The Christmas Project: Barbie Girl in Barbie World

What do you do when all of your children have flown the coop and leave you with an empty nest at Christmas?  Mike and I decided to focus on four girls who participate in our children's ministry at church.   Just the idea of adding to their Christmas makes us smile.  I started brainstorming what little girls like, and took a trip down memory lane to when my kids were little...and then back,back, back to the dark ages, okay not quite that far back!  Stop when you get to the Wonder Years, the seventies.... to when I was a child.

One of my favorite things to do when I was little was to play Barbie.   I remember when I got a Barbie house and a new Sweet 16 Barbie with a Coca Cola outfit to change her into.   That house was so great.   It was kind of like a suitcase and it was easy to tote my Barbie stuff around in.  This became the inspiration for the houses that we would try to make the girls.  

Groovy Barbie House from the 70's.  

So off we went to Lowes (we call it Disney for Adults)  to look for materials to built our sturdy but portable Barbie houses.   Mike was to make the houses, and my focus was to be on furniture to make it homey.   I couldn't wait for the houses to be built, so I made my own temporary housing out of a cardboard box and started playing.  On Facebook and Google Plus I started putting as my status what Army Barbie was up to living in her temporary quarters waiting for her husband G.I. Joe to build the dream house.  It was kind of funny how many real Army wives could relate to the "box" type living and the teeny tiny kitchen :).

Army Wife Barbie hanging out in her tiny kitchen in her ball gown. 

Army Wife Barbie in temporary housing while husband GI Joe
is deployed to make money for the Dream House.

 For the next two weeks Mike and I were in craft mode.   He built a prototype of the house....which then had to be downsized because it might be too heavy for little girls to handle.   I began learning the world of crafts by watching you tube tutorials and scanning pinterest.  There are some amazingly talented people in this world.   I wish I would have had access to some of these things when my kids were little. Not everything has changed for the better though.  While shopping, I was taken aback by how Barbie now mirrors the culture.  I saw Gothic Barbie, Monster High Barbies, Bratz (lets encourage rebellion)  and they may as well have named some of them Slutty Barbie!   We have come a long way from my Sweet 16 Barbie doll days!   (Stepping down off of my soap box now.)  

Mike taught me how to use some of his tools....like the power saw (my favorite), the wood burner, and the drimmel (which I thought you could use like a pencil....not) 

It's not every guy who will play Barbie with you...in a manly
GI Joe kind of way....not like that wuss Ken :).   

Barbie is hanging out with me while I design her kitchen.
She is quite opinionated and demanding! 

Lessons learned during this process include:  My mind can conceive of much more than my skill level will be able to create; and in a battle with a hot glue gun, the glue gun wins.  After second degree burns on both hands and the back of my arm, I am now the proud owner of a low temp hot glue gun.   Crafting for me is a lot of trial and error...mostly error. Many of my first creations did not make the cut for the real houses.  But after two weeks and my back screaming at me (bulging disc and pinched nerve in my upper back) some of those sub-standard items actually got put back in the mix :). Why be so picky, right?   Barbie is not amused...

Here is the finished product!

Barbie Row Houses? 

Pink House

Green House

Hot Pink House

Red House

Barbie World

Close up of kitchen 

close up of bedroom

Close up of living room.
I feel this needs some end tables, pictures,
and another chair....but the kids will
have to do that. 

I have bought each of the girls a new Barbie with three outfits to play with in their new houses.   I hope that they like them!   As for me....my vacation in Barbie world is at an end.   Army Wife Barbie signing out.