Studio 27 - By Jennifer Adams: 2026

Thursday, October 15, 2026

Thrifted Barbie Haul

My local thrift store had a giant bin full of Barbie dolls with regular dolls priced at $1.99 and children dolls only .25! I had a great time pawing through the pile and came home with this collection for under $12. Read on to see their clean up:

The first thing that I did was to strip everyone of their fabric clothing and make a nice bubble bath in the kitchen sink with a bit of dish soap. I like to sanitize the sink first so that I'm not dunking my dolls in a bacteria filled swamp 😐

I tossed everyone in and give them a good swish through the soapy water. Since bun Barbie's hairstyle was in such good shape, I was more careful with her and took her out right away.

I used the sprayer to rinse away all the bubbles and let the dolls drip a bit before moving them to a dishtowel on the counter.

The next step was to make a new basin of water for the clothing and wash it thoroughly as well.

Next I tackled the hair while it was still damp. Severely tangled hair can be fixed by dunking it into fabric softener and combed out. Just make sure to give it a good rinsing afterwards or it will feel gunky.

Once everyone was cleaned and untangled they hung out on the counter to dry.

Now for the fun part, dressing everyone and deciding where they go:

Bun Barbie got her original dress back minus the boots (nobody wants to serve customers in those heels) She's now serving up sweets in the ice cream shop.

Short hair Barbie and blue swimsuit girl are now spending their days at the pool.

Long haired blond is now dressed as a nurse and visiting the ice cream shop. My youngest niece chose this little girl and the pink headband Barbie to represent herself and her mom (my sister) and left them at the table having a snack the last time she was at my house. Since my sister is a nurse in real life I thought she would like having a doll that looks liker her mom at work, too. I'm going to leave them both here for her to find the next time she comes to play 😊

This poor man and his terrible 90s outfit... I just don't know what to do with him. At least he's clean!

These three girls have permanent outfits that look sort of like dance or gymnastics uniforms. They are having a sleepover upstairs.

These three got dressed up in outfits and shoes. The left is an outfit that came with the haul, but the middle and right are from Dollar Tree. Apron girl is tending to the vegetable patch wile the other two are having a birthday party.

And this lady got the solar system dress before heading to the living room with a bowl of popcorn.

Interested in more Barbie? Check out these posts:

Bringing Out the Barbie Dream House

Fixing Up Barbie Furniture

Making Labels For Barbie Groceries

Using Cube Storage to Extend a Barbie House

Using Dollar Store Fabric to Create Barbie Sized Linens

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I hope you enjoyed this thrifted Barbie post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

Friday, October 9, 2026

Hidden Treasures

If you know me, then you know that I love collecting! Some things have designated storage areas, like my playhouse shed for vintage food toys, my bakery closet for off season fake bakes, or my garden shed for my garden themed collection of faux plants and decor. I only have so much space though, so other collections have to be creatively tucked away. Here are a few of my hidden treasures:

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In my front room, the table top surface behind couch is actually a dresser. I like the surface for decorating and the drawers hold one of my book collections. I don't need to access these books very often so being behind the couch isn't a big deal.

(This photo was taken last winter so you can see one of my Christmas villages on top)

Here is a peek inside those drawers, the complete collection of vintage Sweet Valley Twins/ Twins and Friends, Sweet Valley High, Sweet valley University novels!

Moving towards the corner in the same room is an end table underneath an electric fireplace.

In here I have my Zuru and Miniverse mini babies and mini baby foods.

Still in the front room, the tv stand is another dresser.

All of these contain vintage books as well, the complete Baby Sitters Club and Little House Series.

The top drawer of the corner cabinet has Miniverse food sets and the 1990s Little Miss dolls.

Here are better pics of the inside of that drawer:

I love these dolls!

Over by my desk I have a large, two sided cabinet. One half is all business, but the other half houses my complete collection of The Sims games and Strategy Guides.

Over in the dining room is this cabinet that features my faux cake collection. Underneath I have milk glass dishes and ...

...a couple little miniature pantries 😄 These are less of a collection and more of a hidden amusement, but I thought I'd share anyway!

If you like hidden whimsy, you might also enjoy this house gnome tour.

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I hope you enjoyed this hidden treasure post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

Friday, October 2, 2026

Using Dollar Store Fabric to Create Barbie House Linens

I wanted more lines for the Barbie house and decided to make my own using dollar store fabric,

check it out:

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This is one of the Crafter's Square fabric rolls from Dollar Tree. I laid it out on a cutting mat to show you that often these are uneven and need to be trimmed up.

Look for raw edges as well and cut those off before measuring out your project.

After I had my fabric trimmed up and ready to go, I started making blankets. To get the correct dimensions I used an existing Barbie blanket as guide. Just measure it out and then cut your fabric the same.

Here I did the same thing with a Barbie towel.

I didn't have any Barbie napkins at all, so I just freestyled those as well as some rugs.

Here is everything that I made:

A large rug in the kid's room and the room that's going to be a nursery.

Extra blankets for the bedrooms.

Towels and a floor mat in the bathroom.

Table linens in the dining room.

Throw blankets for the living areas.

Extra towels in the laundry room.

This was such an easy project and only cost $1.25! I kept things simple with plain, white fabric, but you could use all sorts of patterns...I'm wondering about curtains next...😃

Interested in more Barbie? Check out these posts:

Bringing Out the Barbie Dream House

Fixing Up Barbie Furniture

Making Labels For Barbie Groceries

Using Cube Storage to Extend a Barbie House

I hope you enjoyed this Barbie house post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

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Friday, September 25, 2026

Faux Cupcake Re-Style

I had a set of patriotic themed faux cupcakes that I wanted to change into a more everyday look. Read on to see how a little paint made it work:

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Here are the cupcakes as they looked before. They are really pretty, but I wanted to be able to use them for more than a couple holidays each year.

(These cupcakes were purchased from Dezicakes)

I pulled out some acrylic paint in a couple of chocolate colors to get started.

Using a brush I painted over the foam as well as I could, but you can still some blue here and there. I also messed up a bit and got brown on the part that I wanted to leave white.

To fix the mistakes I grabbed some brown puffy paint and used it to add 'chocolate' drips over the imperfections.

It worked really well!

Here are the cupcakes now, all chocolatey and ready for any occasion!

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Interested in more fake bake crafts?

I've gathered all of my tutorials and collections into this resource page.

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I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

Pages

Thursday, October 15, 2026

Thrifted Barbie Haul

Friday, October 9, 2026

Hidden Treasures

Friday, October 2, 2026

Using Dollar Store Fabric to Create Barbie House Linens

Friday, September 25, 2026

Faux Cupcake Re-Style