Author: Charles

        As I acquire more examples of desks for doll school, I will include photographs of them in our posting here. I have yet to find the chair that goes with the first desk by Battat. All of the other classroom furnishings are very popular and easily found online. I purchased all of mine at resale for a few dollars each. Left, Our Generation by Battat home room school desk is made of durable plastic. The desktop is brilliant cobalt blue and the lower half is tan. Right the front of the desk is made to be simple […]

Two dolls, a fashionista and a Ken relax while watching a baby, toddler and their beagle.        Here is a lovely Queen sized bed for Barbie and Ken to share  once they have decided to settle down, marry and have a family of their own. For their master suite I will design a cozy bedroom that includes all of the comforts Barbie has grown accustomed to in her past dream homes. But this home will include a new husband, baby, and other children with pets. The bedding for this doll bed is made from cotton prints in purple and blue. […]

Our doll’s faux stone fireplace is decorated with life-size ornaments from our own Christmas tree collection. Ordinarily the ski lodge and star above it hand on a tree for decoration, but they look just as charming inside of the dollhouse, on top of the mantle.     This year we will experiment with decorating our largest dollhouse for Christmas in both traditional and unique ways.     As you can see the eighteen inch doll’s stone fireplace is trimmed with a ski lodge, embroidered star, horses, bottle brush trees and a small cast iron figure carrying his own set of skis back […]

Doll sized Christmas bauble wreath.        Young people can make this festive dollhouse Christmas wreath using the following supplies purchased from a Dollar General store.         Hang it inside or outside of a dollhouse to decorate for your doll’s Christmas holidays… Supply List: Styrofoam balls pack (Dollar General Store) Tacky white craft glue scrap cardboard Step-by-Step Instructions: Cut a round wreath shape from light weight cardboard, like recycled cereal box material. Then cut a hole in the inside of the round shape, so that the cardboard cut-out looks something like a donut. If you feel it […]

Children remember His birthday. Christmas, His Birthday by Susan Coolidge How did they keep his birthday then, The little fair Christ, so long ago? O, many there were to be housed and fed, And there was no place in the inn they said, So into the manger Christ must go, To lodge with the cattle and not with men. The ox and the ass they munched their hay, They munched and they slumbered, wondering not, And out in the midnight cold and blue The shepherds slept, and the sheep slept, too, Till the angels’ song and the bright star ray […]

Dear Old Santa loves all good children… What Santa Claus Thinks… HI!  another  one!  What’s  all  the  world  about? Don’t  these  people  know  that  I’m  most  worn out? Millions  of ’em  coming  year  by  year; Every  youngster  wretched  if  I  don’t  appear. First,  they  want  a  rattle,  then  a  ring  to  bite: Then  a  box  of  sugarplums,  then  a  doll,  or  kite; Next  a  story-book  to  read,  then  a  bat  and  ball, –Santa’s  back  is  broad  and  strong,  be  must  bring them  all. Gratitude  they  talk  about, – not  a  bit  for  me. First  you  know  they  get  so  wise,  […]

precious opal gem         It seems very appropriate that the opal with vivid play of color should have been selected as October’s birthstone, for in this beautiful gem the fire of autumn foliage, the blue of autumn skies, wood-smoke, and sparkling sunshine are found in happy union.        The opal is the most unique of the gemstones, differing from the rest not only in color aspect but in formation as well. It is not of a crystalline structure although it is related in many ways to the quartz gems. It is, in reality, a solidified […]

       The Tourmaline must have been well known in very early times for it is found in many places in both the old world and the new, yet, in history we find no references to gems that can definitely be classified under this name.        The name tourmaline is derived from the Ceylonese word turamali and was first employed when a Dutch ship brought a parcel of the stones to Amsterdam from Ceylon in 1703. Prior to this time, however, (about 1650), green tourmalines had been discovered in Brazil and the stones were introduced to Europe […]