American Girl Doll House

Last Christmas, my daughters asked for American Girl Dolls for Christmas .... well ... the conversation was more like this ...

Me: You know what you should ask Santa to bring you for Christmas?

Daughters: An XBOX?

Me: No. An American Girl Doll!!!!

Daughers: Oh.

See-- here was the problem-- the dolls had been ordered PREVIOUS to me asking what everyone wanted for Christmas ... I just ASSUMED most little girls would DIE to have an expensive piece of Americana ... I was waaayyy wrong .... turns out my girls are not doll people AND ... heh ... heh...  turns out once you order an American Girl they are NON REFUNDABLE ... you see my dilemma ...

Well...  my darling girls warmed up to the idea so that by the time they sat Santa's lap and he merrily asked them, "What do you want for Christmas little girl?"  They looked at me and I mouthed "An American Girl Doll" and they dutifully replied, "An American Girl Doll" ... good girls...

While the dolls were being made in Santa's Workshop (aka China) .... I looked everywhere for a little house or playset of something that would fit an American Girl.  Nothing. Nada. Zip.  There was an American Girl Ski Lodge that was like $400 or something ... not going to happen ... so I came up with this idea to house those dollies ... a cardboard folding house ...

Here are the dollies ... patiently waiting for the girls to wake up on Christmas morning ....

And here is their house ...  The living rooom and the breakfast nook ...

The breakfast nook and the kitchen ...

The bedroom ...

Again with the kitchen ...

Oh! And again with the nook ... 

It was so fun putting this together -- the best part was it was VERY INEXPENSIVE to make ... cardboard boxes for the walls... wrapping paper that I already had on hand for the wall paper .. I made the furniture (tables, chairs, and couches) from left over cardboard scraps, duct taped them together then covered them with fabric... my FAVORITE part are the little armoires, side tables, and hutches... I bought those at our local thrift shop -- these pieces of "furniture" are really jewelry cases that I painted ... same goes for the "art", magnet boards, accessories, and kitchen wares -- all from the thrift shop ... it was easy to put together and fun to see the reaction my little girls gave Christmas morning...