Happiness began with a memory of my first doll an uncle gave to me for Christmas when I was 3 years old. Next came the adventurous wood working classes my father taught his girls when constructing a wood dollhouse from plans. He had the most marvelous detailed books which had patterns to transfer to wood. Each piece was meticulously cut out of balsa wood to create furniture to put in the dollhouse being built.
That was some 30+ years ago when there weren't dollhouse stores in the neighborhood, nor the internet on a desk top. Creating a miniature room was a matter of having furniture patterns and creativity to 'see' items within normal size materials. This is how my dollhouse passion began.
Santa's Resting Chair
In the 90's, I had the good fortune to purchase a dollhouse miniature magazine. Nutshell news had wonderful ads, one in particular indicated that a furniture kit or two, would be sent on a monthly basis if you signed up for the club. I couldn't sign up fast enough.
Today, so many more items are produced in miniature. I still love furniture kits as I can adapt the pieces to a particular setting instead of hunting for the perfect piece to fit in a room.
I'm a Kidney/Pancreas transplant patient. I had transplant surgery January 1, 2006 and expected to be out of the hospital a week after surgery. Things didn't go well and my new pancreas became infected. Had multiple surgeries to check the pancreas, and finally the organ had to be removed. It was a very long health battle. I still continue to be ill to this day (Feb 2008).