Problem

I bought another dollhouse.

Yes, I know, I have a Problem.  But I also have another dollhouse.  Yay!

I was out with my girls on Saturday morning and on our way home we saw a sign for a yard sale, so we stopped in.  The sellers immediately saw the girls and said that we'd stopped by the right place because they had a dollhouse for us.  The girls ran to it and said that they could get a neighbor for their other dollhouse.  I circled the thing, sent photos of it to my mom, and then walked away with this monstrosity for $25.00.

It has a third floor attic space!

As you can see, the girls promptly had a moving day from one house to the other.  They did not hand carry anything across the room.  Instead, they filled up their toy vehicles with furniture and drove the toy vehicles from one house to the next.

Look an attic flap/lid:

There's definitely some work that needs to be done.

Floors.  Bare wood throughout the house.  That's different than the last house, which had floors that were just stained and had a clear coat on them.

 Painting, both inside and out.  Bare walls on the inside, which is refreshing.  I'm glad I don't have to take off tons of wallpaper again.  That was an evil task.

 Major dusting:

Minor structural repairs.  I'll probably leave this chipped bit as is, but one of those slats on another side of the house is completely off.  I have it, so I'll just glue it back on, I guess.

 And this little gingerbreading-type detail is missing from the other side.

What else can I say about this house?  The doors open!

 The hinges seem to be the wrong scale, so I'm not sure if I want to tweak that or leave them as they are.

I love the little oblong windows.  They are on both sides of the house.

Unlike my other dollhouse purchase, this one did not come with any furnishings.  This just came with some curtains in the attic and a little wall decoration.

In other news, I also found a piano for the house at the Goodwill:

It's a music box and I need to fix it up, but it's a good size for this dollhouse.  I think it will overwhelm the other house.

Dollhouse: Finished Floors

I had to travel for work in January and again in March and somewhere before or between those trips I finished the floors on the dollhouse.  I didn't want my girls to have half-finished floors if, for some reason, I croaked on those trips.  So, now I can fully croak in peace and my mini 1:12 sized ghost will not haunt the dollhouse and its unfinished floors.

So they were previously painted white and that looked like junk and so I went with tiny pieces of basswood strips.  I think the finished result looks pretty smashing.  They look like the floors in my 100 year old house, actually - with the different hues.  Does it look like a teeny tiny real house yet?

The stairs were a challenge.  I decided to leave the rise white and the run got the basswood.  (Do I have that right?  Rise and run?  Or did I reverse them?  I refuse to google that and will continue to live in ignorance.)  

Some of the heights of the strips were a little uneven when they were all laid out, so I sanded before I put the poly on.

And here are some pictures of the house with some furnishings:

It's looking pretty good, I think.  I've been working on hand sewing some curtains and I just hate them.  I really think I should go to the store and find wide pieces of lace.  That worked well for the living room.  We'll see. 

Unicorn Headbands

For my daughter's birthday I made unicorn headband favors.  They were so pretty and it only took a little bit of work to make them all.  I think I finished in just three hours.

I used headbands from the dollar store, flowers from the dollar store, hot glue, felt for horns and ears, and silver cording to make the unicorn horn.  This is the best picture from the party of them in action:

But then here they are in their display basket:

 I don't know what it is about these baskets, but I like them a lot.  They are made in the Philippines and they are always at the thrift store.  I have three and I suppose I should stop buying them.  One came with a glass dish, by the way.

So back in April...

So like three months ago I went to the annual Textile Center Garage Sale with my book club buddies and overindulged in fabric (and waffles).  Here's what I got:

One novelty print.  Given my history with novelty prints, limiting myself to one was quite a feat.  But look how cute this cityscape is.

But do Christmas fabrics count as novelty prints?  No.  I don't think so.  But look at all the fun and different holiday designs I found for my gift baggage goal.  I want to go paperless someday in the wrapping department.  I can't wait to combine them with fun linings...perhaps at another book club sewing sweatshop.

Damnit.  Birds - that's sort of novelty-esque, but it's so small...like not even a fat quarter.  Just pretty.  I like that pink polka dot one.  So bright!

I don't know what it was with pinks and blues, but I brought home a whole pile of them.  I love that little blue daisy one. It's rather sheer, but I still love it.

And then there's the costume fabric.  This sliver of sparklies wanted to come home with me:

 The red and white stripe could easily be made into bags, but it's really nice.

 And velvets!  The gray and the teal are super nice.  

 There's way too much of this stretch gold, though.

 And for some reason I can't help but see an Elsa dress in my sewing future when these blues are paired next to the above silvers.  

Speaking of, my kids haven't quite figured out how to tell Knock Knock jokes, so this is a series of them told by my 4yo to my 6yo the other morning:

4yo:  Knock Knock!
6yo:  Who's there?
4yo:  Anna and Elsa!
6yo:  Anna and Elsa who?
4yo:  Anna and Elsa Diapers!
6yo:  Hahah!  You got me!

4yo:  Knock Knock!
6yo:  Who's there?
4yo:  Anna and Elsa!
6yo:  Anna and Elsa who?
4yo:  Banana Anna and Elsa!
6yo:  Hahaha!  You got me!

4yo:  Knock Knock!
6yo:  Who's there?
4yo:  Anna and Elsa!
6yo:  Anna and Elsa who?
4yo:  Truck Banana Diaper!
6yo:  Hahaha!  You got me!

It went on in this manner for the entire six minute car ride.

Oh, where was I?  More fabric?? Yes!  Or NO!!  This monstrosity:

I don't know what I was thinking.  It's rather stiff and sort of canvas-like.  I don't know.  I was seriously deranged.

And then this lovely bit of ribbon and a piece of lace.  I've already used the lace and will show that off sometime soon.

This framed butterfly said $1.00 so it came home with me, too:

And this vintage tablecloth.  There's a stain, but I'm going to try and soak it out.  It really is pretty when it's all open and on the table.

And this last purchase was found in the vintage linens section.  Applique planes.  They are so fun and in my dreams I think I should make them into pillows and sell them on etsy for big bucks and become famous and then sew pillows for a living and get featured in design magazines.  All because I spent $1.00 on a bag of applique planes:

There are two of each design, I think.

So that's it.

Four Cloaks

Ugh.  Whatever.  I don't want to hear about how long it's been since I've written.  I'm here now and that's all that matters.  In the last seven months I have done very little crafting, but will now proceed to share with you the odds and ends that I have been able to squeeze out.

Cloaks.  Four of them.  I used the pattern from here.  The first cloak was blue velvet with no lining for the hood and embellished with giant gold ric rac around the hem.  

It was a birthday gift for a six year old girl.  We were rather housebound because of a snowstorm, so I whipped this up the morning of the party.  After I finished this one, I started on two cloaks for my girls and decided to line the hoods with cottons.

I made a rose velvet cloak for my littlest and have taken very few pictures of it.  My mom was in town and put on the line of sequins with her nimble hand-sewing skills.

 I've used buttons from my stash and hair bands for the closures on all of them.  Here's the lining of this hood:

My eldest asked for an American Cape.  I think of it as a Wonder Woman Cloak.  My mom, once again, helped out with the red sequin embellishments and I sewed the stars on with my machine.  There are nine stars, total, in case you were wondering.

The velvet is not in the best of shape, but that's why it's perfect for dress up clothes.  She wore this out to the Farmer's Market and received many compliments.  I'm sure she'll wear it to this week's Fourth of July Parade.

 The hood lining is more of a nautical theme, but whatever.  It's got stars and the right colors.  It works for me.

 Stars!  I found them on Amazon.

And the final cloak was created yesterday for a birthday party today.  It didn't take long at all.  I used some stretchy velvety costume fabric.  The fabric was not my favorite to sew, but it worked out.

 (Don't ask.  I'm sure she was aggravated that I was making her model the cape.  Or maybe she was aggravated that I wouldn't let her watch television at the crack of dawn.)  I used a big button for the closure -- you can see it in the above photo -- and some floral cotton for the lining of the hood.

So that's it.  Four cloaks.