A Christmas Vacation in the City

Dear Readers,

I have posted a little Christmas story on my Instagram account so I wanted to share this as well on my blog for those who don't have Instagram!  The first dollhouse I bought after my daughter was born was a dollhouse from Calico Critters/Sylvanian Families and I still love this brand very much.  The animal figures are adorable and I wanted to share my love for these toys by creating a photo story with them.  I have also included toys from the Playmobil company and miniature from Re-ment.

The Norwood Mouse Family live in a cozy cottage in the countryside.

A few days before Christmas, the Norwood Mouse Family gets a call. Their cousins are inviting them to come over for the holidays

Mommy mouse hurriedly picks a few vegetables from her garden as gifts to her cousins. 

Far away in the city, the Milky Mouse family is getting ready to welcome their cousins for the Christmas holidays.

The Milky Mouse Family are gathering in the living room to light the Christmas tree.

At last the Norwood Mouse Family arrives!

“Fresh vegetables? Thank you ! It’s so sweet of you! But my family prefer cookies and cupcakes.

“This is your room ? I never want to leave this place!"

“Let’s watch the World Cup and play video games after! Best vacation ever!”

After a very exciting evening, all big and little mice are fast asleep.

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël! 

Christmas vacation was so much fun but being away makes you appreciate your own home even more because nothing compares to home! Merry Christmas dear friends! May you enjoy happiness and peace with your loved ones.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this story and I wish you all a very happy holiday season and a happy new year!

A Witch Dollhouse

 Dear Readers,

Are you ready for Halloween?  I have costumes ready for the children and I have bags full of candies for the trick-or-treaters!  I also decorated one of my dollhouse for Halloween.  Do you remember Althea? She is a Sweet Spell Scarlet Petite Blythe doll for which I didn't have a dollhouse yet.  So this year, I decided to give her a house. 

I rummaged through my storage to find the Bear Store from Maple Town and paired it with furniture from Calico Critters (aka Sylvanian Families).  I used to watch Maple Town Japanese cartoons (Les Petits Malins pour les Francophones - merci à Mes Vladeries pour me rappeler le titre en Français!) when I was little and there were many dollhouses with furniture and figures back in the days.  They are about the same size as Calico Critters but the brand discontinued.   

The miniatures are from Re-ment Witch's House collection which was released in April 2021.  There are so many beautiful items in this collection!

Photo from Re-ment

Here is Althea showing you her new home.  She is wearing her original outfit which consists of a dress, apron, cat ears and tail and she also has a broom and hat which are not showing in my pictures.  She wears a collar with a little bell that does jingle faintly when you shake it.

The dollhouse is just the perfect height for her and has plenty of room to display all her books and tools to brew potions.  I use the tree trunk tables from the old school set by Calico Critters Epoch.

For the bedroom, the burgundy and brown bed and dining set from Calico Critters were just perfect for a witch house.  I especially like the bedding which also had a pillow in the same color palette.

Althea can finally have a very cozy house!  Her pet cat and owl will be keeping watch while she sleep!

Do you like Althea's house?  Do you remember the Maple Town cartoons?  I am so happy I kept this dollhouse although it was so old.  

The Calico Critters Deluxe Celebration Home

 Dear Readers,

The Calico Critters Deluxe Celebration Home is the 35th Anniversary Limited Edition Dollhouse released by this Japanese company which is also known as Sylvanian Families in the rest of the world.

Like all dollhouses from this company, it comes already built except for a few additions like the window frames or balcony railings.  It has a beautiful light pink exterior with a blue roof and green doors.

It features 3 floors so it is very spacious.

A very special element in this house is the elevator that you can move up and down by turning the weathervane located on top of the dollhouse.  The elevator door opens and closes automatically when you reach a floor.

This dollhouse includes many furniture and even two Persian Cat sister figures.

Photo from Calico Critters

These are the three floors on the Right Side.

These are the three floors on the Left Side.

Kitchen

I decorated the kitchen with a separate furniture set from Calico Critters because the kitchen island that was included in the dollhouse was not enough to fill the room (although it did include many beautiful items like the toaster oven, scale, grill and mixer).

Living Room

The living room is decorated entirely with the furniture included in the dollhouse.  The sofa chairs and tables are a very unique sage green color.  

Lounge Room

I created a lounge room with another living room set from Calico Critters.  It comes with a TV, coffee table with a teapot and two cups and saucers, a lamp, a magazine rack, and two big sofa chairs.

Bathroom

The bathroom set was not included in the dollhouse.  I had to furnish it with a separate set from Calico Critters.   The ceiling lamp was also purchased separately from the dollhouse.

Kids Room

The kids room comes with bunk beds and a piano with two chairs.

Main Bedroom

The vanity is included in this dollhouse (with the same sage green color as the living room set) but the bed and bedside table are from another set.

That's just how I decorated the house but you can of course make it completely different by changing the furniture. And you know I'll be changing things in a short while!  That's part of the fun of having a dollhouse.  

Another thing you can modify is how the house looks because since it comes in 3 separate units, you can change the look of the house by placing the units in different positions.

Pros:

• Dollhouse is already built
• The elevator goes up and down
• Includes  many furniture
• Includes two figures
• Many possible house combination designs

Cons:

• Does not include the lights
• Does not include a whole family
• Does not include a bathroom
• Does not include a full kitchen

I did enjoy the fact that I didn't have to spend 5 hours building this dollhouse like I had to do for the Playmobil dollhouse but this one has a few drawbacks of course.  For example, the lamps are not included with this set and even if they were included, the lights from Calico Critters are not very bright and so they cannot illuminate the house well like a Playmobil home.

How do you like this dollhouse?  

Lundby Småland Dollhouse

Dear Readers,

I was looking for a dollhouse big enough for my new Petite Blythe dolls when I stumbled across the Lundby Småland Dollhouse on Amazon.

It was the perfect size for 5 inches dolls! The room layout is very practical for playing and taking photos!  The wallpaper are in soft pastel colors which I think will suit my dolls.  This dollhouse is everything I was looking for so it didn't take much to convince me.

The dollhouse was delivered in a flat box.  Assembly took about 30 minutes.  The instructions were clear and easy to follow.

I didn't buy any Lundby furniture because it would be too expensive for me now so I decided to furnish the house with my existing furniture from Re-ment and Calico Critters / Sylvanian Families but this may change as I am experimenting with different toy brands to see which one I would prefer.

The dollhouse can be lighted but the power supply and lamps are sold separately.  I will eventually need to save money to buy them because I love lighted dollhouse!  It makes the house so much more lovely!

Hannah's Miniatyrer

Dear Readers,

I have received incredible miniatures from HANNAH'S MINIATYRER Etsy Shop!  Hannah is an very talented miniaturist from Sweden.  She writes a great BLOG about her creations.  Look at this adorable miniature pull toy sheep!  Also in the package are a hand-women rug and a mini Peter Rabbit book from Beatrix Potter!!!

The book is so detailed and includes text and color images too!  It is just the right size for my Sylvanian Families / Calico Critters figures!

Speaking of Sylvanian Families,  I wanted to enter Eaton Blackberry's Contest and write a review about my new bedroom furniture set on the Sylvanian Families Forum.  But for strange reasons, I can't upload my photos on the Forum so I'll show my review here for now and try on the Forum tomorrow again. 

The Sylvanian Families Children's Bedroom Furniture set was a gift from a friend who bought it for me while she was vacationing in Hong Kong this year.

Front of box

It includes:

2 bed
2 pillows
2 mattresses
2 blankets
1 ladder
2 stuffed animals (teddy bear and squirrel)
1 bookshelf with drawers
1 pencil holder
2 pencils
1 ruler
1 timetable
1 ruler poster (to measure growing up)
1 poster
2 plastic books
1 book end
3 cardboard books
4 postcards

Back of box

As with all Sylvanian Families/Calico Critters products, the details will amaze you!  The ruler has small indentations just like a real ruler and the book end was a really great addition.

I love the blankets! Very cute motif!  The bed can be displayed side by side or stacked like a bunk bed.  The ladder fits perfectly on the bed rail.

The bookcase has many compartments that can open.  The book end is a nice accessory and the pencil holder is really cute with the pencils and ruler.

The stuffed animals are so cute!  I was surprised to find out they were not plastic but flocked!

They even have tails!  All flocked and super soft!

The Calico/Sylvanian children figures fit just right in those beds.

Candy Mulberry is very happy to play with two adorable stuffed animals!

This furniture set is just too cute for words!  Candy and Ike agree!

So do you like this Children's Bedroom Furniture set?  And don't you think the miniature from HANNAH MINIATYRER are wonderful?   I am very tempted to buy her teddy bears and her clay pies now that I see how great they look with my critters!