Beacon Hill Dollhouse

It Has Begun

January 5, 2026 at 9:20 am by Claudia

Here you see proof that I have started in on the Beacon Hill.

Several windows had to be fixed. They were either missing the acrylic window pane or part of the frame. Because I have an additional kit, I pulled frames and window sheets from there. It’s fiddly work. As I learned from working on Dove Cottage, Greenleaf dollhouse kits are inconsistent in execution. The parts don’t always match from kit to kit. So you have to cheat a little to get them to fit, or as in yesterday’s work, jam them in place.

I swore a lot.

My fingers were covered in glue. I also discovered that I have to make a trip to Michael’s to get some paints. I haven’t used them in a long time and some of them have dried out. In the case of the color white, I have barely any left. Everything is now reattached except for the front door, which I’ll delay until the end of the project. Rehabbing an already assembled dollhouse means it can’t possibily be perfect and I’m fine with that.

Besides, decorating the dollhouse is my favorite part of the whole thing.

We’re a bit down because the holiday season has ended – also because the Orange Clown has pulled another bone-headed move. It’s stupid and an attempt to distract from the E Files and J. Smith’s testimony. It’s also all about oil. (I do this with names to keep trolls from finding the blog.)

We are keeping the tree up for another two days or so. I’ve been slowly removing ornaments that are in danger of falling. I told Don that I needed the lights a couple of days longer and he agreed. I may or may not get the ornament bins out of the shed today. But the lights will stay in place just a bit longer.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Rain, Dollhouse Stuff, and a Pending Faceup

May 23, 2025 at 9:38 am by Claudia

Rain, rain go away. Honestly, it’s so dark and rainy around here that we’re getting depressed! It’s also very cold for this time of year and we’ve had to turn the heat on. Next week will be better. The rain should stop after today and it will warm up starting on Monday. I feel water-logged even though I’m not out in the rain, if you know what I mean.

It’s hard to take any pictures when the house is dark as well. I did my best.

I spent a couple of hours going through the box that holds the unfinished version of the Beacon Hill. I was looking for replacement parts – window trims that are missing, the base for the kitchen window extension and the bay windows, and a few other things. Greenleaf dollhouses have a lot of detail, but they’re made with cheap plywood. The parts are on big sheets of plywood and there’s a schematic diagram that shows where things are. When you find the part, you have to punch it oh-so-carefully out of the plywood sheet or you’ll break it. Supposedly, all the plywood sheets are labeled by number, but my experience tells me that not every sheet is numbered. So I had to spend a lot of time looking at the schematics and then searching for the corresponding plywood sheet.

This is something I’ve had on my mental list of things to do for years. I think I have everything, but we’ll see. I can tell you this, putting this monster together would be a giant pain-in-the-tush and I’m so glad I changed my mind and purchased one that was already assembled.

Inside the modern dollhouse. That chair was made by Arlette of Arlette’s Minitures in England. I have several of her pieces. Alas, she retired last year. This particular Art Deco-ish chair was a gift from a reader of the blog. She purchased it and then realized she wasn’t going to use it and graciously passed it on to me.

The sofa is identical to the gray sofa in Don’s mini music studio. Made by an Australian miniaturist.

I got the coffee table at a miniature show. And the vase, as well.

Don has a gig this evening at one of his favorite venues.

And this will be Jessie’s sister. Eventually. I don’t have a body yet and it’s far too rainy to work on the faceup as I have to spray it several times during that work and let it dry outside. But soon.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Wednesday Thoughts

January 24, 2024 at 9:11 am by Claudia

♦ This girl always gets a lot of comments on Instagram.

It’s the hair, of course.

I wanted a Ferro Doll with curly hair for a long time. Though I envisioned her having dark hair, I ended up with this light-as-air curly blond hair. I’m happy it turned out that way.

♦ Oh, the weather. After a bit of snow late in the day yesterday, the rain turned to ice, and at some point today, it will turn back to rain. Any time ice is involved, we stay in the house until the issue is naturally resolved (if possible.) Looks like it will be resolved later today, so we’re going to sit tight in our little cottage.

♦ I’m trying to get motivated to start working on the Beacon Hill. For heaven’s sake, I’ve had it for at least 3 years and, except for my initial clean up and removal of unwanted large curlicues, I’ve done nothing. I think about it. I look at photos of other Beacon Hills. And I do nothing. Today, I’m going to look at IG miniatures accounts for inspiration. It’s huge, it’s blocking the light in my little cubicle, so it might as well block it prettily, you know what I mean?

♦ On a totally different subject, I want to address the cheapening of the standing ovation, something Don and I have observed for several years. When both of us were young actors, a standing ovation was rare. On those special occasions when you were on the receiving end of a standing ovation, my goodness, you felt as if you had landed on the moon! Everyone hugged each other backstage, holding that brief moment in time close. Amazing! Indeed, even into our middle age, they were rare.

Now? Every darned performance, the audience pops up immediately and applauds. It’s expected now, though why it is, I don’t know. It should be rare, magical, something to hope for but not count on.

I see a lot of theater, as you know. I can’t remember a time in the past 6 or 7 years – maybe even 10 years – where the audience didn’t stand and applaud. And, quite frankly, most of those performances, though good, did not deserve a standing ovation. They weren’t extraordinary, another word that is thrown around so much that it has lost its meaning. (I’m guilty of this occasionally.) Yes, applaud warmly, acknowledge the work of the actors and everyone involved, but don’t stand unless it’s remarkable.

The audience has made a collective decision that applauding means standing as well.

It doesn’t.

I feel sad for actors nowadays who will not experience the wonder of a true, unexpected, and rare standing ovation. It really was something special back in the day.

When the automatic standing ovation occurs, I stay seated. Occasionally, as when I watched Hamilton, I surge to my feet, as well. But only rarely.

There’s a whole list of things like this that have lost their original meaning and import and are now just another thing you say or do that means far less than it used to.

Don’t get me started on ‘awesome.’

This has been on my mind again since I saw the first preview of Dial M for Murder, which was okay but just okay. Nevertheless, like a collective jack-in-the-box, the entire audience popped up and applauded.

I stayed seated.

My thoughts for the day.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

It Has Begun

Rain, Dollhouse Stuff, and a Pending Faceup

Wednesday Thoughts

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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