Good fun and good company - can't beat it!

The only thing I like better than a day working on minis is a day working on minis with my friends.

Louise, Marijke and Susan all came over today and we worked on minis together. It was a great day. Though we all worked on separate things, we put our heads together to come up with a solution for this, a suggestion for that, caught up with what's going on in each of our lives and our families, had munchies and, in general, just enjoyed the opportunity to share the time with each other.

I have made some progress on the Remembrance Day room box, although it's not necessarily fast.

The last time I worked on it, several days ago, I left you with pictures of a basic brown box. Today, I heavily sanded all the walls. It certainly added to the rough character of the wood in general. Then I dry brushed over with white, further highlighting the roughness. I installed the shelves then I made up a mixture to cover the "dirt" floor.

The instructions from the magazine say to use equal parts of powdered drywall compound, garden soil and PVA glue, mixed up with enough water to make it spreadable. I wasn't keen on that idea so I started by mixing dry coffee grounds with dry tea from used tea bags. I actually really liked the way the blended colours looked like dirt. I think from now on, when making plants and flowers I will use this mixture as soil instead of one or the other. It looks more realistic in my mind. Then I mixed this dry coffee/tea with pre-mixed drywall compound and spread this mixture over the floor. It will dry quite light but I will be able to dry brush over it to bring out more of the dirt floor look.

You might notice a strange little square space on the floor that has no "dirt" compound on it. That is where the post for the roof support will go when it is time to put the roof on.

I installed 6 sandbags over the door lintel and installed the faux rusted corrugated metal panel to the right of the door. Marijke made the sand bags. Louise had painted the corrugated cardboard a silver metal colour first, then Marijke took over and aged it to look like rusted metal. I think it looks great.

I'm now ready to move on to the space outside the door opening where there will be a whole lot of sand bags and a pile of rocks, dirt and general rubble. I'm looking forward to that.

Not much else to report tonight so sorry for the short post. I'll be back with more on this project in a few days. TTFN! - Marilyn

Gene Hackman's got nothin' on me!!!

I'm the Hackwoman!! The supreme Hackster! The Hackmeister!!

Accordingly I hacked, I cut, I banged, I gouged! I got 'er done man!

Working on the World War I bunker, after making sure all the walls were complete, it was time to rough it up even further. I used my knife and scissors to shave off chunks, slice a series of cracks, and bang in a variety of "worm holes". Then I went on to the next step - painting.

According to the instructions in Dollhouse and Miniature Scene, I was to first put on a heavy coat of raw umber over everything. Yes, it does look very dark right now but it requires a layering of different colours before we're done.

A few days before my hacking and gouging adventure, I went looking for a piece of burlap to use as a "curtain" over the entry. I wasn't worried because I knew I had lots of burlap in the garage that I use to cover some of my garden plants for the winter. However, when I looked at it, I realized the thread count was way too large to look scale-appropriate. So off to Dollarama I went. There I found a little cloth-lined burlap bag that looked perfect. I cut it apart, saving the lining for another project. I think you'll agree, it's the right scale. So now I just have to cut it to size, rip it up, dirty it up, put holes in it, and generally make it look like it's been hanging there for decades and decades.

I let the raw umber dry for about three hours, then went on to step number 2: using burnt umber, thinned with a little water, I lightly went over everything randomly, as they instructed. Question: If you plan to be random, is it really random???? Sorry, I'm in an existential mood right now. *smile*.

The burnt umber lightened it a bit and highlighted more of the rough texture of the wood. Can you see the difference??

I'm going to let it dry overnight before moving on to the next step which is heavy sanding of all surfaces. When that is done, I will dry-brush with white. More white will be added at a later step.

Just after I took that last picture, a hurricane hit my work table. You can just see its imminent arrival in the picture. Notice two little ears just beginning to show up behind the paint bottle on the table?!? She's such a joy!

After cleaning up the wreckage left behind by the retreating hurricane, I decided to call it a day. However, since all I gave you today was views of a dark brown box, I thought I would leave you with a couple of pictures of my very favourite subject - Christmas!!! This is a quick little project I did as a gift to my good friend Louise. I had seen a picture of one very like this a couple of years ago and fell in love with it. Unfortunately, I don't know who made the one that inspired me but I kept it in my head for a long time. If anyone is familiar with this project and can let me know who might have made the original one I hold in my memory, I'd love to give credit where credit is due. Anyway, I'm glad I finally made one - and may even make one for myself eventually. The light actually works and I have both Louise's and her DH's names on the mailbox to personalize it. It has hangers on the back so it can be put on a wall for Christmas, or it can stand on its own on a little shelf or table.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any little flamingos in my stash or I would have added one for my flamingo fanatic friend (I'm also in an alliterative mood tonight!). Surprise, surprise! Louise did have a little flamingo which she was able to set up beside the mailbox. I didn't get a picture of that but now it's perfect!

I hope you enjoyed tonight's post, even though it is quite short. I will be back after the next few steps of the World War I room box are completed. TTFN! - Marilyn