Sylvanian Families Vintage Tin Litho Dollhouse!

Remember the 3/4 scale vintage 1960 tin litho dollhouse my dad gave me a year and a half ago? I finally decorated it, and a few other houses, with Calico Critters / Sylvanian Families (SF). In fact, I made a small village in 3/4 scale that's threatening to take over my bedroom! ;-) It all started with the tin litho house and some cats and bunnies:

Mama cat vacuuming the living room.

Baking bread and frying eggs at the same time!

Breakfast time in the tin litho dollhouse kitchen.

Mother and daughter bunny are serious about finishing the laundry!

Looking after Mama cat's baby.

The children's bedroom has two sets of bunk beds. I made the bedding.

Knitted sweater by Baby Cat of Laughing Cat Creative Enterprises blog.

Unattended babies on the veranda?!

In the middle of making the Sylvanian Families miniature village, my friend Jane Cherie of the fun and interesting  Jane Cherie blog sent me a darling SF plant set for my birthday. It's perfect for a community center with park that I built. I just love this set! Thank you Jane Cherie! You'll see this set in action in a future post!

Sylvanian Families stock photo from eBay.com

And then I won a fantastic giveaway from Eaton Blackberry of Sugarbush Valley blog. Isn't this SF tableware set cute? I'll be able to use these dishes in all sorts of mini scenes. Eaton also sent two darling mini flower bouquets as extra surprise gifts, and it all arrived from South Africa--how exciting! Thank you Eaton Blackberry! Be sure to check out her blog for fun and humorous Sylvanian Families stories.

OK, that's it for today! Hope you had as much fun as I did! In future posts, I hope to show you some more of my Sylvanian Families mini village. Until next time, keep having fun! xoxo Jennifer

Miniature Gifts and Giveaway Prizes!

With all of the birthday gifts that arrived this year, I started to feel overwhelmed about posting them all, and I was suspecting you all were too. ;-) I want to make sure that I show everything that arrived in the mail, though, because so many thoughtful people put their time and love into making and mailing such beautiful miniatures.

First off, I purchased a gorgeous painting from Caroline of Shop Cinderella Moments blog, and she generously sent two beautiful hand painted rugs as gifts. I wanted to post about them after I decorated part of Flossy's house, Cupcake Cottage, so that I could show them in place, but I still haven't finished the house, so here are Caroline's precious pieces now:

What thoughtful gifts! You'll all see these beautiful pieces again later. ;-) Thank you so much, Caroline! Caroline's shop is cinderellamoments on Etsy.

Next, Wyrna of A Fairytale Come True blog, who won one of Kim Saulter's gorgeous cakes in my Miniature Dessert Giveaway, sent me some lovely thank-you gifts:

The shabby chic things are perfect in Flossy's house and in Bluebelle's cake shop, and the Buddha and antique-style mirror are perfect for Dad's Dollhouse mouse house. I love everything. Thank you so much, Wyrna! You might want to check out Wyrna's shop, WyrnasMiniatureB on Etsy for more lovely items.

Next, Hannah of Hannahsminiatyrer blog offered to do some swaps on her blog, and I jumped at the chance. You can see what I sent Hannah in her funny and cute post, and here are the sweet things that Hannah sent me. She even sent lovely extras, including the tiny needle-felted giraffe, books, and postcards:

Hannah also sent a lovely postcard from her home town in Sweden (not pictured) plus these great miniature classic vintage movie posters:

I love all of it--thank you, Hannah! Hannah's shop is Hannahsminiatyrer on Etsy.

Birgit of BiWuBaren on the Blog surprised me with an amazing spread of thoughtful gifts and one of her beautiful handmade cards. Rosey and Flutterby's photos are featured on and in the card, and look at all of these beauties, including a shabby chic cat pull toy and two real magnet bulletin boards, featuring tiny postcard versions of my Plushpussycat greeting cards :

Wow! And this tiny miniature scene is exquisite! I noticed that Birgit has more of these scenes, including both a shabby chic-style scene and a witchy, Halloween-themed one, in her *new* BiWuBear Etsy shop right now. ;-)

The cat toy, Mickey Mouse poster (both in above photo) and the three mouse-related books (above and below) are dedicated to Dad's Dollhouse mouse house--they're so thoughtful and perfect! I LOVE them!

Birgit also sent two more gifts: a bag of ribbons and lace, all in pretty girly colors, and a big box of marzipan:

Mmm, yummy, tasty marzipan candy, long gone. Long gone, because I recently discovered that I'm very sensitive to sugar. If I eat a cookie or candy bar, I wake up the next day depressed, and very often three days later I have a bad cold. So when dear, sweet Birgit sent me the marzipan, I held it longingly and appreciated her kind gesture, but then I gave it away quickly. And who do you think I gave it to? My postal worker, Cindy! Doesn't she deserve it more than anyone else, when she has to deliver so many packages to me?! ;-)Thank you for everything, Birgit (and Cindy thanks you too! ;-))! You're so talented and generous.

Last but not least, I won an amazing giveaway from Julie at A Little of This and That blog. I won both Martha Stewart (blue) and Wilton (pink) molds in the giveaway:

I'm going to have so much fun using these with polymer clay! I especially want to try the Martha Stewart frame mold, which is perfect for a 1:12 or 1:6 scale scene. Julie frequently hosts polymer clay molds giveaways on her blog (you might want to check it out!). I've purchased molds from her Molds4You shop on Etsy in the past, and they are high-quality and good value. Thanks Julie!

Whew! Thanks for reading this far, guys! And thanks again to everyone who sent such wonderful miniature gifts! Next time, I hope to tell you about my latest diorama public installation and more! Until then, keep having fun! xoxo Jennifer

Strawberry Season! Plus News

It's Strawberry Season in Flossy and Sophie's neck of the woods, and they are making the most of it! Flossy has made some yummy strawberry shortcake...

...while Sophie is about to sit down to a huge plate of warm, delectable strawberry pancakes...

...and Bluebelle is taking a load off with some tasty strawberry cupcakes (in her new house, since Strawberry Shortcake is traveling for the summer).

Latest News

Ah, there is so much catching up to do since my last blog post. Rufus, my precious guinea pig, has had a painful bladder infection, which we are treating with antibiotics. :-( Both my husband and I were ill but now are better. Since then, I've been trying to catch up on home projects and manage my greeting card accounts. I've missed writing blog posts so much, but I've had little to no time for it.

There's something else: For a long time now, I've had very little free time for working on my own creative projects, such as creating new characters, decorating their homes, and developing new stories. On top of that, postage in the U.S., especially international postage, has skyrocketed (not a joke!). It is $10 minimum to send an extremely light package to a foreign country (usually it costs $12-15 or more). For these reasons, I will not be able to participate in any more Christmas gift exchanges for the foreseeable future. And starting in 2015, I won't be able to participate in any more birthday gift exchanges either.

I've loved being part of these exchanges, but now I need to carve out time for my own creative projects. If a solution can be found so that the gift exchanges take less time and cost less money, I'm all for it. Until then, the gift exchanges have been a fun way to make friends, and I still value the friendships I've made and the wonderful gifts I've received.

Now I hope to be able to post on the blog more often. I still have some more gifts and giveaway wins to show (from April and earlier!) and now not just one but two (!) new interests to share with you. I also have a new diorama on public display to show. Then it's on to new characters, a new dollhouse, new stories, and more! I hope you'll all be here to share it with me. :-) Until next time, keep having fun! xoxo Jennifer