Barbie's Dream House Project .. Part 1

 For Christmas my little girl had her heart set on a Princess Castle or Barbie dream house she saw in the Toy 'R' Us catalog. She talked about it for months. Then she stopped talking about it and wished about other things. Well just a few days before Christmas she brings it up again, asking if I had her Castle hidden under by bed and stuff like that. Well this wasn't in our plans for Christmas, they can be so expensive in the stores and honestly sometimes just really cheap in quality. Oh boy I knew we were in for it come Christmas morning, and she did wonder where it was but quickly forgot and was happy with her other presents. Not so lucky for us her Birthday is just a week later and the Castle was questioned once again.

Luckily, though back in the good year of 1985, my dad made me an amazing Barbie Doll House. We have moved this puppy around from house to house and it was currently sitting in our storage unit. Here it is in all it's glory in 1985, yes that is me as a super excited 6 year old on Christmas morning. (mann, picture have come a long way.) 

 I wish I had more pictures of the inside and the different rooms. There was a kitchen with cabinets, stove and frig. Also a bathroom with tub and sink. It was awesome I loved it, I spent so many hours playing with this house.

This house is really massive actually, and we really debated about getting it out again for Bella, cause we don't have much space but we know that she would love it. We decided to fix it up, but not as a birthday present so that down the road both girls could play with it and it's not just for her. So this is my current project I have embarked on.  Lets just say that the last 25+ years hasn't been too good to her. I remember putting stickers on the walls and roof, and just being stored for this long it got really beat up.  


The minute we brought it home Logan wanted to start demolition, and he did. I had it in my mind that we were just going to fix a few things and get it ready for playing quickly.  Pretty soon out is coming the carpet and all fixtures. I actually got emotional there for a second. But then once I really looked at the horrible state the house was in, I knew it had to be done.

 The front

 The kitchen - minus the upper cabinets

 The Bathroom

 The back of the house showing all rooms.

Since this is going to be a huge project, I will show you the progress we make along the way. So stay tuned for more results and the big revile. I have found some amazing Barbie House re-dues online that have inspired me like this one Inside the Barbie Craft Room. Yeah, I'm not going to that extreme but it does give me some fun ideas!

Lisa

Butterfly Dreams

Remember forever a go I said I redecorated the girls room. Yeah we did it back in the summer, but some how I am now finally getting around to posting about it.  I actually love the room and I'm just a big slacker at showing it to all of you. So this room started out white, I mean White White! There is one wall that is covered with cubbies and so it make for great storage but other then that the walls were very boring white. My 4 year old daughter has had a really hard time changing from sleeping in her brothers room to sleeping in a room with her baby sister. (We were in hopes that it would help but she still insists on sleeping in brothers room.) 

We made it a beautiful butterfly room. These pictures are as we started painting the Lavander on the walls. 

I found a headboard and foot board for Bella's new twin bed at the DI for $8 Which was a sweet deal. I didn't get before pictures of it, darn it! I was a dark brown to start with. We primed it white and painted it an Almond color and then Glazed it. We also painted our old crib for Alivia the same Almond color.   

 

I made a zig zag pink and purple quilt for Bella's bed. Which I really love how it turned out. It was a ton of work. Half way through making it my sewing machine died and I end up finishing it on a sewing machine I inherited from my grandma. This thing is a beauty, it was made in like the 40's. It come built in to a desk and is soo heavy, but it still sews awesome. I should have posted a picture of it.  

 

Above her bed we bought a canope

Then I got out my favorite thing, my Silhouette Machine to cut out tons of Butterflies. I put them mostly in the corner of her room by the window giving the illusion that they were just coming up from the bed. I also cut out both of the girls names and put them on the wall by their beds. 

 

We bought this fun lamp from Ikea to hang in the corner and for them to have a night light. 

I really love how it turned out, really fun and girly, Too bad Bella still wants to sleep in her brothers room. oh Well maybe one day.

Lisa

New year new goal!

We all make these great New Years Resolutions but most of the time we have a really hard time keeping it past a couple of weeks and in some causes days. Well One of my goals this year is to be more creative. When I find the time to let my creative side out, I find it brings me simple joy even if it is just in the moment. And these days I think we all could use a little time out and joy. So hopefully I will be posting a lot more over this next year I hope to post each week. I might not be perfect at it but I'm going to give it a good try. And lets see where I go from here.....

 - Lisa