The other day Penny asked if we could make a dollhouse and my DIY heart leapt for joy. Immediately I started looking at Marketplace and Pinterest, brainstorming a million ideas on how to create a beautifully aesthetic dollhouse.
Suddenly this simple request became a timely and expensive DIY, thinking of how pretty it would look in pictures and displayed in Penny’s room.
It became MY project instead of OUR project.
So I scrapped all my grand social media ideas, and together we found old cardboard boxes, painters tape, scraps of fabric, and popsicle sticks. Penny instructed me on what she wanted to build, and together over the course of 2 hours we made a house, bunk beds, a kitchen sink, toilet, refrigerator, and stairs.
It’s far from the DIY dollhouse I envisioned….it’s far grander than that. This dollhouse is Penny’s vision and creativity come to life.
Please know that this isn’t meant to shame anyone who invests in DIY projects. My heart will always yearn for the joy that comes from bringing beautifully aesthetic projects to life. This just reminded my heart that in motherhood (and life) I need to let go of my grand plans and enjoy simple delights as they come, such as cardboard dollhouses.
PIN THIS!
Joanna Gott is passionate about motherhood, design, coffee, and Christmas music. She adopted her daughter Penny in January of 2024. The two of them enjoy gardening (or worm babysitting as Penny calls it), playing Go Fish, and spending as much time outside as humanly possible.
