ends in shame, according to Benjamin Franklin.
I started my ball-jointed doll house yesterday after an unsuccessful writing session at the coffee shop. On coming home, I was too irritated to write stories, and I felt like using my hands instead of my mind.
The doll house, which I have named The Conservatory, is a black plastic bookcase with four shelves, open on all sides. The bottom shelf has been designated as storage, and there rests a wicker trunk with extra toys and clothes not on display.
The third shelf from the top is Johnny's room, and this is the room I am decorating first. As with the other doll rooms, it consists of odds and ends, pieces from other projects I never finished or simply junk. Very quickly his room started to take shape as I matched things according to size, color and theme.
Most of his things are organic in color and material, and I quickly settled on an African theme. I papered his floor in a warm-toned geometric print and set up his electric guitar and wooden African animals. Somehow I knew just what my boy liked and where it ought to be. I displayed his ptarmigan feather we found in Alaska, his spectacles and favorite toys: rubics cube, Etch a Sketch and Slinky.
In looking for more decorations, I raided my old jewelry box and found several things that fit the theme: a huge citrine ring I can never wear, an organic-looking ring from the Renaissance festival, two tiger's eye stones I got from the science museum as a child, and a white shell anklet.
The anklet, and a silver seahorse charm, made a perfect beachy necklace for him, and I decided to make another necklace for him with the organic ring and hemp cord. The stones and citrine I set into a garland of hemp cord, which I will suspend from the ceiling.
A zebra-striped jewelry bag will make the perfect throw pillow once I fill it with rice. For his couch, I have a burgundy twill scrap and some organic-colored braiding I got in a grab bag from JoAnn's.
The most exciting thing about my project so far is that I'm using miscellaneous things I already have that I can't use but don't want to discard for sentimental reasons. Making them into my boy's room gives me the sweetest feeling.
I am going to light my doll house with Christmas lights, removing some bulbs and hiding the cord along the back of the bookshelf.
I finally started this project in a burst of anger, but hopefully it will not end in shame.
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