Finding My Joy!

What a productive day! I woke up early, the sun was shining, and the ideas were just flowing!

I sort of followed the instructions on the Sugarplum, but had to skip and deviate a little because of the modifications I'm making. For example, step # 4 says to add the second floor, and since I am omitting the second floor I just skipped that step. Step # 5 was to add the little partial wall strips to the sides of the back opening. I decided to wait on these so that getting inside to work on the fireplace and trim would be easier.

I did follow steps 1 - 3, attaching the front and side walls to the floor. With patient fitting and trimming, it all went together like a hand in a glove. While the glue dried on the three walls and floor, I covered the bay window in wallpaper (scrapbook paper) and attached the interior window frame. It wasn't too long before I was able to attach that to the structure.

While all of that was setting up I started to play around with the fireplace. Since it's a soap shop converted from and old historic home, it will not really be a working fireplace. I just want it to look like it has been freshly cleaned so that it can be used for display purposes.

The kit makes it so that the chimney butts up right against the house. This doesn't really give it much depth or appeal either inside or outside the house.

I decided to give it a more realistic and dimensional look by building a box around the chimney. This way, I could create a fire box for the fireplace and take advantage of what was meant to be the upstairs hearth, turning it into a display niche.

I created boxed in areas for the fire box and the niche. I'll add brick or stone to the firebox and some embossed paper to the niche. This will make them much more interesting to look at!

I'm working on a hearth made out of marble stationary and some mat board. There will be some tricky cuts to make - I'll need to make slits for the wall and get it to sit nice and flush to the floor. Then I'll decoupage the paper and hope it looks like smooth marble. Hopefully, I'll like the way it looks in the end.

Meanwhile, I am taking advantage of the nice warm weather (new record high today of 88 degrees) to spray paint much of the trim I'll need. What you see here is only part of it! There will be much more to come, but this will get me started on the main shop floor.

I am having so much fun with this project so far! I am never happier than when I am in the midst of some tedious little detail. Listening to scary bigfoot encounters or singing along to some happy little tune. I hope you all are also finding your joy today!