sommerstern7

Everyone in the tiny Sommerstern family is getting ready for the long winter and celebrating the many fruits of the harvest season. With Trick or Treat, then Thanksgiving around the corner, the children have been working hard at pumpkin carving and baking Halloween treats and goodies with Nanny; and Nanny and the other helpers of the estate have been diligently preparing to fill the house with the wonderful smells of spiced cider, pumpkin pie, cranberries, and roasted Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing. There have been a lot of trips to town during the month of October to start filling the pantry and stocking the refrigerator for those delicious holiday meals and sweet baked confections and candies. Come in and stay a while...just don't be surprised if Nanny commissions your help. Many of these photos were taken from a different point of view--from OUTSIDE the Harrison, looking in--giving the onlooker an almost voyeuristic perspective of the house and many of its rooms. Look for yourself and see if you agree.

This is my tribute to my German grandparents Gustav and Anna Sloboda and their simplistic way of life. It is a work in progress, but I have found dolls which resemble them both, along with my little brother Brian when he was yet a toddler, and myself as a young girl in loop braids. This is only a small representation of their home which was a bit more modern as well as much larger, but combined with many of the items that could actually be found in their house (like the Heidi Ott replica of Oma's treadle sewing machine in her sunshine filled sewing room, their tiny kitchen, or my Otta's false teeth soaking in a small, clear dish on the bedroom dresser) along with an air of the charms and traditions of "the old country", this dollhouse serves to capture my dearest memories of them both.

The house is filled with aunts, uncles, cousins, good friends, grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters, and lots of babies-- gathering 'round the kitchen to decorate Easter eggs. Come see some of the tiny festivities and decorations that garnish this home in its celebration of the holiday and the first rites of spring!

Almost thirty years ago, my parents surprised me with a very large and beautiful English Tutor style doll house. Having had commissioned a retired cabinet maker to build the house, there was no time or money left to paint or finish the houses' exterior or its ten+ room interior before presenting it to me at Christmas. Although we would collect furnishings for it and purchase many miniatures and tiny embellishments over the years of my childhood, the house was to remain "as is" and unfinished until July of 2007 when my best friend and I decided to take on this grand endeavor and were introduced and lost forever into a love for the beautiful art of doll housing. This is my doll house and our creation--presented to me as a gift of love from my family and completed within the confines of friendship between myself and my dearest friend. As my own children watched with large eyes of wonder and excitement; and as our husbands offered us gentle words of encouragement and support while we crafted and toiled away. . . and eventually became obsessed-- we bring you The Harrison.