Crafts: Dollhouse

When I was 10, my parents gave me a dollhouse kit. Little did they know how much time, effort, and money would go into it.

Dollhouses are time consuming.

After my parents put together the basic shell, I collected furniture. The house remained unpainted and undone until my senior year of high school. Suddenly, I was consumed with the need to complete it before graduation. It took paint, wall paper, my brother (door handles), my grandmothers (wall paper, curtains), and my parents, but I got it done.

At college, I discovered Austin's Kerby Lane Miniatures (now an eBay Store). At the end of each semester I would sell my books and take the remaining money to that store and get a few objects for my Dollhouse--such an mini Pride and Prejudice novels or a tiny cat puzzle. Things that did not cost much--used books don't bring in much money.

I worked very hard to make the house represent me. So it's got things I like, objects that I have in real life, hobbies and games I play, and things that remind me of loved ones. The beer stein reminds me of my parents, I had the Disney Sleeping Beauty book, I played soccer, I like Monet's paintings, I visited Paris, I like to make gingerbread houses, and I was always the kid who got stuck sitting on top of the manual ice cream maker while someone else cranked. Thus, all those things are in the house.

Even though it has gone through two moves, the house remains the same and is unharmed, happy at my parent's home (it's third) in Tulsa.
Above, the entire house. Nine rooms and a porch.

I've always thought the entry was the most elegant room.

"My" room. Me in high school: French horn, books, masks, a journal. I don't know why I insisted on there being a crib in this room too. I guess I just liked the crib.

The living room. Hmmm. Suddenly I want to rearrange it.