Sugar plum fairy's cottage

I'd always wanted to do a Sugar plum fairy's cottage out of the Greenleaf Sugarplum kit. But when I received my free kit for this year's miniatures.com creating contest, I decided to make it into the cottage, against my better judgement. In my opinion, the proportions were wrong. I should've gone with my first instinct and made it into a chocolate shop. Given it wasn't working from the start, I never had much motivation to keep going. It isn't finished, and I am a bit disappointed with it, but with a few borrowed minis from my other projects, I managed to fill it enough to enter the contest.

I still want to make the Sugarplum into my real Sugar plum fairy cottage in future. And finish it the way I'd originally intended.

Loving the half scale Greenleaf kits!

So you will all be aware of the numerous projects I've started of late and haven't finished. Well, I am making some more! I've put together my half scale Buttercup and Rosedale.

I thought I'd blog this in case anyone else was interested in how I altered these kits.

Firstly, my Buttercup, which will be a gardener's cottage. I love Greenleaf kits but they always make the attics too small. So I raised the roof. I cut the gable ends off at ceiling height (ie just above the slots on the walls) and glued a strip of 2mm cardboard around to extend the wall height. You will see in my photos the grey cardboard added in. The inside is harder to see as I have painted it already, but you can see the vertical walls below the sloping roof, which is the added in part. Quite simple really, but made the attic much more usable.





Secondly, in my Rosedale, I wanted to make the stairwell open on the second floor into it's own hall rather than into the large room. So I cut the bannister/railing off the lounge room wall flush with the ceiling, put a small piece of scrap ply into the stairwell opening to close it off a bit, and cut the interior wall off the small second floor room. I will hopefully make this clearer as I go along.





I think I will fill in under the stairwell a little in the kitchen, to make space for a fireplace/stove. Here is a pic of under the stairwell.

Picasso gallery in Paris

Karin Corbin has blogged about Picasso art in her home town. My husband and I are also Picasso fans and so visited the gallery when we were in Paris. It was undergoing renovations whilst we were there and so they had erected a giant mirror to hide the renovations. The mirror reflected one half of the building, so it looked like a whole.



It aligned with a false wall on the inside also, so from the inside, it looked like the whole building had been sliced in half by a giant sheet of plaster/glass. It was very clever.

It was also interesting to note that the interior walls were all false and it was obvious that they sat away from the original walls. We guessed they did this to preserve the original building.

French restoration and renovation is light-years ahead of any such practices we have in Australia. Most large public buildings being renovated had large sheets of some sort of mesh over the scaffolding with printed life-size images of the building that was being renovated on it. Very clever.

My favourite...

Thanks Karin for the beautiful picture of the Belle Epoque villa - I love it and look forward to seeing more pictures. I loved the rustic French cottages, especially the stone ones. But my favourite one from our trip to France was this one:



It is not a good photo because we took it from a moving bus! It is in Vannes, which was a very cute seaside town in Brittany. We didn't have time to get off and take proper photos so we had to rely on the camera's sportsmode! We managed to get enough for a rough idea of the front. I will one day make this into a 1:12 mini version with an art nouveau interior.

And Linda, have an amazing time in France and Italy. I look forward to seeing your photos and some tips for travel in Italy!

Yay! Pics uploaded this time!

So here is another shot of the study with the sewing room through the door.



This is the chair I covered. Not sure about the table accessories though. I think I need a pot plant.



The bookcase I finished and mantle. I need some flowers for the urn, or a topiary. The cute triple picture frame is from Cynthia Howe, but it doesn't stand properly (my fault - made the hinge too short!).



And lastly is a table I made with some accessories. Might need to antique the boxes a bit?? Otherwise a good start!

More on the French shop

I know I have been pretty quiet of late, but I have been working on my minis. My husband and I had a week of holidays at the snow (there wasn't a lot of snow, but lots of sunshine!) so I took the opportunity to get some mini-ing done. I don't seem to be having much luck with blogger this afternoon - my photos refuse to upload. Will try to upload them later for you to see.

I have made some progress on the French shop. I made some books and filled the bookcase for the salon with them and some figurines I've painted in the past. Also antiqued a bird cage for the table. Also covered a Bespaq chair and sofa but need some cushions now for the sofa.

I have almost finished the study. I am wondering if the floor needs to be paler and maybe dirtier?



The dining room, bathroom, entry and salon are almost done, as is the kitchen, save for a few minor items. I am not sure these will ever be finished - the search for elusive mini homewares is a long and difficult one!

Chantilly stonework

It's been a while and I was procrastinating a bit with the stonework, but it is now done and has some paint on it. Yet to add the verandah and trim, and finish the paperclaying.





Here is an armoire I painted and added fabric inserts to. I think it will have mirror in the centre panel.



And lastly a pic of the staircase - not yet finished. Not exciting, but just so you can see!