"Home Forever in Our Hearts"

Small Beginnings

I've been having such a grand time picking out and buying some of the mini materials needed to get started on my first dollhouse. Crown moulding, baseboards, beadboard, chair rail, a new interior door - all for the first room that I'll be remodeling - the kitchen!


I chose one of the bigger rooms for the kitchen because, well, I just like big kitchens! Besides, there needs to be lots of space for all the baking that will be done here in the future! I will be creating the tin ceiling myself, as well as the new hardwood flooring. I've already removed the little fireplace shown in the photo to make space for the cast iron antique style stove that I've ordered {it's on backorder and will arrive in August}. What do you think? It was only about $16 at Miniatures.com!




I've done some preliminary work on the space like sanding and wood filling, but besides waiting on more supplies to arrive, hubs needs to get started on dollhouse electrical work. I know that technically I could do this if I read up and studied on it a bit, but this is part of what he does for a living, so I'll let it be his contribution to the house! I would be perfectly happy without lighting {most of the lighting that I like is really expensive and the more affordable ones, I'm not too thrilled about}, but my girls are tickled pink with the idea of having working lights.

I'm also up in the air about the windows in this dollhouse. While they are charming in a vintage dollhouse kind of way, they also seem to be too chunky and the mullions are out of scale. They window opeings are not a standard size - a bit larger, actually, so I'm wondering if I could even make standard sized replacement windows work with some shimming and a bit of work? Or maybe I could just replace the mullions by making my own? Or should I just retain the basic original "charm" of my first dollhouse and not worry about them? Hmmm...

I'm working on a bit of furniture as well and am almost finished with an island. I haven't yet figured out the layout of this space but I do know there needs to be room for the stove, a sink, and a row of lower cabinets with perhaps shelving above {no doors}. There is the island to make room for as well as an informal dining/work farm table.

Tell me, in miniature world, does traffic flow and functionality really matter as much? Or is it "the cozier the better" in most cases? So much to learn!

I so appreciate all the new followers today! Thank you, Tallulah Belle, for the sweet shout out!

A Miniature Chocolate Cake

Hello there! I would like to formally introduce myself as I am brand new to the world of miniatures - and what a fascinating, whole new world it is! My name is Kim and I am the author of the blog "The Twice Remembered Cottage" - which is a documentation of progress as we slowly turn our home into our own cottage haven. I decided to create this blog to document my miniature projects, however. If you are a miniature pro, a newbie like me, or just thinking about getting started, I welcome you and your thoughts and ideas as I begin to figure things out. I have a feeling I'm going to need all the help I can get!

I recently decided to try my hand at making a polymer clay miniature cake and while there is definitely a lot of room for improvement, I'm pleased with how it turned out. I don't think I quite got the layers even or straight but it really does look like one of my real life crooked cakes! I don't have any fancy cake plates or serving dishes yet, so I made both the cake plate and the saucer holding the slice, too. What fun!




For this cake, I followed the general instructions of this wonderful tutorial written by the fine miniature artisan Betsy Niederer. If you have a moment, check out some of her beautiful work on Flickr. Simply amazing!

The Old Jacobson Home Place