Dollhouses

 

 

I’ve always had a love for dolls.  My Mamma found this little shoebox dollhouse in her attic a couple of years ago and now my girls play with it.  I’d made it when I was in my early teens and had some of my little kid friends help me with it.  (I never had a little sister, but the “little kid friends” became my sister-in-laws later in life. J)  It’s tiny, so there’s only a living room and bedroom.

 

It’s all made from little bits of things from here and there that were found in our house. There’s a definite Victorian feeling to the “vanity” and the wallpaper that came from a sample book.   The slightly cocked chandelier is a gaudy gold button.  The “mirror”is fairly tarnished now, but it used to be the shiny end cap of a bought biscuit can.  The couch is cardboard, quilt batting, and fabric.

 

The little family was never quite perfected – their wooden ice-cream spoon heads were great, but the pipe cleaner limbs were certainly not gorgeous.  And their wardrobe… well, that consisted of robes.  Poor Papa must not feel too manly after all these years!

 

 

The Mamma’s hair is more mussed than it used to be, but I guess that’s to be expected after more than fifteen years of having a family of five children to care for. (Tiny Baby was lost at the time of these pictures, but she’s been found since, still fast asleep judging by the closed eyes and sweet smile painted on her face.)

 

The family Pup.

 

 I really haven’t changed much.  I still love dolls.  And dollhouses.  I’ve dreamed of building a real dollhouse for my girls, but I know it’s a huge project. 

 At our local landfill and they have a building where things are put that still have value. Then the county sells them to people like me who love to snoop around there. Well, an unfinished dollhouse caught my eye about a month ago and I thought it would definitely give me a head start. It was an ugly blue and without any doors, windows, or interior trim or stairs, but it was sturdy and a nice design. So I got it and have begun trying to transform it. I could get lost for days in my father-in-law’s shop just working on it. (He’s a generous man with his tools!) So far the times to work on it have been short. I took out a wall and moved the holes for the stairs to the opposite sides of the hallways. Feels like real remodeling! It has siding on the "roof" part now and stucco on the outside walls that's ready to be painted a cream color.

 

So that’s my project that fits in amongst all my other more important projects right now.  Someday you might see pictures of a completed house!  Someday.

 

 

"My tongue will speak of your righteousness

and of your praises all day long."

Psalm 35:28