November Member of the Month Meet Teresa (Thmini2)
By Heidi Cleveland
Many of us from the United States are probably getting ready to eat our Thanksgiving feast or we are busy trying to decide on what to do with the leftovers, depending on when this article is published. I wanted to say that I am thankful that I have my family and all of my friends. I hope that all of my fellow Greenleafers had a blessed Thanksgiving and lots of wonderful turkey leftover to make sandwiches!
This month I would love to introduce you to Teresa (Thmini2). She has been a member of the Greenleaf forums since July 5, 2007. She is also celebrating a birthday this month. Happy Birthday Teresa!
Teresa lives in Green Bay, WI with her husband of seven years, Jeff. They have two dogs, Tanner is a three year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi and Murphy is an eight year old English Cocker Spaniel. Teresa works in her local hospital in the Environmental Services department. She thinks it is wonderful that she has her best friend (hubby) interested in her hobby of dollhouses. He really supports her hobby. He is interested in all aspects from the purchase to the finished product.
Teresa has always wanted a dollhouse. She had a metal one when she was a child. She saw an exhibit at the local museum, where her great uncles dollhouse was on display. She never knew him as he was many years older then her own grandfather. Teresa always went into the local dollhouse shop to drool. One day she found a dollhouse fixer upper at a garage sale for $2. That was her very first grown up dollhouse. Her next house was a Newberg she found at Walmart. It stayed in the box for many years. When she and Jeff got married, he bought her a built Victorian Cottage Jr and the kit bashing began.
Teresa loves all aspects of working on her dollhouses but she loves to decorate. She feels that it lets her be creative. She can make the house her own. She likes picking out the colors, wallpapers, and flooring. She likes seeing all her ideas come together with each step in the process. She also really enjoys a good bash! She and Jeff have great conversations on what to do and how to achieve what they want in a build. She admits that the actual build is not for her. She can get impatient with it. She leaves that work for Jeff as he is more of a measure twice, cut once type of person.
When Teresa starts a build, she is very excited and anxious to make the right choices on how she wants the dollhouse to be. Sometimes that changes a couple times as she goes along with the decorating. Her horror story has to do with hot glue. She used it on that $2 house. She thought it looked like it was covered in spider webs. Then of course the house came apart in some areas. She thinks that was why it took her a few years to start another house.
Teresa would love to meet everyone from the Forum and see their creations first hand. For some reason she is hooked on building a Westville some day. She loves the style of the dollhouse. In the coming months, she wants to finish her Bellingham Farmhouse. She is also going to go to the Chicago miniature shows and learn as many techniques as she can. She would love to learn to make her own furniture and dollhouse miniatures. Teresa loves all of her dollhouses and projects equally. She thinks that if she had to pick just one as her favorite, it would be the Victorian Cottage Jr. That is because it was the first house that she and Jeff built together.
Teresa has some advice for all that want to start out in this hobby of ours. Keep learning new ways to do things. You never know what you are capable of until you try. Even if things don`t work out the way you want them to, you have learned something. Lastly, there aren’t any failures, just learning experiences.
You can look at all of Teresa`s dollhouse delights here in her gallery.
For participating in the Member of the Month, Teresa will receive a $25 gift certificate to the Greenleaf store.
I hope Everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!
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