Last orders!

Shall we start with Himself?   Here he is, looking like butter wouldn't melt...  Actually he did a very good job of cheering me up on Friday, and we had a few cuddles.   I learned that I am severely anaemic,  deficient in Vit D, and have a low blood count...  not exactly good news.   My GP (a new GP to our practice) wants to know why I've had such a low blood count for over a year, and he's annoyed that no-one has done anything about it.   So got blood tests galore,  plus maybe a trip to see a haematologist.   I hope the latter isn't necessary and that the GP can find out the cause.   In the meantime I'm very tired,  can't do much,  so I'm having to plan things. Like yesterday,  I paid the paper bill, then went up to the large pet shop to get Harvey a new toy,  since Hobbycraft is next door I popped in there to pick up a card kit,  then I had to come home as I was shattered.  I'm falling asleep all the time... and in bed very early. 

On the upside I have something to keep me amused - my new kit:  The Railway Inn.   It arrived safely on Friday,  just the tonic I needed after my visit to the GP. 

First job was to sort out the pieces, and to note what went were...  sadly, as you may guess, I wasn't paying full attention!  I got the front bit the wrong way round, so managed to paint the exterior... doh.   It didn't matter as I could have just switched it to face in the other direction, but chose to stick with the instructions.  

The interior was painted with diluted terracotta, and naples yellow, then I gave it two coats of the glossy mod podge.  It was left to dry overnight, and then glued together today.

Here's the inside, just to prove my mistake.  I couldn't believe I'd been such a dope.   I'd had a dry run as well, so knew which part went were, or so I thought.  

I had to make use of the masking tape to hold the parts together while they were drying.   I'm using the tacky glue as I'm out of mod podge - so note to self: get more mod podge!

There are a lot of parts to this project,  a frontage for the pub,  which I'm hoping to include a sign.  I've been using Craft Artist Pro,  just need to get some ink and I can do the printing.  What I find annoying about the HP printer is that you have to use both ink cartridges, whereas the Kodak let you use the colour or black and white, plus it never needed to be calibrated if the cartridges were changed!  

And here is the interior, yes, no staircase, I can buy them if I want, but not sure...    The floors are a nice 'mucky' brown,  and I think that the walls should have a coat of nicotine. 

On the ground floor I put up a picture of the Flying Scotsman,  it was from a sticker set I got ages ago.  Need to 'sweep' the ground floor, it got a bit dusty during construction  - those builders are really messy!

I managed to line up the chimney, and that is one tall chimney.  It was given a couple of coats of the deco art pewter paint.  The deco art paint is lovely to use, and is water based, but it covers beautifully.   I've seen it in Hobbycraft, but of course you can get it on the internet. 

Now let's put those two bits together,  minus the roof.   It is reminding me of the many pubs that used to be on the Dock Road years ago.  Every corner had a pub,  most were just like this, and always full!  Most of them have gone now,  there are a handful left.     If you dared to venture inside you usually found sawdust on the floor, to mop up all the mud and stuff from the dockers boots.  They were lively places, but friendly, the pub grub - scouse!  What else?  

Now I need to head to the beach to get some sand for the top part of the pub.  Well not right now, think I'll wait for daylight.  I've got some window frames to paint, plus the quions...  those fancy bits - well you'll see what they are shortly.

Last pic, six windows, all painted and glazed.  Ready to go.   They need a buff up before they're put in place.   And I just had an idea,  I may use some glass paint on the two ground floor windows.  

I've also ordered a product that I'd never heard of before until I read a blog post on Snippets From My Studio  by Sandra in Australia, who also makes miniatures, and the quarter houses from Petite Properties.   She has a fascinating and very informative blog about miniatures. 

Oh, back to that product: paper clay.  I'd never heard of it, in fact I had to google it.  I discovered that it is a light clay,  that can be used like papier mache, and you can make your own.   I decided to buy some from Amazon,  it is a light clay, much light than what I'm using at the moment.   I liked what Sandra had done, making a pavement,  and an interior paved area.   They both looked so effective. 

So that is the new project, and with some new materials to use.  I've also got some cards to make, hence the card kits from Hobbycraft, plus need to find some stars - yes I'm still looking!     I've seen some but they're not what I want, so need to go check out some other craft shops.  If all else fails then I'll be making my own, I guess I could experiment with the paper clay.  

I've been watching the Pottery competition on BBC 2, fascinating last week when they used a technique called Raku, which involved a very risky firing, but if it worked then you ended up with an amazing glazed pot.   I'm learning a lot about pottery,  things I'd never considered like working the clay before using it to get the air out of it.   Wouldn't it be nice if one, or more, of the main channels gave us a crafting show?  I've given up on CnC,  it is the same stuff, and same products over and over,  Hochanda has so far had one dolls house show, and have on dolls house product on its website...   there is no choice of crafts on any of these channels - just the same bloody things.

Now I need a rest...