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how do you feel when people find out about your interest in miniatures?


Tinkerbelle

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Messy, yes, but what fun!

When talking about this hobby i usually refer to dollhouses as "miniature houses" and people nod and say ohhhhhh. Some then ask, "dollhouses?"' and i say yep! if they laugh or give me a funny look i just shrug it off. people who know me aren't surprised by much i do or say. They know my philosophy is "you're never too old to play".

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Had a realtor come look at our house and when he got to my craft room, he turned to me and said, "You know, this is not a house seller...." I'm at the age where I just smile and nod and think totally different things.... :evil:

Debra, I've been curious about that lately. Am I going to have to store my houses when I try to sell my house? We are in the process of doing repairs in the garage and after that's done the house should be "turn key" ready for potential buyers. I use the smaller family room for my craft room and it's in the center of the house, I guess I'm going to have to pack it all up in order to stage it for non mini lovers.

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I know this is an old topic but I thought it was a fitting story.

 

I did feel quite weird when I first told the ladies at work about my hobby. I got strange looks. One of the ladies at work is a possible mini-holic. She keeps bringing me things and asking will this work in your doll house. Well the other day her mini eye was working great.

 

She found that some of our component parts are packaged with small white rectangles of thin cardboard.

 
 
I was so excited my mind was racing. I started rambling about how these would be perfect for bathroom subway type tiles. I could paint them different colors... on and on
 
Anyway just wanted to share.

 

The girls at the pharmacy are like this!  "This is little, can you use it?"  The pockets of my smock are usually full by the time I go home each day :)

 

Messy, yes, but what fun!

When talking about this hobby i usually refer to dollhouses as "miniature houses" and people nod and say ohhhhhh. Some then ask, "dollhouses?"' and i say yep! if they laugh or give me a funny look i just shrug it off. people who know me aren't surprised by much i do or say. They know my philosophy is "you're never too old to play".

I have tried using the phrase "scale models" before, but it's never really worked for me either because the next question is usually "dollhouses?" :)

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Jessie, It's great when they try to help isn't it? My SIL wanted to give me a telephone but it was 3 inches tall. I politely explained the 1:12 scale and thanked her for her kindness. It kind of puts you in an awkward position when they are trying to help but don't fully grasp scale.

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Brae (Otterine) just went through staging, selling and buying. Maybe she would have some advice for you. You might contact her for some pointers.

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The Realtors who came to be interviewed here last week all thought the dollhouses lent a charming touch. Go figure. Lloyd's going to be taking most of them down to NOLA in mid-May, so it will be a moot point. But it just goes to show that an opinion is just an opinion, and even the professionals don't agree on details.

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I couldn't live without a craft room or studio for any length of time. I'd be insane without some outlet. Some things could be packed up but I'd still need an artistic corner.

IMO, most reasonably intelligent people should be able to look beyond a current "use" of a room and envision their own use, at least I would think.

Good grief, a craft room, a spare bedroom, a kid room, a TV room, it's all in what your furnishings look like.

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Jessie, It's great when they try to help isn't it? My SIL wanted to give me a telephone but it was 3 inches tall. I politely explained the 1:12 scale and thanked her for her kindness. It kind of puts you in an awkward position when they are trying to help but don't fully grasp scale.

Exactly!  I'm gifted minis on occasion and I find that many people think that anything "small" must be to scale!  I was given a tiny piano that is probably some inbetween scale, but I've decided it would probably look cute in a child's room as a play piano :)

 

The Realtors who came to be interviewed here last week all thought the dollhouses lent a charming touch. Go figure. Lloyd's going to be taking most of them down to NOLA in mid-May, so it will be a moot point. But it just goes to show that an opinion is just an opinion, and even the professionals don't agree on details.

I think the realtors are leaving a considerable amount of people out if they don't think that a craft room is just as essential as a man cave (which is David's requirement)!

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I have never been embarrassed telling anyone about my fascination for mini houses and miniatures.

And never got a a comment about it that was not nice.

And why would someone not be nice about it, I'm nice to them when they tell me about their playing football or rugby, or other hobbies they like to do.

 

My dad always acted as not being very interested, because I guess he did not feel it was a very ''manly" hobby.

Or not a very manly topic to talk about, in his opinion. 

But when I showed him my 18th century game table he said: wow, that is tiny, and said I never doubted you could make that.

It's very nice.

coming from him, his hands could make what his eyes saw, that was a huge compliment.

However, I noticed there are quite a lot of people that are unfamiliar with dollhouses and miniatures being a grown up hobby too.

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My realtor was much more disturbed by my day of the dead collection, she was so happy I packed it up, she must of not noticed my dollhouse stuff. But that was before my dollhouse collection grew

My husbands family hates my dollhouse stuff, but I have friends who are finally getting it.

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If someone lacks fantasy or a passion besides work and family, it is so easy to make fun of what others do. It is a nasty habit and one that suits no one.

Having a passion is like vitamins, it does good in many ways.

If you have a passion wether it is dollhouses, minis, sports or whatever, cherish it and don't let negative feelings of other people get to you.

Wiggle your back, let all negativity and stress roll off  your back, just go for it and enjoy :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

During the selling process, I moved all of my dollhouses except one to mom's house so none of my minis walked away or were damaged by curious lookers.  :glare:  The one that stayed was pared down to the non-expensive minis.  I was lucky to have a safe haven for them in the meantime.

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Kathie, are you leaving Missouri forever?

 

*sigh* probably. We've been splitting time between our house in MO and the condo in NOLA. We're getting too old for twice a year runs up and down the country, and worrying about whether the pipes are freezing in MO or the flooding is affecting the condo when we're in the other place. L can't take the cold, so ... NOLA won

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It doesn't bother me in the slightest! Comes with old age I guess! I do think the average person has no idea what the difference is between a childs doll house for play and a collectible

scale home. I think we should use the word doll house much less..it might stop some of the pre-judging. Most people when they see one of my houses in scale just ooh and ahhh. they just dont understand until they see it.  Create life in miniature scale....yeah that's what we do!

 

well after I wrote this I see minimaker had already talked about the subject and I do agree with her.

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I was asked recently (while buying some very nice minis, for a lot of money) if I dollhouse for kids or for adults?

I said, well, for me. The person said well, I have a house for you, and showed me a picture of a plastic Barbie house. I was dumbfounded.

And they thought I was going to buy it.

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LOL....speaking of Barbie stuff.....I found myself eventually liking the plastic stuff when I made Barbie clothes to sell. I had to have display and set ups and of course models. Like Silkstone Barbie, Fashion Royalty...vintage Barbie etc. some of these costing over $100 each! but seriously as a person who values realism, I started worrying about my sanity at that point lol

Oh and I had to have an American Girl doll and the hundreds of clothing patterns for them too. ....oh and a Dollikin doll (a 50's jointed doll) now all these dolls are sitting naked on a shelf in my craft room. I did make money making the clothes but my real passion is minis and realism.

But getting excited about the plastic houses, shoes, furniture, cars etc and finding myself in toy section at Walmart I knew I had a problem.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 I don't know that I've ever been ridiculed for it, or embarassed by it. About a year ago, I had my neighbors start saving egg cartons for me and naturally I had to explain why. No one laughed. On the contrary, they were all very interested and wanted to see my work. Most of my friends know that I'm interested in various art forms and pretty much everyone I know describes me as "eccentric" so... I think they were more put off by my taxidermy hobby. 

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I couldn't live without a craft room or studio for any length of time. I'd be insane without some outlet. Some things could be packed up but I'd still need an artistic corner.

IMO, most reasonably intelligent people should be able to look beyond a current "use" of a room and envision their own use, at least I would think.

Good grief, a craft room, a spare bedroom, a kid room, a TV room, it's all in what your furnishings look like.

I know what a person needs for moving and or traveling! A covered craft trailer! Pull that baby up to an outlet and mini away!

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