It is all Beatrix Potter's fault - by Feffie

Long ago, when I was a small girl, I had in my possession a few treasures that I adored. One of these things was the complete set of tiny books by Beatrix Potter. And within this collection was a book called The Tale of Two Bad Mice, which as a a child, I strongly suspect, had been one of the earliest things to spark my obsession with dollhouses. It is a delightful little story, perfect for small children and so perfectly illustrated by Beatrix Potter.

I distinctly remember them being read to me long before I could suss out the words myself, and my eyes devoured the bright, whimsical illustrations depicting the dollhouse and the naughty mice that had broken into it, and laid waste to all so many charming miniatures within.

Me, almost 4 years old, (left) playing with
my first, very ugly 70s dollhouse. Even then, it wasn't
pleasing to my aesthetic. I was already then,
fixated on the dollhouse in the Potter book. 

Stories were an escape for me quite early on. Miniatures became so as well as I grew older. I started off with a simple, not very pretty second-hand dollhouse, which I populated with furniture made by my eldest sister from thin cardboard, and I haunted it with a family of little ghosts made from tissues.

The Tale of Two Bad Mice was magical to me. Other books, including the Borrowers series would soon add to my collection and further feed my imagination for tiny worlds. My desire for something like the Beatrix Potter books was amplified by leaps and bounds, by seeing a Victorian or perhaps Edwardian dollhouse on display in a small chateau on tour with my preschool. I had already been spoilt by the cottage-core/regency bug early on--and that became my primary focus in what I wanted in a dollhouse of my own. That's all it took to spark my obsession. The question is, when and where did yours begin? Feel free to share in comments. 

Check out this lovely video describing the two dollhouses in Beatrix Potter's life, and learn all about the house and the collection within it inspired the story and illustration of the Tale of Two Bad Mice--one of the most charming of all her books (imho).