Look at all that mail!

DH helped me finish Santa's desk on Sunday. He has a tiny drill set for blowing out carburettor jets (I think). Just the thing for the holes for the handles. I glued on the escutcheons and then DH put in the pins for the lid. Santa has lots of cards and letters from children around the world. He put his favorites on top of the desk.

Don't you love the husky? He has one pink eye and one blue eye.



The mirror is from a compact (like I ever used that). It is temporarily glued to a piece of cardboard until I can add a frame. The candlesticks are a recent purchase and need candles. I like the mirror on the mantlepiece, otherwise the items disappear into the wallpaper.


And here is the kitchen with a pot bubbling on the hot stove. Mrs. Claus left her coffeecake on the bread board on the stove, too. Hope it doesn't get burnt! She did such a nice job with the frosting and the cherries.

Plenty of wine in the hutch and more on the top with goblets ready. A layer cake has already been cut into, someone may have been celebrating!

Next item to build is a table. I have an idea for one, but may buy one and a chair.

I am still waiting for my doll pattern to arrive. I really want to make a Santa and Mrs. C. I like people in dollhouses, otherwise who is it for?

Snowy Day

It was a snowy day in Maine, so what better way to enjoy it but to work on my dollhouse. While twelve inches of snow fell outside, I re-made the tile stove. This time I used foam core and put the warming oven drawers on the bottom of the stove, not on top! Love those gold painted lentils. The ash drawer goes in the center, but the paint is still wet.

I used a new tile for this stove, too. I like this pattern better. I like the blue enamel look and the black stove top. The all black stove seemed a bit too dark in the dollhouse and I wondered if anything would show up on it. I think this is brighter and more cheerful. Maybe I should have painted it green to go with the Christmas theme, but sometimes the red and green is a bit too much.

The oil paint touch-up on the desk came out well. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I was going to attach the handles and hinge for the desk lid, but will need DH's help with the drill.
Santa has some cards and letters from children around the world. They know Santa loves horses. Isn't it nice to see that Santa is no better organized than the rest of us?

Santa's Desk

The Chippendale desk was really fun to put together. I was very pleased at how well the pieces all fit together. The sides and pieces between the drawers fit so well I wondered if they really needed glue, but of course I did put some in, just a trace.


The board on the side is the lid/writing surface. There are tiny straight pins that fit the lid into the sides. I needed to stain the pieces before adding the hardware. Unfortunately, I must have left glue on some areas. Stain does not adhere to glue. I am going to try mixing some oil paints to match the stain color.I wonder if a marker would work? My Dad refinished furniture; wish I could ask him what to do!

Oh well, I'm pretty pleased with how this came out. I want to do something to make the surface shiny. Maybe tung oil?

I'm waiting for a doll pattern to come in the mail. I ordered a pattern for a set of dolls made of muslin. The pattern includes a family of father,mother, and two children. The dolls are supposed to be poseable and I am hoping that means there is wire, pipecleaners, inside. If not I may try that anyway.

I've tried making peg dolls and have not been pleased with my results. Too much glue that doesn't really stick. I made one doll and then added the face. Horrible! The faces need just a light touch, just a suggestion of the features or you get a heavy browed moron. Not what I am looking for for Mrs. Claus.

So, more work on the desk and write some letters to Santa!

I Won!

I won this House of Miniatures Chippendale Desk kit on eBay last week. My friend Sarah showed me some of her furniture made from these kits and I thought they were very nice. All the little pieces are in the kit. The drawer pulls are tiny tiny. Good thing I have tweezers.

Jan. 6, 2008

I'm making my first dollhouse after years of wanting one. When I was about ten or eleven, in the early 60s, my family went to the Shelburne Museum in Vermont and I fell in love with their collection of dolls and dollhouses. My husband and I went to the museum a year ago and I got to look at their fabulous collection again.

While searching online I came across a number of dollhouse websites and was inspired. The real kicker was this dollhouse for Miss Nutkin. So charming, so playful.

My husband came up with an old wooden box we used for camping supplies for years, but now use something bigger and more squirrel-proof. He found this box in a garage from our first apartment. It held dynamite when new, how's that for provenance?

I have painted the box white and put in a floor so there are two rooms. The lower room will be the kitchen and the upper room the living room or parlor. This is the home of Santa and Mrs. Claus. The kitchen has red gingham wallpaper (scrapbooking paper) and will have many fimo made foods. I used scrapbooking paper for the floor, too.

I have made two stoves, one a rustic wood-burning stove, the other a black high backed coal burner. The back of the black stove is covered with Dutch tiles printed on the computer. I'm going to re-do the stove, sigh. I put the oven doors on wrong and have the warming oven doors just under the cooking surface and it looks dumb. Both stoves were made from cardboard. I will try to use wood next time.

A friend gave me a fireplace with mantle which I have been working on. I painted the brick surround off-white and tried to paint a fake marble look, which looks okay. Today I made the coal-burning insert, complete with red, yellow, and black tissue paper for the fire. I added some polyester batting for wisps of smoke. The fireplace will be in the parlor. Santa will sit in front of the fire reading his letters.

I bought a desk kit which I will try to make, my first kit! The desk will be bulging with letters and envelopes. I want to make a book of "good girls and boys", too.

Today I painted a hen and rooster to look like Staffordshire figurines for the mantlepiece. The figurines came from Red Rose tea. They look great! I found a mirror from a compact to place above the mantel, too. Just need to frame that.

My three cats love my dollhouse, too, especially Tonks. Her favorite place to stretch out is on the bureau in the kitchen where I keep the dollhouse. Along with chewing yarn from my knitting bag, she enjoys rearranging the furniture in the dollhouse.