My cabin gets its cottage garden and final coat of paint.

We've been busy in the garden! At last the cabin is fully and properly painted and the Georgian window bars are now on too. ;o) 

The blue masking tape was an absolute nightmare to remove though. It had been on for months and I did wonder whether it would be a problem. It's easier to scrape the paint off the windows than remove this tape. So we are going to remove the little that's on the inside and clean the interior window and door frames up when finished with painting.

My main cottage garden has been planted up too. The new top soil arrived plus sacks of compost and well rotted horse manure has been added (mainly the roses and other gross feeders).

Firstly we sorted all the plants out into colours. There is a colour scheme throughout the garden, you won't find any yellow or red etc., here...only shades of pinks, purple's, lilac, blues, creams and white. 

Making sure the soil was fully firm is very important, as it is it will still sink down..so it's a case of topping it up.

With the soil flattened and level...sorting what goes where needs to be done!

 The plants (mostly perennials) were sorted out into colour groups and then their final height sizes. 

 The first of the Georgian window bars goes on..

 The roses positions were sorted out first..

We sat all the plants in their prospective new homes!

 Planting begins! 

 More Georgian window bars go on too! lol

A day after planting. It will take at least 2 years for this garden to look more mature (it's 5 years for a fully matured looking garden). Mistakes are always made and losses too are inevitable. These can be moved and replaced.  I plan on adding some annual plants..some are on order as we speak and some seeds too, this is to help bulk out and add to the cottage garden theme.   

One of the window boxes that my Dad has made, it needs its back and also a top edge to finish it off. They will be pink! I already have the plants that are being hardened off so they can come outside all the time when the weather is warmer.   

 All the Georgian bars are on!

 It's settling down today...

The side garden is not completed yet. I need more compost and manure before it can be planted up! The other smaller garden up by the other fence also needs to be completed, all the plants have been bought though. 

All we need now is lots of good weather! lol :o))

I hope you don’t mind my ramblings and madness! :o))

Michelle xxxx

Mrs Pudditfoot's tea shop - update

Well I have done some mini work, but it's all been time-consuming stuff, I've also had problems sourcing the ceiling papers I wanted...all making progress slow! Real life has been keeping me busy too...lots of gardening and plant buying! ;o)

I decided to make and lay the floorboards...

I buy veneer pieces and choose my boards accordingly. In the past I have stained the veneer and then cut it in strips, but it's prone to warping when you glue it down...and that's using resin glue. It was extremely time consuming as each strip needed to be weighed down as it dried, so I tried a different method this time and I decided not to stain until the boards were glued down. 

My revised method worked and the boards stayed down, that meant my flooring was laid sooooo much quicker! Yay! :o) I also stained my actual shop floor before I laid the floorboards down, even with resin glue and waxing after it's hard to get a colour into the gaps.   

The flooring all laid..

After one coat of light stain, it's still drying here. ;o)

After another coat and one layer of waxing, the wax seals the surface and removes the raw look. I have also sanded it down to age it. ;o)

I also removed the top row of bricks (or boulders as I called them!) which I hated! I really needed to remove about 3 or 4 rows as well..but I wasn't sure how well I could join the clay to new lot and I didn't want to ruin the front, suffice to say I thought better of it!  

Here are the new ones...hmmm they are okay...but only that!

With the blue paint applied...but not aged and weathered as yet (they are now!). 

This is the front door panel painted, again no weathering applied as yet... 

It's a lot more flat now...not warped, so I may not glue it in.

Here it is weathered...no damp areas though, I may add that.

I did add some damp to the main areas though..

This vintage Sid Cooke kit didn't come with any interior wooden frames etc. I want to add acetate to the windows and I don't want it to show. So, I've made a frame from mount-board, I've used mount-board before. It can be extremely hard to cut and punishing on craft knives, but easier than trying to cut it out with a fret-saw. The acetate will be sandwiched inbetween this frame and the wooden frame. I have primed it with normal white emulsion mixed with a good measure of PVA (white glue), so it strengthens it. It needs another coat of normal white paint, I'm not sure what colour to have as the top coat yet. I have made 2 interior frames and they both need tweaking! lol  

It needs to be re-shaped a little still.

 I will add this wooden frame around 3 sides... 

 I will also add a windowsill ..a slightly deeper piece that this though. :o) 

Here are the frames,...

I've also bought a number of wallpapers...I have loads! I can't decide! lol The shop is supposed to be kitsch and Mrs Puddifoot loves pink! 

 The tongue and groove (this is only part of it) will go upstairs...

 Will I ever decide?!! lol

This is a favourite for upstairs... 

 This is a favourite for downstairs...

Here it the paper that could go upstairs..

I've never seen this wide cornicing before...I was going to use it for this Georgian shop, but I decided against it and will use it elsewhere. I will be using the deep skirting board though...

I was going to use this tongue and groove. It's made of resin, but I thought it was a bit low! Georgian ceilings are a lot higher than normal ceilings so it made this tongue and groove look even smaller! 

The wooden strip at the back is where I will be having the fire surround and range. 

This is the wooden tongue and groove...far better overall and what I was originally looking for, Graham saved the day!

My wooden pieces of trim etc, all ready to be primed and painted!   

I primed in a strong mixture of white emulsion and PVA, it's made of MDF and it needs it to stop the wood being fluffy as I call it! lol 

The tongue and groove as it will look. ;o)) 

I'm still painting! lol 

I hope you don’t mind my ramblings and madness! :o))

Michelle xxxx

Cabin and garden update

Just a little interim update until I do a mini blog post in a couple of days (hopefully!). We've been busy, we've had a new boiler fitted and have been working in the garden..back and front ones. We've been buying lots and lots plants (still lots more to buy) and new trees.

As you can see the cabin is finally changing colour! This is a photo taken today...horrid weather we are having! Grrrrr!   We've had to wait for better weather in which to make a start. So the barn paint has been applied (that's the paler colour around the outside of the window frame. I chose Gardenia because I wanted the Farrow & Ball top coat (cooking apple green) to cover it okay. The windows and door will be Farrow's Cream. I'm having pink window boxes...a colour called Nancy's Blushes, again by Farrow & Ball. ;o) 

 You can see all the plants awaiting to be planted...these are just a few.

Four tons of top soil sits here! Not nearly enough for what we need overall. So we will buy another three tons. The microscopic (LOL) lawn will start here...

There will be a wide flower bed to the left up by the pear tree (the one in flower). The red leafed tree (ornamental cherry) in the foreground isn't planted there, just where it's kept for now. 

 More top soil to come!

Two David Austin climbing roses, the bed has been built up so they can be planted, we need about a ton of top soil to bring the level up. There are two roses at each post ( 4 in total) of the pergola. They are Minnehaha and The Generous Gardener, the latter is a rambler and the other climbing. 

Our newest bed in one part of our front garden (it's a corner plot)...laying it out to see what and where looks best. This bed needs a top dressing too. The nasty lawn is to be skimmed off and a new one laid after the soil underneath has been aerated and improved!  

 Here it is all planted up, erm the plants etc., will spread over time! After the top dressing is applied we will add a layer of tree bark. :o)  

Our newest planted tree a eucalyptus which will be trimmed..or coppiced if it gets too ahead of itself! 

My Blue Spruce tree a variety called Oldenburg it will grow between 15 cms and 25 cms per year. I've always wanted a blue spruce tree, they can grow large (this one can grow up to 80 foot high and 16 feet wide). It's going in the front garden...see below where!

We planted this dwarf pussy willow very recently...we will move it nearer the front of the garden as it's a tiny tree and the blue spruce will  have ample space here to grow. 

My neighbour behind us has a blue spruce and here is it....  :o)

We are having 3 new conifers here...a lime green one and a couple of prostrate ones...blue I think! They will be planted in the gravel.

Tulips planted outside our living room. I love pink ones! 

Mini update soon!

I hope you don’t mind my ramblings and madness! :o))

Michelle xxxx