A comedy of errors.............

I think that very probably, my last words on this earth are likely to be.......

"well it seemed like a good idea at the time........."

In my last post I mentioned that the two first floor windows were unusable in their current state and that undoubtably the easiest option would be to simply replace them.

How sage that advice now sounds.

Yes, spending around £18 (remember this figure as I shall be asking questions later) on two new windows, in retrospect, would have been the easiest, quickest and CHEAPEST option.

But fie on 'easiest'. I laugh in the face of 'quickest' and snap my fingers disdainfully at 'cheapest'.

There had to be a solution..........

I happened to mention my problem at my recent one day workshop, hoping to enlist the aid of several keen miniaturists who presumably had overcome similar problems with acrylic windows in innovative and inventive ways.

Lo, it was so and I settled on the idea of frosting the acrylic and adding lettering to advertise the shop's wares.

So far so good.

Found a can of window frosting stuff on ebay - check
Ditto peel off letters - check
Ditto fancy borders, corners for windows - check

Embarked upon mindnumbingly tedious task of masking all the wood on the window frames before spraying on the frosting. Took absolutely ages as no two bits of wood were the same length or width and kept sliding up and down.
Over the course of a day, sprayed layers of frosting over the acrylic, hoping to build up an opaque coating to conceal the clouding/crazing.
This was partially successful in that it did conceal one problem, but bizarrely highlighted another, which was a line of wood stain all around the edges of the acrylic, which hadn't been visible before.

Took a deep breath and congratulated myself on having had the foresight to buy some decorative border, corners etc, just in case.
Wailed silently when I discovered that using aforementioned borders would not leave enough room for peel off letters so back to the drawing board.

Flirted briefly with the idea of throwing the windows in the bin and buying two new ones but instead stiffened my upper lip, gritted my teeth and rummaged in my 'bits' boxes to see if there was any alternative.

Ha Ha. Perfect laser cut paper strips just exactly the right width and looking very victorian.

Set about cutting and mitreing the corners for four individual window panes on the first window in the sure and certain knowledge that I would definitely have enough strips to do all panes on both windows.

No question.

Probably even loads left over.

Bugger.

So, have ordered another two packs of laser cut decorative strips, from Huntsville, Alabama, US of A, as they are available nowhere else.

Total cost of all this 'money saving activity' - £18.09 (remember how much the two NEW windows were going to cost?)
Number of hours saved - 0
Number of hours spent - approximately 8
Number of gin and tonics imbibed in order to stave off mental breakdown - several

However. I am actually quite pleased.

Behold the result of the finished first window (second will have to wait until packet from Alabama arrives by carrier pigeon)

Distressing Times............

So.........due to a viral lurgy which has laid me low for the past two weeks, there has been no 'actual' work done on the shop. However,while gradually recovering from my feverish state, and tucked up on the sofa in pyjamas and duvet, I was able to do some 'virtual' work, ie planning the display cabinets and working out the decoration of the exterior, now that the doors are finally in place.

This weekend, feeling much better, I indulged in some convalescent 'occupational therapy' and managed to complete the following tasks:

• Solved the puzzle of the non-closing front door
• Moved the lighting socket on the inside of the front so that not only does the door close properly, the lights in the bay window now work too.
• Painted the base coat on the tiled roof section and two attic room dormer windows
• Painted the entrance door and drilled holes for the brass door furniture.
• Did the initial 'brick distressing' on the exterior front doors.......I intend to have bits of moss growing out of cracks in the brickwork, and around the windows etc to give it an even more distressed look.
• Painted the fancy bits which will go above the entrance door to house the shop sign.
• Found the various planted containers which will grace the tops of the bay windows and put them temporarily in position to gauge the final effect.

ThusLooks not bad I think.......so far.

However, some niggly, naggly problems have arisen, to which I can find no obvious solution.
The first floor windows have developed a cloudy, crazed coating, which I can't remove with anything, not even plastic polish. I suspect that this has been caused by a reaction with the wood stain which I used on the window frames, despite being extremely careful to avoid any contact with the window acrylic. Probably the fumes from the stain attacked the inside of the acrylic when the windows were laid on newspaper to dry. Very annoying, and there is no obvious solution, aside from buying two new windows :-(

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.................

Shopping..........

Some of the little toys which will eventually be on display in my toy shop have been stored in various boxes for almost two years, so I've been re-acquainting myself with some of my tiny treasures over the last few days.

I had forgotten quite how many I had!

However, while mooching around on ebay, I found a few more which were just irresistable, although I now realised that a Sopwith Pup aeroplane kit is rather anachronistic if my shop is set purely in Victorian times.

I've also seen some other wonderful toys, which would be more in keeping with a post Edwardian shop rather than Victorian.

So I have decided to have an old-fashioned Victorian shop, set in the late Edwardian period, simply so that I can have mechanical toys which are more in keeping with that era.
That, and of course I can have some lady customers browsing with their children, dressed in my favourite Edwardian costumes.

Very busy weekend but I did manage to put in a few hours on the toy shop on Saturday.

Good news and bad news.............

Good news is that I managed to get the inside of the door fronts wallpapered and hinged.
Bad news is that I couldn't wield a normal sized screwdriver inside the right hand room and therefore had to use a tiddly little thing to screw all 8 screws into rock hard MDF and have the blisters to prove it.

Good news continues in that when I plugged in the 'extension sockets' to the fronts, all the lights in the bay windows and the two coach lamps either side of the entrance door all lit up twinklingly.
Bad news continued when I tried to close the right side front and found that my cunningly placed plug wouldn't allow the door to close.

So.

Will have to devise an even more cunning way of moving plug socket 1/2" to the right without stripping off the wallpaper or having the relocated socket show on the inside of the door.

Bit of a conundrum but I think I might just have an idea to save the day.

To be continued..............

My mood in a picture...........

Be Prepared................

Anyone who has followed this blog from the start (and if you've come in at this late stage then I strongly suggest you follow the trail right back to the beginning and read every scintillating post) will know that when I embarked on this journey last December, I was extremely disorganised with regard to Christmas.

I apologise for raising the spectre of the (reportedly) festive season in the dying days of September but due to my reckless inability to 'get my act together' last year, I have solemnly pledged to myself that I will be a reformed character, and will sail into December in the sure and certain knowledge that all my Christmas planning is done, lists have been actioned, presents bought and wrapped, cards written stamped and ready to send and generally being smug.

To this end I have put a timer on my computer desktop screen, in which Santa gallops merrily across the little snowy window, waving gaily, while in large, friendly script there is a countdown of the number of days remaining till 25th December. I thought it would help focus my attention, assist in my planning and listmaking and generally galvanise me into action.

Ha!

Only three days on, I now find myself sitting transfixed, like a rabbit trapped in the glare of oncoming headlights, regarding the large 'friendly' message with narrowed eyes and gritted teeth.
Somehow just knowing that I have all this time for preparation has rendered me incapable of taking the whole thing seriously.
So in all probability, once again I will arrive at 18th December, blinking in confusion and muttering incoherently about how the time has flown etc etc.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering...............


86 days
'til Christmas

Quite chuffed actually...........

I had some exciting news earlier this week.

After submitting a few of my tiny doll's dolls to the Kensington Dollshouse Festival appraisal process, I have been accepted as a showcase exhibitor at next year's Festival.

Woo and indeed hoo!

Not only that, they want me to offer a workshop on the opening day of the Festival!!
During the workshop session students will costume one of my latest style of little Victorian style dolls, just 1 1/2" tall, learning lots of hints and tips along the way and ending up with a miniature heirloom for the dollshouse nursery or toy shop.

My latest range now includes a toy doll with real glass eyes.
Now if you're saying 'so what.........." then I should point out that I have to work inside a porcelain head no bigger than a small pea, in order to set in eyes the size of mustard seeds, so it is a real technical challenge. I even use a special opthalmic micro-scalpel to excise the eyeholes, with the aid of a powerful magnifying lamp. Less than half a millimetre means the difference between success and failure.

It is one of these glass-eyed dolls which I submitted to the Festival organisers, along with some of my painted eye Jumeau-style dolls, which I must admit are my very favourite dolls of all to make and dress.

My idea of heaven is to spend a day in my workroom surrounded by drifts of silks and ribbons in every shade and colour of the spectrum, creating costumes for these little dolls.

Bliss.

Anyway, as I said, I am really quite chuffed.............:-)