Mini Memories -East Earl

 I have had a dream for quite some time.  I have thought about making a recreation of a Christmas from my childhood.  I even knew what year I was going to do.  I wanted to recreate a Christmas from our years in East Earl (Lancaster County, PA). 

This wasn't very 'Christmasy' as a picture, but it was nonetheless Christmas and it was the only Christmas picture I had from that house.  Please excuse my very short dress and my dad's high rise pants.  I had some memories from that time, even though it was 45 plus years ago and I wanted to incorporate those memories into the scene.   I dreamt about this project.  I never got around to making this project.  In fact, I never got around to anything other than saying I wanted to do it.  I had always thought that it would be an amazing gift for my parents.  

That changed this month.   I had just finished my Appalachian Porch Scene for the miniatures.com creatin' contest and I was looking for something to get into.   I mean, it's not as if I don't have a huge dollhouse that has barely been started or anything.  (hahaha  I am vowing to start working on that next).  

I sat down and decided to start the project.   I made it out of a box that I had.  I tried one box but it was just a wee bit too big.  So, I went with something a wee bit smaller.  I snipped off the flaps and I was ready to dive in. 

I started with the fireplace.  I recreated the back above the fireplace using popsicle sticks. 

And then using simple cardboard, I created the fireplace.  I also created a wee little sized refrigerator as it was whilst we lived at that house that I received a kitchen set for Christmas. 

I started to paint everything.   The box itself was painted, the fireplace received a coat of paint, the wood paneling for above the fireplace was painted and that wee little fridge for the kitchen set received a coat of avocado green paint. (Hey, I was a child of the 70's what do you expect!)  The fireplace received its bricks (egg carton) and I had to step back to let everything dry.   While drying, I took the time to wrap some presents!  I also created a chair.  I am NOT happy with the chair.  It is not of the right shape nor is the fabric correct.  I will be using this until I find the correct fabric. Of course, I had to put everything I had into place to see if it would fit. 

I was seeing a light at the end of the tunnel!  I pulled out a small mini Christmas tree that I received in a miniature swap for the mantle.  I was watching videos and planning on making candles but just happened to find a dollhouse store only 40 minutes away and very near a store that we had already planned to visit.  I checked out their candle selection and went ahead and spent the $1.60 to buy about 10 tapered candles.  (I also got a cat and a washtub from the store...and somehow managed to not buy anything else....probably because Jason is injured and off work so we are a one paycheck family at the moment.)  I had also found a small tonka truck that would be arriving in the mail at anytime.  So my scene was set for everything that was in the picture.   What else would I need?  

As I said earlier, one Christmas in this house I had received a play kitchen set.  I definitely wanted to have that in my scene.  I also wanted to have a Christmas tree.  And there was a particular tree that stood out in my memory from the time we lived in that house.  One year, my parents decided to buy a live tree and when the holidays were over to plant it in the front yard.  We kept the live tree in a wash tub throughout that holiday season.  Our house was brand new which I guess is the reason that my parents kept that Christmas tree in the basement....I remember a sitting area around the tree in the basement.  BUT a basement tree wasn't going to do me any good in terms of my recreation.  So, some artistic license was used, and I moved that live Christmas tree in a washtub right on up to the living room!

I had shored up my cardboard box with foam board and trimmed the edges with cut popsicle sticks.  My original idea was to do that for the front edge, but as you can see in the picture above it just didn't look good.   I luckily had a box of scrap pieces of wood that I had found in my brother's workshop, specifically in his garbage can.  They were about 1 1/4 inch wide and would be perfect. I removed everything from the room box, cut those pieces of wood, glued them on and left it all to dry.

Finally, it was time to put it all together.   Normally I don't like to glue my items into place, but I have done so with this room box.  It will be moved around a bit, and I figured to make this as easy as possible.  The only thing that is not glued into place is the chair simply because I don't like the chair and plan on making something different as the time and the correct fabric appear in my life.    Of course, there is a cat in the scene.  All of my dollhouse projects have a cat somewhere!  This one was able to relax comfortably on the chair....not a perfect rendition of Frosty, the cat that I grew up with...but close enough.  

There was only one last thing that I wanted to do.  I plan on giving this to my mom.  I plan on printing out the picture and writing a wee little explanation for her as to the artistic license I took with adding the cat, the play fridge and the tree.  I also wanted to add a sign on the room box indicating what the room box was depicting.  The letter will be at the bottom of this post. 

You see, I've wanted to do this project for a long time long before my mom's health started to slip.  In fact, when I started this project this month it wasn't because of my mom's medical condition.   But mom is not doing well.  She is becoming more and more forgetful and confused.  To the point that she couldn't remember when my birthday was the other night when we were talking.  I believe that she will remember the holiday from the 1970's.  I just wanted to make sure that there was a gentle nudge to remind her if I wasn't there.  

I ended up finding a different fabric and remade the chair in a style that is a bit more reminiscent of the chair in the picture!

I am tickled pink with this project.  I think it turned out REALLY well considering the only things that were purchased was the tonka truck, candles, cat and washtub and fabric for the chair. Everything else was found in my stash or made by me. So, what is next?   If I knew that my mom would receive this gift well, I would recreate a different Christmas Scene for her birthday....which is 3 days after Christmas.  But honestly, I'm not sure how this gift will be received.  I have the pictures of the holiday that I would do next on my computer and ready to roll, if truth be known!  Sneak peak??  

Yeah, I looked for a fabric to match the couch when I was looking for the chair.......not an easy find!

But I DO have that 1920's house to work on!   Maybe I will put that big monstrosity into my office and commence work!   I have got one room started.  OK, actually two rooms.  I have started on the two rooms in the side addition. (to the left on the picture below).  I have redone the floor in the upstairs and started to fix the access to that upstairs room in the addition.  I have also added steps and the walls are partially done.  The upstairs room I know exactly what is happening with that room.  The downstairs room is where  I continue to ponder.  I vacillate between a music room and a dining room.   Time will tell.

East Earl Christmas

 

A picture, a snapshot in time that transports us back to a moment in our lives.  It is a window that we can open to invite memories to come flooding forth.  This picture, however, invites a single question!

Where in the world is the bottom of my dress and the bottom of dad’s pants!  Was there a fabric shortage that year or something????

 

Once past the scandalous outfit that I was wearing (seriously, that hem was almost up to my chin!) the memories started to flow. 

Lancaster, the Christmas where we bought a live tree and kept it in a big tub in the basement. I remember chairs around the tree downstairs and eating orange Danish as we celebrated Christmas in the basement around the tree.

It was in Lancaster that I received my pride and joy….my avocado green metal kitchen set! 

Riding bikes in that basement…round and round. Horses Necks in our orange kitchen.  Lots of snow….a very big snow in fact.  Ahhhh so many memories!

 

I managed to fit a few memories into your gift.