a doll mansion

my great uncle walter passed away in the spring. he retired from the military twice and then took up woodworking. his specialty was dollhouses. not just any dollhouses. elaborate, intricate pieces of craftsmanship like none other. he gifted me one when i was a small child. it came completely outfitted with delicate, completely functional furniture. i loved it dearly, but i was not gentle with it. he said to me in recent years that he gave it to me when i was a bit too young. unfortunately, they are mostly in pieces in a box now. the dollhouse itself is in need of repair. it sits at my mom's house. i so regret not getting it to him to have him do the repairs himself while he was able.

my sister and i have 8 years between us. she didn't get a dollhouse. she has never let me forget it. ;) when we visited uncle walter a couple of years ago, he had his masterpiece sitting on his porch. it had already been sitting there for years. heather (that's my sister) shared with him her sorrow that she never owned one of her very own. he told her she could have that one!
now you must understand that this dollhouse is nearly six feet long and over three feet wide (much larger than mine)! she couldn't exactly fit it in her back seat. time passed and sadly, so did uncle walter. there is a bit of scandal surrounding his estate and affairs so when i was offered the opportunity to drive down to south carolina and pick the dollhouse up for her, i didn't hesitate. it meant completely unbolting the back seats in my suv (yes, i drive one of those, i know) and sacrificing all leg room for the journey home (2&1/2 hours), but we made it work!

i can not imagine the many, many hours he spent on these creations attending to the tiniest of details. he cut each and every tiny shingle.

since we still have no way to get it to her and she really has no where to put it, it lives here for now. uncle walter had had it practically outside for years. it was in the *dog room* but there were two open doors on either side. it was protected by a roof overhead, but not from dirt, dog hair, wind, mice, etc. it was caked with grease and dirt and filled with tiny nails and mouse poop! ick.here it is next to matt's car to give an idea of it's size.

though sienna and i spent hours early in the summer cleaning it with scrub brushes and toothbrushes alike, it was still coated in grime. it stayed on our picnic table securely wrapped in tarps until my mom came last week. she shined it up real pretty! thanks mom!
sienna was already in the midst of a room redo. we cleared half of her room so that she could have this beast in there for a while. she could not be happier! the darn thing is so big that she really only uses half of it, if that. her very spoiled dolls now have a complete ballet studio in their new home.
this one came unfurnished. my furniture needs repair and even so it really just isn't suitable for the play of a six year old and her rowdy little brother. so she uses hers as her own (tiny in comparison) dollhouse is taking a break in the attic.

uncle walter modeled this one after a deluxe log home that he and his girlfriend encountered on their travels. he took lots of pictures and went home and recreated it. he obviously did it just to do it because then it just sat there on the porch for many years. he used to enter these into state fairs and win blue ribbons. he loved that women would buy them and deck them out with electricity and everything!

as a child, i loved receiving gifts from my great uncle that he had made with his own hands. it wasn't until much later in my life that i developed such a deep, deep love of all things wooden. i do wish that i could have spent some time with him in his shop and learned some of his trade.
getting this beast into the house was no easy feat! i didn't get any pictures of the next step where we stood it up on end and balanced it on a skateboard to get it around that 90 degree corner into her room at the end of the hallway.
thank you, uncle walter for the endless hours i spent with my own dollhouse and other toys you crafted and for the joyous play you have now brought to my children. with love, rae

freezer paper stenciling....finally!

so, i am really late to this party, but i finally had the opportunity to try out freezer paper stenciling last night thanks to my sweet friend jean, known in blogland as the artful parent. jean hosted a crafty night for some lucky gals but unfortunately her sweet baby, daphne, was not down with the game plan so jean didn't actually get to do any crafting with us. daphne refused to go to sleep and really, who could blame her? i would want to stay up and be part of the fun, too!
jean prepared a beautiful spread for us gals. though she actually had three projects for us to choose from, we all dove into the freezer paper stenciling right away. i brought along some of my kiddos stained clothes for my first attempts. i love how they turned out!
sienna's shirt had paint (and other miscellaneous) stains on the sleeves. she had seen me alter one of my own t-shirts a couple of weeks ago and loved it so we decided to give this one the same treatment. i simply cut off the sleeves to make them shorter using one of her t-shirts as a guide.
i then cut the collar off by snipping carefully right under the trim piece. the edges will roll a bit with wash and wear.
i am excited to do more of these! everyone in the family is already talking about what they want next. i'm also looking forward to some actual crafting with jean sans bebe! ;) thanks for the much needed night out filling my creative well and basking in the company of such beautiful mamas!

34

what a birthday weekend it was. a little too heavy on the stress side. there is much to be done for the upcoming school year and my plate is more than full at the moment. one sick baby with a fever all weekend and now the other one seems to be joining her.

however, happy moments were to be found and savored. i attended my dear friend's daughter's moon ceremony to welcome her on her path to womanhood. it was truly lovely and i think any girl would be blessed to have this challenging time marked with such beauty and encouragement. i came home to a warm welcome. my mom had arrived from alabama and my family had a little party awaiting me. we donned leis and feasted on my favorite birthday delight, flourless chocolate torte. yummmmm. i have previously declared i will be more than happy to have one of these to mark each year. thank you, matt, for indulging me!
my mom is a huge, huge help and has come to my rescue. we weren't planning to have sick babies, but she has been able to help me with so much still. she makes for a wonderful birthday present. she and my sister also surprised me with a dehydrator! can't wait to give it a work out.
hope you all enjoyed your weekends!
xoxoxo

{this moment} it's a milkshake, not a coffee!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. as inspired by soulemama.

black and white wednesday

elements of self: the mask

i contemplated what sort of mask i would don for this photo for many days. i have read other women's posts about their masks and i see many of the same tendencies in myself. i hide behind many things. certainly my children. i think this is common for many of us mothers. i hide behind excuses....my house is not clean enough to invite friends over, i have not done enough today to chalk the rest of the day up to spontaneous fun with my children, and on and on.

ultimately, i chose these funky glasses to symbolize my mask. i used to always have a funky accessory to hide behind when i went out. something that diverted the attention from the me underneath. i used to wear lots more jewelry, i had many pairs of spiffy glasses, a fun hat, anything that would draw the focus and keep people from seeing the real me. maybe i felt like i wasn't fun enough. maybe i needed to jazz it up a bit so i felt that people wanted to be around me.

a friend of mine recently told me that i am serious. that has hit me hard. i don't want to be serious. i want to be fun, sparkly, spontaneous and full of life! though i don't wear all the accouterments that i once did and am pleased that i do not feel the need to hide behind these disguises, i think i need to bring a bit of that back. perhaps rather than hiding the real, *serious* me, i was helping the spunky fun me to come to the surface.
thanks again to shakti mama for prompting all this introspection. there is much more going on inside this head. i am still working with getting those thoughts to appear here in this space. ;)

old friends

missing you, friends.

xoxoxoxo