Hello! Happy almost-fall! The leaves are beginning to change on the neighborhood trees, and pumpkin spice everything has been released… someone just needs to tell the temps to back down into the mid-70’s and it would be perfect!

As may have been mentioned around here before, we are massively into playing with Barbies. Harlow has a huge Barbie house that Chris built her for her 4th birthday.

Elsa and her family lived in there for years until Leah and Avery came along (Skipper dolls). Then Elsa and her husband, four kids, three dogs, and two cats were evicted and relegated to the makeshift bookshelf house next door.

We also have two of those little plastic fold-up houses, but honestly, housing was just abysmal. We were talking about the lack of housing, and maybe finding a cheap bookshelf at a yard sale to convert into apartments when Chris came in and overheard us. “Do you want me to just build you apartments?” he asked. Um….. yes, please! (We even negotiated a working elevator, but my engineer husband is still working that out. I can’t wait! I mean… Harlow can’t wait!!!)

It turned out wonderfully. There are 7 apartments, and a rooftop garden.

We’re slowly piecing the furniture together. Mostly because I’m making most of it. (You’ve all heard my complaints about how difficult it is to buy Barbie furniture in general, and even more so without taking out a second mortgage on the house…) I have made several pullout couches, two daybeds, two cribs, and a toddler bed.

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If you want pattern info or how-to’s on anything, just ask. I’d be happy to help! I want to try my hand at kitchens (bathrooms will be just an image of a bathroom door on the wall, like in Elsa’s new house), but I’m also getting antsy about Halloween coming up, so I may switch my focus to costumes. Halloween is my favorite! Right now, we’ve just been using any table-type kitchen-y thing we already have for kitchens. It’s fine. *involuntary eye twitch*

Additionally, I’ve made several shirts and pairs of pants for the Skipper sized dolls, a couple of purses, and a few pairs of underwear (Harlow was scandalized that they didn’t wear underwear, but also wouldn’t let me paint them on permanently.)

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Harlow also decided we needed hospital gowns, so I quickly drew one up, and made one, then threw away the pattern without thinking, so I have to re-make a pattern to do more. My brain isn’t always on top of things.

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I tried to sort-of make my own pattern for a rain coat, too, but it’s a weee bit big. Try, try again, right?

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Did I ever mention these photo frames? I don’t think so. Harlow took a bunch of photos of Avery, Leah, Karen, and Olivia doing “friend stuff” and other photos of family stuff. I drew up the shape of the photo frames in Harlow’s room that hold photos of her and her friends, and cut it out with my Cricut. It turned out so cool. It was somewhat tedious, so I’ve only made one so far, but it is super cool. I also did one for an “8×10” family photo.

Speaking of Halloween (way up there), we are actually already pretty much ready for it, but I do need to make a flower collar for Abbey. Can’t wait! Buzz, buzz!

Perchance you were wondering how my September Photo Challenge is going?

It isn’t.

Because of the above flood of Barbie stuff. Maybe October? Heh.

Have a great weekend! I think I’ll be taking down my “summer” decor and putting up something spooky!



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