Doll House Part 1: peg people

For Christmas this year I had the genius idea to build Ellaria a doll house.

She's almost two, and I'm pregnant with another girl due in a few weeks, so having a cool, handmade doll house for these two sisters seemed like a good idea.

Well Christmas is 20 days away, I'm 8 months pregnant, and wondering if my idea was so great.

So I hope it will actually get finished in time, and that Ellie will like it.

I could see her enjoying a box more than this dollhouse, so I'm trying to focus on the heirloom aspect of keeping it forever so I don't give up and scrap it.

So there will be a series of posts for each aspect as I try to get this house done.

First off--the dolls that will live in the finished doll house.

Initially I thought I'd just buy the dolls. 

But I hated all the dolls in the toy aisle.  

I was so surprised how sexy even little Polly Pockets were--mini skirts and busty tops?

My girl is two years old.

Then the fisher price family just looked lame.

So I decided to paint some wooden peg dolls for a simple, personalized doll that would be easy for little chubby hands to play with.

Also, NO CLOTHING ACCESSORIES  for me to have to clean up.
I hate little clothing accessories as much as I hate Legos.

So I purchased all my peg dolls online HERE.
It seemed the best price to get what I wanted as you can buy the larger dolls individually.  

The smaller dolls come in packs, so I have extra baby ones for future projects.

I wanted to keep the painting simple for a clean look and to make it easier for me.

So I decided no arms or sleeves, and no faces except eyes.

If I did it again, I'd leave the faces the raw wood rather than painting the flesh colors.

All the paint was just the basic craft stuff in small bottles.

I did take time to kind of personalize our little family.

I put a pair of scissors in my hand for my hobbies, and a stethoscope for my husband.
The kids are just normal.  RJ insisted on painting himself.  I helped with the eyes, and helped tape off his pants but he did pretty good.
The baby girl is due in 7 weeks!

Another little duo that was personal was my little sister and her cute baby boy.

He was born right before Thanksgiving and has so much jet black hair, he is just the cutest.

But then I got burned out trying to make real people and just finished off the rest with generic dolls.

Of each size of doll, I got the most of the large girls.

I figured little girls would best like the big dresses.

Then I had Ellie and 2 other little girls.

For these cute little hair buns, you can buy wood furniture buttons.

I drilled 1/4" holes in the peg head, then glued the buttons in using wood glue for buns.

Another tip for painting, any horizontal lines I taped off with masking tape so they would be straight and even.

I also found this little chart for ideas on girls hair.

{source on pinterest}

 Next, the men.
We kept it simple with just tee shirts and jeans, except for my husband. 

There's another little boy to go with RJ, and I made two dogs.
One is supposed to be a dalmation and the other a bull dog.
They turned out kind of crappy. 

So we have little wooden people to live in the house, now to finish building the thing.

Then I will still need to decorate the inside!