Christmas at the Dollhouse

The dollhouse is decked our for Christmas! Big Girl and I decorated it the other night. As we were going through our decorations, we realized we need a new tree for the living room, so our little house is lacking a bit of Christmas cheer. The tree was just a bottle brush-style tree that you use in those holiday villages; most of them have snow on them, but this one didn't so we used it inside. I had strung a set of mini lights, also from those tiny village accessories on it, but both the tree and the lights have seen better days. I need to scope out a new one.

Here's the front door. The little sled by the front is an LL Bean ornament. Ornaments can be the perfect little things for dollhouses! This year, we have a new addition to the decor:

The little red wagon with presents inside is actually an ornament from the Sandra Lee line at Kmart. It's really a perfect little addition to the yard, don't you think?

Check out this, however:

Yes, that's a Leg Lamp in the living room window. Be careful, it's fra-gi-ley! (We just love "A Christmas Story," don't you? So retro, so cute.) The leg lamp was a stocking stuffer to my husband last year, who jokes that he wants one for our real living room window. Sure, it would be funny, but I can't get past my love of sweet, country Christmas stuff to actually put something like that my window. So we just got this for the dollhouse! It's actually a little porcelein hinged box. It's the perfect size, however. I only wish it would light up!

Have a merry "little" Christmas!

THINGS I LOVE: My "Fireplace"

Last year, I treated myself to my "fireplace." It's not really a fireplace, but a Duraflame heater that looks like a little stove. It has faux flames and two heat settings, and it was so inexpensive: about $80-$90 in total. I bought it from QVC (here's the link to my exact model -- it was cheaper when I bought it because it was a "today's special value").

I can't even express how much I love this little stove. I have always wanted a fireplace; our home does not have one. We have talked about getting a gas fireplace installed, but it is very expensive. I looked at electric fireplaces as well, but they can also be pricey for what you get and my husband wasn't impressed.

Then, I saw this little stove and its rather inexpensive price tag. I figured it was worth a shot, even if my husband wasn't that thrilled with electric flames. I loved the cranberry color of the metal. I loved the fact that I can move it around easily. And I loved the idea of getting my "flames" ambiance. I know some people may laugh at my faux fireplace, but I also get a few nice comments as well. As you can tell from the above picture, there is a fake log that glows in the front. There is a black screen behind it that has the "flames" on it. You can actually control the amount of flames.

The stove allows for just flames, or heat with flames. There are two levels of heat as well. Everything can be controlled by remote, or by buttons inside the doors. If the heat is on, the only part which is warm is the underneath element -- the rest of it is cool to the touch. And I must add that this little stove takes quite a beating from my toddler twins, and has held up very well to their abuse!

As I enter our second winter season with my fireplace, I am as pleased as ever. This week, I have turned the flames on nightly while I relax and watch TV after the kids have gone to bed. It is the perfect accompaniment with a cup of tea and an old movie! And on recent chilly mornings, I turn on the heat to warm up the living room for the kiddos. I haven't turned our heat on just yet, and I don't need to since this little model takes the chill off while the sun comes out.

Big Girl LOVES our little stove. She is the first to want to grab the remote and click on the flames. She wants one for her room. Yesterday, QVC had a new Duraflame stove for a Today's Special Value and Big Girl was begging for a cobalt blue stove for her room. I must admit that I was very tempted to just get a second one because I am hooked! The new one featured on QVC yesterday was very pretty: It's bigger than the one I have, has double doors, and instead of the "Duraflame" label on the front, it has a little etching detail. It's also more expensive -- $135 before shipping -- but it does have an electronic thermostat to monitor the heat level in a room and a timer.

If you need a space heater, or just would like ambiance, or would love both, consider checking out Durflame's portable stove heaters. They are definitely a good price for what you get. You don't have to clean up ashes, or pay a gas bill, or keep a "fireplace" in one spot. (I like to move furniture around sometimes!) The only improvement I would suggest to Duraflame is adding some crackling sound -- that would be just perfect!

Home Tour: Twins' Room

Vintage things on display -- sweaters made by family members for me & my brother;
and a white shirt sewn by hand by my great-grandmother for my grandfather.

Since I showed you Big Girl's room earlier this week, I thought I would show you a glimpse of the twins' room as well. The room is painted green, which is funny to me since the one book I've read to all my children every night faithfully is "Goodnight Moon" -- if you are familiar with it, it starts "In the great green room..." We didn't choose green because of that book, but merely because it was a neutral color and matched the bedding set I picked. I wanted something that wasn't a primary color, something soft and calming, and this green fit the bill. Big Girl's room was a very pale yellow when she was a baby, and I didn't want yellow either.

A room that is "just right" to fit everything needed -- for now!

The bedding I chose was pink with green for Bunny Twin, blue with green for Buddy Twin. It coordinated, but didn't match exactly. I loved it. I wasn't a set, but separates that I found at Babies 'R Us. It went on clearance very soon after I registered for it, but I was lucky enough to get the pieces I wanted. There was not a quilt with it, but who uses that quilt anyway, right? I bought two soft blankets that the twins still use every night. (You can see themn on the chair in the photo above.) The blankets, and one of the sheet options, had little elephants on it, but the rest was just patterns that coordinated together and looked vintage, which I loved. (You can see better photos of the bedding here in this post, where I debate trying to decorate for a boy/girl room.)

Big Girl's changing table, repurposed.

The bedding has been simplified since these photos were taken last year. The bumpers are now long gone. And I do have a disclaimer: These photos were shot prior to a little furniture rearranging. The active toddlers forced me to move the dresser from between their beds and put it next to the changing table. The walls are showing a little wear and tear from toys and books being bumped into them. The wicker rocker is now gone to give more room for playtime.

I'm glad I have these photos of what their first room really looked like -- I think photos of babies' rooms are so sweet because it brings back memories of planning for a little one and all the hope you have for him or her. Even if it's not an expensive, fancy room, you can tell when someone really cares about where their baby-to-be will end up. This room was full of hand-me-down things, but we tried to still give them a special space and I think it shows. All new babies should have a special space, shouldn't they?

A small bureau with deep drawers inherited from my grandparents.
Just enough room right now -- a drawer for everyday clothes for each twin,
and the top drawer holds odd keepsakes.

In the next year, this room will evolve. The babies will need beds soon -- the cribs can only contain them for so long, unfortunately. And with beds, we will likely have to rearrange again. I've been pinning many photos of "shared spaces" for boys and girls. And this room could really use a bigger bookshelf than the tiny one inherited from their older sister. New bedding will be needed -- I am always on the hunt for the perfect set to suit both of them.

Home Tour: Big Girl's Room

When the twins were born, Big Girl was 7 years old. We decided to keep her in her bedroom, even though it seems larger than the twins' room. The square footage of the floorplan is actually the same but the twins ceiling is slanted from the roof on one side, making it feel slightly smaller.

Giving the twins the spare room in our house made sense to us. The closet was actually bigger (a plus for two children!) and I wanted to spare disruption to our former only child. I wanted her to not feel displaced, because the arrival of not just one, but two babies, to our home and family was going to be a challenge as well as a blessing. The arrangement has worked well for us.

As we got ready for our new arrivals, painting and fixing up their room, I realized that Big Girl could likely use a little remodel in her room too. We hadn't painted her room in since she was born. The only real changes in her room included switching out her crib for a twin bed with twin bedding, and swapping a small bookcase for a bigger one. Most everything else remained the same, and it was clearly time for a change.

I knew she would embrace it, since she loved watching home decorating shows on TV with me. She saw the twins room come together. So we told her the next year, for her eighth birthday, she would get a "new room." She could help pick out the paint, etc. She chose blue, her favorite color, and we compromised on a shade of blue that resembled the sky.

She poured over catalogs and fell in love with a rather pricey Pottery Barn Kids quilt, so I watched for discount codes to get it and the matching sham. (We reused her simple eyelet lace bedskirt and a curtain valance on the window since they matched.)

And we also found a really cute wall decal that went with the "theme" of quilt: The Scroll Tree. It had owls, and Big Girl loves owls. It was super easy to put up, won't harm the paint if we take it down.

We rearranged the furniture, and added an IKEA Expedit shelving up on its side to hold American Girl things and LEGOs. A green "shag" throw rug from Target was her "grass" to match her blue sky walls.

Big Girl loved her new room, and two years later, it still suits her. We haven't changed much about it -- we added a new lamp on her bureau, and she has a bigger desk for homework/crafts/drawing, but that's pretty much it.

I know in a few years we will update it again for her teen years. Right now, however, I love the peaceful feeling from her room -- it's one of my favorite places in my house -- when it's neat and clean!

The twins room will need an update when we swap out the cribs for beds. I'll take you on a tour of their "nursery" sometime soon! Here's a tiny peek with a funny photo of Big Girl -- when we worked on her room we had her sleep in the twins' room with her mattress on the floor. She loved the big slumber party with her then-infant siblings. (And you can see her old quilt here -- a $20 Marshalls find! I haven't been so lucky to find something like that in a while.)

Crazy sibling slumber party! (2010)