Joanna's Dollhouse Diaries: Finally Getting Back To Work...

Well, it has certainly been a while since I've posted anything....... We had a super busy Fall (we took a trip to Gatlinburg, TN., had a Halloween party, actual Halloween, etc., etc.,) and it seemed like the season rushed from one thing to the next so quickly that I really didn't end up working on any dollhouse stuff for a couple months there. But, December is rapidly approaching and so I've been focusing on getting the Backyard Art Studio and Flutterby Bakery finished. The past couple weeks I've gotten a lot done, especially on the Backyard Art Studio...... at the same time I'm getting ready for our annual "Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner" and that's coming up this weekend, so as i take a break from trying to make the house at least semi presentable (haha) and getting everything ready for that I thought I'd post pictures of the progress on the dollhouses. :)

So, not the normal detail and attention I would give to posting each "step", but hey, it's the holidays right?!....... lol

getting all of the brick for the exterior painted

getting all the brick for the exterior painted

walls taped in place while the glue dries

front view of the structure with the walls and doors in place

side view of the structure with the walls and doors in place

posts for the porch attached, and windows in place

posts for the porch attached and windows in place

inside view with walls up and windows in

put some of the furniture in place, including the easel I made

better view of the easel, with a canvas on it

the start of the first set of flowers I made for the landscaping

combining pieces of 2 different "bushes" I got from Hobby Lobby

waiting for the glue to dry.....

and finished product....... a peony bush with pre-bloomed peonies

checking out the skylights in place after my Hubster cut the openings for them for me

from the top

and from inside..... loving how they look!

I went back and forth on what color I was going to paint the ceiling..... I didn't want it white because that just would have been too much white, and I originally thought gloss black, but then I wasn't sure if the black would be too much so I thought maybe a charcoal gray, but then I thought "no, I don't want it to look half-hearted" so I decided to go back to the gloss black and see how it looked so I painted just one side to check it out. And I loved it, so that's what it ended up being.

the other side with the ceiling painted

with both sides of the ceiling sitting in place. (I don't have all the ceiling braces in place yet in this picture)

I forgot to take a picture before I started painting, but it the slate roof started out as a white plastic, then I painted it it a slate gray and then went over it with a combination of the gray and black.

roof painted

more shots of the ceiling with the braces and windows in place

outside of the roof with the windows in place. I also debatined a bit on the color for these, I thought about painting the outside gray to match the the roof a bit, like you would normally have in real life, but there wasn't really a way to do it that you didn't see some of the gray from the inside and it just didn't look as good as everything white, so back to white I went

side view

I still have to do the roof peak and a few trim pieces, but other than that the structure itself is finished..... so now on to the accessories and decorations