A dollhouse in process...

I thought I'd share a few pictures of the current barbie dollhouse that I am building to sell.
This house is about half way finished. It's a 2 story house with Kitchen, dining room and living rooms on the bottom floor, 2 bedrooms and a bath on the top floor.
The pics today are of the bottom floor. I still have a lot of little details to finish up and paint touch up of course, but I think it's turning out pretty well.
This first photo is of the ceiling in the kitchen. I created a raised ceiling in here. I wanted it to look similar to the old tin ceilings that were so popular during the Victorian era.

Here's another of the kitchen. I was inspired by the come back of the board and batten wainscot. This was actually a popular wall treatment during early century house design. I personally love the way it looks, and think I have just about convinced my sweet Mr A Garden of Roses that we need to install this in OUR little cottage home! :)

This is actually the living room ceiling in the works! I am going to add a bit more trim and then give it a fresh coat of white paint!

And finally the dining room ceiling. I had too much fun making these raised designs! Who knew regular wall mud could be so much fun!! :) Wouldn't this idea be cute on a child's dresser front? Or to dress up a plain cabinet door face?

I'm thinking I'm going to have to try to make some pretty chandeliers for these rooms. My boys love electronics and are more than eager to "help" me wire this house...

That's all for now... I've got lots of exterior fancy trim pieces that I've been busy making patterns for and cutting out. But I'll share those later :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessedness--
Linda

A Peek Inside...

Thank you all for you nice comments on my last post. This is actually one of several barbie houses that I've made over the years. And for those that wanted to see the inside, I can only show you pre-furnished, as I have since sold the house. You can see interior pictures, more exterior details and a few of the other houses I've made by clicking HERE

Although I never intended this blog to be about Barbie houses per se... Actually I'm still trying to figure out what EXACTLY my blog is about :). For now it's eclectic some of this and some of that, and whatever else happens to strike my fancy on any particular day!!

But since I am on the subject of dollhouses, I am currently about half way done with another that I intend to sell. This one is loaded with fancy trim work!! Am I nuts... probably. But it's worth the aching back after hours of scroll saw cutting to see the finished product on these pretty houses. Or at least I think that is what makes them truly special. Come for a visit tomorrow and I'll share a few sneak peaks at my latest work in process.
Thanks for stopping by!
Blessedness~
Linda

My First White Wednesday

Today I thought I'd join in the fun of White Wednesday over at Faded Charm

I'm sharing a white Barbie dollhouse that I made a few years ago, all from scratch. This is my own design.


Maybe this is more of a Barbie mansion ;)

Details... and a LOT of scroll saw work!!



Even white flowers for the plant shelves!

Details of the lower floor's bay window.

And look at this cutie!! Who is this peeking through the bay window??? I think he's actually after the throw pillows on the window seat inside ;).

I'm also linking to Get your Craft on Thursday and Funky Junk's Saturday Nite! Thank you ladies!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessedness--
Linda

Kitchen Makeover Part 2

I'm going to share the second part of my ongoing kitchen makeover today. As I mentioned in my last post, for Mother's Day this year, my sweet husband announced that he was taking me to one of my most favorite places to shop!!
Lowes!! Whoo Hoo!!
Does my hubby know what makes this gal happy or what??!! I knew exactly what I wanted, so it was a very fun quick little trip!!


My Mother's Day gifts... a new LONGER hose for my air compressor!! The old one was had a leak and so my air compressor wasn't holding air :( Not good!
A tube of liquid nails... I've decided this is a MUST HAVE in all remodel projects! And 4 packages of beadboard!! How fun is this??!!

It took me two days to prime, paint and install the beadboard (of course not without help from three little people).
Here's my Mother's Day gift now!



What a difference. As you may have noticed in my "before" picture in my last post, the walls were all textured and painted over drywall. No matter how hard I tried, I could never seem to get the walls really clean. The dirt and grease and grim would get embedded in that wall texture and was impossible to wipe completely out... especially behind the stove! I had read a lot of the pros and cons of having a beadboard backsplash, and I finally decided that the pros out weighed the cons. I used a semi gloss paint on the backsplash, and I love how easy it is to wipe the beadboard clean!



I decided to wrap my beadboard into my window, and I added a cute little shelf molding at the top. I love how it looks!

Price so far for my kitchen makeover:
Beadboard on base cabinets $20
Beadboard backsplash $40
Liquid nails $2
1 Gallon Behr Semi Gloss paint $25
Electrical box extenders $5
Total cost thus far $92!!
I love that for little money my kitchen has been given such a dramatic new look!


Blessedness~
Linda

Kitchen Makeover Part 1

Okay, so a LOT of things have been going on in my household as of late! Springtime is always a busy time of year, with new projects, spring cleaning and of course oodles of yard work! A few months ago I started on what I thought was going to be a quick little kitchen makeover project... I admit, with three little boys in tow, no project is ever "quick" nor easy. So I'm sure I was being overly optimistic when I began this "quick" project.
My kitchen is on the small side, but it does face East, and I have a lot of windows on that side of the house, so in the morning I get a lot of very nice natural light. But by mid day my small kitchen was so dark it was cave-like. Seriously! Cooking dinner, for me, is depressing enough without the environment being dark and gloomy to boot! I had originally wanted to do some major renovations, but seeing that we didn't have the budget for much, I had to find other means of making over my kitchen. Here is the before shot...

I know... nothing special, builder grade cabinets, hollow core wood veneer cabinet doors and drawers, laminate countertops... ugh!
I had some primer and white paint left over from my little bathroom makeover so I set to work on painting the cabinets. Boy, what a job that was!! Don't let anyone fool you, painting kitchen cabinets is A LOT OF WORK!!!! After about 4 weeks I think I finally got the majority of my cabinets painted and primed!

This was midway through the painting, even at this stage, it was amazing how much brighter and lighter the kitchen became!
Did I mention my cabinets were base grade builder cabinets??? And did I also mention that when they laid out the kitchen cabinets they put cabinets that were meant to run up against other cabinets or walls and used them as end cabinets?? So I had plain 1/8" wood finishing off my end cabinets. Unbelievable! Not only did it look odd, but one chair falling against it, pushed by one little boy, was enough to break a nice 2 inch section of the thin wood. It was harder to notice the break in the wood when the cabinets were dark, but once they were nice and bright and white, the break was very obvious!
I had a few pieces of bead board left over from my bathroom project and so I decided that I'd install beadboard on the sides of my cabinets. I'm SO GLAD I did! What a difference!

I think the cabinets actually look finished now. And the best part... it was cheap! $20 to install beadboard to the sides and back of 3 cabinets!
Stay tuned!! Tomorrow I'll share my Mother's Day present and the rest of the kitchen makeover!!
Blessedness!
Linda

A New Perspective

Four years ago today my husband received a life saving kidney transplant. It was his second transplant in 9 months. The first of which only lasted about 24 hours before his body rejected it and it had to be removed 5 days later. So much has happened in these past four years. A lot of ups and downs, and struggles as we adjusted to life post-transplant. Somedays I find it hard to believe that it's really been four years! God in His mercy and kindness has proven His sovereignty over and over again in and through our circumstance. There was a time that I considered my husband's kidney failure and kidney disease to be the worse thing that could ever happen to our young family. Today I see it as possibly the biggest blessing of our lives. God is good, and He has shown us undeserved mercy and grace. Whether we are blessed with another four years, or forty, each day is a gift, that grows sweeter with time. It was God in His sovereignty that has placed me upon this earth at this time, in this marriage to my Mr. A Garden of Roses, and I know that my life is a tool in the hand of the Redeemer for the glory of Christ and His gospel.
Blessings to you on this day which the Lord has made!
Linda