Hello December 1st! We’ve put up our tree, had a visit from Elfy, opened the first chocolate advent calendar window and the Christmas carols are playing around the clock…it really does feel like Christmas now! Oh, and for the first time ever I’m organised with my Christmas present shopping and sewing! Just a few little things to finish off and I’m done!
It’s been awhile since I’ve shared a “Things I’m Crushing” post and I’ve found lots of great Christmasy ideas lately, here are some of my faves:
One day I want to decorate my tree all white
Lil would love her own tree to colour and decorate
Love these glitter candle jars
When we make gingerbread men, we’re gonna do them jumbo this year!
Beautiful handmade decorations
This is always a family favourite game
I made these fruit mince shortbread cups last year and they were delicious
This year, instead of making biscuit gingerbread houses we are going to make our own lolly nativities instead
If I had hundreds of felt balls I would be making this wreath
My blogging is pretty dismal at the moment, but I’ll try and share pics of our Christmas celebrations, there’s a lot more going on over at Instagram lately if you want to keep up with me that way though!
Lately I’ve been trying to decide on some new knitting projects to get ready for the colder weather and being stuck on the couch once the baby is born…so much great inspiration out there to choose from. I think I’ve narrowed my choices down to a couple of projects but wanted to share some of the beauties that have caught my eye. I’m sure many of them are way out of my skill level, but I’ll get there eventually!
I’d love to hear about your favourite knitting patterns/yarns…hit me with them!
I’ve showed you the dollhouse so far. We’ve got lots of big wall and floor spaces to play with and I’m flooded with ideas to get decorating with. The problem is, that I like too many different styles and designs! I’ve just got to settle on a basic colour scheme and get to work based on that I think.
Anyway, I wanted to share some of the cool dollhouses that I’ve come across in my research. The traditional hip roofed dollhouses are lovely, but there are some mega-cool, modern ones out there too that I can’t go past…here are some that have caught my attention:
The interior design of this house blows me away! Although the house is a lot more traditional looking than ours would be, I’d die to be able to decorate it as well as this lady has. The intricate detail she has included is amazing – check out the close-up photos of each room underneath…she even has a sewing room!!! (From Mousehouse.) I don’t think I’ll get close to that much detail in our house, but it has given me some great ideas.
This one is cute from Hilda Grahnat. Shows how the simple rectangle shape can still come to life when decorated and filled with furniture.
I came across this amazing house on Etsy from Qubis Haus. This was our absolute very favourite and if it didn’t cost over $600 we would have snapped it up! See how the walls can move to different places using the slots in the floor and roof? I love it so much. This was probably the main source of inspiration for the rectangle, flat roof look we went for. This shop also sells really cool furniture that comes made from individual blocks with magnets on the sides so that you can pull them apart and create new pieces of furniture – ingenious and so much potential for creativity.
I always love the things that Made By Joel creates. They are modern and basic and achievable but never lacking in style.
He also shares some great furniture he has made himself using wire, wood, fabric and a hot glue gun – love it! Did you know that dollhouse furniture costs an absolute fortune and most of it is really ugly? We’ve decided to get the house painted and decorate the walls for Christmas with a few little bits of furniture for now, but leave the rest for other birthdays and Christmases and slowly build up the collection. Plus, I want to have a go at making a few things myself and don’t have the time to do everything before Christmas. The kids can use their imagination for now and make their own furniture! I think with a bit of time and imagination I can come up with some cool little pieces to include.
Also found on Mini Modern, this dollhouse made me smile. The family are perfect.
And check out their spectacular pool!! Once I saw it, I knew we had to include one too! The naked, skinny dipping family makes me laugh 🙂
This is sweet – looks as though it is made from a bookshelf. Very simple if you didn’t want to bother with building anything yourself.
This house from The Land of Nod was also high on my “would buy it if I didn’t care about how much I spent” list. Isn’t it cool? This shop probably has the best furniture that I’ve seen around so far so I might use it for inspiration to make my own or splurge and buy a set or two for Lil’s next birthday.
As for people to occupy the house…I’m going to leave that up to the kid’s imagination for now. We’ve got tonnes of wooden people below and I might paint a few like Jessica from Running with Scissors has done. The house is pretty big – each square room measures about 30cm x 30cm. So a barbie can just stand up in the house – but her head hits the roof! We also have a few Polly Pockets, Kimmi Dolls and Fisher Price Little People floating around so there will be plenty of people to live in the house for now and if I see anything else that I really like along the way, I’ll pick it up. I don’t want to rush into fully finishing and furnishing everything for the sake of having it done for Christmas because I know that I’ll discover other cool things along the way and want to be able to include them over time.
And, just incase we aren’t totally over dollhouses…I’m keeping this up my sleeve for a future Winter school holiday project – making dollhouses with popsicle sticks! This could be so much fun and I think the kids would really get stuck into completely handmaking the house, furniture and people to live inside.
What about you? Do you have a dollhouse in your family? Where did you get your furniture? What dolls do your kids use in it? Did you decorate it yourself – let me know what things you love the most!
If this store has had an unusual increase in hits over the last two days, it’s because I’ve been looking and looking and wishing and dreaming over their super duper funky women’s clothing.
I get sooo sick of shopping and finding the same old styles in every store. Bonnie & Buttermilk has some serious style, I’m smitten. The store is based in Germany and as far as I can tell (my German isn’t that crash hot!) everything is handmade.
And I’m thinking that I could probably sew some similar styles for myself, but finding funky knits for women that aren’t too childish is really difficult. I’m on the lookout though – let me know if you see anything.
Here are a few of my favourites out of the 400+ items for sale in their store.
We’re a bit house-crazy over here at the moment (actually, being married to an architect is always house-crazy!) We (that should actually say “he”) are dreaming, planning, designing, pricing our next home. We have a contract on some land and have lots to get organised before anything happens (like selling our home first!) but in preparation for the next stage, I’ve been thinking about the little things that I want our new house to include.
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you’ll know I’m partial to a bit of colour and at the moment I’m really loving bright doors. Especially when the pop of colour appears unexpectedly on an interior door – funky! And maybe something we will be including in the new pad…
