Many of you may be wondering what the heck am I, the mother of 5 sons doing with a Barbie post, but I'll tell you! When I went to my mom's over spring break I had a goal, and that was to scout out some old furniture that I could refinish and use for the new house in Texas, whenever we move there. I went to our old house ( the one I grew up in and is now used as storage) but it has deteriorated so badly that all furniture had been exposed to weather and was not salvagable. While digging around in the house I found my old Barbie house from when I was a kid. I was ecstatic, as I had wished for this house many times and tried to even buy one on Ebay but they were cost prohibitive. Many years ago my next door neighbor threw out her daughter's old toys, including a barbie case, doll and clothes. I had gone for a walk and came home to find this stuff, and instantly took it out of the trash 'cause I am a picker at heart. I have kept them and whenever little girls come over to the house I get them out and I go from a scary old lady to a cool girl 'cause I have Barbies. Their eyes light up and they view me in a whole different way. One girl even shared her Barbie shoes with me because I didn't have enough. I have added to my collection over the years at the thrift store and now have 3 Barbies, 2 Ken's and an old Tammy doll that was mine when I was growing up.
The house was in sad shape after years in the old house, an inch of dust was inside, it had gotten wet, and warped and all the cardboard stuff was ruined. Mice also had added to the damage, I wondered if it was salvagable, but gave a try at saving it. I cleaned it, vacuumed it out and used a magic eraser on all the plastic surfaces. Then I set out to refurbish it. I used an old CD to make a new cooktop, can't see it really well but it worked great. I think I will add some scrapbooking wall paper to the kitchen. I used the same cardboard and paper and replaced all the table tops in the house, using the old ones as templates also.
Barbie and Ken (plural) are having a great time now. The old lamps were long gone so new lamps were made with 2 miniature hat boxes and some pvc piping. Spray painted them silver and painted the shades white.
Barbie has a new quilt and pillow for her bed and I put a cushion on the chair.
The wallpaper in the closet had had it and so I got some old cereal boxes and scrapbooking paper and went to town using the old as a template. It worked great and I like my color combinations better than the old ones anyway. Who would put blue green wallpaper with pink and purple bed?
See new wallpaper in the closet.
Circa 1965! It is still a little fragile but I'll be even more amazing to the little girls and grandchildren whenever they come over now. And that was the whole point, to make them happy!
Many of you may be wondering what the heck am I, the mother of 5 sons doing with a Barbie post, but I'll tell you! When I went to my mom's over spring break I had a goal, and that was to scout out some old furniture that I could refinish and use for the new house in Texas, whenever we move there. I went to our old house ( the one I grew up in and is now used as storage) but it has deteriorated so badly that all furniture had been exposed to weather and was not salvagable. While digging around in the house I found my old Barbie house from when I was a kid. I was ecstatic, as I had wished for this house many times and tried to even buy one on Ebay but they were cost prohibitive. Many years ago my next door neighbor threw out her daughter's old toys, including a barbie case, doll and clothes. I had gone for a walk and came home to find this stuff, and instantly took it out of the trash 'cause I am a picker at heart. I have kept them and whenever little girls come over to the house I get them out and I go from a scary old lady to a cool girl 'cause I have Barbies. Their eyes light up and they view me in a whole different way. One girl even shared her Barbie shoes with me because I didn't have enough. I have added to my collection over the years at the thrift store and now have 3 Barbies, 2 Ken's and an old Tammy doll that was mine when I was growing up. 
The house was in sad shape after years in the old house, an inch of dust was inside, it had gotten wet, and warped and all the cardboard stuff was ruined. Mice also had added to the damage, I wondered if it was salvagable, but gave a try at saving it. I cleaned it, vacuumed it out and used a magic eraser on all the plastic surfaces. Then I set out to refurbish it. I used an old CD to make a new cooktop, can't see it really well but it worked great. I think I will add some scrapbooking wall paper to the kitchen. I used the same cardboard and paper and replaced all the table tops in the house, using the old ones as templates also. 
Barbie and Ken (plural) are having a great time now. The old lamps were long gone so new lamps were made with 2 miniature hat boxes and some pvc piping. Spray painted them silver and painted the shades white. 
Barbie has a new quilt and pillow for her bed and I put a cushion on the chair. 
The wallpaper in the closet had had it and so I got some old cereal boxes and scrapbooking paper and went to town using the old as a template. It worked great and I like my color combinations better than the old ones anyway. Who would put blue green wallpaper with pink and purple bed? 
See new wallpaper in the closet. 
Circa 1965! It is still a little fragile but I'll be even more amazing to the little girls and grandchildren whenever they come over now. And that was the whole point, to make them happy! 
You are a hoot! I hope that all your little grandbaby girls have fun with you...
ReplyDeleteElodie LOVES barbies right now. Looks like she better come on over while we're in Colorado so she can realize just how cool you are.
ReplyDelete