Happy New Year!

There is a New Year  Eve's party in the Malibu beach house!

Happy New Year!!


Credits:  The dolls are mostly Topper Dawn dolls, with some Heidi Ott dolls and one of my boy dolls from Childhood from the Little Rascals.  The couch is Minimodernistas and the rest of the furniture is mostly PRD Miniatures.   The purple bowl of chips and dip and the plate of cheese on the coffee table are from a N.A.M.E. swap (National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts - it is a fun organization to join).

Merry Christmas!

Christmas preparations are under way in the Malibu Beach House (the family has partially moved in as they've given up waiting for the builder to complete the last 2 floors.   The builder got overwhelmed by all the detailed painting required.)

The children are baking Christmas cookies. 

(The cookie baking set is from Sue Ayers on eBay (the shop is sueslittlethings) (with some additions), and the furniture is from  PRD Miniatures(the couch is from MiniModernista).

Santa's elves are making the final toys and having a good time discussing their Christmas party.

Another view - which includes one elf who is wrapping presents.  You can see the little green bear from HannahsMiniatyrer.blogspot.com.  A very happy child will receive him as a present!

I am proud of my handmade wrapping paper holder (made with toothpicks and coffee stirrers).

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And here is the outside of the little house (it is the Miniatures.com 2014 contest build).  Santa's sleigh is being loaded up with lots of presents.  And the reindeer are getting ready for their flight.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

No. 48 - lights, a staircase and a fixed front door.

I finally put in the lights and a staircase in the first floor of my dollhouse (No. 48) for my children, and I re-attached the door that broke when my 2 year-old was playing with it.   I made this dollhouse out of plywood.  The hinge solution is not pretty, but it should withstand further playing.

(We are just getting started on Christmas decorating.)

The kitchen needs some shelves. 

Here are some children cooking in their play kitchen, some children watching TV, and it looks like an exhausted mother bent over the sink there (who wouldn't be with so many children and dogs and cats? (although they seem all quite well-behaved)).

Now how to build the elevator so they can get from the 2nd floor to the next 2 floors. . .

Some Christmas Danish Elves (or Nisse) have come to visit!

Some Danish elves (or Nisse) have come to visit the dollhouse (courtesy of my children) and they look like they have made themselves at home!

Waterside Way - First Floor

So I just attended my first dollhouse fair, last Sunday in New Jersey in person - the Karen Aird Dollhouse Show and Sale.  We drove out - the entire family, including my mom.   It was great.  But it was hard for me to take it all in in such a short time -- although I was the one who thought 2 hours was not enough time!  We got there around 10:30 and left around 12:30 for my son's nap.  Luckily I grabbed lots of business cards and have been following up on certain things I regretted not purchasing.   Previously, I have only participated in online shows (which give a little more time for thinking about what to purchase).   But it was also so exciting to meet the vendors and to start to put faces to names.  One vendor had a box of little things each for a $1.00, and my daughter and I had a great time going through that box.  There were some great finds there.  Both my kids won roomboxes.  They had a a kids' drawing for 4 roomboxes, and there were only a few kids there in the morning (probably because they were giving away 5 dollhouses in the afternoon and you had to be present to win).  I saw many more children arriving as we were leaving.  

Here's another arrangement of furniture in the first floor (lived in by the family).  But this time, the child lives in a loft bed (custom made by Mini Mod Pod  (ModPodMiniatures on Etsy) - I had wanted the Dolls House Emporium silver loft bed, but it was on my wishlist, and then they stopped stocking it (I had no idea they changed their stock so quickly!), but in the end, this one is much better - I love the natural wood!)

Here's the full view:

Here's a view of the kitchen, living room and dining room:

Here's the parents' bedroom and children's bedroom and the WC is behind the loft bed.  I found the kitchen set in a dollhouse store in Denmark that stocked old DHE merchandise (I managed to find a dollhouse store near where we were visiting) - so thrilled with that find!  The shelf is just the wood stick that they give out at the paint store to stir the paint.

The doll is from a hair barrette for girls.

The train as a toy bin is copied from Mini Modern (www.minimodern.blogspot.com)- she did that in one of her childrens' rooms and I thought it was brilliant (obviously), so I have done the same.

I made the little pink pillow and cut out the picture of the children playing from the back of a card.   The clock was a gift in my first NAME (National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts) swap.  I love it.  (I gave a cactus and a book.)

Here's a different arrangement of the family floor - now with the bathroom in the middle (and with a baby as the child).   

And finally, here are the initial preparations underway for a turkey dinner in the 2nd floor apartment (although it needs more food!).  The chairs are from my childhood dollhouse (it's a Shackman table and chairs).

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So Happy Thanksgiving!! And to those who don't celebrate, I wish you a wonderful weekend filled with food, family and friends!

Happy Halloween!

It's been a busy week preparing for Halloween (both in real life and in the mini-town.)

The baker has been busy baking Halloween treats.

My 6 year old daughter and I made these orange spider web cakes based on the American Miniatures Dollhouse magazine issue #138 article by Natalia Antonelli on how to bake a wicked webbed cake.  We simplified it a lot (because we were also playing with Playdoh with my 2 year old at the same time), but we are still pleased with our first attempt.  We used orange and black Fimo clay and then painted it with Clay Charm polish for a glossy look.  We have to work on our making of the little spiders - they're very tricky. :)

Here is my daughter's Halloween party scene in her dollhouse with the cakes (she used black and orange construction paper to set the scene):

And here are my witches having a Halloween party:

The littlest witch has performed a spell making a rather large rat.  The mouse is trying to escape.

And here is the party food with the magically pouring tea:

Happy Halloween!

Lekker Hagelslag - Delicious Dutch Chocolate Sprinkles on Toast for Breakfast

A big thanks to Josje from A Beautiful World blog (http://josje-bouwt.blogspot.com)

who sent me printouts of Dutch hagelslag boxes so I could make my own.  So thrilled!  Here is a very happy little girl about to eat her hagelslag on toast :) And many thanks to Debora at http://petitpunt.blogspot.com/ who was also willing to help me find the Dutch vendor of these boxes.  

In the meantime, I also am still working on my little office area in Waterside Way.  Here is Penelope working at her desk. I made her a dress in orange.  I made the little file folders in the bookshelf from the Dollhouse Magazine (UK) issue 187 (the Christmas issue) as well as the black binders from cutouts in an old Dolls  House World magazine.