Wanda Miller has a fascination for small things and all kinds of crafts. Her mind and hands are never idle.

She simply loves to create.One of her favorite hobbies is making dollhouses."I like to decorate. When we bought our house here in Effort, I just wanted to keep decorating it. Finally, I decided to try a dollhouse. I figured I could decorate a whole house any way I wanted," she says.She has a fondness for the Victorian era, and her creations reflect that period in house design and decor. The miniature people inside wear Victorian dress.Her Beaumont Mansion dollhouse is her fantasy house."If I was a millionaire, it is what my house would look like," she says.Wanda is in awe of the artisans who make miniatures and is grateful to them because they help her create a whole little world just the way she wants it.It's the detailsWhen she puts a room together, no detail is too small to attempt, right down to a cat playing with a ball of yarn."It's very satisfying."Her first dollhouse was a yellow Victorian she built from a kit with working electric lights in every room. Over the mantel of the living room fireplace is a miniature portrait of her daughter Leah and her best friend Angela. The picture was taken at Singer Castle in the Thousand Islands, New York. Leah and Angela dressed up and modeled for them in Victorian clothing.There's only one problem with making and decorating dollhouses. "You create these things but who else can appreciate them?" says Wanda.So she built one for her sister, Kim, and a box dress shop for her niece Heather, who graduated from FIT last year.She has made dollhouses and single rooms, then donated them to groups and organizations as fundraisers. She donated three dollhouses to the Special Olympics, one for Dress For Success and another for St. Anne's Catholic School fundraisers.She took a dollhouse she found already built and repainted and decorated it, calling it her 'rehab house.' It was auctioned off at a fundraiser for Children with Autism in New Jersey.Wanda also loans them for display, such as at Western Pocono Community Library's Heritage Center in Brodheadsville and the Monroe County Library.Inside a shabby chic white cabinet with double doors, she created a beautiful Victorian bridal room scene complete with a bride."I made it just for fun. I like to try different things, and I had been wanting to do a wedding theme," says Wanda. It was sold at the Stroudsmoor Bridal Registry.Wanda is always looking for a challenge. She bought a wood cabinet on eBay and then ripped it apart. She rebuilt the interior to resemble a Tudor four-room, two-story house with furniture from England. The kitchen floor has stone tiles with real grouting. She wired it for electricity so the gas lamps look like they're glowing. It has a glass door that allows her to view it all the time and helps keep it from getting dusty.More talentsIn addition to building, designing and decorating dollhouses, she enjoys baking and decorating cakes for family and friends."The challenge is to make them fun."Then there's her jewelry making, quilling and paper art. Quilling involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped and glued together to create decorative designs.In paper art, she has been playing around with various types of paper flowers."I love the dahlias. I've done several of different sizes. Love the roses too," she says. "It's easy to find ideas online."She's experimented with a few pop-up cards and had a lot of fun trying different types of cards."You can find a ton of templates online from beginner to advanced. Just type in 'pop-up card template' and search. I found a great site online for printable cards,

www.craftsuprint.com. Just print to a color printer on card stock, cut and then assemble and use your own imagination," she says.Her newest obsession is little paper houses that she puts a tea light inside of and decorates.Her husband, John, a retired New York City police officer, says Wanda has "Hobby ADD."Wanda and John share a passion for riding their Harley motorcycles. Hers is a V Rod. In their travels they discovered how much they enjoyed taking photos and started a photography business, Stroudsmoor Photography Studio.Reaching outWhen Wanda isn't crafting, sculpting, baking or taking photos, she is a manager in procedural document at Bristol Myers in Princeton, New Jersey. She often shares her crafting with her co-workers, holding "Lunch and Learns."Wanda's mother was in the U.S. Air Force stationed in Puerto Rico, where Wanda was born, but she was raised in Rochester, New York, with her three brothers and two sisters. She graduated from Albany State University in pre-law but couldn't afford law school. She joined the Air Force and became educated in computers.Having grown up very poor, she says life was difficult. Her mother worked hard to keep the family together. She remembers thinking how much it would have meant to them if just one person had reached out to help them.That's why it is so important to her now that she reaches out to help others, something she taught her own children, Joshua, 29, a photographer and partner in their photography business, and Leah, 27, just finishing nursing school."When my kids were young, we did a lot of volunteer work at a hospice and for Meals on Wheels."As veterans, Wanda, Air Force, and John, the U.S. Marine Corps, they both volunteer at the National Veterans Wheel Chair Games. As photographers, they take hundreds of pictures and do a daily publication and slide shows viewed nationally."It's our way of giving back. When you see those men and women in their wheelchairs, it makes you very appreciative of what you have," she says.There's a sign above her desk that reads, "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude," by Maya Angelou."If everybody did something like that, imagine what the world could be like," she says.Wanda's life and creations reflect her upbeat attitude."I wake up every and say, 'I'm a lucky person.'"