Christmas in July and My New House

Lately, I have had Christmas on my mind. Yeah, I’m one of those people. This week, I finally started playing with the Christmas present Anthony bought me last year. Between wedding planning, honeymooning, moving, and job hunting, it just got shoved in the back of a closet and saved for a rainy day.

Last Christmas, Anthony bought me a house.  One I get to build, paint, pick furniture for, and decorate- a small-scale house I can fill with miniatures. Anthony had me swooning when I unwrapped my dollhouse kit.

I’ve been working on painting the interior walls and bought paint for the exterior. I used leftover paint from the stripes in our laundry room to paint the dollhouse door.

When I was eleven or so, my artist friend, Jana, and I used to make teeny-tiny food out of clay. We would meticulously hand shape the food and let it air dry or bake it, depending on the type of clay. It will finally find a home once my dollhouse is built. Even in my kitchen, I much prefer to make food in personal or “fun-size” portions rather than in a casserole dish. I think Peter Callahan keeps me good company.

In my travels, I’ve loved looking and miniature mansions such as Queen Mary’s Dolls House at Windsor Castle, and the Stetteimer Dollhouse at the City Museum in New York City. After reading Gretchen Rubin’s Happier at Home, I visited the Tiny Dollhouse Store on a subsequent visit to New York City.

Queen Mary’s Dolls House has small-scale clothing from Parisian fashion houses such as Lanvin,  Hermès, and Vuitton. In the Stettheimer Dollhouse are pint-sized works of art from famous artists who were friends of the Stettheimer family, including a tiny version of Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending A Staircase.

Stettheimer Dollhouse, City Museum of New York

So maybe I can’t afford that tufted couch for my living room or that SMEG fridge for my kitchen, but there is no reason my dollhouse cannot be furnished with them.

I can’t talk about dollhouses without reminding you of this little gem of a proposal. Second most romantic proposal ever. Nothing beats how my husband proposed, of course.