To market, to market..........

 With the Knit Wit finished and at its new home, when I returned from P.E.I. it should have been time to get back to finish the North Pole Postal Service.  I have to build the front room's service counter, make up the few little people who will make an appearance in the post office, add a few more accessories and finish hooking up the last of the lighting.  So, did I get to work on that?  Of course not!  But I do have an excuse, or actually a reason.  I cannot, for the life of me, get my head around what I really want that front service counter to look like.  

I often find myself at a place in my projects where I have to think, think some more and then think some more until I finally land at an "Aha moment".  Until that happens, I cannot make myself move forward.  So - still thinking, but when it finally hits me I will go go like a house on fire.  I hope it happens soon!

In the meantime, Marijke, Louise and I decided we would work on a group project.  We are making small market stalls.  We started with some leftover kits I had from when I cut out the ones I made for Camp Mini Ha Ha a couple of years ago.  To refresh your memory, here is what they looked like.

It is proving to be an interesting exercise since we are all making adjustments to the original design and putting our own unique spin on them.  Because I am such a Christmas fanatic, I am making mine to be a Christmas-themed stall as is Marijke.  And, in case you couldn't guess, Louise's will have a flamingo theme.  No surprise there either, I guess.  *smile*

Before I begin to describe the process for the market stall, first I will mention that Marijke also had a birthday in October.  Louise and I joined her at her house the day after her birthday for our weekly mini-session so I took the opportunity to present her with the gift I made for her.  For those of you who also follow Marijke's blog, Pulchinella's Cellar, you know that, in addition to the market stall we are all now working on, she is nearing completion on a wonderful Dutch wooden shoe factory.  As she nears the end she had mentioned that she might like to make an old candle-making factory to go along with it so I decided to make her a piece for that.

Here is Marijke with the gift I gave her - a drying/hardening rack for hanging dipped candles while they cure.

Here is a closer look at the candle curing rack with a picture of old equipment behind it, from which I drew my idea.

Marijke does such a great job on these older, historical-type projects and I love all of the details she puts in them.  I hope this rack proves useful to her in the future.

So, here we are on a Skype mini-day as we are early in the stages for our market stalls.  You can see Marijke and Louise on my computer as we chat and work on our projects, and you also see the beginning of my project.  I have the body of the stall taped together and I am laying boards for the floor of the stall.

Once I had the boards laid and glued down, I let it sit overnight with a heavy book on top to make sure everything stayed completely flat while it dried. Then I used a black fine point marker to place marks on each board to simulate old nail heads.  I followed that with Minwax wood stain in Colonial American colour and added a couple of coats of clear finish.

Then I painted the walls of the stall black to provide a depth of colour behind the white that I was eventually going to paint it.

I liked the way the white paint covered the walls, making them look a little aged without looking too  grungy.  I also added boards to the back wall and really liked how the white looked after I dry-brushed them.

The original market stalls were a little dark inside, even though I had cut large a hole in the roof for a "skylight" to bring more light in.  So, in addition to my plan to do the same to the roof for this one, I also cut a window out in the side of the building.  I used screening over the window to simulate the wire sometimes placed over the windows of commercial buildings to discourage break-ins.  Then I added battens to the two sides and back, made a faux door and painted all of the trims in a pale grey colour (dove grey).  I added black hardware (actually just thick black paper) to the door and a faux security key pad above the door handle.

Then I moved to the inside and added some shelves to the back.  I think I will add one along the side as well.

Of course, while I had just barely gotten started on mine, Louise had the outside of her market stall pretty much done - flamingo designs and all!

Well, tomorrow is another in-person mini day at Marijke's house so I will be working at the doors, roof and base of my market stall.  Then I can start the really fun stuff - making things to go in it!!!!  I hope you enjoyed seeing what we are working on and I will be sure to show all three of our projects together when we finish.

Until my next post - please stay safe, stay busy, stay healthy!  Big hugs to all!!  TTFN!!!! - Marilyn