Category: Best Coloring Books

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 […]

photographer Masayuki Kato        The Pearl, Queen of Gems! What a story surrounds the pearl! Divers, risking life in the shark-infested waters of the South Seas or the Persian Gulf, for these precious gems. Ships, storm-ridden and helpless, foundering on hidden coral reef. Intrigue and tribal wars. Piracy and smuggling. . . . What red-blooded romance is involved in procuring this beautiful, essentially feminine gem!        A grain of sand or perhaps a minute parasitic animal is washed into the open shell of a mollusk anchored to the floor of that mysterious other world which lies beneath the […]

A cuddly, purple polka-dot Teddy bear is just the right size for our 18″ dolls toplay with.         Our collection of 18″ doll sized toys on this post have been purchased from Dollar General stores, Party City, craft shops and sometimes at Saturday morning garage sales in and about my neighborhood. Although most of our doll’s toys are handmade, I still do find these little minis tempting to collect from time to time. I’ll post them as I find them here in the future. See More Examples of Toys for 18″ Dolls: This little game reminds me of “Hungry […]

Lapis Lazuli uncut        Lapis Lazuli is a rich blue stone which sometimes shows sparkling, golden flecks of iron pyrites. It is opaque and in composition and structure is very similar to the turquoise. Like the turquoise it is one of the most ancient gems, references to it dating back prior to 4500 B. C.        As lapis lazuli is comparatively soft it was easily worked into many forms by the ancients. For this reason it held the highest place in their estimation, being considered a gem of greatest value by the Babylonians and the Egyptians. […]