Okay, my friends, it’s tour time!

This roof garden is not completely finished. I have to add the hanging plants. I have a few other ideas swirling around in my brain. Mini flowers and pots are not cheap, so I’ll add more as funds allow.

In no particular order, here are some photos (and there are quite a few, so settle in for Caroline’s Roof Garden – The Tour.)

The hedges arrived in the mail yesterday. They’re just what I wanted and something I see in the big city quite frequently. After all, Caroline needs some privacy.

A planter at the ready. (Purchased last year at Chautauqua Miniatures.)

Caroline can’t believe what a difference the hedges make – she remarked that she could now sunbathe in total privacy.

A cool drink, anyone?

Caroline likes to grow things.

(I got the flowers from Miniatures.com, the succulents were from a faux plant that I took apart. I  found it at Michael’s. The picket fence planter boxes were found at Chautauqua Miniatures. Pea gravel, which is really ballast, found at Train Sets Only.)

Planter and potted plants from Chautauqua Miniatures, watering can, hedges, and large French pot from Miniatures.com.

Chair and ottoman, as well as the pillows, are from Chautauqua Miniatures. The magazine, I believe, was a gift from my friend Norma.

And now, Claudia climbs on a chair for the aerial view:

This gives you a nice look at the skylight. (All information about sources for the potting shed can be found here.)

Oh my goodness. I love this little space, which provides more living space for Caroline in the spring, summer and fall.

Pot and flowers from Miniatures.com – purchased separately, but don’t they go nicely together?

Table and chairs from Chautauqua Miniatures, pitcher and glasses were given to me by a friend (I’m having trouble remembering exactly who that was, so if it was you, let me know! I just heard from her, it was Sharon! Thank you, Sharon.) and the banner was part of a swap.

Boo really likes it up there. He can bark at the birds and listen to all the sounds of the city. (Boo came from Chautauqua Miniatures.)

The roof top garden and potting shed.

I love the hedges, but the dark green and the black wrought iron railing sort of blend into each other.

See?

I’m contemplating switching out the black wrought iron for the same item in white. I painted a piece that I had in my stash to see how it would look.

I think it provides more definition to that area. The trim and the hedge don’t become one big dark blob. I can always switch it back to the black if I decide to eliminate the hedges, but I really like them so I don’t see that happening anytime soon!

When Don came home late yesterday afternoon and I did a sort of Ta-dah! reveal, he said he wanted to be able to hang out there. We contemplated miniaturizing ourselves and going for it, but we soon realized that Caroline wouldn’t like that. Big thumbs up from Don, and he also mentioned again how much he loves the red floor in the potting shed.

I’m thinking I need a climbing plant of some sort on the side of the potting shed. Maybe another raised bed. And more plants. But for now…I think we’ve got a pretty nifty roof garden.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

I’d love to open things up again for general dollhouse questions. I started a little series about that and haven’t written an additional post as of yet. So if you have questions, leave them in the comments section, or if you’d rather, email them to me.

 

Happy Thursday.

Thank you, little moth, for staying on the spirea for quite a long time. I enjoyed taking lots of pictures of you.

I also saw our friend, the Hummingbird Moth, flitting around the geraniums. And there’s been a steady stream of visitors to the birdbath. The temps have been quite warm and humid and they need some relief! Even the bees take a little drink from the birdbath. It’s the neighborhood pool.

I’d have loved to take some pictures of the frolicking birds with my telephoto lens, but alas, I don’t have one. Plans to buy one were scotched in favor of paying my dentist! There must be priorities, after all.

Starting my Christmas list right now.

It rained last night and we’re due for storms today. I’m anxiously awaiting a package from miniatures.com containing two hedges for the dollhouse roof. I thought it would be here yesterday, but no such luck! I’m terribly impatient when I’m waiting for a package – are you? If it isn’t here by the time I think it should be; well, it isn’t pretty.

I’m also anxiously awaiting my copies of American Miniaturist, so I can see Hummingbird Cottage’s spread in the August issue. Caroline is also experiencing some impatience. She wants to see her house in print!

I’m reminded of this print that we have on our bathroom wall:

It’s actually a card Don gave me long ago because it reminded him of Scout and Riley. It’s entitled “Waiting for Postie.” Very British.

That’s me at the moment – I’m waiting for postie.

Sneak peeks:

I have to say that I’m loving the ‘pea gravel’ more and more. Though it was a pain in the ass to execute, I think it looks great.

I’m already thinking about my next project, which will have to be on the smaller side. Mockingbird Hill Cottage is definitely on the smaller side, which means there’s only so much display space. Even thought I don’t want to admit it in the midst of all this summer splendidness, winter isn’t that far off, and winter is the perfect time to work on a new dollhouse.

Ideas, ideas – I’ve got a lot of them.

Happy Wednesday.

The roof garden. What would the surface look like?

I’ve long had the idea percolating in my brain of using some sort of crushed stone, rather like pea gravel. My first thought was to use aquarium gravel and I bought some, thinking I would put it in a bag and crush it into tiny pieces with a hammer.

It wouldn’t crush. Entirely uncrushable.

Then, on a dollhouse site, I came across Ballast  which came packaged in a little bag. I bookmarked the site and finally ordered some while I was in Chautauqua. But the mix of grey colors I preferred was out of stock, so I tried a medium gray. When it arrived the other day, I realized it wouldn’t work. It was all the same color. At the same time, I remembered that ballast was exactly what my dad used along the tracks of his model railroad. (FYI: He had an extensive model railroad at one time that extended throughout the basement. I guess the miniaturist apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.)

Bingo. I googled model trains and ballast. And there was the mix of gray I wanted – in a shaker, no less! I ordered it and it arrived a day later. I got it from Train Sets Only – great customer service, very fast shipping.

There’s more here than I’ll ever need. Unless we build a model railroad.

Yesterday, I cut some heavy duty paper to fit the open space on the roof and covered it with glue. Then I started shaking. The ballast, that is.

Oh man. What a pain it was. I started this project in the kitchen and, after inadvertently shaking a lot of it on the floor, I decided I’d better take it outside. When I was finally finished, I glued the ballast-covered paper to the roof of the dollhouse. Then I set it with hair spray. (I have to re-glue one area today as I see some of the paper didn’t stick.) I read a tutorial on all of this last year and I remember bookmarking it, but danged if I can find it! But I do remember the tutorial said it was better to glue the crushed rock onto a piece of paper, rather than directly onto the wood.

There it is.

You know, sometimes when I’m doing this sort of thing, I panic a little. Am I ruining what I’ve already created? What if I don’t like it?

I experienced that feeling several times last night. Is it going to be too busy up there on the roof? Is it going to draw attention away from the dollhouse itself?

Then I remind myself that I can remove everything if I don’t like it.

A sneak peek.

I don’t want all that furniture visible when looking at the front of the house, so I’m going to add some hedges along the wrought iron trim. They’ll be here in a couple of days.

Still a wee bit on the fence, but I think it’s going to work.

Some real flower photos for you:

The hydrangeas are huge this year. Big, fat, lush blossoms.

I’m about 2 weeks late on this, but the winner of a copy of Ruthless  is Linda! Congratulations!

Happy Friday.