Carrie spends her days doing private tutoring and volunteering at the public library. Her other hobbies besides miniatures are quilting, scrap booking, needlepoint, and knitting. She is going to be having a monthly craft night at her house with her friends. She loves to collect teapots, snow globes, and Cats Meow buildings from places she has visited or lived.

Carrie got her first introduction into dollhouses and miniatures as a child. She loved playing with her best friend’s dollhouse growing up and she always wanted one. Carrie and her two older sisters have a doll collection from around the world. They also collected miniatures from their many visits to Old Sturbridge Village in MA. When Carrie was in middle school, she received a Pierce Kit for Christmas. She and her mother built it together. Carrie remembers her mother getting very little sleep those days because she would stay up late into the night working on the kit after Carrie went to bed. They lovingly decorated the house with contact paper, wrapping paper, and stain for the floors. It was painted the exact same color as the house she grew up in. When her parents sold their house to downsize, the Pierce went to Carrie’s cousins. They were not kind to the old girl.  Carrie had it returned to her several years later in desperate need of some repairs.  Simba decided it was HIS house.  She kept the Pierce for several years but because of lack of knowledge of miniature supply stores and space she regrettably got rid of it. Carrie’s first house as an adult is her Bayberry Cottage  and it is the one where she actually did what she always wanted to. She used miniature wallpaper, hardwood floors, and electricity. It is made the way she wanted her Pierce to be made when she was a child.

Carrie classifies herself as a decorator. On her first two houses, she started decorating the moment the shells were up. She stopped building them for years because she was more content with the decorating aspect of the houses then anything else. She did eventually finish the exteriors of those houses. Carrie falls in love with her houses once she can see it’s true potential. Once the roofline is up, her mind and creativity starts full force. She (like many of us) waits until the house tells her what it wants. If she had one task of building dollhouses that would never ever have to do, it would be shingling the roof.  It bores her to tears. Even though that can be a mini obstacle for her she is always excited about every single house she starts. She has visions of what she wants to do with it and cannot wait to begin the process. 

I asked Carrie if she could only keep one of her dollhouses and all the others would disappear, which one would she choose?  She said it was a tough decision but she would have to say it was her Brookwood.  

She says it is a favorite of hers as well as her husband, Steve’s.  She says she can envision her future children playing with this house. For the kits that she owns, she would have to choose her Diana as the one she would keep. She has a thing for porches and the Diana’s porch sings to her.

Carrie’s favorite dollhouse in her collection is her Storybook Quilt Shop called Love and Stitches.

It shows two of her passions. Dollhouses and quilting. Carrie says almost every quilt in the shop is an exact replica of full size quilts she or her mother have made. She put a lot of thought and care into this house as you can see. It was her first attempt at stonework, she made the quilt wood floor, the quilt squares in the stained glass windows and she made all of the furniture herself.

Carrie has many plans and dreams in her dollhouse and miniature future. She would love to take two Pierces and bash them into a huge mansion. But she will settle on getting one Pierce and building it the way she wanted to build the Pierce of her childhood. In the future she would like to build her skills in miniatures by taking some classes.  She also would love to learn how to make dolls from scratch. She has made some from kits but she would love to learn to make them completely. Carrie wants to also learn more on sculpting clay for her miniatures.

Carrie would love to make some trips around the globe to meet some of our fellow Greenleaf gabbers. Her trip would include meeting Marg (ilovecats) and see her stack of kits. She would love to visit Greg (Hallowell) to get a close up look at his houses. But her real dream would be to take classes by Wendy (wenlaine) and Tracy (minisontheedge). She would love to take a class by both of them.

Carrie has a house that her manicurist gave her that she plans on revamping. She will be donating it to the school system for a silent auction in April 2008.  She also has plans to build a room box for Steve’s birthday in February. She also has to do finishing touches on her Brookwood. If she has time in her schedule this year, Carrie wants to break open the Diana that has been screaming from the corner.
 
Carrie’s advice to up and coming miniaturists is to remember that it is your house. It is your project to do with as you like and you only need to make yourself happy. I think that is the best advice you can get!

You can visit Carrie’s gallery here and Blog here .  She has pages of eye candy for us to enjoy!

As our “Featured Member of the Month”, Carrie will receive a $25 gift certificate to the “Greenleaf Store”. Congratulations Carrie!