Debra was told by her Mother that she once owned a tin dollhouse in the 1950s and that she enjoyed playing with it. She does not really remember having it. She married Bill, who was in the Coast Guard at the time, and they were stationed in Kodiak, Alaska in the late 1970s. She joined the House of Miniatures kit of the month club. She had made a few kits but mostly stockpiled them as she did not have a house to put them in. As the years went by they stayed packed, until they moved back to Alaska in the early 1980s. One night she was looking through one of Bill`s woodworking catalogs and stumbled on a Greenleaf Glencroft. She ordered one to give herself something to do in the evenings when the kids were in bed and Bill was at work. She fell in love!  She cut some walnut veneer into strips for flooring and finally had a place for all that kit furniture.

Debra enjoys building and decorating. She thinks she inherited the building gene from her family. I have that same gene Debra. She helped her husband with real life projects. So when she hit a snag in her mini construction, he is always available for construction questions. She said it was difficult to build the little shop for him because she could not ask him any questions. She perused building books at the library and asked her brother questions like "What does wiring look like?"  Debra`s latest project is copying her friend`s chicken coop and the Greenleaf forum has been an invaluable help with such things as "What can I use for miniature OSB?" She collects only the things that she would have difficulty making herself.

Debra loves the whole process of building a dollhouse, from the dry fitting to the final decorating.  She loves to try to make it as real looking as possible. She has been experimenting with weathering the chicken coop so she would like to use that on her next house. The only part of the dollhouse process she says that she dislikes is shingling.  Shingling is tedious but she would love to try to paperclay on the next one.  Debra never had any real horror stories when it came to building her first house. She just could not wait for the kids to go to bed so she could go out to the garage and get to building.

She has a few dreams and mini aspirations for the future. She would love to have a big front opening Victorian painted up like a real painted lady. She would love to see Colleen Moore`s dollhouse and the Queen`s dollhouses in person some day. She is looking forward to going to the show in Denver this September so she can meet some forum members and buy some beautiful things. This year she will be building more for others then for herself. She will be building a dollhouse for her granddaughter Hannah and starting another one for her other granddaughter Aria. She has a small Canterbury that she would like to build for herself one day and she is working on an artist gallery for Vincent Van Gogh.

She has to say that her favorite house seems to be her Glencroft. She loves the Tudor style, winding staircase, and the little front yard that has been turned into a flower garden. Since it has been twenty years now, she has started tearing out all the old, faded brittle wallpaper. She is thinking of electrifying it this time around. She would keep the Glencroft for always if she had the room. If she had to move to smaller digs, she would keep the wall hanging teashop that she bashed out of a Brimbles Mercantile. It has tables on the front porch and it is the first house she ever electrified. Debra would love to learn how to use paperclay on one of her next houses. She would also like to learn how to sculpt people.

Debra has some wonderful advice for any newbies in the miniature world. Have fun! Make sure you keep your first attempts. It`s good to look back to see how far you have come. Ask lots of questions. The Greenleaf forum has been a great source of information when Debra is stumped on something.

You can look at all of Debra`s wonderful eye candy here.

For participating as the Member of the Month, Debra will receive a $25 gift certificate to the Greenleaf Store.