Slow Moving Projects & Dollhouse Renovations

Happy Thursday everyone!

 

 

If you listened to my podcast this week you know that I have been working out the content I want to share here on the blog. I love sharing my videos but I have been thinking how I really want to keep true to the blogging part of the blog and share the written stories with you.

Kym, at Dancing at the Edge has a series called “Museum of Me” where she shares bits each week about herself and her life. I reached out to join in the fun and I think it will be a really nice addition here on the blog. A way to share, in written form, a bit about myself and what’s going on behind the videos and creativity. So here goes!

February was a very slow moving month for me. We had a few colds run through the house so for about 2 weeks someone wasn’t feeling great. I also was feeling really tired so I decided to really and truly rest. I curled up in my favorite chair, usually with a kiddo in my lap and would doze a bit and delve into videos over on Patreon.

I have mentioned before how creativity helps me with anxiety. When I was watching videos I remembered how working on little detailed projects bring me a sense of calm and peace. Hand stitching, or slow stitching, is one activity that really restores my sense of peace and calm. One of my favorite content creators and artists is Julie Warren. She creates the most beautiful dollhouse pieces, from scratch. Right now on her Patreon she is building a 1940’s dolls house and it is just so much fun to watch!

I have been following Julie for years and I have been thinking recently how I would love to completely restore and furnish my childhood doll house. While curled up in my chair I decided to re-watch a series she did where she renovated an old dollhouse and turned it into a shop. I am brand new to the world of miniature making and really had no idea where to begin with my old doll house.

Julie has thoroughly inspired me and my mind has been running around with ways to renovate this little bit of my childhood. My husband was working in our attic doing some de-cluttering and brought the old dollhouse downstairs for me. It’s windows are broken, wood from the roof broke off years ago and my children, who also played with the dollhouse when it was at my mother’s house, have added their own additions in the form of stickers on the roof.

It definitely needs some love and restoration.

I normally tend to be a dig in and get messy whip the paint around type of creator. Often times, alright most times, I’m impatient when making something and I just can’t wait to see it all done. It’s the rush to get something done that leads to so much of the anxiousness that can swirl through me at times. Our world moves so quickly and we are all used to everything happening now, right now! Trying to keep up feels exhausting and even if I am not trying to keep up I still feel that energy of needing to move quickly. My mind feverishly trying to work out how it’s all going to work out. Small, handmade projects slow my brain down as I focus on the details that are right in front of me. One little stitch here, another there and eventually they work together to complete a projects. Slowly, gently without the need to rush through anything or know how it’s all going to come together. The beautiful part is that the more I practice this with my little slow projects, the more it starts to flow over into how I approach and perceive everything else in my life. It’s a practice, it’s work, but the peace and calm of living in the moments is worth it.

I am excited to begin my slow dollhouse project.

I started by staring at it quite a lot. I look at it this way and that way. I tilt my head in here and there. I peak over there and over here. I took lots of photos, some you see here, and I chatted with my husband about ideas. One of the things that always bothered me, even as a child, was my dollhouse had no stairs so I have decided to try to add and build a set of stairs. As this is a new skill-set for me I am going to be doing lots of research and my very handy husband offered some ideas on how to best achieve this.

I was also trying to come up with a theme and decided to just decorate it as my dream cottage. The place I would decorate if I didn’t share a home with another person who might object to everything being white and pink. So yes, the outside of the house is going to be a soft pink with white trim and the inside is going to be, I think, a shabby chic combinations of pinks, whites and lavender.

There will also be a craft room in the attic which needs stairs as well. I have decided to try and build a pull down type attic stair so that should be fun to figure out.

I am also going to be changing the facade of the house. It has a very Dutch feeling to it right now and I am going to revamp the dollhouse to look a bit more like a Cape Cod style house. I hope to add shingles to the roof and maybe windows that open out. All details that will come together.

I have mentioned in my podcast that I am just over 1 month into a 6-month “no spend” challenge. Beyond food and necessities I am personally not spending any money. I want to live more simply, slowly and I want to need less things, less stuff. We have been working to clean out our home and buying more things to manage and to fill up our space feels really counter-intuitive.

I can talk more about my no spend challenge in a future post but for now, I had to think about how I could start on a project without buying anything.

Turns out it was really fun to do!

I am going to start out by removing things. Taking off the pieces I don’t want to keep, removing carpeting and wallpaper. Taking out the broken plastic windows. We have primer already that I can use to prep the outside. I have some wood that might be enough to get me started on building stairs.

There is lots that I can do with what I have.

I am also planning on documenting the journey of my dollhouse. I do hope this is going to be the start of a lifelong love of miniature making but if not, it will be so much fun to have a record of all I have done.

I am planning on sharing the journey as well. I think I would give it it’s own home here on the blog, a page you can click over to if you are also interested in miniatures and dollhouses. It would definitely be a separate video channel so as not to confuse things. Let me know your thoughts I would love to hear.

So that is my share for the Museum of Me. It feels so nice to slow down and connect with you all in this slow, written format. Something you need to seek out to read, not just delivered to you by an algorithm. I hope you know how much it means to me that you have sought out my little blog to read along and I hope you have enjoyed your stay and come back to visit me again.

Until next time!

-Michele, aka The Dreaming (Dollhouse) Dilettante

Sharing this post as part of Kym’s Museum of Me Blog Series.
You can read Kym’s blog here.