Let's have a game of darts!

Here's the "Other Side". You've always wanted to know what's on the other side, haven't you? Well here it is! Hey, let's play darts!
You can see why I didn't send in this photo for the contest. Should have moved that car.

Unfortunately, after I brought the shack in the house my kittens thought it was great fun. The barricade I set up did not deter them one little bit, so I had to take the whole thing up to my sewing room where no one can see it...well, I can, of course.

I had a nice visit on Monday at a friend's home. She has quite a collection of dollhouses all over her house. She has been collecting and making dollhouses since she was a young girl. She showed me a kit house that is the same tab and slot construction as the one I am going to try next. She gave me some tips to keep in mind for mine. More about that next time.

Coffee and a doughnut?

I've sent in my pictures for the contest; contest deadline is May 26. I set up this scene in the driveway at home. The whole set-up is on a cookie sheet. I added sand along the edges to hide the edges of the pan and added some seaweed and rocks. I had thought to take the whole thing to Land's End and photograph it with the sea in the background. Nice thought, but impractical. Too many little bits and pieces to jostle about in the car.
Let's see, in this scene you can see someone is enjoying an early cup of coffee and a couple of doughnuts while working on a crossword puzzle. Fishing pole and tackle box are handy, as well as a straw hat. That seagull is ready to pounce! Of course, in real life those doughnuts would already be GONE! But, this is fantasy, right?
Looks like the toast is up and ready for butter. Lemonade is keeping cool by the register. You can't see it very well, but there is a radio blaring away on top of the frig. Can you see the ice cream sign on the front of the snack bar? That's delicious ice cream from Webber's in Farmingdale.

It was so fun to get down on my hands and knees to set this up, I felt like a little girl again. I could only send in three photos, so I was not able to show one side of the snack shack. Here you see the weather barometer and a "seaside" magnet, all from Tate's in Bath, a wonderful trove of goodies.
Here's Barnacle Bill himself, chewing on his pipe. Surf boards, boat rentals, let's hope nobody takes out this old wreck of a boat. As you can see, all the action is around the back! Well, in Maine, nobody uses the front door, do they?
Wish me good luck in the contest! I'll include the "other" side in another post.

If you see a faded sign...

Remember the B-52s song? Love Shack! Love that song...well this is not the Love Shack, baby, but it is the Snack Shack!I made the counter this weekend. Popsicle sticks for the front. Microwave, toaster, "lemonade" dispenser, cash register....we are in business!

I just realized the final date for submitting my entry into the contest is May 26 so I got cracking this weekend. With the nice weather I have been digging in my vegetable garden and planting peas and beets. Around here Patriot's Day, April 19, is considered the best date to plant your peas if you want peas for the 4th of July. My veggie patch is in a low spot so it has been too wet until this weekend. Delicious snap peas, I can hear them growing already. Also, beets, yummy beet greens with rice vinegar. Potatoes were planted when the dandelions started to bloom a couple of weeks ago. I am growing those near the house where I had a little pond for a few years. Pond is gone, but the soil I filled it in with is loose and should be lovely for the potatoes. Since it is close to the back door I should also be able to spend some quality time picking off the potato bugs.

My Other Obsession

Here is my other obsession: quilting. I have been an avid quilter for the past twenty years. This past week I have been working on this wall hanging from Louisa L. Smith's book Strips 'n Curves. I'm just crazy about this woman! She was on Alex Anderson and Ricky Tim's The Quilt Show recently. I followed the instructions for one of her simpler patterns. You create strata, her term for the strips of inch and a half fabrics sewn together, then cut them out in either an L shape or a quarter circle.

Piecing was relatively easy, which was a surprise. The curves are fairly gentle and you only sew a strata section to a piece of solid fabric, for the most part. I was a bit heavy-handed with the iron and stretched some of those bias edges more than I should, which caused some distortion. I have lots of leftovers to play with. Still need to layer the quilt and do the quilting. I will probably just do straight line quilting on my sewing machine, right down the center of each strip.

My children are coming home from college in a couple of days so I have had to move my dollhouse supplies out of my daughter's room. Once they are home and now that the piecing is done on my wallhanging, I will get back to my beach shack.