Where To Go From Here

I'll admit, this weekend I've been a bit aimless.  I've caught a summer cold, which is always a delight, so I haven't felt my best and as a result I don't feel like I'm accomplishing much.

I'm on another mini vacation which is nice, because at least I'm not going to work feeling awful.  And I'm not cheating on my diet because quite frankly food doesn't sound appetizing.

So I've been puttering and finishing up a few things.  And quite frankly I haven't trusted myself with power tools so I'm putting off any working with the Dremel.

I got a few things in the mail.  Some pigeons I ordered to go in my dovecote arrived on Saturday.

My hinges came on Thursday so I started with doing the shutters on Friday.

You can see behind the dormer windows the bay window has been sanded and painted out.  I blended Americana Buttercream and Warm White and I think I'll try to do that for all the plaster inside.  I like the color, it's warm and traditional.

Apparently Tudor homes weren't always white plaster, a lot of them were mustard yellow, red or pink or a nice cream.  So I think it's a good compromise and it looks good with the Dark Walnut stain.

I haven't done the trim for the casement windows yet but I did get the shutters on them.

I'll get some trim figured out for them in a bit.  I don't want it to be too wide in comparison to the rest of the window trim.

I also made some trim and shutters for the bay window.  I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.

Since everything else on the ground floor had shutters I felt like the bay window should too.

I wanted to be able to wire the tower with lights but I can't do that until I get the inside of the third floor somewhat finished.  So I covered the wood floor and used my Greenleaf Stucco on the walls.

I painted the walls white underneath and then mixed a bit of Buttercream with the stucco.  It looks a little rough but pretty good.  I'll put my 'timbers' over it after I stain them.

Then I used my plaster and covered the outside.  I want it to have plenty of time to dry.

While that's been drying I started to finish the windows for the tower stairs.

I painted them and then dry brushed different greys on to give them a stone effect.

Then I used the last of my stucco for mortar.  I like how it looks but now I need to figure out something else for my mortar on the stair tower and the lower floor of the cottage or order more and hope it comes in quickly.

So I did some research and came across C.J.'s tutorial on doing plaster and lathe and decided I'd order her materials and see how I do with them.  They're relatively cheap on Amazon and they'll get here Tuesday.  I can mix the antique white with the buttercream and get the color I want to use.

I'm pretty happy with how they came out.  I got a bit of mortar on the leaded glass but it cleans up easily enough with a little water.

I can't wait to get them on the tower.  I'm so excited for how they'll look.

Speaking of the tower, I'm debating my original plan to use sandpaper bricks.  I'm not confident in my ability to keep the line of bricks level and they're very time consuming.  I've never worked with the Magic Brick stuff though I've seen Jodi use it.  It looks like it would be quicker and would still give me the brick finish I want.

What do all of you think?