The Dollhouse

I was blessed to be able to keep this curio holder from my grandmother's house where we lived for almost a year.  I have a lot of memories of this little cabinet and the room where it was hung.  It will always be something special.

I struggled a bit with the idea of changing it at all, but I thought that it would be exactly my grandmother's style to make something new out of things you already had.  She was incredibly frugal and produced the most beautiful works of art in several mediums.  She was pretty cool--if only I could match up a little.  Anyway, I miss her.

So here's what it became:

I spent quite a while designing each room on Illustrator (with the help of some free clipart).  I learned A LOT!   I've still got the files if anybody wants a copy.  Then I printed them out and glued them in with my good friend Elmer.

Get ready for 100 Billion pictures.  Here they go:

My daughter's first home has hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances.  Nice. :)

It's not finished.  I need to touch up the paint, trim the edges, caulk the cracks between the floors and the walls, and the spray the whole thing with some sort of sealant.  It didn't seem like that much before I listed it all...

What do you think?  My daughter loves it.  She does not care one tiny bit that the furniture can't be rearranged or you can't open the fridge.  She did, however, giggle when I showed her the teddy bear in the girl's bedroom and when she noticed the winter coats in the mudroom.  She's got a great imagination and has a collection of random little figurines ranging from elephants to pirates who abide here.  I love her and hope she enjoys this for a long time.