200 followers

Christine from Hollyhock Cottage has become my 200th follower, and I am going to celebrate by offering her a gift, I love cross stitch and would love to make you a small rug of your choice for your cottage.
Watch this space

Is this the best you have ever seen

 This is the best work I have seen on blogs

Brae's work is just stunning

 Please visit her blog, and stop with a warm drink and enjoy what you see

Every thing Brae makes is to such a high standard, pop here

Bright Idea's

 Fliss and I spent time together on Sunday

As always we had a long look at the house, Fliss is very good for idea's, in my sitting room I have had a rug made from woven material, I have never seen a pattern or a ready made rug for in here. Fliss took the large table cloth shown in my last blog and laid it on the floor, and now you see my new rug. It looks great, I am thinking about putting a coloured lining to give it depth.

My stash from the local show is poor, two reason's, my house has most of what I need, it will be never finished, secondly there were only 23 sellers at the show, and most were small and loads of hand made items. We did not have one big seller there, and only had three tables of which I loved the standard.  It's a vicious circle we have, poor attendance stops the good sellers going to the smaller loacl shows, and then poor displays stop people going.

Table cloths

 I have done a bit of shopping, these are all made by Chris Sims, she sells on e-bay.

 Her prices are very good, and her work is tiny, using mainly silk.

 She will make for you, any colour or size.

 So now my house has enough table clothes of every size and shape.

I have done nothing on the mini side of things, I have my railings ready to be fitted, I still unable to decide how to finish the pavement outside my house. We have a local show at Portsmouth next weekend, but the sellers list is only 23, and I was hoping Peter Clarke would be there, not sure if I will go. I need inspiration.

Just a bit more

I have been working on the pavement tonight, I have painted the front, it will match the lower house colour when it's finished. I have added the ridge where I want to set the railings in, I have left a bit extra in front of the steps, this should keep the steps in place.
The side panel is in place, every where needs a top coat of paint.

I am leaning towards painting the pavement black to look like tarmac, it was invented in 1820's, but I worried the dust will get into it and spoil the look in time, I don't want heavy paving slabs or paper on top, which leaves me with tarmac or soil, neither is very inspiring. There is very little I can put on the pavement, lighting was gas and mainly next to the house or above the railings. Postboxes are Victorian, much later.

Can we fix it

This morning, we cut the board for the front of my house,so when these are put together, it will be the raised pavement, all we did was measure, cut and sand each piece.

I then glued the top to the front and added all the supports. It was a perfect day to glue the board, hot and sunny, so it set quickly, our garden table was the best place to work, in the shade. I put in loads of supports to keep the pavement straight.
The raised pavement looks good with the house steps, I have a hole each side of each step, for the shortened post, I have placed one post in the bottom hole for you to see.

The railings will stand at the back of the pavement, along with the gate. I am going to put a small moulding for the railings to stand in. That's a trip to the DIY store tomorrow. There will be steps going down to the kitchen door in front of the gate.

The view so far, This is exactly how I wanted my house to look, I have a courtyard, outside of the kitchen windows, I have not decided what to put in this area, maybe a seat and some flowers.
I still have loads to do, I have the side pieces to fit into place, I then have to paint all the new items, before I do, I want to go on the net to find out how the Georgian pavements were finished, were they dirt, paving stones, I'm not sure. I hope by the end of this weekend to have it all done and my railings in place.
When I want to look at the kitchen, I will just lift the steps and the pavement away from the house.

Home improvments

This is Montgomery Hall, as sold by Doll's House Emporium, it's the only kit I have brought, not the most expensive, but a price I could afford at the time. I knew I would change loads about it, I never have in my life followed instructions, almost always feeling I can improve on the design. I have always hated the pavement and steps on this house, but I loved the room sizes and layout.

I have my railings and post, and have been busy with them, I drilled two holes in the full length post and the railings fit into them, I will set the post into the pavement's. I have also taken 18 of the post ans cut them down, I have 9 steps from the pavement to the front door, I will drill a hole each side of the step and set these shortened post in.

The house below, is a Sid Cooke house and it shows the pavement I am trying to create, my railings will have post not pillars.

Later today I will mark out my board and then get Kev to cut it, I have to make the front board and pavement which will be in one piece each, and then each side. When I want to move the pavement to get into my house The whole piece will just lift off, leaving the kitchen in full view.