Aside from the fairy garden, I haven’t spent any time working on miniatures this summer.

The plan was to work on the porches and the garden of my dollhouse, but I think I’ve realized that mini’s are going to be more of a winter thing for me.

That being said, I have been accumulating stuff for the dollhouse porches.

I purchased this unfinished patio set at Hobby Lobby sometime last year.

When I had my milk paint out for another project recently, I decided to go ahead and paint these up at the same time.

I began by giving all four pieces a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean so that I would have something to distress my final coat of milk paint back to other than raw wood.

Next I mixed up some Sweet Pickens Milk Paint in a color called Pantry Door.  I had a sample packet that I purchased from The Painted Heirloom for $7.  The little sample packets work great for painting miniatures, and it’s a fun way to try out new colors.

After applying two coats of the milk paint, I sanded the pieces with 220 grit sandpaper to distress them.  I tried to only sand back to that darker Coffee Bean layer, and I mostly succeeded.

Of course, there are also some spots where I went too far.

But that’s OK, I still love how they turned out.

I staged them out in the fairy garden.

But I didn’t put any sort of top coat over the milk paint, so they definitely wouldn’t really hold up outside.  They’ll be fine on the porch of the dollhouse though, when I get to it.

Speaking of the fairy garden, I was out there doing a little pruning the other day and was amazed at how much some of the plants have taken off.

Remember the miniature hostas that I purchased at a garage sale back in June?

Here’s the Pandora’s Box in June when I planted it …

And here is it now.

And, in fact, I even divided this one initially breaking up the one plant I purchased into two plants.  Here’s the 2nd one …

This is one of the things I love about planting divisions from someone v. a new plant from a nursery.  They usually have a very established root system and the plant will fill out much more quickly.

Sadly, now that I have jumping worms in my garden, I can no longer easily share my own plants in this way.  Granted, I could share them if I carefully washed off all of the dirt that could contain jumping worm cocoons.  But personally, I’d rather not take the chance of giving others jumping worms.

That being said, I already have jumping worms so I’m not so concerned about bringing them in on garage sale plants.  Maybe that’s a mistake, I don’t know.  Bottom line; don’t risk it in your garden.  Do as I say, not as I do.

But I digress, this post was supposed to be about miniature patio furniture.

Coming soon I’ll share the bistro set that I painted up for the porch, I can’t share it quite yet because I used a new color from the Dixie Belle Silk paint line.  I have to wait for the official reveal before I can share that with you.  But stay tuned, because this color is quickly becoming my new favorite!