The Transformation of a Dollhouse: A Photo Journal

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   Bits n'Bobs

I found these horses last summer at a yard sale. There were about 11 of them in the bag, and they were all plain brown plastic. I decided yesterday to paint them, and so far I've finished with 3. I have a long way to go! It's very difficult to take a decent picture of them, though, because the camera won't focus on something so small.

This one is my favorite so far. I like his white stocking feet and the blaze on his head. I also got some riders in the bag with these horses, which are also plain brown plastic, and I am working on painting these as well.

Here is my New Year's Day project....I've been wanting an aquarium for the dollhouse forever, and never really found one I liked in a catalog, so I designed and built this one. It is made of styrene "glass" I had leftover from making the house windows, bits of wood painted black, and a string of greenish colored Christmas lights I bought at Michael's and didn't like as a decoration. This aquarium took most of the day to build.

Here I've added some purple "gravel" and some tiny seashells. Now all I need is water and some fish, and the aquarium will be complete.

This is not a very good picture, but you can see that the hood is lighted. The lights are not very bright, however.

I also made this table for the aquarium to sit on. I am in the process of painting "sea creatures" on it, which I hope to finish after work today.

I came home from work one day and hubby had this waiting on the porch of the dollhouse.....it's a Weber gas grill!!! Every dollhouse has to have barbecue equipment! Not only is the grill adorable, it also has a hamburger, a hot dog (complete with grill marks!) and two shish kabobs cooking away. Also, the lid opens, and the table to the left folds down for storage. It's adorable!

Here is a close-up of the sewing machine I built. I found the actual machine part at an estate sale. I built the table it sits on modeled after my own sewing machine, and added the fabric and the spool of thread on top of the machine. This is one of the first furniture pieces I made without a kit, measured to scale and cut with a scroll saw. The carpet on the floor is the "old" carpet.

This stunning carpet was at a dollhouse shop...and it was only $1.98! I could not believe my eyes! There were some much bigger ones for $5.98, but none of my rooms are big enough for them. The detail on this carpet is amazing. A picture just does not do it justice!

I finally put the lathe to use and made the legs for this table. It is rather crude, but, practice makes perfect, right? It's the first time I've ever used a lathe.....but it is FUN! I can't wait to have time to use it again, this table needs chairs! And I need to make beds!!!

Here is a closeup of one of the bushes beside the tool shed. If you look closely you can see tiny seashells in the bed around it. This is just a "Christmas village" bush.....it's kind of small, but I figure that since the shed was just built and the bushes are newly planted, they'll have time to grow to full size by the time this house is ever done.

My husband and I are both new to working with a lathe...so we each took a shot at a piece of wood once I got the lathe plugged in and figured out how to attach the wood. These are our first efforts . Not too bad, I guess, considering we had no idea what we were doing!

At last I have found a modern upright vacuum. I've been looking for one of these for quite a long time as well. I also bought a rifle, a set of dinnerware for 4 complete with silverware, some candy canes for my mini christmas tree, a toaster with toast, some drink cans with the tops popped (!) and a host of other things at a dollhouse shop. I've decided that I LOVE MINI SHOPPING!