i'm a giant (weirdo).

so have i told you that i'm building a dollhouse? emily henderson (blogger extraordinaire and host of secrets from a stylist) has cooked up a wack-a-doo challenge called I'M A GIANT, where a group of design bloggers all build dollhouses. super strange, right? which is why i'm totally on board, duh. you can check out the badassery at any of these blogs:

emily henderson - style by emily henderson

morgan satterfield - the brick house

erin loechner - design for mankind

corbett - girl domestic

nicole balch - making it lovely

jenny komenda - little green notebook

kirsten grove - simply grove

orlando soria (also from SFAS)- hommemaker

and then there are just some random people killing it. hopefully i will fall into this category. but probably not, since there are people like this guy, building a geodesic dollhouse. and all of his own furniture. insane. or this chick, who i think is somewheres in the UK, and not really participating or even aware of the challenge, but who shall be used as a measure of my success.

there is no prize for best dollhouse or anything, which has perplexed the hell out of sugarbear. after shopping online and finding several dollhouses in the $300-$500 category that were PERFECT, i decided to take b-rad's advice and check out the in-person offerings over at hobby lobby, where, in an uncharacteristic display of restraint, i decided to go small and cheap. the selections are minimal compared to the hundreds available at online dollhouse kit stores, but my needs for instant gratification kicked in and i rolled home with the orchard cottage (and the vermont farmhouse jr., which i will return at some point. hey-old habits die hard.). i'm totally making the orchard cottage (desperately needing a new moniker; suggestions welcome) because it was only $30 for the kit and i knew brad would be thrilled with that. vermont farmhouse jr. is massive (and was $100 for the kit) and dollhouse furniture is expensive, so i figured furnishing four rooms (or just building the four rooms) has to be considerably faster and cheaper than the larger homes. for instance, do y'all know the bloggess? i have absolutely no idea how jennifer managed to build and furnish her haunted dollhouse, but aside from noticing how awesome it is, i see dollar signs. SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, here are some in-progress shots of my dollhouse.

this is the floor model. no way mine is going to look this cheesy. i immediately nixed the cheap windows... i mean, idon't want this thing to look like it cost $30.

a very optimistic day one. see all those thin sheets of wood? yeah. full of tiny little pieces that you are supposed to glue together, in perfect sequence, while alternately painting or wallpapering before it was too late. thank heavens i found an illustrated instruction guide online, because the instructions included are just words. see 'em there? on the left? those giant sheets with lots of words, that are horribly undescriptive? the makers of this dollhouse kit are assholes.

the window! aka pieces that all should have been painted first. le whoops. not the first of what has turned into many mistakes.

stuccoing the outside, or as i like to call it, PRETTY MUCH THE FIRST TIME I FELT LIKE I WAS BEING INNOVATIVE. it requires so much concentration just to build this thing that i don't know how much improvising i can do. and let's not kid ourselves: most of my improvising is going to be shortcuts, okay?

boom. stucco'd and painted, although i'm not totes sold on the color. there are millions of tiny shingles that have to be glued on one by one and painted. those shingles are going to blow.

WALLPAPERS. in my living room. every bit as hard as it looks, and if you thought it looked easy, you are probably also in the midst of your own dollhouse project, right? do you want to come over here where we can console ourselves? btdubs, it's the cole and sons woods wallpaper in the terracotta colorway (which is pretty much salmon) with gold metallic trees.

dining room with leather and black cork striped floors. these were going to be some badass kind of tile pattern, like herringbone, but i scaled way, way back on the plan, because i'm not sure if i mentioned this, but dollhouse-ing IS NOT EASY. which is why the living room got woven raffia, and not the wood floors as originally planned.