Mini Book, Big Book

Remember all of those lovely prizes I won in Beautiful Mini Blessings' giveaway? One of the wonderful extras that Kathi sent me was an adorable miniature version of The Dollhouse Book by Stephanie Finnegan.

Just recently, I was visiting Powell's City of Books, a Portland, Oregon institution and book-lover's paradise. Let me digress for a moment.  Powell's is the largest used and new bookstore in the world. It occupies one full city block and stocks more than 1 million new and used books. Its nine color coded rooms house over 3,500 different sections. They even have a map to help you find what you're looking for! Portland has many smaller, boutique-style bookstores too. I'll tell you about one of them, and some adventures I had there, in a future post. ;-)

OK, when I recently went to Powell's, I found the 1:1 scale (real) copy of the book, and it was used--yay! So I used my store credit, from trading in some books I no longer needed, to purchase this book.

By the way, The Dollhouse Book is an enjoyable overview of the dollhouse miniatures hobby. It's full of beautiful color photos and has information from the historic past right up to present images of the dollhouse in the media. I just had to show you some photos of the two books, mini book and big book. :-) Until next time.... xoxo Jennifer

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

I Won Beautiful Mini Blessings' Giveaway!

I know what you're thinking: "Jennifer won ANOTHER giveaway?!" I can hardly believe it myself! :-) Look what Kathi at Beautiful Mini Blessings made:

I WON IT! Wow! I am thrilled. Winning this prize will push me to do some work on the sweet cottage I won from Tam toum. It's going to be the shabby chic cottage of my dreams, and Kathi's prizes will go perfectly in there! I'm going over to the craft store now to get the needed supplies. :-)

Tomorrow morning I'm announcing my Big Miniatures Giveaway. I can't wait to show you the prizes and can't wait to give them to the winner! Until next time.... xoxo Jennifer