Redecorating the Dollhouse

As a little girl, one of my dreams was to have a dollhouse. I adored miniatures and even owned one of those four-story Barbie townhouses with the plastic Grecian columns. It was hideous, let me tell you. Later on I bought a plywood dollhouse kit from Michael's, but furnishing it was beyond my 11-year-old budget. It wasn't until I was in my mid-twenties that I finally got a dollhouse I am truly proud to call my own. Of course, now it's a bit embarrassing to admit that I'm a 29-year-old that owns a dollhouse, but there is nothing wrong with being an adult who plays with toys. Besides, dollhouses are hip -- or so says the New York Times.

My dollhouse has changed a bit since I put it together two years ago:

I really want to redecorate the living room to give it a modernist vibe and add a bed and proper 1:6 scale bookshelf to the bedroom/study. While browsing on Etsy, I found the magic of Smidge House:




I really, really love the mixture of oranges and greens in the first photo. I do love complementary hues! I am thinking of using Dr. Edna's office from "Mad Men" for my color palette inspiration:


I'm going to wait a bit before I start the redecorating since I tend to change my mind a bit. For those of you who are wondering if my dolls get any say in what their home is going to look like -- the answer is no! I spent Saturday afternoon carefully dusting every floor of the triplex. The girls spend absolutely no time on housekeeping, which is ridiculous. They do own a 1:6 scale Swiffer and broom, you know. They have no excuse!!!

I Heart La Petite Mu Mu

Photo from the first roll taken with my Rolleicord Vb. For more pictures, check out my other blog.

I discovered La Petite Mu Mu at last July's Taipei Toy Festival and just had to take her home with me. She's one of the most gorgeous toys I've ever seen! I love those colorful raindrops on her blue coat.

Mu Mu is by Hong Kong artist Fion Ko and according to her bio, she's a four-year-old girl who "lives in a featherlike dream." When she isn't hanging out by the window or standing guard in front of my quilt fabric, Mu Mu keeps my husband company on his desk and hides from our crazy cat.

I have a lovely collection of toys I want to photograph. Many of them are from Hong Kong's Crazy Label. Are there any toy collectors reading this blog? What kind of toys do you collect? What do you do with them (photography, display, flipping the lights on really quickly so you can catch them while they are still up and about and before they turn back into toys, etc.)?

My favorite color is rainbow

If everything goes as planned, this stack of fabric will become the color wheel quilt from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. When I was little, I loved picking up big boxes of crayons and arranging all the colors in a spectrum. And then I would eat them. Just kidding! I was never one of those kids who ate crayons. Just glue.

I find looking at rainbows and color wheels very soothing. The way my eyes glide over the different hues as they transition into one another puts my mind at rest. When I was organizing those crayons, one of my favorite parts was holding up different shades of one color and deciding which ones belonged next to each other, especially if they were of similar value. I felt the same way when I was arranging the fabric for my color wheel quilt, and I also had to consider which patterns would look best next to each other. I won't finalize the arrangement until I cut out the pieces, though.

I bought most of these fabrics from Jo-Ann's prodigious fat quarters section when I back in California for my wedding. Others are from Yongle Fabric Market here in Taipei or Purl in New York City -- so the three places I've called home are all represented.

I've never machine quilted before, so I'm making a simple quilt out of a couple wide pieces of fabric to practice using my walking foot. That thing is scary. I keep thinking the "teeth" on the bottom are going to eat my fingers. Wish me luck!