Monday, January 03, 2011

the house of grace


back in november, an idea began to formulate. on christmas day, the idea took hold and i found myself unearthing an unfinished dollhouse from the recesses of my parent's basement. it was a present to me in 1976, meant to be wallpapered and set up as a properly furnished little house. obviously, it was forgotten.

actually, it was too intimidating.


perfectionism, taught early on, is the ultimate joy-kill.

34 years later, suddenly, it is time to attend to the house. not properly, however. this little house is to be my waterloo, my slow death of perfection, my journal, my canvas, my reclamation of joy.

31" wide, 16" deep, almost 27" high at the removable peak. and it's heavy.

i cannot tell you what it will look like when it is finished, or even if i will finish it. it represents a thousand different things to me; the home i long for, fear of doing it wrong and my unrealized potential, for starters. i fully expect to come up against the 997 other fears and revelations it will whisper along the way. but i tell myself there are no rules or shoulds or timetables. there is only doing and re-doing, if i choose. this is an open-ended adventure. this is joy therapy. this is the house of grace.



and so, as i am inclined to do, i shared this idea with debi of emmatree blog. as fate and freakishly-connected brains would have it, she, too, was thinking of dollhouses for 2011 and planned to build one for herself. no rules, no pressure to finish it, and maybe even take a wrecking ball to it by june. it is simply a path of discovery. naturally, we asked kelly of blue muse fame to join us. she's giving it some serious thought.

this, then, is the dollhouse project.

stay tuned. perfection is walking the plank.



update~ january 2011: kelly is definitively in. and now, the lovely katie of into the woode wants to play along. and kathy, too! and marilyn of heartsdelights is making seasonal houses.

could there be more grown women who need this kind of creative, perfection-crushing  therapy? could it be YOU? would you like to come play with us and chart your progress online? do i here a giggle and a "yes'?

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous1/03/2011

    Oh...I LOVE this. I will look forward to all the discovery! :)

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  2. Now I love this idea even more. This made me smile because in my post at the Inspiration Studio for tomorrow, I am talking about perfectionism, too...
    This is our year to become perfectly imperfect.
    I will do my announcement about my house this week.
    the dollhouse project begins.

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  3. my first room may be the room of fear. :) maybe i will put all my fears in there and just padlock the damn thing. i gots me some new ideas. yep, i will announce this week also.

    :) and xoxo
    Debi

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  4. i'm so excited!!! yay for middle-aged dollhouse mania!!

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  5. WOW!!! Totally intrigued! I want to do this...I'm totally thinking of how to do this, too...

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  6. p.s. I'm telling my mom about this -
    www.thepastoraldollmaker.blogspot.comShe'll LOVE the idea!!

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  7. I love how the cat has already staked out a room!
    This sounds like a wonderful project and I can imagine the excitement of having a little house that is a blank canvas waiting to be written on! It is going to be fun seeing the progress!
    Tina xo

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  8. This is fabulous! Those photos made me smile :-D

    SO look forward to whatever this musing manifests!

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  9. Count me in! I wanna play too!
    : )

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  10. Wow, your blog is very impressive!


    Check out my blogs please. I think you find them very interesting...especially "In the life of a teenager" :)And if you like loads of what people think is "Useless" information, check out my other blog, "For your information"...leave feedback please. Thanks and have a wonderful day!

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  11. What an brilliant project idea, I look forward to seeing your adventure develop :) I love the cat in the house photo, it made me smile as my cats would all have been partying in there :) Happy new year xxx

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  12. I hope you have fun with this. I'll look forward to hearing about it. :D

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  13. I love this project! Just found your blog through emmatree, will follow along to see your progress. Yes, perfection must walk the plank and JUMP. It is a joy-killer.

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  14. I am participating. My first post is today. Let me know how to pick up the link.

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  15. I am seeing this for the first time. I love that your dollhouse is to become the canvas you will use for this "perfection crushing therapy". I still have my childhood dollhouse.. My little girl fingers sewed curtains and knit blankets. I was always encouraged to be creative.

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  16. Oh no! I kinda wish I hadn't seen this. I have so many projects unfinished as it is... :)

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I always appreciate the time you take to comment on my blog. Thank you for stopping by. Peace from my heart to yours. xo, Graciel