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#1: As promised, the forgotten "What I learned Wednesday" photo

"Paper bags" - pastel charcoal and willow charcoal

It isn't really done; there are a few things that I need to touch up and erase, but I ran out of time in class. I was so shocked at how the erasing of certain areas really makes it pop out!

#2: The Dollhouse

So I'm making a dollhouse for my best friend for Christmas. The story is that when she was little (long before we ever met), her grandmother had this beautiful, huge, old dollhouse that my friend spent hours lovingly playing with every time she visited. She was absolutely in love with this dollhouse.

Secretly she thought of it as hers and knew in her heart that her grandmother, seeing how much she loved this dollhouse, cared for it and played ever so gently with it, would one day give it to her.

During one visit, while she was playing with this dollhouse, my friend let slip how one day she would love to have this dollhouse as her very own, but her grandmother exclaimed, "Oh no, this dollhouse isn't intended for you - I plan to give this to your cousin!" This cousin was mildly mentally challenged and always threw pieces around, trying to break things. My friend's little heart was broken, her spirit crushed and the next time she visited her grandparents, the dollhouse was gone, never to be played with by her again.

Upon hearing this story, my heart broke. After all these years, she still lamented the loss of that dollhouse (she's thirty now). I decided a few months back that I would find a dollhouse kit and make my friend her very own dollhouse. I found a kit for a Lafayette house on Ebay in September and little by little, as I can find what I wanted, I've been buying furniture.

I sat down last night and started to read the directions and familiarize myself with the pieces. As I looked at it I thought, "Well, maybe I'll just start the first couple of steps", then I did a couple more and a couple more until the first floor was almost finished! I'm so impressed with how easy it is! Take a look:

I just love the design! I'm thinking that I'll have to get another one and make it for myself! It's only 4 little rooms with a little spiral staircase and I'm in love with that little window seat (which will be the kitchen). Once I get the first floor partition in, I'll start to paint the downstairs. I'm thinking yellow for the kitchen (it'll go well with the green seat of the kitchen chairs) and the living room will be a victorian red. I haven't figured out the 2 upstairs rooms yet. Before I paint anything I really want to find out what colors she would like, but how do I do that without letting her know what I'm doing? I thought of posing the "What If" question of "What if you owned your own house, what colors would you use?" and follow up with "What would it look like? How would you paint the outside? How would you decorate?" etc. etc. but I couldn't just come out with that question. I need to be sneaky about it. I'll keep thinking on it and figure out how to get around to the House Color questions. I think I need to get her family involved!