Thanks Rebecca

How fun is this!

Clever Rebecca of http://rebeccascollections.blogspot.com/ sent me this picture from an Australian design magazine from the '50s.

Way cool! Colette says it could be a long lost relative of her's from Australia! I will tell you a secret about me. I have my Dad's old Jaguar sedan from the 70's. He had the engine converted to a chevy in the 80's in Huntington Beach CA, I once met Bill Murray there when I took it in for work. The steering wheel is on the left though. It is stored in a garage now but I love old cars! How did you ever know, Thanks CM

Thank you Maria Jose!

Her blog is http://Marivigado.blogspot .com/ She lives in in Valencia, Spain. How fun is it to visit blogs in different countries! It is like an immediate vacation.









I would like to pass this on to:



http://Dollmum.blogspot.com/ I love the face on your thumbnail!
http://diepuppenstubensammlerin.blogspot.com/ I am wild about your collection.
http://susanshouses.blogspot.com/ you inspire me
http://pueppilottchens-spielzeug-blog.blogspot.com/ So creative!

http://mydreamdollhouses.blogspot.com/

Pandora! of http://smallstuffminiatures,blogspot.com/ your portrait is sooooooo cute!

under awning

So when I removed the yellow shirting material someone had added to the awning, this is what I found.

Close up.

That is how I got the idea to enlarge Jennifer's red stripe wallpaper to about this size. I traced the scallops from the yellow material.

Modern dollhouse Room Divider

Colette is showing you her new room divider from Minimodernistas for the MH1.

It will separate the livingroom from the dining area.

It is windy and dark today in Northern California. We are expecting rain later so this picture is over exposed due to the flash. xo CM

Minimodernistas white globe lamp,

red couch, pillows and room divider.

Bozart table lamp.

Antique bamboo table, Bozart clear plastic chairs. Design Interiors Collection Vol. 3 chair. Imported contemporary area rug.

Colette is a Caco doll, dressed in men's pants and older jacket. In the MH1 by Wes Designs.

Puppenstube awning

I removed the added on awning that came with the house. It was yellow striped shirting material with unsightly glue spots. The wood underneath still had bits of the original red and white stripe pattern.

I used Jennifer's free printables, listed below in resources, and had it increased 100%.

This is the result.

Sunshine-award.jpg (image)

Sunshine-award.jpg (image)
There's a word for me but Sarah Palin won't let me use it...

Ha ha what a newbie I am!!!!! I can't get this on my blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ha ha! several days later I figured it out... :)C

Wow an award

Thank you Mona from http://makeminemini.blogspot.com/ for the sunshine award. I do not know how to transfer it to my blog!

I have received the most help from Rebecca, Oese and Callsmall so I pass it on to them.

I will also pass on the awards to my newbie friends, Dana Mocan, Amy, and Pubdoll.
It seems 2 years is about average for a dollhouse blogger, like life gets in the way or they move on. Is that true? Who is the longest running dollhouse blogger besides The Shopping Sherpa whose world famous blog emcompasses so more than just dollhouses? Let me know your opinion.

The new facade

Yay! Spray painting! Love it. This is a galvanized metal spray, not silver.

This was how I received the facade

Celluloid doll #1 Triang, Antique
Originally uploaded by More2view

The tree and plants are painted on, not decals. Then someone put cream housepaint over it.

Antique dollhouse renovation

Antique dollhouse renovation
Originally uploaded by More2view

This is my duplicate front to a Triang dollhouse. I removed the bad paint job and peeling decals. I have since sprayed it galvanized stainless steel on my recent spray paint spree and will post that next. There were too many discolored spots to this facade to leave it like this. CM

If tobacco were bad for children, the government wouldn't let them sell it.

Helen exhaled the cigarette smoke and smiled at her toddler at her knee.

The tobacco companies wouldn't sell it if it was harmful.

That would be like saying tapwater is unsafe, or you can't drink during pregnancy! Everyone laughed.

Stainless steel kitchen

OK so this is my first attempt at spray painting. and I LOVE IT! This is my old Fisher price stove and an extra TOMY sink set that I updated. I am VERY happy with it. Especially as I had the spray paint.


MH1 house

I left the refrigerator in so you could see the original yellow color it was.

Oh oh. There are the stairs parked outside the house going nowhere...

Need to crop this one but no time!

The Art of Drawing

Colette decided on 3 pieces.
Her friend Florine agreed on the nude which she placed in the livingroom. Then she could just cuddle up in her afgan, relax and stare at it.

She placed the other nude and the watercolor in her bedroom. She thought maybe a bamboo frame would be perfect.

furniture Minimodernistas, original art by Oese.

The eye of the artist

Colette enjoyed the Gallery

reproduction of Elvis by Andy Warhol from a night light, Bozart sculpture

antique dollhouse vase, Buddah from Texas Tiny, Bozart urn,
Original nude by Oese

Miniature balck and red canvas by me.

Stands made from childrens blocks.

(why did I forget the doorknob in the picture!)







What should she do? She looked for a curator but only saw interns scurrying about making the place run.

Original drawing by Oese

Marx chair

The Gallery opening

The name of the Gallery was the One Twelve, because the renovated building it was in was at 112 Bayview St.

As Colette walked up to the gallery she thought "Oh no. Is that Mr. Green-blue who was a friend of my ex? The one he bought that god awful nude statue from for my birthday? If that's the kind of art they have here... Forget it." She ducked her head so Mr. Green-blue wouldn't see her.



Oh and there were her old neighbors. Hitting the bar. She snuck by them.

The first gallery was incredible. Colette immediately spotted a large nude by a German impressionist.

Original drawing by Oese

She was intrigued.

On the next floor she saw a naturalist water color that made her think of the oceans, and vacations, and warm sunshine. She really liked it.

Water color by Oese

Other art Marx for Imagination House set.

She sat in the gallery and stared at the nude. She was transfixed. She couldn't move and I mean that literally.

Bar tray antique Schneegas.

Bench contemporary import

Korbi wicker set.

Antique glass bottles

Vintage American plastic glasses.

Rement nachos.

The blank wall

I have often wondered what it must be like to be a designer and then see your creations out in reality.

I had to laugh when Wes Christensen gently let me know I did not have the chimney aligned with the fireplace. Or the stairs in the right spot of the MH1. Doh! I hadn't noticed. So I fixed them.

Does Doris know I carried her red sofa back and forth from my daughter's house to mine so many times over the holidays I rumpled a corner?

I hope they are not shocked. I play hard with these. There is an interplay between form and function. And I mean this literally...

This is why I don't really enjoy playing with the Imagination House. The colors overwhelm everything in it.
But I took Pubdoll's advice and decided to do something totally different with it.
I looked at the post Rebecca had on her blog about it and the version of the Imagination House on the Apartment Therapy blog and came up with the following.

Colette was under the weather. She had a head cold, body ache etc.







She went to the mailbox and found a present. A natural colored afghan made by a friend of hers. It made her day.







She felt instantly better.
She laid on her couch and rested her head.


Then the glaring bare spot over the tv began to bother her.


She looked over at the rest of the mail. There was an invitation to a gallery opening tomorrow. Maybe she would go and see what she could find.

Imagination House

In 1965 the Marx Company made the Imagination House.


Notice the patio furniture with a brick bar b que and sun umbrella.

Diningroom. The art is the most colorful part of the set .

The Kitchen.

The Barstools are VERY cool.

It was startingly innovative. Think of the tin litho colonial houses of the time.





I agree with Pubdoll who says she finds them difficult to leave your stamp on. It is rather cold. The plastic has aged well and has not become brittle, but every time I touch it the whole thing wobbles and little lamps fall over.
How did all those kids do it on shag carpets?

It contained cutting edge design when it was made. It seems to be more for display than interaction.





If you played with this as a child please let me know what it was like.

In 1965 I was playing with my Barbie Playhouse. It was made out of cardboard. I remember being disappointed by the cardboard records that came with the "high fi". They said "The Lettermen". That was sooooooooooo passe! We loved the Beatles. I never mentioned it to anyone, but I hid the record in a cardboard drawer of the cardboard dresser. I do remember the legs on the Barbie cardboard furniture easily became worn out and wouldn't stand up well.



The dolls are really figures. The are monochramatic and very detailed. The best part is the women. The Mothers are smoking! AROUND
CHILDREN!



See how dollhouses encapusalize the social mores of a time?



Look! It's Dad the breadwinner returning home to his nuclear family.






Moms in the Livingroom.


Sis is on the upper level.

Why, if this family has enough money for a high design home, don't they have enough bedrooms? I feel the master bedroom should be bigger and more grand. Yes I know I can design anything but the lack of walls unnerves me to put a bedroom or bathroom out in the open. My figures just can't relax.

Do you know Super*junk's iconic picture on flickr of this house?

It shows a man sitting on the bed smoking a pipe staring out the window which frames a real palm tree. It's a great shot, but the man looks depressed. Empty. Perhaps he just read Sartre's, "Nausea"?

I like to have my man staring out at the view.

So I was considering the effect the Imagination house had on dollhouse production. I thought about the Kalidescope House by Bozart. Wasn't that made in 1997? 30 years later. Thanks Rebecca for helping me with the correct dates!

Then I walked into my daughter's house today and what was on the floor? A ZhuZhu pets Hamster House by Cepia. It is very cool and children LOVE it.

This is the legacy of the Imagination House to me. Too bad I'm at my daughter's... I'd like to place those Marx figuers in this. Perhaps stage an intervention to get the Marx Mom to stop smoking.

xoxo CM

Yes I am organized... today.

The top holds empty boxes for mailing.

The top shelf has the MH1 bathroom, a box of plastic Marx type stuff. and a basket of too large scale furniture.

The green box is food and dishes.

The blue box is plants, pots and gardening items.

Then a little plastic box of china.

The next box is for art, curtains and books.

Then I can't remember. HMMMMMMMMMMMMM

And the box of children and babies.

The next shelf broken furniture parts.

The next box is Christmas.

The last box is clothing and bits of material. Oh and this is where I keep body parts, wigs and jewelry.

The blue basket is empty in case I have to take items to one of the houses.

The green basket is all extra women dolls.

The blue basket is all men dolls.

The bottom most shelf holds linoleum, wall papers, flooring paper and other papers.

I keep a skeleton crew in each house. Basically my houses are owned by a females then all the men, children, babies, and others are accessories. :) C

Continuing up the stairs

So...up those stairs is a bookcase with the Gottschalk up high out of reach of little hands

The kitchen roombox lives there.

And the 1940's cardboard house.

Turning into the little room off the bedroom we find the Hacienda the Victorian House and the 1920's-30's house.

By the bed is the Colonial and Christian Hacker dollhouses. They are the ones I play with the most.

This is my shelf. My daughter gave me the plastic boxes and baskets.

This is my desk with my favorite tools. Good old museum wax and most importantly...my glasses.

This concludes the tour. I forgot the Marx 50's tin Colonial that is under this desk and the Imagination Dollhouse which is on the Diningroom table for photographing. I have to go my grandddaughter wants me to get down a princess dress for her. C

Living in your Collection

I used to keep one dollhouse out and the rest in the attic.

Then the houses became more complex.

Then more expensive.

Top: Bliss dollhouse on a tall thin chest.

Bottom:This is the Christian Hacker staircase I am not using in the house right now. I think it stands on it's

own merits as a sculpture.

Then the houses took over. After looking at how others keep theirs I decided I could not dedicate a whole room to them, but had to disperse them throughout my whole house. These are pictures of my livingroom

I have 6 in here now. 2 Triangs on a glass cabinet filled with other bits and pieces.

My new puppenstube, the MH1and the Eagle hexagonal house reside here.

They are very popular with people, although I had one guest walk in and tell me the MH1 was his favorite and as far as he could see "The Christian Hacker was kindling"....

"You just think it's too wedding cake like, " I told him. "That's because it was made for the FRENCH MARKET in the late 1800's".

Sometimes it's hard not to become a docent and offer an historical tour. I also feel like a mother pushing forward her ungainly child who is not as appreciated as her smarter sibling if people ignore a certain house. If anyone even gives me a look I bring up the collection of a friend of mine in New Mexico. He collects tricycles. Vintage tricycles.

I have to admit one of the reasons I like displaying the Imagination dollhouse by Marx is because so many people start to play with it. It is so colorful and easily accessible to people I guess.

I keep the oldest antiques up in my room.

I'm not sure what I think of this yet, but they are so cheerful and I think I am passing them off as art, which of course they are. The other benefit is avoiding hoarding. They aren't hidden in the attic and it is clear to me each house only needs so much. One of my goals is to pass on duplicates I collect when I buy lots and items I'm through with.

More about that later. C

Be still my heart

I love these 1960 ish pieces of German modern dollhouse furniture. They are my new love leading me on my most recent adventure importing them to California. The wonderful German seller who was brave enough to ship "worldwide" and I were worried about this package. It was late and I began to despair of every seeing it. Then the package finally arrived. The confusion was the seller wrote the numbers of my address and zipcode as numbers are written in Europe. The "1" had the top part of the number curled and almost touching the bottom line. It looked like how we write a "7".
Some brave post office worker figured it out and it came to me after several other addresses and said FINAL NOTICE and was about to be returned. It is amazing to me how these little items cross the globe to rest in my little German Bungalow!

Kidney shaped table.

The furniture added to the livingroom of my Puppenstube. Sigh. Rapture!

"BOMBSHELL TONIGHT" (as Nancy Grace starts her shows... )Rebecca told me she has the same plant stand and thinks it was made in the mid to late 40's. See comment below. Thanks C

Be Mine: Thank you 50 followers!

Welcome to the party!

Update: Some of my friends only reply on flickr so I had to laugh when one told me about this picture that"it must be windy outside" as the waiter's hair looks like it is being blown. I had to tell her this doll has just been around the block...so to speak.

Happy Valentines and
Thank you for supporting me on my blog!

In honor of having 50 viewers Colette decided to throw a party in the MH1 for all the dolls.

The Grecons came from Canada and their Eagle Hexagon house.

The Biques came from their Traing in England.

The beribboned Ambassador came from the Christian Hacker house.

There was great food, music and general merriment.

Mrs. Celluloid, renown in dolland for her jazz singing was accompanied by George Grecon on the piano and the Victorian house flapper fellow brought his trumpet.

Colette made a toast to the wonderfulness of all doll collectors and supporters of dollhouse blogs in blogland.

She repeated what everyone says about how giving and caring the people who collect dolls and dollhouse furniture are, and how dolls all over the world are grateful.

There was great cheering in agreement! All the dolls were proud.

(I learned that the reason my daughter is listed twice is because she follows me in G mail AND on Twitter)

The shifty looking cad from the Colonial house tried to move in on the babes from the 70's house.

He had never seen anything like those white go-go boots and the hippie dress.

Let me tell you those women told him pretty quickly what a drag he was. In fact the woman in the poncho said "Hey you get offa my cloud!" to quote Mick Jagger.

Perhaps the alcohol flowed a bit much, but everyone brought some to share.

Colette had the event catered with lobster (from the colonial house), german plaster cakes (from the German kitchen roombox) and even sushi (thank you Callsmall!)

The only problem occurred when Colette's ex showed up and tried to seduce Mrs. Clause.

Father Christmas took him upstairs and gave him what for. We think he's now headed to an addiction clinic in Arizona.

Father Christmas was pretty tough explaining consequences. You better not pout and all that.

The Celuloid's oldest boy, is in High School and going through an insecure phase. He was shy and just hung out by himself in the livingroom, but he said he had a good time watching the adults.

All in all it made for a pretty wild time but a good time was had too!

Cheers to you for your support and the final song of the evening was a rousing rendition of that Sly and the Family Stone standard

"Thank you for lettin' me be myself again!"

Sincerely Carol @ Myrealitty