My 24th scale cottage

Today, as I've not taken any new photographs of the things I'm currently working on, I thought I'd show you my 24th scale cottage. This is all made from foam board and mount board and just a little balsa wood.

This is the pantry before the walls went up around it - obviously I bought the goodies on the shelves.

Now you have to look through the door from the kitchen into the pantry. I added a loaf of bread and a jar of jam to the table after this photograph was taken so the table was all set for afternoon tea.

This is the sitting room and of course there had to be a cat relaxing on the settee. I embroidered cushions to go on the chair and settee as it looked just a little bare. There is a pair of tiny reading glasses made from fuse wire on the sideboard with the pile of mail but they're too tiny to show up in the photograph.

Here is a close up of the book shelves and the stairs which lead up to the bedrooms.

And here is the upstairs landing complete with chest of drawers for the bed linen.

This is the child's bedroom. I embroidered the little rug to match the rabbit I painted on the bed head. The wallpaper is scrapbooking paper. I think perhaps I still need to make some tiny toys to go inside the toybox.

And here is the matching rabbit height chart pinned to the wall.

Mum and dad's bedroom is pink too - what can I say ... I was going through a very pink phase.

And this is the other side of the parents' bedroom showing the fireplace, laundry basket (embroidery canvas wrapped around a mountboard box) and wardrobe.

Furniture for the manor

It's been pretty wet here for the past couple of days and I've had to busy myself indoors so, apart from cleaning up the garage/work room a bit more, I've also been stitching. I have two projects on the sewing machine at the moment - I'm making a patchwork quilt from beautiful fabric that my daughter bought me from Liberty's for Christmas and I'm also making two bags. Our Embroiderers Guild challenge (or one of them) is to make a bag for September from the beige fabric they provided. I'm making two project bags - a large one for my embroidery and a smaller one to take along to group meetings.

This is the small bag. I still need to decorate it and put a fastener on that tab. The fabric is rather difficult to work with as it has some kind of rubbery finish to the back so it won't really press flat. Once it's filled with fabric and threads of course I don't think that will really matter.

On the minis front I've been making furniture for the manor house kitchen - a table and dresser

OK, the dresser still needs door and drawer handles adding but they're almost there.

I also made these two cupboards to fit underneath the windows in the flower shop/pavilion.

And here is the decking fitted in position with the wall behind it built up. I spent ages this morning making bricks to glue onto that wall!

And, finally, here is a jack-in-a-box that we made at our miniatures group this week.

The box is mountboard and Jack is made from a pipecleaner, wooden bead and crinkled paper with unravelled bunka thread for hair. I may just have to make a toy shop for him to sit inside!

Progress on the manor house and the pavilion

I've been having some computer problems so I've not been back here for a while but I've not been idle on the miniatures front while I've been gone. The manor house and pavilion are both progressing in tandem at the moment as the mood takes me.

The manor now has stairs with railings on the ground floor. I had hoped to put a door leading out at the back of the hallway but with the dog-leg staircase it's impossible, as you can see so I need to rethink what I might do with this space on each floor.



I've also been working on the pavilion garden and have been making some decking from coffee stirrers.

The decking will be fixed to the left hand side of the side door so the garden wall needs to be raised on that side to accommodate it. I also made a little gate from those sticks.

Of course, it had to be dirtied a little.

And finally, because I couldn't resist including a photo of my favourite cat, here is Willow cuddling his blanket.

Dressers for the flower shop

I had a lovely day yesterday meeting with a friend at my favourite tea room here in town - a whole menu of teas served in mismatched old china and delicious home made, locally sourced food, mixed with a generous helping of good conversation - a perfect day!
On the minis front I've been making some furniture for my flower shop and now have two dressers to fill. I made a corner shelf too but that's not quite finished so no photos of that yet. Today I've made lots of plant pots too but they're still baking in the oven so, again, no photo yet.

They're just made from mount board and card but I'm quite pleased with the way they've turned out.

The weather here in Yorkshire continues to be warm and sunny - not too hot - but we've also had a few showers during the past couple of weeks so the garden is looking great. My little plot is very small but I've turned the back patio over to growing vegetables this year and it's crammed full of pots filled with potatoes, onions, garlic, chard, kale, broad beans, beetroot, carrots, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbages, tomatoes, spinach, courgettes, salad leaves, raspberries, wild strawberries and blueberries.

 OK, there's not a lot of each, but I'm only feeding myself here and I'm already picking chard and salads.

 Aren't the stems on this chard beautiful? I love the colours almost as much as the taste!

And this is a picture of Willow having a post-dinner wash before settling down for his evening nap :-)

Back to the manor house

I've had a busy morning. The initial build on the pavilion is finished and I've found a temporary home for it at least in my lounge.

Obviously, there is still masses of work to do on this but at least the pieces are put together so it's off the kitchen counter, which is where I've had to build it as the workbench is full of Georgian manor. I've changed my mind about what this is going to be too and now think it will be a flower shop/mini garden centre. I have lots of dried flowers already so I think this will be an ideal place to house them.

Flushed with success at having put the pavilion together I went back to the manor house and finally managed to get the lights fixed in the ground floor rooms.

I really struggle with 24th scale light fittings and these were particularly tricky as the light bulbs weren't inserted - I don't actually know if that's a normal thing but the ones I've had before have been fully assembled. The gas lamps in the kitchen and butler's pantry are very narrow but with a little blu-tack, a pair of tweezers and a strong magnifying glass I finally succeeded. The next job will be the staircase so I've stained all the newel posts and spindles this morning in readiness.

I've also been tidying up my workspace a little. My workroom is actually in the garage - I don't have a car, thank goodness as there's no way I'd ever get one in there. I now have one set of shelves which are neatly stacked with mini bits and pieces - all labelled and organised. I'm not showing you the rest of the space!

And finally, because the sun is shining and I felt a little guilty about not having gone out to make the most of it by gardening, I pulled out a few weeds and picked myself this bunch of flowers from my peony. They smell just as good as they look, I promise you.