Minion fun!

The minions were bored. They were tired of my excuses for not being in the shop, (grandchildren, broken glasses, houseguests, etc.). They found out that I went to have my eyes examined (no, not my head...) and heard about the new pink and purple glasses I ordered. When they found out they won't be ready until May 3rd, there was a heavy group sigh and they all plopped down for a nap. Since I was going to the chiropractor this morning...(uh, oh, the skellies just heard that...,) I decided to pick up a surprise for the minions. I was looking around in Michael's, with my coupon of course, and found just the thing. Four of them jumped on right away and they were laughing and yelling and having a great time.

Of course the inspectors had to come by to make sure it was safe and to chase the Cro-minions off the track.

I think these guys have a death wish!

A crowd started forming and they all patiently waited for their turns...

yeah right! LOL! After I broke up a few fights and made a chart of who can ride when, things settled down for a bit so I left them to it.

I went back in the shop a couple of hours later and they were all over at Buns & Roses having banana donuts and banana daquiris...I didn't even know the bakery got their liquor license....I really need to get that church done. But when I looked over at the new ride, I found my broken glasses temporarily fixed with some very colorful tape.

They do like me after all..😉 Now I don't have one lens touching my eye...have a great day!

Final Work on Buns & Roses!

The landscapers came back this morning and started right in. They started fitting the turf in the back and questioned me about how well I was taking care of the new grass.

I assured them that I had been watering properly and snuck off to avoid further questioning. I did get a shot of them applying glue to the back of the turf....

hmm, never knew that's how you put that stuff down; they must use lots of bottles of white glue to put that stuff down on a real life house......;) The next step was to put the generator in place so that all the ovens, refrigerators and coolers can run. They had a bit of a set to with the inspector,

but things were ironed out and E6000 is now holding it in place. So as they were finishing up, they noticed a mushroom growing in the grass on the back corner.

Of course I was grilled as to how much water did I actually put on the lawn and they were going to go to great lengths to remove the little mushroom. I like it though so said I would take responsibility for it myself. It looks like a happy little mushroom to me. They grumbled a bit, but said they would go back and prepare my bill for me. So Buns & Roses is complete!

As I left the shop, there was already a line forming as the "hot donuts" sign was lit up in the window. Oh my, how am I going to work in there with the scent of donuts all the time! And I just managed to lose 14 pounds too! So I put in my nose plugs and started cleaning up the work area so I can start on the next building.

I'm not sure if I put a picture on here of the Greenleaf Village that I use as a starting point for these buildings, so here it is!

Actually, I had 2 sets of them, I used the old one first but I think I will use another little garage building like the Banana Republic banana plantation for Larry and Louie's Landscaping. They have commandeered the old pickup truck that the Crominions use for hunting as their landscaping truck,

so I have to make sure and make room for that too. They were talking about wanting a greenhouse also, not sure how I'm going to fit all that on a 4 3/4 X 6 3/4 base but we will see what we can do. Next time, we will be starting a new build! Have a great day!

Burning the Midnight Oil....

Had trouble falling asleep last night so figured I may as well get up and putter on Buns & Roses. I had just been laying there thinking through how I wanted to do things anyway, may as well get up and do them! The first thing I wanted to take care of was the wire from the interior light. I wanted to take it around to the back in the least noticeable way possible. Using a toothpick, I dabbed a thin line of E6000 on the top edge of the end wall. More went on one side of the wire. I waited 2 minutes and then put them together. I used some of my inexpensive Harbor Freight clamps to hold the wire in place.

Since this should realistically dry for 12 to 24 hours, my next step was to glue the building onto the base. This was a little easier said than done as this building was just a bit wonky and not perfectly square. So I resorted to a little brute force with my handy clamps.

As that was drying, I had an Uh Oh moment when I realized that it would now be very difficult to get the grass along the sides with those window boxes so low. I had a meeting with Larry and Louie and they drew up a landscaping plan for me and told me not to worry, they had it all under control.

They wanted to create something more formal for the French owner yet something colorful for the manager, Slash. So closely cropped lawn and pots of sunflowers were installed and admired by all the minions who have now decided to casually walk back and forth while they watch the progress.

The pots of sunflowers were actually made of resin and purchased years ago from a sale bin. I put a little white glue on the "dirt" part and sprinkled on some tea leaves from a tea bag and touched them up a little here and there.

The landscapers left early and said they'd be back tomorrow so I gave the keys to the new owner and a second set to the manager so they could set up all the equipment inside.

One side of the building was pulling up from the base, so I installed another clamp and went back to bed for the night.

This morning I had an idea for a fairy house, (yes, I've been looking at Pinterest again..)and started drawing up a plan. If the minions catch wind of this, I am in deep trouble as they want their village done before I do anything else. And there are also way more of them than there are of me and I do like sleeping in safety at night.....maybe just drill a few holes for the windows.....Hey! Come back here with that! He took my sketch! Sigh, I guess I have to start the next building soon, the fairy house will have to wait. Have a great evening!

Signage

Now that the roof is all done, I started thinking about a sign. I knew I would need a thin piece of wood for the base so dug out my box of punch-outs. Whenever I build a dollhouse kit, I save all the punch-outs from windows and doors and keep them in a box. These come in really handy for small projects. I found a window punch-out with a rounded end that looked like it would work. I traced around the curved part and made a pattern for the other end.

After some careful cutting, I thought it came out pretty good!

For the supports, I used some of the roof supports from one of the other minion houses that I didn't use. I needed to trim them to adjust them to the angle of the roof

and then glued them to the back of the sign.

For the print-out, I looked online and found a sign from a small company and stretched it and shrunk it in my Microsoft Word program and printed it out.

Since it is on printer paper, I was wondering what to glue it on with and decided on a glue stick. I will see how this holds in the long run; I might have to use something else in the future. The wood base was painted black and now sports a copper colored edge. Glued the paper sign on and then glued the whole thing to the house.

This came out great and was out of scrap wood! My kind of project! LOL! I still have to figure out what to do with the wire from the interior light, then this can be glued to the base and landscaped.....Woo! Hoo! Have a nice evening!

Everything's a Little Fuzzy....

Woke up this morning to hoarfrost...and fog too! We don't see hoarfrost here very often, but it is always interesting to look at...everything looks like it has a fuzzy coat on.

So as I was admiring it, I heard someone clear their throat behind me. Slash was wondering when I was going to get a move on and shingle the other side of Buns & Roses. He knows I've been busy with Twice Across America, but really, where are my priorities! It's all about the minions around here! So I got settled down to shingling and completed the roof in a reasonable amount of time.

Shingling seems very boring to me, but the end result is worth it.

While waiting for the glue to dry, I wanted to show you the minions trying out their new fart blaster.

When they heard S was back home from the hospital, they gave her a 21 blaster salute. I just put a clothespin on my nose. Once the air cleared, a couple of the pirate minions approached me with a request.

Since Vincent and Slash have chosen names for themselves, they have chosen names too. They are now Larry and Louie. They introduced themselves and I immediately forgot which one was which. They suggested I glue a feather to the hat of one of them to tell them apart, so I got to work.

Turns out I glued the feather on Larry and it was supposed to go on Louie but at least I can tell them apart now. While Larry was drying, I asked him what his idea was. He said that Louie and himself would like to open a landscaping business. Something with natural materials and not harmful to the environment...I assured him that his carbon footprint was not very big at all, but I would see what I could do. They even have a name already...Larry & Louie's Landscaping. It's even fun to say! LOL! I told them I would pencil it into my schedule but with all the drinking and gluttony going on in the Minion Village lately, I think the next build will be a church! But landscaping Buns & Roses will be next...maybe I'll give Larry and Louie a shot at it...Have a great day!

Shingles and Blasters...

Started the day adding some "wrought iron" trim to the peak of the roof on Buns & Roses. I used E6000 cement and there is no getting that off!

Shingles next! Since I had to cut each strip to length, I ended up having to paint the ends before I could glue them on. The strip shingles are really handy in this kit, I think doing individual shingles in this scale would turn me into a fumble-fingers. I used two lines of white glue and held them in place on the ends with clothespins and pressed down on them with my fingers for a few minutes until the glue started to set.

I had just enough painted shingle strips to do one side so I will be painting more later.

While all this dried, I pulled out the fart blaster and my box of tiny watch gears to see what I could come up with. When I looked down at my bench, one of the gears had pierced my pencil!

Be careful with these, the pointed ends can be sharp! I tried out a few different things and this is what I came up with.

Also used part of a snap fastener for inside the bell shaped end...seems to look more business-like this way.

I'm not sure how it ended up being a Steampunk Fart Blaster, but it was fun to make! LOL! Now I have to make sure the Captain over at the Steampunk Summerhouse doesn't "catch wind" of it...;) or he will abscond with it! Since there is supposed to be a big storm coming sometime tomorrow, I am going to head off to Walmart to join the throngs who will be there buying milk and bread....the only thing is, I'll be buying black craft paint and glue...have to have the essentials! LOL! Have a great afternoon!

Flower Boxes and Cold Weather!

Since we got the teeniest bit of snow this weekend, the minions wanted to go out and play in it. Not all of them have fur or a winter coat, so I took a picture of these two.

They didn't want to stay out long! We had a little more snow overnight, so they were all excited about going out and perhaps building a snowman. I checked the thermometer, "Sorry guys, it's only 19 degrees out!" They decided to all have lunch together at Outback Steakhouse instead.

That sounds pretty good to me too...I can dream can't I? LOL! So while they were lining up to have lunch, I got out the sheet moss to cut the rest of the pieces for the remaining 3 window boxes. It sure is messy stuff!

I glued the boxes to the house and while that was drying thought about the translucent paper for the windows. Why was I doing each window separately when no one is going to see inside once it's done? Since I had plenty of the paper left, I just cut large pieces to cover each wall.

Faster and fewer gluey fingers. So here is each side with the window boxes and windows done.

I guess we can start the roof! I painted the edges white since they will show once the shingles are on

and glued the first one to the roof. I made a small notch in the top edge of the remaining piece of roof for the interior light. Once the light was positioned inside at the level I wanted, the second roof piece was glued in place.

The shingles were next. Since I wanted them black, I checked the instructions to see if there was any problem with this. The instructions said to seal them first if you are going to paint them. Well, since there are so many in the box, I thought I would just try painting three with just the paint and see what happens.

They dried nice and flat and even and it looks like they will only need one coat.

So looks like I will be busy painting more shingles this afternoon! In between laundry that is.....Have a great afternoon!
P.S. Here is what it looks like lit up! I'm having way too much fun with this! LOL!