Debbie grew up with four brothers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She went to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and got her degree in Industrial Design (product design). While she was in school, she did a project designing toys with Fisher Price. She has so much fun with it that she decided to pursue that as her career. She worked for Tyco Toys for several years and then freelanced for others. She designed mostly preschool toys. One of her favorite projects was building a Victorian house for displaying at trade shows. She even designed a line of blocks geared toward girls. Debbie put together a dollhouse complete with furniture. Unfortunately the company believed girls couldn't construct as well as boys and completely changed it. They have NO idea do they!

Debbie and her family have lived in Florida for 12 years now and they have seven children; one boy and six girls.  They range in age from 20 yrs old to 10 months old.

Debbie says that they even started a family business two years ago called Classic Jumpers that designs and produces girl’s dresses. Debbie, you need to bottle your energy and sell some to me!

 Debbie`s mother built her first dollhouse for her when she was a small child. It was furnished with Petite Princess pieces. One day her younger brother and a cousin decided to load up the dollhouse and furniture in a wagon and take it out into the woods. They both got lost and were brought back home by a stranger. They were in trouble and the worst part was that the lost Debbies PP furniture! A few years later her mother built her a colonial house and then took up minis herself.

Debbie loves building and decorating dollhouses. She feels that the dollhouses could end up taking over the house so she wants to build them well so that she could eventually sell them. She would love to design dollhouses as she has a love of architecture. She also really loves to create wallpaper on Photoshop.

Debbie absolutely loved bashing her Orchid. At first she was concerned about the tiny spaces, but not she loves trying to creatively use little spaces to their best advantage.  She honestly cannot think of a part of dollhouse building that she dislikes. She has not tried lighting yet so who knows!

 Debbie is thinking that at some point in the future, she would like to have a small business selling minis that her family creates. She would like to finish her Orchid bash this year and then work on some roomboxes that she has. She has a few designs for mini Bliss houses that she would also like to finish.  She started making those because she wanted an antique style dollhouse to put in her Orchid. She is really looking forward to working on landscaping. She thinks it adds so much to a house. At some point Debbie would also like to learn to light a dollhouse. I can say that Debbie will get much help on the Greenleaf forum on lighting. It scared me until I learned about it and jumped in with both feet!

Debbie has a bit of advice for all the newbies in the dollhouse universe. Do not be afraid to try new things. The worst case scenario is that you do not like it but you will learn enough to improve. She would advise anyone who loves minis to never let things become more important than the people in their lives. Since living in Florida, her family has been evacuated several times for fires and hurricanes. They took very little with them, knowing they might not have anything when they returned. Their stuff might not last but the people they spend their time with will be affected forever. But with that being said, Debbie still finds miniatures to be the most obsessive hobby she has ever been interested in!

You can browse Debbie`s pictures in her Gallery here.

For participating as the Member of the month, Debbie will receive a $25 gift certificate to the Greenleaf store!

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