This room still awaits its story. I may abandon the picnic concept as it’s sad.

With regret, I removed the old fridge and bought a zinc lined ice box. It came with a cute wire basket of eggs inside. I added a very 20s hanging lighting fixture also.

I found Sally’s stash of hardware and tiny wee nails so I will make a peg for the straw hat. I think it fits here and was lost being up in the attic. I found a silly painted mushroom and added a basket.

I don’t have anything on order yet. I have found a period metal range top on Etsy and will measure and see if it fits. I am eyeing a period cookbook which opens and has recipes inside! I think would be nice. It comes from Spain.

What say you? What is the fair damsel all about? What’s going on with her?

The living room is June 6, 1944. It’s D-Day. A radio is on the games table and the glass is overturned. On the floor is the actual Chicago edition that day. I found it online, reduced it, then printed. I cut little vellum “pages” to put inside so it was poufed out. I turned the corners back as if it had been hastily viewed, then dropped to run down the street.

I’m excited to show you the finished product as I’ve invested a lot in this room. That includes a vintage Shackman Colonial fireplace with brass screen, fireplace tools and lots more. The fireplace surround is perfect, really 1940s. Sally would approve.

The mantle has enough real estate for some tchotchkes and the Midnight Ride looks great over it. I bought a faux Tiffany lamp, grandfather clock, and a throw rug. I added some period Life magazines around the room.

I think this couple has a son overseas. I’d like to make some military V mail on the front hall table. It won’t be visible but I will know it’s there.

The Depression has hit. The lovely affluent lifestyle of these early Genevans has run aground.  It is early in the thirties, maybe winter of ’31, the darkest time. The man of the house has lost his job and the roof is caving in.

The table will be strewn with overdue bills, a ledger, to do list, and is meant to look panicky. I debated making a sign in the corner along Will Work for Food lines but it’s a bit obvious.

I’ve bought a chandelier for the room to replace the one when we were kids that was way out of scale. I put a gramophone by the window and added some records. I have some 30s music images to create sleeves if I get that energetic. The new rug is woven. All the rugs these days are plastic.

At right, this tidy package for all your Revolutionary War needs. My mother was obsessed with George Washington. Salting this house with G.W. cracks me up. My mother HAD to have had fifty images of George in sculpture, paintings, engravings and more in her real house. That Revolution stuff will go around the house but the umbrella and bowler hat will be here in the dining room, as if the gentleman of the house has just come in from an interview. I don’t think anyone other than Neville Chamberlain wore a bowler at that time, but a girl can dream.

I also ordered George Washington bookends.

I will paint the glittery Las Vegas bust and pedestal (is that Ben Franklin?) but not sure where the bust can go. But we need a bust. Sally had giant George and Abe Lincoln busts from a school somewhere that was selling its fixtures.

Had a new idea. Up the pressure on the depression family with a little wooden high chair. This is another nod to Sally who had a lovely, cane back one for her granddaughters.

Hilarious lot I bought

It’s the 1950s. The newspaper is an actual page of the local paper which reduced nicely (thank god for hi-res). You can just barely make out the headline…. Swedish Days. Anyone who lives in this town will laugh at that one.

This idea emerged as I was looking for women’s clothes to hang over the screen. I ran into a wedding veil and white shoes. Just then I was focused on the TV and hunting for period test screens from WGN or images of Bozo to use.

Seeing the wedding gear gave me a concept, and meant it should be night, so I went with the cliche Honeymooners screen capture for the television. I will find some plastic to put over it so it has the gleam of glass.

I was going to order a tiny little suitcase for the going-away ritual, but then the telephone came with its long wire and I knew it had to be off the hook. We actually have a pair of tiny scissors that I will set by the phone. The room will have lots of 50s Vogue magazines, books, college banners and personal photos.

You’ve seen Dial M for Murder with Grace Kelly? It’s one of my favorites, probably for Ray Milland’s performance. I think these newly marrieds returned from the wedding and she is some kind of heiress and things get out of hand. Maybe he’s down the staircase with a broken neck. For most people, this will be just a wedding room. But if you look closely, it’s the murder room to me.

Clearly I am working out some marriage issues and that amuses me immensely.

By the TV I repurposed an old shopping bag which was formerly labeled McLane’s Dept Store. I covered it with a local store period logo from the 1950s. I would have cut the logo out to look better but it wouldn’t cover the previous label so it’s a big square. I can’t make it bigger because it’s low resolution. I think there needs to be something “Geneva” in every room.

What is ordered:

A very cute jewelry box for the dresser which opens to reveal jewels. It also has a another pair of scissors. So it’s meant to be.

This room is in the 60s…early or late? I have done nothing except buy the rug only because it had purple in it.

I think there could be a great story here. I know it needs a POW! overhead fixture. I love the idea of having one of those heads with a wiglet on it.

It needs a mirror, art and some period products…was that when they did which twin has the Toni perm?

There has always been a girl’s room in this dollhouse and so shall it be. Time period…well, I guess it’s my sister and me about 1976. I planned to make posters then I found a package of them online and got the 70s smörgåsbord.

There’s iconic Mark Spitz, Hang In There Baby kitten, and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. (That one is definitely a nod to myself, it was my favorite book). On the other side is a Jaws poster and a Keep on Truckin’. I find it very entertaining.

What’s new…. a Keep Out! diary that I made. I need to mess with the rug. It’s not woven like the others and looks cheap.

I am eying board games for sale – some are just the box – others are whole miniature games which is just incredible. I love Mystery Date but it’s facile and sexist. I’ve seen a 60s Creeple People game or a Dracula game that would be fun all over the floor.

There’s no record player but I’m not sure that’s needed. I thought about making a chia pet but that’s a bit ambitious.

As for Geneva opportunities here, I suppose we could put the Geneva H.S. logo somewhere.

There will be a stuffed bunny in here. As mentioned, the idea is that this one rabbit was left in an attic and each child that moves in discovers it. When they outgrow it, it winds up in the attic to be rediscovered.

This idea echoes a book I loved when I was very little. One thing that came out of my parents’ house that I treasure was a tiny paperback called Sad Day, Glad Day. It’s about a little girl who loves her house and has to move to the city. She doesn’t want to go but when she does she finds a doll that was left behind by the girl who lived in this new house. I’m so glad I was able to grab this little paperback before it went into the trash.

UPDATE:

I won the little wooden Tudor half timber dollhouse which is wallpapered inside! There was a hot fight over another Tudor dollhouse and could not believe my luck. I was the only bidder on this – $19. I may even make a paper dollhouse for inside for a truly crazy funhouse. I will have to make it out of cardboard and then you’d see a dollhouse within a dollhouse within a dollhouse.

I’m not sure what I have in the dollhouse at this point financially. It’s a ton. How many things have I bought? A hundred maybe? At least. The most I’ve spent on any one thing was $45 for the dining room chairs (and additional table). But these begin to add up.

Most accessories, like the radio and gramophone were about ten dollars apiece (with shipping). The weather vane was $21 (plus shipping). The dining room chandelier was  $35. Anyway, cost doesn’t matter: it’s for Sally glorification. Maybe I can take it off my taxes.

Excited about the tin types. I thought maybe they were transferred images but she says they’re old. She bought them in Connecticut at an estate sale with a very old dollhouse. I thought they were very reasonable at $35/4. Here’s the listing ad pic. I hope they live up to my hopes.

Other incoming items…. faceted wine goblets for the dining room. A nice walnut period high chair with a tray that moves up and down.

I bought an old radiator for a wall,1920s gas stove top, the tiny old cookbook with recipes inside, and bunting for the front of the house so it is always eternally the Fourth of July, Sally’s favorite holiday. A phone, a fan, croquet set, blah blah and blah.

I have one bid out there on a lot of old empty frames and framed art. There’s a signed miniature landscape in there that’s quite attractive! We do need frames. That sounds like something Mom would say. We need frames, dammit. And, it’s true – a person can’t have too many.

Things to Make

I saw a pair of urns and thought I’d make one for the mantle. Mom loved old movies that always had someone’s ashes sitting on a mantle. Uncle Alistair’s or someone. She found that very funny. Ashes on mantles seem like Chekhov’s gun. Sooner or later, they’re going to topple off.

Also, birds. I saw an adorable woodpecker that can be glued onto your house. I think a pair of crows on the roof would be nice. Sally adored her crows. She had many full size feathered versions. I’m not sure why. They’re not real, of course. She hated taxidermy. So I will try my hand at sculpting some crows. Maybe some Staffordshire spaniels? Why not.

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