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!

Starting the Barn and a New Employee!

The sun was out this morning, so got up early to start work on the barn. I experimented with a few different shades of gray, (no, not 50, Hee! Hee!) and found that Ceramcoat Hippo Grey was the closest to the color of the stain I'll be using on the siding. I painted the inside edges of the windows and door and set it aside to dry.

The barn too wanted just a little bit of that brick fabric, so I cut a long strip and glued it in place.

The window trim pieces were cut and trimmed and painted the Hippo Grey also. Looks like these will be needing another coat or 2.  

I was thinking about what kind of roof treatment I wanted to use and decided to look at images of Tennessee barns online to get some ideas. Once I started looking through the pictures, I remembered that many of the barns here have quilt squares on them. There's even road trips you can go on to see alot of them. So then I started looking at quilt squares. Let's see, what kind of quilt square would minions want on their barn....you guessed it, bananas! By the time I shrunk the square down to the right size, it was hard to see the bananas; but they are there!

So while I was busy in the other room printing out the square I wanted, I heard alot of chatting and laughing coming from the shop. When I went back in, I saw a very large minion! He was a giant among minions! Larry and Louie introduced him to me...his name is Goliath, go figure. They said he was their new employee and he was the only one that could lift the greenhouse window and take plants out for customers.

He wanted feathers like Larry, so I rounded a couple up and glued them on.

The other minions were all excited to meet a distant cousin and decided to take him to lunch at Outback Steakhouse. Then on to Buns & Roses for a banana donut for dessert! I'll just be out here in the kitchen having my frozen Atkins meal.......then this afternoon, I will cut up the wood I'm going to use for siding and stain it out in my Dear Hubby's shop. Have a great day!

Back to Work!

The minions had a greeting party waiting for me when I entered the shop today. They said, "Enough fooling around, you need to finish this thing!" They wouldn't listen to my whining and just pointed to my chair. So, what to do first....Ha! That's right, I was looking for a scrap of foam core board! I thought of one more spot to check....guess where it was.

So after moving things and digging around up there, voila! I had just one small piece left.

I put that aside and started measuring the roof. You remember that I had shortened this building, so that meant I had to trim the roof pieces too. The minions were glad I was finally getting to this as we have been having some rain lately and they were getting tired of taking shifts holding down the blue tarp over the roof. I only had to trim off 7/8", that gave me enough for the overhang.

I stained and glued two of the roof supports in place and cut the piece for the front of the overhang.

I bet you know what I did next....let's see how it looks! LOL!

I really should have painted the front gold before gluing it on....well, at least I won't have to be so careful on one side anyway.

I was going to leave the inside of the overhang plain but the minions complained that they could see the old writing on the back when they stood on the porch. And I thought I was a perfectionist! While all the roof pieces were drying, I added some trim around the outside of the building. I wanted to cover the edges of the stone fabric, but the stripwood I have just looks too bulky so went with the same trim as the inside.

I have a few more pieces to add to the inside and then that will be done and ready to glue down the furniture. Just as I was finishing up, I went to add (still) more nail polish to the bucket of wood pieces for the smoker. Next time, remind me to just bite the bullet and buy some envirotex....this poor minion has passed out from the nail polish fumes!

I took him outside to get some fresh air and apologized for all the stinky stuff. I won't be able to glue the roof on completely as I need a light fixture. Haven't been able to find one locally so since I am going to be visiting my mom this week, I will look up there for one or two. I need some plywood bases too...I have five of these left to go! Must make a list. Also wanted to say thank-you to all of you who read my blog, it is very encouraging to me. Please feel free to comment and follow me! More fun to come! Enjoy the fall weather, have a great day!

Smoker Accessories and the Staff!

As I was going to sleep last night, I realized that the minions have that nice new smoker but no fuel! So this morning, I started by brushing white glue all over the stonework on the restaurant. Since I have to wait for the glue to dry, I started looking around on the internet for a printie of a charcoal bag. It didn't take long to find one and I moved it onto Microsoft Word to make it smaller. Printed it out and gave it a light spray of matte sealer....(I love that stuff!)

I cut it out and put it together but one problem...it's empty! I knew there was a stray charcoal briquet laying around outside so I brought out my hammer and gave it a few whacks.

I have no clue what the neighbors are thinking as I'm outside with tweezers filling a teeny bag with broken pieces, but hey, if they want to come over and ask, I'll gladly share! I used some of the really smashed bits to rub around the edges of the bag and we now have a bag of real charcoal!

Another thing that my husband uses when he smokes meat is a bucket of water with bits of wood in it. He uses cherry wood which works really well, but the minions are just going to have to do with the stripwood I have on hand. I sawed a few pieces off and then split them into slivers with my utility knife.

Be careful when you do this, don't want any split fingers out there. I thought a tiny beach pail, yellow of course, would make a funny container so I put in the wood and poured clear nail polish in for water. I know that's going to take awhile to dry and it will shrink too, but don't want to run out and buy a whole set of envirotex for a few drops of water. Arranged everything for a look see and was tickled with how it looks.

Looks like our crominion has some good smoke going there! S asked about our staff and I have been working on that too. As you can see, the crominions are happily at work smoking meat for the grand opening. If you have ever been to a Brazilian Grill, you know how the waiters come around and shave off nice chunks of meat however much you want. Well, our pirate minion fancies himself as one of the waiters there and is even ready with his very large knife.

Since our restaurant is small, he's the bartender too. No one gives him any grief for sure. That's all for today, I hear the laundry pile trying to crawl out of the hamper, so have to get to work. Have a great day!

Shopping and Interioring Decorating...

When I went into the shop this morning, 2 of the crominions were gone. After asking around, I was told that they had gone shopping for a smoker for the restaurant. What? Without me? Rose had given them a lift in the Steampunk Summerhouse and also helped them load it and bring it home.

I really have to get on the ball and finish that Summerhouse, it's just not safe to go tooling around in it without any headlights.  After helping them unload it, I think it will be a great addition to the restaurant and who doesn't like some delicious smoked ribs?! It's a little high, but I bashed a plastic ladder from an old game for them and I think it will work just fine. They are already searching online for recipes and discussing what else they need. I got the first piece of wallpaper cut

and was about to glue it on when I decided I should probably use some primer on the walls first so I don't get bleed-through down the line. Since the furniture came in yesterday, the crominions wanted to try out different configurations for the floor layout. Here is what they came up with.

Looks like I'll be busy painting these up after the wallpapering is done.  Also, I was wondering about tiny bottles for the bar. S has been searching for me and found some amazing things but my Yankee thrift kinda kicked in and I thought...."Hey, why don't I just cut out some pictures and use those?" You'll have to press your nose against the glass to see in anyway so gave that a try. So here is the back bar so far.

I think I will cut out pics of glassware next and then design the shelves. I think the cow is back inside....LOL! So I will be poking around with primer and then cutting more wallpaper. Will have to check out window treatments online....I saw this neat tutorial for window blinds.......Have a great day!

Grass Mowing and Bracelets

Whew! Mowed the grass today..Gasp, Wheeze! Actually got quite a bit done as it was only 65 degrees out. Have been having a little trouble with my thumb joints, so thought I would put together an amber bracelet to wear. Amber is supposed to help with pain and inflammation so I thought I would give it a try. I have an amber necklace that I tried wearing but my hair kept getting caught in the beads so it's just been hanging around. About time to put it to good use!

I re-used the magnetic clasp and attached a couple of jump rings to each half. After attaching the beading wire and crimping the crimp beads, I was ready to start stringing.  

Aside from the magnetic clasp attaching itself to my pliers once in awhile, things went pretty well.

One of the cromininions was chasing stray beads for me so it was a group effort.

I also found a tiny heart in my stash, so decided to add that to perk it up a little.

If this works well, I'll make one for the other wrist too as that thumb also is giving me a little trouble. Before I knew it, the mail lady had arrived. I just love mail. Sure enough, there was a small box carefully slid into the mailbox. It took me some finagling, but I finally was able to get it out of the mailbox! LOL! Inside were the 1/4" scale plastic furniture that I ordered! Woo! Hoo!

I was looking at interior shots of Outback Steakhouse earlier today so have some ideas for them.  I wanted to have a bar in there too, but have to think of something I can make teeny bottles out of.  Then you'll all be invited for banana daiquiris! Keep in mind though, they will be minion sized but they do have lots of banana in them! LOL! Have a nice evening!

Corporate Decisions....

Big changes in the shop today.  The skellies have been giving the crominions a hard time about the Paleo restaurant.  The little cavemen have become the butt of all kinds of jokes by the bony band of brothers. They were sulking in the corner when one of them got a call on their cell..(no, I didn't know they had phones either...hope they got a good plan.) A corporation had read about them on my blog and wanted to offer them a franchise!  After a short discussion, they said "Yes"! So the Minion Village will now have its first chain restaurant....Outback Steakhouse!  Well, the news traveled fast and it wasn't long before the skellies were slinking off back to their carnival ride. One of the crominions admitted to me that he said yes because he liked the colors on the outside. Later on, I heard all of them practicing their Australian accents and the air was full of "Blimey" and "put another shrimp on the barbie".  They've already ordered very large knives like Crocodile Dundee...those skellies won't be bothering them any more! LOL! So now that I have a direction to go in, I searched the internet for exterior shots of the restaurant and picked the most colorful looking ones for inspiration. Finally finished all the sanding and all the pieces are ready for paint.  Looks like the stone patterned fabric will come back out of it's container and I dug out some gold and green for siding and trim.  

I think our cow will be somewhere on the exterior too.  The interior will have lots of wood

and I need to order more sets of 1/4" scale plastic furniture to have some fun with. I think the front steps will be cement, so glued those in place so they can be painted and slightly textured.  

I found a sign I thought I might use, but I think I'll save that for the Boardinghouse. So after spending time painting and staining and glueing, time to let it all dry! Have a great evening!