A gift from my daughter

When my lovely daughter asked me 'What do you want for your birthday?', I sent her a list of some of my favourite 'wants' on Etsy.
And yesterday in the mail - treasure!!! She had chosen to send me a witch's potions cabinet and contents made by the lovely and talented Lorraine at DFly Creations (here)!! (and I can never have enough mushrooms!!)
These minis are exquisite!! My witch is going to be so well equipped!
And here is the cabinet opened.
Not only, but also . . . there was a fab and fun rusty watering can filled with yellow daisies too - very finely made, and so cheerful!! Daisies just make me want to smile! :)

Thankyou sooooo much!!! Here is a very happy Glenda!!

Lakehouse battens

The lakehouse now has its exterior 'board and batten' look.

Now for some detail - :)

These battens were a rough-cut wood (I wanted this look), and were originally painted, along with the house, in the pale cool yellow which really, really wasn't right!! Everything was then overpainted in this warm gold colour. The MDF walls were quite smooth after the two coats of paint, but the battens were a pain to paint because of the rough texture and my impatience. :)

When I came to it the next day, I taped the battens in place and had a good look at the effect, which was surprisingly good! On the battens the original colour was just peeping through the new one in places, and it added depth and interest.

I've found this before in working embroidery backgounds - when you carefully mix a cool and a warm of the same shade of colour, it makes the result easier on the eye than a single pure shade.

The poppets say that I'm boring you, and would I please put the flooring in place!!

The lakehouse progress

At last I've finished (almost) painting the lakehouse, just some paint dribbles to remove, lol, and one more coat of paint on the windows :)

The floorboards are marked out, and need plank ends and nailmarks added.

The next step is to fix the battens in place on the exterior walls.

Above are the white incised boards which are going to be the ceiling in the bedroom on the top floor.

The house piles which will raise the lakehouse up, and the incised decking have been aged/weathered with a couple of washes of very dilute black acrylic paint. This is the first time I have done any of this sort of thing, and I did lots of colour tests until my brain melted.
One of my problems is that I am usually so afraid of making mistakes that I end up not doing anything at all!! In the end I remembered a line from a Star Trek movie - 'just take your best guess, Mr Spock', lol!! Life's too short to worry so much!

BTW this house is a kit from The Dolls House Emporium 'The Retreat' (here) - if you take a look here you can see more of their fun kits for smaller projects. Their Tollhouse is going to be my medieval enchanter's tower, my next main project.

A little boat

Here's a little rowboat which I have painted for the Finnish lakehouse. It was originally varnished wood with a green trim, but I saw a pic in my book of a boat in the colours of the Finnish flag, so this is the result!

I got the boat a long time ago from The Dolls House Emporium, but I don't know if it's still available. I have found that some things there are available only from the paper catalogue, which is not an option for overseas buyers who must use the online catalogue. (The catalogue number for this boat was #4255.)

Ab fab printies from Norma, and a floor test

Oh, I love mail!! Norma has sent a wonderful gift of printies - and they are perfect for my projects!! Norma has a knack for knowing the exact thing to send, and she has outdone herself here!!! :)))))

She has sent me two medieval tapestries, some parchments, and some open books - every one of these will have pride of place in either my witch or medieval settings!
And the open books have beautifully 'faded' printed covers! They're beautiful!! Thankyou so much, Norma!

Lakehouse flooring test

I did a quick preview of the lakehouse floors last night, and I'm considering the result in today's light. I wanted the floor to be a pale birch colour, and found some in my box of veneer samples. It is actually a Tasmanian eucalypt, with fine figuring. Unfortunately it splits easily, and the grain runs slightly skewed to where I want the board markings.

I was greatly encouraged by reading Nina's flooring experiences - thankyou, Nina!!
The first thing I tried was to score the lines with a fine embossing tool - this didn't work, as the lines were invisible except where they crossed the grainy bits where they widened and threatened to split the veneer. Any scoring of plank ends across the veneer went all splintery.
I tried pencilling lines in the score marks, and they had the same effect of thickening every so often.
Then I tried simple pencil lines without scoring it first, but when it was in place in the house, they looked far too dark.

Out with my colouring pencils - I tried four shades of gold and brown, and I think I've found the one that will work, and when the plank ends and nail holes are marked, it looked even better.
A quick wash with 1:1 PVA to water, to seal it, and it's good!

A strange noise on the lawn this morning

My poppets have arrived! They didn't like the frost at all!!

The lakehouse so far

It's slow doing this as there's only three hours a day when it's warm enough to paint. It still needs a final coat of paint on everything - and a last minute change of colour on the outside, so I have to wait for our weekly trip to town to get another paint test pot.

Glenda + paint = mess!! lots of mess!! :)

I have changed my mind three times now about how I'll do the roof. :)

I am having fun doing this!!

Heavenly creatures

These lovely beasts are handcrafted by Teresa at Northern Lites Miniatures on eBay.

I have had the barn owl for a while, and just bought the little dragon and bat recently for the vampire and dragon themes. They are made with real feathers, fur and leather, and the bat is posable.

Giveaway winners!

I'd like to thank you all for your kind comments in this giveaway - and thankyou for joining in!!

You're all brilliant - keep on blogging!!

I'm sorry I can't make something for you all - I would love to, but it's just not possible!!
Welcome to new my followers, I hope I can keep you all amused in some small way, and I'll try to keep up with all your fab blogs!

My husband Alan was the lucky one to make the draw - I asked the cats, but they 'did a Kilmouski' and sauntered off uninterested!

The two winners are:

Brae at otterine

and Ascension at Mis Miniaturas

Congratulations!!

If you will both contact me and we can work out which five items you each want, and discuss styles and colours.
Thankyou all!!