Every Girl Wants Her Very Own Playhouse

A doll house. What a thrill for a little girl. Jan's darling four year old grand daughter, Sabrina is clearly proud of hers.

Think of the hours we spend in childhood playing with small scale versions of home sweet home. A place for our dolls to have a tea party and our imagination's to dance. What little girl doesn't love to play queen of her castle and while-away the hours practicing for a one-day future role?

Time passes, little girls grow up, graduate from high school, hang the college degree on the wall and lo and behold find themselves smack in the middle of the real thing-- married to Prince Charming, living in the castle and raising babies. This seems to go on for a long time and involves a few minor challenges, like: no sleep, diapers, sore throats, car payments, birthday parties, little league, soccer, music lessons, mortgage payments, broken pipes, weeds, school functions you've volunterred to manage, lots and lots of cookies, adolescence, chauffeuring kids everywhere, insurance, IRS, and a variety of other issues no amount of "practicing" could ever prepare you for.

Then one day, before you know it, you find your self launching the last fledgling out of the nest. This is a marvelous moment, the culmination of all your hard work and sleepless nights, the pinnacle of Mount Everest you've been climbing for years. So, you throw a magnificent party and invite all your friends. The following morning you look in the mirror and marvel at the woman staring back. She looks suspiciously like your mother: the crows feet , the wrinkles, the age spots, the grey hairs. You think to yourself, hmm....I'm more than halfway down this garden path. What great thing am I going to do next?

And then it comes to you. Yes! PLAY HOUSE!!!!! Only this time, you'll fore go the dolls, because you've been there and done that, and there are so many other toys you'd like to play with--tile clippers, glass cutters, ceramic kilns, soldering irons, and a Taurus 3 Ring Saw.

Tea parties will still be on the agenda, but forget the tiny teapot--likewise the practical, everyday dishes and the good set of china. No, you'd much rather collect dishes in every color of the rainbow; and if one of them should break, you can calmly say, "Oh well," and put the pieces in a tuperware container for later recycling.

Decorating your playhouse will be summed up in two words: Eye Candy. That way you can have every style you want, all at the same time--paint the walls fushia and lime green , set out lovely jars of glitz and glitter, bottles full of baubles and beads, plaster the walls with crazy mosaics. And here's the most wonderful thing: nothing has to really match because you're not trying to impress anyone, but your own childlike sense of delight.

You can even ignore the dust bunnies for a good long while, because you're always remodeling and the maid is on vacation. Better yet, you can make a great big mess, shut the door and walk away, and no one, not even your conscience, is going to give you a bad time for being a less than perfect housekeeper.