More progress on the 1:6 scale dollhouse...

....as far as the bedroom suite goes. Today I took some pictures of it, with some of my Fashion Royalty divas- Concerto in M Agnes Von Weiss - I simply love this doll, I won her by chance on the W club forum in a answer/question contest they have sometimes. Also with Moods Veronique and High Tide Vanessa, and of course, Regal Solstice Anja, who is the newest W club gal. So here are some more furniture placement pics of the bedroom, I am liking what I see so far. Still needs the plasterwork moldings and pictures, I am searching for the right pics to resize and frame for the bedroom.

I used to really not like this Bespaq fireplace I had repaired and repainted, but now, with the bedroom suite, I really really am. I am wondering if the fireplace couldn't be made in white with ormalu which would be simply stunning. I hope to make this bedroom a la Marie Antoinette - like it was her bedroom at the Petite Trianon, which was done in pastels and light airy colors with the gold trimwork.After all, the Baroness' villa is called Maison de la Royale, (the name of the dollhouse, owned by my Agnes Von Weiss, sitting regally in the pink wingchair. Only the best for her Highness...)lol.
Enjoy the pictures!~Lisa

Re-decorating The One Sixth Scale Dollhouse...

Actually, re-furbishing the One Sixth Scale dollhouse is more like it. Storing the dollhouse in our large barn, which is partially unfinished, had me shudder. the most damage happened to the bedroom, so the wallpapers and partition were damaged, the wallpaper buckled and also had to be removed. So I started from scratch with that room, and decided to do away with the windows-and the partition- they make the lovely Bespaq furniture look cluttered. I decided on a new look and making the top floor just the bedroom in the French Louis XV style.

I used foamcore for the faux walls, alot more will be done to them- but here it is with furniture placement and Anja modeling for us.

In the midst of items that were packed, and unpacked, I decided to add a few items such as the faux marble painted Bespaq fireplace and the fabulous Jim Coates mirrors. (Jim sells on Ebay as Jim Coates Miniatures and also carries the large scale Bespaq- we are the only two sellers of the large scale items.I highly recommend Jim's mirrors, he does lovely plasterwork as well.) I thought his mirrors would make an excellent focal point on the bed by hanging a long mirror on each side. I am going to stick to this placement, and Anja loves it as well.

The Bespaq fireplace was originally mahogany finish, but was so broken I decided to play with a faux finish on it to see if it was possible. It was spray painted white and then marbelized and gilded. I may add a darker gilding to this later. I still have the chest, the vanity and chair, and the white embroidered Louis XV chair to add as well.

The living room/salon/dining room was unharmed, the curtains were intact! I set up what furniture was in the box, here it is.

I still have some work to do on this room as well. The lower room will be the kitchen with the Sindy furniture in it.
Enjoy the pics!Lisa

Moving the Playscale dollhouse....

I had alot of fun today.....most of you know the One Sixth Scale dollhouse originally resided at my shop when it was open, but because we closed the shop, the dollhouse had to come home. Temporarily, it was housed on its back in our large barn/garage....since March. Working my way through boxes of stock, I have finally cleared out a space in my small doll/dollhouse room for the dollhouse! Yeah! Cleaning out and downsizing your collection makes room for more!lol...the lament of all doll collectors!
However, storage in the garage caused a little bit of repair work that is needed. The room most in need of repair is the bedroom and small room that was Luchia's office. I had to rip out some of the wallpaper since it bubbled badly due to the heat and humidity in the barn and also rip out the partition wall. I will probably leave out the partition wall and just have this whole room a bedroom...it will give for better photography and able to store or display more of the W club girls....and the Silkstones as well. Skipper's bedroom diorama can go on top of the dollhouse, or I might find another space if possible for it to reside. Still downsizing the collection- so some roomboxes may go up on Ebay...lol to make shelf space.
I had some great wins on Ebay....amongst them was this wonderful rare set on Ebay from 2005 that usually goes for alot more than my small bid!

Also won on Ebay were these two barbie McDonald's happy meal trays...I'm still collecting items from Ebay for the resturarant/diner called-- what else? 'Mac Donald's Restuarant'  (rhymes with Alice's Restuarant....remember that cool song on the radio at Thanksgiving??...so 80's!)
I did some prop placements with what I have collected so far-- and here are the pics...

I know I have more items, but was using the skipper bedroom scene box to look at placement. This placement won't work- I need to incorporate a kitchen with grill for the burgers, and also a cafe/dining room area. I have one counter that needs to have its picture cardboard insert replaced....this might be bashed to be a countertop space in the kitchen with take out bags on it.I am figuring my dimensions will have to be at least 24-28 inches deep, it will be rough to find a place for a permanet roomscene set up like I want. I am going to be focusing more on my 1:6 scale collection than my 1:12 -- which is why I am downsizing so many things such as magazines, etc. I have already got rid of three dollhouses in that scale so far. I will keep Strawberry Hill Manor, Tara, of course and Minnie's Little Sweet shop. And of course my very first dollhouse I am also refurbishing for the tiny bjd's....so many big dollhouses, so little time...lol...
Hopefully tomorrow will have more pictures to put up, I am going to try and work on both dollhouses depending on weather and time...
~Lisa

McDonald's diorama....

For a while, off and on, I have been collecting with the intention of doing a 1:6 scale resturant or diner, and not able to afford to win one of the cool Coca-Cola diners made in the 1990's for Barbie, I decided to do a fast food resturant such as McDonald's. Barbie playsets abound on Ebay, and I collected two at different auctions on Ebay. I was also able to acquire McDonald's Kelly and Barbies, with the aprons and hats. Last night I began going thru the items to see what I had and playing with them. I had thought of putting them on auction since I haven't used them much, but no such luck on me parting with these!
One backdrop has all of the stations on it, the fry station, the food cooler/warmer, the drink machine. My other one does have teh golden arches, and the fry station, but not any of the others, I was thinking of space constraints that one could be used for the back cook/kitchen set up. I do have two counters, one does not have the cardboard insert but I can copy that from the other more complete. I do have two registers and a couple of trays of foods. I have two? chairs and one of the tables. I am thinking if space is limited for this to just make it small or the same dimensions as the Skipper bedroom, which is where I haveit set up now. Some of the Rement tables could be used, I could probably find more of the tables that goes with this set on Ebay...and of course, plenty of rement food. One of the things I was thinking of doing was making this my own diner- such as calling it McDuffy's or something like that...so it could be a diner or cafe.....similar to what Hershey did with her City Circlez Coca-Cola diner on her Flicker album. Hershey has a website but couldn't find the link. Since I collect so much Rement and other 1:6 scale items I thought this would be neat for the storylines. Right now I was just doing placement to figure out the scene box dimensions. I have thought I could make the front small and concentrate on the serving counters and kitchen area, and use the same dimensions as I did with SKipper's roombox. Enjoy the pics!
~Lisa

The mini body snatcher...

I had some fun this weekend with my 'Grandma' Barbie. For a long time I haven't done much with her except use her in diorams with the Kellys and family themes. One frustration with this doll was her mature body- hello Mattel, older chubby lady here make clothes for her! So this weekend after looking at some pics of friends on Flicker, I swapped out her body for one of the new LIV dolls.

Grandma Barbie received LIV Sophie's articulated body, shown here. I was so amazed at how easy it is to pop off their heads and do this, just with a little heat from the blowdryer, no special tools involved were used to harm these dolls..........lol!  I also stole Sophie's bathing suit and her wig. Here are some more photos of Grandma with her new articulated body and with the kids....Kelly and the Mini American Girl dolls, Emily & Kit.

Here she is sitting and standing with Kelly and a cup of coffee. Pretty amazing. Grandma likes her new body.
I am thinking of looking for a head for Grandma's old body, and experimenting with re-rooting. I would like another older lady doll as there would be some neat dioramas I could do with Grandma- also, she reminds me alot with the slimmer body of one of the characters from the Good Wife, I can't remember her name, the other lawyer who heads the firm. (love that show.) It would be cool to put her in a suit. I have long wanted to do my own custom dolls and repaints. Looking at all of the amazing artists on the web, I think I am going to start. '
Enjoy the pics!
~Lisa

Sindy fridge arrived! More on Sindy kitchen diorama...

Yippee! My Sindy fridge won on Ebay arrived yesterday ! I couldn't believe how great it was, and at such a great price.  Sindy items are generally hard to find in the US, but they were more intricately detailed than Mattel, which was the cardboard king. Sindy items are generally from the United Kingdom.

The fridge came with ice cube tray w/ removeable ice cubes! plastic shelves for each side, not all were there, but there were enough to make it look believeable. 3 boxes of green beans, Pepsi, water pitcher, ham, chocolate milk, and pizza box with pizza completed the set. I am really really pleased with this item. If you cannot get a Kenmore kitchen, Sindy is the next best thing- and there were alot of color variations out there, including the dreaded pink.
The diorama roombox scene for this kitchen is not as permanent as my Skipper bedroom I posted about yesterday. I will probably make this into a good roombox for the shelf as well, since the Skipper bedroom went together so quickly. I originally purchased this set for the one sixth scale dollhouse- but may collect more Sindy kitchen items for that dollhouse room itself.
When the roombox is finished, I will put the rest of the wallpapers up, and then the fun will begin. This room needs a nice window and a good door as well, to make it look as true to life as I would like.
All for now- enjoy the photos!
~Lisa

Skipper bedroom diorama progress..

Today I hit the sale at Michael's while out running errands. I have still been working on the Sindy kitchen scene, but wanted a special roombox for the vintage bunkbeds I had for Skipper. I was lucky enough to find more of the scrapbook paper that matched what I used for the Sindy kitchen, plus they had a sale on foamcore 2 for $3!! Four sheets and I was ready to build my bedroom.
Dimensions for this room matched the cheapo plastic shelves from BJ's I purchased a few years ago for about $20 apiece- I have three. I think the reason for the cheapo price back then is they were in the kids' crayola colors- blue red and yellow, and are made of plastic. Not Ikea, but they do to hold the dolls and room box scenes, and miniature items, plus my boxed dolls as well. The SKipper bedroom and teh Sindy kitchen will reside on these shelves. I'm cleaning out my display space of items I don't use anymore, so please watch my Ebay Auctions . I currently have three lots of American Miniaturist & Miniature Collector magazines with 14 magazines in each lot starting at a low bid of $1.99, plus a set of repainted barbie salon furniture for 3.99. And of course, damaged large scales of Bespaq- but keep watching because I will be listing more magazines and barbies and props as well from my own personal collection. Bids will be started very low as I need to move these items.
Back to the bedroom scene- Dimensions on the room are 28 inches wide, 15 inches deep and 15 inches high. Small, but I think this will pack some punch. One reason I wish to make room scenes on the shelves is to hold all of my extra props and furniture and dolls- I am so tired of my dolls having no place to stand or be displayed comfortably. I will also be working on a room scene for the Jonathan Adler sofa that will be very modern.

Finished room scene box for shelf display

Materials used- Loctite caulk adhesive- available at Home Depot or Lowe's, wood grained shelf paper- also available at Family dollar stores or Lowe's, scissors, xacto knife, rulers, & 3 sheets of foamcore, one 1:12 scale dollhouse miniature window component.

Measure the space where you wish your roombox to be placed, and shave an inch off. I have not placed a ceiling on my roombox as of yet, to make it easier to put the wallpaper on the walls. I use YES! scrapbook paper glue for this- it is available in Michael's or other hobby stores. I put my floor shelf paper on the floor before glueing the walls and floor together.

Cut your foamcore. Remember, measure twice, cut once. It helps to write down your dimensions of the shelf you are creating for. Put a line of loctite caulk adhesive on the bottom edges of the back wall and floor, glue together. Let it sit for a few minutes as it grabs quickly. Next, cut your side wall panels, and do the same as you did for the floor. After these pieces are glued, it helps for steadying and dry time to put a couple of pieces of masking tape on the outside walls to holdit while the loctite dries.

Hopefully, next step will be the paper for the walls!

An update on dolly arrivals- Mini American Girl Kit has arrived! Mini Emily is excited and anxious for me to start back to work on Kit's bedroom in the dollhouse. Mini Kit comes to the doll family from one of my friends at American Girl Playthings forum where I hang out. Cheryl, also known as Memory on the board, collects Little Mo's and Hitty dolls as well as the mini american girl dolls. This Kit is special because she repainted her eyes. I look forward to seeing what adventures these two will get into, especially since Mini Rebecca who was won from Ebay will be arriving shortly as well!

All in all, had a great day and hope to get some more work done on both the kitchen and bedroom scenes this week!

~Lisa