Beautiful Mini Blessings Prizes Plus Shabby Chic Cottage Update

I received Kathi's Beautiful Mini Blessings giveaway prizes late Monday afternoon, and boy, did she spoil me rotten! Not only did she send these amazing beauties (all made by her!),

but she also sent all of these extras! Fabrics, ribbons, lace, a shelf, a hutch, and a bunch of cute dollhouse miniatures! There's a tiny pink flamingo leaning against the hutch--so cute!

And this photo is a close-up on a darling dollhouse book and a bunch of lovely mini magazines. Wow--I'm thrilled! Thank you again, Kathi! I love everything! :-) You all might want to be following Kathi's blog now so you can enter Kathi's next giveaway! ;-) Besides, her blog is really fun!

I'd been doing some work on my new shabby chic cottage in anticipation of receiving Kathi's prizes. I wasn't sure the flocked white Christmas tree would fit in Dad's Dollhouse with its Victorian decor, but I figured the tree would look really nice in a shabby chic environment. So I've done a little bit to the house, which as you may remember, arrived in pieces from Greece.

First, I removed two small areas of wallpaper in the attic:

Wallpaper before

I did some research online and found the suggestion to lay a hot steamy wrung-out cloth on the wallpapered walls before scraping off the loosened wallpaper. It worked, although it took several tries to get the wallpaper and ALL of the glue off. Patience was the key word! :-)

Wallpaper after (no wallpaper--yay!)

After I removed the wallpaper, I gave most of the pieces a first coat of gesso. So that's how I got the pictures of Kathi's prizes above. I removed the wallpaper, I painted the inside walls of the house with gesso, and then I leaned the house walls together long enough to take some photos (!). Next steps will be more painting and then wallpapering--yikes! If anyone has wallpapering tips for me, please do share! Until next time.... xoxo Jennifer