Old Coupon Holder = New Doll House Bed

Michaela recently bought me a new coupon holder as a surprise and then together we cleaned out the old one. I was going to throw the old one away but Michaela wanted to keep it. My first thought was No! we have enough clutter already, but she said she could just picture something for the doll house. Well, that was enough for me!

When she took the dividers out of the old coupon holder and spread the coupon holder fully open, she pictured a fancy bed for the dolls! I could see it too.


As we are incorporating a Charlotte Mason education, this seemed the perfect opportunity to allow a personal interest to result in a handicraft. Michaela took the old coupon holder to her room and got to work.

She opened the holder and glued on support underneath to keep it open. She glued in very soft, furry fabric for the mattress. The dolls love it!

After the new bed was brought home, all the dolls went outside and got into formation for a family portrait. We think it turned out great.

Lynn and Michaela

Gifts from Across the Country

What a wonderful surprise for the dolls! They received a package of lovely gifts from AnnaMarie and Audrey!

First up: the Fairie Calendar! It is absolutely adorable. Please, pardon the bright sun. The dolls took the calendar outside to show you all the detail.


The dolls have been marking off the days so that they can keep track of things. (AnnaMarie, I hope that's okay!) It has made their lives immensely more orderly.



Just look at the beautiful illustrations in the calendar. The dolls love it so much and just can't quit looking at it.


The only problem is that the little dolls cannot decide which month's illustration they like the best.


Here is the calendar hanging in their kitchen, the busiest room in the house!

Last, but not least, would you look at these delicious cookies they received!

The dolls were not exactly sure who all had a hand in baking them, but they were delicious.


Thank you so very much for the doll house gifts. Our dolls feel it is time to send something to you!

Lynn

A Little Bird Told Me

You have probably picked up on the fact that we enjoy using picture books for school, using Five In A Row for our lesson plans, and then when done I like to make a storybook souvenir for the dollhouse. Well, it was no different when we finished up Angelo. I wanted something in the dollhouse to remind us of Angelo.

Using a tiny bit of Sculpey clay, I fashioned a little bird's nest with a straight pin. I added two teeny-tiny little eggs to remind us of Sylvia (the pigeon in the book) and how life goes on and on, generation after generation.

Princess of the Universe put the nest in the house, placing it on the top of a small vase that has guinea feathers in it. (My mom has guineafowl. Lucky woman.)

Little things like this are SO easy to make. It's a little thing that goes a long way in preserving a happy memory.

There are directions for using and baking Sculpey right on the box. Directions are also easy to find on line with a Google search. Just always use care and supervise children when doing this.

Lynn

Auction Treasure

Maybe you didn't know this, but the dolls in The Homemade DollHouse just LOVE Haiku and they love reading and learning about Japan. Imagine their shock and delight when this painting signed "Basho" turned up on the auction block! Of course they put their pennies together and bought it!



It may be authentic. It may be a fake. All they know is that they love Basho! They elected to hang the large painting in Mei-Ling's room. She's so happy.

Jennifer's Printables

I want to share a link I came across out there in blogland. Jennifer's Printables. You need to be sure and click on the button near the bottom that says "Visit My Doll House."

Lynn

The Dolls Receive A Package!

Oh my! Talk about excitement around the doll house! The dolls received a package in the mail today. (Actually a sweet Five In A Row friend sent me a little package today, full of a wonderful, fun surprise!)

Have you ever seen a box of chocolates for a doll house? Well, it could be a valentine too, but we pretended it was a box of chocolates.

Perhaps it's because Valentine's Day is so close. Or maybe just because the dolls needed chocolate. Oh, I don't know! Whatever the reason, the dolls had a marvelous time sitting around and eating chocolates. Until, that is, Papa found out about them and claimed all that were left.



Umph. There sits the whole box on the nightstand beside Papa's bed.

And here lies Papa, fast asleep, after eating a bunch of chocolates. They sure were good, he was saying to himself as he drifted off to sleep.


The ladies of the house could have been angry, but they weren't. No indeed. In their package were also a bunch of seeds for the spring garden. Hooray!

The doll house was all abuzz with talk of what would be planted where. There were shrieks of delight as the dolls tried to imagine all the food they'll have come summertime!

Mama especially was happy, because she loves gardening most of all.

Thank you, sweet friend, for you gifts and for the fun you gave us!

Lynn

Allowing Children To Create

I love the way working with a doll house that's homemade brings out the creativity in children.

My daughter has made two items lately, totally by herself and not by my urging. First, a crib/playpen. It's made from a box that contained soap. The legs are tall wooden beads. It is trimmed in ribbon and rick-rack.



And a shower. The shower is pieced together from all sorts of things: a clear plastic box that contained who-knows-what, old ribbon, old lightweight wood left over from an airplane kit, and of course a condiment container. She even used a foam sticker as a no-slip pad in the tub.


Just have fun!

Bear Attack!

HONEY WAKE UP!!

Mother was frantic to wake up husband because she could hear a bear trying to get into the house.

(All this thanks to Michaela's imagination! And Actually this bear was quite tame when we were reading We're Going on a Bear Hunt. )

Ahh, you knew he looked familiar, didn't you?

Father was up in a flash and commanded that mother get the large knife from the kitchen. After all, their only gun had been lost in a storm.

Sadly, Father had to kill the bear, but after all the bear was a threat to his big family. At one point the struggle was so intense the knife went flying into a dark corner of the room. Thank goodness Mother knew where to find the flashlight. The family dogs heard the struggle immediately and were all barking at the bear and jumping on the bear to help Father. It ended with everyone safe and with Mother and Father having plenty of bear meat for the winter.

A Famous Relative

Sometimes we play with purpose around here. At the end of every book we study for our homeschool curriculum, Five In A Row, I make a little souvenir for the doll house. For one thing, it reminds us of wonderful time spent reading books together. The other thing, though, is that it helps Princess of the Universe remember what we studied.

We just recently studied Snowflake Bentley. What was the souvenir?

Well, let me tell you the dolls were just over-the-top excited to find out that Snowflake Bentley was a distant cousin on their family tree. Oh, you've never seen such scrambling to get out just the right picture frame for the picture that they inherited!!!

Even the back of the frame is so finely crafted. :) tee hee


Princess of the Universe and I had so much fun playing dolls this evening. She made some things on her very own that I'll post about later. For now, it's time for bed.

Lynn