Prexmas....

I've invented a thing.

Long term readers will know that in the past I've written rhapsodically about Twixmas... those days between Christmas and New Year where time turns in on itself and the days are measured mostly in the consumption of cheese.

Well this year, in the absence of all the cleaning and whatnot, I've discovered a new time period.... Prexmas.

Prexmas: The period of time, prior to 24th December, normally a whirlwind of activity but in 2020 a time of calm, with the unaccustomed freedom to pick up abandoned projects in advance of Twixmas

My Prexmas began on Saturday, when, at a bit of loose end on account of having no frenzied cleaning to do, I decided to revisit my Christmas present from 2018.

Now, in my defence, I did actually manage to get a fair bit done back then, in terms of planning and such, before I hit a snag and 'temporarily' packed it away in a cupboard.  Of course 'temporarily' is an elastic term and most miniaturists worth their salt will know exactly what it means.  A truly dedicated and committed miniaturist will, at any one time, have several unfinished projects on the go, with any number of them 'temporarily' shelved. 

In this case, out of sight is truly out of mind, and although I've occasionally caught a glimpse of it over the past 2 years (TWO YEARS!!!?) I haven't had either the time or enthusiasm to get it all out and resume work.

However, with the advent of Prexmas, a whole five days have mysteriously materialised, and I've had the sudden urge to unearth it and crack on.

So on Saturday afternoon, I took all the boxes of bits into the sitting room and sat by the fire in front of the twinkling Christmas tree, and sorted through them all, trying to get an idea of where I'd got to.

The answer to that is - not very far.

Granted, it may look like substantial progress had been made, but aside from the base floor, sides and back wall and the lift-off shop front, which have been glued, everything else is dry fitted, as the aforementioned snag was whether I should glue the floors in place before or after installing the lighting.  I still haven't decided on the best course of action on that particular conundrum, but while pondering I've been familiarising myself with all the bits and trying to remember my plan.

I still want it to have the look of a Bliss house.... not a realistic building but a more toy-like rendition.  I'd put aside two little tester pots of green paint but now I'm not so sure about the colours.  I'd also printed out some sheets of buff-coloured card to represent Ashlar blocks, but now I'm thinking that maybe I should use a different colour for those too.  

This is exactly how I get derailed with projects.... I hit a problem, can't decide how to proceed, pack it all away and BAM.... two whole years whizz by.

I've lost the signage piece for above the shop front, which isn't in any of the boxes.  I have the piece of card it came out of, so I can make another the same shape, but it's annoying all the same.  I'd forgotten that I'd also made lots of additional windows to go on the sides... I must have spent a fair bit of time on it.

Yesterday I managed to track down the folder on my laptop, with all the resources I'd found. After some consideration I think I'm going to go with something like this....

Rather than this....

Or maybe something between the two.   See.... this is what I do, indecision can so quickly become inaction.

But it's all out on the table in my workroom now, so during Prexmas and throughout Twixmas I shall tinker and dabble, and hopefully my meandering method will yield progress.

We shall see....