Hi all :)

It's been a long time since I've been into Sylvanians and on the forums :o My mum and I were full on collecting in 2009-2014, and we had started a village display downstairs after upstairs had no more room at the time. In may 2014, mum got sick suddenly and taken to hospital, and luckily everything is ok. Her operation went fine and she's healthier now :) Then came sept/oct 2014, I go and get sick. I got diagnosed with an inherited thing and I had to go to hospital too. After a long recovery time for us both, I'm so much better and so is she :)

We can finally get back to collecting! I had just dropped it all as I couldn't bear it if she wasn't well, and then myself, I couldn't do much when at home and on the couch/recovering most days. Months had gone by and now years and where it was being displayed wasn't really a good fit anymore. I had moved my pc into another room and it was basically just where my husbands pc was and all our nerdy gaming and my dorky collections xD The spare room upstairs had been used for another hobby but as I've grown up the past few years it's not really needing the whole room. So we (mum and I) thought why not use these 2 massive walls for Sylvanians!? So my husband and I took all the shelving upstairs :) Luckily their flatpacks (like IKEA stuff) so it wasn't full wood units, but they're quite strong still. I measured all correctly (I have a history of not being quite right on measurements lol) and it all fits perfectly! Even with a few extra shelves! So instead of a shelving + small tables out front all the way along, we added more shelves instead and only left 2 small tables for a "city center" type spot. I wouldn't be able to get into the display without climbing over or reaching really far, and I had the same trouble downstairs so it's a good plan I think :)

We'll update the site soon and show pics :) I plan on making videos to show our progress :) We've got in a LOT of fake grass and sky paper so we can make it look like we dreamed about :)

Happy Easter Everyone~! 2014

Rilakkuma Homemade Cooking Re-Ment Set

Just pre-ordered :D Late October 2013 release date :) This is gonna be so cool in the bakeries / homes in our village :D

Sparkle Rabbit Family

Just won these on eBay tonight~! So glad I got them! :3

(c) 2003, Japan only (as a family set), Epoch

Info (Thanks to Pandapatch for the info!):

Slyvester Sparkle: Sylvester likes everything to be spick and span and is always polishing and cleaning. He is often called the quiet one of the family, but the truth is he is so deep in thought he often doesn't hear the family ask him about things. His favourite pastime is collecting bright shiny things such as pennies. 

Sylvia Sparkle: Sylvia is always organising activities at the school and in the village. She loves to cook and encourages everyone the children to eat healthy food especially carrot cake. She is very lively and at party time she can be seen in her brightest clothes dancing to the music. 

Gabriel Sparkle: Gabriel is always happy, bright and cheerful. Although quiet like his father, he loves the outdoors and is a very fast runner. He also enjoys bike riding and loves going on camping trips especially overnight, where he can sit around the campfire looking into the flames. 

Ruby Sparkle: To her friends Ruby's a very charismatic rabbit. A model student at school she is a shining example to all her classmates. While her favourite pastime is dancing, she also excels at writing stories and inventing games for all to play. She loves costume jewellery and really enjoys making necklaces out of shiny objects.

New haul - 5 Parcels! :D

The other day, we had 5 parcels show up :D Awesome huh? The big "Large House with Carport" came in a very big long box, which we got rid of before coming home. We didn't really want to keep it, and had no use for it. No where to store it even if I wanted to at the moment. I've taken these pictures in the loungeroom as I'm sick atm, and its the largest area for these right now :)

Parcel Number 1

Okie, opening parcel number 1. It was from England, eBay :) I thought it was a bit large for what was inside.

I opened the grey part, and zomg. So much tape! I asked them to make sure they'd be safe as post sometimes gets tossed around here, but darn! xD

And this is what was inside! The Hound Dog family - I got a new set, as the ones I have are quite old and bashed up. I had got them as "I haven't got them yet" before, but didn't realise they'd be so faded etc when I got them. Also Chich & Bunny Dressing Up Set. They were so cute, and the seller had them for a bit less then Rakuten, where I had originally wanted to get them. And Angeles' Bedtime Set. I've wanted that set for sooo long :D First time seeing it again on eBay, and it was about $10AUD so I popped it in ^^ The postage didn't suffer so that was great :D

Next parcel is from Rakuten, first time ordering from them, and did 2 small orders. Luckily the postage didn't get too bad either :) This one came through very quick!

All nicely wrapped, safe and sound. Above the bubble wrap there was a lump of Japanese newspaper aswell.

All open! I got the Sylvanian Families Mini Figures Set (9 total). Mother, Father and Daugher of the Chocolate Rabbit Family, Silk Cat Family and Chihuahua Family. Also, Lucky Star phone dangle set, 1 figure from Magic Cure? and 3 of Hello Kitty Pengu series :)

This next parcel scared me. Why did quarantine need to open this? What on earth looked creepy to make them want to check it out? By the way, also from Rakuten, this time Marchenshop.

Everything looks ok? It said nothing was removed. That's the second time from an international parcel that Quarantine have had a look inside one of our parcels. Wonder why?

And all of them out :D Was very lucky to get these ^^ 6 Key chains, 1 Police man outfit, 1 Pencil? things, 5 Baby Special Dress up sets (Alice in Wonderland, Christmas, Princess', School Kid Sheep and Little Red Riding Hood + Wolf). And a soft folder type thing that has babies all over it. Very cute, thought I could keep my catalogues in it, or little bits of paper I get with orders / furniture. 

Baby Special Dress up sets (Alice in Wonderland, Christmas, Princess', School Kid Sheep and Little Red Riding Hood + Wolf). Close ups :)

Close ups of the Keychains! ^^

Second last parcel :) This time from SSK, the official UK Sylvanian Families shop! We had made the order over the phone, as it was easier for us than to email. Quicker replies for the questions we had.

All open :D The lady was so kind, she put some Sylvanian Families Shop bags of different sizes in for us :D Since we probably will never get to see the shop in person, it was really cool to get the bags ^^ Wanted to get the Wedding Chapel, and the Photographer set :) Also all the food! She managed to squeeze them down the side of the parcel, filling the box to its max! ^^

And finally, the Large House with Carport :D Woo~! I love this one better than Willow Hall. I miss the lights, but for it to open fully so its flat, and no annoying plastic hanging out, looks great :) The carport might turn into the Reception place for the Wedding Chapel tho xD I don't think I can fit it next to the house on my shelves :(

Awesome find near where we live!

I was on google the other night and searching for the stock images for some of my items (for the site/quick updates/wishlist). I stumbled upon a UK Gumtree site. Now I thought Gumtree was only in Australia - cause well we have Gumtrees here and people always talk about it - so I didn't realise they had gone to other countries. I went to the Australian version and thought "check for sylvanians kirstie, you never know~!". So I did, and then sorted closest to my postcode. To my surprise, a few listings came up in our suburb! I saw a bunch of furniture, Babblebrook Grange, and the Regency Hotel. I already had the Hotel, and most of the sets, but I would love more to help furnish our 8? I think, homes.
The lady didn't want a lot for them, less then what they were bought for. So I told Mum, and she was all "awesome"! Now this was at 4am (we're both night owls xD) so I couldn't just text these people and ask if the Babblebrook Grange was still avaliable. So I waited til 6:30am, and sent one then, incase they were working people and got up at that time. At the worst, they'd ignore it or have the phone on silent.

I got a text back when Mum was about to head out, at about 12:50pm. I found out that the Babblebrook Grange had gone :( Was so sad, cause it was 1/3rd of the price, with no box and nothing missing. It went really quickly she said (when we met her). But the rest was still there. We asked if we could ring her, cause she was a bit slower on txt's and we had to know before Mum went out so she could arrange to pick me up and head to this ladies house before it got too late (winter time, so its darker here earlier). She said that was fine, so we did :) General chat mostly, and she said she'd give us a quote later today after 4pm (since Mum got back at 4pm, and it was almost 2pm at this time when she had to go) and gave us her address. 

At almost 4pm on the dot, she sent the quote, but it was a little larger than we thought. Quick ring found out the loungeroom was gone but the rest was still there + some other things she found. We stopped to grab some cash, and make sure we had change for the whatever-amount we'd end up with. I started the GPS speaking navigation thing on my phone (galaxy note 2), and we headed over :D We didn't really need the GPS but she was off a new highway area they had built over the older road, so we wanted to see where it was. Was really easy to find, Mum goes on that road about twice a week.

She welcomed us in, and it was such a cute home :) The photo doesn't give it justice! I wanted to grab a photo for memories, as the inside was just as nice! (Made sure theres no address on it etc so its safe :) ) It had a wood panel 1/2 ceiling and cream carpets. A grey fluffy cat was sitting in front of the heater/fireplace area near the tv :) Reminded me of the Sylvanian Grey Cats :D The house itself looked a bit Sylvanian log-cabin style inside too.

She told us to head down the kitchen, which we did, and her little son (about 4?) was helping us :) We had a look at it all, and it was in great condition! There was 1 small milk mark on the swing but that's all I could find. All the items and figures all looked liked they just came out of the boxes and sat on display. She told us she had bought them for when he was younger, and he had outgrown it now. She was unable to have a girl otherwise she would have bought so much more for her. She even said that someone could go nuts and fill a whole walls worth with them! I didn't quite mention that we already did that xD

We ended up buying the lot, which we worked out that was about 1/2 price from retail later on. She gave us the Squirrel family aswell for free I think :D She had been hanging onto it for almost a month, so she must have wanted to get rid of it. Still has the Regency Hotel to get rid of, but that's all we left her with xD A few double-ups but thats ok. I can decorate, re-clothe, style, all good :D

It's coming together :)

Starting to get the sky in and some grass! :D Will be doing the inside sides aswell, just doing backs until I make sure I have enough fabric :)