Beacon Hill Exterior Colors: i used a light olive green for the body of the house, and dark brown and a brownish burgundy for the trim. most of the roof is black, except for corroded copper over the bay windows.

Judy London

House Colors: When doing a house it's always nice to use at least three if not five colors. If the house has lots of gingerbread or layers(such as shingled apex area) you can get away with more than three.

A few color schemes come to mind. Three shades of green, softened, with the darkest(forest) for window sash and door or a pale green body with sienna sashes and coral shutters and door. There you would use off-white for window frames.

Or you could try two shades of rose with burgundy sash and teal door. I used that combo on my bridal shop building and the teal just pops on the rose. Another possibility would be soft yellow with coral or peach and green. Can't give you the exact shades, as I use paint made for dollhouses and the names I have wouldn't mean anything to you. Look at a color wheel and use the color opposite your body for the accent and shades of your body for other areas.

Lots of great ideas in the Painted Lady books you can find at the library or your miniature shop may carry them. I'm dying to use a deep purple on my next building...for accent.

Pick up lots of paint swatches at your local paint store and play around with them. Also think of the wallpapers and carpets you'll be using. Remember, you're making a work of art.

Roy and Marcie,

The differences in roast turkey and goose: Having baked and eaten both, this is a description: a baked goose is flatter and much more angular than a turkey. (The turkey has a high chubby breast, and the goose's is flatter - same problem a lot of us ladies have.) The whole goose, looking down on it, will be shaped more like a rectangle, with the legs being much smaller, closer to the rump, and sticking out straighter, parallel with the table while the turkey's legs stick up at an angle. Hope this vague description helps a little. The goose looks more like a roast duck. (if you've ever seen a roast duck!)

Paulette in IN

Tomatoes: I cannot stress clearly enough the one BIG thing I have really learnt from all this is have an original to look at - it makes a huge difference. Also it has the odd effect of making me feel very secure, especially as regards size. Certainly in my case, once I've made something in Fimo if I feel the need to check the size I can guarantee that size will be wrong.

Tomatoes vary greatly in their colour, so I did a red / orange mix with three different proportions of both.

For the calyxes (the green spider thingies) I ran some leaf green Fimo through the pasta machine till it came out thin as paper and then cut off bits no bigger than whiskers. These I put in a star formation and then added to the tomato. Tragically, for sizing I was using cherry tomatoes, so it was really HARD work - tomorrow I'll try and get some regular sized ones. I baked them for 10 mins at 130 degrees C.

Helen from York, England

Mushrooms
For the bodies I followed Angie Scarr's recipe of 50% white/50% translucent with a dab of ochre. First I rolled very fine long sausages of this mixture for the stems which I baked alongside the mushrooms.

For the bodies of button mushrooms make a teeny ball of mushroom mix and poke a bit of stem into it - this makes the body bulge convincingly round the stem.

For what we English call 'field' mushrooms, where one can see the gills. ....After much brooding, I mixed 65% rose du bois Fimo (a deep duty pink) with 5% dark brown and 30% black. This mix matched the sample from the fridge. Hurrah!

I layered mushroom body mix and mushroom gill mix once, ran it through the pasta machine, then cut little discs with a Klemper cutter, poked a stem in the gill side and formed the cap around the stem.

Using the finest toothpick I scraped lines in the gills. I baked the mushrooms for 10 minutes at 130 degrees C.

Helen from York, England

Bed sizes: Article in yesterday's paper gave the measurements for all real life mattress sizes so thought I would pass them along:
Crib 27" x 52" (2 1/4" x 4 11/32")
Twin 39" x 75" (3 1/4" x 6 1/4")
Double 54" x 75" (4 1/2" x 6 1/4")
Queen 60" x 80" (5" x 6 22/32")
King 76" x 80" (6 11/32" x 6 22/32")
There is also a mattress called the California king which measures 74" x 84"

Maureen in St. Albert AB Cda

RealLife vs HOM kits: More experience from the past. Worked up lots of Realife and HOM kits. Realife wood not near as high quality - therefore takes more time to get good end results. Also - never, never use the water-based stains and anything else that came with the kits. Use good oil-based products - HOM finishing kits work well on any wood. Sand and stain before assembly. Always. With every kit. Wood with Realife subject to warpage due to less than ideal quality.

These kits were wonderful for Victorian houses - quite good designs, realistic marble tops and great hardware - These are worth acquiring - good luck!

Phyl in Kentucky

Victorian kitchen counters: Late Victorian kitchens did not have counters. Free standing tables served as work surfaces. In fairly grand houses there were counters of a sort in the butler's pantry, usually wood, but these were not for food preparation. Instead, they were used as staging areas for food to be served in the dining room, dishes and serving pieces to be put away, or for silver polishing, etc. Shelving in kitchens was open, often just nailed up on the wall, sometimes free standing shelves resembling bookcases. Kitchen cabinets and counters as we know them today did not come into use until the first quarter of the 20th century. Hope this helps.

Margaret in Texas

Victorian Kitchens: I hate to disagree with anyone (no, really!) but fitted kitchens did exist in Victorian times - well towards the end anyway.

I have a National Trust book showing many, many kitchen interiors and they were definitely fitted in the big houses although I guess a country cottage would not have one so grand.

Wall cupboards with glass fronted doors and floor standing cupboards with top drawers tend to be fitted together to become dressers (china hutches). Other wall cupboards have marble tops for cold foods such as fish, dairy produce and pastry making and there are shelves above for preserves, pots and pans etc. The style is very much like shaker.

The main difference is the use of the central positioned kitchen table. This was used as a work top for most food preparation and usually had a rack beneath for storage and drawers for cutlery and utensils.

Karon

Victorian Kitchens: Looking back through antique and reproduction books of architects' designs. Bicknell (1873) as a fairly typical example frequently includes a sink and a bit of work area beyond in his floor plans but hardly enough space for micro wave, cuisenart, and a portable television, not to mention the toaster, juicer, and bread box.

Woodward's National Architect of 1869 (reprinted by Dover Press 1988) offers some very good insight. While these drawings consistently indicate shelves in closets, pantries, and privy, there is seldom more illustrated for the kitchens than (always) the range and (usually) a sink with some small work area beyond the actual sink itself and a boiler. In one case, the sink isn't even in the kitchen but, rather, in the adjacent pump room.

Woodward's "carpenter's specifications" tell as much by what they omit as by what they say. In the category "inside finish" subsection "shelves, hooks, ETC." :

"Shelf the closets and pantries as indicated on the plans and otherwise required. Fit up each end of the waiters' pantry, with counter shelf, and two dovetailed drawers, as indicated on the drawing. Also provide kitchen pantry with two dovetailed drawers"

In another set of carpenter specs, he expands to say "shelves in waiters' pantry to be enclosed with panel doors fastened with cupboard locks, and all drawers to have drawer locks." Woodward's specification for the plumber is to "furnish and put up a 36x20x6 inch cast iron sink with iron legs. . ."In the drawings for his design #15 on plate #63, a 14 X 16' kitchen is shown with a large range in the middle of the back wall. to the right is a space little more than 5 foot wide for sink (with small counter) and boiler. On the left is the door to an isolated kitchen pantry (with shelves and bins) Also shown are wash trays and dotted lines to indicate where a table would fit into the architect's scheme. There is also a built-in "dresser"(enclosed shelves - no counter) on a kitchen wall adjacent to the door to a well equipped waiter's pantry complete with counter space, sink (smallish), cabinets, and cupboard.

This book offers many fascinating insights into Victorian architecture, construction, and the accouterments of the then contemporary lifestyle. The reprint is retitled "A Victorian Housebuilder's Guide" For $10.00 at Barnes and Noble (sp?), its much more fun than a movie pass.

Sorry about being so long: Note the reprint is unabridged except for elimination of original "back of book" advertisements (Darn) I see no copyright claim within the modern frontpiece. (Dover Publications - Mineola, NY)

Mel Koplin