Merry Miniatures: Decorating My Wooden Dollhouse

 When daytime highs barely rise above freezing and lows drop into the single digits, as they do where I live, hats and scarves can seem less like fashion accessories and more like clothing necessities. But why can't they be both? Nothing quite compares to spreading holiday cheer while simultaneously preventing frostbite.  For the hat rack, I first cut a few wooden skewers into 7 pieces of various sizes and glued the shorter pieces to the longest one. Easy enough. The second step was a bit harder. I wanted the rack to be freestanding, so I figured I needed a base of sorts. I flattened a small piece of air dry clay and gently pressed into its center the bottom of the rack. Unfortunately, this did not provide the stability I had hoped for, even after I hot glued the 2 pieces together. As soon as I stopped holding the rack upright with my fingers, it would lean this way and that, taunting me with its elusive center of gravity. Something else must be used for the base ......

Just because it's too cold outside to gather comfortably around a campfire doesn't mean you can't enjoy that sweet treat that's hard to beat: a chocolate, graham cracker, & toasted marshmallow sandwich, otherwise known as a s'more. Simply pull up a chair to the nearest fireplace, light the logs, and start roasting. You'll be wiping sticky marshmallow glue off your face in no time.   The rocking chair shown below is actually a Christmas tree ornament that I purchased from Hobby Lobby.  The chocolate bars were also purchased, as part of a set of miniature foods. The skewered marshmallows, on the other hand, were made by hand. I cut a cotton ball into 2 tiny squares and inserted a toothpick dipped in superglue into the bottom center of each square.  I also made the graham crackers, using leftover cardboard packaging and a drawing pen, ... ... as well as the tree, which features green craft foam shaped into a cone, red and white craft foam ho...