Two bedrooms done....

I have completed the two bedrooms, almost. Just a few more finishing touches, Skipper's bedroom is devoide of furniture- right now it contains overflow of the girls' suite. I am hoping , hoping I win the vintage Skipper bunk beds on Ebay I've been looking for- that is such a cute set! Yesterday my vintage 1965 brunette Skipper came in the mail that I won, she is in mint condition! I washed her dress she came in this morning, am not sure if it is an actual Skipper dress or a clone pak item. Today I hope to finish up some work on the parlor. As to the furniture, it is my own collection of hte white French Louis XV bedroom suite. The embroidered chair is no longer available, though I do sell it in my shop suitable for 22 in and larger dolls, with a mahogany/gilt finish. The pale pink pastel wingchair was designed by me, manufactured by Bespaq for my company, King William Miniatures www.kingwilliamminiatures.us and is a 1:6 scale piece. I made the bedding for the bed myself. The accessory pack,(dress form, blue dress on Luchia, shoes, shopping bag, shoe boxes, was a Silkstone accessory pack I purchased from Dan Lee of Wide Eyed girls on the Doll Divas forum. The Kellies were won on Ebay,and the miniature carpet is one of many I carry on my website and Ebay store. Enjoy the pics!

Lisa

Floors laid- walls are up for the bedrooms!Progress made!

Progress has been accomplished today! It is so much easier to work in a dry warm place- rather than my garage. lol. I made loads of progress on the two third floor bedrooms- the bath has become converted to a bedroom for a vintage skipper I won on Ebay today! Life is good!lol. Hopefully I will also win a Suzie Goosie armoire for her bedroom also.

I enlarged the former bath room a few inches, and used about five sheets of foamcore this morning for the partition wall and also for the floors. It has been my idea for a while to cover up the floors with a mat or foam board, with the wood laminate paper applied. My wood floor paper came from Lowe's for 4.98 in the widths I needed, no easy feat to find, I can tell you. I also gave in an purchased alovely real size wall paper that is paintable, with a pattern over it, that I may use for the ceiling or in hte living room area, have not decided.

I originally was going to divide the 2nd floor into two rooms, but have decided against that for now, but I may change my mind yet again, dont know. The bedroom for the girls will be covered in a pink mat artists' heavy watercolor paper, to match the bedding I madea while back. I also need to enclose the window wall and frame in the window. I also did some exterior shots of the finished stucco and exposed brick in the plaster on the manor, which I think the girls will love!

Brenda Lee /Luchia is overjoyed at the progress! Enjoy the photos!

Lisa

The girls have a slumber party....

My Barbie club that I belong to, Va. Fashion Doll Collectors' club, had a great program speaking on vintage 'pak' fashions- mainly the #900 series, many of which brought back great memories of playtime with my aunt's Barbies....

..this caused me to look through many of my childhood barbie cases & clothing items, and I found I too, had many 'pak' fashions, or from the 70's when I was between 5-8, 'Best Buy' fashions. One of the best things of belonging to the fashion doll club is the ability to mix with other ladies who know so much about the different fashion dolls- be it Barbie, Tammy, Cissy, Dawn, and so on, the different product numbers of our favorite fashions and dolls, and when they were made, and so on.

Basically, I found through accident that alot of vintage fashions look stunning on the Fashion Royalty/Jason Wu girls-- and also the silkstone & repro fashions that Mattel has begun to reproduce. So digging through my childhood stash, I found some of my aunt's snitched clothing from her Barbies, and also some of mine. I found an accumalation of loungerie and pj's which also made me get my favorite doll out- Growin' Up Skipper. After De-boxing Sleepytime Gal repro and her items, (I have renamed her Gracie- she looks like Gracie from the George and Gracie Allen show- 'Say Goodnight Gracie') I love her fabulous pj's and robe. Bewitching Hour Luchia has also been renamed Brenda Lee after Brenda Lee Johnson, from my favorite show- 'The Closer' (hopefully new episode on tonight!) All I need is a vintage pair of black barbie glasses for BW Luchia/Brenda Lee and I'm on a roll- along with candy bars, the big black purse, and some cupcakes in front of her. Maybe a sideshow figure to resemble Fritz too. lol.

Luchia/Brenda Lee wears an orange 70's peignoir, I loved this nightgown set- couldn't find the little robe for some reason. Growin up skipper wears vintage Barbie's pak pj's in pink with the blue ruffle, and Eugenia wears some vintage pj's also that I thnk were Best Buy. She also wears Bratz big terry slippers, and Brenda Lee wears 2008 Christmas Barbie's furry slippers. The girls are organizing their clothes, which Gracie is fussing over in the armorie wardrobe.

I have been rethinking my design on the playscale house- mainly doing away with the bathroom. Though I liked the idea of a bathroom- I know I want my focus to include both my Fashion Royalty dolls, my vintage childhood dolls I still love- like Skipper, Kelly and Tutti also, and my Only Hearts dolls which I really love to collect also. So I am thinking of widening that room at the top and making a bedroom for Skipper- I have made a bed, maybe have another twin bed and use the same fabric and material for matching headboards. So this is a major kink in the plan for the room division, but I would love to have a Skipper/Tutti bedroom, because of the many toys and items that would look really adorable, and make the dollhouse unique.

Enjoy the pics!

~Lisa

Work on the exterior progresses......

I accomplished alot of work on the exterior today....I moved the dollhouse to my shop, King William Miniatures so I could work on it in my spare time when the shop is not busy. Maison de la Royale will resemble a small French Villa in Provence, with exposed brick, stucco, and the robin's egg blue shutters. Later after that is further along I will add some plastic ironwork embellishments on teh shutters and all. The rooms interiors will not be worked on until all of these exterior embellishments are done- I've already decided on no staircase, since it takes up so much room that I need for furniture.

The exposed brick is done in paperclay, and will be painted when dry. I used lightweight joint compound from Home Depot ($5 bucket) for the stucco. Hippo grey acrylics were used to paint the trim and sills of the windows. I have not yet finished the garage painting, which I will probably work on after the sides are done. The back I will leave as is, since this will sit in front of a wall and the back is finished very nicely too.

Enjoy the pictures- I hope to have more soon!

Lisa

Back to working on the dollhouse!

It has been a few months since I did anything at all on the 1:6 scale dollhouse, or wrote of my progress or any of my collecting.....too long in fact.

I am pleased to say I have news- I found out who made the dollhouse! It was something I never noticed when I picked up the house months ago last year in November 08, it was loaded so quickly I did not notice the etching on the bottom of the dollhouse. My husband and I decided that since I am at the shop, the best place for this large house is at the shop, where I can work on it in spare time between commissions, and also have it ready for display of my collection, so everyone can enjoy it- (who am I kidding- I want to play at the shop when no one is around!LOL)

The name G.L. Jadwin 1999 was etched with a wood burning tool on the bottom of the dollhouse base. How cool is that? So now we know how old the dollhouse is- It is ten years old this year! I love finding clues like this on a dollhouse- it always shows you should sign and date the item, so future generations or owners will know who built or created the item.

As many of you may know, I recently opened my own shop, so I will be working on the dollhouse there- and eventually having it on display for people to enjoy looking at in the shop. For updates on my shop- King William Miniatures & Collectibles, Suite B, 6114 Lakeside Avenue, Richmond, Virginia 23228- check out our shop blog here- http://kingwilliamminiatures.blogspot.com/for all of the updates, new products, and events that will be coming up in June!

Now onto lighter subjects- my favorite W club doll so far- she outshines Vanessa- pics of Luchia, who has decided Sleepytime Gal has a great wardrobe!

* all furniture is Bespaq, Louis XV bedroom suite, Lisa's private collection.*


~Lisa