My Dad gave me a tin dollhouse when I was about 8.  I don't recall much about the dollhouse,  except that  it had a very pretty bathroom upstairs, the walls were pink and white tile and the floor pale green.  There was a living room downstairs, and painted on curtains.  The kitchen floor was black and white linoleum like we had in our house real house.  

My Dad was the one who planted the seed.  I dreamed for years about getting that dollhouse after my sisters were "through with it", but somehow it disappeared. It wasn't until I married  that my husband gave me another dollhouse.  This one, now called Annabelle, I believe, was very hard to get!  I was going to college, working and raising a family.  In order to get the dollhouse, I had to get straight A's in all my classes! That included Algebra, and I still have trouble reading a ruler!  But I finished 2nd in my class and was awarded the huge dollhouse by my family as a graduation gift.  After 8 years and 3 major moves, it was finally finished.  Well, the interior and exterior were finally finished. A dollhouse is never finished because we add things, remodel, change things around.....  It is not electrified as I was very afraid of trying my hand at that when I knew so little about building such a large dollhouse!  Now I'm thinking of hardwiring it as it would have been in the Victorian days when electricity first became available; the wiring will be on the outside of the walls, partially hidden by trim, large pictures, and elaborate decor.

I am now retired and should have a lot of time to work on miniatures, however, I'm still a farm girl at heart (an old one) and have a 280 ft. flower bed and a self landscaped yard that takes a great deal of my time as does my vegetable garden.  I prefer to freeze and can our own produce than to purchase foods with preservatives in them, not to mention additives I can't find in my dictionary!  I've spent the past three weeks in the woods picking blackberries and making jelly, as well as freezing whole berries for pies and cobbler in the winter. In a couple of weeks it will be blueberry time.

I find miniatures extremely relaxing to work on.  I get lost in my work room, sometimes literally! One day not to long ago my husband poked his head in the door and handed me a toothpick and said "I dare you".  "Dare me what?"  "To find a place in here for this!"  As I looked around, I realized he was right.  I am a pack rat. Nothing goes in the trash until it goes by me first! 

Kitchen in big dollhouse

Dining room in big dollhouse

Rainbow Bridge
Still under construction

Mrs. Moles Hat Shop
This was made from an ice cream container, covered with bark from our back yard.  I made everything except the chair just inside the door and the dresser in the back