Somewhere to take shelter...

Today I wanted to try out a few ideas on how best to decorate the exterior of the house.  I'd read on some blogs how you could use polyfilla,  or mix sand and pva.  Both seemed rather messy.  I wondered about some really rough sandpaper, would that work?   Only one way to find out.

I used a spare piece of wood, cut out a small piece of sandpaper, stuck it down and painted it.  Yep, that would do nicely!   For the colour I mixed, white green and paynes grey.   Next I decided to use the small outside porch as the test piece.   It was fiddly, especially painting those teeny tiny bits.  But the sandpaper worked a treat.   It wasn't too difficult to trim,   and any scruffy bits near the window and doors would be hidden. 

So, next stage was to do the back of the porch, or part front of the house. I decided to remove the windows, easily done.  This bit was the trickiest, as I had to pull out my glass cutting mat and balance the front on it.  Why, cos else it would have been very difficult to trim! 

At this point disaster struck, I knocked over a pot of water...  luckily I'd been keeping everything tidy, so all the windows and other bits were in my bits and bobs tray at the back of the desk.  Fortunately only the paper towels got soaked, and the carpet, but it was only water. So had to stop and mop up,  good thing I had to dry the carpet else I wouldn't have spotted the small piece of acetate for the window that had fallen on the floor.

Another angle, and that bit that is sticking out, is now glued down.  I switched to the PVA glue, the mod podge wasn't strong enough to hold the windows to the sandpaper.   Also, mod podge being water based was making the window frames a bit soggy. 

I gave the sandpaper a couple of coats of paint.  A couple of sheets will be enough to cover the house.   So money saved, which is also part of the exercise, to make use of what I have here.  So there is plenty of paint,  glue, spare acetate (in case I do lose any of the small bits from the kit), and tools.  So far my only purchase has been the blades,  well yes, the kit as well.

And here it is in position.   The front area will have some gravel, plus flowers, and a large flower pot.  Well it has to look nice! 

I like my green/white/grey colour combo!  The green I had was too vivid, it had to be toned down, but not made too dark, hence the white. For the window frames I used green and grey. 

So tomorrow the rest of the rest of the house will get the same treatment.  I'm glad that I didn't glue the upper floor divider into place,  if I had then cutting out the windows would have been very tricky.  


I am wondering how I can make curtains, the windows are so tiny, but I'd like something on them.  I checked my bits of lace and don't have anything suitable, or rather small enough.   There has to be something I can use. 

The weather has changed,  rather chilly here.  I could hear the rain in the night, so could Harvey.  He was in extreme fuss pot mode last night,  refused to eat his food.  So I left the food were it was and went to bed,  at some point he ate the lot,  obviously his rumbling tummy got the better of him.  At around 5 a.m. he woke me up for breakfast, and ate what I put down without any fuss.   Tough love seems to be the order of the day with Harvey.   He's getting the hang of his eating routine,  it is clear he's never had one,  and that someone kept on giving in to his fussiness.   I'm being firm with him, as I said, tough love.    The rain kept him in this morning,  in fact after his 'breakfast', he went back to sleep, not waking up till I did.   Usually he is keen to go out,  but not if it is windy and wet, and it was both.  

I had a very long lie in,  9.45 was when I woke up, and of course I was so stiff.   I was glad of the extra sleep, but not at the expense of the ultra stiff joints.   So my plans to go out were shelved,  it took me ages to get myself mobile.  Then I watched the Labour Leadership contest,  I have to say Jeremy Corben has behaved with great dignity throughout, and has refused to slag off his opponents.  I think it is refreshing to have someone like him at the forefront of politics,  no more clones please, or media savvy graduates with a 2:1 in Political history or law.   I noticed that my BiL had made some snide remarks about Corben's win,  his views are based on what he reads in the Telegraph.  Narrow minded doesn't come into it. 

Just thinking about what I need to do tomorrow,  Harvey requires food,  I need milk, oh and wine...   most important,  red wine...  so supermarket trip, and must use up petrol points or lose them.  And I have a mammogram to look forward to on 30th September, oh joy.

Right, hoping to have a much different looking house tomorrow...   enjoy your Sunday!