TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019 | ALBERTLEATRIBUNE.COM | PAGE 1
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A HOME
OF THEIR OWN
Brianna Oftedahl (left), Jaymee Oftedahl and Marcella Mineer stand by the dollhouse Mineer made for her granddaughter Brianna Oftedhal several years ago. The dollhouse was on display at the Albert Lea Art Center as part of their Festival of Trees, though now it sits on display at Good Samaritan Society. SARAH KOCHER/ALBERT LEA TRIBUNE
Needlepoint dollhouse a gift from grandma for only granddaughter By Sarah Kocher
sarah.kocher@albertleatribune.com
The first home Brianna Oftedahl held the deed to cost her $1. That’s what her grandmother Marcella Mineer asked her to pay for the dollhouse she needlepointed with yarn and plastic canvas out of a kit from a catalog. “I only had that one granddaughter, and I had to have something to do,” Mineer said.
several years. This dollhouse is the biggest needlepoint project she has done, Mineer said. Other completed projects dot her home in at Good Samaritan Society: handmade bluebird magnets watch over her fridge. The dollhouse, featured as part of the Albert Lea Art Center’s Festival of Trees in December, was ready for Brianna Oftedahl when she was 6 years old. “I don’t think I realized
“I only had that one granddaughter, and I had to have something to do.” — Marcella Mineer, grandmother Daughter Jaymee Oftedahl said her mother knit, sewed and crossstitched as well for
how big it was going to be,” she said — or as interactive. The oven door opens and shuts. For the
Brianna and Jaymee Oftedahl decorated the kitchen for Christmas by putting gingerbread men in the oven, which opens and closes.
Festival of Trees, she and her mother put gingerbread men in it and a Santa in the living room fireplace. The TV has a removable picture, so Brianna Oftedahl could change what her Barbies were watching. “I played with it — carefully,” she said. Though it now lives in a relative’s home, Brianna Oftedahl said she likes the idea of decorating it for the seasons, and having her own children be able to play with it. It’s also special that her grandfather pitched in, she said. He cut the twigs that sit in the basket by the fireplace as miniature logs. For now, the dollhouse lives in a Good Samaritan Society window, where the fluffy fake snow sits on the house’s eaves and lights twinkle near the red bow on the front door.
The living room fireplace is accompanied by a basket of twigs cut by Brianna Oftedahl’s grandfather. She said she likes the idea that both of her grandparents had a hand in creating the home for her dolls.
Brianna Oftedahl used Barbies to play in her dollhouse.
The front of the dollhouse was decorated with bows, snow and twinkling colored lights.