Gypsy Wagon Details....

 

And More Rhododendron Blossoms...

I don't Know about you, Dear Readers, but Time has been playing tricks on me lately! It seems like only yesterday that I had painted the inside of the Gypsy Wagon Barn addition and got side-tracked with the sleeping nook with the rabbits and roses. I had several unfinished parts of the Barn that needed to be completed once the paint was dry, and I worked on them the very next day. That was almost two weeks ago! But before I show you those details, I wanted to remind you of who lives in this little traveling barn; the goats of course! They are still waiting for me to add the straw bedding and some hay to munch on. The nanny's name is "Jingles", and her kid is "Jester". (Thank you, Birgit for sending him many (but who's counting....) years ago!) The parts of the Barn that I worked on were the chicken coop doors, and the "pannier" cages. 

The chicken coop boxes needed to have a mesh screen added to the openings.

I dug in my supplies and found some already "prepared" scraps

 from way back when I was working on the Tree House windows!

They were already painted and the rectangular scraps

 were exactly the right size once cut in half!

 

 All I had to do was apply glue and let it dry!

Here they have all been glued. 

Once they were dry I decided it needed

 an extra "frame" on the inside for strength.

I decided cardboard would do the trick and cut the openings.

I painted them before cutting them all the way apart.

And glued them to the inside of the windows.

As for the "pannier" cages....

 I forgot to take any progress pictures of the attachment process! 

(It was difficult and fidgety!)

These "cages" had been constructed ages ago...

 and they have been  falling off every time the wagon is moved... 

it is a miracle that they are intact!

The "problem" that slowed my completion 

 was that the holes for the bars at the bottom

 needed to be made larger.

 And the drill doesn't fit in close enough to reach all the holes!

The ones at the edge by the walls couldn't be enlarged.

And I had to align one bar at a time into it's hole....

they kept popping back out!

 Tweezers helped me to push them in... 

their alignment was not exact in the first place

 so they needed to be bent a little....

Bit by bit I got them in the holes... 

but then I needed to get glue in there too!

If you look carefully at the first picture

 you can see a line of glue along the base...

applied with a toothpick!

Whew!

And there were two of them to do!

It took a lot of patience and persistence!

But I got them attached!

And the little "doors" still work perfectly!

And yes, somewhere, the bunnies who will live in them are hiding...

And as for the Rhododendron blossoms, Dear Readers,

 I have been working on them "intermittently".

I have not been able to make a good "sequence rhythm"

 to the construction process,

 in part because I am not happy with

 my methods of joining the florets to the stem!

I am trying to get the minimum length

 of the floret stem needed to attach it,

 and not add too much bulk to the cluster

 where it joins the stem.

Here you can see how they get very "thick" as a bunch.

The problem is exacerbated by the addition of the leaves... 

which need to spiral out right below the blossom cluster.

Here are the first three clusters grouped together

 the way they will be on the shrub...

 they will be densely packed together.

But in this picture you can't really see the ugly mess

 that is the stems attachment below the blossoms.

And at the moment I am Way behind on making the leaves....

 which need at least 8- 10 leaves per blossom cluster.

Here are some of the still not assembled blossoms....

And I am not sure whether I should use

 regular paper rather than card stock for the leaves....

Decisions... decisions...!

The one thing I am sure about, Dear Readers,

 is that I think the blossoms look wonderful in the cluster!

So even though Time is getting away from me, 

You can see I got a tiny bit done on the Gypsy Wagon

 and the Rhododendron blossoms!

Roses And Thorns...

 

Gypsy Wagon Sleeping Nook... Take Two...

Some of you, Dear Readers, might recall the Gypsy Wagons and might, with reason, wonder if they would ever get worked on again, let alone completed. And it would even be reasonable to think that they are so small... what could possibly take so long to finish them? (Yes, "them"; there are two wagons, each with a distinctive decor and history.) And both incomplete! The above picture shows the second wagon, which quickly took on some extra characteristics that made it a bit more complicated (and more interesting!) with its body mostly taken apart. You know almost nothing is glued together yet! This wagon had to have an extra window in the rear wall, and also an entire "menagerie" built onto the back wall. For the goats and chickens, of course!

And these menagerie compartments were desperately dark 

and in need of some "airier" coloring.

So I started with the primer on the interiors.

And of course, while waiting for the primer to dry,

 I decided that now might be the right time to paint 

the underside of the sleeping compartment too!

The sleeping compartment at the rear of the wagons

 is high enough to allow for another sleeping area beneath it,

 like a bunk bed, but enclosed like the upper one.

It is darker and lower, and I assume

 it would be the sleeping space for children.

You might remember the lower area of the first gypsy wagon,

 painted a long time ago (look it up in the blog list at right)

 and you might remember that the Gypsy child, Rowena,

 grew up alone with her father in that wagon.

 But when she became a young woman, 

she had to go live in her Grandmother's wagon instead.

This would now be her sleeping space,

 no longer a child, but not yet grown up.

In the above picture you can see the walls

 were painted pale green a long time ago.

It only remained to decorate them.

Of course, it begins with a soft green grass...

 

And rose bushes.... 

for the sweetness of love...

 

And a white rabbit...

(because Time is passing...)

 

Or three....

(because, Time.... you know, does not stand still)

 

And we mustn't forget the thorns!

Because Life is no longer so simple...

Or the leaves....

To hide among...

 every bunny needs a place of refuge!

 

And surely we want to see what it looks like all together... 

(I apologize for the dark shot... 

a thunderstorm had rolled in...)

Here you can see the flash turned on...

Here you see the compartment wall also in place,

 with the upper and lower spaces and their doors open.

And lest we forget, the menagerie interiors

 have also been painted inside, a lovely sky blue.

But that is not all, Dear Readers, 

you must know that I can't leave a ceiling unpainted...

So the following morning I continued the roses..

onto the underside of the upper bed compartment.

(There is also a pull-out table section, but I painted it too!)

Here the platform is removed while I painted it.

Here you can see it from below with all the walls together, 

as if you are lying under the roses...

And because I was painting things.... 

I decided to (Finally!) finish the painting

 on the walls of the upper compartment too.

What was missing, you ask?

 

Well, really just a couple of owls!

Here I have under-painted the shapes.

Here the Saw-whet Owl is done

(I know, it is a too dark shot!)

And the Common Screech Owl too.

And then I had to sprinkle a few stars across the dark night sky...

And can we see it all together....

Of course, it becomes difficult to see 

and difficult to photograph...

But it is supposed to be the night sky!

And it is getting late again...

And I have been following white rabbits, Dear Readers,

 into thorns and roses...

and listening to the owls

 begin to call in the night sky!

Christmas In July.....

Are You Kidding Me...?

Imagine my Surprise, Dear Readers, when a little over a week ago as I was returning from work on a hot July evening, I spied a package at my door that had a mysteriously familiar look about it... it was just like the packages that often arrive at Christmas Time from Birgit. (I am sure some of you are familiar with these wonderful packages!) What? thought I..... a package sent so soon...?... perhaps to guarantee it's arrival in time for Christmas this year... ?! (Because last year's took an unusually long time to get here!) Well, I had to open it in as short a time as I could manage... which actually took quite a while because each wonderful treasure had to be carefully unwrapped and examined! And there were lots of them!

The first to emerge from the bubble-wrap was this adorable baby goat... 

with a message saying he was in search of a Gypsy Wagon to call home!

And very soon after was this wonderful cat...

Flocked and whiskered by Birgit!

His message says his name is "Mephisto" 

and he's looking for a new home 

and will work for mice and milk.... 

any magical or gypsy home would be welcome!

I reassured him there were several options...

 but first I needed to see what else was in the box....!

A Beautiful magical mirror was next....

Followed by a whole assortment of magical potions 

and a family of charmed pumpkins!

And a couple of ghoulish skulls and a flying black horse....

And that was not all... not by a long shot!

More magical potions...

And parchments and wands and even a frog!

Here, you must have a closer look... 

I am sure the frog is enchanted!!!

And look... a Magic Lamp too!

(I begin to suspect that Birgit wanted to be sure they would be here

 in Time for Halloween rather than Christmas!)

And there were even more treasures... materials for making things...

 green moss for aging gardens... a whole bunch of odd jewelry findings....

Not to forget the beautiful card with Rosey smiling

 from her pink hydrangea blossom!

Well, you can see Dear Readers, how I might be excused 

for thinking Christmas had already arrived!!!

Thank you Birgit for this wonderful package!

It has been a few weeks since I showed you the Gypsy Wagons,

and I have only added a few tiny details

 in all that time.

 I'm trying to get the decorative trim pattern worked out... 

which is complicated because most of the wagon exterior is still not done...!

But I am sure you can imagine how quick

 our little Kid was to find her new home...

See how perfectly she fits?

And of course, if there is a Kid... there must be a Nanny...

 (I better hurry up and finish this "barn"!)

Meanwhile, Dear Readers,  I continued to work

 on the large castle doors project....

I painted and attached the doors to the Castle Guard Room.

Believe me, it is going to take some getting used to

 the new look of the front of the Castle!

And I continued with the doors for the upper rooms...

Some of which as I mentioned,

 hadn't even had their "prosceniums" cut yet!

I decided where the windows needed to go....

and pulled out my big saw....

And cut the windows!

I am trying to be true to the designs of the older Castles....

 they were designed to be fortresses... 

and they had very few windows.

 Windows were a weakness in the walls

 so they tended to be high up... 

just to let in some light and have a view of the exterior.

Here you can see the Great Hall doors... it is a two story tall hall... 

and at one point the gallery might have gone all around the hall.

There are windows at the gallery level and on the main level.... 

but I am wondering whether I should make

 the ones on the gallery level be four across.

Often there were more windows on the interior walls 

that overlooked a courtyard or the inner bailey.

I will have to ponder this some more.

But I did decide that the Great Hall doors needed to be double panel doors...

 otherwise they would be too large and awkward when open.

Here I have cut them into the panels.... 

but they are not painted or hinged yet.

Here you can see just the two side panels in place (held with tape!)

showing that once they are attached, 

I will be able to have a partly closed position, 

with the middle panels folded back to allow a narrow opening.

And with all the doors closed....

Gosh, it's almost starting to look like a Castle!

And oh, heavens, it got late

 and I almost didn't finish blossom number nineteen!

But there it is!

Proof in the box!

and as for Mephisto, Dear Readers, 

he is inspecting the Castle....

I think he likes what he sees!

Something tells me he will be taking over the Castle!

So you can see, Dear Readers, I wasn't kidding!

I think it was Christmas in July!

Thanks to the generosity of Birgit!