The Haberdashery

I love that word. What a neat way of saying Men's Furnishings Store. That's the definition in the Webster's Universal College Dictionary. Even that is a fancy way of saying "Hey man! Come here for your shoes, shirts, ties, socks, and suits.".

As you may have already guessed, the bookshop went to pout on a top shelf in my workroom yesterday when I had to clear off the table so that we could have our mini meeting. Well.....Buttercup is still pouting and refuses to come down. She can just stay there until she starts to behave again.

I decided to take the Haberdashery down for a little work. He has been waiting patiently on top of the book shelf for a number of months. I put the building up there because it stopped talking to me.

I bought this Ballhagen building at a mini garage sale that one of the women in the miniature club had a while ago. When I first got it home I was really loving it. Then I started working on it. I didn't really have a direction. I just knew it didn't want to sit there naked, without paint or shingles. I knew that it had to be batten and board siding. It practically grabbed the bottles of paint.

The outside is pretty much finished all but a sign on the front telling what kind of store it is. That was the problem. It didn't know what it was and neither did I. I had shelves, counters and other furnishings and knew it had to be a store. At one point I thought about turning it into a quilt shop. That was before the Rusty Needle came back to me. I thought about general store, but I have a large, antique wooden cracker box that is designated for that job......Someday. Anyway, the "long store" as I started calling it decided it needed a rest. It went to sleep on the top shelf.

I called it the long store because that is what it is. It opens from the top and is really long and not very deep. That is why I decided against a general store. It is kind of awkward to work on. It's the same kind of building as the Rusty Needle. I don't know why they made them open only from the top. When you get them done they are fine. It's just difficult to get the wallpaper, etc. inside and get it straight.

Here are all of the counters, shelves and other furnishings. The roll on top is iron on, wood veneer. That will be the floor inside. I keep hearing about people using this stuff for flooring and decided to try it this time.

As you can see, I have plenty of furniture. Now all I have to do is put a finish on it all. I will probably bash a couple of the Michael's dollar cabinets to go somewhere in the store.

So now you know. I am off on another tangent. It all eventually gets finished. I just can't stay on one thing. I need variety. Therefore, you get variety too. I promise to get back to the book shop as soon as it stops pouting. Right now the Haberdashery is more fun.

I am off to work on it now. See you tomorrow.