cold and smelly in that dumpster. I like it here, next to your radiator, here, with you."
"Look, cardboard - get over it okay. I'm finished with you!"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

That's how the conversation went with the giant cardboard box that has been taking up all the room in my living room since the day I decided to take on this project. I've decided that I'm done with the template, for now.

I've done the panels... yes, there are a couple missing. I've lost the measurement paper for one piece and the other... well I've decided I'll do that when I get round to cutting out the panel (I may regret this decision later on) I've grown seriously bored with the cardboard box and I'd like to move on now to the nice pieces of MDF I have stood in the corner... Eeek!

I managed to fix the panels that didn't quite add up the other night, I fitted them to the panels that all seem to match up first time, so I figured it should all add up right now.

My plan now is to draw out these panels and the base template onto the MDF. I only have three sheets of MDF, something tells me I'm going to need at least triple that for all of these panels, but I wanted to buy them in bits, otherwise I'd look a bit crazy walking through the hotel with half a shed...

Once I've done that, I will borrow my Dad's table saw tool thingy and his handsaw and I will cut them all out - keeping my toes crossed the whole time that it will add up when it's all cut out. (I'd say fingers, but I might end up cutting a couple off if I try this.)

Then it'll be back to the cardboard box again to create the templates for the inside.
It's getting exciting now!
Eeek.

See you guys soon!





I Spoke Too Soon!!

Hi Everyone!

So yes, the title says it all.
Got back to the template tonight - with a giant box, ready to cut out the remaining panels.. and well. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Yeh, so something has gone wrong here somewhere. Haha!

Oh well, I knew my good luck couldn't go on forever! Back to the cardboard box it is...

See you guy soon!

Old Generals Farm Progress!!

Hi everyone!!

Finally, something really worth showing you guys!!

I've managed to cut out a couple more panels and attach these to the base template. It's looking really good and I'm so pleased with how few issues I've encountered so far! The panels seem to fit really well - only two obvious ones so far that will need tweaking, but it's given my a lot of good faith in our measurements. It's a shame Thomas isn't around now to see how good this is turning out. He'll be telling me "I told you so" right about now, because I had a horrible feeling the measurements wouldn't add up at this stage.

Sadly, I haven't been able to complete it like I hoped I'd be able to - interesting goings on in the hotel this evening - including a guest in my back yard, fighting in Reception and "Security!!!". So yeh, I'm full of adrenaline and probably not going to be able to get to sleep after I've posted this, so who knows, maybe I will get it finished... but here's a photo or two of how far I managed to get up to before Zena discovered our intruder.

See you guys soon!!

Old Generals Farm - Little Bit Of Progress

Hi everyone,

To take my mind off of the whole Governor's Mansion/Madeline's School decision making for Hildred House, I found myself searching for a miniature-related task. While staring at my projects gathered around me in the living room, my eyes wandered over to the ugly stack of cardboard boxes and cut out shapes of graph paper spilling over the floor.

Tutting, I knew I had to do something about that as my Grandparents are coming over to visit in a couple of weeks, and this was unsightly.

So, taking my pencil, ruler and scissors I set to work cutting out that huge ground floor template.

Here's an image for you. This gives you an even clearer idea of how big it's going to be.

I've also started on drawing out the wall panels and I placed a couple of those against the template to see if I was on track. A few of them fit perfectly, and a couple disagree - but nothing major that's going to cause any issues for me... she says.

Sadly, because of mine and Thomas's fall-out the last room of the house that needs measuring won't get measured any time soon... and it just happens to be one of the most complicated.

Hopefully, when I get some time off work I can borrow my brother one weekend and we can measure it together before Mom and Dad start decorating ready to rent it out.

But either way, everything is looking good so far and it's pretty exciting :)

Back Soon!

Hugs,
ShellbyFay

In Need Of Your Ideas & Inspiration

Hi everyone,

You know how it is, life throws a wobbly at you, so you take a break from your hobby, you get back to it and all your ideas and inspiration has dried up! I've been thinking about my current dolls house projects and how I miss spending time on them, researching, gluing and imagining how they will turn out.

The one project that bothers me most is Hildred House.
Remember?
The Big One I got a few Christmas' ago.
It was meant to be a joint project between my Mother and I. Well. That never happened!
And now I have this big gorgeous house, that I am in love with, but I have no inspiration for it.

Please take a peek at the images below.

   

When you see this house, what comes to mind?
I've had several ideas over the past two/three years but none that have screamed out at me. Mainly because the house has that ghastly middle stair case that I hate, hate, hate! I've inspected the house though, there is nothing I can do about that. It's solid.

I can live with it. I can deal with that small issue.

But what to do with it?

Potential ideas have been...

The typical Edwardian/Victorian/Georgian house

or

The Missouri Governor's Mansion


or

A French Town House, my inspiration taken from Un Petite Folie of course because her work is incredible!

or

a Grand Hotel of some kind

or

Madeline's School



I am learning more towards the school, but in all honesty, I have no idea what rooms would be what and how I would decorate them. The outside of the school inspires me for the project, but the inside I feel nothing. :(

Please, I beg of you!, if anyone has any great ideas and some inspiration for this project please share with me!

But Not All Is Bad!!

While playing on this game called "Mirrors of Albion" on my iPad today, I found inspiration in the Confectionery shop. I thought to myself "wow, I would really like to create this as a project." and then realised I had the perfect property for it. The Bakery!! I'd take a photo of it's current state, but the truth is, I have actually lost it! I have no idea where I have put the bakery in my flat. I distinctly remember bringing it here, so it must be somewhere. Where, though... no idea!!

Ha!

I was originally doing the bakery up as a Georgian bakery, but I've since lost interest in that theme. I really love French. I really love light, airy spaces. I really love the colour blue. I'm already really keen to get started!!

Here is an image of the confectionary shop from game play. Isn't it gorgeous?!


I'm going for a bath now to sink away the stress of being unable to find my bakery, and having no clue what to do with HH!

Looking forward to reading your suggestions!

Hugs,
ShellbyFay

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!
I hope you're not feeling too bad after a night of one too many alcoholic beverages! :)

I'm sorry I haven't been around much recently. Life has been very hard over the past few weeks. I have cried a lot, smiled some, laughed a little - but more importantly, I have learnt a lot.

The thing with being young, is no matter how mature and grown up you believe yourself to be, life always seems to find a way to prove you wrong. Things aren't always black and white and a lot of the time there are grey areas. These grey areas are shadows. Underlying issues related to friends, family, work etc. hide in these shadows, and at any unexpected moment, they run up and kick you in the shin! Please someone older and wiser tell me that as you get older this happens less? It happened far too many times in 2012.

2013 is going to be different. 

This year I am going to complete some things from my 100 List.
I am also going to smile more.
Laugh lots.
And meet loads of exciting new people and make new friends.

If anything was a major disappointment and let me down like no one would be believe this year, it was my best friend. My Best Friend. But that's another story, and one I will tell you about another day when I can manage to reminisce without feeling sparks of rage and reaching for the tissues. I will not be making that mistake again this year. I'm done with it.

This year is all about the good times. I need to do more with my year. Last year, it was all about work, work, work. Well, I got the promotion. I've moved out of home. I should be happy now, right? Not really. I didn't experience enough and this year I have a checklist that I must complete!

• Do a skydive for charity. (I've asked around and there are already a couple of work colleagues who are interested in doing one.)
• Furnish my flat! (It's still so bare!)
• Go to Jersey and meet my other family
• Go Zorbing
• Go to see Mr Pickles
• Finish measuring Old Generals and have my final draft build ready to apply to wood.

I think this is all achievable. It will require some saving up and some carefully planned days off, but I think this will improve the year quite noticeably. 

I'm not setting any New Year Resolutions this year. It's easier to change things and do thing differently as you go along in the year. 

What has everyone else got planned for 2013? 

What lessons did you learn in 2012? 

What are your goals for the New Year?

Shellby

ox