I made a garden!!

This is the outside of my little shabby cottage - with the garden done!!! I have never made a garden before, so I was really grateful to my friend Trish, who taught me how to do it. The base is just an old black picture frame, which I painted white, and the garden is made from air-drying clay. I am so proud of myself. The only part of the garden that isn't finished is the vege garden which is at the side of the house...I have to make some tomato plants first. I didn't make all these flowers - some of them are commerically available, some I stole out of various paper plants I had been given over the years, and some are plastic goldfish bowl plants given to me by Trish, and some are little bits of grasses and sticks that I found while walking the kiddies to school.
I am really proud of my rocks and especially the slate stone at the front door. It was such fun painting the stones. And sticking "moss" in between them hides all the places that were hard to paint, or where the clay shrank too much as it dried.

The tub of pansies is gorgeous and was made by a friend, Elizabeth, who makes the most beautiful flowers....she also made the daisies by the front door.
This is a view of the back of the cottage. It isn't very big - there are just four rooms. I have only been working downstairs so far. The kitchen is well on the way but of course there are lots of shelves to fill there. The living room is slowly filling up. The left upstairs room is to be the main bedroom but I haven't started in there yet. The room upstairs on the right is to be a little boys room. So far, I have painted and assembled the little steel bed for that room, and sitting on the bed is a tiny bear, just 20mm high, that arrived out of the blue the other day in an envelope, from a lovely lady, Alison, who I met recently at a fair. She had made him for me and sent him along as a gift....it is the smallest bear she has ever made and it is all jointed!!! I will try and get a better photo of him soon.Here is a photo of the kitchen - I have made some "Green Gate" plates for the shelf and I am delighted with them! The little pink and green tumblers are by Chrysnbon. The sink unit is a Dolls House Emporium piece - I painted it and aged it and took out three of the drawers and replaced them with baskets. I made the little "enamel" utensil rack after being inspired by Mercedes wondeful blog....you will see other ideas I have "borrowed" from her as well, I'm sure! Here is another photo of the kitchen....still a lot to do....I have to do the curtains and fill all the cabinets. The little parfait glasses are another idea borrowed from Mercedes. I made the tin signs. The appliances are a bit sleek and shiny, really, but I already had them so decided to use them in this house, rather than buy/make some other ones.Here is the cabinet I made, which sits above the kitchen table...You can see the gorgeous little salt container made by Sylvia . The inside of the cabinet didn't stay pink for long....I like this faded greeny blue much better. I have a lot of work to do to fill this cabinet now. I have started making some books....I will need to make a lot more to fill the bookcase!

Welcome to my new followers....it is lovely to have you visit my blog - I am really enjoying visiting your blogs and seeing your wonderful miniatures!!!