(Late) Making

Thanks to a tip from my sister Becky, we bought this solid, handmade dollhouse from a thrift store for 9 dollars last year. It is perfect but ugly. Mauve, beige, and black wouldn't have been my first choices for painting, but to each his own. For the last year, the girls have enjoyed it immensely, but I had Big Plans for a renovation.  So, of course, the night before Christmas Eve while I stayed up nearly all night packaging Ebay items, I also painted the dollhouse, which I then covered with a sheet. (Nope. That wasn't obvious.) Those Big Plans included much more, but, well, procrastinators who feel completely overwhelmed can't do everything.
On Christmas morning, it looked like this.

On the 10th day of Christmas, I realized I needed to do something if the children were to have any handmade gifts before the season was over, so I wallpapered the dollhouse with paper I'd bought a few months ago for the purpose.  I'd chosen it according to their personalities and preferences, and then they approved it or made a new choice.  I have other dollhouse surprises in the works that (surprise!) were not started or finished by Christmas morning (hammocks! furniture painted something other than red! pictures for the walls! lights! canopies! etc.!), but there's time enough before Christmas 2017.


It has been a joy to see them delight in it and decorate.  In a house where seven children share one bedroom (and closet), it's been a fantasy of vicarious privacy and freedom for them.  Plus, it's just really fun to look at. 

They've already started making the necessities, namely food.

And teddy bears.