Hi, I'm New!

[JeannieS]

Hi, Everyone!  I am new to the Greenleaf Forum.  I live in Fairfield County, CT.  I have loved tiny things since I was a child and from about age 9 into my teens I loved decorating my childhood dollhouse (a four-room tin house with an "addition" of 8 rooms thanks to two liquor store boxes, haha) and making mini things for it.  I really didn't pack the house away until I went to college, but then for about ten years I didn't think much about miniatures.  Then I found a dollhouse kit at Goodwill and put that together and decorated it sort of on a whim.  Ten MORE years went by, and my mom sent me a little quarantine birthday care package that contained a miniature room kit, which I finished putting together a few weeks ago.  I started poking around on Instagram looking at some of the amazing things miniaturists do, and now I am wondering why I haven't been making miniatures and building things this whole time!  I think I didn't realize what a large community of people it is.  It sort of felt like something I enjoyed as a kid and almost didn't realize could be a hobby for me as a "grown-up", too.  So here I am!  I just bought an Aster Cottage kit, and am slowly getting ready to put that together with a Christmas theme, but I'm doing lots of reading and preparing because I want it to look great :-)  

[Mid-life madness]

Welcome Lindsay......Your story sounds familiar. After college I found all sorts of free time and started doing crafts. Then I got married and started a family.

I always loved miniatures too,  but I didn't start until I found free time again...... my kids are now grown. Enjoy your new hobby!

[havanaholly]

Welcome to the little family, Lindsay.  My mother decided I was "too old"for my dollhouse when I started junior high school and she "put it away for my children" in our leaky garage full of bugs, etc, where it was destroyed.  I was 50 and had helped my hubs build a dollhouse for our granddaughter when I found a dollhouse kit (she got that one, also, when I finished it six years later); by then I had caught the bug and discovered I still enjoyed playing with dollhouses.  I am now 78 and still have fun building and playing with them.

[Shareb]

Hi Lindsay!  I used to make a heap of things for my Barbies but unfortunately never had a dollhouse.  My daughter found the little roombox kits from China and together we bought four to do together.  I loved it, she didn't!  She's 20 now and doing her own thing and me, I'm hooked on minis!  Welcome to the group - there is a wealth of knowledge here among some amazing peeps!

[JeannieS]

Hi everyone!  Thank you for your responses... it's so neat to hear people's stories!  I already recognize all three of you from reading through some of the conversations on the Forum!  I'm excited to be here and looking forward to what I have to learn from everyone :-)

[Tigpuppy]

Welcome Lindsay!  I too have always loved minis.  I got my first dollhouse (a Greenleaf Pierce) from my husband in the early 90s as a way to keep me from rearranging our real life furniture shortly after we got married.  I worked on it during the summers as I was attending college at the time.  Then I was so focused for the next decade on my career that I didn't really have time for it.  Next came 4 kids and then I REALLY didn't have time for it.  Another decade or 2 passed.  Now my kids are mostly grown (or at least don't need me as much) and I now find I have free time again.  I have collected lots of miniatures (as well as 5 more dollhouses) over the years and even made a few things along the way.  I kept packing them away thinking I would work on them when I retired.  Well, I have a feeling that with the way my vision has been declining over the years that I had better work on them sooner rather than later!

It's nice to have you in the group!