The Candyman Comes

I've been away from this blog for a while. At first I went overseas for a month--back to my home country visit all my friends and family. I really miss jungles. And I've noticed that my body no longer can tolerate tropical heat as well as it used to. :( I used to be able to wear ankle length skirts and long sleeves in that weather and feel nothing. Now I need shorts and short sleeves.

I've also been focusing on my studies for the past couple of months. Some of it's over now. Anyway, two new pictures!




I really love the old Megahouse miniatures. It's really too bad that they stopped making them. The old Megahouse panda candy cart scales perfectly with the larger adult Sylvanians. Most of the current adults aren't as big as the old bear molds so they don't work as well. I originally had father Timbertop as the owner, but after I got this Marmalade bear, I decided that his clothes looked more like a candyman's should.

I love the little Megahouse candy. I'm missing about two or three of the sets, but I couldn't cram much more on the cart anyway. I should take more close up pictures of the contents of the cart.


Mr Marmalade: That'll be $56.

Jack: What? For a candy bar? That's crazy!

Mr Marmalade: It's vintage. That's the last one I have from 1958.

Jack: I don't think I want this any more.

Grand Mansion Update

I finally resumed work on the Grand Mansion. You can check out the previous updates here and here.

I stopped mostly because of the attic. It is such and awkward shape that it was a massive pain in the ass to create a wallpaper template for. Plus I was having trouble with the flooring I had chosen too. I decided that rather than wallpapering the entire wall, I would just paint the insides a matte black and wallpaper the lower half.

And the trouble with the floor tiles I was talking about? I was using this texture from Filter Forge to make my floor, but I wanted it standing on it's pointy ends, like diamonds. Guess what I did? I tried to manually rotate the texture. That was a real pain and a half to get *exactly* right (I didn't). Yeah, it hadn't occurred to me to just type in move 45°. *facepalm*




The next step after wallpapering was to mask the thing so I could apply several coats of glossy paint to the 'tiles'. I know, I should have sprayed before wallpapering, but it was dark out and I was impatient to move the project along.




Look, all nice and shiny now. It warped a little, which I expected. The effect is more apparent in person. The tile mosiac in the middle was originally blue. I Photoshopped it into this sepia colour before printing it out.




This also happened when I sprayed this wall with gloss. No idea what happened there. Didn't affect the other walls.




Now, for the furnishings. These things have been languishing unceremoniously in a box since I got them. I've used the old TOMY Sylvanian sink and a fancy toilet released for the hotel theme. The TOMY sink is very good quality--it's made of ceramic and the tap and pipes are actual metal. In contrast, the toilet is a sad, cheap feeling thing of thin plastic. Yeah, some of the old SF stuff is just so much nicer.

The carpet is just a print out. I'm too cheap to splurge on proper dollhouse carpets, and printing them allows me to control exactly what size I want it. I probably should look into printing on textured paper, though.




On the other side of the bathroom, we have the bathtub. It's another TOMY piece, and is made of nice weighty ceramic. Like the sink, the taps and pipes are made of solid metal. The shower is actually removable. There's an option to use a handheld shower instead, but I prefer the big shower. In real life, I prefer a handheld. :P

The coat rack is a bootleg. I'm wondering if I should leave it as it is, or repaint it; and if so, what colour?



Here is the whole bathroom, all in one picture. Click for bigger.



I've also created some pictures for the walls of the mansion. I printed them out and used painted balsa wood as backing. I was reluctant to buy proper dollhouse picture frames because of how many I needed and how costly they would all end up being. I also like the fact that I can directly control the size and what I put in those frames. I'll have to print out more geeky pictures next time, and less generic ones. As it is, I already have a picture of Rivendell in one of the silver frames.




I think it looks quite good in a room. Here it is with fizzy fish. It lives in the Grand Mansion now.

The Harvester Restaurant and some trade items

A while back I bought a Harvester Restaurant on Ebay. After much hunting, I found one within the country and surprisingly, it came with most of its accessories. I think the only things that were missing were a few of the clear glasses. It even had little circle cardboard cut outs of food which I didn't know came with the restaurant.

I decided to wallpaper it and use some of my Kabaya SF kitchen miniatures to decorate it. The Kabaya stuff was originally produced for the Kitchen Restaurant building, but it works well here as well. I don't have the Kitchen Restaurant (but badly want one!).

I need to improve my photography skills. I'm quite bad at it. I keep seeing all these gorgeous doll and toy photography on Flickr and get so frustrated by my lack of skill and understanding. The 'sky' shouldn't have tree shadows on it, haha.



Here's an interior shot. The wallpaper I found on a dollhouse site and I adjusted the colours in Photoshop until it was a nice shade of green. It was originally cream. That wallpaper suddenly makes the place look extra classy. (click on the pictures to see a bigger version)



Here's an interior shot with critters. I spent SO much time taking this picture. I've given up trying to make it look awesome. I'm leaving it as it is. I didn't set up the foremost table for two so it looks like Mrs Outback Koala has caught Mr Outback going out for a fancy-pants meal all on his own without inviting the rest of his family.

Carissa Outback: Bruce! So this is where you've been sneaking out to every afternoon! I thought you were having an affair! This also explains all that extra weight you've been putting on lately...



Here's a picture of the kitchen side of things. I love how crowded it looks! I've since rearranged things so stuff fits better. All the cans have been moved to the top shelf; much more space for them there. The cans all have a Cottontail chef on it. I guess he's some locally famous chef with his own brand of food stuff in Sylvania, heh.



I've also got a tin of Cottontail brand olive oil. Might have to go to my Flickr to get a close up. I haven't figured out how to widen the margins on this template to accommodate larger pictures without messing up the rest of the layout.

I was surprised that this set came with all its bottle labels too. Some are wine labels and some are syrup labels. I superglued all the labels back on as they were either falling off or plain loose. Says a lot about the quality of Sylvanian wine that the wine's the same neon red and green as the syrup...



I made two of the cans for the kitchen. The Kabaya sets did not provide enough cans for all the can labels they had--they expected you to choose which labels  you liked best. Imagine that! Of course I can't choose! The only solution was to make a silicone mold of the cans and cast them in resin.



Turned out quite well, I'd say.



Here are some close up interior shots:

Long ago, I bought a little container of glass miniature 'ice' from Etsy. I've used it to fill the bucket. It's a right pain when they spill, I tell you. And of course that red wine has to be kept under ice. Just look at it. Anything that bright red has got to be volatile. I also know I got the knife and fork placement wrong. Just couldn't be arsed retaking the pic.



Here's what the other table has. Some spaghetti and mushroom soup, with a nice glass of red. The spagehetti is from the Kabaya sets, just re-plated as the Kabaya plates are huge. They're very pretty plates, just really big for the little SF tables. The mushroom soup and Christmas tree is from Re-Ment, and the nice red wine glass is from Orcara's fantastic red wine set.






That's it for the Harvester restaurant pics.

I've also finally finished my end of the trade for a very nice lady on the SF forums. She's waited very patiently over a year for this. I've made a ton of extras to make up for my lateness, which made me even later, so that wasn't the best way to go about things...

New forum and Japanese room set review

The Sylvanian Families community has moved! LadyLollipop has graciously offered to host and set up a new forum. Runboard was a bit limited where features were concerned.

Come join us at the new forum here: http://sylvanianfamiliesforum.co.za/ and help the community grow!

I've also done a review of the old Japanese room set over there.

Review link: http://sylvanianfamiliesforum.co.za/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=160

Here are a few pictures:
I used a Mulberry mother to model this. I'm pretty sure the outfit was meant for a male, but the mother's dress was easier to get off. Not that it matters anyway, Sylvanians are mostly the same without clothes.

I had to take a picture of a Pinky. They are the reason I even have this set. I'm certainly not paying current ebay prices for them now! I got it way back, before I was into SF because I thought it looked fantastic with them. I've never taken a picture of any of them with it until now. I'm sad Pinky: St isn't releasing regularly anymore. That's what made me lose interest and turn to SF. I'd forgotten how cute they can be.

Two finished shops

Well, it's been a pretty long time, hasn't it? I went into a kind of funk this year and stopped doing anything really crafty. Not sure why. Maybe the horrible events at the beginning of the year had something to do with it. Not entirely sure, to be honest. I pretty much stopped doing anything creative for a long time, including taking pictures, crafting and reading.

Anyway I decided to finish up some of the shops that I had started work on before the hiatus. The Beauty Boutique was almost complete before I stopped, so all I really had to do was furnish it and take photos. Nearly the same with the toy shop, all that was needed were furniture, wallpaper and a custom built shelf. All the painting had been done nearly a year ago.

Here are some pics. I really need to work on my photography skills.

This is Madeline's Beauty Boutique. It was originally meant to be a sewing and craft shop, but after I wallpapered it, it looked more suited to be a classy perfume type shop. I had also originally intended Madeline's to be more of an upscale clothes boutique, but it seemed a bit redundant when I already had the TOMY Village Boutique.

You can't see it in this picture, but the 'tiles' on the roof are black, like the awning. I used sandpaper to tile my roof and awning.                            


Furnished with random bits and bobs--those of you familiar with Sylvanian Families furniture may recognise where the shelves have come from. I was too lazy to pain the shelf on the upper left, so it's retained its normal creamy colour. It's not really much different anyway.                                 

I blu-tacked all the accessories down. The accessories are wonderful and tiny and all, but they fall off so easily.


Blu-tacked just about everything else down too. Makes arranging things much easier. Most of this shelf is Re-Ment, but there are a few SF items, like the rose perfume bottles. I love the little hair clip. It's from an old Re-Ment pharmacy set.
 

I think I need a section for hats and handbags, instead of shoes. I'm not all that fond of the shoes, but they were the only things I could fit into that shelf. I may eventually shift this area to the SF department store and take out some of the baby toys from there (TOO MANY BABY TOYS). Department store needs a jewelry and shoes section!


In this upscale store, ladies dress in their best before coming. No shirt, no service. Shoes optional. And thanks Hayley, for letting me have the opportunity to buy the Soyokaze cat sister. It was definitely an impulse purchase; I don't tend to spend that much on a single figure. I don't regret it in the least--she's so pretty in person.
 

I would have bought the new SF toy shop if I hadn't already been working on this. I wanted a more vintagey feel to some of my stores, and the newest toy shop is a lot more modern. The building originally came no shop sign. I made another sign out of balsa wood and toothpicks. The roof is tiled with sandpaper that I spray painted grey.
 

More random bits and bobs from all over the place. There was a time (a very short time) where I was a bit more of a purist and felt that SF should only be mixed with SF. Not anymore.
 

The toymaker set is one of the more interesting SF sets, I feel. The building also came with only one window shutter. I got rid of the other window shutter, so we just have this open window here where the wind can come in and blow all your nice delicate work off the work table. At least you'll never be stuffy.
 

Toy shelf is made of balsa wood and filled with a combination of Re-Ment and SF toys. Some of the Re-Ment toys on this shelf belong to sets that are a bit pricey on ebay now. I was lucky and got them fairly cheap. I love the little 'care bear' in the back. I also really like the more detailed little cars. SF toy vehicles leave a lot to be desired. The gumball machine really works. And really spills everywhere when you drop it.
 

"Let me just wrap that up for you."
 

Mr. Owner Man
 

Mini SF sets

I saw some of the mini SF sets on BeHappy and decided to pick up a couple of sets just for fun. I'm amazed by how much I absolutely freaking love them! Now I'm kicking myself for not getting the older mini sets when BeHappy had them ages ago. And also the Willow Hall mini I saw on ebay recently for a good price. The minis up there now are too expensive for me to justify, even if I do love them.

I've been disliking the pictures I've taken lately, but since I haven't uploaded anything for such a long time, I just thought 'screw it' and uploaded them all anyway.

Size comparison of a regular SF sister bunny figure and the mini Sylvanian choco bunnies.



I love her fuzzy paws! I like how cute they look, gripping the chair. While I do like the JP flat hands better, the cupped UK hands come in handy when I have stuff for them to hold.



The mini Copper Beech Cottage. These kits come unassembled, so you have to put them together and apply the stickers yourself. I like doing that sort of thing. : ) I wish the cottage had a door.



The inside has stickers for the kitchen and a few bits of furniture. Looks just like its full sized counterpart minus the stove. I like the look of the full size cottage but I don't think I have enough space for it. Not with all my other stuff...



Miniature juice bar! One of the pictures I took had some flowers that were included in the set in it. The picture looked really weird, so I ended up removing them. The little basket that holds the jam jars in the original is too small in this set to actually do anything.




Not my favourite piece, but still cute. The mother rabbit has a lot of scratches on it, unfortunately. Came like that out of the package.



Couldn't resist a full frontal shot.




This bakery! I had so much fun assembling this bakery. It's so detailed and I think that the father Chocolate rabbit figure is the best one of the lot. He looks like he's standing instead of sitting. The wheel actually turns too.



This set comes with a number of loose bread items including three individual animal face breads, a croissant, a baguette, a loaf and a melon (I think) bread. There are so many pieces in this set, and the stickers are so detailed too. The inside window stickers actually depicts hills and grass.




One of the walls is actually different from the life-size version. Instead of having the water powered mixer, they have a number of shelves full of ingredients.



Ultimately, these sets give me much squee.

Death, it fucking sucks

I haven't blogged for a while. Part of the reason is that my brother-in-law died recently, and I haven't been in the best frame of mind for the past few months. It's only now that I've become calm enough to write something about this on the blog.

He was just a few weeks short of turning 30. I wasn't close to my BIL, but he lived in the same house as me, and I considered him my bother. He suffered from diabetes, and went to sleep one day and never woke up. My husband and I drove him to the hospital when we realised that his sleep was not natural, and when we couldn't wake him up. Everything that followed was horrible and traumatic. I never want to sit in that little room where the man comes and talks you through the process of organ donation again. Fuck that.

He was a gamer, and a people person. He loved Magic the Gathering and had an enormous collection of cards (like a chest and several boxes full), loved games like Skyrim and Fallout, loved fantasy stories and movies. And Spongebob. My husband and I had been getting him Spongebob paraphernalia for the past few Christmases--it had become a kind of ongoing joke. He was also a devoted Christian who loved God and tried to do his best to be a good person.

We made nuka cola caps and bought chocolate gold coins for people to toss into his grave in addition to the usual flowers.

Anyway, sometimes shit things happen to good people. See ya, William.

Stuff

Hope everyone had a good holiday! I haven't taken photos or blogged in far too long. Here's a little Sylvanian pic:



I've been working on a Vinyl Scratch custom for my husband. It was mean to be for Christmas, but I couldn't get it done on time. So, it'll be for his birthday on New Year's Eve. :) Maybe I should have chosen to do a Pinkamena for Christmas instead, might have been easier than Vinyl's hair.

It's nowhere near as nice as Otaku Squirrel's customs, but I don't think it's coming along too badly.

Not dead, just a hiatus

Hi! Just wanted my readers to know that his blog is not dead, it's just on a hiatus until mid-December due to me taking up a new job. I won't have time for very much but the job for the next 10 weeks.