Little World Miniatures & Miniatures Museum in New Hampshire

This last week I fell in love with New Hampshire. We rented a house on Lake Winnipesaukee with 8 adults and 6 kids from my mister's side. Vacation dreamland! Bumper boats, ice cream, mini golf, sluicing, kayaking, swimming, bumper cars, ice cream, hiking, go karts, beach, Fun Spot (where they filmed the Donkey Kong world record setting documentary "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters") oh did I mention the ice cream? So much fun!

I even met Bill Clinton!! Well, Bill & Julie Clinton of Little World Miniatures. We drove an hour and half to Ossipee to visit their shop that they run out of their home. Bill & Julie are an adorable and friendly couple who have been running their shop for over 30 years. They spent many years and earned many awards doing the miniatures show circuit on the East Coast, but after serious injuries from a car accident they have been unable to attend the shows. Back in the hey day some of the shows had 3,500 people in attendance.

Their living room is the museum portion of the shop filled with Bill's mother Esther's collection of houses from the 30s - 50s along with houses they have built and decorated themselves. They have one of the first wood dollhouse kits that replaced the tin houses when metal was in demand for the war effort during World War II. Esther lived into her 90's and played with her houses up until she passed.

Little World Miniatures has a wide variety of miniatures, supplies, electric lights and dolls along with kits and assembled houses for sale. Bill & Julie were wonderful to talk to. Every miniature had a story. It was great learning the history of so many of the vendors, and a little sad that many items are out of production due to artisans passing away with no apprentices to take over, along with the smaller audience of collectors.

If you can, I encourage you to take a trip this summer to your closest dollhouse shop, and if you're in New Hampshire, definitely stop by and meet Bill & Julie in Ossipee. Here are the goodies I purchased.

Little World Miniatures
Bill & Julie Clinton
103 Route 28 (off Route 171) at the "Log Cabin"
Ossipee, NH 03864
603-539-6136
Open 7 days a week 11am-5pm