Homemaking Organized Blog

Archive for March, 2010

So our daughter’s 5th birthday has past. Sort of. We like to celebrate things month long so we still sing “Happy Birthday” and come home with the occasional balloon etc.

But! How did the Felt Dollhouse finish up, finalize and go over…

So if you didn’t know our daughter has been hinting for sometime that she needed a dollhouse with a family. I spent a good amount of time online looking for ones I thought might work out but then I decided I wanted to make it. I made dollhouses with my mother’s help when I was a child and I thought this could be a nice mother/daughter experience for us too.

Turns out it was a great grandmother, mother, aunt, daughter experience.  We all got in on this one.

The Doll House:

Peanut and I had originally saved one of the boxes you get when you visit the warehouse clubs and were doing our best to make a dollhouse. We sort of lost steam and ideas mainly because we used it flat with the the divider down the middle only giving us two rooms.

In my browsing of Etsy to find felt food and patterns I landed upon a dollhouse felt pattern. I bought this not realizing it was a very small scale. The patterns were actually for a house about 11 inches tall. Too small. So….

We snuck the original flat house out of Peanut’s sight and my mother came over and helped me to revamp it to be upright and three stories. She added a roof which gave us an attic and shored up the side to enclose the house on both sides. I proceeded to cover the whole thing with felt and she flet tiled the roof. We wallpapered the ceilings.

The Furniture:

We started off with a Peanut activity trying to make paper mache bathroom and kitchen appliances. While it was fun everything ended up too big for the dollhouse.

Back to the patterns I bought from Etsy. I blew them up on the printer and sewed two beds, a tub, sink, toilet (complete with toilet paper), refrigerator, and stove/sink combo for the house. I fashioned a couch and a small table from odds and ends and a bit of felt and my aunt added some Michaels’ mini furniture she stained.

I did all of the sewing by hand and I was up many a night with a tiny needle and oodles of felt. I still have a few items I want to sew up and my husband has been making jokes about this being folk art and to make sure we sign it so years down the line it can bring a lot of money at auction (we’ve been watching  Antique Roadshow).

We add a family from Ryan’s Room.

How did it go over:

Well since I was the one bringing the dollhouse downstairs I did not notice the air pump little Peanut apparently gave. This was the gift she REALLY wanted. She’s been playing with it non-stop.

This house was made with complete love and was so much fun. We HAVE to add on to it but I have to finish up a few projects first and gardening calls too.

P.S. -She’s asking for chairs and a chimney

What else do you call a blog post that is nothing but a lovely list of all the gorgeously scented home cleaning products. Most of them are eco or environmentally friendly and I know that resonates with a lot of people. But here is the story before I go rambling on again.

I like a clean home and I do my best to keep the regular cleaning going. As with most people the onset of Spring makes me want to brighten and shine up the home a little more. Declutter some area, some extra dusting in a long forgotten corner and fresh scents to accompany all.

I love scented home cleaning products and there is no end to the ones out there. I’ve already made my way through Mrs. Meyer’s and Method, both of which are readily available at local stores. I’m kind of skipping Caldrea` because they are made by the same company that makes Mrs. Meyer’s so the hunt was on to find a couple of new surface sprays for the bathrooms and kitchen.

Now if you don’t already know these luxurious lovely scented home cleaning products are not your normal $2.50 but can run several times over that amount so I wanted to be sure, as sure as I could be, that I would be happy.

So the hunt was on. Instead of telling you all in detail about each brand etc., which I cannot because I have yet to try any of these, I’ll just list them for you.

The reason I’m making this list is because I searched high and low for one like this and couldn’t find a complete on. This is not complete but more comprehensive than what I could find.

• Mangiacotti: I leaned towards this one hard. The clementine scent was calling my name. Called by Michele’s last name (the founder)she created the Mangiacotti line of products to add whimsy and something special to every day tasks.
• The Laundress: Founded by two women formerly in the fashion design business The Laundress is first and foremost a line of specialty products for your laundry. The all purpose cleaner is newer. The clean lines are especially attractive.
• Sweet Grass Farm: Simple household products with kind of a vintagey, farm girl feel. The prices were good too.
• Stonewall Kitchen: Lots of choices in the scent department.
• Thymes: I had no idea they had cleaning products. I have a lotion and perfume I got as gifts about 10 years ago that I just love and that has me sniffing the bottle just to smile. I probably would have gone for them but I wanted more than one scent.
• Williams Sonoma They’ve got some new cleaning products out. It looks like it only comes in lavendar. I love lavendar but I wanted something new. Back to the search engine.
• JR Watkins: Who hasn’t heard of Watkins? Natural all purpose cleaners.
• Maison Belle: This is the brand that won out. I kept finding all these great articles about this company so I picked up a bathroom and a kitchen surface cleaner. They are out of London (I think) so to buy them in the US head over the The Beauty Habit (go figure, beautiful countertops)

As it stands now I’ll make this a ongoing list to see if I land upon anything else.

I bought all this fabulous felt to make a ton of play food for my daughter but as usual the thought had more energy than the actual application. I have made a nice set of items to present her with on her birthday (which will have to have pics later when she has seen them) but found myself with much more felt than I cared to turn into food.

Then my little Peanut had been really trying to play with this sorry dollhouse we attempted to make together a few months ago. I knew it needed a renovation but was fresh out of ideas. We had started it with one of those boxes they give you at the warehouse store for your purchase. We had a two sided on and I had (genius) made the dollhouse to be one level with two rooms. I wanted better for my Peanut.

I had been looking at the different ones online but with all we were putting into her play kitchen I kind of felt that buying a new dollhouse too was just too much.

By the way if you are looking for a nice store bought dollhouse Pottery Barn for kids has a nice cute one for younger children that is about %50 off.

Sooooo. I called my mom, artist extraordinaire, and she hopped over to help me out. We ended up turning the doll house on it’s end and she fashioned a gabled roof and patched up the sides with rogue cardboard I had been begging my husband to get rid of.

While she did this I started to felt and wallpaper the inside and outside of the house.  And made a diving wall for the upstairs.

A while ago we had papier mache’d a few bathroom items that are now too large for the new house’s proposed bathroom so we’re thinking of making the new attic room the bathroom. We also papier mache’d a couch which I covered with felt and made a big fat cushion for. I’m in the process of making a bed frame for the bedroom and figuring out what else to do around the house.

This sounds probably much better than it looks. I’ll have to take pics another time as the family has come down with a cold and I find myself with limited energy.

In the meantime dollhouse making with stuff around the house is nothing new.  So here are a few links to inspire you.

• Dollhouse Furniture With Everyday Objects
• Wood Built Handmade Dollhouse
• Make a Dollhouse Dining Room from Recyclables (so cute to see the little girl working on this)
• Make a Dollhouse Dresser
• The Perfect Dollhouse This was just amazing. The stuff the came up with!

I can’t believe this! Where have I been! I mean I have a child! I’ve cared for several (foster)! Why wasn’t I told!!!

I’m talking about this new obsession called felt play food. Well actually felt anything. You can make so much stuff out of this! It’s amazing!

Check out this amazing refrigerator with food!!!

This is by DearMyKid’s Shop on etsy.

Then she also has this darling farm set up which I wish I had known about eons ago!!!!

And follow this link to see a great magnetic cantaloupe slice with rind! Now that is cute!

But this is only some of the felt play things I’ve seen. There is so much my eyes are bugging out. I’ve found several doll houses. Another kitchen set up that included the stove along with utensils and food (that was a book). Now these are all patterns but the stuff is easy to make (just not so easy to design).

Apparently this stuff has been around for a while and I’m just now finding out! What else is out there that I’m missing??!!!

I’ve been struggling with what to make and buy for my daughter. Her whole Thanksgiving dinner has taken a bit of a turn. The main dish is still the same but I’m trying to figure out what to round it out with. I also want to make some of it myself.

Anyway enjoy!

I’m in the midst of shopping for my daughter’s birthday and boy is it hard to make a choice!

Some background: Back when I was a new mom I thought it was great to get that cheap plastic and cardboard play food in great quantities. Fast forward 3 years and we have had a ton of it that was just finding places to find around the house. One of those cases of quantity not quality.

So we had little talk with our Peanut and made the decision to donate our excess of pretend dishes, food and such and replace it with just a few pieces of well thought out pretend food based on how she plays. She says “Okay”.

Our daughter has this great love for Thanksgiving. Ever since her school program spent a month going over the Pilgrims, Native Americans, being thankful etc she prepares Thanksgiving dinner on a daily basis for her stuffed animals.

Sooo…

We decided to get some play food for that meal and some new dishes. You see her previous set included 2 teapots, about 8 plates maybe more, several pots, ice cream cups, regular cups, a juicer, a pitcher… really it goes on but there was so much I’ve forgotten all of them. Her kitchen set, which we spent more thought on, came with one stock pot and a ladle which we are keeping.

Now after browsing around I found myself on Etsy again (I love Etsy, people are sooo talented) and fell in love with felt food. This is not my first time seeing felt food. My aunt has several books laying around with it in there and has been trying to get me to make some to no avail but this time it spoke to me. So cute and fluffy. All the lovely things you someone else can make. It’s so beautiful.

So I’ve already ordered the main dish from mudpiekids…

We’re discussing dessert. She REALLY likes pumpkin pie so mommy24cs is looking good for this…

And The Birch’s Perch Shop has adorable crackable eggs, peeled bananas and shucked corn I have my eye on.

As tempted as I am to overindulge and get Breakfast, and lunch, some fancy desserts and more I think this will keep Peanut happy for some time and I really need to try my hand at making some (right before posting this I made a very ugly pancake with a pat of butter and some syrup).

If you’re looking to buy some felt food ,besides Etsy (which I think has the best), you can also find felt foods at…

• Oompa Toys
• Cillerenda’s
• Lillybean
• Felt Food Creations

Or if you’re creative and talented you can get patterns and supplies to make your own felt play food at…

• Lillybean
• Etsy
• Keeper of the Cheerios (links to tons of free patterns)