Unhinged......

My goodness, time whizzes past at an extraordinary rate.   All too soon we shall be opening to the public for the first time (May 11th - one day only, to coincide with the local Farmers' Market) and that same night we head back to England.

I return to Bavorov about ten days later but without the incomparable help of Butterfly who celebrates her birthday today by not going into Small Worlds.   Instead she is following her other profession at this very moment by recording a voice-over down in my former cowshed.

There is still so much going on at once in Small Worlds that this blogpost is as tricky to write as the last one.   We have nearly exhausted the list of tasks ready for our willing but "unskilled" helpers and are moving on to only having jobs requiring a high level of skill.  Luckily I number some "highly skilled" helpers amongst my friends and relatives.

For the past few days my sister-in-law Mette, who has an amazing collection of room boxes lining the whole of one wall, and who writes for the magazine Dolls House and Miniature Scene, has been here weaving her magic on tiny soft furnishings.   Neither Butterfly nor I can work with needle, thread or textiles so Mette's skill has been invaluable.   The beds in the big Walmer are now made, so too in the former orange bungalow, which is also replete with beautiful silk cushions.   You will see these when the houses are revealed in due course.












In the meantime here is a glimpse of her work in twenty-fourth scale for the tiny pink Fairfield (half the size of most of my houses)



In the picture on the left it is standing next to Mouse Mansion which has its new roof and is waiting for the outside paper to be applied. Once again, note the weeny teeny front door...all that will change shortly.   Well, from the outside at least.

Meanwhile, inside, the mice are having a wonderful time...

they're deciding on the interior decor...   

So much choice, so little time to choose... 

because Mette needs to make the bedding and curtains before she leaves again for England.  

The post title came about because I have spent a couple of days trying to sort out hinges.   The department-store-to-be has suffered from a maker of great ambition but sadly lacking the practical skills to match.   If you have a large heavy piece of wood for example, it is no good at all trying to hold it in place just with two small hinges.....

Nor does it help to continue to try and fix a hinge to a piece of wood that is already riddled with holes and repeatedly glued together from abortive attempts to get a hinge to stay in place. 

So armed with some lovely long piano hinges (hands up whoever knows that's what long hinges are called - I didn't) I have been trying to remedy the situation on two of the houses.   However I am spatially challenged and cannot reverse patterns which means that I am capable of screwing the hinge on incorrectly, removing it because the doors won't close, turning it over, and screwing it on just as incorrectly again.    

Grrrrr......by the end of the second day I was ready to scream and chuck the lot out of the window in the best Czech style.   I have now abandoned the whole hinge horror to hand over to my highly skilled Dutch friend who arrives on Friday.   She can turn her hand to anything......little does she know it yet, but one of the things she will be tackling is the very large thatched roof on the English cottage.   There will be pictures in due course....

Thank you for following my journey so far.   I look forward to seeing you again soon.   In the meantime I am off to do some (full-size) gardening whilst the sun is shining.......