Dollhouse Ceiling

 My dollhouse already has a cloud mural on the ceiling of the first floor. Yesterday, I was seriously considering printing copies of genuine ceiling murals and adding them to the center of each ceiling, allowing the clouds to show along the edges.

These murals were under consideration.

L'Aurora by Guido Reni, c. 1612-1614

Virgin and Unicorn by Domenico Zampieri, c, 1604-1605

Today, I am more considering doing a rosette medallion in the middle of the ceilings of the living room and library instead.

That feels more upper-middle-class to me, rather than "Italian prince palazzo."

Or, of course, I can do the medallion in the living room and the unicorn mural in the library.

That might be the way to go.

Do I want to do realism or fantasy? Tsk, tsk, choices, choices.

I found the rosette on the Lowe's website by searching for "rosette." Here is the link.

There are different ones out there. This one is plastic. I am hoping that will be more light-weight, since it has to stay on the ceiling.

Today, I am more considering doing a rosette in the middle of the ceilings of the living room and library ore considering doing a rosette in the middle of the ceilings of the living room and library instead.

Dolls in Pink Dresses

 Just two more doll pictures from this week.

Kavi and Samantha!

I love classic birthday Samantha with her pink striped dress and teddy bear.

The dress Kavi is wearing photographed pink-ish, but is obviously orange. It's gorgeous on her!

I had sandals for her, but they kept falling off. I was kind of hoping that her bare feet wouldn't show in the picture. Oops.

Amazing Addy Thrift Store Find

I found a Molly wearing Addy's prototype dress at the Salvation Army, the one that never has anything good, that looks like the land of lost hopes. 

The one in walking distance from my girlfriend's apartment, so I joked that we are going to have to start taking romantic walks to the thrift store to look for AG stuff. 

Anyway, it took me a couple of months to take a picture.

I was absolutely thrilled! 

I sill need to get a picture of Molly. She is all cleaned up, but she still has loose limbs.

I have had some amazing thrift store finds in my time, but this one is definitely one of my best.

Doll Photos

 I am trying to take more pictures of my dolls! I try to spend five minutes a day now changing an outfit or taking a picture in the backyard. It helps. 

I don't have to wait to have enormous amounts of free time to do something with the dolls!

Jess looks gorgeous in everything. She is the Doll Most Likely to Be on Cover OF Vogue and Then Become a Therapist.

I got Gwen's dress at the thrift store for $14! I love it so much!

I am not sure which dress this is that Danielle is wearing, but it's giving me 1920s vibes.

I'm going to put it on Claudie and Phryne Valancy too,

Joss is ready for summer!

I think that the Squishmallow looks like Jip and would be perfect to pair with Samantha's modern dress.

Speaking of which, here is Astrid modeling Felicity's modern dress. I love it. I want all four of them at this point.

I am just concerned about how difficult it will be to repair them when the elastic wears out.

Saige and Sam are modelling Cowboy Cool, as always. 

Sewing Project Ideas

 One of the projects that I would like to make some day is a doll-sized version of Belle's library gown with really lush fabrics.

Belle's my favorite princess, and this is my favorite of her gowns. Even if AG makes it, I am not sure I trust them to do it right.

Original dress:

Inspiration:

Dollhouse Floor Mistake

 It's a good thing that I decided to lay out the dollhouse to see how it would fit the space.

I seem to have accidentally ordered two different colors of wood floor effect contact paper and used both of them, without noticing.

OOPS.

I am glad that I caught this. I prefer the darker flooring color.

I was able to order another roll of contact paper in the right color. 

Otherwise, this mistake would have really annoyed me. 

This is a relatively easy fix, and I found it in good time. 

I just wanted to share this in case anyone thought I was an infallible crafter. It's good to know that everyone makes mistakes, right? 

Dollhouse First Floor Mock Up

 I haven't put the dollhouse together yet. I still need to do the windows and curtains.

But I am impatient, so as I cleaned out space in my sewing room, I put together a mock up of what the dollhouse will look like on the first floor, and how the furniture will fit inside.

This is the carport. I want it to be a garden/ spot for toasting marshmallows.

I bought Blaire's garden on Facebook Marketplace for $30 for this purpose!

I have Kit's chicken somewhere, I should let her hang out with the silkie chicken.

I got the pots of lavender at the thrift store.

I am not going to put in the hot tub, so there won't be a second story over this space.

This is the parlor.

I customized the fireplace that came with the dollhouse kit. The couch is non-AG and came off Marketplace. Maybe someday it will get replaced with Rebecca's couch. The issue it has is that the back of it doesn't look very good, so it needs to be up against a wall.

The Turkish rug is a mouse pad!

The little vase on top of the fireplace came from the thrift store.

I wanted Rebecca's sideboard, but it looks like it won't fit. It's a good thing I didn't spend $200 on that on ebay.

Here is the library, which was formerly the kitchen.

I made almost all of the tiny books. The vase is from the thrift store. The Turkish rug is a mousepad.

I made one mistake. When I looked at the room dimensions, I thought that two of these bookcases would fit side by side. They won't. I must have mistaken the height of the room for the width of the room. So that's a little disappointing, but it's a cute cozy room.

I am looking forward to finishing the dollhouse!

There will be a lot more little knickknacks added to the decor when it is finished.

I am definitely hanging pictures on the walls as well! I haven't worked out HOW yet, but it will happen.

Painting the Dollhouse Entrance

 The front door of the dollhouse is set in a wall that is plain grey plastic.

I guess it has modern vibes, but I thought it was ugly.

It has a lot of gadgets, including the door, a working light, a doorbell, an alarm, a doggy door, etc.

All of this would make it really hard to wallpaper over.

So I decided to paint it instead.

On the inside, I painted the grout and the doorway antique white.

I was so worried that I was going to ruin the whole thing!

Then I painted the bricks a brick red, and the doggy door brown.

In some cases, several layers of paint were needed.

I didn't mind if a little grey showed through on the bricks, though. I felt that it added realism.

On the other side of the door, I painted the doorway and the house number black. I painted the doggy doorway and the box for the doorbell brown.

I left some of the grey on this side of the house. I felt that it was okay for a house exterior.

I also added varnish on top of the paint. The paint I used was acrylic and chipped very easily.

I am not going to lie, I am very proud of this. 

It's not perfect, but it's a huge improvement over a dull grey hunk of plastic.

The other thing is, the paints that I used were paints from my grandfather. 

He used them to make toys for his grandkids in the 90s. It made me feel close to him, and it helped me to remember him as a warm, doting grandfather.

Dollhouse Curtain Rods

 Even the curtain rods were a project in this dollhouse.

All the reviews of this dollhouse complained about the curtain rods, and how the curtains wouldn't move smoothly.

They're basically unpainted blocks of wood.

So instead of complaining about them, I decided to work on them.

I have to overcomplicate everything for this project!

I sanded them down first.

Then I painted them brown.

I covered the brown paint with a very subtle gold sparkle paint. I only like it because it's subtle, haha.

Last, I varnished the curtain rods.

I need to attach them to the dollhouse walls, once I made the curtains.

I can either screw them into the wall, as the manufacturer intended, which would make them permanent.

OR I could mount them on velcro so that the curtains can be swapped out.

I don't really have any plans to swap the curtains in the future, but I might try the velcro anyway, just in case.

Anyway, the main idea is to have functional curtain rods that don't take attention away from other parts of the dollhouse.

Dollhouse Fireplace Customization

 I SAID that I was going to work on curtains or windows in the dollhouse next.

Turned out that I was lying to myself.

I kept saying to myself that I could do the fireplace after the dollhouse was finished. But I couldn't resist.

I liked that the dollhouse came with a fireplace. It has a lovely fake fire effect. 

However, it looked super plastic. I knew that I could improve it.

I started by painting the bricks antique white.

The brick pattern was embossed on the existing plastic. However, since everything was white, it wasn't very visible. The paint made it stand out and look more realistic.

Just that on its own was a huge improvement.

Then I painted the bricks a brick color. They were so small that some of them are a little uneven, but I am telling myself that this adds to the antique effect.

I painted the logs several layers of brown and green.

I painted the back wall behind the logs black and the box under the logs black.

Then I started adding marble contact paper.

I liked the idea of the storage spaces in the fireplace, but it just looked too modern. So I closed over the front with a sheet of plastic and marble contact paper.

We all need whimsy in our lives, however. Before I closed off the storage spaces for good, I added a scroll with my name and the date, a treasure map, and a rubber duck inside. It makes me happy.

Here is the fireplace for now. I would like to add marble columns to the front someday maybe. 

I may also add some grey chalk behind the logs to look like ash on the back wall.

But for now, it looks great, and perfectly fitted for a Victorian dollhouse.

Bitty Baby Thrift Store Find!

 I found this Bitty Baby at the thrift store yesterday for $4!

She needs some cleaning up, but she is is pretty good shape.

She is the first of the "newer style" Bitty Babies that I have with eyebrows. I like the eyebrows.

I haven't given her a name yet.

She's my fourth Bitty Baby. I should get them out and take a group photo.

Dollhouse Wallpaper is Finished!

 All of the walls in my dollhouse now have wallpaper!

This photo shows the two back walls and one side wall.

I think it's so pretty!

Next steps would be adding the stained glass windows, curtain rods and curtains.

Then I need to reorganize the room that I want to put the dollhouse in, and then I can start putting it together! 

I can't wait!

Once the rooms are assembled, I am going to add crown molding. I was reading about details that make dollhouses seem more real, and crown molding was on the list. I found some peel and stick crown molding that is the same width as the original crown molding in the original dollhouse decorations (1.5 inches.)

I don't want to add that before the dollhouse is assembled, because I don't know exactly where the walls will be fitting together.

I'm also thinking about putting together an extra room for Samantha's ice cream parlor, hee hee. I could use corrugated plastic for the walls.

Dollhouse Update

 The dollhouse is coming along!

I have wallpaper on all but three of the walls  now.

When the wallpaper is done and the windows are in, the next step will be cleaning out the room that it is going in.

Which won't be nearly as much fun. Ha.

After looking at Victorian decorations, they almost all had Turkish rugs.

Did you know that you can buy "mouse rugs" or "placemats" that look like Turkish rugs that are the right size for AG? Now you do! Link

Also, I was looking at a dollhouse forum that said crown molding makes dollhouses look so much more real. I really didn't want to learn wood working just to make crown molding.

I wished that there was paper that looked like crown molding that you can just glue on.

Guess what? There is! Link

I decided that my decorating inspiration is going to be Black Point in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Black Point is the summer home for a rich beer manufacturer, Conrad Seipps. It has lots of fancy details. But the design is also somewhat relaxed, because it's a summer home. It has such a peaceful atmosphere. It is owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, and you can tour it in the summer!

Its decorating reassures me that some Victorian homes have plain white crown molding, I don't need to worry about gilded crown molding. I can have some exposed wood floors. Things like that.

I had a friend suggest that I should have a house warming party when the dollhouse is finished.

I might do just that.

Miss AG Bear and More

 I decided to indulge my inner child and buy Miss AG Bear.

She was on Marketplace for $20, with all of her original clothes and accessories. Hat, vest, skirt, backpack and watch.

I was really pleased to have her in such good condition, like brand new, with all of her items.

She was in a  different city, so naturally I visited the thrift stores while I was there.

And, to my utter surprise, I found Josefina's bed for $5. 

It's just the bed frame, so mattress or pillow or blanket.

But I'm so excited! And it's tagged Made in Taiwan for Pleasant Company.

I haven't fixed it up yet for her. I will take more photos when I do!

Thrift Store Score!

 Today's thrift store find was a MLA doll wearing this cute AG dress.

This dress really makes me think about how AG quality has changed. 

The dress was very dirty, but I have it soaking. Hopefully, it will clean off well!

Addy's School Dress

 I also bought the re-release of Addy's School Dress.

I was especially excited to get her special pin for winning the school spelling bee!

I am happy that American Girl is releasing its classic outfits again, and so is Addy.

This is Beforever Addy. It fits her very well.

I need to see how it fits my Pleasant Company Addy as well. 

Kirsten's School Dress

 I was very happy that American Girl re-released Kirsten's school outfit.

It's just a classic. And, unlike everything else they sell now, it's not pink.

To celebrate, I took Kirsten to Old World Wisconsin. I was able to get some great photos!

Kirsten looks right at home in the general store.

The dress fits my Kirsten perfectly. She is an older Pleasant Company doll from 1994.

Actually, she's my sister's. I am keeping her safe. Hee hee.

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I do! This dress is really making me happy.

Dollhouse Stained Glass Windows

 This is just a tiny update. I haven't DONE anything with them yet, but the stained glass windows (window clings) that I ordered off etsy are here.

I love them! They are better than I expected. 

They are textured, do they look real, but they are transparent and let light through. 

I am going to run a string of lights behind the dollhouse so you can see light coming through the windows.

This is the Lake Geneva tulip stained glass design by Frank Lloyd Wright.

This is the water lily stained glass design by Frank Lloyd Wright.

I bought these on etsy from a shop called bigwordld19. Here's a link if you are curious.

Here is a picture of how the window fits in the window of the larger right hand side room on the upper story.

It is a tiiiiny bit too big, but can easily be cut down to fit.

I am struggling with the wallpaper. I tried to use Mod Podge to glue it down. It looked smooth, but somehow dried wrinkled. I am looking for ways to improve. Luckily, I started cautiously with one small section. So I didn't waste much paper.

Current ideas include rubber cement, wallpaper paste and spray glue. 

Also, one thing happened that made me really happy that I was wallpapering anyway.

All the boards have small stickers with numbers on them to help you assemble.

I was removing the sticker from one board, and it tore the pink paint of the wall that it was on. 

This is kind of a bad picture. 

But I'm glad that removing this sticker didn't permanently damage the dollhouse for me.

Cleaning Up Molly

 I am working on fixing up Molly.

She was soooo dirty, I could see that with my naked eye.

I scrubbed her with Magic Eraser so hard that the eraser disintegrated. Dirty water was coming off of her as well.

I brushed and re-braided her hair.

She had glitter up her nose, so I had to literally use a Q tip to pick her nose and get it out.

The Q tip also helped removing make up from around her eye.

I think she could probably use another going over with Magic Eraser, but she's a lot better.

Her hair is in pretty good shape. It's a little dry at the end.

I dressed her in some clothes that I sewed myself. She's wearing Maryellen's saddle shoes.

Her glasses were from a different thrift store. They are a little too big for her and won't stay on on their own. I was able to use barrettes to fasten the glasses to her hair and help them stay on.

Her legs are very loose and need new elastic.

She's a newer doll than I thought. She had the dress from 1993 on, so I assumed she was Pleasant Company. However, she doesn't have an artist's mark, she doesn't have squishy vinyl. Her head says Pleasant Company and she has a small body tag. So I am guessing that she is a transitional doll.

Anyway, Molly is feeling better and looks much more like herself now!

Happy Halloween!

 Ellie wishes everyone a happy Halloween!

I found this outfit new in box at the thrift store a few months ago. I was super excited!

I liked the outfit when it was released, but I thought that it was overpriced. And I got it for $7! So exciting!

(I won't blame you if you hate me for all my thrift store luck, I would be jealous of myself, too.)