GREAT DAY!!!

I started this post almost two weeks ago but just didn't get around to finishing it until tonight.

Didn't get any work done on the Christmas Shop yesterday as I spent the afternoon at my sister Shirley's where her step-daughter was visiting. Hadn't seen Leslie in many years so it was an incredible visit. Leslie is one of those people who lights up the room when she enters it.

Read a book last night (surprise, surprise!), set the clocks ahead, then woke up this morning after one of the best sleeps I've had in ages - almost nine hours!!

Tried to get a bit of tidying up before and after my 11:00 a.m. walk with Barb as another neighbour, Rosemarie, was bringing her sister and mother over to see my miniatures at 1:00 p.m.

In my Christmas stash I had these incredible little Christmas angels! The larger one was made by Linda Austin in Spruce Grove but I don't know who made the two smaller ones.

These are pieces that I SO wanted to highlight in this shop but wasn't quite able to figure out the logistics. Then I thought maybe I could put them against some of the velvet that I had used on the right hand side of the room...but I thought I'd be dealing with a lot of thickness.

THEN about an hour before Rosemarie was to arrive, I recalled that I had this very small strip of matboard with a gorgeous green 'velvet' finish. I cut a small piece to highlight the angels then cut a small piece to support it. Lightly cut through the small piece to give it an angle to the front piece.

That doesn't make a lot of sense in words but hopefully this picture will explain it. (It's like the slanted back on a picture frame.)

You can see here on the left where the angels are in place inside the counter.

Placing the items inside this counter was a nightmare! Couldn't find my angle-ended tweezers (of course, found them afterward) and my good angled hemostat was broken (UGH).

But I persevered!

Counter top: cash register from printminis.com; glass jar filled with candies from Belara Beach; glass Christmas tree from a Christmas tree in Cape Breton, NS
Inside back: the lace angels (middle one by Linda Austin from Spruce Grove, AB; a small green Christmas tree flanked by two vases from John Parker of Swallowhill Dolls (painted with red nail polish and decorated with Christmas fingernail decals; a Father Christmas painted by a former club member
Inside front: Janice Crawley dish; two pair of Christmas slippers by Cheryl H. of NS and two Christmas stocking by Judy Mitchell of St. Albert

I had another Janice Crawley Christmas dish that didn't fit inside the counter so put it on top along with a purchased gift box lined with crumpled paper.

Add caption

Then I pulled an unfinished stool from my stash, painted the legs gloss white and the seat with red nail polish.

Add caption

Let's face it, the shop takes credit and bank cards so you have to have card reader! So I found a great straight-on picture of one online, copied and resized it. Made two copies in case I fouled one up and glued them to a small scrap of 1/8" basswood then cut around one with my X-Acto knife then sanded the wood smooth. At the bottom I cut down the section where you enter the card. Then I took a black marker and 'painted' all the wood. (Didn't get pictures of all that but from the picture below they wouldn't have been that good anyway.)

And here's the overview with the card reader in place by the cash register.

The plastic case containing the rolls of wrapping paper to the left of the back shelving.

Got the chains shortened on the stained glass hangings. Had to switch them to fit properly.

The final pictures of the right hand side of the roombox.

The white wire rack on the far left was filled by Judy Mitchell of St. Albert AB. The table and all its contents were made by Bev Potter-Marien of Edmonton AB as was the incredible Christmas tree. They were both from our MEE Christmas gift exchange.  The afghan was bought at Bonnie's Estate Sale and the two petit point cushions were a Christmas gift from my friend and neighbour, Barb R. (They are more visible in the picture below.

Pretty much finished. (Have two more small additions in mind.)

Because it's so incredibly difficult to get good pictures of this due to the mirror on the back wall, my next thing will be to go through all the pictures and post them on my fotki site so you can get a good look at the separate sections that come together to make the entire piece. That will take a while but I'll let you know when it's done.

Poor photography aside, you really need to see this in person to get the full effect of it.

Just as a matter of interest, I looked at my fotki site and the album there showing the work on the outside of the glass and the items I started making for it was dated July 2009.

A personal note here: While I'm very, very pleased how this turned out - and the fact that I figured out how to build most everything into the top itself - I don't have the sense of pride in this that I do in other pieces such as Dennis's office and the Leo Nickerson art studio in which I personally made at least 95% of the contents. And yet one of my favourite rooms is my Art Gallery for which I only 'made/adapted' one item!