Building Foundations

A couple exciting things to share today. First, I checked craigslist on a whim and found a dollhouse kit that I'd never heard of. I looked it up and found that it went out of production about 20 years ago and sells for around $400 on ebay on average. The person on CL is asking $75 and I'm going to pick it up tomorrow sometime. It's very similar to the first kit I put together when I was a teenager. It may be the same one for all I know. I don't recall what that one was called - it was just a kit that my grandmother had started and never finished. Anyway, if I never get it put together, I can list it on ebay since I'm getting it for a steal. But I'll probably put it together and give it to my daughters.

The Scholastic Book Fair is starting at Son's school on Monday. I have this weekend to make a 10' tall cactus for a prop, and a couple batches of jam so I can donate gift sets to the bake walks, and a book sales meter in the shape of a Chinese dragon. I should have started a few weeks ago but a lack of communication meant I thought my spot was taken and the other mom who helps run the book fair thought I was ignoring the whole thing. So... yeah.

Part of the book fair every year is a big fundraiser where the kids donate their change to buckets to vote on a crazy hair color for the librarian, and all that money gets donated to help libraries in need. Two years ago the funds went to buy new books for a school in Ghana. Last year, hundreds of new books were bought for a school library in Sandy Hook to help with rebuilding efforts. This year we're trying to organize the funds to be sent to the Kenya National Library System to help with their mobile library system. The mobile library system uses camels to travel around and take books to people who wouldn't have access to a library otherwise, and the KNLS has said they'd like to expand their camel .... uh, collection, I guess... to include a female so they can breed new camels and become self-sufficient in their mobile service.

I decided to enter the 2014 Hobby Builder's Supply Annual Creatin' Contest. This year, the project is the Starting Point Garage Kit. You don't HAVE to make a garage, of course. Considering how long I had to stare at the building to see anything other than a garage bay door or a restaurant that opened onto patio seating, part of me wonders if they chose this set this year just because no one buys it and they're trying to either get rid of stock or spawn ideas to draw more sales. Either way, I did finally come up with something and I'm actually excited to get started. I may or may note end up starting a separate blog for dollhouse posts.

That's all I've got for today. I should go get started cleaning the kitchen so I can make some jam and load up the dehydrator. Thanks for stopping by.