A Doll's House

I will start by offering an apology to any of you who are seriously into the miniatures game, which I (clearly) am not. There was a time I thought I would be, circa 1992-ish (???), and that's when I bought this lovely piece of work:

I actually bought it as a kit, built it, painted it and decorated it. Then I furnished it with items I made myself from balsa wood, cardboard, foam and fabric scraps, using plans from a book I checked out of the local library. 

The wallpapers were purchased from a shop that specialized in miniatures, and the patterns are to scale for the house. 

Carpet in the living room, bedroom and sewing room are small cuts from upholstery samples I found while perusing for craft supplies, and the kitchen floor is fashioned from scraps of wallpaper, glitter and a clear-coat varnish of some sort.

The upstairs carpeting was created from 1-inch squares of felt, and that is probably one of my favorite parts of this dollhouse. I glued them down one at a time!

I made curtains for all the windows and doors, using fabric, lace and ribbon scraps I had laying around, because I have always been into all of the crafts, and sewing is no exception! All-in-all, this dollhouse was so dear to me that I never let my daughter play with it. I'm a little embarrassed about that, because she really wanted to play with it...and it is a toy...but I held fast for some reason. 

I do still have a couple of the wood pieces I made, and the original chair and sofa. But balsa wood is weak, and when I finally let a couple of kids play with the darn house, many of them bit the dust. The original beds (with their fancy, curvy, carved frames and headboards) and sewing table (with it's impossibly skinny legs) are no more. 

As I entered into my knitting years, I crafted some dolls of an almost appropriate size, 

and they did need a place to sleep, so I eventually made three beds in plastic canvas for them a few years back. The dolls have been pretty happy with those, and there have even been a couple of sleepovers with the barbies...but there is (sadly) not much photo evidence of that.

When Jess was too old to play with the dollhouse, I gave it to a friend whose daughters were also not allowed to play with it (although I told their mom that I wanted SOMEONE to play with it). Then I had my first grandchild, a girl. One of those other girls that couldn't touch the dollhouse growing up contacted me, asking if I wanted it back for this new dear girl to play with. What goes around comes around, isn't that what they say?

So I have had the dollhouse in my little house again for the past 10 years or so, and my granddaughters have LOVED playing with it! My daughter is still a little resentful, so she doesn't play with it, and she has two boys that probably won't play with it. (To be fair, the trim is splintering and falling off, and the pieces inside are probably no longer as safe as they may have once been...and the boys do have other dolls and many, many toys!)

So, in my continued Cleanout of 2021, this one will be leaving my home. Just about everyone is ready to see it go, but I blog it to hold onto the memories, and to remind myself to let the kids play with the toys already! There is nothing so precious as the heart of a child, and aren't we all kids at heart sometimes? So play with the kids, and play with the toys, and live in the moment today...because tomorrow is never guaranteed.

Do you have a favorite childhood toy memory? Drop me a comment, and tell me about it!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!