Biblical Themed Minis for Children:  "Now a question, I lead a small group of grade 7 & 8 girls in a church youth group craft group, and have purchased some clear plastic treasure chests, about 3" by 5" ( yeah I still think US after 12 years) They have antique gold looking banding and trim. Any way I would like to do some kind of mini scene with a Biblical theme in them and I'm stumped for ideas."

Oh what a fun project!   Not sure when you are doing your project with the girls, but as Easter is fast approaching what about a tomb?  The size seems small, but what about doing a search on a good Bible program or concordance, for the word treasure...and picking a verse as the center of the treasure boxes.  Just now looking at my concordance there is a nice selection for treasure.   Maybe the girls could come together on a favorite story.   Use that story as the theme of the boxes.  For me I know my treasure is in heaven...how about a scene of heaven...that could be fun!   Our salvation lies in John 3:16, what a great witnessing tool for the girls to have.   If they wanted to do something more on a line of 'fantasy' look to Daniel or Revelation.  Oh the ideas could go on and on!!   Ooh, my favorite trivia question, where is the second rainbow in the bible?  Or what about the verse that tells us that we will receive a new name written on a stone.  The hairs of our head are numbered.  Oh I best quit now. You will have to share pictures and your ideas with us!

Theresa McCann

Prairie Wagon: Conestogas were far too heavy to make the trip across the Great Plains and the Rockies. Not only that, but they were ghastly expensive (they were professional freight vehicles, mind you, not family wagons). Well-to-do people settling land in upstate New York, Ohio, or other early wilderness areas might have used them, but the wagons that crossed to Oregon, or settled the Plains, were lighter and wider (the Conestoga had a deep, narrow body as the roads--such as they were--were narrow and the area heavily wooded). As far as the skills needed by pioneers, I'm not bragging when I say that my father (born in rural Pennsylvania in 1911) could do all of that: blacksmithing, hunting, butchering, vetting livestock, building everything from furniture to houses...he even knew how to put an iron tire on those wooden wheels!

Molly

Oriental Dolls: I just ordered an Oriental lady doll kit from Dana & Gwen. It's a regular doll kit they are casting in an Oriental skin tone for me. I believe they can do it with any doll on their site. They have been wonderfully informative and accommodating. And their dolls are GORGEOUS!! I didn't see any babies, but they do have a set of little girl dolls. They also have a geisha kit (white skin in kimono with gorgeous golden threads). The site is http://www.miniatureart.com/ There is also a second site http://msatminidolls.minilists.com/projects.html with instructions and more close ups of some of the dolls.

Whui

Oriental Dolls: Janna Joseph has 2 oriental families which she has developed which would be worth looking at www.jannajosephdesigns.com - I'm getting a number of the molds (including her famous detective series)...but I also have her older series and she used to have a bust to use for hats that was a perfect oriental face. The other mold I can think of is one of Joy Parker's from Swallowhill Dolls. They are few and far between.

Ana

Animal-less Pet shop: I don't 'do' animals, so when I built the 1/4 scale pet shop from Debbie Young featured in DM, someone suggested I have a sign on the window saying "Opening Soon"

Martha

Lorri in Manassas, VA

30s-40s Farmhouse: Someone else mentioned the water bucket and dipper - I remember our "camp" up in Maine, a cabin my great-grandfather (Pa) built early in the century. There was no running water until just a few years ago. Just the hand-pump outside, and that water bucket and dipper just inside the screen door. I have so many summer memories of running through that screen door (old wood one) and the sound of it banging, and the icy cold dippers of water. There was, of course, an outhouse. Electricity was actually installed back in the 60s or so, but there were still hurricane lamps everywhere. My mom has mentioned them as a big part of her memories from the 40s. There was also a woodpile about 6 feet from the porch (not against the house - fire hazard) for the big stone fireplace that was the center of the house. The main bedroom was on the backside of the fireplace, with the stone forming one wall of the room (bedroom door was next to the fireplace), and the brass bed (the only one in the cabin; the others were metal framed with no headboards) was against that wall.

Grace

30-40s Farmhouse: I made a replica of my great great grandparents' farmhouse back in the late 1970s with the help of family members for a family reunion. The house was given to the family at the reunion but reading Grace's comments I thought I'd add mine in case somebody is making a Southern TN farmhouse. This house was not made of brick but wood and stone by hand by my family. The original home has been gone for many years - but I worked from family photos and many family memories of the house. This house had 3 bedrooms and no bath (It had an outhouse where you checked for snakes first) The kitchen, the gathering room and one bedroom had electricity added in 1959. A big part of the family's memories from the 30s/40s/50s/60s. The house had a wrap around screen porch in the front and rear. A big stone fireplace was the center of the house in the gathering room. The main bedroom was 3 steps down behind the kitchen, with the stone forming one wall of the room (bedroom door was next to the stairwell), and a big featherbed was underneath a small window that looked out towards the cotton fields. The upstairs had three small bedrooms with one large closet in the hallway. Each bedroom window overlooked the front yard. Many relatives stated the rooms were so small if you fell out of bed in the middle of the night you would hit the wall on the other side of the room. ha! The kitchen had hardwood floors and the icebox was the last thing you saw when you exited the back porch. A huge cook stove was on the other side of the kitchen with the table and chairs in the center of the room. The trees on the lot were massive oaks that shaded the house all day. The windows were always open in the summertime (no ac) and in the winter the heat from the fireplace and the stove kept the house warm. Hurricane lamps were used in each room at night and the coverings on each bed had homemade quilts. The barn was 8 1/2 feet away from the main house which housed the cows, horses, ducks and where the dogs lived. A chicken coop was located 4 feet away from the barn on the south side and several feet away from the barn was the outhouse on the west.

Elizabeth Smith, DFW, TX

40s Farmhouse: More ideas for the 40s farmhouse, based on my grandparents' dairy farm: the big wood-burning stove often had big stoneware crocks of whole milk heating on it as my grandmother home-pasteurized for home use; also big stoneware bowls full of rising dough on the metal-topped table, covered with feed sack kitchen towels, and a glass churn for home-made butter (just like a 1:12 working model I've seen at Hobby Lobby). Wall decor: all the old Polish-American farmers I grew up around had religious pictures, usually a Madonna and a Sacred Heart they had brought from the old country, very colorful and pretty gory to a little kid, plus a cuckoo clock-like items that looked like a wall-hung Swiss chalet and had a pop-out man or woman figure -- the woman meant nice weather, the man, prepare for a storm - -- and a wall calendar, usually a freebie from the John Deere or Allis Chalmers dealership or the dairy coop.

Loretta Sniarowski

Farmhouse: The first time I saw my GP'S farm was in 1946, right after the war. They lived about 40 mi. N of Minot, ND and I remember it being HOT!!!! They were one of the more well to do farms in the area and actually had tree groves planted on 2 sides of the house so it was fairly well protected both in the winter and summer but because they were old and couldn't keep it clear, it became a breeding ground for mosquitoes which ate my little brother alive (I was smart enough to stay at my cousin's farm about 2 miles away (they didn't have trees but they didn't have mosquitoes either). Neither house had indoor plumbing of any kind orelectricity and they did their farming with horses (which was great fun for me because I was a horse nut even then). My mother had to do our wash by hand with a washboard and tub outside the house. A well with drinkable icy water just outside the kitchen supplied water for both my GPs and uncle who had to bring milk cans over to fill for his house (do you know how bad hard water tastes when it is warm? - yehckkkkk!). There was always a pail with a dipper next to the door. In the kitchen was a BIG black wood stove and a table where you prepared food and baking was done one day a week for the entire week (I can still smell the aroma of home baked rolls and bread) -they also did all the pies, etc. hence the need for a pie safe. Also in the kitchen was a table for eating - since the farm hands were fed by the family I can remember them coming in in their overalls to have lunch. Dinner was held in the dining room at a big Oak round table. Mostly the floors in my GP's house were hardwood but my uncle had linoleum throughout the house (easy to clean). They had old furniture mixed with odds & ends which contrasted greatly with the GP's who had what looked like Stickley to me and a carpet and nice lace curtains in the living room. The front porch was covered with a nice railing and porch swing and honeysuckle to shade it - by contrast my uncle had sort of a porch with no railing, in the full glare of the sun and no plants of any kind. It was a real contrast in farm life styles. One of my most pleasant memories was of spending hours with my cousin cutting out paper dolls and making clothes from pages in the Sears catalog. I returned 8 yrs later and they had gotten a tractor and electricity brought in the refrigerator (before that they used a root cellar in the basement to keep vegetables and pickles, etc.) They had found oil in ND and it brought in a little prosperity for everyone (at least for a little while).

Ana

70s: http://www.lileks.com/institute/interiors/index.html

I stumbled over this site quite by accident, and then spent considerable time there (crying with laughter, mostly). It is a compendium of 70s taste and style, and would be very useful for people who are thinking of decorating their dollhouse in 70s fashion. Or maybe putting them off the whole idea, I am not sure. I am not even sure some of the decorating effects could be replicated in mini.

Fran in Melbourne

Regency Period: OK, I don't remember all the details, as I'm not much of an English history buff, but as far as I know, the Regency period was during the later years of the reign of King George III. The king, who lost the American colonies, had gone mad, and was not fit to rule the kingdom. His son was not old enough to take over, and since George III was still alive, couldn't have become king anyway. So, a "regent" was appointed to act as ruler, until George passed away. Hence the Regency period. However, the Regency period was in the early 1800s, not 1880-1890 as suggested above. I believe that the Regency style goes hand-in-hand with the Neo-classical style, which was popular in France at about the same time, during the Napoleon era.

Jonathan in Israel

Regency Period: The term "Regency" refers to the period of British history (1811 to 1820) when George, Prince of Wales, later known as George IV, was regent.

Judy in Missouri

Regency Period: the Regency Period in Britain was so called because, as Jonathan described, King George III became ill (it has been revealed by modern medicine that he suffered from an unusual illness that made it appear that he was off his rocker but I forget the name of it) and could not keep up his duties as King so a Regent was appointed to act for him. Where Jonathan's explanation went off track is in saying his son was too young. Some of his sons may have been (there were many of them) but the eldest became the Prince Regent and when his father died he became King George IV. During the time of his Regency in the early 19th century a distinctive style in design evolved and so it was dubbed The Regency Style. A similar style in France was called Directoire and in the US it was the Federal. The Prince Regent's only child was Princess Charlotte and when she died in childbirth he had no heir so his brother became king as William IV when George IV died. William IV and Queen Adelaide had no children together so when he died he was succeeded by the child of the next youngest son of King George III who became Queen Victoria. That's probably more than anyone wanted to know.

June in London Ontario Canada

Book Bashing: To make your book into a box, take the cover off the book and make a cardboard box to fit the book. I have found second hand some Reader's digest books that are hollow for keeping things in secretly, they have regular book jackets on them. I currently have 2 of those not used yet as I have one book/box commercially made about the same, I got it at a Rite Aide Drug Store that I am preparing as a vignette for one of my children.

Rhoda from Whidbey Island WA

1880 Schoolhouse: For pictures on a schoolhouse wall in the US of any era I would think that George Washington (the unfinished one with what looks like a cloud at the bottom portion), but for that specific era, you could include one of the more current presidents: Abraham Lincoln 1861-1865, Ulysses S. Grant 1869-1877, Rutherford B. Hayes 1877-1881, Chester A. Arthur 1881-1885, Grover Cleveland 1885-1889, Benjamin Harrison 1889-1893. But then you did say that it was to be set in Tennessee. This was not long after the War Between the States, so you could go with Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, etc. LOL

Rusty

1880 Schoolhouse: I'd bet on two pictures: Lincoln and Washington. (I used them in a classroom vignette I did for DWSW.) Actually, I copied a $1 and a $5 bill, and cropped the pictures down to just the oval of George and Abe and then matted them and framed them. They made great "portraits", and as long as I didn't try to use my copies to pay for the supplies, the government was okay about it, too…

George Held, Cedar Rapids, IA

1880 Schoolhouse: I coordinated research for a book on Schools and Churches in West TN several years ago for the Catholic church and found such great history on many of the schools in this decade. I collected information from 1540 to present. The decor on the walls in 1870-1880 were limited to how much a school could afford - some rural schools used a large easel for a chalk board because many schools could not afford one. The school decor contained portraits of President Washington, Benjamin Franklin, the map of the United States, and the alphabet.

Elizabeth Smith

Bridal: First you need to choose the scene: Will it be the Bride's bedroom, getting ready for the wedding? You could have the gown and veil, flowers, etc. displayed in the room, and maybe show trousseau items around (in state of packing for the honeymoon) and some wedding gifts. Or you could do a church scene with the Bridal couple standing at the altar, flowers and candlesticks around. Or have them posed in a garden scene, or at the reception cutting the cake. If it's a small scene, you could just display items that are special to the wedding, like a memory box. No matter what, it'll be fun.

Paulette in Indiana

Bridal: what about scanning the invitations and making miniature ones and scan a picture of there wedding picture and hang on the wall? and there was someone out there that gave a how to make idea for a wedding cake. and what about taking a picture of her wedding dress and making it in miniature or having someone else make it? what about making your daughters dressing room scene? like gloves and dress and garter and a bed and a changing wall and some other clothes in a closet? a wedding ring and pearls and a long mirror. Or you could remake the bridal party?? where she got the gifts and things? just some ideas...

Jennifer KY