My ‘Drive yourself crazy project’ - Mrs Puddifoot’s tea shop!

Have you ever had a drive yourself crazy project? I haven’t up until now! :oP Overall I’d say I was decisive and know what I want! Well….Mrs Puddifoot’s took the opposite of all that to a new dimension! The irony is, that this shop was supposed to be a little in-fill project whilst my Art Mache matured ready for me to complete the brick work on Sugar Plum’s sweet shop!    

There has been up and until now very little info about the tea shop….Mrs Puddifoot’s love’s pink and her shop is kitsch…yes…tons and tons of worth while info to chew on there huh! NOT! Lol  :oP

So the style was kitsch and there are two types, I decided to go with Cath Kidston style and looking at lots of pretty wall papers, I then decided that perhaps this wouldn’t go with my bistro style chair and tables…and changed to the other style of kitsch! I looked at lots and bought lots….only to find the real shop is in the style of my original choice! Lol Over weeks I’ve changed my mind on the type of lights and where to have them, types and brands of paints, about cornicing, skirting board and tongue and groove…I've over bought and under bought! You name it, I’ve done it! I’ve been undecided on the type of fire surround and stove to have for the upstairs kitchen…do I want more space or less!? To top it all, I finally learn that the outside of the shop is you guessed it…. PINK! What on earth was I thinking with cream and blue? Lol Where did my few active brain cells go on those days…not in my head that’s for certain! Yes, all the things to drive you crazy and barking mad! lol  !   

I did have a plan this year too, and that was to work on the outsides of my projects and get those completed and then start on the insides, well that went to pot and I have absolutely no idea how nor why! So! I am going to purchase the wall paper upstairs for the tea shop, paint the furniture I am waiting to be made (for downstairs) and then make a hasty retreat (without tiling the tea shops roof and this is because I still have work to do on the upstairs kitchen) and resume work on Sugar Plum’s Sweet Shop and my terrace of Diagon Alley shops….the ’outsides only’ if you please, and this will be during when my cabin's interior paintwork gets finished too! Lol ;oP                

So here was I trying to decide between fireplaces...I did originally have 3! The black one is a better size for the room, but the white one is more like the one at Universal Studios. It will be painted....wait and see! 

After a few days of still trying to decide what fireplace to have, I realised I'd have to make a hearth for this one...

This one comes with its own hearth...but I thought I might make a larger one. :o/

I decided to take the bull by the horns and make a hearth! I used an off cut of the tongue and groove and covered it with a thick mix of Richard Stacey's Modelling Dust, etc.  

I finally decided to go for the much smaller fireplace. It really is a bedroom fireplace..but it's the most likeness to the real one. This one though didn't have a back, so I cut a thin piece of card out and covered with air drying clay. You can see the outline of the back of my fireplace here. I didn't actually need to do that, I could have just bricked it and then placed it in situ.  Always wiser after the event I find! lol :oP 

Here it is wonky brick and all! lol It's going to be painted and you won't see it as you can't get  your head around that kind of angle once in situ. ;o)

The hearth is dry and trying for size...

I would prefer to have the top rail on top of the tongue and groove, but it throws the fireplace out, so it will lay on the upper part of the tongue and groove. 

The nightmare wallpaper (cutting and papering around nightmare shaped windows! lol) is in....and trying the 'look'!

The tea shop has 'steamy windows', so it says...hmmmm....this is an experiment. Not sure whether to have it, it does make the window opaque, but you can still see through it.

Hmmmmm.....undecided, so no acetate glued in situ yet!!!!

 The window frames painted their final colour. and trying looks...with (dry)painty hands!

Finally....my What-not (it needs to be dressed!) is on the wall and so is my giant pocket wall clock (which says the wrong time because it has no battery in it yet!). lol Pictures will fill the blank space. ;o) (Psst, I don't have a leaky cabin, that's the sealant showing through and paint just won't cover it...we've tried painting over it on the other side of the cabin with limited success! lol).

I have been working on my terrace of shops for Diagon Alley...that post will be along very shortly! 

I have also put a link at the top of this blog for my other blog. I don't have enough access to pages on this one so they will be shown on there, maybe with tutorials too....more soon! 

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

Michelle xxxx