Happy campers

We made these ultra simple dollhouses today... or, y'know, forts or batcaves or whatever you prefer... I don't want to turn off any boys in the audience, though none of these boys seemed the slightest bit phased... and one had a dungeon and a mummy, that was pretty cool. One person also had a tire swing in the bedroom, and another had a swimming pool in the kitchen... it was SO FUN to see what they dreamed up and designed and built. This might not seem that tinker-y but this was really the direction that I wanted to move in... just an open-ended project with total freedom to make and create. And some people also installed a real working light or lamp.

I really would like to have a whole class around this in the fall... build a dollhouse or fort with working light and doorbell, with great people and all wonderful tiny food and dishes and appliances, the works... this was always my dream when I was little... it's so thrilling to create a whole complete tiny world...

Oh yes, that makes me remember the ultimate dollhouse that I used to visit when I was a kid... this completely bizarre wonderland with a bowling ball garden, three-headed mannequin, and a goat that lived in the back of a pink Studebaker... outside of Bend, Oregon of all places, it was a junk shop/antique store that had an enormous dollhouse with a real working TV set that played Wizard of Oz on a loop. It had all these grounds that you could wander for absolutely free and all this wierd and wonderful imaginings come to life from the mind of owner and proprietor Gene Carsey, and it was home to all sorts of retired farm animals, the horses that were bound for the glue factory and the 2 legged cats.... Once known as Buffet Flat, now reborn as the Funny Farm, and survives against all odds and the city of Bend doing everything in its power to shut it down for years and years and years... wow, I feel so blessed that I got to visit that place at least once a year when I was growing up. I'm returning to Oregon in a couple of weeks... I'll have to make a pilgrimage out there and show it to my kids. Rock on, Gene Carsey, real true tinkerer and maker supremo.