dollhouse — Page 2

Thoughts on Disappearing Bloggers

May 12, 2025 at 9:13 am by Claudia

Don sneak-shot this photo of me about 4 years ago. I was working on Dove Cottage. Hair in my eyes – my life story. I’m about to start work on the Beacon Hill, on a budget, and I’m gathering ideas. My friend Helga, who lives in Germany, has a beautiful Beacon Hill. She added lots and lots of detail and whimsy. I found myself on Instagram pouring through all her photos. And I search for other Beacon Hills, as well.

I have another blog that has been defunct for about 10 years. If you’ve been here a long while, you might remember that I briefly had a photography blog where I posted a photo a day. Eventually, like a few other blogs (a blog about how to design a blog, my book/reading/review blog) I got bored or exhausted and realized that I only needed one blog; this one, that has been around for 17 years. Anyway, I haven’t deleted that photo blog because it has a blog list on the sidebar which includes blogs about miniatures and another list of general blogs that I was reading at the time. I like to visit those blogs occasionally.

Fast forward to the other day when I was thinking about the Beacon Hill and I dropped in on that blog to see what was new with some of my favorite miniature bloggers.

Most of them have not posted in years. I sort of knew that was happening, but on that day, the reality of just how many miniaturists had stopped blogging really smacked me in the face. A few of them had moved to Instagram. But the others? Where are they?

Of course, there are several possible answers. They got tired of working on miniatures. They’re too busy. They got tired of blogging. They aren’t with us anymore. You know I start to worry about people when their online presence disappears. I worry about it with commenters on the blog, I worry about it when virtual fellow bloggers disappear, as well. I tried looking for them on Instagram, but I wasn’t successful.

My friend, Casey, for example. I’ve wondered about her for a while. She lives in Arizona and she had been experiencing health problems. She hasn’t blogged since 2019. I haven’t seen her on IG. She created that wicker chair that is in the den of Hummingbird Cottage. I won it in a contest. She was so kind and generous with tips of all sorts. The blog is still up, but it’s been six years since we’ve heard from her.

As I glance down the list of blogs, I do see a few that I know are on Instagram now. As is the case with many bloggers, Instagram seems to be the preferred thing. I’m glad they’re still around, but I have to say that IG cannot and is not meant to replace the detail in a blog post. The miniature bloggers who used to blog fairly regularly provided lots of photos and details about their miniature work in each and every blog post. You can try to do that in IG, but let’s remember. It’s called INSTAgram. Instant, quick posts about daily life. And that’s not the same, is it?

On one level, I get it. Life is busy and taking the time to write a lengthy blog post or even just maintain a blog is a challenge. And it isn’t just miniature bloggers. Most of my fellow bloggers from those first days back in 2008 have stopped blogging. There are very few of us left. And, as you know, I have thought about ending this blog. Many of us are older now and aging has an impact. And sometimes you just lose your enthusiasm for something.

So, I’m certainly not complaining! Not at all. I’m observing.

When I first started working on Hummingbird Cottage, I knew nothing. Nothing. By that time, I had accumulated a list of miniaturists that I followed and believe me when I say that those bloggers were incredibly helpful and generous. I left comments with questions. I emailed some of them. Every one of them answered and generously shared their knowledge with me. Some sent me miniatures to help start me on my journey. It was a vibrant community and boy, was I lucky! I was able to pour over the blog posts, look at detailed photos, read the how-tos. I’m very grateful to this day for all of those interactions and virtual friendships.

I’ve written very detailed blog posts about my dollhouse renovations. I’ve made lists of sources. All of that is on my navigation bar. And no, you can’t really do that in any depth on an Instagram post. It’s impossible.

Heck, I sometimes go a very long time without doing any miniature work at all. I’m just coming off of a long break. I got the Beacon Hill during lockdown. That gives you an idea of just how long it has been.

Anyway, it makes me sad. Everything is ‘instant’ nowadays. But some things take time.

And, of course, I wonder about some of those bloggers. Are they well? Is everything okay? I’ll do my best to find out, but it will be a challenge.

Just some thoughts that have been whirling around in my brain over the last few days.

Happy Monday.

Stay safe.

Ruby and a Dollhouse Tour

March 5, 2025 at 8:47 am by Claudia

Since I’m filled with anxiety and fear lately (gee, I wonder why?) I’m going to post something cute. Adorable, in fact.

I’m not ordering any new dolls for the time being – maybe forever – but I ordered a doll head, faceup, and wig about 7 months ago from a BJD designer in China. This particular doll is very popular on my Blythe feed and I was enchanted by her ‘look.’ She was very reasonably priced, and as with most BJDs, the designer posts a preorder and then makes enough dolls to fulfill that order. It takes a lot of time because they are not mass produced. In this case, the heads had to be made, then shipped to the designer, then individual faceups had to be done, etc. I didn’t order the body because I had an OB 22 body on hand. That’s the same body that several of my Blythes have, as well as Jessie, the Little Keiko doll that I did the faceup for.

I knew she was going to ship about a week ago, but never received any tracking information. That made me very uneasy because the doll was coming all the way from Beijing. That’s never happened before. I was also concerned about customs fees, which I’ve never had to pay, but are now in place due to actions of the felon in the WH. But late in the day on Monday, there was a knock on the front door and the mail carrier was standing there with a box from China. It took less than a week, which is astounding. And no customs fee, though I’m not exactly sure why.

Here she is:

I hadn’t even thought of a name ahead of time, but the minute I looked at her, I knew she was Ruby. She has the smallest head of any of my dolls, even smaller than Lily or Wren. But it’s beautifully in proportion to the OB 22 body. (I’ll take a picture soon of a Blythe and a Little Keiko and this girl, so you can get an idea of the difference in body/head size.)

Her hair looks a little auburn here because of the sun streaming in our windows. That was yesterday. Today, it’s raining.

The wig was made by another creator in China, who is a pal of Ruby’s designer. It’s really beautiful. She even included a mini comb and brush!

Don is enchanted by her. I am, too. I must admit, her arrival lifted my spirits on Monday and Tuesday. Now, of course, I want another so she can have a friend. But the process takes so long, so that may not happen.

I have another video for you. It’s a tour of Hummingbird Cottage, my first attempt at restoring a dollhouse.

Since my site was infected today, and the only thing I’m doing differently is adding YouTube links, I’m going to discontinue that. Just go to YouTube and search under: claudiathechroniccollector.

Dollhouse Tour: Hummingbird Cottage

I hope you enjoy the little tour.

NOTE: For some reason, I’m getting an error message when I try to leave a comment. I’ll check with my host. Update: the site was hacked – my first time since Blogger days, It’s fixed now.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Heat, Snow, and the Folk Art Dollhouse

February 10, 2025 at 9:01 am by Claudia

Two interesting things happened this weekend. First, after turning the heat way down, wearing layers, covering ourselves with afghans, and basically being good soldiers since we knew we would have to wait until today at the earliest to get more heating oil, we were shocked on Saturday to hear the sound of a big truck stopping and then the beep, beep, beep of it backing up our driveway. My verbal response when I saw it, “Oh, my god!” Don’s: “I don’t believe it!” Our friends at our local oil supply had managed to get the much needed oil to us on Saturday, even though we were fully on board with waiting until Monday. We did ask them to flag the delivery so that the guys doing all that hard work would know we were low. What a gift! At first Don said that he was ever so slightly disappointed because he was primed to tough it out. But that quickly changed into, “We don’t have to worry about heat!” So we’re very, very grateful.

Second: We went to bed on Saturday night with snow falling, and a prediction of 5 to 9 inches landing overnight. We got up the next morning, looked outside (it was still a bit dark) and realized the amount was a lot less than predicted. I’d say there was about 3 inches. I checked in with our local weather guys and they had apparently posted a warning the night before that it might be a bust because they could see a lot of dry air in the mix. That’s exactly what happened. Mother Nature did her own thing and all the unexpected dry air greatly decreased the amount of snow. To us? Great news. We did have to shovel a lot yesterday and we were wiped out afterwards. (We try not to use the snowblower if it’s a lowish amount of snow because it always kicks up a lot of our gravel, hence the decision to shovel.) My back is complaining today, so I’m going to take it easy. As is Don.

While waiting to go outside and shovel yesterday, I putzed around with the Folk Art Dollhouse.

Quick reminder: this house opens on the sides and the roof. The side you can see in this photo opens up to the living room, what I think is the kitchen, and a long room upstairs. I had been organizing my French cabinet upstairs that holds my dollhouse furniture/accessories stash and I thought that I should use some of that furniture in this house. But remember, it is not to 1:12 scale. It’s closer to 1:16 or 1:18 scale. So I end up using a mix of my Petite Princess furniture and 1:12 furniture. It’s a mishmash, but I was feeling the need to start filling it up so it looked like someone was living there. A dollhouse, even if it’s vintage and one-of-a-kind, shouldn’t be empty. I won’t do anything permanent. It’s a piece of folk art and it needs to stay intact.

The living room. A 1:12 sofa (I have one just like this in Hummingbird Cottage,) a Petite Princess coffee table, another of my Petite Princess chests (I have 4 of them!) and a print I attached to the wall with wax.

A chair added to that long, narrow space that is the kitchen.

Some chairs added to the enclosed front porch. The blue chairs are Petite Princess, the other at the far end is one of the first pieces I purchased way back when.

That little Hallmark stove ornament I got a couple of years ago has been placed in the kitchen.

I put another sofa (Petite Princess) in the ‘other’ living room, which is on the opposite far side of the house. It’s hard to maneuver in there because, though the outside walls detach, the fireplace section in the middle is permanent, so you can never see the whole room. And it’s darker.

But it’s really too big for the space and while writing this, I had the inspiration to make this into the dining room. And I have a larger dining table in my stash. Just need some chairs. That mirror on the wall came with the house and I will never remove it.

Upstairs. There are two long rooms on either side of the stairway. I’m not sure what to do with them. As I looked at this particular space, I thought it could become a big creative space of some sort. Or the Master Bedroom. We’ll see.

Of course, all of this is temporary and I don’t want spend much, if any, money on it. I just love to see the rooms show some signs of life. And it’s a great way to use furniture that I have on hand.

Over the four or five years I’ve had this house, I occasionally get a request from someone wanting to buy it. Just got another one the other day. I won’t sell it, of course, especially since I wrote the price I purchased it for in that initial post, and since it was very inexpensive, it wouldn’t be worth it. But as Don said yesterday: “No. We are not selling it.”

So there you go.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Thoughts on Disappearing Bloggers

Ruby and a Dollhouse Tour

Heat, Snow, and the Folk Art Dollhouse

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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