One wall finished...

I've finished bricking one of the walls. It is a bit tedious but I'm happy with the final look. I've use balsa wood, painted black to appear as rendering at the bottom and middle of the walls. I've tapered the edges to look more realistic.

The next wall is underway and then I can fix the shop frontage on, ready for that to be bricked too.

Roses, cheese and sandwiches

I spent last night making pink roses and rosebuds. Tonight I've made a wheel of brie, edam cheese and some cheese salad sandwiches. I'm pleased with the flowers, the sandwiches and the brie, but not so keen on the edam. It will do as a shelf-filler, with better items more prominent in the shop. The flowers were made from paper slightly thicker than tissue paper, cut into tiny squares with the edges of one side rounded. I pasted each to a stem (made from florists' wire and green tape, prepared earlier), and rounded the edges of the roses.

Shop floor and brickwork

I've given the floor a second coat of varnish and it's looking much better. I've decided to lay 'floorboards' in the other half of the shop which will be a little trickier as there is a staircase to work around. Meanwhile, I couldn't resist popping some of the furniture in as a dry run!





I've also started to put the brick slips on the wall. This is so time taking but I think it will be worth it. I need to decide on what will sit between the bricks and the rendering.

Shop floor fitted

Here is the shop floor fitted. It needs another coat of varnish then it will be complete. It looks better off camera, I must work out how to take pictures of close ups.

Shop floor and exterior bricks

The mini mitre box arrived yesterday (£1.99 inc small saw) which meant I could saw the ends of my 150 lolly sticks which will create my wood floor for the main shop area. After sawing I sanded down the ends so that they are perfectly square, and have given them a coat of varnish. I chose Walnut and this type doesn't smell and isn't spirit based, so much easier to use.



I've also stipple painted three sheets of sand colour sanding paper with red and black paint, ready to cut for bricks, which I'll stick to the sides and small front areas of the house. I've been kindly advised that the correct size of bricks to 1.12 scale is 3/4 inch x 3/16 inch.

A wet, windy but worthwhile trip to York

I love wandering around York, even dripping wet in the rain the place is a wonder of history and architecture. It was made all the better yesterday when I found Miniature Scene, one of a handful of doll house shops in the city.

It is a lovely shop, with great staff and a huge range of products. I even saw my own 'Magpies' shop built and painted (though do prefer my colours and having the roof tiled properly makes such a difference, paper tiles just don't do the job right for me).

As I've already spent a bomb recently on my dolls house I decided just to top up with some accessory items and use my visit for information gathering and inspiration, and there was plenty of it.

Exterior: ready for bricks and plasterwork

Here is the house now...



And here with a light on...