Monday 11 October 2010

Gertie's Little Industrious Cottage Part 1 ~ at the bottom of Hazel Hill















Hazel Hill is a magical place, said to be the place for all things mystical, bringing wisdom and good luck to all the good folk who enter. Nestled at the bottom of Hazel Hill is a little Cottage; Gertie's Little Industrious Cottage! Let's take a walk together and go visiting......

Here we are.... at the edge of Gertie's beloved garden.....


But first, we have to cross the bridge to get to Gertie's front door....

Mind your step though, it can be a little rickety....


Don't look down..... that stream looks a bit slimy and yucky... we don't want to put you off.....

Mind your step going down now.....



Phew, safely down. Lets stop awhile and say hello to Gertie's little animals. 



Gertie is very fond of the animals in her garden and they are fond of Gertie, but they know not to go in the slimy stream where Gertie discards her potion disasters because Gertie's potions have a habit of turning everyone into a big green dragon! I'm sure you will be meeting some along the way!

I hope you don't mind spiders... if you do, don't look up untill we have passed the Ivy....



Ah, finally.... we are here, at Gertie's front door....


But wait... let's say hello to the owls first...


Ssh, be careful not to wake Gertie's little dragon up, he's having a little snore in the sun :)

Ok.. Let's go back and knock on the door....


and say hello to the tiny Goblin and happy pumpkin sitting on the porch self....


Ooh, we musn't forget to say hi to Floosy Fliss and tell her how pretty she is looking today.... she has a tendency to bite your ankles as you pass if you ignore her ......






















Is that the door slowly opening ? ......
























We shall have to wait a little and see......

Till Tomorrow folks ....... Gertie is signing off....


Please respect that all the images and text here are copyright. The work that has gone into making Gertie's cottage has come about through a lot of dedication, love , sweat and yes, sometimes frustration by myself, hubby and fellow peeps who have contributed through Gertie swaps, giveaways and purchases. I am happy for you to link to these posts or to 'borrow' some images if you so wish, but please ASK first and let me know where the image will be used.. so that I can be nosy!!

To keep the text running smoothly in the main part if the post, I haven't acknowledged who has made particular items, so there will be a 'Credit goes too..' list at the end of each post. Anything that is not credited, was handmade by myself or hubby. If you want to know how we made something or what we used, please ask in the comments section, I will then happily leave you a reply explaining how we did it.

So...

Credit Goes too....

Giddy Kipper Dolls  for the amazing Gertie, who was a wonderful Miniatura purchase and inspired this entire project. Thankyou Jayne :0)
Michelle for her amazing plants and flowers dotted throughout Gertie's garden... at the begining of the bridge and the pot of dandelions at the end of the bridge. Thankyou Michelle :)
Nikki for all the glorious pumpkins and mushrooms in pots that I have been lucky enough to catch on Etsy and for her gift of the wonderful pumpkin birdhouse. Thankyou Nikki :)
Elf world creations for her wonderful Sussex Gnome hiding under his mushroom hat by the front door. Thankyou Ann :)
Petitewonders28 for the cute little cat sitting at the front of the porch. Thankyou Louise :)
Country Companions for the little Goblin sitting on the shelf, who are sadly no longer selling on Ebay.
Tallulah Belle Originals for the naughty, ankle biting Floozy Fliss. Thankyou Jayne :)

Dragons and owls bought from a local market, who laughed their heads off when I explained what I wanted them for!!

Well, I think that's everyone for today, but if I missed someone, please give me a gentle nudge and I will add you :0)

See you all tomorrow... hope you enjoyed...

Julia xxx

23 comments:

  1. Oh I did so enjoy the little trip this morning Julia, perfect with my morning cuppa coffee thankyou! I especially love the doorway that little porchway is fantastic! Im on the look out for owls for my Gertrudes cottage too, yours are lovely! The whole setting is a delight! Where does Gerties cottage live, I hope it has pride of place in the house? Well done to you both its a beautiful project, roll on tour number 2!! Kate xxx

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  2. Thankyou so much Kate, it took me forever to do the post because I am sooo fussy about Gertie's cottage lol. I'm glad you enjoyed it :) Gertie's cottage has pride of place in my dining room, which if you remember I turned into my craftroom/den last spring. It is a lovely sunny room, where all my favourite houses live. Hubby is in the middle of building the new store and a little bank to attach to the Wizards and Wands Bookstore, so I will soon have the little village on 'Hazel Hill' I am doing a new page for it on my blog now :) Then I have to edit the pics for Gertie's day 2!
    Julia xxxx

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  3. Brilliant Julia, can't wait for the next instalment. Love it..xxx

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  4. Ha sido un placer pasear por tu blog esta mañana, como si estuviese viendo un cuento de hadas en un escenario magnifico.
    Maravillosos detalles de grandes artesanas y un trabajo fantastico tuyo, enhorabuena.
    besitos ascension

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  5. Gracias, Ascension. Me conmueve, que es una cosa tan hermosa que decir :0)
    Julia xxx

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  6. It's a delight! I love the little raised bridge and I too love the door and porch! How did you make the arch shaped porch? I want to build a turret for my Nanny McPhee House, so maybe Hywel might have soem ideas?! Hywel has a wealth of talent for building houses!

    I love the garden too, lots to see and it looks like such a friendly place too! The ground you have done is just wonderful too. :o))

    I too look forward to seeing more! :o))

    Michelle xxx

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  7. Hi Michelle,
    We cheated, the basic structure of the cottage and porch is a DHE kit, they always do a cheap kit every year and we always buy one and chop it to bits, even if we just use the doors and windows, it is cheaper than buying the bits individually. But, you can make an arch shape using bendy flexable MDF. It has a ridged back and bends wonderfully, we have used it many a time to make a curved chimney or a shop counter. Another trick is to use a large cardboard tube, the type that you find bolts of material on or blinds delivered in. They take pollyfilla as a base really well, but we haven't tried Art Mache on them in case the wet mache distorts the shape. If you click my Witches Corner label, there is one of ours there.

    I love having a miniature at last! There are loads of little hidden gems, like frogs in the slimy stream and snakes hiding under the potion greenhouse. The kiddiewinks always have great fun getting their friends to find different things in there! of course there are your wonderful plants there too :0)
    Julia xxx

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  8. Thank you for this, Julia! The perfect pick-me-up for a rather dull Monday morning. I enjoyed it so much and am looking forward to the rest! I just love a display with tons to look at and discover.

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  9. Thankyou Tabitha :) Lots more tomorrow. I hope your monday gets brighter.
    Julia xxxx

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  10. wonderful story! hope to get more as we see inside.
    Fantastically made! Well done. Do you intend keeping it?

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  11. I must edit my reply to Michelle. I mean ' I love having a miniature GARDEN at last.. doh! I have lots of miniatures which is why hubby and my dad gang up on me and try to sell them off!!!
    Julia xxx

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  12. Hi Karin,
    Thankyou, I'm glad you liked my story and yes there will be more tomorrow... maybe one of the big green dragons will pop up tomorrow too :) Yes, I am keeping it, it has taken months of work and love to get to this stage and.... my darling son has already put in a request for it in my will!!! He's gonna have a long wait! lol
    Julia xxx

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  13. I just love seeing finished projects! There's so much to see I gotta go back for seconds. :)

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  14. I love it too Julia, such lovely minis.

    Lorra Luffies

    Debie xxxxxxxx

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  15. Quite the tour! I love what you have done with all the plants and flowers. The porch with the shelves is definitely my favorite :). Can't wait to see more!

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  16. Oh Julia I loved the guided tour around Gertie's garden and to see all her beautiful treasures. The little green wellies with eyes on made me chuckle xxxxx

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  17. Oooh.. the little green wellies, I forgot about them ;0) DHE if I remember rightly, they have been on a shelf in my work area for a long time waiting for a home, I think they have found it now :0)Glad you loved my tour Joy, hubby is home from work now and teased me!! :0(
    Julia xxxx

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  18. What a lovely tour Julia, I found myself following the trail with such delight. Everything works together perfectly.

    A great project which you can continue to add to with really perfect pieces.

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  19. Thankyou Janice, I'm glad you enjoyed following my trail along. I thoroughly enjoyed putting this post together, even if hubby did laugh!!
    Julia xxx

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  20. Una Entrada guardada Muy bien. Cada colocado Detalle Muy bien. No m Gusta Más Que Sabria. Todo, Todo Todo y me encanta.
    Besos Clara

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  21. Julia- I love Gertie's cottage! I keep going back to enlarge pictures to get closer looks- so much to see! How wonderful to have so many items from friends- I think that makes a dollhouse so much more special. I can't wait to see more!!

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  22. Julia, I love this cottage, I love Gertie, I love every single detail, I really love your style :))), and I love the story!!
    xxxx Glenda

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  23. Wow what a wonderful start to a tour. I love all of it. I love any house that has so many minis hiding that oyu have to keep going back to the photos and looking for more.

    The slimy stream is such a fab idea and looks perfectly yukky lol.

    Fliss bite ankles...surely not :-)

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