It All Starts Here

Sometimes our ideas flow from an existing kit to bash, a house style to scratch (aka custom) build, or from an interesting doll who needs a place to live. Our settings are always modern-day (ca. 2001 when we started this hobby). We try to create things that will make people smile and feel good.

We think that if we had to build the same house twice, we literally could not do it! Fortunately, we have very unique little people who have definite opinions and so far, no one has wanted a house “like so-and-so” has.

We work as a family unit: my wonderful husband, my beautiful sister, and I. We don't always agree as to the direction of the build, but I think that we end up with a better dollhouse because of all our grumblings -- and we do have a lot of fun!

The Purpose of this Blog

We needed a place for all we wanted to say about the background of the build and the nuts and bolts of the design and build process. Thus this blog.

All our dolls' homes have families living in them and a story is built around their personalities and lifestyles. This story is an integral part of our building process. We would like to share these stories -- actually, the little people insist upon it!

Many of our houses are located in Fredericksburg, Virginia because that is my sister's favorite place.

Also, we have started a Rouges' Gallery with photos of our little people and information about the dolls.

If you would like to start with the dollhouse that "started it all", it is the Original Rowbottom Manse; if you would like to see the scratch-built Georgian that our first build gave us the confidence (or fool-hardiness) to do, it is Sunnybrook Farm.

Let the stories begin!

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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Christmas 2006 at SunnyBrook Farm

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We thought, since we are on the subject of Christmas, we should mention the party of all parties at Sunnybrook in 2006.

It is always fun to decorate for a party. In 2006, we decided that the time had come for Sunnybrook to host a big Christmas bash. Since it was such a large house, it could hold our entire world of little people.

I think we finally ended up with 65-70 partiers.

We decorated all the rooms and loaded tables with wonderful food and drink. In the foyer, we set up a large Christmas tree and arranged people on and around the grand circular staircase singing Christmas carols. The dining and living rooms were set with lots of food and drink and more guests. In fact, there were merry makers throughout the house.

The most fun idea was that the music room would become a ballroom and house a “band” and dancers. It really was a lot of fun to have little people holding musical instruments--sometimes we had to wire them to the instruments since some of them refused to stay in the proper positions. (We wired discretely so that the wires would not show.) We then decided to be matchmakers and selected the couples. They were so happy to cut a rug!

The party went on for a long time—no one wanted to leave!

It took us almost as long to “undecorate” the house and remove the guests as it did to set it up!

We think that this year it should be Sunnybrook’s turn again.