Dolls' Houses Past & Present

I'm Zoe and I live in North Yorkshire with my husband and two very cute Cavalier King Charles spaniels.

I have always been fascinated by dolls' houses but didn't start it as a hobby until my husband bought me a made up but undecorated Edwardian house (Sid Cooke) for a wedding anniversary in 1998. It took me 15 years, working on it in fits and starts, to get to a point where it was almost finished (are they ever really finished?!). It is my pride and joy and I can (and do) spend hours looking at it. It was so good to find this site where I could safely get this guilty confession off my chest!

Having 'almost' finished  my Edwardian house I had been thinking about what to do next when, in the back of a little antique shop in our local town, I spotted a lovely old dolls' house, in need of some TLC, and I fell in love! I knew nothing about vintage houses but my mum said it was like one she had as a girl so I guess it might be 1930s / 40s and it looked home made rather than manufactured.  I have since gleaned from this wonderful site that it is one of a number of houses with similar features by an unknown maker known as a Dolly Mixture. 

Typically, it would seem, the vintage house hobby fast became an obsession and I bought a Handicrafts 325 (or 'Artistic') house.  I had no idea where to start with furnishings for this one but gained massive inspiration from many members of this site.

The Handicrafts house was followed by 'a number' of other houses and I am now a fully fledged doll's house addict!

I have a blog to record my mini activities and you can find it here:

http://trulymadlytiny.blogspot.co.uk/  

I have also become hooked on Grecon dolls which now inhabit the majority of my houses and you can follow their lives, loves and exploits both here on this site and on my blog at:

http://grecondale.com/