Moving things around in the tea room

This morning I decided I'd had enough of flowers for a while and went back to Attic Tea Rooms to move things around a little. Did I tell you that Attic stands for All The Tea in China? So ... I swapped the shop and the cafe to opposite sides to the way they were before.

There is actually room for more tables this way as I've put the shop counter in front of the window now to display the cakes. There is a wonderful tea rooms in town which has shelving around the walls with scores of beautiful vintage china tea sets on show and their tea is served in mismatched china. A real shot of nostalgia! So I was thinking that I might re-model the Attic along those lines ... hence the collection of tea pots on the dresser there. I do have several tea sets waiting in the wings too so I think I need more shelves!

While I was in there I added a jug of roses on the top of that display stand in the corner...

and gave Millicent (the owner) a pretty picture to look at while she's doing her paperwork.

I added a tea cup and a cake to her desk too. I think she deserves a treat after sorting out all that mail.

A bouquet for all my followers

I've not done any minis for a couple of days so thought I'd send you all a beautiful bouquet of sweet peas from my garden to thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read my blog and to comment on it from time to time. I really am thrilled to have you all here.

I also thought I'd show you this beautiful cloth which my Mum embroidered. I thought it was perfect to put my vase of sweet peas on.

She was a very talented embroideress - see how neat the back of her work is too!

I'm also showing you the buddleia bush in my garden which was a gift from the birds last year.  I would never have planted it so near to the hedge but I'm not complaining and I'm not going to move it either. The butterflies love it.

There are flowers in the garden

... In the florist's garden that is, and then only a few, but it is a start. My daughter's been home for a few days so there has been very little progress on the flower shop this weekend as I wanted to spend all my time with her. We had a lovely time catching up on all the gossip that somehow got missed from the regular phone calls. Today, though, I'm home alone and working on that mini-garden.

I laid the lawns and finished off the flower beds with some 'soil' sprinkles and then started on the lavender borders to the paths. I had made 40 of those little lavender flowers and they soon got used up so I've had to make more - lots more.

Obviously there is lots more to be done here - leaves for a start - but I just had to get some flowers in and see how they'll look.

I bought another bird bath and now I can't decide which to use. The first one (the one that I painted with that stone coating a week or two back) is taller and narrower and this one is shorter and wider. I just can't make up my mind.

There are flowers in the pavilion!

Yes, I've finally managed to make a start on the interior of the pavilion ... or the Secret Garden florist as it is now known.

I'll be adding more things to the shelves but I thought I'd show you what I've done so far. There's that little gremlin I bought a couple of weeks ago - remember? I still think he looks really cute.

I need to add some skirting board around the bottom of the walls. It's funny how you can forget about doing things until you see the photo and realise what still needs to be done.

These sunflowers are from a haberdashery shop. I am making some flowers for the garden but I thought these looked fine and they match the pattern on this little jug and brighten up an otherwise quite dark corner. 

I need to make more birdhouses as these have been 'borrowed' from the Pretty Little Things shop so there's a big gap on the sales table in there now. I'll be adding more things to the top of these cupboards too - I just haven't decided exactly what yet, so watch this space.

Out in the garden this pot of geraniums is the only sign of flowers yet though the flower beds are beginning to take shape and I've been making lavender flowers to edge the path and agapanthus from a kit from Ladies Mile Miniatures (www.ladiesmileminiatures.co.uk/pages/plants-flowers).

I put some display shelves beneath the windows to entice customers in and added some pot plants on one ... and a summery wreath on the other. More to be added here too. Got to fill all those gaps!

I added signs - the Garden sign on the inside of the side door and then a shop sign on the front and a welcome sign in the door.

My daughter's coming to stay for a few days so there will be no more work done on this until next Monday now.

A little stitchery

I've been busy stitching during the past few weeks so I thought I would share with you the projects I've been working on. A couple of weeks ago I attended a workshop by the wonderful blackwork designer Elizabeth Almond. What an inspiring lady!! You can find her designs on her website here ... http://www.blackworkjourney.co.uk/.

 I had never done blackwork before so for the moment I'm just working my way through the designs she gave us in the workshop.

If you've looked back through previous posts you'll also know that in May I went on holiday to Russia and I came back with inspiration overload so the plan is to stitch some of those wonderful church domes and I think that blackwork is just the stitch to do it.

Obviously I won't be stitching them in black however!

We have a challenge at my Embroiderer's Guild group to be completed by September - a piece entitled 'Memories'. I'm working on a group of embroidered holiday 'snaps' which will be mounted in one of those multi-photo-frames. These are the pieces I've worked so far ...

Monet's garden at Giverny

Visits to the Royal Horticultural Society shows at Chelsea, Hampton Court and Tatton.

I've almost finished Paris too.


And in and amongst I've been working out how to make a dress on a coathanger for a workshop I'm leading at my Miniatures group next Monday.

At last I'm relatively satisfied with it and now just need to make up the packs of materials and I'm ready to go.

A big thankyou ...

... to all my followers for joining me in this new adventure of blogging, and for taking the time to leave comments on my posts. I follow your blogs because I admire and am inspired by your beautiful work so it is a huge honour to have you comment on mine. Thank you again. x

The Pavilion is taking shape

I'm determined to take control! My natural instinct - and I know I'm not alone here - is to start work on lots of different projects. You'll have noticed this already. I always seem to get excited by something new when I'm a few weeks (or sometimes days) into a project and then the new project is overtaken by something else ... and so we go on. So this week I'm determined to finish one project ... and the chosen project is ... the Pavilion.

I have the roof tiled at last. Those tiles are just made from strips of painted cereal box but I think they look quite effective.

The garden is starting to take shape too. The decking is complete and the walls are covered in bricks - yes, more cereal packets painted and then cut up into individual brick shapes before being stuck onto the wall. That took me a couple of days to do. The gravel path is laid. I sprayed it with hair spray to set it in place and the colour has darkened considerably, which I'm not too happy with but not sure what to do about that. I'm hoping I like it better once the grass and plants are in place. I don't think that those plant pots will be staying there in that corner. You'll see that I bought and fitted lights too - a little lantern by the door ...

... and two beautiful flower shaped wall lights inside. They don't show up too well on this photo but they seemed the most appropriate choice for a flower shop. The only way to access the Pavilion is by removing the roof so all the lights have to fit on the wall.

I've decided to put the two cupboards on either side of the side door rather than underneath the windows as I'd originally planned. The wire from the outside light will be covered up eventually.

I made a shop counter/florist's bench too. This still needs a coat of that darker green paint so it will match the cupboards rather than the doors and windows.

And then I went shopping. The bird bath was plain white resin until I painted it over with stone coating paint. I just love the little gremlin! The rusty watering can will have flowers 'planted' in it eventually.

And finally - just because I can't resist him - here is Willow waiting patiently for me to stop making minis and do something more entertaining instead.