Miniatures began for me when I was 5 years old. It was a magical X-mas when I received a handcrafted doll house that my father had made for me. That's one Christmas I will never forget!

It was the 40's at that time, when tin doll houses were available. They were popular, but also very expensive! Money at that time was tight for my family, so my father decided to make me a doll house himself. Being a artist by trade, he hand-painted all the windows, shutters, clapboard siding, and landscaping right onto the house. It did look similar to the expensive store-bought tin houses.

My father used a pressed cardboard of some sort, constructing a 5-room, 2-story doll house. He also made all the wooden furniture. Then one day, I went to the dime store, and discovered that they had started making plastic doll house furniture. I was allowed to buy one piece each week. Before I knew it, my doll house had gotten too small for all the furniture that I was collecting, so I prompted my father to build a addition to it, and he did, but the house never seemed to be big enough. By the time I was a teenager, I was building additions to that house myself.

After I got married, I moved my doll house with, packing it carefully away. Four children later, I decided to unpack it. To my dismay, I discovered it had warped. I was so upset, I ended up throwing it out!

I guess there was a reason that this happened, for it prompted me to want to replace my childhood doll house. That's when I asked my brother-in-law, who is a carpenter, how much would 20 sheets of plywood cost? I told him I was going to build a doll house, and he ended up laughing at me. When he did that, it made me more determined to show him, and myself, that I could do it! Out of those 20 sheets of plywood, I built a 40-room doll house. It was a monster! I did not know scaling at that time. 1 inch to 1 foot, was not in my vocabulary.

The doll house was 5 stories high, it took up a floor space of about 6x12 feet. It was so big! I thought my dream house had come true.

I worked on that house for many years, miniature stores did not exist at that time. All the wonderful miniatures we have now, were just not available then. I had to make all the furniture, fireplaces, and kitchen cabinets myself. Finally after a few years, doll house stores did start to open up.

That's when I purchased my first doll house kit. I brought it home, and made the Christmas house from it. That's when the idea was planted in my head to make a doll house for every holiday.

After putting a few more kits together, it taught me the appropriate scaling, and I also realized I could design my own doll houses, get the lumber, and build them from scratch. I then went on to build the Valentine house, St. Patrick, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Halloween doll houses. Now I had the 6 main holidays, but I still had my over-sized 40-room doll house. As I worked on those 6 houses, I kept looking at that big one, knowing how wrong it was!

After a few restless nights, I got up one morning, and decided I was going for 12 holidays. That's when I took the big 40-room doll house apart with my saber saw. I saved the part's that I had finished inside, and I was able to get 4 doll houses from that 40-room doll house, that are in the collection today.

The reason I'm telling you my story, is that I hope to inspire you to fulfill your miniature dreams. You can do anything you want to in miniatures, with imagination, and a lot of determination. So don't let anyone laugh at you, or tell you that you can't do it. You can build anything you want, from a simple log cabin, to a elaborate castle. SO GO FOR YOU DREAMS!