Deja vu all over again

There is once again snow on the ground and I am once again home sick with a cold.  Grrr, there ought to be a law against getting two colds so close together.  Plus my manager is probably going to start wondering if I am just avoiding having to travel to work in the snow.  It's supposed to be spring, I was enjoying seeing all the bulbs poking out of the ground and now they are hidden under a blanket of white.  Ironically we are shifting to British Summer Time next weekend. This weather is so bizarre.

I've been snuggling under my new GAA Afghan while I work on my oldest outstanding quilt UFO, the Hawaiian applique quilt. This was hibernating in a cupboard for several months while I did other things waiting for me to make some templates for the flowers.  I've stitched down all the stems and leaves so it's only the ring of flowers  left to do on the main part of the quilt.  There's supposed to be a border after that but I may stop while I'm winning.

This week I was back at work (possibly where I caught the new germs) but in the evenings and on my day off I was working on the Japanese dollshouse, mostly on the extensions to the bathhouse and kitchen.  Although not very big, these were surprisingly involved with lots of steps to complete for interior and external detail.  I've also made a few accessories, and jumped ahead to complete the ceiling to the bath house.

The new spa ceiling, and some little stools

The kitchen sink - looking online I think these were made from stone so I've painted mine accordingly.  The weighing scales are for the spa changing room.

Then it was time to attempt to hinge the extensions onto the house.  I'd taken heed of the struggles of the original blogger who said the screws were horrible and the heads stripped easily.  I ruined two  screws (luckily they give you two spares) while I worked out the best combination of drill size and mini screwdriver, then managed to hinge on the two extensions.

This is what the ground floor of the house looks like with the extensions closed. The clapboard is now in place, and the changing room has a shoji rice paper screen.

The ground floor with the hinged extensions open

The changing room extension to the bath house with sliding doors

The kitchen extension

Train knitting has been the 10-stitch triangle shawl which is slowly growing in size.  You could probably use it as a head kerchief now.  And I've been doing some cross-stitch in front of the telly while I'm sick.

This weekend was supposed to be a lace weekend with an outing to the lace day in Oakley yesterday and getting together with lace friends today, but I had to drop out of both due to germs.  The thing today has been cancelled anyway because of the snow.  I should try to do some bobbin lace on my own but I just don't feel like concentrating on it.

I had a bit of good news last week, I'm getting a small raise at work which will be backdated to June so this month's pay cheque should have a small windfall.  I think I'm going to spend it on a mini disc sander to help with the dollshousing.  I already own a fairly vicious belt sander but it's both inaccurate and overkill for small dollshouse items: more likely to tear them out of your hand, destroy them, and spit them out into a far corner of the workshop than to reduce a bit of material like you intended.