Hi everyone,
WHAT A TREAT TODAY’S BLOG POST WILL BE!!! I am gobsmacked, awestruck, amazed, flabbergasted, and all the other adjectives I know!!!
This is just amazing and we need to know how old your granddaughter is, how she reacted when she received it, and how many Barbies she has… just a few of the questions I’m wondering about. Well done, Elizabeth!!!
Jeanne,
The tiny house is done just in the nick of time! The top floor with the bedrooms is a separate unit that can sit on top as pictured or it can be played with on the floor or a table. The LED puck lights are sure to be a hit with my Great Granddaughter…they even have a remote to dim the lights and change colors from pink, blue and green. I used a lot of craft glue, Weld bond glue, foam-core boards, real wood flooring, basswood strips for moldings, clear plastic sheets for windows, fabrics, and scrapbooking papers were used for wallpapers and the canopy awnings in the dining room and drapes for the Living room. A true labor of love!
Elizabeth from Texas
If you click on any picture it will enlarge.
This first picture was in her first batch, and it can’t be made larger… but you can at least see how the dollhouse is laid out!
(I’m sorry… Kristoffer got me a new mouse and keyboard and “apparently” it has a setting that “draws” on pictures… OOPS Elizabeth!)
Here is Elizabeth’s Great-Granddaughter… she is 9 years old. Don’t you know her friends are going to LOVE coming over to play with their Barbies!!!
There were several little baggies with tiny dishes, pans and tiny foods. Great-Granddaughter is wearing a fox hat she received. She loved the LED lights that changed colors.
Here is a group of Santa’s Elizabeth gave to her daughter over the years…
Another group of Santa’s…some are on the mantel. My daughter’s home becomes a winter wonderland with this year’s addition of a life size animatronic reindeer whose head moves around like he’s checking out folks entering the foyer! I had to stop in my tracks…I could have sworn it was real! Great-Granddaughter named him “Dobbie”!
Click the link below to see Dobbie in action!!!
IMG_1510 (1)
Thanks SO much Elizabeth! You need some rest! :o)
Wasn’t that fun?
See everyone tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Oh, wow….how many times can I say “wow”?!! That Barbie house is just amazing, Elizabeth. You are so very talented!!
I think my favorite room was the nursery, really. The little animals on the wallpaper, and all the sweet accessories. Just perfect. But it was all wonderful! I can see your great-granddaughter was enthralled. She’s at a good age for that kind of gift, too–young enough to be over the moon about it and old enough to play carefully with it.
Nice to see the Santas, too. (And who might that have been, reflected in the mirror?!) I agree, that reindeer is very realistic!!
Thank you so much for sharing all these lovely pictures!
I had a WONDERFUL day today, with a visit from two of the grands and other family. They brought burgers for supper, and homemade fudge, and we listened to “vinyl” (records) for a while. The boys are enthralled, and Alex was positively drooling over my stereo!! 😂 (I think I mentioned last time they were down, that I am now the “cool” grandma because I have vinyl!!)
What an amazing dollhouse, Elizabeth! Can I be your granddaughter too? 🙂 This is certainly the best decorated Barbie dollhouse I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot of them! That is just genius how you made it to stack up and be able to take apart at various times, and I especially love the little balcony you have built next to the kitchen with the Christmas tree on it!f
I love the soothing pinks in the bedroom, so happy to see that you have used colors that are so real looking! So many dollhouses use those crazy, bright, eye-popping colors that just scream “toy”, but yours looks like a real house.
Where did you find all the furniture? Surely you didn’t make that, but oh my the kitchen is just darling! How I would love to be an 8 year old and to get that house! I would spend all day playing with it! What a treasure it will be for your granddaughter and for hers too!
Your daughter certainly has the Christmas decorating bug, and it shows in her home! Dobbie is really a show stopper, I will agree! Thank you for showing us everything, and to jeanne for posting the pictures!
Elizabeth, I am just floored! I want to look and look over and over. What a fabulous doll house! I have never seen anything to match it. It just says LOVE all over. Thank you so much for sharing this. I will save these photos to show my doll friend!
Thank you so much for showing that to us, Jeanne.
Charlotte, I am so glad to hear about your Christmas visit, and the Viny! What a lovely day and wishes that you stay well.
We will be heading Friday for our yearly 2 weeks in the little town of Helen in the GA mountains. All the Christmas lights will still be on all month. I will send some photos if you wish, Jeanne.
I would love to see pictures of Helen all decked out for Christmas, Sissy! I was there once, many years ago, but it was summertime. A charming little town, for sure.
This looks like the amount of thought and effort that goes into an entire Macy’s Store Christmas decoration project. Everything is so well thought out and executed! It’s truly a Wonderland! The Dollhouse is adorable! I can’t imagine how many hours and weeks of work it took to build and decorate such a complete dollhouse: The latest model bathtub and the beautiful mirrored shelf unit! What a darling great-granddaughter! Beautiful! She’s just the right age to truly appreciate all that went into this wonderful gift, a true heirloom!
The deer is amazing! It does look like it’s inspected visitors and deciding who gets to enter the inner sanctum! Congratulations to all the generations on their creativity and execution! Nice to see you in the mirror! Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful family collection of Santas and Christmas decorations! 🤶🎄🎁⛄️🦌
What a wonderful dollhouse! So much loving effort and looks like a very happy little girl. I especially liked the bubble wallpaper in the bathroom and fish pictures above the tub. The tree on the balcony is so festive for Christmas. Living in a small house I often joke that next year the tree will be on the front porch so I can enjoy it from the sofa and still have walking room. The reindeer is just perfect where he is. Too much to comment on. Thanks for sharing!
Elizabeth’s townhouse is an amazing feat. So creative and perfect. I can’t believe that she made those great windows. And all the rest. Love the decorations and colors too. That hat on great grand is the cutest thing ever. What an exciting present that doll house must have been for her. That animated deer is the best. So much fun. Thanks so much for sharing Elizabeth and Jeanne.
Here, the rain has stopped. Can’t believe that we will actually have some sun. Well, for a few days anyway. But, now we have a frost warning for the next several days, so it will be back to covering plants at night.
Still working on a Christmas outfit for one of the Ruby Reds around here. Always behind on holidays.
Fantastic job, Elizabeth!! I bet that was so fun to make!! I especially like the small pictures hanging on the walls, the pillows and pillowcases, and the giraffe and the birds on the nursery wall. You are a great artist! I also really like your granddaughter’s fox hat and the moving reindeer! So fun! Your daughter’s home looks so festive for Christmas! Thanks so much for sharing! I showed pictures to my daughters and husband, too =)
Wow! Elizabeth, your Barbie house is amazing! Looking at the designs on the walls, the incredible windows and then the amazing furniture, it’s beyond any type of doll house I’ve ever seen. The windows especially – when creating a doll house, the windows seem impossible to create in thin wall panels. You nailed it. The windows are perfect.
I’m sure your granddaughter is thrilled to have this unique Barbie doll house.
Also, your daughter’s home is really delightfully decorated for Christmas. Love her ideas. I’m a reindeer lover so it’s neat to see how she decorated with them all.
Thank you Jeanne for sharing Elizabeth’s photos!
Dear Elizabeth, this house is so incredibly adorable and really a treasure. What a delightful project this must have been. We girls know what doll lovers love and this house is perfect. I like that the top comes off to change the floor plan and accommodate for the height. Each room is a masterpiece.
I love your grand daughters hat too and the collection of Santas are really lovely
Wow! Let me first say thank you to Jeanne for posting my photos and providing advice on how to send the photos to her from my cellphone. I’m having difficulty downloading photos from the cell to the computer and will need my tech-savvy daughter to help me figure out what to do!
And thank you all for your very heart-warming comments regarding the dollhouse and holiday decor…all of you have made my whole week!
I started ordering parts and pieces to start the project in August. The 1st and 2nd floors have foam-core walls that are “built” and attached to the plastic corner posts of a two-shelf open bookcase unit I ordered from Walmart. Had to paint the shelf edges white as the shelves were pink, and also painted the undersides of the shelves white (ceilings). Those corner shelf posts have the walls glued and wired to them and that also accounts for the “tipped-out” wall corners which adds to the floor layout by providing the niche areas on the side walls. Made the top floor as a separate unit for safety since there were no shelf posts to attach the walls too. Just finished this dollhouse a few days before Christmas!
I ordered 12-inch-doll kitchen furniture and the bathroom set that had most of the plastic pieces in bright Barbie PINK! So I sprayed the pink parts with an off-white. The white dining room set came with shocking pink seats, which I padded and covered in fabric. Only the stove and dishwasher doors opened….the cupboards were fake, so I added lots of shelves to hold dishes, etc. The refrigerator did open and came with lots of little food items. Building cupboards with doors would have taken more time than I had to complete the project! I did add some fluffy poly-fil in the tub to resemble soap bubbles.
I did not order bedroom or living room furniture because they come as molded, hard, shocking-pink plastic! I did make the couch and living room chair, and the little tree came from the Dollar Store….just added lights and ornaments. Made the platform bed from foam-core board covered in fabric, and with removable mattress, sheets, pillows, pillowcases, coverlet and folded soft blanket. The pink coverlet floral fabric was saved for a Ruby Red doll outfit, but seemed just right for a bedspread! Could not find a baby crib to order online and building a crib with bars would have taken some time so the nursery has a padded bassinet! (again, more Ruby Red doll outfit fabric!)
Would have preferred the living room balcony extension to have a black, wrought-iron-look railing but when I saw how tall it had to be for a Barbie not to fall off her balcony, and the railing done with thin dowels would have looked like “jail bars”, I opted to do clear, plastic panels instead. I have two catalog books on hand that have reduced famous artwork pictures represented, that could be ordered as full-size printed posters for a person’s home. Don’t remember where I got them from but have used several of the pictures as dollhouse wall decor, by adding basswood frames and a piece of clear plastic for glass. Artwork on walls just make a place more like a real home!
My youngest daughter said “Why didn’t mom build us dollhouses like this!” I did do some things but not on this scale…I had to remind her that I was keeping up with a house, raising three girls, laundry (although I think I taught them all how to use the washer and dryer by the time they were 11 or 12!), packing lunches, making meals and brushing up my graphic designer skills by taking night classes. Art projects were put on a back burner for a number of years but now with retirement, I’m all in, crafting and sewing till my heart’s content!
About 40+ years ago my father built a dollhouse for my daughters Mattel “Sunshine Family” dolls (a little smaller than 12-inch Barbie’s). He had time to give it a nice white coat of paint inside and out and the roof was painted brown. I had started to decorate it way back when but life and time got in the way so I hadn’t finished but my girls played with the house for hours just with the way it was. In 2017, I started to renovate the same house and HGTV shows were a huge influence!! I added five more windows and a set of French doors in the living room where a window had been, 1/2 inch siding on the exterior, plus window trim and shutters and clear plastic in the windows, roof shingles, and a small front porch with a little peaked roof. Spent the next few years until 2023 finishing the interior. I wish my dad could have been here helping with the renovation….we would have had fun doing this together! I will share some photos one day with Jeanne if she would want to use them in one of her posts.
Happy New Year to Jeanne and all of the “sofa sisters”! I am organizing my art/sewing room today so I can start sewing for my Ruby red dolls again come January! They need some clothes….a couple of them are still wearing only their Victorian under garments! And one is sitting on a chair holding her ballet slippers (first pair I made), waiting for her tutu!
Would have LOVED that as a young girl!
It’s Barbie-licious!!
What a lovely dollhouse, Elizabeth. I was able to enlarge the first photo no problem. Wow, that is quite the townhouse. My favorite rooms would be the nursery and the kitchen. Your great-granddaughter will have so much fun with this and then cherish your gift always. I know I cherish the dollhouse my grandfather made for my mom that she, I, and my daughter all played with. It’s very simple, but the best he could make during the war years and it was made with love.
Your daughter’s home looks so festive. I enjoyed see her snowmen and Santa collection. the reindeer is so cute. What a fun addition to the Christmas decorations.
Elizabeth your dollshouse is wonderful you are very talented well done. Than you for sharing the photos
Elizabeth, Thank you for sharing your dollhouse. It’s a marvel. And I really enjoyed hearing about your process.
WOW! I’m speechless! That is fantastic Elizabeth!. I’m in awe, but also a little nervous about Dobbie. Yikes