in the dollhouse.

When I was about seven or so, my father built me a dollhouse. It was one of those kits, build-it-yourself, of unfinished wood pieces that needed a certain level of carpentry knowledge to complete. Avid amateur carpenter that he is, my papa did a pretty smashing job and I was soon the proud owner of a rather marvelous, alpine-style dollhouse complete with gingerbread latticework and a shingled roof. It was never painted, so sometimes it would give me splinters and over the years the shingles would mysteriously disappear but my God I loved that dollhouse.

I was soon devouring any and all books on dollhouses I could find, making miniature food our of clay and haunting a little doll shop near my grandparents house. It was full to the brim with dollhouse furniture and accessories and dolls. Everything was preciously priced, so I think the only purchases I ever made were a few little accessories and a china jointed little girl doll with blonde ringlets and a hand painted face. She is about three inches tall and still one of my favorite possessions.

I have always been rather enamored of the miniature. I find it fascinating, recreating everyday objects at an alarmingly small scale. So very surreal, the intricate work that is sometimes put into these objects to get just the right touch of the actual thing. When I see elaborate dollhouse interiors, photographs that you wouldn't know were of miniatures unless someone told you, it makes my stomach flip. Something like vertigo. Blows my mind.

I found a book at the library, Doll's House Makeover and found it to be very similar to a few that I had as a child. I remember trying desperately to get my clay Christmas ham to look as appetizing as the one in the photo, and being terribly disappointed when it just looked like a blob of pink clay.

I scanned a few of my favorite interiors from the book. Please remember that everything in the photographs is miniature.















You can see the hinge of the dollhouse in this one, helps to show the actual scale. Amazing.


Actual inlay. Incredible.

I didn't have any actual dollhouse furniture to play around with, but I did have some miniature millinery pears lying around (as you do). I just wrapped the wires attached to the pears and roses around a headband, a quick & dirty DIY. So here's my attempt to tie this whole entry together with the "fashion blog" thing: