Mini Memories...

Please pardon the quality of  the following photos.  My sister is on vacation (on a cruise in the Bahamas - I'm so jealous!) and she asked to borrow my good digital camera.  So I got stuck using an old ornery one that refused to cooperate.  The camera didn't want to connect to the computer so I had to put the memory card into the photo printer and then transfer the pics to a usb memory stick that would "talk" to the computer!  Kind of a pain in the rear for just a couple of pictures, but hey - at least I'm dedicated, right?

Anyway, my parents are also out of town, but only for the weekend.  So me and the boy (an endearing term for David that I am borrowing from Melly Kay at http://www.cutestew.com/) got to house sit and dog sit for the weekend.  I thought this would be a good time to show everyone my first dollhouse.  Actually it was my only dollhouse until I bought the saloon and started working with minis again a little over a year ago.

I may have blogged about it before, but my Mom licked "green stamps" in order to get this dollhouse for me when I was about 3 years old.  I've heard these referred to as "tin dollhouses."  I remember many happy hours spent playing with this dollhouse when I was little.

Here is a shot of the front.  I'm 30 so the house has been stored in my parent's basement for many many years now and is in a bit of disrepair.  It was wrapped in a large plastic bag, but unfortunately it didn't help keep the dust out.  I just really appreciate my Mother for keeping it around for all of these years.  I have seen tin dollhouses like this at the flea market before, but none as pretty as mine.  I don't know if they are worth anything or not, but I can see myself wanting to collect these in the future.

Here is a side shot that shows the chimney.  On the left side of the white paneling are two little lines written in blue that I guess give the name of the house and the manufacturer.  I promise when I get my camera back to take a better pic.  I'd also like to do some research as to who made the house and exactly how old it is.

This is a shot of the other side.  This is my favorite side.  I love how there is a side door that goes into the kitchen.  When my Mom got this dollhouse for me I was very small and we lived in an apartment, but the house that we moved to and that I grew up in up also had a side door in the kitchen :)

And now for a shot of the inside.  Now you can really tell how dirty the house is!  One of the pegs is missing so the second floor is sloping on the left side, but I think it could be fixed.  The bag that my Mom wrapped the house in also served to keep up with the original plastic furniture.  So once again props to my Mom!  I can see some extra furniture that made its way as well over the years - the large blue chest of drawers in the upstairs bedroom is actually from a My Little Pony set!  I can see the front door lying down in the living room and also the chimney top in the upstairs bedroom!

And this is another pic of all of the furniture.  I plan to wash all of the furniture and do some cleaning up of the dollhouse itself.

You'll laugh when I tell you this, but for years my Mother had no idea what happened to the dolls that lived in the house.  Like most little girls I played with my dollhouse, then moved onto Barbie dolls, and then there came a time when I put my dolls away.  For some reason I couldn't give up these dolls.  I tucked them away in my sewing box and always wanted someday to learn how to make new clothes for them.  The original family came with a Mother, Father, son, daughter, and a baby.  Somewhere along the way I picked up a second boy doll and I have misplaced the baby doll, but I do have an idea of where it may be. Please excuse the boys are they are not dressed atm.

I'm not sure exactly what the scale would be on the house - maybe 1:24 or maybe something in between 1:24 and 1:12?  I plan on cleaning up the house and taking some much more detailed pictures once I get my camera back.  I am excited to share more of this house with everyone :)

I hope everyone has a happy Monday!  Ttyl blogland!