The Shop and Garden Project - An Update

This piece came with me to Camp MiniHaHa '13 to go into the display room. Before heading off for camp, I made a few small additions to the outside. The door still needs hinges and a doorknob, I am looking for a way to make my own. The sun sculpture was a gift at CMHH '12 and is perfect for the side wall. There is a Bonnie Lavish dandelion growing up against the fence, another CMHH '12 gift. The weathered zinc planter with lavender plants is a design from 1 zu 12, the German magazine; the planter is the bottom of a tic-tac box, with a glued-on sequin flower, and a rim made from file folder cardboard. The whole thing is then painted. The crate with the shabby chic label, faded hydrangeas, Spanish lavender plant and gardening book is my gift exchange creation for this year's camp.

The only changes to the side wall include the robin shelter, complete with robin and nest inside with eggs, my CMHH '12 exchange gift creation, and the cat you can just barely see next to the blue fence; she is a repainted resin cat, to resemble our dark tabby cat. The cat is looking up at the robin, who is looking down, and the cat would really, really like to get closer to the bird....

The major changes are inside the shop; I was "auditioning" items to go into the shelves and other displays. Before camp I put together some kits and bits and pieces to make a number of bottles, jars and containers, added some exchange gifts from last year's and earlier camps, and put together a couple of plant kits. Some gifts from my older daughter, chosen to complement this vignette, are also in the display. The purple display rail will get bunches of "dried" lavender, and there will be bins of soaps, more jars and bottles and other pretty things on the empty shelves, and I have to hunt around and find the printies of those wonderful display boxes again - I forgot to bookmark them. Oh well, a good excuse to waste a few hours on the computer!

While sorting boxes the last couple of days, I found more items that will go very nicely into this shop, both in terms of colour and suitability, so more pretty things have been added to the box of things that I hope to fit into this shop.

The shop is intentionally a little shabby; the imaginary owners are using old and new items in the shop, and are doing a lot of refinishing themselves. However, further fixes will have to wait until they have a nice cash flow going. I kind of like the shabby chic shelves against the fancy wallpaper, but will admit there is a lot of colour going on at this point. I am not completely sure about the colour of the table, that may have to be replaced with a more imaginative display area. Something to think about while trying to fall asleep....