Birdhouse and more landscaping goodies.

So, Jay and I stayed over in NH last night so I could do some sampling for my marine biology research. And BOY was it ever windy!!! I was soaked after that adventure. But what made up for it was stopping at Earth N Tree on the way back to NY. :) I love that place! I had a bit of an agenda while there so I didn't spend as much time wandering about aimlessly looking at every little thing! On the trip back home, I saw a field of birdhouse motels in western NH, which inspired me to design and build one for the herb shop yard. And tonight, that's what I did!

So I've never done anything like this before, and I played it by ear. I researched birdhouse motels online to get some ideas and basic measurements and then opened up my giant Ziploc bag of scrapwood. I found two nice size rectangle pieces and cut the side pieces to fit. For the roof, I cut strips of wood to fit and laid them across. Here's a pic to show the unfinished, unshingled product:

I made the holes first with a thumbtack and then widened them with my pointy clay tool (can't remember what it's called!).

Once that glue dried, I painted the entire thing with Tim Holtz "Picket Fence" Crackle Paint (which I love!!!) to give it that weathered, outdoor look.

I shingled it with some leftover asphalt shingles that I had used on the smaller roof on the herb shop (they match!). I also glued on the pole (which is still a little wobbly and really needs to dry overnight). As you can see in the pic below, I still have some paint touchups to do (on the pole and the holes). In addition, I want to build a base with clay (over which I will glue coffee grounds for soil) that I can attach with Tacky Wax to the base of my scene.

You can see two of the little treats I bought for myself in the background - a log filled with mushrooms and a tiny brass mailbox. :) I also bought a trellis with lovely plants which I attached to the side of the shop. I also plant to fill some window boxes with handmade roses (from a kit I bought today!).

Landscaping the Herb Shop

Well, I was feeling crafty today and decided to take some time after work to go to Hobby Lobby and look around for inspiration. I picked up some mini shells and Paper Clay. But I had a plan in my mind to finish the sidewalk to the herb shop...and that's what I did tonight.

Before:

With the sidewalk I previously made:

The sidewalk was okay but it wasn't really doing anything for me. So last night I looked up pictures of stone gardens and found some pictures of flagstones laid along a gravel path, kinda like the 4th picture from the bottom on this website. So  I thought that would look cool in front of the herb shop.

So this is what I did....

I took some paperclay and made some round stones - I actually made 5 of these of varying shapes and sizes. Then I painted them with acrylic paints in brown, transparent red oxide and bits of white. I also added some very small pieces of model railroad shrubbery as pieces of moss in the stone.

Above, I was waiting for glue to dry, so in the meantime, I hung my "Herbs" sign I got at Earth N' Tree.

I really want to make a shop sign for the herb shop and will add that someday (hopefully soon!).  Anyway, once the flagstones were glued down, I laid down some Tacky Glue in areas around and between the stones where I wanted the path to cover. Then I sprinkled these awesome little black stones I found at A.C. Moore a while back. Here's the result:

I am pretty pleased with the result! I plan to add a lot of plants and flowers to this scene, but  I am finally happy with the sidewalk. Currently, I have coffee grounds drying in the oven for soil. Not sure what I am going to do with it, but I have been consulting my copy of Frieda Gray's Making Miniature Gardens for ideas. We have a ton of tissue paper left over from Christmas, so those may become flowers soon! :)