Gift Exchange With Chloe

Dear Readers,

How are you this Monday? I am so excited because I want to show you the gifts I have received this weekend from Chloe, a fellow blogger who writes about Sylvanian Families, Miniature and Blythe dolls on her blog:  MoonRabbit_Ly's Miniature World!

This is my first gift exchange in Blog Land and I must say that it was a fantastic experience thanks to Chloe!  I have received wonderful presents before from bloggers but they were presents for my birthday or other kind of presents but this time is was a gift exchange in which I send something to a fellow blogger and she sends me something back.

But the surprise is that I never expected what was to happen next.

You see, it was initially agreed that she would send me the great Re-ment sets below: a brown cabinet with glass door, a TV with four different channels and a heater with a very cute dog!  These items are super rare and it's impossible to find them on the market nowadays!  

But this is not all.  I had expected only two Re-ment items... and this is what I received!!!  A motherload of goodies!!!!

Super tiny dollhouse furniture!  This is a gem!  They are so detailed and it's amazing because they are such minuscule furniture!   I have a few dollhouses for dolls so I'll try them inside (once I find those tiny dollhouses... they are somewhere in my new cabinets!)

Mini bread and pastry, a Sakura-chan doll and a Blythe dress too!

The Kokeshi dolls are Iwako erasers!  They are so pretty and I love love love their kimono design!  They are tiny but so well made.  I can't wait to put them on display! 

 A Sylvanian Families membership outfit available only in Japan!  It includes a dress, a cardigan, a purse and even a hanger!  This set is extremely difficult to get, especially oversea! 

Of course I had to try the Sylvanian Families Dress and Cardigan right away!  Mother Squirrel was very excited to be the model!  But she protested after I only took one picture...

So here is another one to make her happy! ;-)

Sakura-chan was also very pleased with her Blythe dress.  It fits her like a glove!  The dress is so well made and has such a pretty design!  The bow on the rabbit is a super cute addition!  

Sakura-chan is such a pretty doll and I love her long eyelashes!!!  I think Licca dolls have the sweetest face and gentle but expressive eyes even though they are painted and not glass.   The very subtle makeup gives this doll a surprisingly versatile look.

Her hair is very soft and it is in a beautiful reddish brown.  I apologize for how messy it looks because I don't know where I have placed my dolly brushes anymore! -_- I guess I put everything away in my cabinet so now I'll have to find them!   You know how it goes: when it's cluttered, you can find your stuff but once you put it away, you can't find it anymore! 

I need to show you a picture of the other items in more details but I am running out of time today.  I have a place for them in my dollhouses and it takes time to setup the dollhouse so I'll have to post more about this gift exchange later this week!

Thank you so much Chloe for inviting me to participate in this gift exchange! I am so overjoyed with the items you have sent me!!!  They are all fantastic miniatures and Sakura-chan will be very happy here with her other Licca friends :)

New Year presents from Bikbik and Roro

Dear Readers,

Did you have a nice weekend?   Did you celebrate the Lunar New Year?  My weekend was fun and calm despite the number of guests and the busy schedule.  The children enjoyed the company of many cousins and relatives who came to visit.

We spent almost all weekend greeting, visiting, eating, and drinking.  We don't cook during the New Year's 3-days celebration so all the cooking was done ahead of time before Friday.  We also played charades which is a great way to bond between generations.  The grand-parents, parents and children alike, all participated eagerly.

We also went to a Chinese New Year's fair where the kids spent some of their lucky money on fishing surprise box out of a pond and throwing hoops on a board (well the typical carnival games).

This year was really stress-free compared to last year because for the first time in my life I had a home that fully belonged to me and that I didn't have to share with anybody else but my little family.  I finally took the liberty to decorate it the way I wanted, mostly with plants and flowers!  I bought a little kumquat tree, a lucky bamboo tree, and branches of Forsythia.  You can see them in full bloom here below. Apparently it means I will get lucky this year. I sure hope so :)

And look what I received from Janice from Bikbik and Roro!  Janice is an incredibly talented artist, crafter and blogger.  She sent me four beautiful miniature lanterns that I immediately hung up on my forsythia branches!

Also in the package were miniature golden carps.  Carps are symbols of good luck in Chinese culture and they are believed to bring good fortune.  They are very small so I will be able to include them in one of my Sylvanian Families display.

And it's not all!  In the parcel were lovely stickers and postcards as well!  They display themes and characters that Janice has created.  Her ETSY SHOP sells them in form of soft dolls, bags, doll carrier, and more.  The tabby cat is really cute and I like her very practical doll carrier bag!

But I must add that she has another Etsy shop called UmamiBaby where she sells her own Custom Blythe Dolls.  I can't tell you how impressed I am because it's impossible to define the utter shock I felt when I saw them and how much I suddenly wanted to own one.    

After seeing her Blog Post about her new creations, I am seriously considering buying a Custom Blythe doll and I hope I'll be able to put some money on the side so that maybe I'll have my own one day.  One look at her dolls and you'll understand why.  Here below are some photos of Deirdre which I am showing with Janice's permission.

From UmamiBaby Etsy Shop

From UmamiBaby Etsy Shop

Don't you think she looks gorgeous?  I totally fell in love with her sweet face-up and her lovely romantic long hair.

Do you own a Blythe doll?  Do you customize your dolls?

Of Blythe, Dollhouse and Bingo

It got colder last week and then today it's sunny and warm again.  Typical November weather here.


I went to Babies R Us this weekend to shop for baby food and because it was in the same store as Toys R Us, I walked by the toy section and saw these Littlest Pet Shop Blythe dolls:

♪ Those boots will walk all over you ♪

I didn't even know they existed until Danzel from Silver Shoes and Rabbit Holes mentioned them!They were on sale (buy 1 get 1 at 50% off).  I had a gift reward from Toys R Us so the dolls did not cost me anything to get!  I never bought a LPS blythe doll before and since it was basically free to me, I didn't mind getting them this time.    I do love the clothes they wear (and will you look at those boots!) and their adorable pets!  I didn't unbox them yet because I want to find them a good house first.

Cutest husky EVER!

 

Speaking of house, I sold my Licca dollhouse!  It now belongs to a sweet 3 year old little girl!  The Licca dolls have now moved into a bookcase!  My nieces were busy this weekend moving the furniture into the new place!  Here is how they decorated the kitchen and dining room:

I want the same kitchen!

Frankly, I prefer my bookcase because it gives me more space than the dollhouse!  And it has doors so I can close it and lock it from baby's curious little hands!

Those little hands were busy playing bingo this weekend!

It's a French Bingo game from Eboo!  It's so pretty and features many French words!  I blogged about that last year (has it been that long???)!

The older kids were busy painting the Christmas Advent Calendar and I must admit this has been a really fun activity for them!  There is just something magical about painting!  All the kids I know love to paint and my nephews come to my house knowing I will always have projects for them to work on.   They are not done yet though and it will probably take them another week to finalize.  I can't wait to show you the tree!

 

I have much to do before Christmas starts! I have not finished my Christmas village and my books are not wrapped yet!  I know we still have more than a week left in November but it's going to be Thanksgiving soon and that's when the whole family meets for dinner!  So much to prepare in advance!  It will be super busy in a few days!

 

*PANIC MODE ON*

 

Am I the only one panicking about Christmas?  Please tell me I am not!

 

 

 

Orcara - Cooking with the Master

It was Labor Day yesterday and I was glad to be at away from the office and have a long weekend at home.  The weather is still as hot as ever and I frankly can't wait for autumn and some cold air.  I didn't want to go outside as it was too darn hot so I stayed home and cleaned the house.  I also took some pictures of my new miniature collection because I wanted to show you in detail the food miniatures I blogged about last week. 

 

This collection is called "Cooking with the Master" and it's made by Orcara.   Of course this is not a unique custom-made miniature set and I didn't expect it to be.  This is a mass-produced miniature collection that has some flaws but it's overall quite impressive and the price tag is very low.

 

I do love the food inserts you can remove from the containers like the milk from the pitcher or the coffee from the cup.  It's detailed and nice looking.  The only ones I did not like was the rice and spaghetti sauce inserts.  They were boring and not very well made. But overall it's an awesome food miniature collection and the dollhouse looks lovely with them! 
 

Bread Making 1

Bread Making 2

Spaghetti & Sauce

 

Onigiri Rice Ball

 

Fruit Bun Baking

 

Coffee Grinding

Tasty Fresh Salad

Making Soya Milk

 

 

The children were very impressed with the miniatures and they helped me decorate the dollhouse for my Licca dolls.  I think it would fit perfectly bigger dolls like Barbie, Blythe, Pullip and Dal as well.   Some of the smallest items can also fit Little Dal and Sylvanian Families but I think they are best suited for full-size dolls.

 

I bought them from Ebay and because of the shipping fee, it was cheaper for me to buy the whole collection than just a few sets.  If you want to buy some, I would advise you to shop around first as not all sellers will sell them for the same price.  They are cheaper than Re-ment miniatures so they shouldn't come with a super high price tag! 

 

But just in case you are not sold yet on how awesome those miniatures are, I have a giveway planned this month!  There will be two prizes from two different food collections!  I can't tell you what they are yet but I will blog about it soon :D :D :D

Re-ment and Orcara Miniatures

I am so excited about today's post!!!  I had been waiting for my shipment of miniatures to arrive so I can show them to you!

I love Japanese RE-MENT miniatures but the high price tags dissuade me from buying them most of the time.  Even when an item is cheap, the shipping fee is very steep.  Enters ORCARA.  It's a Chinese brand of miniatures very similar to Re-ment.  It's actually extremely similar down to the accessories and design but with slight differences.  It's also much more affordable and not as rare as Re-ment items.

I wasn't sure of the quality of their products so I bought a few items to try first and I was very pleased with how nice they are.   Below are some pictures I took of the cooking collection.  They are displayed on a second-hand Barbie kitchen set.

If you want to see more photos of these extraordinary miniatures, there are groups on Flickr that are devoted specifically to Re-ment and Orcara:

Orcara (diorama galore)

The Re-Ment Addicts Pool (+ Orcara, Megahouse and other miniature brands)

Re-Ment ( リーメント ) (probably the 2nd largest Re-ment pool after Addicts)

Re-Ment Kitchens (if you love miniature kitchen items, this is the place)

Re-ment Multiplicity (when one set is not enough)

People are so creative and make such amazing dioramas! 

Both Re-ment and Orcara are to scale with most full size dolls like Blythe, Pullip, Dal, Barbie, and they can sometimes fit nicely with the smaller dolls like Little Dal and Sylvanian Families/Calico Critters.  I think the best fit is for Licca dolls though.

But the scale does vary.  Sometimes in one single collection you can find miniatures scaled 1:6, 1:8 or 1:12.  So research first before buying something because the scale might be off with your doll.  Or you can just use them as stand alone miniatures without dolls because they look so awesome displayed on a shelf or in a diorama. 

I like the Orcara miniatures so much that I purchased the full complete set of many collections.  I will show them to you in the next few days!  And ... I am planning an Orcara giveaway next month so stay tuned :D :D :D