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New Doll on the Way!

So, I finally made my decision and I went for a Milk Brownie Haha. I really liked her serenely smiling face, and I think she will make an excellent resident for the 1/12th dollhouse I am rehabbing, whose design I find to be a little idyllic….or at least it’s definitely got a very “mori girl” vibe to it. Anyhow I ordered her from Junkyspot, and apparently she’s already packed up and ready to go! I knew Junkyspot was fast, but I wasn’t expecting to hear any news about shipping until tommorrow, er…..well I guess it’s already tommorrow based upon the time I am posting this.

On the one hand, I’m really glad I don’t have a long wait, but on the other hand, the dollhouse has been completely torn apart, and it is going to take at least all week I think to make enough reasonable headway so it will be clean enough for her to be anywhere near it. I’m not sure what to expect though in terms of the random eyes and wig that she will be coming with, so maybe I can entertain myself with acquiring wigs and eyes for her while she waits for her house.

A snowstorm will be coming in late tomorrow, and will probably be the biggest one we have had this season, so I know I will be snowed in for a couple days. I’ll make plans to get supplies to work my butt off on the house in the meantime so maybe I can at least have one room finished by the time she arrives. Hmmm, come to think of it, I hope the snowstorm doesn’t cause problems for her delivery. Well, I’m rambling, so it’s off to bed for me!

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Dollhouse Rehab Part 1

The first task in rehabbing the 1/12th scale dollhouse my grandfather built was to take out all of the old flooring and wallpapers. The wallpapers were mostly easy enough to deal with, except for a few rough patches. I basically just sprayed the walls down with water and then used a straight edge razor to scrape off the wet paper. Some of the paper I was able to pull off dry though. The flooring was another matter however. ^^; First of all, the downstairs floor has a layer of some sort of brown paper-like substance glued onto the wood. I remember a while back when the very original textured wallpaper flooring was pulled up and replaced with carpet, some of the paper was left behind and the carpet and tile just placed on top of it. It looks ugly, but, for the most part, it doesn’t bother anything or make things look bad when covered, so I think I will leave it alone since it’s proving to be a real bear to get off. Even sanding that stuff isn’t yielding fantastic results. The second pain in the rump is that removing that old velveteen carpet was difficult, as lots of little fibers wanted to stay behind and cling to the hardened glue on the floor. Again I used water as a solvent, and slowly but surely pulled the carpet up.

Presumably because my grandfather was just making this for a kid to play with, he didn’t bother to properly frame out the windows and add interior trim. Basically each window hole you see is a pure cut in the wood. This being said, I decided to undertake removing all of the trim in order to properly frame all the windows and add interior trim. Of course this was a very tricksy thing to do because the wood is not only old, but it’s also not the best quality of wood either. Basically I took a spackling knife, and with a hammer, wheedled that knife under each piece of trim and popped them off. Sometimes I had more success than others, and I have a couple “boo-boos”. I’m going to have to take the sander to everything now to clean it up, and spackle my booboos as well as other flaws in the wood.

Finally, I decided that the roof needed to come off as well, for a couple reasons. The first reason is that it was on there a little kaddiewampus. I remember that the roof started coming off a long time ago when I was a little girl….probably from moving it around in the room, so my dad put it back on again and I guess he didn’t bother to be perfect. ^^; The other reason is that it will make it a whole lot easier to frame out the attic window and apply new paint and papers to the upstairs rooms. Right now, the roof is sitting on the floor at the foot of my bed, where my cat is using it as a hidey-hole. XD She’s going to be upset when it goes back on the house!

Anyway, I’m breaking for the night. I’ll resume sanding tomorrow, and then hopefully start work on framing out all of the windows. I went out earlier in the day and got all the wood I needed to do so, plus some extra to make some nifty little swing open windows that I’m going to try to make in the original criss-cross design of the original plastic windows. This means I’ll need more hinges however! Thankfully I still have Xmas money to help me rehab this house. 🙂

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The Dollhouse that Grandpa Built

So in my last posting I mentioned that I wanted to get a tiny that would work well with a 1/12th scale dollhouse that I had, and here now is that very dollhouse. I ended up hauling it out of the attic late last night, and after a quick dusting I thought I would shoot some pics so I could solicit help/advice in choosing what size of tiny would work best in this house. I have a t-square and my Blythe in the pic to give an idea of scale.

Here is a close-up of the kitchen area with the ruler and Blythe to give a better idea of the scale of the furniture. Although I plan to make some of my own furniture, I would like to be able to use some of the items I already have, as well as 1/12th scale stuff you can find at the local Hobby Lobby. Blythe doesn’t look too happy in this picture, I bet she thinks this house is a dump and she’s glad that she lives in the big house. XD

And lastly, for posterity or whatnot, here is a shot of the front of the dollhouse. I plan to start refurbishing the house, so these can all be used for the “before” pics. 😉 Anyway the house has a sort of German cottage flavor about it. When the house was new, there were little flowery design decals that looked very Pennsylvania Dutch in various spots, as well as plexiglass windows with crisscross lines printed on them for that Tudor feel. The windows have all become brittle and broken over time except one that is now hazy and yellow. The original decals of course started yellowing, and because I found it unsightly when I was younger I was stupid and painted over them. The decals added some serious cute vintage to the whole thing….oh well, we grow, we learn. I think I will probably try to find new decals, or perhaps even make my own stencils to try to bring that back as well.

Enough about rehab plans though. If you have any advice for me on what size of tiny will work best with this house, please share! Last night I poured over Brownies, PukiPukis and Lati whites. I am leaning towards thinking that size will be best, but I’m still not sure. Anyway advice will be much appreciated!

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Tiny BJD – AE Chocolate

I hadn’t been BJD browsing in a while, so I decided to go check out Mint on Card, which is where I got my Asleep Eidolon BJD, and I was surprised to see how many new BJD AE has been coming out with! I already knew they had started a tinies line with Cookie and Soda, but it seems now that they have really filled out their models! While I was there I totally fell in love with the little girl in the pic. She’s called Chocolate, and I just love those bit round eyes and tiny diminished nose. For a while now, acquiring a tiny has been on my dolly “to buy” list, but buying a tiny would always get put off for other things. After seeing Chocolate though, I think I am quite determined to get a tiny this year. I also have a 1/12th scale dollhouse she could fit into, though it needs refurbishing.

One reason why I’ve come to find tinies so appealing is the fact that it seems many of them work well with Re-ment and 1/12th scale dollhouses. My main concern for buying my first tiny is going to be what scale will work best for the dollhouse I currently have. The dollhouse I have may not be 100% 1/12th scale, as it is a handmade dollhouse my grandfather made for me when I was a little girl. However most of the furniture is 1/12th scale, and I took a few measurements, and it seems like I might be teetering close to the house being too small for a 15/16cm doll. As it stands now, Chocolate’s head would brush the archways, and the handmade bed would be a tight fit. I’m just not sure. ^^; I’m wondering if I should be looking at Lati whites or Pukipukis instead? Sigh…..I think I’m going to have to seek out help with this one, but I’ll need to get some dollhouse pics up first I think.

Other concerns over which size of tiny to get would also be the ease of finding wigs and clothing for them. I realize that some of the really small tiny bjd can even wear Kelly clothes, and that would be quite nice! On the other hand, the smaller the wig, and by my eye, tinier wigs= less detailed wigs that often look crappy or odd. Anyway if anyone has any advice to give me I would surely love to hear it!

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The Christmas Dolly Haul. :D

Well as you can clearly see, I got my first full size Blythe! She is a Nicky Lad, and I am so very pleased with her. I love the stock outfit she comes with, and wow, the quality of these dolls are amazing compared to Pullips and Dals. Blythe really lacks any of those fragile feelings you have about Pullip and co. Of course Blythe lacks the pose-ability that Pullip and Dal have, so I guess it is kind of a trade off. One of the things that surprised me the most though about Blythe is that she really looks downward compared to Pullip and co. Sometimes I think it can add some challenge to photographing her, but it’s not nearly as challenging as her super glossy face! Haha, yeah, as soon as warmer weather hits here, I intend to spray matte her ASAP!

The rest of the dolly related goods I got were for the dollhouse. My wonderful cousin got me a bunch of the Office Lady re-ment sets so I could start accessorizing my desk and bathroom areas. Above are some of the things from one of the sets. The mini clips, stapler, paperclip holder, organization box, and pink calculator are all re-ment mixed in with random barbie and Liv items….ah, though the coconut juice is re-ment as well. The Office Lady sets also have a lot of nice mini coffees too. One latte cup has a nice heart swirl in it, just like you see in adverts and there was one set that even came with a tiny creamer and sugar stick. This is probably my comic geek showing through, but these sets each came with these lovely little illustrated foldouts featuring a different girl using the items in her set. I think I got as much of a kick out of those illustrations as I did the items! XD

Last but not least I finally acquired a toilet for my dollhouse bathroom (no pic yet). It is part of the Babysitter Barbie set and you can actually flush it and it makes a flushing noise. It is really too funny…..HOWEVER….it also make a noise, presumably of the baby sister doll humming while she uses the toilet, and this little flap in the toilet flips over from the blue water scene to a doody scene….yes seriously. That part is a little annoying since you can accidentally set it off by bumping into it, but flushing resets it of course. I’ll have to get some pictures of it when I have time.