Shaken, not staired

It all started one night when Mr PJ was mixing up one of his speciality scalp raising, eyebrow singeing Bloody Mary's. 

I was watching with interest, through a welders mask (which I keep for just such occasions), from the safety of my kitchen high stool, as he sprayed coarse ground black pepper and red hot chilli flakes around the room, like the Devil's confetti. A dash of Dave's Insanity Sauce here. A glug of Worcestershire's finest there. All hammered home with a stick of celery, and a squeeze of lime.

The inspiration for the Mini House stair rods,

our first cocktail parrot served in New Orleans

He's never been the same since we went to New Orleans and discovered that the real McCoy does not consist of one tiny bottle of lukewarm Britvic and a nervous splash of Lea and Perrins.

In the Big Easy, they like their Bloody Mary's red hot, and dangerous. With enough garnish to stock a garden centre.


Mr PJ was especially impressed when they topped it all off with a little pickle parrot, complete with olive eyes, to keep watch over his drink, long after he had stopped being able to focus on it for himself.

He says that if cocktail swilling special agent James Bond had wanted to look really suave, he should have been ordering Bloody Mary's topped off with a stuffed olive parakeet, instead of his usual girly dry Martinis. 

But it appears author Ian Flemming thought otherwise.

And so, it was at the moment my very own, er hem 007, was skewering a couple of Scotch Bonnets to a dill pickle, in an attempt to replicate Polly, that I saw the light! 

I had been struggling to come up with something small and cheap, preferably but not necessarily in metal, that I could use to make stair rods for the Mini House. And here before me, was the perfect answer. 

No, not the boss-eyed vegetable budgie that he was constructing to pop in his aperitif, but the very bones that kept it on its perch. Cocktail sticks! 

Yet again, they have come to the rescue. First for the mini Mini House balcony rails and now the stair rods. And I must say I'm very happy with the results.  

Although Mr PJ will now have to use something else to stir his Bloody Mary's.  But I'm sure if he talks nicely to "Q" they'll find him something....

The finished cocktail stick stair rods

How they were made

Use Tacky Glue to glue glass beads on to each end of a trimmed and sanded cocktail stick, to make finial ends

Crimp covers used in jewellery making are glued in place, to become the stair rod brackets

Sprayed with two coats of Pewter spray paint and then polished with a soft cloth

Glued in place with tiny drops of wood glue and left overnight to dry

The mini House of Frankenstein

Just when it was all going so swimmingly, I have had my first disaster. 

Having received some very positive and lovely comments (for which I thank you) regarding the start of my quest to turn the junk shop house into No 1. Heatherside Corner, I may have allowed myself to become a little smug about the tiny achievements I have had so far.  The sawing, clamping, glueing, painting and sanding have progressed well. My creation is a success so far.... [Cue mad laugh]

To counteract this, and to put me firmly back in my amateur place,  The Mini House Project has bared its teeth and bitten me firmly on the behind. I have wasted a whole day and in the process, have pretty much ruined the beautifully crafted, tiny dolls house by Jacqueline Crosby Miniatures, which I purchased from the City of London Dolls House Festival last weekend. 



In my over-enthusiasm to "Mini Houseify" everything, I thought it would be a good idea to turn the handmade, wooden miniature dolls house I bought, into a tiny version of the slightly bigger thing. Instead of leaving well alone.

Well now the damage is done (apologies in advance to Ms Crosby). 

A similar house to mine, by Jacqueline Crosby Miniatures, 
but one that has escaped being Minihouseified...

I have created a monster. Complete with scars, stitch marks and copious amounts of glue. Having not only sawed bits off it, printed, and then firmly glued on sheets of replica, only smaller, brickwork, I decided to make matters worse by trying to add badly made cardboard window frames. 

But not, sadly, before prising off all the original and perfectly formed window sills and chimneys with my little scalpel, with a view to re-gluing them once my "work here was done". 

And then, to put the icing on the already sinking cake, I attempted to paint it with acrylic, in bad light, while wearing my old reading glasses (the lenses of which are only marginally thinner than the bottom of milk bottles).

It has not gone well. 

The Bride of Mini House's best side - believe me, you don't want to see what the other side looks like.... 

The condemned signs are up. And I don't think I can soak the glue and paper off the poor tiny monstrosity, to return it to its former self. It is "subject to demolition".  I have put it back in its box for now, and am considering burying it later in the back garden, with a few well chosen words to mark it's passing. 

The Lesson has been learned.  Never try to run before you can walk. And never, ever, run with scissors.

"Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be his world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow." Mary Shelley - Frankenstein.

But onwards and upwards.

The Mini House Project continues. It's all a learning curve afterall.
The trials and tribulations of turning a junk-shop dolls house into No 1. Heatherside Corner .....