Rosetta’s Greenhouse

What’s on my craft table? Too much if you want to know the truth!

A bout of intense migraines has made me fall behind on both my projects and writing. I’m used to daily head pain, but this last round was wicked. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve laid with a cold rag on my head and Peppermint oil diffusing in my room.

The good news is that we think we found the culprit behind these particular headaches (stupid Growth Hormone😠). Still, the pain has left me fatigued. So, if I’m not super peppy today, it’s because of migraines and migraine medication.

Now, enough about me (so boring). Let’s talk about something fun, like crafts!

As I was saying, I have several half-done crafts gathering dust on my table (thanks to said migraines). Crafts like:

1. Repainted Barbie furniture.
2. Building the My Girl’s Dollhouse for 18-inch dolls.
3. And the Hearth & Hand Greenhouse for Rosetta.

What?

You didn’t think I was going to pass up this adorable Greenhouse (especially when it was on sale), did you?

I’ll go insane if I lay in bed one more day, so I’m easing back into my routine of creativity by finishing these projects one at a time and thought it’d be fun to show y’all my progress while doing so.

Are you ready to see what I’m working on today? Great!

Rosetta’s Greenhouse:

I briefly mentioned this Greenhouse in my review of Tink’s Treehouse. It’s also part of the Hearth & Hand with Magnolia collection sold at Target and was on clearance for around $60. Since I wasn’t sure if it was being discontinued, I went ahead and bought it for Rosetta.

I’m in love with these farmhouse style dollhouses. Like the Treehouse, the Greenhouse is solid wood. It comes unassembled and took me about two hours to build.

The Greenhouse has a working door, eleven paneless windows around the walls, and six windows with panes on the roof. It also has a handle on the roof that makes carrying the Greenhouse from room to room is super easy.

The coolest part, however, is that the roof is hinged. Both sides lift so you can access the interior.

As for accessories, the Greenhouse comes with a long garden table, a watering can, and eight plants: four succulents, two trees, and two flowers.

The plants are adorable. The trees, succulents, and flower stems are green felt, and the flower petals are embroidered.

The soft plants and lack of tiny pieces make these dollhouses perfect for young kids; however, I want Rosetta’s flowers to have a little more dimension. I also want to add some color to the Greenhouse’s roof, floor, and window trim because, in my opinion, light walls paired with natural wood are borderline too plain.

After a quick trip to Hobby Lobby, I had everything I needed to get started: A bag full of garden-themed miniatures plus a few bottles of craft paint.

Of course, the logical approach would be to start with the paint and end with the decorating, but I’m doing things backward. I’m working on the accessories first and saving the paint for later.

The miniature flower pots were in the wood section at Hobby Lobby (near the dowels). The pots come in two sizes: small and micro.

The small flower pots are about an inch tall and cost $1.99 for a bag of six, while the micro pots are a mere 5/8″ tall and cost $2.49 for a bag of twelve. The one-inch pots are a good scale for Barbies, and the smaller ones work well for mini dolls.

Since the pots are unpainted wood you can make them whatever color you want. I chose to paint mine a terra cotta.

While the flower pots dried, I hung a miniature garden hose to the outside of the Greenhouse.

This hose was in Hobby Lobby’s dollhouse section. It came with a silver hanger and gold spout. Unfortunately, the end of the hose and the spout aren’t connected😕.

Hanging the hose was more challenging than I expected because the glue had to bond both metal and wood. That meant most craft glues were out. In the end, a contact cement glue with a quick dry time did the trick. I used it to attach the end of the hose to the spout and to hang the hose hanger and spout to the wall.

For the flowers, I tried to pick a nice variety. The red and purple flowers came from a local craft shop. The rest are from Hobby Lobby. I tried to choose stems with tiny petals so they will look proportional to the dolls.

To “plant” the flowers, I used a technique I learned from My Froggy Stuff: Felt!

• Cut a strip of brown felt the same height as your flower pot.
• Roll it into a cylinder that’s roughly the same diameter as the pot.
• Push the roll of felt into the pot.
• Finally, stick the flower stems between the layers of felt.

I really like this technique. It’s quick and, since there’s no glue involved, I can change the flowers without damaging the pot.

These succulent-shaped Tealight candles are from the same craft shop as the purple and red flowers.

Since I don’t have any intention of lighting them, I wrapped the Tealights’ tin containers with jute twine. Now they look like potted plants instead of candles (well, except for the wicks. I forgot to cut those off😳).

The last item I added to the Greenhouse was this adorable potting bench.

I found this green potting bench at Hobby Lobby on the aisle with all the fairy garden stuff (a great place to find miniatures, by the way😉). It’s about 5 1/2″ tall and comes with a few other knickknacks, like:

1. A package of seeds.
2. A pair of garden boots.
3. Three potted plants.
4. Gardening gloves.
5. A watering can.
6. A spade and garden hoe (these are welded together).

When decorating a dollhouse, I like using double-sided tape to keep small elements in place. A small strip stuck to bench’s shelves prevents the pots, tools, and other decorations from falling off even if the bench is moved.

My favorite type of double-sided tape is this half-inch wide photo mounting tape. It’s strong enough to hold most lightweight items (like dollhouse miniatures) but isn’t permanent like glue and will peel away from most surfaces without causing damage.

These little unicorns and butterflies were on sale in Hobby Lobby’s Easter section.

I think the unicorns make adorable garden statues, and the butterflies resting on the bench add the perfect touch of whimsy.

Well, friends, that’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed this look at Rosetta’s new home: The Hearth & Hand Greenhouse!

This isn’t the last you’ll see of the Greenhouse, I’m sure. I still need to paint the roof, door, and trim.

Also, my mother and I are going to make the outside floor look like brick pavers, using a technique we learned on HGTV. I’ll be sure to post an update showing how we do that.

And, again, my apologies if I sound off today. Hopefully, that isn’t the case, but if it is, I’m sorry!

Now it’s your turn!

Are you working on any fun dolly projects right now? If so, what are they?