Last year I started the tradition of looking back at Dandridge House Doll’s achievements and discussing my hopes of what the new year will have in store. At this time last year, I had big plans to reveal a new dollhouse room every month and post faithfully every week. Well that didn’t happen! 😂 So what did happen in 2019? 

The Living Little category saw the completion of Maryellen’s 1950s Diner, Emma & Ella’s Walk-In Closet, and Ella’s Bedroom. This Christmas season the three new rooms were decorated for the holidays along with all past rooms getting updates. Doll House Christmas 2019

Maryellen’s 1950’s Diner

Walk-in-Closet

Ella’s Bedroom

Dandridge House Dolls is on Instagram and this is the top nine posts of 2019. My year of photos hit just shy of 20,000 likes. I have really enjoyed photographing the dolls and look forward to more this year. Hubs bought me a new camera for Christmas so I am excited to see if that can help with some of my indoor lighting issues.

In my Tiny Travels, I had the pleasure of meeting Dean Butler and Richard Thomas for the first time and was able to see Alison Arngrim again! My post Lunch With Almanzo Wilder was mentioned in a Little House fan newsletter and drove hundreds of new readers to the blog in a matter of days. It catapulted the post into DHD’s top 3 most read posts ever in less than two weeks! I had so much fun that day and will definitely be covering more Walton and Little House topics in the future!

Richard Thomas

Dean Butler

Alison Arngrim

This past summer, I was asked to be a speaker at a luncheon for library and museum directors. The topic I was asked to speak on was “How to get kids excited about history”. As a homeschooling mom, the subject was right up my ally. There was a turnout of between 40-50 directors from Missouri and Kansas. I was able to share my original vision for the blog of wanting a safe, fun site that anyone, especially children could go to just relax and learn. As a mom, safe websites are always something I have cherished. I had hoped that my love of history would inspire someone and the dolls would be a fun way to get a new perspective on a historical site or event. The blog has become more than that now as my readers have shown me what they are most interested in, but I can promise that history will always remain at the heart of my blog, and it will always be safe and kid-friendly.

So what’s coming in 2020? Quite a bit! Living Little will definitely be showing off this year because multiple rooms are completed and just waiting for their reveal! In the upcoming months I will be posting rooms for Addy (this will completely finish her), Julie, Samantha, Rebecca and Kit. The twins modern dollhouse will also see completion by the end of the year. Since 13 new rooms are completed (or are nearing completion), I think I will be on track for one reveal a month. 🤞🏽 Of course all those rooms will need Christmas decorations so I’ve already been scouring the Christmas clearance in preparation for next December!

We are in the middle of large renovation in our home. We are currently working on our main floor, which should be completed by the end of February. We will then move on to finishing the remodel of downstairs, which is far more than we had originally planned on. Downstairs is where the doll room is and will be having more work done. In the the post The Doll’s Are Moving!, I told you of my new doll room and my hopes for it. Currently the room is lined with dollhouses and the floor has large rugs down. We are planning on spraying the rafters white, adding a lot of lighting and painting or sheet-rocking the walls. The ceiling height can’t change (framing and sheet-rock would drop it quite a bit in some areas) because some of the newest dollhouses are literally scraping the joists. Hopefully it will be finished by summer. 🤞🏽 In preparation for the dollhouses being moved and covered for a few weeks, I have already started on my pictures and posts so it won’t delay the room reveals. But… we all know something will happen, that’s life! 😂

Two new categories were added to the blog in 2019, Doll Repair and Collection Close-Ups. Collection Close-Ups didn’t get very far this past year but is raring to go in 2020! We will continue with, and finish Addy’s Collection and also dive into Kirsten and Felicity’s Collections! 

Doll Repair had such positive feedback that I will continue with new post this upcoming year! In January we’ll discuss Eye Swaps and Repair. Down the road, I’ll fight stubborn stains and re-wig dolls. 😉

I wasn’t able to add as many dollhouse room tours to my YouTube channel as I had hoped but I would like to get more tours on this spring. There are a lot of great historic recipes that we will try this year and a lot of fun history sites that we will discover! I am anxiously awaiting the newest historical doll that American Girl will release in August, Courtney Moore. I already have a historic adventure planned for this this 80’s girl! (Since when did the 80’s become history? Man, I’ve gotten old!😂)

Here’s to our upcoming adventures and to you! Happy collecting and Happy New Year!