Time for Some Gardening

I finished the pergola in Rita's Quiet Corner over the weekend and today I decided to do some 'gardening'. No time to sit on the bench relax against the cushions and put my feet up! In the photo below you can see the climber that I have put growing over the pergola and decided that it would look good growing up the sides of the inner walls too so that when viewed from the front it made a lovely enclosed circle around the bench. I added the beautiful purple flowers that were included in the kit.


And from above...


And from the side .....

Then I added some little bushes, flowers and a little prickly shrub that I cut off some landscaping material that was in a different packet from Rita.

What is that in the foreground at the edge of the step? Look closer....

Its a dandelion! The perfect garden was too alien a concept for me so I needed to add a weed! Just the one mind!

To give an idea of scale here is the dandelion inside my wedding ring!

Now I am off to build the fence to go round the edge.

Ritas Farm is Finished

I have finished Rita's Farm today. It has been such a fun project to do! I shall show you the photos of how the pond turned out and making the trees first and then go onto the photos of the finished farm! The whole farm fits into a square 3" x 3"

This is how the pond turned out.

Here is the farm from the right side all the hedges in places and the pond put in.

The farm from the left side.

The farm from the front.

This is what came in the little baggie marked 'trees' it is a very strange spongy stuff - but actually looks very realistic. The trunks are real sticks.

Here is the farmhouse with the trees behind. The one on the left is going to be an apple tree.

Here is the farm finished but unoccupied. Where is everybody?

Here comes Rita to see to the garden.

The ducks are on the pond and the goose is thinking about having a swim.

The farmer is clearing up around the pig sty. See the tiny piglet with his mummy.

There's a chicken hiding near the stables and another that you can't see on its nest behind the ladder.

Those apples look delicious!

Rita's Farm

Ritas Farm is taking shape.

I have been working on the landscape for Ritas Farm. Its so much fun at this scale as it quickly takes shape and starts to look really lived in! I can't wait to add the animals!

Firstly here is the farmhouse. I have added the windows, which I added little bits of lace that I had left over from Flint Cottage behind the little perspex squares. I painted the door a darker blue and added that too. Then lastly the creeper across the sides of the house. I tried to pick out the purple flecks from the flower packet in an attempt to make it look like wisteria!

Next I started landscaping the baseboard. Following Ritas instructions I had already painted it green. Then you have to decide where to put your buildings and mark them on in pencil. The grass is then glued on where there are no buildings. The path is made from tiny bits of real slate and then the flowers are growing in a border in front of the house and down either side of the path, apart from a little bit where I have left a gap so that you can get to the pond to feed the ducks without trampling on any flowers!

The bedding is little bits of the thatching chopped up - so the pigs and the horses won't be getting cold.

Lastly I am trying to make the pond. So far I have cut out the tinfoil and added a couple of colours, a dark blue and a grey. Then I have dolloped some Gel Medium on top - I am now waiting for it to dry to see if it has turned out ok - we will see!

Clock and Farms

The souvenir piece from this years Micro Minis Covention is a grandfather clock.But of course not any old grandfather clock!! This one contains two little room boxes that can be seen through windows in the front of the clock. And it doesn't stop there! They are lit! Really lit! Little light bulbs and everything! Having had such a dreadful time with the wiring for the lights in 24th scale on the French House I was dreading the prospect of doing it all again in 144th scale! But to my surprise it turned out to be SO much easier! The instructions were very clear (thank goodness) but it was actually very straight forward. Now its the really hard part of deciding what to put in the rooms!!!

The Finished Clock!

The lights on!

A close up of the room lit.

The back of the clock with the light switch.

The back off the clock - look at all that wiring!

One of the removable room boxes.

Having achieved the electrics on the clock I felt that I could manage anything so I dived straight into thatching the rooves of my little farm! Rita says in her instructions 'I am sorry to say that this is a messy job.' and she wasn't kidding! My fingers are still sticking to the keyboard as I type! It was fun though and whats a bit of mess when there's minis to be done? Here are my rooves in all their thatched glory! I have to admit that my mantra throughout the entire process has been 'its amazing what you can cover with landscaping' so expect lots of creepers!!!

The farmhouse.

The farmhouse from above.

The stables.

The scene so far.

I think the next thing will be the door and windows for the farmhouse - then perhaps some grass and definitely a hedge and then the eagerly awaited pond - those pesky ducks are getting very impatient!

Ritas Farm

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a little farm kit by Rita Boyle from the MicroMinis Group. It is absolutely amazing. The animals are SO unbelievably tiny. This is also the first time I am including people in my miniatures so I am looking forward to how it will turn out. The scale is VERY small - don't ask me for the figures - I will blog later as to the exact measurements. Anyway it was a sunny day and I decided that it was the perfect day to think about ducks - which of course there will be plenty of on my farm - lazily swimming on a little pond, and piglets rolling in the straw and enjoying a bit of blue sky. SO I got out the little package of delights and set to. Here is how I got on so far.........

This is the base painted green ready for landscaping and I decided I wanted a pale blue farmhouse.

Believe it or not these stained bits of wood will be a stable and a pigsty!

Here is the stable being built in my Lego glue jig.

The stable fronts are on.

The farmhouse is starting to take shape.

The sunlight was starting to fade as I put the back on the farmhouse.

The sunlight had totally gone by the time the front was going on - hence the flash photography!

This is going to be such a fun project - lots of landscaping and my first go at water - those ducks need their pond! So lets see what tomorrow brings.

Looking at the blue that I had mixed for just 'the perfect' blue I was picturing my farmhouse I suddenly realised what colour I wanted the dresser and table in my baby house so I painted those too.

120th scale kitchen furniture for my Baby House.