Houseplant hoarder?

Did I ever tell you that I have a bit of a thing for houseplants???  All those different shades of green, the variegated varieties, gazillions of leaf shapes ~ and so many put the icing-on-the-cake by flowering too!  What more could anyone want to adorn their home?  I love them!

And yet I confess that I have been a bad houseplant parent over this past year or so.  I did lose some of my lovely potted friends during the move up here; I suspect that they didn't much like the long journey, nor the overnight stop in a cold removals lorry on a January night in Scotland.  It disheartened me somewhat as my little potted family had lived very happily in our old house, but life was very different for them once we moved into St Abbs.  The house was horribly cold and draughty when we first moved in and until we had the new heating system installed and windows replaced, that remained very much the case.  As well, I've got a fairly large collection of plants and for some reason I've found it somewhat difficult to arrange the guys in nice groupings like I had in the old house.  At the moment my family are just dumped here, there and everywhere ~ I don't like it and I'm pretty sure that they don't either.

I did make the effort to repot some of the survivors last summer, which they seemed to appreciate, but I've found it a bit hard to get back into a good routine of love and care for my potted friends.  I realise that this seems to totally contradict my opening paragraph, but I guess you have realised by now that I am a creature with many little foibles!  Thankfully, though, I have rediscovered my houseplant love.  After all, the poor little mites rely on me to keep them alive, healthy and happy.  I also think it's helped that I've joined a couple of houseplant groups on Facebook ~ being in the company of folk who are houseplant fanatics is very inspiring and I'm starting to feel the re-emergence of my own houseplant fanaticism once more!

I'm going to Kirkwall to see Beverly tomorrow and will help her to sort out some of her houseplants, which I've been promising to do for ages.  In the meantime, I've promised my own potted family that over the next few days I'll give each one of them a careful examination.  I'll get my hands back in the soil to repot where necessary, trim, tidy, feed and properly arrange in the most suitable and pleasing locations in St Abbs.....and set aside some time every day to love and enjoy my little potted pets 😍

Little words of wisdom

Doing a whole lot of nothing

I hope you all had a good bank holiday weekend.  Weather wasn't brilliant in this neck of the woods so we didn't do anything outside, in fact we didn't really do anything anywhere LOL  Well, that's not strictly true as Adrian went to a few music events (it was the Orkney Folk Festival weekend).  I mostly sat around reading houseplant books ~ oh yes, folks, houseplants are another little obsession of mine that I will share with you soon 😉  Bet you can't wait!

I think it's good to try finding at least a little time to do a whole-lot-of-nothing, though.  We seem to think that we must fill our days with doing stuff, being productive, but to my mind there's nowt wrong with taking time out occasionally to just be with our own selves and let the world drift on by.  It's not selfish, nor is it anti-social.  Personally I think it's essential just to think of ourselves from time-to-time.  After all, "we" are the only person we will ever be with constantly from conception-to-grave so let's try to make time to keep in touch with ourselves!  

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)

Little words of wisdom

New tenants already!

Well, the shop units have barely been started but they have new tenants already 😊  Tabitha Tottley (in the pink dress) and Effemy Lamb had already applied to the town council for shop spaces in Angel House Galleria, but when these new shops came onto the rental market they decided to apply for them instead.

Just to recap, Effemy is a local Groatie Bay girl and whilst she was at school she had a Saturday/holiday job at the Groatie Bay Garden Centre.  She especially enjoyed working with the flowering plants and decided to train as a florist when she left school.  Effemy loves everything French ~ her maternal Grandmother is French ~ so took the opportunity to do her floristry training in Paris.  She lived with her Grand-mere and was lucky enough to find work in a rather lovely florist shop in the city.  Much as she loved Paris, her Grand-mere and the beautiful shop she worked in Effemy was very homesick for Groatie Bay, and her family and friends there.  Her best friend, Nessa Quinn, wrote to tell her about the plans for the Galleria which is how Effemy came to apply for a shop space in the building.  She was very excited when her application was successful, but when these new spaces became available she thought that having a shop on street level would be more commercially viable.  She is really looking forward to taking the next steps in her floristry career with a shop of her own.

Tabitha has lived in Groatie Bay for about 12 years now, having moved from the mainland to look after her great aunt who was seriously ill.  They hadn't been particularly close but were in regular contact by letter.  When she became poorly Tabitha didn't like the idea of the old lady spending her last few years in a care home so suggested that she come to look after her.  In actual fact the two of them got on very well, and despite the generation gap found that they had a surprising number of interests in common.  They were both a little sad that they hadn't had the opportunity to get to know each other better earlier but made the most of the time the aunt had left.  With Tabitha's loving care her aunt's remaining years were very happy despite her illness.  She eventually passed away peacefully some three years after Tabitha had come to live with her.  Tabitha made some very dear and close friends during those first three years and after her aunt passed away and bequeathed her little house and its contents to her, she decided to stay in Groatie Bay as it now felt very much like "home".

She has worked as a care assistant in Hackland House Residential Home for a number of years and although she loves working there, her dream was to be self-employed.  Since one of the interests Tabitha and her aunt shared was a love of antiques and vintage/vintage-style "pretty" things, she thought this would be the perfect kind of shop to have and decided to apply to the Town Council for shop space in the Galleria.  When she saw these new spaces, though, she thought the upper floors would be even nicer than having a shop space in the Galleria ~ the huge glass windows across the front would make for wonderful shop window displays.  Like Effemy, Tabitha is also very excited about having her own shop and starting a new career.

Looks like the guys and I need to get a wiggle on so that we don't keep the ladies waiting too long for their new dream shops.....I have a feeling they will both be making frequent visits to check up on our progress 😉

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)

Pass the sticking plasters please!

Taking to heart the adage that a workman is only as good as his tools, I thought I'd best get myself a half-decent saw for working on my dolls' houses.  Having said that, I reckon that even having the best tools money could buy wouldn't negate the need for at least some skills!  Unfortunately, I don't have any skills ~ yet 😉 ~ so I'm resigned to making my way up a steep learning curve!  

This little saw was recommended by someone somewhere online ~ and I can't for the life of me remember by whom or where I saw it!  As you can see, it's got three different blades so I'm hoping it will prove to be a useful addition to my modest tool collection.  I'll let you know how I get on with it.....provided I can still type with fingers covered with sticking plasters!

Doing the best we can

The picture above came up on a Facebook group I am part of and it really struck a chord with me.  It's a sad truth that some folk who are trying to be that bit "greener" can be totally disheartened when coming across others who are so much further along the environmentally-friendly road than they may currently find themselves.  Like with so much of what is posted online, we can all feel somewhat lacking when comparing ourselves to others.  It isn't helped, either, when some of the "green" folk out there are so unbearably smug and preachy.  Don't get me wrong I'm definitely not tarring all with the same brush by any means, but often it's the minority who seem to shout the loudest.

No one should be castigated for not being "uber-green"!  Instead, let's encourage each other to do the best we can in our own particular circumstances 😊 

A little bit of crochet

Just a handful of things I've cobbled together recently 😊

I've been thinking about the amount of empty plastic bottles we seem to generate and came to the conclusion that we really don't "need" shower gel when we could be using bars of soap.  By a stroke of good fortune I had already come across a pattern for soap-saver bags (unfortunately I can't now remember on which site I saw it), and decided to make a bag each for hubby and I to (hopefully!) make it easier using bars of soap in the shower.  I had a rummage around in my stash of natural fibre yarns and came across these variegated beauties in my favourite colour: blue!  Bonus points for our new upstairs bathroom having been painted blue and white LOL

It's a really simple pattern.  Just make a length of chain the same as the width of your bar of soap, crochet (I used UK double crochet)  along it as normal then continue back to the beginning along the other side of the starting chain stitches.  Keep going round and round until the bag is a suitable length for your soap.  Although I made these bags in the round, they could just as easily be made as a single piece of crochet (would have to make the starting chain twice the width of your bar of soap) with one side and the bottom sewn/crocheted together.  Or, of course, keep to the width of the soap and crochet the body of the bag twice the length and sew up the two long sides! I then crocheted a fairly long length  of chain and threaded it through the top to make a drawstring and hanging loop.  Easy-peasy!

We still have a couple of bottles of shower gel to use but I will try to remember to let you know how we get on with this soap bag option.

I also made some more dishcloths, two in a waffle stitch pattern and the other a simple rectangle of (UK) half trebles.  I do love  my handmade dishcloths!

And after all that, I had enough oddments left to finish off another little kitten blanket for Orkney Islands Cats Protection.

It seems that my crochet mojo is coming back, so I'm hoping to now get stuck into the two rather large WIPs that have been hanging around for quite some time.  I'll share more of those soon 😊

Little words of wisdom

Decisions and a teensy wee bit of destruction!

Sir Peter and I have been discussing the way forward with this potential shop unit...

and we have decided to go with another Dolls House Emporium kit that I've also had for a number of years, The Retreat ~ again, I don't know if DHE still make this kit.

Whereas the Summer House kit had a much smaller footprint than the shop box, The Retreat is slightly larger being about 16mm wider...

and also overhanging at the back.

I don't think that either of these overhangs matter, to be honest.  I will sit the kit so that it overhangs at the sides equally and is flush with the front.  Hopefully I will be able to find a piece of moulding 8mm deep to smooth out the look of the transition from the upper shop to the lower.  Failing that I should think that I could combine some pieces to create the correct depth.

The Retreat comes with a deck area to which the front panel is attached ~ it lifts away rather than being hinged. I must admit that initially I was tempted to make use of it.

In the end, though, I've decided not to include it ~ not least because of the awkwardness of opening the ground floor unit.  I also think it looks rather clumsy.  I will hinge the front panel to the side instead.

The top floor has a nice amount of floorspace...

but not so much headroom!  Still, the space in the eaves can be used for built-in display shelves and storage cabinets.

And talking of headroom, the stair arrangement leaves much to be desired!  I think I will have to make the stairwell opening a tad larger.

There are more headroom issues coming up to the top floor.  I think the only way to solve this will probably be to put in a dormer window ~ which will have the added benefit of letting in more natural light, as there is only a small round window at the front.  I will put a matching dormer on the other side as well.

The stairs supplied with the kit really bother me, as to my mind they look more like a ladder and are rather steep ~ not at all suitable for a shop!  I know that some folk just don't bother with visible stairs but I find that that really bothers me, too!  I'm sure that Sir Peter and the guys will be able to come up with a good solution 😉

As the post title suggests, there has been some destruction going on in my craft shed as well as decision-making LOL  I decided to remove all the trimmings from the shop box and start off with a blank canvas.  As I mentioned in the previous post, the finish was not very good and it all looked somewhat flimsy!

There is still some prep work to be done before I can even start sanding the shop box.  There are sections of paper to be removed so that I can start with a nice smooth surface to work on.  I will have to lightly wet the paper and hope that it peels off without too much hassle.  I am also going to take the front off and clean up the hinges, as well as fit a new catch at the side.

So there is lots of basic work still to be done ~ I'd better have a site meeting with Sir Peter and the guys!

First forays into the property market...

in Groatie Bay!

I have a fair few dolls' house kits, as well as the couple in my craft shed that are half-built, and now that the shed is finished I decided it was high time to get working.  I thought I'd ease myself in gently with a spot of kit-bashing LOL

Obviously I can't do all this on my own, so here is the gang who are going to be working with me 😉  From the left we have: Albert Holland (very rarely seen without his trusty hammer in his pocket!), Sir Peter Buchanan, Graham Landry and Derek Landry.  Albert and Derek, who are cousins, have a building and general maintenance company: Landry and Holland.  Graham is Derek's son and works for the company as a painter and decorator.  Sir Peter is an architect.  His mother, Lady Constance, is very involved with what goes on in Groatie Bay and she is very much the driving force behind the regeneration of the town.

I bought this shop box on ebay a few years ago.  It hadn't been finished, as you can see, but is nice and sturdy.  Personally, I really don't care for brick papers so I'm not at all upset that the paper is peeling off!  The paintwork finish isn't that good, either, so I shall be taking it right back to the bare bones.

It's a nice size, with the internal measurements being about 465mm wide, 230mm deep and 240mm high.  You can tell how long I've had it by the accumulation of dust on the window glazing sheets ~ and those pesky dust bunnies 😉

I like the shape of the windows but think I may build a sort of internal bay window to create a nice display area for passers-by.  The windowsills are a tad flimsy-looking, so will be replaced as part of the display windows.  I have a fab book by Beryl Armstrong called How to Make Your Dolls' House Special, which has lots of hints, tips and instructions for building and altering dolls' houses.

One of my problems is a lack of space to display my dolls' houses/shops, so I had the bright idea to combine the shop box with one of my other kits ~ et voila, two shops in one footprint!  I have a couple of candidates for the upper floor so started by trying this one first.  It is the Summer House kit by Dolls House Emporium.  I've had the kit for a number of years now and I'm not sure if they make it anymore.

I'll be honest, I sat and looked at it for a long time trying to decide what could be done to make it look better on top of the shop box.  The access to the upper shop will be from street level at the side of the ground floor shop.

There is a serving hatch at the rear of the building and a wide window at the front.  If I were to go with this option, then I would cover up the hatch at the back rather than making it into a window as it would give me more wall area for a shop display.

I pondered long and hard about the feasibility of using this kit,

looking at it from all sides.

I would have to do a lot of re-jigging to get it looking "right" including making the footprint wider, moving the wall with the doors further out to the side, and adding sections to the front and back walls to make them wider.

In the end Sir Peter and I came to the conclusion that it would be far better to use the other kit ~ thank goodness for his wise input 😉  That little saga will be following on in another post! 

Quarts into pint pots ~ part 2

Well, I promised to share more photos of my wonderful new craft shed and here they are ~ and yes, I did manage to squeeze in all my gubbins!

One of the new flat-pack bookcases has arrived and is now filled with my crochet and knitting books ~ actually, most of them are crochet books LOL  I still have a pile of books on the desk waiting for the other bookcase to arrive, hopefully before the end of this coming week.

Jolly Molly (aka "JM") lives on the top of the bookcase near the door.  She has a great vantage point and keeps watch over the whole of the shed.  For some reason, most folk are really freaked out by Miss JM but I think she is lovely!  Granted, her make-up is a bit dodgy and she is totally bald beneath her snazzy hat but I still love her 😊

My little collection of plushies (made by Pam Smallcomb, aka Yoborobo) have their new home in the tiered hanging-basket.  I love Pam's creations!

Here we have Ludmilla (in the orange hat) and Janice...

Lillian and Rosemary...

Genevieve and Kitty...

Kitty and Tania.

I did a white line printing workshop a few years back with Jeanne from Artworks of the Earth ~ I expect I will eventually get round to framing my masterpiece!  I really enjoyed the printing and will definitely be trying it again now that I have somewhere to work.

You may by now have guessed that I like unusual (especially vintage) dolls 😉

This little lady lived in the kitchen in our old house, hanging from a cupboard.  I thought that she might appreciate having a chair to sit on to take the weight off her strings!  I have no idea where she is supposed to hail from, somewhere in South America I guess.  I have always called her Mexican Mama but decided it would be polite to give her and the baby "proper" names at last, so say hello to Mariana and Mateo.

Tiki was a gift from Adrian many years ago, when we both still worked at Marylebone in London.

Ah, my beloved Ethel~Maud!  She is named after my two grandmothers and I have had her a number of years now.  She is a Norah Wellings doll, made sometime during the 1940s/1950s ~ possibly one of the Islander Doll collection.  She has obviously been well played with in the past but I have tidied her up the best I can.  She is one of my favourite dolls 😍

She is pictured here with Misty and Bridget, both of whom need a little attention.  Poor little Misty needs a new pair of arms ~ methinks pipe cleaners will make an admirable pair.  Bridget, meanwhile, could really use some clothes!

My desk still has piles of books on it but hopefully that second bookcase will be here soon.

I've got the beginnings of a little Frida Kahlo corner above the desk!  The badge (on the length of ribbon), pill-box and calender were gifts from Beverly.  The Frida plushie is another of Pam's creations, and I bought the cactus before we moved up here.

I believe this was possibly a printer's tray in another life; I'm going to make it into a pinboard.  It's not actually wonky on the wall, by the way ~ it's just the way I managed to take the photo!

 

I thought it would be nice to have some living greenery in here, so have relocated some of my houseplants.  Do you know, the temperature got up to 22°C in the shed today!

My "dirty" bench is all set to start working on ~ and look, there's my first project ready and waiting 😊

The shelves above the windows are leftover pieces of wood from the garden.  They are rough-sawn timber so will need a fair bit of sanding methinks before I paint them.

There are the other two plants, LJ (Little Jade) and MIT (Mother-in-Law's Tongue) ~ BJ (Big Jade) currently resides in the downstairs bathroom in the house!

It's a veritable Dolls' House Parade along here!

My button collection ~ vintage/novelty/new ~ is looking very organised LOL

The Frog Prince was a gift from a friend ~ she thought he was hilarious with his solar-powered eyes!  I must confess that he has grown on me 😉  Perhaps I should make him a crown to show off his royal status LOL

A little collection of vintage cotton reels, mostly "inherited" from my Aunt Mary and mother-in-law.  

I loved this vintage-style sign when I came across it ~ what a true sentiment!

I'm so lucky to have such a fab view from my craft shed 😍