The carpenter is busy

I am so glad that I have taken some time out this week to do some mini work.  At least I can keep going and  that way I don't loose my creative 'thread'...

I have called in the carpenter to build me a workbench with shelving and I need a sink, built in, in the corner. This room upstairs is going to be the work room where the bouquets are being prepared for sale and all the other work is done.  Downstairs is only going to be the sales area.  The shop is rather small and the florist will just have to keep fit by climbing the stairs all day. :-)

First I wanted light upstairs, so I have found a lamp shade that I have made some years ago.  It is a simple beaded shade with little roses worked in.  The lamp will have to be easily removed in case I need a new bulb, so I used an old plastic plug that I can plug in into the ceiling contacts easily.  I shouldn't have had the wires exposed, but something had gone wrong and the contacts had to be replaced.  As I couldn't lift the roof we had to find another way, but it's working fine now (temporarily):

Tomorrow the electrician will fit the wires properly so that I can turn on the lights upstairs and downstairs.  I have also put in windows and treated them to look like old glass as I did with my witch's cottage:

As you can see again in the pictures, the building is not straight and I am working with difficult angles.  However, it's a learning curve and part of the fun.  The shelving underneath the workbench was a challenge, but worked out okay in the end:

I wasn't going to make a cabinet with drawers and doors.  Shelving seemed a lot simpler and I like the idea of putting some baskets in with stuff, so this is sort of what it's going to look like.

As a florist needs a wet area with a sink I have fixed one in the other corner, where there is less room.  It's where you enter the floor via the stairs.  I generally draw my plans and cut them out of paper to see if it works, so here's the new sink in stages:

Now I am looking for some pewter items that I know I've bought some time ago.  I do have secateurs and a tap, but they need to be painted.  That's the next job.  The drainpipe is going to be painted grey and will be fixed underneath the sink, but will be in full view.  Upstairs is not a luxury kitchen!  I have found a chain with tiny links, but need to find some black rubber or similar to make a plug for the sink.  If I can't find rubber then polymer clay will be a solution.  Let's just wait and see what's going to happen.

Next is filling the room with all the necessities, like wrapping paper, ribbon, scissors, a bin and everything else I can think of.  Anybody with good ideas just leave me a message in the comments... :-)

See you next time

A rusty old chair

Again it's been a while.  Nearly eight months to be precise, but... I haven't forgotten my florist.  It's just that right now we are travelling a lot and while away from home I can't do much.  (My other blog: Marion's Miniatures, deals with our last trip and a visit to a small dolls house show with some pictures.)  Sometimes I take my miniature knitting, but that's about all.  However, being home for three weeks between two overseas trips I have been able to manage to get a workshop ready for the Brisbane club and also a rusty old chair for my florist.

For a while I have had my eyes on a workshop in one of my Dutch mini magazines, but since I am not very good at soldering I have been putting it off, until today!  Another reason was the wire.  I couldn't get the right thickness and when I did it was on a roll, which makes it a lot more difficult to handle, but....... here it is:

The seat of the chair has been taken out and replaced with a kind of wire basket.  The chair can be decorated according to the season and since I've just returned from the US it's been decorated with autumn in mind and thus pumpkins, of which we must have seen hundreds!!!  But it was great and autumn has again become my favourite season (in my mind, because where I live we don't quite experience autumn).

The chair was first treated with primer and than with rust from a 'scenic rust' kit.  It's every body's guess what will be next on my list, but I'll have lots of time to think about it, because I'll be away till mid January.  No Christmas decorations in my florist yet..... ;-)

I have noticed that my list of followers has grown again.  Welcome to all newcomers.  When I am back home again with more time on my hands, I will dive into it, have a look at your blogs, where possible, and welcome you all properly.

See you again in the new year.

A cabinet with hutch for the shop

I am briefly back to show you what I have made for the Florist: a cabinet with hutch.  It would be a lovely cabinet for a country shop, but I couldn't wait so I thought it would be nice enough among the plants and flowers.  It's hand painted as well and I used a well known theme (in the Netherlands), that of Hen & Rooster.  Or in Dutch Kip & Haan.

Normally I take pictures as I go, but this time I was working so concentrated that I all but forgot until it was well and truly finished. Anyway, this cabinet I built from scratch.  I looked up some pictures of similar cabinets on the Internet and drew up my own plan.  Since I have a thicknesser for miniature woodwork I can use whatever wood I have available.  In this case I have used slats from old Venetian blinds.  The only part I am not happy with is the doors.  I wanted to hinge them with pins at the top and bottom, but I tried a more complicated way that did not work.  Instead of rounding off the side of the doors to accommodate the opening and closing I tried to drill the holes off centre, but the pins stuck out.  I think the holes were a bit to close to the side.  Anyway, I solved the hinge problem by using pieces of fabric.  It doesn't look as good, but it will have to do.  Once in the shop with plants and other stuff all around it doesn't matter as much anyway.

So, here's the cabinet:

The pictures aren't the best, but the sky was very overcast today and I didn't want to wait for better light.

I have noticed that I have a lot of new followers again.  Too many to mention one by one, so may I please welcome you all collectively?  I hope you'll enjoy reading my blog.

The list of followers made me think of something.  If there's anybody from around Buffalo, NY who reads my blog I would like to tell you that I am planning a trip to your country later in the year.  It would be nice to meet like minded people or to find out if there is a dollshouse and miniature club somewhere in or near Buffalo.

Bye for now...

Back again (temporarily)

In September (is it really that long ago?) I temporarily stopped updating this blog for reasons mentioned back then.  In the meantime I have been working on other miniatures, which you will be able to see on Marion's Miniatures shortly (I hope).  However, I couldn't resist going back to making plants hence the beautiful hanging basket which I have filled with pansies and pink daisies today.  The basket came with the kit from Variaatjes.  Many more to come, over time, because I still have a shoe box full of kits.

This basket contains 21 pansies and 17 daisies.  It kept me busy for the best part of the day....... :-)

As you can see, not glued but attached to the wall with real nails

A pleasant entrance to the shop

That's it for today beside my warm welcome to another round of followers.  Wondering now who number 100 will be...  No time today to welcome you all personally, but insofar you have a blog I have paid a visit in the meantime and liked what I saw.  And above all: A Happy New Year to all of my followers.

A temporary stop

I have stopped temporarily working on my flower shop for various reasons.  One is that it is going on display for a short time and secondly I haven't got any inspiration at the moment.  So, I have returned to working on my dolls house instead.  If you wish to follow me there go to my other blog:  Marion's Miniatures.  Enjoy.

More about the street and the buckets

Do you reckon it's difficult to think of a suitable title every time you blog?  I do, but.... I'm not really breaking my head over it though. ;-)

Well, this is just a follow up of what I was working on before.  First the street scene.  I have finished the cobble stones and grouted them.  I'm not overly happy, but it will have to do.  The part I'm not happy with is that the clay shrunk more than I had anticipated and the grout was still a bit to white, eventhough I had added some parchment and burnt sienna colours to darken it.  Not enough though after it had dried up.  Wonder if I can still do something with a wash....

To wash in the grout I had to varnish the cobble stones first. This made them darker and a bit too shiny eventhough I used matt varnish. It's not too bad though. We can pretend it had just been raining. :-) Yes, I know, you can see the grout on the pavers' edges. Will have to paint that again. Never a dull day for a miniaturist!


The buckets are finished too now.  Unfortunately they ended up a bit bigger than the one I already had and also I couldn't match the colour, since I didn't paint the smaller one at home.  It's not too bad though.  I might just use the four new ones outside.  I sprayed them silver at first, but that appeared to be too shiny.  Silver Folk Art paint didn't do it for me either, so I went out and bought an expensive spray can for a galvanised zink effect.  I am happier now, but I am still wondering how to get that real 'used' and 'old' effect of zink.  I own a few items myself and when I compare the buckets just don't look right.  Anybody has an idea????

The one in the front is the older one, that I made a few years ago.  The one on the far right has been sprayed with 'zink', the other two are still plain 'silver'.

I have been in search of all the items I could use to decorate and fill my shop and luckily I had quite a few.  First there is this huge bouquet which gets pride of place in the bay window.  An eye catcher for the customers I reckon, and also this beautiful Hibiscus that I am putting out on the pavement:

And that's my update for today.  All I need to do now is to welcome yet another follower.  She's from Finland and her name is Ultsu.  Ultsu likes dreaming, like most of us, and she does it (and more) on: Mini Dreams. I hope you'll enjoy visiting my blog Ultsu and a warm welcome to you.

Buckets

No, don't worry.  It's not raining buckets of water.  I am only making buckets. ;-)  You see, if you want to sell bunches of flowers you need something to store them in.  Buckets are probably old fashioned, but I had made one a while ago from card stock and thought it looked really neat, so that's what I am doing right now: making more buckets.

Here I am in the process of doing so:

The hardest part of the buckets really was the drilling of little holes in the length of a toothpick, but I have succeeded so far. I need those pieces as the handles for the buckets.

In the background you can see, very vaguely, the original bucket with bunches of tulips. I should take a picture of that one too, but I'm running out of time right now.  This was only meant to be a very short update to show that I am still working on my project. 

Oh, and before I go, I want to welcome another new follower: MiniJoJo at Mini Jo Jo's Mountfield. As busy as her life seems to be, she seems to find time for mini's and blogging.  I don't know how she does it.  Go and have a look at her blog.
 
Have a nice day all of you out there.