Leather-Like Material: I found white suede at the art framing store. They have a box a scraps and let me go through any time I need to. The suede will peel off the mat board and is easy to work with, similar to material. It comes in many colors, too. You can also purchase some very thin lining from a leather shop. They will know what you mean. This will take shoe dye and can be worked with very easily, also. I covered two chairs with this and they look fantastic! Real leather.

Terri Young

Primer: Anything that seals a porous surface is technically a sealer. That is why additional coats of paint and sanding between coats are as satisfactory as a commercial primer followed by paint. The only time I use a true primer is when I need to create a tooth on the surface for the paint to adhere to, then Gesso is my choice. It is inexpensive and foolproof.

Becky

Walls: what I do for making 'natural' walls: I use thick waterbased paint (wallpaint), sample pots for sale at the large do-it-yourself stores, use an old, hard brush and move it around, then put bird sand on it and you have a very natural effect!

Dienke

Textured walls: I am no expert on any of this but I have an idea for your outside walls maybe this would work if you take tissue paper crumble it up and then dip in watered down glue and paste to your walls, or decoupage it to the wall and then paint over it. Also if you get the tissue with the color you want all ready on it would be even better. I did a box like this and it came out pretty good.

Leilani

Textured Walls and Ceilings: I wanted a textured wall in my mini living room. I cut a template of the wall which included cutouts for the wall plugs. I took all my textured paint kit out to the garage and opened the door for ventilation. Once everything was set, I glued the entire piece to my wall. It didn't require doing any mammoth movements of my huge dollhouse. I was good to go and it has stood up to the task.

Cora/Rhode Island

Horse Stuff: Bits 'n Pieces http://bitsnpiecesonline.com   has western gear.

Anne Gerdes

Piano Hinges: For the person looking for solid brass piano hinges...You can purchase smaller scale hinges In solid brass at Woodcraft. They come in two sizes 3/4" and 1/2" and come in a 24" length. I use these for making small gift boxes and have never attempted to hang a dollhouse wall with them so can't attest to whether they would work or not due to the weight they might need to support. I buy from the catalogue or the live store but they do have a web site. http://www.woodcraft.com

Reva

Here are a few of the many sites that sells dolls' dolls:
http://www.patboldtdolls.com

http://www.ethelsdolls.com

http://www.lollyinc.com

http://happinessisminiatures.com

http://daisysdollhouseminis.com

http://bitsnpiecesonline.com

Take a look at my web page on the doll links page. Maybe you will find something there. One of my favorite to order dolls was from Sandy Dawson's photopoint site.....I don't know if she has any smaller sizes available on her web page:
http://www.littleobsessions.com

Nursemini

Scanners: It may well be that you get what you pay for, but I suspect it is not in proportion. By that I mean that the very expensive ones possibly don't give that much better performance than the cheaper ones. The main things to look for are:

1. The resolution, 1200 dpi (dots per inch) seems about normal now but it may be that you can still find some "end of range" types with lower resolution very cheap.
2. What is the resolution of your printer? If it isn't as good as the scanner, you won't get much more from it unless you upgrade the printer at some future date.
3. What do you want it for? If it is only for putting pictures on the web, then 75 dpi is good enough! Don't attempt anything better because a) it will take up a lot of memory, b) it will take a long time to down load, c) computer screens only have that resolution.
4. For making miniatures, then look at the 1200 dpi, but where are you getting your originals? If it is from your photographs, the results will be fine and scaling can be applied to get the printout just what you want. If your source is magazine pictures, picture post cards, prints, etc. then you may be disappointed. These sources use a dot printing method although the dots are too small to be seen by the eye. However, when scanning, which is also a dot process, the two sets of dots don't match up and you get what is call aliasing. You will find the picture looks streaky on the computer screen. Some photo software has various dither techniques that are supposed to overcome this effect, but I haven't found them to work very satisfactorily.

Neil

Doll's dolls: Just want to mention the wonderful doll's dolls I bought from Frances Armstrong in Ontario, Canada. I bought a kewpie that is just a smidge over a quarter inch tall. I also bought an antique type doll in pantaloons which is less than 3/4 inch tall. Now get this - she's jointed. Her arms and legs are movable. Very, very reasonably priced. The email address is: farmstro@sentex.net http://francesarmstrong.homestead.com/

W. Marie in Edmonds, WA