Green is the colour for the week....

..green beer, green shirts, green hats and, of course - my greenhouse!

I've been trying to work on the greenhouse project over the last few days but DH and I had so much to do to get ready for our fund-raiser show at the Fredericton Playhouse this past Saturday night. The show went well and thankfully we made some money to help with our Irish cultural outreach activities and to support our Irish Room, which is an Irish research and lending library that we open, through the use of volunteers, on Thursdays and Saturdays throughout the year. There's always so much work to be done. This week will continue to be busy until St. Patrick's Day has passed but I will still try to do something "mini" every day - no matter how small (no pun intended!).

So, I wiped off the rest of the "grouting" from my greenhouse floor but haven't yet filled in all those corners where the grout has shrunk. Since then I have spent my nights laying awake thinking of things like: what about the walls? Shouldn't I make something decorative to add interest? How am I going to make all those plants, seed trays, work and display benches? What accessories do I need to make the scene in my head come to life? My late-night musings actually proved productive and I think I have answers to most, if not all, of these questions.

To start with, I decided on a pattern of window/wall panes. Then I took my trusty 1/4" graph paper, taped some pages together to make it fit the wall of the greenhouse, and drew out the design. You can see where I started to cut out the waste areas in the picture below.

My original intent was to cut the framework out of mat board (for those who don't know what this is, mat board is what you use to frame out a photo or picture before you put it into the actual picture frame. It's the white or coloured border piece that surrounds the picture.) The thickness of the mat board is perfect to line up with the metal frame of the greenhouse. But then I wondered how I would attach it because, if I just glued it to the Plexiglas, you would be able to see the glue through the other side of the window. Then, I thought I would use a thin, white, double-sided tape cut to the exact size of the decorative framework. So I did what any self-respecting miniaturist would do. I went shopping!! Look at what I found (mostly at the Dollarama):

1. Double-sided tape - but It's too thick! When combined with the thickness of the mat board, it just wouldn't work. So - what to do, what to do!!??!! Change directions, of course! So, now the actual decorative frame will be cut from cardstock paper which, when the thickness of the tape is added to it, will be about the same thickness as the mat board would have been.

2. 1/12th scale picture frames (from Michael's) - okay these have nothing to do with my greenhouse project but aren't they pretty? I can paint them any colour I want when I decide where I am going to use them. I bought six packages of the green ones and four packages of the pink because I liked their shapes and they were only $1.25 a package! They also had all white ones but mostly they were the same as the small square and circular frames in the pink and green ones so I went for the fancy ones (of course!).
3. Plants!! See all those little leaf shapes on each of these? When pulled off they will make great little "seedlings" to go in my plant trays in the greenhouse.
4. Little stickers - okay, once again not for the greenhouse but won't they make nice little labels for stacks of towels or tiny bottles for a mini bathroom?

I also bought some coloured duct tape but I can't tell you why yet. Once I have used it for what I think I'm going to do with it, I will post a picture of the result. Yes, you're all on a need-to-know basis and, you just don't need to know yet! I should be able to reveal its use on the next posting.

Now I'm going to go work with that duct tape for a little bit before I quit for the evening. Hope you have a great one! TTFN!