MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM QUAYSIDE!

Well thats it I am all done and ready for tomorrow! What we don't have wrapped or baked or ready to go we will not be having lol! Its a quiet Christmas this year just the 3 of us although I will miss the craziness of last year when my whole family were here and we had 9 of us round the dinner table for Christmas lunch! Although the upside is I might actually enjoy it this year as it was a bit like school dinners last year when we sat down the first lot had finished ha ha!!

I was quite organised and all ready on time so I gave myself half an hour to dress Lavender ready for Christmas. I have been meaning to do it for weeks and just never seem to get round to it and I was determined to get it done!!

Bob and Rose love Christmas and have a decorated tree outside too!

They have a gorgeous Christmas tree with pots of presents all wrapped and ready to go! There are lots goodies on the coffee table to munch without worrying about the calories!.

Lunch is ready and Rose is just shouting Bob to come and sit down!

Upstairs they have a lovely Christmas quilt made by my dearest friend Deb. She had it on Ebay and I am so glad no one snapped it up so I could have it and it looks just perfect on the bed!

Well thats it from Quayside thank you to everyone who follows my blog and takes the time to post it really wouldn't be the same without you all! And a huge thanks to Julie B, Julie L, Bernadette, June and all the people who make Quayside what it is and a huge big Christmas hug to my friend Deb who has really turned into a friend I couldn't live without! :-)  I wish each and every one of you a wonderful Christmas from me and all the residents of Quayside!


MERRY CHRISTMAS XXXXXXXXXXX

New house 2 - Anchor Cottage

Well after travelling the scenic route the second of my new cottages finally arrived on Saturday! I was out doing the dreaded Christmas food shopping so Lindsay stayed home just in case, well that was his excuse anyway! The box had a huge hole in so I was scared to even look but apart from the chimney pot and one roof tile on the corner it was perfect!

I absolutely love it! I cant believe I almost didn't go for it as I thought it was going to be a small. To my surprise its the same size as Sea View! I had to have a bit of a move around as they have to be able to open properly and I decided Sea View looked better next to the church as you could see everything in the corner better. I had to scream though as the plug from the upstairs wall light dropped down the back so when I moved it the new cottage I broke the wire!! I was not happy! It now has a lamp just so it has some light in there. It actually gives it a real cosy feel.

It is my proper fishermans cottage I have been wanting to do for ages and its perfect for it! I have decided to call it Anchor cottage and will ask the lovely Julie Lawton to make me some signs for both the new cottages after Christmas!

Bert the fisherman sorts his nets in his little front yard.

I will repaint the stove as the paint finish is pretty pants!

Berts cosy bedroom! Its a little bare at the moment but will add things as I see and think of them.

Cosy with the lights on.

It fits perfectly into the village and I think is one of the most seasidey looking cottages I have!

I had to move the B & B over to the other end as its a lot lower so it doesn't block off the light switch. It actually looks better as it balances the big show out better. I have decided this one will be called forget me not Cottage as it looks like someone has forgotten it a little already!

The only problem is I now have the urge to turn it into something other than a house. I am thinking it would make a nice pattisserie / tearoom. The bakery/bistro could maybe then become a pizza parlour. Will think on that one a while longer!

I love the village square all its missing is a fountain in the middle!

I love this little scene with Edna having a fag break and Charlie cleaning the windows! I love all my characters Quayside just wouldn't be the same without them!

New house and Al fresco dining

After patiently waiting what feels like forever one of my houses finally arrived today! No idea where the other one has got too but fingers crossed it turns up soon! It was a little worse for wear when it arrived so it must have been manhandled a little! The roof was coming away, some of the path was damaged, it had lost both chimney pots and worst of all somehow the door had come open and the hinge was all bent so it wouldn't shut! I wasn't too downhearted as they are all fixable problems and it could always be sooo much worse! The roof repair was sorted with some glue as were the chimneys and the path. I touched it up with a bit of paint you would never know. Then the hinge came off and went in the oven for a bit to heat it up. A few bashes with a hammer and its now reattached and you would never know it was ever bent!

I have to say it was bigger than I expected. Sitting next to Seashell, which I always though of as quite big, its a really good size.

I just love the exposed brick effect its fab! I also love the shutters and paint colour is so pretty. I like how it has different windows to my others this is what makes them all special in their own way!

More of the brick effect down the side which also had a feature chimney something else I don't have on any other houses so thats nice.

You can see next to Seashell and Seaview what a good size it is!

I don't know what to do about a name. I do have the meadow cottage which is on the new shop but I may rename that one Daffodil cottage as thats just on the blue front at the mo and you can't really see it. I am quite tempted to give it its own name though so will have a bit of a think about that one!

It has four good size rooms which is what attracted me to it in the first place.

It did come with some furniture I will def reuse as there were some nice bits. I did buy the bathroom as it didn't have one.

Not many things in just yet just a couple to show what it will look like. The armchairs will go in the fishermans cottage as I am waiting on some nice lemon and blue ones.

I love that the kitchen has a nice window. Its just crying out for some lovely curtains!

I did get one lovely thing to put in it, a gorgeous Reutter sink. It was in bedsit above the new shop but I think it will prob live in here!

I have managed to finish another little project too! I was just having a bit of a tidy up in Dollyland yesterday evening and remembered I had some tile effect paper that would work as flooring in the bistros terrace. I was going to get some little tiles from Hobbycraft when I next go but I think it looks ok.

Mario checks his customer has everything she needs....dining alone means she gets extra special attention!! ;-)

I stained the pergola at the weekend and with the pots and ivy added it looks very AL fresco I think! Katy enjoys a nice plate of Luigis homemade lasagne and a glass on vino to wash it down!

The little apple tree from DHE is very cute I just added some tea leaves for dirt as it had a rubbish paint effect which was spoiling it.

Well thats a little update for now! Hopefully the other house will turn up tomorrow or at least Monday! Got a busy weekend as have most of you I would think. I can't believe how quickly Christmas is almost upon us and I still haven't finished decorating Lavender Cottage!!!

Moving everything around!!!

I have spent the whole weekend rearranging Dollyland to fit the new houses in. They were due to arrive today but the courier failed to collect them 2 days running last week which was a real pain not so much for me but really not fair on the lady selling who had been so good letting me get them collected. One complaint to the company and they are now being picked up tomorrow by Parcel Force and no extra cost so fingers crossed this time they will get collected! They wont get here til Friday now which is a killer lol I am so excited for them to come!

Anyway its given me time to have a good think about where they were going. I had to take out every house and put them all in the kitchen which was not fun! I still need to look inside some of them and put everything back in place! I had to lose my desk which was ok as I still have space to work. I also needed some thing else to sit them on. I realised the table I had Fairbanks on was exactly the same height as the other one I had in there so I have stolen that! The 2 tables are now across the back which actually has made the room feel much bigger.   It all seems to fit much better and just feels right now!

I have a nice big space waiting to be filled!

 My ever present little helper sneaked in the photo lol

I also had more room in the corner for the other cottage front I had which was on Ebay at the time so I ended it quickly thank goodness it didn't sell!!!

Coastguard cottage seems to work much better on the end!

 I can also now do a nice beach scene in front of Lavender next to the harbour.

The new occupants have arrived and need somewhere to live!!

Christmas gifts, lights & maybe a new house or 2!

Well I am still trying to get all the Christmas stuff in Quayside done and time is ticking away so fast!!! The Christmas shop is all done and so is the knitting shop but need to get the rest finished!! Yesterday I put up some lights around the village just to brighten it up. They are just battery ones from Poundland as to do it all in DH ones would cost a fortune not to mention the nightmare of plugging them all in!!

I have just put them round the tops so I can still open the houses but the overall effect is quite pretty. I wondered if I should of got them all the same but I couldn't decide which ones I liked best so I got a mixture! Blue icicles, white snowflakes and the red ones are little stockings and are so cute! Must get Lavender finished today its got the tree up and the patchwork bedding but I need to get on and do the rest! Not even sure I will have time for the flower shop window display but I need to try!!

I also won this gorgeous little selection of Christmas cakes from SMALL PORTIONS blog. They came yesterday and are so lovely I was so chuffed I never win anything lol!! Please pop by and have a look at her things for sale they are always lovely and very reasonable too!

I also bought a few more Christmas cushions from June. I tried to get the camera to pick up how sparkly they are! they are so pretty. June also sent me the Ho Ho ho one as a little gift which was so kind, thanks so much June!  Its so cute and perfect for my Ho Ho Holiday shop!

I know I have said a million times I have absolutely no more room for any more houses and you are all going to say I told you so but I have just bought not one but 2 more!! Before anyone says anything I have absolutely no idea where they will go lol!!! My OH seems to think we can somehow come round into the room but it will take some planning and they will just have to sit on my desk for now til we can work it out! It was bad timing 2 weeks before Christmas and having just bought 2 recently so I had to seriously think about buying them but in the end I decided I would be gutted to miss out on them so I will do the worrying afterwards! In my defense I did sell one of my older last week although I think the funds from that were supposed to pay for the Xmas shop which was about 4 properties back so not really sure I can use than excuse lol!!!  I was originally very good and just bought the larger one but couldn't get the other one out of my mind!! I kept going back for another look praying it was still there! Even my OH said for that money I should just get it so I even had permission Yesterday the lady selling, who is so nice, had a couple of the tops I was selling so we did a deal lol. 

They are of course both JULIES but some of her older ones which I really like as they are little bit different to mine. I have seen a few she made with the exposed brickwork and always fancied one, that was the one missing from my collection lol The little shutters are so pretty I just fell in love with it when I saw it and knew I just had to have it!

Both houses come with the dolls and furnishings. Not sure who will live in the bigger one I am thinking maybe one of the WI ladies and make it a little more old fashioned inside not sure yet.  I love that it has 4 rooms as it means it can function as a proper little house!

This one I know exactly who will live there! I have always wanted to do a proper little fisherman's cottage and this one will be perfect I can just see the lobster pots outside!

They should be on their way in the next day or 2 so fingers crossed they arrive safely! Then they just need names so I will need to get my thinking cap on!

Last but not least Doctor Richard has his new desk! I had to rearrange the layout a little as there has to be 2 chairs for there's no where for the patients to sit! He has his computer and doctors bag and is almost ready to start taking on patients!