A Few New Things

 Many of my new swap things now have homes. I love the new lamps. The knitting bag on the floor was a prize from Small World forum. The colors are so good in this room. The needlepoint pillow was a recent purchase.

 The leather topped dresser looks great in George's room. The base violin is a recent purchase

 Sandy put the laundry away and now she's finishing up the dishes for Harriet.

Harriet is putting her own laundry away today.

Chair Challenge

 The chair challenge photos have been posted on my mini forum so I can show you what I did. The idea was my husband's. The little boy has broken his mama's favorite vase playing soccer in the house so he's "doing time" in the chair in the corner. His faithful dog thinks it was partly his fault so he's "chairing the blame."

 If you look very closely you can see tears on the boy's face.

I revamped a Dollar Tree doll to make the little boy. He used to be a blonde, blue-eyed little girl, LOL.

Wait 'til you see what I got in return!

 Sandy got a couple of pretty new dresses and some movie magazines from Brenda. The Eiffel Tower went to George who used to travel around the world before the war.

 Gaye made canisters for the kitchen and pretty lamps and a doily for the living room. Sandy got some more magazines. Rosie made the milk basket, pecan pie and men's grooming supplies.

Sandy was the over achiever this time. ;) She made nightwear and dresses for the ladies. Boarder Sandy got the little pink nightie and robe. She also got the lovely green hat. The leather topped dresser and masks are in George's room. The cookie jar and cute little towels are in the kitchen.

Everyone got something and all of the new accessories add so much to the boarders' stories. I don't have enough room to display all of the dresses so I'm thinking of stringing a clothes line on the porch to show the others.

Special thanks to Brenda for the use of her photos.

Personalized Swap

 One of the groups I belong to recently held a "personalized swap." We each chose which of our dollhouses or projects that we wanted to receive items for. Brenda chose her seaside cottage. The residents are a retired sea captain, his wife and their young son. I tried to make a little something for everyone. Elsie got a bathing suit and a shell book. The captain got a sea chest filled with the tools of his trade. And the little boy got a sand castle with pail and shovel and a child's book about seashells.

 Gaye is redecorating a dollhouse her grandmother gave her. She's turning it into a girls' boarding school reminiscent of "The Facts of Life" television show from the 80s. She got two students in uniform and a spare uniform for another room.

 Rosie is working on a Christmas bakery. Gray and dark red are two of the colors she's using so I revamped the dining set I made for the library class (that didn't work out). I added Christmas patterned dishware and napkins, filled coffee cups and a Christmas pot with extra coffee. The plates hold a cake and cream dessert. The workboard is another cake in progress.

Sandy is making a Christmas house. The chair used to be a picture frame. I padded the area that used to hold the glass and upholstered over the resin chair with Christmas prints. The matching ottoman was a bottle lid of some sort. The side table was a small cake decorating pedestal and I added a Christmas shade to a real mini lamp.

This swap was so much fun! Knowing the recipients already have a home in mind for your projects really added a lot to the anticipation. I chose Harriet's boarding house. I will post photos soon of all the wonderful gifts I received. Harriet and her boarders were thrilled! ;)

Library Display

 Here we are stopped on the roadside making some adjustments. The San Franciscan and the Petite Dreams were too large for my RAV so they had to ride in the back of hubby's pickup. I had the Willowcrest and Victorian Cottage. I spent a long time yesterday waxing things in place before we put the plexiglass covers on so I had to make very few adjustments once we got the houses inside.

 Here I am at the end of the Victorian street. There were already people looking before we even got out of the library. :)

The Willowcrest pictures didn't come out very clearly but it and the wedding gazebo are on the bookcase directly behind this one.

The added bonus today was talking with one of the librarians who's also a miniaturist. We exchanged contact information so we can get together to see each other's collections and talk minis. Woo hoo!

And here are the other two...

I can't find photos of the fronts of these two so will get some when I pull the houses out to clean them. The one on the left is a RGT Victorian Cottage. The other is a Petite Dreams Victorian. It looks just like a reversed RGT Allison except it has very narrow doors. I had to make all but the front door from scratch.

These two houses are special to me because they mark the beginning of my renewed interest in minis after a 10 year break while the kids were young. Most of the furniture in these houses was made from scratch or revamped from purchased.

I only have a week!...

...to get  4 dollhouses ready for the National Dollhouse and Miniatures month display at the library. This year I am taking larger houses. Three are Victorian and I want to set them up as a street. The DuraCraft San Franciscan is one of the houses I am planning to take. I also plan to take the RGT Victorian Cottage and the Petite Dreams Victorian house. I can't find photos of those at the moment but I know both are featured somewhere on the blog. :)

 The Willowcrest is a contemporary Victorian but I want to take it and a photo scrapbook showing the renovations I did on this $7 garage sale find.

I plan to use this gazebo, too, to add to the street feeling. This will be the city park. I have so much yet to do. None of these houses have plexi covers yet and I need to finish the scrapbooks for the Willowcrest and the San Fran. Hopefully, these will be as popular with the library patrons as last year's display.