Digging in the Dirt...

Whew! Am I glad to be able to sit down for a few minutes! Larry and Louie had me building flower beds all afternoon and I was up to my elbows in mulch. It all started innocently enough, I decided to paint the underside of the board I'm using for a base. I haven't done this on the other builds and when I look up at the village, I can see the unfinished undersides of the bases.

After two coats of paint I added my signature and the date, then used a couple of coats of clear matte spray for protection.

Then it started, Larry and Louie came driving up in the truck with a load of mulch and flats of flowers. They even managed to fit a birdbath in there. They climbed down from the truck laughing and talking and then stopped dead in their tracks. "What have you been doing all morning?" said Larry. "I thought you would have the flower beds all built by now!" said Louie. Okay, okay let me get my gardening gloves at least....said me. "No time for that!" they said in unison. So I started carving up styrofoam and splashing brown paint around and this is how it is starting.

After the paint was dry, I covered them with white glue and poured on the mulch....or tea leaves, whichever you prefer. :) Larry and Louie had to give my work a thorough inspection before the plants went in

and all this glue and mulch were beginning to stick to me too.

After hours in the hot sun, all the plants were in and watered and I stopped for a much needed break.

I took orders all afternoon, I don't know how I got roped in with this landscaping business. There's still a couple more beds to do, then there's stonework to be done for both walkways. I think I will let Goliath lug all the stone, I'm pooped. Have a great day!

Painting, Painting and more Painting.....

So today was supposed to be landscaping day. I looked through all my tiny artificial flowers and chose a few that I thought would make a nice flower garden. Then I remembered the resin garden piece I found in the thrift shop for 50 cents. I got it down from the shelf and I think it fits perfectly with the greenhouse.

I was playing around with the arrangement when I noticed that the paint job on the resin piece was a bit rough. Well, I thought, I'll just get out my tiny brush and a couple of paints and we'll take care of that. Okay, so I might need my second pair of glasses and maybe a few more paints and hmm, now that I've touched up the leaves, the flowers could use some touching up. That gold could use some help too and whoopsie I got some color on the green so I have to go back and touch up that. Oh, I missed a spot on the pink.....got some pink on the green....touch that up....And on and on it went! LOL! After spending hours on this 50 cent item I think its finally done and I am all googly eyed! Here's the before and after for you to judge.

It does notice more in person and I did have fun doing it so I guess it was worth it! More landscaping tomorrow! Have a great day!

Finishing up the Barn...

Got quite a bit of work done today on Larry and Louie's barn. I started with several colors of dry brushing on the siding and the roof. All the barns that I looked at had sections of rust on the roof like this.

So as I was deciding how to place the barn and the greenhouse together on the base, Larry and Louie came by to tell me that they purchased another lot in the Minion Village. They want to set up the barn on the lot out of town and have the greenhouse in town. These guys are always full of surprises! I could see their point though, who wants a big compost pile next to that pretty greenhouse....so I adjusted my layout and started putting together a setting for just the barn.

Once I decided on the layout, I decided to make a nice compost pile for them. I started with a piece of styrofoam that was kicking around. I trimmed it a bit with my utility knife and poked and pressed it into shape.

After a coat of brown paint, glue was applied and a couple of layers of tea leaves from a tea bag were pressed on. Looks like a bird dropped a couple of sunflower seeds on the pile!

I spent a good part of the afternoon glueing on a patchwork of grass and tea leaves and added a few pots and a black plastic wagon wheel that I painted and aged.

Bob takes care of the truck for Larry and Louie and is very proud that his barn has a quilt square. He also has the prettiest compost pile in town! LOL!

Tomorrow we will start work on the setting for the greenhouse. Have a great day!

So much Randomness.....

I forgot to share my Valentine's Day bouquet with you!

Dear Hubby came home with flowers, a cake, candy and a beautiful card! Felt so loved....It was a beautiful day that I enjoyed very much. After Bill drilled all the holes in the shell that I plan on making a fairy house out of, I was thinking about how I was going to find a fairy to live in it. After looking a few places online, I discovered that fairies just love buttons. I ended up inheriting my nana's buttons years ago and I have a pretty tin that they go in. I like to use them on projects for my children and grandchildren...like a little piece of history. Anyway, I set out the button box with the lid off to see if there were any fairies around. Shhh, I snapped this picture as this fairy was making a selection.

Looks like I'll have someone to live in the house after all! I'm so excited! Let's see, what else do I need to tell you about....Oh, while I was looking at Pinterest pages....wow, does that eat up time by the way...I saw a tutorial for making tiny pens for the dollhouse people. Since my husband enjoys making full size pens, I thought it would be fun to make a few of these.

When Rose stopped by last week, she fell in love with them and wanted to give them to the Captain. She's been such a good friend, I gave them to her to give him. Later on, the Captain came by to thank me and wanted me to take his picture with them.

The pens went together quickly and there are lots of ways you could make them. It was raining again today, but what happens when it rains? Rainbows! Got this nice shot of one to share with you.

And last but not least, I managed to get a coat of grey paint on the barn roof.

Since I had to do the Walmart run today, I took special notice of all the barns along the way. I think I'll have to do a bit of dry brushing on it to give it more dimension so that is something I will work on tomorrow. So we are up to date for now, have a great day!

Siding the Barn...

I found a few boards that were already stained that were left over from the Steampunk Summerhouse and put them to good use. I had enough to do one whole side.

Then I got sidetracked for a few days and finally today stained enough boards to finish the rest of the barn.

I was awake the other night and spent some time looking at Tennessee barns online and found a few with the front roof treatment I was looking for. After cutting the roof and digging through my stash to find a piece of wood to fit the front, it started to take shape. I glued the roof on and held it in place until it was dry enough to let go. I also noticed that board siding on barns is not set perfectly, so made a few a bit wonky here and there.

So against my perfectionist nature! LOL! The next thing I wanted to do was find some corrugated cardboard that I could turn into a metal roof. I used cardboard from a pizza box for the chicken coop I made for a friend so when we had pizza on Friday, I thought I was all set. Well, I wet one side of the cardboard lid in the shower like I usually do, but this time the wet layer wouldn't come off the corrugated part without tearing. So I had to make do with some that was a bit larger, actually the same stuff I used on the banana plantation. Dear Hubby said that the minions probably would use the same supplier for metal roofing anyway, so it works. I cut it to size, painted some gray around the edges that will be exposed

and glued it in place.

I had to hold it very carefully in place so I wouldn't crush the corrugations, but the glue grabbed quickly and now it is drying and waiting for paint! 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!

Finishing Up and a Surprise Visitor!

To start with, I used one of the roof pieces from the schoolhouse to cut a floor. I applied some white glue and sprinkled on a liberal amount of tea leaves.

Once that was dry, I took another look at the front of the greenhouse. The off center windows had to go! This small plywood is not easy to cut and it took many passes with my utility knife and metal ruler before it finally gave in. I wanted to line up the mullions with the rafters in the roof and also add some trim, so I dug around in my stash of wood strips and found some 1/8" that looks nicely in scale and would work perfectly. Here's a before and after:  

I brushed on a coat of white paint and put it aside to dry. While I was waiting, I worked on the interior of the greenhouse. Once the front and roof are glued on, the interior will be inaccessible so I worked on a bench and some shelving pieces that I cut out of scrap wood. I glued them in place and started thinking about my plant arrangement.

These little resin plants have really come in handy!

I was wondering what to use on that small front panel under the windows when guess who dropped by...the lovely Rose! We greeted each other warmly and I told her about the different treatments I was considering for the front panel. Larry and Louie came by and introduced themselves and were on their best behavior. Her suggestion was to use the brick to match the sides. I hadn't even thought of that!

So I had the minions hauling more brick and I mixed up the cement and we were on our way. I told Rose to give our best to the Captain and she was off to spend some time in the minion village to shop. After the brick was put in place and drying, I started considering S's suggestion of a door. Hmm, how will we get to the plants? About that time, my Dear Hubby came home and said, "Put hinges on the window and you can open it up when you need to." But what to use for hinges.....I looked through my beads and metal bits and found some ear wires that I won't be using for earrings. These were purchased in Walmart and lose their "gold" finish in a matter of days when you use them for earrings, so I didn't feel bad about taking a couple of them apart.

I added a handle and the "glass" and the front wall was ready to be glued on!

It was glued and clamped and I took a break to clean up a little.

When I came back, I removed the clamps and the greenhouse is done!

Now to start the barn for the truck. Have a great day!