Well shoot you guys, once again I managed to catch a virus on my recent trip.  How utterly frustrating and annoying.  I’ve gotten sick on nearly every trip I’ve taken over the last year or so.  I’m not sure where I’m going wrong.

First of all, I almost never get sick at home, only when I travel.  Second of all, I do all of the things while traveling.  I wash my hands frequently, I wipe down my airplane seat with a Chlorox wipe, I get plenty of rest, I exercise regularly, I eat right (OK, well, most of the time), I get the flu shot.  I did skip the Covid vaccine this year, mainly because as you’ll remember I got Covid on our Canada cruise in September so then you have to wait 3 months to get the vaccine, yada, yada, yada.

I do have a working theory.  About this time last year we signed up for an Am Ex card that gives us access to the Skymiles airport lounges where they have a ‘free’ buffet.  So for all of my recent trips (except Mexico), I’ve been treating myself to that buffet before a flight.  And I’ve gotten sick on all of my trips, except Mexico.  Coincidence?  Or is a germ ridden buffet to blame?

Well, I have another trip to my mom’s coming up in April so I think I’ll put my theory to the test and skip the lounge.  We’ll see how that goes.

All of this is to explain why I’ve been rather absent from the blog for the last week or so.  But I’m mostly recovered now and ready to get started on my next miniature project, the Christmas Cottage.

As I mentioned previously, my friend Sue gave me this dollhouse when no one in her family wanted it.  It even came with a deed showing that it was built in 1990.  Two lucky girls named Kristi and Dawn received it for Christmas.

It was built from a Greenleaf kit.  I googled it and it looks like Greenleaf is still in business.  In fact, they list this particular dollhouse, The Harrison, for $195 although it is ‘out of stock’.  I may end up purchasing some replacement roof shingles from them if I can’t find any that matches first.

My plan is to start by sprucing up the exterior.  There are a few repairs needed, some missing trim needs replacing …

and quite a few broken shingles do as well.

I also plan to remove the faded, and somewhat oversized silk flowers from the window boxes.

Not only are they a bit oversized, but they are all wrong for a Christmas cottage!

Once I’ve got the exterior in hand, I’ll move on to the interior.

It’s currently a bit sherbet-y with its Easter egg colored rooms.  I’m thinking that I’ll just paint all of the rooms in a neutral off-white to create a blank canvas and then go from there.

The house has 8 rooms, so it’s quite spacious.  In addition to the 7 rooms that are visible from the back, there is a fun little attic room that you can access through the roof.

Um, that green furry carpet is going to have to go though.  I hope that doesn’t end up being too much of a production.

It definitely looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me, so I think I’d better get started!

Stay tuned to see what I come up with for this dollhouse makeover.