Thursday, August 24, 2017

Iowa State Fair '17: A Group Effort

Daphne's sister and mother began a doll house project nineteen years ago. Deb and Phadrea built a doll house from a kit, painted the exterior, and began working on the interior. When Phadrea left to go to college, the project was put on hold. 

Deb passed away four summers ago, and while cleaning out her house, the girls found the forgotten doll house project. Phadrea thought it might be something Charlotte would like to play with when she got older, and Daphne agreed to take the doll house home. 

While we were at the Iowa State Fair last year, Charlotte became fascinated with the doll house competition. She asked Daphne if they could build one, and she told Char, "I think we could do that, in fact, we have one at home." And that is how the doll house's journey continued...

I had my own project in the garage, so all the work on the house was done by Daphne and Charlotte.



Daphne did a great job on the interior. Cutting wallpaper to this level of precision would drive me nuts, but she pulled it off. 


Mounting ceiling lights and running tape wire like this can't be much fun, either. Daph got the house wired for light, though, and it really looked cool.


Aunt Phadrea quilted a blanket for the bed, and Charlotte knitted the bathroom mat.



Daphne cross-stitched the rug for the living room.





Here they are setting up the house on the Sunday before the Iowa State Fair:




Char and Daphne were really proud of their work, but we kept reminding Charlotte that they weren't in it to win a ribbon. Their goals were to compete the house, and get it in the fair - that was it. Finishing the house was also a great way honor the memory of Grandma Deb.

Daphne added a cardinal to represent the real bird that visited Deb's deck when Deb was sick. He was named Crash because the bird always hit the glass in the sliding door before landing.



The fair opened on Thursday, and we made a bee line to see what the house looked like on display. Low and behold, there was a ribbon on it!

The three generations earned third place!


When I first spotted the ribbon, I could have sworn I heard Grandma Deb excitedly clapping.


Now that the fair is over, Charlotte has a pretty sweet toy in her room.

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