Did Someone Say Dollhouse?

In my mind, there is truly nothing better when the enthusiasm for minis catches fire. When you are wrapped up in this hobby, you sometimes lose perspective on what hooked you in the first place, whatever it may have been: the smallness of it all, the control, escapism, realism, beauty, fun...

Today, the lovely and funny Emily Henderson, winner of the HGTV show "Design Star" and host of her own very cool show, "Secrets from a Stylist," launched the "I'M A GIANT CHALLENGE." The challenge entails decorating your own dollhouse, be it a store-bought one, a vintage tag sale one, or a DIY one. Parameters are broad: you can do just about anything and let your imagination run wild, as long as it is in miniature. Joining Emily in the challenge are six design and DIY bloggers: THE BRICK HOUSE, Design for Mankind, Hommemaker, Girl Domestic, Little Green Notebook, Making it Lovely, and Simply Grove. Each will be participating in the challenge, using their own spin on miniatures and decorating, and will post on their progress all along the way as they finish everything by December 15, 2011. There will be a celebratory event  in Los Angeles in January 2012, where houses will be on display and there is the potential for magazine coverage.

And YOU can participate too! Anyone can join in the fun. You can read more details on Emily's blog, and she even shares the start of her mood board:

Both images from stylebyemilyhenderson.com

Cool! I had the opportunity to meet Emily at a blogger event in New York City in August, and she was great -- so inquisitive, funny, and smart. A super down-to-earth and a regular gal.

We talked miniatures and she hinted she was working on a dollhouse-related "thing." This is BIG! There's a wonderful, collaborative spirit to the challenge, and I think it is great that Emily is leveraging her growing popularity to shine a light on the hobby, enlisting other bloggers in the process. Bookmark their web pages, too, because they already started posting. For me, it will be most interesting to see how non-hobbyist adapt to the mini world -- I am sure lots of amazing ideas will emerge.

I'm IN. Who's joining me?