Austen Inspired Dollhouse Project

Today I have a picture of the most recent work on my dollhouse. The Yellow Room is roughly modeled after Jane Austen's room at Chawton Cottage, seen here.
It's wallpaper only, no floor yet and I just set in the window so you could get the idea. The wallpaper is lovely scrapbook paper from K and Company. It looks so old, patched, marked, and worn that I fell in love with it and new it would be perfect for the house. I wanted something that looked like it could have been in the house over 30 years ago when I got it. Look how worn the edges look!


My next step is to work on the windows and order flooring. I will get that from Dollhouse Collectibles, where I got the cute sofa bench you see here. If you love miniatures you can spend hours on that site. While most furniture is very inexpensive, there are bedroom sets that cost hundreds of dollars- more than I've spent on my actual bedroom!

In other news, my DD 12 and I are in a production of The Music Man. I am one of the 'Pick-a-Little Talk-a-Little' ladies. Things are starting to feel a little busy around here, and occasionally I wonder WHY I stepped out of my comfort zone.... But I know why...I blame it all on Julia Cameron and The Artist's Way book that I told you about.

So, while most of my time is spent in cooking, laundry, working out, and housekeeping, I do get to play now and then. And it's good for my soul!

Welcome to 2009

My first post of 2009.... I am excited for this new year. I have a continuing list of projects, and a few new things I hope to work on this year.
I am on week 8 of my The Artist's Way book, and the program by Julia Cameron designed to help creative people work through blocks or become more creative. My goal in following the program is to try and bring some of my ideas into fruition.....and maybe even completion, a big step for me. But the writing exercises and artist's dates have been a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend the book to anyone wanting to make way for their inner artist! Right now I'm headed over to the HGTV website to look at the Dream Home. For a few years this has been a New Year's pleasure of mine, but the houses have become more and more 'rustic' (boo) and so expensive that even people who win them can't afford to keep them. So I kind of forgot about it, then last night I saw the tail end of the show with the 2009 home in Sonoma, CA. It's a cute farmhouse, just adorable. While I'm not in love with the decorating, I am excited to go view the full house on the website. I wish they would put out a little magazine! The HGTV show usually has too many fast pans across the room and weird camera angles, more suitable for a rock video than for house lovers who actually want to soak it all in. The indoor colors all pretty bright and bold. I'm a color person, I have lots of color on my walls, but the particular colors they chose look a little cheap and don't appeal to me. But I'll take a second look. What would you do if you won the Dream Home? The last one I really even wanted to win was the house in Tyler Texas. But they are too expensive to keep from a tax perspective. I always figured if I won I would take the family to stay down there as long as we could, make a long vacation out of it, then take my favorite furniture pieces and sell the rest. Just think of all the pretty dressers and night stands and mirrors oh my......

Artist Date

I went on my first Artist Date today. As described in Julia Cameron's book, "The Artists Way", I had to go by myself and do something creative that would feed my "little artist" soul for an hour or two. I went to the nearby Bellevue Botanical Garden. It was lovely. I've been there twice before, the first time just checking it out after Aerobics one day, and once with my family. It was fun to go at my own pace, (meandering) and sit down every now and then when the view was just too good to walk away from. Every time I would sit, I would think "I could sit here for an hour" but soon I would be too anxious to see the rest of the garden, so up I'd jump, and wander off only to sit down a moment later. My five favorite spots in the garden:Sitting on the rocks of the Alpine Garden looking across at the weeping willow.The benches at the japanese viewing pavillion.Just past the pavillion in between the waterfalls. The sound is wonderful.The whole Yao Japanese garden enclosure.The fab 50's house in the middle of it all, that houses the gift shop, restrooms and offices. Complete with fully surrounded courtyard and sliding shoji screens. (Don't ever change a thing!!)
Our weather was unseasonably warm today. I left my jacket in the car. I took my camera too post a pic or two, but the battery was dead when I got it out, so I returned it to the car so I could walk around unencumbered.There was construction work there, and it was loud. I tried not to let that distact me. The whole walk was restful to the eyes, if not the ears.I will definitely go back soon, probably once the fall colors start to come out a bit more.

Sentimental Autumn

It seems that while I was away from my dollhouse for a few years it had a series of adventures. One is 'caught on tape' as they say. After reading my blog my sister #4 posted the short (30 sec. video) on her awesome blog. See it here.http://somedayiwillsoar.blogspot.com/2008/09/to-make-you-smile.htmlIt features sis #6 and sis #2( I think that was you) who also has a wonderful blog at http://www.samuelsfamilyfrenzy.blogspot.com/


I have several sisters and a sister in law who blog and they are all such lovely and talented people. I know we each need to seek our own way and find our own style of creating, and journaling, but sometimes I read and I think, I wish I were more like so and so. I have to catch myself and just enjoy who I am and who my talented family is, and get inspired by the way these fabulous ladies handle every day life in an artful and spiritual way.

Here are the other blogs from my family. If you have time for meandering, take a look. We have everything from a room designer/ real estate agent who is more of a businesswoman that I can ever comprehend, to our young strong Lady Cop little sister, to moms and more moms. I love them all.

http://www.misstiffinblue.blogspot.com/

http://www.nwmomofboys.blogspot.com/

http://longdayshortyears.blogspot.com/

http://activerain.com/blogs/julianna
Yesterday my daughter rented August Rush. I've been wanting to see it and combining that with my overall yearning for more creativity in my life it was quite a day. Despite occasional sappy 'after school special' type of dialog at moments, the show was overall very enjoyable. I teared up a little bit now and then, not hard for me. The show is appropriate for children, and handles the unwed Mother aspect of the story very carefully and tenderly. I acknowledge the reality that not every couple gets back together, and not every creative person is a genius prodigy...but the universal feeling the show left us with was the desire to DO something creative. To feel the music, and dive in and DO things. And just to punctuate that, I started "The Artists Way" this afternoon. Found a notebook to start my 'morning pages' , an unscripted sort of brain-drain writing exercise where you fill up three pages every single morning about anything, without editing or self censoring. If we don't have anything to write we can write "I don't have anything to write" for three pages. It's supposed to be theraputic, mind clearing and silence your inner critic. So Here goes. Hopefully you will benefit and my writing will get better.