Fun Friday Returns!

I’m excited to bring back Fun Fridays to my blog! For readers who aren’t familiar with Fun Friday, it’s just a kind of free day on my blog where I share whatever fun or adventurous things I’m up to.

Today I would love to share with you about a project that I will be beginning this summer. For as long as I can remember I have loved dollhouses. As a child my summers were spent at my grandmother’s house in Massachusetts. One of the highlights of my summers in Massachusetts was the dollhouse that my grandmother had in the spare bedroom. It was a handmade two story wooden dollhouse complete with furnishings and a family. I’ll admit I wasn’t very interested in the family; my interest lie in rearranging the furniture and decorating. Which I did for countless hours every summer from the time I was about 9 years old until I was in my late teens. As I look back on those sweet memories I can’t help but laugh at the fact that each summer I had the same furnishings to work with and yet I was still excited to ‘get to work’.

For many years I’d been looking at large wooden dollhouses on the internet. Oh sure there are lots of them available – at some very steep price tags. I stopped looking a few years back, unable to spend the money on such an expensive luxury. I was already feeling a bit guilty over the money I spend on several other hobbies such as drawing, jewelry making and reading. And then one day while driving my daughter to the beach to apply for a summer job I spotted a dollhouse out of the corner of my eye. “On the way home remind me to check out that dollhouse in front of that antique store,” I told my daughter. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said I wanted to stop somewhere and then drove straight home without remembering. This time I didn’t forget.

The dollhouse out front turned out to be a metal one from the seventies. As a child of the seventies poking through the rooms evoked some sweet memories. But it wasn’t my dream dollhouse. The store owner insisted I would love it once the furnishings were in it. She brought me inside this quaint little antique shop that looked ready to burst at the seams. She brought me to the back of the store to take a look at a box of furniture. And as we turned a crowded corner there on top of a wobbly shelf was a wooden dollhouse. “Wait a minute,” I said to her. “How much is this one?” Would you believe this beautiful two story wooden dollhouse, exactly like ones I had seen online, was only $40? This is why I love perusing antique and thrift shops!

So with no further adieu I’d love to share with you pictures of my new/used wooden dollhouse. And every couple of Fridays I will be sharing pictures of the renovations that I will be doing on the house. I’ll be starting with a paint job with a goal of using colors popular during the Victorian era, not because the dollhouse is a Victorian but because that’s my favorite period home. From there I’ll take on new wallpaper, carpets and flooring for the porch. And I’ll be sharing trips to antique shops and thrift stores as I search for the perfect furnishings for the interior. It’s going to be an ongoing project but one I’ve wanted to do for such a long time. I hope you’ll stop by on Fridays and check in to see how the renovations are coming along.

And if you love small town romance and small town life, I would love to have you sign up for my newsletter that I’ll be launching this summer. Subscribers will receive a story that is only available to them and all subscribers will be automatically entered each month to win a $10 Amazon gift card. You can sign up here: http://christinalorenzen.com/connect-with-christina/

Take a look at this wonderful dollhouse of mine!!