It's slow going.....

..... but I'm getting there. Since I had to go back to the woodcrafters' this morning to finish some dovetail work on magazine holders that I am making I thought I might as well take my florist's and finish what I can while I am there. I'd done the angles for the roof at home, as well as the opening for the dormer window, but I needed to take my scroll saw in for a 'tune-up' since the blade wouldn't stay in the centre. There's always a friendly helping hand around, so I came home again happy. The magazine holders I wasn't so happy with, but I won't go into detail, since they have nothing to do with my florist's. At the club I have access to a bigger disk sander as well as a belt sander, so I got the angles on the roof done properly. I could have used a plane, but I can't eyeball the angles very well, so the sander gives me a better support and I can see what I am doing.

dormer window and its roof in the making


roof and dormer window finished


view from a different angle

dormer inside

It doesn't look like I have done a lot, but I have unintentionally taken on a difficult job with all the angles. However, it's a good learning curve and I am not unhappy with the result so far. One drawback though is the clarity of pictures. You can see where I have been cheating with the dormer on the inside to fix the wrong angle of the inside wall...... :-)

The opening between wall and window is to be fitted with a window sill, but alas, there are only so many hours in a day and I have too many projects going simultaneously.

I also had in mind to welcome my followers on this blog, but it has taken up almost all week to list the 65!!! on my other blog, that of the witch's cottage, so please be patient and I will get around to it. It's nice though, to see that my florist's also attracts regular visitors. Did you know I like comments too???? ;-)

Finally, the roof!

The club meeting on Sunday was productive insofar that I got the roof done. I needed a lot of help measuring (like before), because of the odd shape of the house. We finally got it right after a lot of planing and adjusting. However, that was the good part. I got a lot of practice using the hand (or block) plane and I did a little bit of work on the band saw. It feels great to be working with wood and I would have never experienced it had I not been confronted with this little project that ever only was to be a floor and two walls with a bay window........

Front: The roof made to measure

Back: The roof made to measure

If you look closer at the 2nd picture you can see that the wall has been extended above the door and the bay window. The roof with that bit of wall section would come off at the original building, but I have decided to extend it so that I can put lights in the dormer or anywhere else upstairs. With a split floor it would have been rather difficult to fix the wiring.

The next picture shows spiral stairs in the making (if you were wondering what the heck they were). :-) In the distant past my husband sometimes helped me out with little things and at some stage he started experimenting with a spiral staircase. Sadly it never got used, until...... perhaps now! I was thinking of using an oriental fan that had fallen apart and to use the parts to transform it into a black cast iron staircase, but in hindsight, I might just see what I can do with these treads. I'll keep you posted.......

Spiral staircase in the making

On another note: I noticed to my surprise that I may welcome even more followers. I promised the other day that I would get properly aquainted with all of you, but so far I have been working on the list of my other blog (that's the problem when you have more than one and I was actually planning a third!!!) However, I will get back to this when I have finished the other list and will then only welcome those people more extensively that are not (yet) a follower of my witch's cottage's blog to save myself time. You know, I do want to work on my miniatures rather then spending all my time on the computer. LOL

I'll keep in touch. In the meantime a warm welcome to my new followers and warm regards in general from me, and thank you again for visiting....

A little bit of building work

I would have liked to bring you up to date with a lot of work done on my shop, but alas, it's very slow going at the moment. I am not working from a plan, nor was the person who designed the building in the first place, so I depend very much on the club meetings to finish each stage. We just plan the next step as we go. So, this is what I have done since last month's meeting: I have extended the front and side walls and fixed the long side wall. I've also finished the floor for the attic, but since I want to figure out what to do with the lights I wait with attaching it. It's perhaps easier to wait until I have decorated the walls and ceilings inside, because now I can reach in a lot easier. Anyway, here are some pictures:

It doesn't look like much, but while I am building this I am also learning some woodworking techniques. On one hand I regretted the odd shape of the building, but on the other hand it forces me to work very precisely. Not only did I cut out the pieces myself, but I had to learn how to use a hand plane to plane the angles for the roof and the walls. Quite an experience, I can tell you. :-) But, so far, so good. All the corners still fit.

Well, tomorrow we've got our monthly meeting again, so for me to find out what's in store. I'll keep you posted.

More flowers

A Florist's needs flowers. Right? Well, that's what I thought too. :-) And since I don't have much time to do anything about it right now, I had a look in my files to see if I had any piccies to show. I did. So here's another update for my blog, otherwise you might be thinking I had fallen asleep. LOL No time for minis at the moment, but just a little bit of spare time to update my blog. Most of the plants and flowers I am showing I have made last year. In the end I had so many that I just had to build a shop to show them off, hence the Florist's.


These are a range of plants that I made during a house-sitting stint some time ago



These pots are all made of card. They were a VaRIAatjes©Workshopbox from my Dutch friend Ria from whose workshopboxes are my favorites. You'll see more of them here and there. The cyclamen was a workshop from a friend as was the stephanotis. The cyclamen has found a spot in the garden of my witch's cottage.


These beautiful roses again from VaRIAatjes

A huge VaRIAatjes flower arrangement, which took me almost 24 hours to put together

These are a selection for the time being. I'm not at home at the moment, so I can't do as much as I would like to. Tomorrow I hope to find some time to look into all the followers of my blog. I was so surprised to see that so many people come and have a look. Not only surprised, very honoured indeed. Thank you all. I have had a quick look at some of your blogs and liked what I saw. Hope to get more time tomorrow to get better aquainted. ;-) See you soon!