trying to be a giant

{photo via stylebyemilyhenderson.com}

Have you seen the I'm a Giant Challenge? I don't surf around much, but somehow I happened upon this and couldn't get enough of all the variations in progress. Maybe the addiction was my past resurfacing: I built my very own dollhouse, you see, way back in the preteen days, electrical wiring and handmade quilts and all. Apparently I was a budding design guru back then, when all along I just thought I was a little extra dorky.

When I stumbled upon it, this official Challenge seemed like a gift from the heavens, dropped right at the opportune moment. A little something to redirect the design impulses of my 10 year-old. Maybe if she had a mini-kitchen to revamp, I thought, my actual kitchen could go back to . . . usable.

So I pulled out some wood glue and went about repairing the kids' dollhouse. I glued the front panels and stairs back together, took the stickers off the outside, and even put the lintels back on the front windows. And then I told that girl of mine to have at it.

"You can paint it or wallpaper it!" I said. "We can make rugs and curtains and quilts if you'd like! Heck, we can even decorate the thing for Christmas! It's all yours to rearrange and redecorate over and over and OVER!"

"Hmmmm," she replied, considering carefully. "That sounds fine . . . as long as I can still rearrange and redecorate my room. And stuff."

Dang.

How in the world did she know where this whole idea was headed? I knew I should have left off the exclamation points.

The 7 year-old seemed to know as well. That night she stormed into her room, furious about one thing or another, and took a sharpie to the exterior. The entire front now looks a lot like an Andy Warhol variation of the word "NO!"

Of course, a little NO is nothing a can of paint can't take care of. Or maybe a layer of fake bricks? Siding? Even if I'm the only one redecorating the dollhouse, it looks like it's going to be getting a little facelift in the coming days.

At least there will still be one home over which I've got some creative control . . .