Rainbow High Color and Play House (Part Two)

 

I noticed another creepy.  This is the back "window" of the room with the emerging faces!  I can't decide if these gals are the stalkers or the stalkees.  Anyway, it's up against my wall, so no biggie there.

Building the second house was quicker, mainly because I knew what I was doing this time.  No backward dividing walls this time, I promise!

The smaller first floor room is going to be a little library.  I had scrapbook paper that was books, but it wasn't big enough to do the whole area, so I went with this nice pink. I still need to secure the edges with clear tape. I sure wasn't going to try maneuvering around the trompe l'oeil plant again, but I kept the wainscoting on the side walls.  I do like wainscotting.

The larger first floor room will be the living room.

Gotta figure out what to do here.  My dolls do have some nice big shelving units that they might be able to hide it behind.  Curtains or a fake door are options, as well.

This is the second floor where the houses meet up.  Same solutions are being considered, even if this one might work as is.  Looks like a glass door!  

 This side of the first floor joining could be a pass-through.  Maybe I can find some low enough shelves to fill the bottom of the doorway on the other side. We shall see.

Fluffy cat moved in already.  Brought a candle and basket of playing cards.

I hoped to put the two attics together or the two decks.  Then I considered not using the center attic and having a really big deck.  But I decided to just have a weird looking house.  

These are the included  furniture, etc.  I have two of each because I got two houses.

Clockwise starting on Rusty's lap: Beds, kitchen appliances, bathroom sinks and toilets, couches, dining tables and chairs, markers, and assorted doodads.

I will definitely be replacing my current kitchen with the bigger and less pink set.

The bed that came with the house is just a teeny bit short.  The My First Barbie bed is much longer because My First Barbie is 14 inches tall.  I bought it because it's wide enough to be a double bed.  Note the trundle bed on the MFB. Since I'm going to have six bedrooms, they will all be used.

The blue sectional in the corner is the RH couch.  The other blue is Monster High and the pink/gray daybed is, of course, Barbie.  I have a lot of living room furniture to choose from.

This is how things looked when I stopped for supper.

Rainbow High Color And Play House (Part One)

 Apologies for sideways photos.  I keep forgetting to rotate on the computer before uploading here. I've forgotten how to do it here, if I ever did know. 

I came across this while idly browsing through Amazon.  It's the Color and Play House, it was on sale for less than 90 bucks, so I snatched it up.  In fact, I snatched two because I know my dolls are gonna need more than five rooms!  They live in large family groups! 

I was confused by the listing.  Some of the wording contradicted the pictures and the video.  But hey, for that price, I'll take my chances.  Decent Barbie-size houses at a reasonable price are few and far between.  (Decent by my definition.  Your mileage may vary.)

Rainbow High is one of those doll lines that has giant heads and eyes but really cool stuff.

This is what it looks like freshly assembled.  The ad calls the exterior a "blank slate" for kids to draw and color on, with the included washable markers.  This is the main thing that confused me.  I expected a totally white exterior!

That said, this is might be the most aesthetically pleasing dollhouse exterior I've ever seen.  I can pretend this is trompe l'oeil artwork!  Most dollhouses, if they bother with exterior decoration, look pretty dang cartoonish.

Here's the other view.  Each room is partially colored in just like the outside.  I rather like it, just as it is, and was relieved to see renovations would be minimal.  For that price I was willing to trot out my craft supplies.  But it turns out only the first floor needed work.

(Cropped from an online picture because I accidentally deleted mine)

This is the majority of the "living room" wall.  A huge television mounted on the back wall.  And those faces.  I've seen too many horror flicks to allow faces emerging from the wall!  Giving me the creeps.

 

Top floor is meant to be the bedroom. 

There is more trompe l'oeil artwork throughout the inside the house.

Oh, and a deck.

Second floor is meant to be a kitchen and dining area.

Contact paper in the living room area. No emerging faces or giant always-on TVs allowed! 

I put the wall between living room and bath in backwards.  No wonder it was so hard to screw together!  I left this side of the dividing wall alone because the horse picture takes up most of it and no faces were emerging.  That horse looks like he's made of crystal!  Since the walls here were already mismatched, I covered the back wall with another contact paper.

Shaping the wallpaper around that fake plant was a nightmare.  This wall will be totally covered in the second house.  I doubt either of them will be a bathroom.  I dislike dollhouse bathrooms - why's everyone so determined to make Barbie poop? 

I do have a folding-house bathroom and toilets in two of the campers if someone insists.

Bad shot of the crystal horse painting.

This does come with furniture and stuff, but y'all gotta wait til I'm moving the dolls in to see that.  My plan is to have them side-by-side.  First floor will be living, dining, kitchen, and library.  Second and third will be bedrooms and/or a playroom.  One deck will be just that.  

The other will be walled on both sides so might be turned into another room.  We shall see.

Thank you Ms Leo

 Ms Leo, of the i-luv-dolls blog, asked me if I would be willing to adopt a GI Jane.  I'm always up for unusual "Barbies", so I said sure. 

WARNING WARNING NEKKID PLASTIC PEOPLE AHEAD

My dolls immediately put up lookouts for their new friend.

This is what I was expecting to receive.

This is what I found among all the bubble wrap.  Jane brought along her whole fam damily!

We have Hannah Montana's bestie (Lily?), one of the Encanto sisters (Isabel?), a headless really dark dude, a pale clone of Jackson from one of the Barbie movies, and Jane herself.  Also a bag of heads.

Heads.  I recognize all but one of them.

Bald guy, Justin, Aaron, Dude from Wicked (Fiero? No, that's a car), Anthony, Disney Prince (Beast)

Ms Leo sent along a donor body for Lily.  

She knows my aversion to poorly articulated knees and elbows.

Izzy is a substantial woman.  Also well articulated.

I'm going to call this kid Jason.  He is unable to bend the knee.  Or elbow.

Levar (named for Levar Burton, one of my celebrity crushes) is a Fashionista head.  He only matches females in my body bin.  He thanks Ms Leo for thinking of him!  It's not perfect, but it works.  Lily's already flirting with him on her new body.

He rejected her so hard her leg fell off.  Meanie.

So I brought out the bins.  Jason and the noggins wonder if they might have a match in there.  I'm already thinking of one for Lily.

The only kid body I have is too small and too tan.  The pale bodies are all too female.  

Levar says "Well, at least you still have a stiff body.  I didn't even have that."  

I managed to find a body for the Wicked dude, who is based on actor Jonathan Bailey, so he will be Jonathan. Lily has painted on hose but she prefers that to a missing leg!  Everyone put clothes on.  Except Jason, who was already dressed.

Meet Jonathan, Jason, Jane, Izzy, Levar, and Lily. 

Winter Projects: Funny Ending

 

A little insight for those not in the know: I drive an S10 with jump seats.  I keep a five gallon bucket behind the driver's seat, where one of the jump seats folds up, to keep my oils and transmission fluid and such from rolling around all over the place.  

It fell over at some point during the very cold weather and I decided today to pick all that up.  

The books, doll, and Christmas tree sign were all today's Goodwill finds.  

Do you see that thing by the dolls feet? On Bob Ross's face?

It's the toilet I just bought a Sour Flush toilet to replace!  

The ding-dang thing was in my truck this entire time!  

ROTFLMAO

Winter Projects: Part Six

 

Sour Flush candy in a lid bowl, waiting for The Boy to come eat it.

I went with green (sour apple) even thought it doesn't match the bathroom.  Because that's the only flavor they had and I ain't running all over the place looking for blue or pink.

My Zoe/Chelsea hybrids are a bit tall for the Chelsea bed but it's doable.  Bigger kids and adults can fight over the rear seat and roof top.  The tots have a cot!

 Bright green toilet.  I'll be pretending there's retractable walls or privacy screen.

And off Camper Van goes into the parking lot! 

Goodwill today had a plane.  It was nearly the size of the Star Traveler and only sat four dolls, so I passed on it.  My dolls have a helicopter if they need to fly.

Winter Projects: Part Five

 

Peanut butter got the sticker residue off when the rubbing alcohol failed.  During the process (which smelled a lot better) I realized those roof beds are meant to be a pop up tent.  Still leaves Chelsea in danger of falling to her doom, so I removed the little bed.

For play purposes, imaginary tent walls are fine, and I can rig something temporary if I need for a photo story.  Jeremiah and Polly demonstrate the cozy tent. They forgot bedding!

I found a looking-up-at-trees picture in my crafting supplies.  Much better that the black-and-white roses, since it's outdoorsy.  Dumb entertainment center.  Those little windows on either side of the bathroom indentation make me giggle.

The only sticker I replaced was the rear license plate.  It doesn't match the front one, but in both Ohio and Barbieville, it doesn't have to. 

The back seat holds at least two comfortably, including the car seat (formerly a Ferris wheel seat in Chelsea's Carnival Playset.) Luna could squish in the middle if she was so inclined.

Luna demonstrates the other silly window.

Off we go to the toilet store!  As soon as Jeanie installs that, the camper van will be done!

Winter Projects: Part Four

 You didn't think there would be a part four, did you?  I sure didn't! 

I was beginning to wonder if the snow and cold would ever pass.

At least my neighbors had some fun with it.  

But Goodwill came through for me again.  This is a Barbie 3 in 1 Dream Camper.  

Normally, I turn my nose up at the newer Barbie campers because... yeah, lets go camping and fold down all the walls and stick the kindergartener up in the sky.  But I figure this one was like five bucks and it can just be a van if I want.

Like this.  That's meant to be Chelsea's bed.  Someone else is meant to sleep below it, on the roof, presumably to catch the poor kid when she rolls over.

 The headlight and tail light stickers were reasonably intact.  A few drops of Krazy Glue fixed the curled corners on one of them and one of the rear view mirrors.  The rest of the stickers needed to go.

It did come with some of its accessories like this hidden boat.

The cab pops off so Barbie doesn't have to pack up the whole campsite just to hike a trail.  We already saw where the boat is stored.  The wading pool goes in the big window and the kitchenette just was crammed in the back.  All of these are intact and usable.

I also found a couple tubes of something in the rear bathroom.  A blue drinking glass and a orphan boot were rattling around under the driver's seat.  No picture of them since they weren't bravely clinging to their proper spot!

Here's the rear bathroom.  Missing toilet means I gotta buy some Sour Flush candy.  I really like the cute lil shower but I'll have to pretend they have something to protect their privacy in here.  Maybe like a folding room divider... hmmm...  

The cardboard insert between rooms is good.

On that side, anyway.  I've deeply offended at the idea of an entire entertainment center in a camper. The TV and radio in my 1970's camper are smaller and more suited for roughing it.  There is none in the Star Traveler.  Well, maybe a radio on the dashboard.

Out comes the contact paper.

After a liberal use of rubbing alcohol in hope of removing sticker residue, it's drying off.  I used the black-and-white roses to cover the entertainment center side of the cardboard insert.  If I have to cover the sticker areas on the exterior, I'll use the same.