Merry Christmas!

Christmas day is well and truely over here in Australia - it's now 'Boxing Day' :) Had a fantastic day, my 2 boys & my niece (daughter of Kez) & her bf came over for lunch - delish!

A post isn't a post unless there is a photo LOL Below is a gorgeous gift Kez made for me - so much detail - I just love it!  Even the box it all came in was hand made! Thank you! xxx

I bought this little fibre optic tree for $2 at KMart - thought I'd take a pic - so cute!

My gifts were mostly about mini'ing!  This is a tool chest on wheels (like a travel bag) for all my dremel bits!

2 craft totes from my parents :) They will be SO useful!

The big one opens up into sections with pockets

Caliper from my younger Son :) This also will be very very handy!

The upside-down fairy strikes again.. no matter how many times I try to get it the right way up.. it ends up like this! Oh well.. this is from my niece! <3 Dremel stuff!

I was very proud of my first ever attempt at cooking a turkey - sooo good!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

XXX

Things that make you go hmmm.....

LOL ok.. false heading.. perhaps.  I'm still around.. and working on my project.. but because it's a bit of a surprise.. I'm not going to show any more pics for a little bit.. :) Been doing bits here and there, but of course with Christmas on the way, my job is keeping me really busy.

Monday (yesterday to me) was SOOO busy, everyone must have decided last weekend that Christmas cards needed to go out!! We are getting SO many! But.. ordinary postie mail delivery isn't where the company money is at.. seems that everyone is shopping online.  The parcel load is insane!

Thankfully, my job doesn't involve either of these things at the moment, however I work with mail redirections and customer complaints primarily - oh wow.. they're coming in thick and fast!! Yes.. people are going away for Christmas.. OR moving house (that reminds me.. got a place i need to look up with a massive garage!).  Keeping me busy but at least *I* get to come home early.. unlike the posties who are working very very long days in any weather.

Don't forget to tip your postman for Christmas!!! they're not paid a huge wage.. they deliver every single day :)

My tree is finally up and decorated and I have the Xmas club savings voucher for Xmas lunch - it's looking good so far :)

Happy silly season!!

Back to work :(

Back at work, and the building is not complete.. however a nice little package arrived from England today :) I have only displayed 'some' of the items.. love them!! 

:)

Roof & Ceiling

Last night and today I prepared the roof & celing.  Lots of drying time, still not finished with the timber bits, just took some photo's to record where I'm up to :) Not long to go now till I have a complete building - finishing touches/cleanups oh and some windows and a door LOL

Love timber ceilings :) 

Nails....

My brother suggested nailing the decking LOL - not a bad idea in fact!! So I did!! I used normal sewing pins.. hammered them in a bit, cut them off and hammered them in some more.  I like the effect!

Looking good so far :) Still not finished.. but wow!! Thanks Col! xx

Well worth the effort!

Cardboard & Spray paint :)

Managed to get the place together a little more.. it's still only 3pm :) woohoo!! Going to get SOO much done!

Spray paint :) LOVE it!!

Roof.. so far.. it won't go on till the place is finished.. and SO much to do to it ;-)

Possibly got wayyyy too much corrigated cardboard - but I do have another project requiring it :) 

Not finished.. but looking good! Cans of dog food holding down icy pole sticks too LOL Daunting job.. but hey.. it's going to be worth it! The deadline for me is getting nearer.. 2 more working days off.. then the weekend.  REALLY want to get this done! 

Back to it!!

Things ARE happening..

I am at the stage now where I have NO idea what I'm doing LOL.. popsicle sticks (aka icy pole sticks - whatever you want to call them) are going to be used for the decking outside.  I don't have a door to fit this doorway.. have to adapt something.  Some paint touch-ups needed here and there.  But I DO see this looking how I had pictured.. eventually..

Posts.. just the beginning..

Skirting.. oh yes mastered the mitre box ;-) LOL The floor isn't quite finished.. just working out how to fix what I don't like about it..

Today I'm working on completing the roofing.. lots of painting, sanding, cussing haha! Hope it works out ok. Grateful for the gorgeous weather we're having!

More to follow, hopefully tonight :)

Guild wars 2 - Geeks love mini's too!

I play Guild wars 2 - recently they had a diorama contest - you can click on the entrants to see their work (the honourable mentions below the winning pics) - some awesome stuff there! Check them out :)

Guild Wars 2 Diorama contest

Floors :)

Dremel - the dream tools :) Always a must in mini work hey ;-) I have spent up biggly on Dremel tools - finally I get to use them a bit - here's a small part of my dream ownership lol

Have had this glass coat for years.. thought I might put it to work.. no idea what the outcome will be but..

I have used it to coat my floor, which I have since 'distressed' a little and sanded etc.. it's looking great! 24hrs till dry time - covered it to stop dust :)

The next thing is the icy-pole sticks (or popsicle sticks as others call them).. dremel to work on these! Going to be a long haul.. 

Which means I need more of my favorite soft drink LOL (oh yes that's my year)

I found some empty space!! Woohoo!

Oh and.. putting my kliovance container into action :P (pre floor finish)

Money.. spending lots of it! It's worth it.. best entertainment I've had in ages!!

Back to it! 

Pumping out the posts to keep them a bit shorter...

Firstly bricks... just added some furniture for the effect ;-) Kez bought this bar for me for my birthday - can't wait to use it!!  The maid is preparing the floor for me :)

I bought these a LONG long time ago, got them from England LOL Didn't realise I can actually get them in Aus too! Go see Tombthumbs! I love this store :)

Laying these with Tacky glue, and using a black chalk to dust over it & rubbing it in.. liking the effect so far!

It's Melbourne Cup day!! haha - what better way to display scale while things dry :)

Still working.. nice to see my plans coming together!

Wet Monday!

A little bit of progress, not lots because it was raining on and off today so I couldn't really work outside.  I wish I had a shed or garage to work in! Anyway - here's today's effort.. I had to paint inside - a couple of coats on the building..

This is son #2's new desk - he is painting also - I borrowed a corner!

Undercoat and a first coat of paint on the windows.

Tomorrow I hope to finish the windows - hope I have a steady enough hand ;-) 

Sunday Progress

Still working on things, but here's some progress.  Quite time consuming but it's good fun!

Painting outside, I was surprised to get a visit from the ducks who are using my pool for a while! They've never come so close before :)

Part of the reason the mystery box isn't 'complete' is that I had been wanting to use this!

Lots of cutting & measuring.. gluing.. and that wonderful masking tape!

Meanwhile.. inside isn't getting very far at all.

Tape off! And looking through the window you can see my favorite cutters :) They make life SO easy!

Primer :)

Of course, working on mini's comes at a price - in my house - it means my kitchen/dining area becomes a workshop! ..... a really messy one!

Will be doing a bit more painting tonight if the light is good enough.  Stay tuned!

2 weeks of leave :)

Finally it's here - 2 weeks off work! Going to be very busy as I need to finish the mystery box and get photo's up this week, and I have been researching for a project I want to work on.. all I can say at this stage is that I am using the kit below.  I bought this a year ago, paid $20 for it (on sale).. not realising the shipping to Australia would be so much! My total spend? $97.99 haha!! 

Let the fun begin!

A little shopping...

Kez has come to visit! I was lucky enough to be able to take the week off so we could explore the world of shopping again :) I think, so far, we have been successful!

Waiting.. at the airport LOL

Some of the shopping - we went to a shop on the other side of town, oh SOOO much stuff there!! Some of these things didn't come from there, but from the Doll House & Miniature show.  The BAR and the Filing cabinet.. - Kerry snuck into her shopping bag for me for my birthday :) 

Just one of the many many displays at the DH show.  Great day, a tad hard on the back! :)

We scoured op shops too.  Some of this came from op shops.. some from the fair.. some from the DH shop we visited :)

Went to Daiso too - a Japanese store.  Some interesting things there.  As above, of course a lot of this didn't come from there.. 

More things from all of the places we have been LOL.  Sorry for the blurry pics, they get worse if you want to view it larger :/

I'm sure there will be more!

Mini shopping is great fun, so much can fit in a little shopping bag!!