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.)

Thrift Store Find: Addy's Prototype Meet Dress

 Yesterday, I had a doctor's appointment in a town about 30 minutes away from me.

Several hours after the appointment, I had an ASL class in the same town.

I decided to not spend time and gas driving back and forth after my doctor's appointment. 

Instead, I visited several of my favorite stores in this town.

Since I had plenty of time, I decided to stop by one thrift store that I never find anything at. I thought maybe I would find some small accessories to use in the doll house.

To my utter surprise, I found Wellie Wishers Emerson for $7 in among the kid's toys. She had her dress and boots and everything.

I was even more surprised when I found Molly in the collector dolls section. Molly was very dirty and had messy hair.

She was marked at $5.

And she was wearing Addy's prototype meet dress.

I knew what it was immediately. I have seen one in person before. One of my friends has it and showed it to me.

I couldn't believe it.

I circled the store several times to make sure that I hadn't missed anything, then I went to check out.

I still can't believe it.

I don't know how I have such good luck at the thrift store. Living in Wisconsin probably helps, since we had the MCM sale for many years. 

Wow.

I thought for sure I would wake up and find that this was all a dream.

Dollhouse Floors

 I love wood floors. I remember being about 7 and telling my grandmother that I loved the wood floors in her house.

I hated that the American Girl dollhouse came with rugs printed on the floor. It looks so fake.

I also had my own plans for rugs. My older cousin Louise crocheted these beautiful yarn "dish clothes."

I always thought they were too pretty to use as dish clothes. I saved them and hoped to use them as doll rugs someday. That day is coming.

Louise now has arthritis in her hands that is very painful, so I think she will be excited to see her work in my dollhouse.

All of this to say- I covered the dollhouse floors in contact paper that looks like wood. No more printed rugs!

Of course, I COULD have just covered the printed rugs with my own rugs, but that would dictate where I placed my rugs. This gives me more freedom to change things up.

The contact paper that I got is here. It's called "MelunMer Wood Peel and Stick wallpaper."

Dollhouse Customization Links

 From the minute that I even thought about owning an AG dollhouse, I knew that I wanted to customize it.

I studied art history in college. I still love art and want to integrate that into the dollhouse.

I originally said that I wanted a vibe that would be somewhat Victorian, but also classic for any era.

Well, so far the Victorian is rather winning out.

It took me a while to figure out how to bring the vision to life, and I want to share that with you.

I worked on figuring all of his out BEFORE I started putting the dollhouse together.

First of all, I wanted cloud murals on the ceiling, so I added cloud cling film to the ceiling. 

I wanted wood floors without a rug design printed on them, so I got contact paper with a wood floor design to put on the floors.

I wanted bookcases to hold tiny books, so I bought these 16 inch cabinets. 

I wanted William Morris wallpaper. I looked at a LOT of ways to potentially do this.

I hope that I made the right decision. *crosses fingers.*

I ended up buying William Morris wrapping paper to use as wallpaper.

For my library, (formerly the kitchen) I wanted the seaweed pattern. It's very dramatic, but I hoped it would be broken up by the bookcases.

For the living room and bedroom, I wanted the Leicester pattern.

For my writing room (formerly the bathroom), I wanted the clover pattern.

Anyone who has known me for more than five minutes knows that I love stained glass and Frank Lloyd Wright.

I had thought of putting some of my own photos in the windows of the dollhouse.

I decided instead to add stained glass windows.

To do this, I again bought cling film, to place on clear plastic and to put in the windows. I was able to find some at the right size with Frank Lloyd Wright designs. They even had two of my favorite designs, the water lily design and the Lake Geneva tulip design.

I also wanted to hang up some tiny vintage-looking keys near the front door for the realism factor. I bought these keys, and was very pleased with them.

I am very, very excited to see all of this come together.

I hope that I am able to finish the dollhouse before too many years pass, haha.

I am definitely making this a more complicated process than it needs to be. However, I am making it into something that I can really enjoy and be proud of. That is worth the time.