In the beginning...

About 2 years ago my daughter showed me a picture of a kitchen. Yeah, so? The next picture was of the same kitchen with a coin to show scale! I'd never seen anything like it. I had only ever thought of doll houses as a child's toy. I sat in front of the computer screen for ages soaking in all the details of this busy little room totally amazed.  I think I spent the rest of the day googling images muttering "look at that!" to myself. A couple of days later (still in front of the computer) my daughter suggested checking out some blogs. "what's a blog?" No kidding there, I really didn't know.  I've been reading several blogs daily ever since.

I had no idea at the time that I had already become an addict.

Then I saw IT, the Beacon Hill! Wow. That's it, that"s the one I want. It's so beautiful, I have to have That one.  Hmmm.... looks like it might be a bit complicated? Back to Google. I read stories about half finished Beacons littering the streets. I watched a series of you tube videos on building one that ended abruptly on day 4! Maybe I should start with something simpler.

At about this time it seemed as though life was about to change for us, there was the possibility of moving to a different city. No point in starting something that I couldn't finish or in buying things that I would only have to pack. Well I could get that one cute little thing right? I mean how much room will be taken up by one little chair, table, sink, stove oooh and that's cute...

So for the last 2 years I packed, unpacked, repacked and finally unpacked my 1:1 house. It was decided in December that we are staying, I've now finished moving back into the house we've lived in for he last 22 years. All the while I was gathering a stash and reading other peoples blogs, getting to know the lovely people who share so much. Learning from their experience.  I feel like I"ve been I've been peeping into other peoples windows (just the mini ones, promise) for long enough and it's time I got started on some work of my own. Time to say Hi, I'm Annejuli. I have no idea what I can or can't do yet but I would love it if you would join me on my road to Beacon Hill..

Step one - The Sugar Plum Cottage.

This picture is of an empty box. Let me explain...  Before opening the box I went out and bought a camera so that I could chronicle every step of my first build. I took about 50 exciting amateur  photos of kit pieces, the same pieces primed, the dry fit, starting to glue the shell together ( including close-ups of the bay window held together held together with approximately 367 bits of blue painters tape) every little thing I had done in the first 2 days. Then I accidentally made a short video of my knees. I'll just delete that....Oh no. I managed to wipe the sd card completely.

I have to admit that really upset me, walk away, breathe. I did the same thing I always do when I need cheering up, turn to blogger. I was browsing through when I noticed something about the undersized urbanite competition and decided to have a look. My spirits were lifted immediately when I saw that there was a category for newbies! I know it's late but I'm going to throw my hat into the ring. I love a challenge and work well with a deadline in other areas of my life, so here goes!

This is how far I got in the first 2 days. Bet you wish you could see all those lost photos, hey? I then spent the next 2 days cutting up egg cartons in little bricks (as per Brae's tutorial at otterine's miniatures) So the start of day 4 looks exactly like the end of day 2.

  The end of day 4 I started laying the bricks.

And finished on day 5

I also got the first coat of paint on. I glued the chimney in place and tossed and turned worrying that I had glued the whole thing to the table, I forgot to lay wax paper down first. It turned out ok. I also painted more egg cartons for the stones that will cover the chimney, the foundation and the front step.

Today is day 6. I started the stone work. I'll post pics tomorrow. It's too dark to take photos up to my brilliant standards this time of night. Now to see if I can post all of this without wiping it. Fingers crossed.