Fresh Off a Mini Shopping Spree

[Get it? Mini. Because I was shopping for dollhouse furniture. I'm hilarious on Fridays.]

While I haven't had much time to dedicate to fixing up the dollhouse yet, I've been keeping my eye out for great deals on vintage dollhouse furniture on etsy and eBay. I've been trying to buy only wood pieces, but those Petite Princess pieces are just too cute to pass up, so I nabbed a few favorites from that line to round things out. Want to see what I've got so far?

Brass bed!? You know it!

Either the chairs or the sofa (or both) will get reupholstered.

Look at those teeny tiny little pulls!

For the foot of my brass bed. You know I love my florals, but this bench is crying out for stripes.

Getting a new picture.

Pink phone for the desk probably

Every room needs a mirror!

I got this WHOLE LOT for $5! Check out all the brass pieces.

Including a brass high chair? Not so comfortable for baby, but very chic looking.

Pretty secretary and a demilune.

Big (well, about the size of a piece of paper) persian rug for my living room!

Pretty folding screen that needs some paint desperately.

Yup, that's a zebra hook rug.

I'm sure, like in real life, I'm mess with most of these and paint or reupholster, but I think it's a good start. I'd love to DIY most everything else going into the house. I spent about $100-$150 on all these pieces, which is about what I planned for. The goal is to have the finished dollhouse, including a custom (rotating!) stand, ready to give to the girls on Christmas. They're going to help with the actual house repair projects, but everything else will be a surprise.

Who else joined in on the challenge? I'd love to see what you're up to!

I'm a Giant! Dollhouse Challenge!

We used to have this really huge, amazing doll house last year that we sold when we moved to New York for space reasons. I didn't realize how much they would miss the dollhouse! They ask about it often and Grace even asked for a dollhouse for her birthday. They're a little older now and super into imaginative play, so I'm feeling like we should make room for a dollhouse again.

When Emily (who is so hilarious and nice) invited me to participate in her Dollhouse Challenge I felt like it was a great chance to spend more time with my girls. Especially now that the weather is cooling down (sad!!) and the parks are getting to be a lot less fun. Both Grace and Claire are really into crafty projects, so I thought it might be fun to work on this together.

Last weekend I found this big old dollhouse at a junk shop. It is in horrible shape. I mean, really BAD shape. Which is *just* how I like my houses to start with!

Also, it was a good excuse to finally buy a Dremel! Boy oh boy.

I'm excited. My kids are excited. And other bloggers are excited about their projects. It's going to be a fun group challenge (you can learn all about it here). There's even talk about displaying the finished doll houses in December in California. Cool, right?

Here are some of the fabulous friends in on the challenge:

Emily Henderson from www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com

Nicole from www.makingitlovely.com

Morgan from www.the-brick-house.com

Erin from www.designformankind.com

Orlando from www.hommemaker.com

Corbett from www.girl-domestic.com

and Kirsten from www.simplygrove.com

And anyone else who wants in on the fun. Feel free to join! In the meantime, I'm trolling eBay and etsy looking for amazing vintage doll furniture, looking through my fabrics and wallpapers for small scale prints and digging through my craft bins for trinkets to repurpose. I can't wait til the girls get home from school this afternoon. They're always telling me how they're decorators too, so this will be fun to come up with mini design plans together.

PS the Lonny team did a dollhouse last year. Love it all - especially that Christmas-ornament-turned-light-fixture in the entry. Pretty!