THE FISHERMAN'S COTTAGE

The old Sea-dog who lives here is a bit of a reprobate, the bane of his wife's life. She is a rather stern looking lady (away visiting her sick sister at the moment) who has never quite come to terms with his retirement - getting under her feet all day. We are unable to show you the interior as we gave it a knock when moving some real furniture & it's a bit of a muddle in there.
We had great fun decorating the exterior - the stonework is a cladding by "From little Acorns" and the 'slate' paving was made from vinyl floor tiles around a cobbled courtyard. I was too impatient to remove the cobble mould, which resulted in some unsightly holes here and there.However, we filled these with resin, with the result that it looks as thought the water has just dripped off the boat. A friend added some realism by painting the sides of the jetty a great slimy colour and I spent three days plucking the pile from some faded green velvet to make sea-weed. When we considered that there was enough - we dabbed glue along the side and (because I'd read in book somewhere that this was how to do it) I blew the velvet pile at the glue. Having vacuumed the mess from the floor, we started all over with the plucking process and the second time we pressed it onto the glue!
The house itself is rather special because it was built (from the Brian Nickolls book) for me by a good friend, Andy, who has had a heart transplant and this was a real effort for him. He also built the rowing boat.

The dolls are by Judith Cipkin.
And the other bits and pieces are my own work.