Miniatures and Ducklings

It has been a very exciting time since coming back from holiday due the arrival of Ducklings! Unfortunately not in our yard as we don't have anywhere to keep them, but friends were going to get some chicks and said that if I wanted I could keep a duck in their garden. I have made no secret of how much I have always wanted Indian Runner Ducks. Elliot and I have constantly discussed how one day we would have a duck show! When we arrived at the farm to collect the chicks they had some Indian Runners so my friends daughter Ria and I decided to raise two between us. Our Runners are the brown duckings in the photos. The yellow ducklings are Aylesburys and belong to Bonnie my friend.

They are two days old in these photos and so desperately cute.

Elliot decided that the one with black feet should be called Dudley and Ria named the one with the lighter feet Duncan - although they are more than likely to be girls!

The ducklings are growing so fast it is incredible. Here they are at almost two weeks old now. I love the shape of Runner ducks.

Here is a photo of Bonnies turkey who is incredibly comical.

In the miniatures department I have been making more furniture for Cricket Hollow. Here is the Store cabinet, as I mentioned before this is the Liberty Bay series from the Betterleys.

Also from the same series here is the table ....

.....and chairs.

My kit for Acorn Cottage arrived as well. This is a workshop that was offered on the Quarter Connection group. It is designed by Jill Castoral and is lovely. I wanted to do this workshop kit as it has techniques using paper clay. I have always been rather scared to use clay and in this particular kit you need to sculpt trees to hug around the house so it is going to be a serious challenge. I started by building the main part of the house. The first thing that struck me was how petite it was for a 48th scale miniature. It is looking like it is going to very cute.

It went together beautifully. Then I started to cut away at the foam base to get the right shape.

The chimney is moulded out of resin and just had to painted. I initially painted it in various shades of grey.

It lacked depth so I added some beige highlights.

All the pieces in the kits are extremely well labelled and the instructions are detailed and easy to follow thankfully!

The window frames are all different shapes and perfectly cut to size.

Here is the interior. I painted it several shades of cream and then used Instant Age Varnish to give it a lived in earthy feel. The fireplace is wonderful. It is laser cut and then you sand it to round it out like tree branches. I added a paper flooring. Then I painted the exterior using the same technique.

I finished shaping the foam base....

...painted it brown and the glued the house to it.

Pre-coloured stained glass windows came with the kit which you just have to glue to the frames.

The last thing I did was add the chimney to the house.

Now it is time to start with the paper clay. I am only hoping that I can achieve something that looks vaguely like a tree!

Store Counter and Playful Bunnies

I haven't had chance to work on my miniatures for what seems ages. As I mentioned before this is mainly due to the sheer mess on and around my craft table. So.... have I tided up? NO I have learnt to work around it all!

My order from Judith arrived and in it was the Liberty Bay kits from the Betterleys that I had ordered to go in Cricket Hollow - which is going to be a quilt shop. I started with the Store Counter. I opened the little packet and the smell of laser cut wood just hit me and I was immediately in heaven. There really is nothing quite like it.

Here is my little counter all ready to paint.

Just look at those darling door knobs.

As with everything Betterley the packaging was just wonderful. I really like the design and colours used on the front.

The next piece will be the Store Cabinet, here is the packet as yet unopened.

The bunnies have been making me laugh the last week or so. I think they must have Spring fever! Charlotte insisted on putting a flower pot on her head. At first I thought she had got it stuck by accident so I lifted it off, but she immediately put it back on again.

As if that wasn't enough bunny madness Lucy decided she wanted in on the fun and put another one on her head and started to run around with it.

Last of course was the dainty Poppy who didn't do much running around but thought it would be nice to just try it for a little bit.

As an Easter treat I have uploaded the photographs of the pom pom chicks we made at our Infants Easter craft afternoon last week at school.

Here is Class 2s chicks

and here are Class 1s chicks.

Cricket Hollows Finished Exterior

I have finished Cricket Hollow as a structure. There are no furnishings yet though. I finally decided to just do a very basic two tone grey wash on the shingles so that they look like they have weathered gracefully over time. I love the overall look it gives.

It is so hard to show colours up in photographs, but there is a subtle difference between the colour of the shingles and the colour of the logs, it just doesn't show so well in the photo.

I particularly love the way the grey of the shingles works with the grey floorboards inside. It just looks so wonderful.

I have added the creeper growing up the porch post and over the porch roof. The green looks so lovely and crisp next to the red door and is set perfectly next to the soft greying wood.

I copied Judiths design of growing the creeper up the porch post in a spiral sweep, it certainly adds interest. I just love it!

Here is the side view with the creeper added.

I think this has been my favourite build so far. I absolutely loved building it and totally love the finished cabin. I am pretty sure that it is going to become a quilting and yarn store. Those lovely white walls will show everything off so well. Lots of colour inside probably spilling out onto the front porch. Next month I will start filling it.

In the meantime I have started on two more projects, you know me its never just one thing at a time! I have built the beginnings of the Birchwood Cabinet by the Betterleys and also wallpapered my Department Store Baby House, you will have to wait for photos of those though.

Cricket Hollow has a Roof

In between work I have been adding the shingles to the roof of Cricket Hollow. They come in the kit as a bag of individually cut wooden shingles and are just wonderful. So one by careful one I started sticking them on.



It is so therapeutic. I would do an hour of work and then skip to my craft table and do another row of shingles. They are really pleasing to the eye sitting there in rows.

I really feel I have built every tiny millimetre of this miniature building and put so much love and care into it. It hasn't felt just like sticking a few bits of wood together but it has grown bit by bit literally!

The shingles are just beautiful. They give a lovely random look both in shade and shape. It will be so hard to paint over them as I just love them as they are.

There is a really neat piece to go over the ridge of the roof.

I love the overall look from the back of Cricket Hollow. It is so calm and naive, a completely blank canvas which I am going to have a ball filling.

It definitely needs a creeper growing up and over the porch to give it that settled in look as if it has been there for quite some time. But has recently received a good lick of paint, Annie is a very proud woman and has helped Apple Jack to give the inside a good wash of white and the door a coat of deep red.

I am so very pleased with the roof it has turned out beautifully. Now I shall have a little think as to what colour it needs painting.

As promised in my last post here are some photos of my Halloween Secret Book. It is the first of a set of thirteen, although only five have been released so far.

As always the Betterleys artwork is astounding - the pages really do look like pages!

Here is the spine as it will look when it is finally on a little shelf with all the others.

The back of the book.

The secret book opens up to reveal...

...two little rooms just waiting to be filled!

I swapped my rooms around from the ones in the instructions because there is no way I could sleep in a room wallpapered with black and white stripes! So I had that as my downstairs room which I think looks rather elegant!

The other wallpaper I used in the upstairs room as I thought it gave a cosier feel for a bedroom.

Thank you Rita for such a wonderful present!