Meerkat Triplets

I like to wander through toy stores, usually on the off chance that they have Sylvanian Families. Well, last winter at some point I managed to get out of work early enough to actually stop by Cheeky Monkey Toys, and they had Calico Critters! I don't recall if they had a good selection or not, but at the time they had the meerkat triplets, and I couldn't resist. So here are Peter, Penelope, and Patricia.

I also went by Old World Designs and picked up a bunch of fun thread. Mostly with the intention of using them to knit or crochet clothing for my Sylvanian Families. I haven't had a chance to use the thread yet, however.

Carpet Bookmarks

One of the vendors at Costume College (in 2011) had these carpet bookmarks. I'm not actually sure why they had them, but I happily picked up a few of the designs.

Below Germaine and Stephanie model some dresses on one of the carpets.

I decided at some point that I should put together a workbook of crocheted clothing for Sylvanian Family figures. These two dresses were probably the start of that idea. The plan is to have increasing levels of difficulty, from a fairly simple dress in size 10 crochet thread down to items in size 80 thread or single strands of floss. I have some of the patterns figured out, but I haven't gotten around to writing them up nicely yet. You can follow some of the progress on Ravelry: Workbook Test Dresses.

Mini Furniture From Daiso

I have a backlog of posts. I didn't even realize how long the backlog was until I acquired some new Sylvanian Families.

So, some time ago (in the spring or summer of 2011), I was wandering through Japantown and stopped by the Daiso store. They had a bunch of mini furniture at really cheap prices (like $1 or something in that range). So I grabbed one of each item I thought would be sized correctly for Sylvanian Families. Most of the furniture was too tall, but a few looked like I might be able to cut them a little shorter if necessary, so I picked a few of those as well.

Clarice Bamboo with a hexagonal end table. (Packaging for the furniture in the background.)

Edwin and Ella Ellwood behind a desk. Well, I think its a desk. It almost looks like a table except that there are low support bars between the legs on three of the four sides.

Clarice and Alexandra Bamboo beside a fancy self. This was my favorite of all the furniture I picked up. I was very tempted to make a trip back to the store to get some more of these shelves. (By the time I wandered through Japantown again, Daiso no longer had any of this furniture.)

This 'Country' set was one with items I thought would be too tall, but easy enough to cut down. Chair on the left is the original, and the one on the right had its legs partially cut off. I haven't decided yet if the cabinet needs to be trimmed down a little as well.

Below is Edwin relaxing on the chopped down chair. The new height seems pretty reasonable when compared to a standing figure.

I pulled out some of my other items, and set up a couple scenes with the new furniture. Below, Elliot gets a sewing lesson from Ella while Eliza takes a look at the knitting basket. Father Edwin is putting away the dishes in the cupboard.

Alexandra starts a sewing project while Bertram relaxes at the end of the day. My brother gave me the glass mushroom on the far right on the end table; he made some while taking a glass blowing class. (He also gave me a glass elf hat, that I still need to post a picture of at some point.)

Petit Point

Needle 'n Thread had a recent post about embroidery scissors, and buried in the post was a link to Micro Stitchery. I'd been thinking I need some rugs as accessories, so I am very tempted by a couple of the rug kits.

Sewing Posts

The next month or so might be a little light in content. I have a series of sewing related posts I want to make, but the complete project idea and series isn't far enough along to begin without a several gaps in posting occurring. Also, I still haven't gotten around to looking up copyright stuff with relation to doll clothes patterns, and I really need to do that before I can get very far in the series.

On the knitting front, I have a blouse design for a Sylvanian Family sister-figure mostly worked out, but I haven't yet started to write up the pattern.

Pickleweeds or Brambles?

A while back I mentioned that Barnes and Noble was having a toy sale, and that I had ordered myself the hedgehogs and elephants. Well they showed up within a week of ordering, but I got a bit distracted with posting my slipper pattern and jacket pattern. So I fell even further behind with my posts. Now that I am otherwise caught up with my collection posts, it is time to introduce the Ellwoods and the Pickleweeds:

The fur on the Pickleweeds came out of the box a little mangled (from the holes in the carton),

but re-fluffying their fur with the little brushes they came with mostly seemed to work.

Now, are the Pickleweeds Brambles, or is Peaches a Pickleweed?

Hopefully I should now get back to the sewn clothing posts I've been intending to write.

Voles, Pandas, Koalas, and a Penguin

In August I finally decided to order a few of the Sylvanian Families I wanted, before they cycled out of production when I wasn't paying attention. I really wanted the Sewing with Mother set, so I ended up placing an order with Sylvanian City.

The Sewing with Mother set: Stephanie and Sybil Clearwater, and a cute little sewing machine and accessories.

I also got the Bamboo Family and Billabong Family.

Polar de Burg: I don't like the bottle mouth much, but the penguin is cute.