Happy New Year 2024!

Hello all, and Happy New Year!

As you can probably tell, last year was a busy year for our family, and therefore not one in which I had much time for my Sylvanians, I'm afraid.  They have definitely not been forgotten though!  I have lots of new critters to introduce to you, and so many ideas and projects I want to do with them!

To start with, I'd like to show you some of my Christmas presents (just the Sylvanian ones!)  I was lucky enough to be given several new families:

(The penguins simply could not wait to get out of their box!)

I am so pleased to be welcoming all these new critters, but must give a special mention (VERY excitedly) to the delightful mole family, which was sent to me by my lovely forum friend Terra!

More details will come about these new additions, but I also want to share with you my very first Sylvanian project of the year - just a little one, but definitely a step in the right direction:

Meet Lolly Chocolate!  She is the youngest child of a family of Chocolate rabbits who live in our seaside area, Starlight Cape.  Soon I will update our Meet The Families page with their names and pictures, but first I had to make Lolly a dress (couldn't have her being mistaken for Freya Chocolat, now could we?)  lol

Here is the back:

I wanted a nice bright Summery feel for Lolly's dress, as not only does she live at the beach, but she is a bright, bouncy sort of bunny, who definitely needed colourful clothes.  I am quite pleased with the result.

So from everyone in Macadamia Grove, Starlight Cape, Town and beyond, as well as from Caitlyn Hazelnut and myself, welcome to 2024 - a much more Sylvanian year!

Summer Holidays

Wow, I can't believe it's been three months since I last posted!  I have been a bit slack with my Sylvanians in the interim, just due to real life stuff taking precedence - it's been a busy time for us.  I haven't forgotten about my Sylvanians - some of them even came with us on a recent holiday (but more on that another day!), and I have a few other photos and stories I hope to get onto soon.

Today though, I have an entry for last month's Creative Challenge on the forum (better late than never, right?)  The prompt was "Summer Holidays", but just like here in Australia, the residents of Macadamia Grove are currently experiencing some chilly Winter weather.  It seems that some of them at least are getting rather sick of it...

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Zac Patches looked gloomily out the window as the rain beat down outside.  He sighed loudly.

"What's up with you?" asked his sister Sarah, glancing up from her book.

"It's raining again," said Zac.  

It wasn't fair.  The school holidays had begun a whole three days ago, and it had rained on all three of those days.  Zac didn't much care about being cold, but he hated being cooped up inside all the time.

"I mean what's the point of having holidays if you can't go out and play?" he demanded.

Sarah shrugged.  "It won't rain forever," she said.  "Why don't you read a book or something?"

Zac looked highly affronted by this suggestion.  He did not share his sister's enthusiasm for books.

"Look at one of the photo albums then," suggested Sarah.  "You like doing that - what about the one from Australia?  Or - ooh, I know!  This one."  She handed him a big photo album.

"This one's got the Sylvania photos in it," said Zac.  "It's not as interesting."

Sarah reached over and opened the album to a particular page.  "Not even these ones?"

Zac gave her a look.  "Oh, very funny," he said, but a little smile did tug at the corner of his mouth.  Sarah had given him the photos of their last Summer holiday to look at.  They had spent a week at Starlight Cape, enjoying the beach and the endless sunshine.

"Looks like we'd been to the Fish & Chip shop that day," said Sarah, peering over.

"Those chips were so good," said Zac.  "But the ice creams were even better.  Remember that chocolate one I got?  There should be a photo... Yeah, here it is!"

"They were awesome," he sighed, reminiscing.

"Oh look at this one.  You were such a rat," said Sarah.  "You kept on trying to splash me.  I didn't know Mum had taken this photo until afterward."

"I wasn't trying to splash you," Zac protested.

"Oh really?"

"No," he said with a grin.  "I was trying to throw you in the water."  Sarah poked him.

"It was a fun holiday.  We met nice people there too.  That rabbit girl was nice - Cherrie.  I liked her," said Sarah.  "I don't see a proper picture of her - just in the background of this one of you."

"Meh - she was just a girl," Zac said dismissively.

"Excuse me?  Honey Chocolat is just a girl, too," Sarah pointed out.  Honey was one of Zac's school friends.

"Yeah, but Honey is fun," said Zac.  "Anyway, Cherrie was too old to play with."

Sarah rolled her eyes.  "Well I think she was very nice.  And anyway, that is her float you were on, if I am not mistaken.  It was very kind of her to lend it to you."

"That's true," Zac admitted.  "I guess she was alright."

"It was a fun holiday," Sarah mused.  "I wonder if we'll go back next Summer?"  

"Hope so," her brother replied.  He wandered over to the bookshelf and pulled out another photo album.  "Hey, look. Italy."

Suddenly, Sarah noticed something.

"Zac, the rain's stopped.  Mum would probably let you go out now," she said, picking her book back up and settling into a comfy chair.

"Hmmm?  Oh, yeah... okay..." Zac mumbled absently, turning the pages of another album.  Sarah smiled to herself.  There was nothing her brother liked more than looking at their family photos - well, apart from running around making mischief with his friends, of course.  She guessed it was just the nature of little brothers to be a pain sometimes, but Zac was pretty fun, mostly.  She would never have admitted it, but she often missed him when she was away at school.  She was looking forward to next Summer, too.

A Day at the Seaside

Goodness, it's been a while since my last post!  Not to fret, I haven't lost interest in my Sylvanian Families - quite the opposite in fact, as lots of things have been happening in Macadamia Grove!  We have recently been given a large table for the purposes of expanding the village - this has pretty much doubled the size of our display!  The downside being we had to try to get it into the (already quite overcrowded) room...  Much reorganising ensued.  Finally I feel that we have the room under control again (with new table installed!), so we are now in the middle of designing the layout for this new area.  Lots of fun (but time consuming!)

Anyway, in the midst of all this, there have still been Creative Challenges going on over at the forum, a few of which I have missed out on participating in, but one of the themes dealt with something we've been meaning to finish for a while now:  Ocean and Seaside!  So even though I'm very late to the party for this one, I thought I would go ahead and post my entry for it.

As I said, Caitlyn and I have been wanting for a while now to get the Seaside area in her bedroom finished.  The Lighthouse with its rocky hill and the edge of the ocean itself was done quite a while ago now (for more details on that, go to Caitlyn's blog here).  But some time ago, her Yapley chihuahua family moved to the seaside to open a Holiday Park, and her cat family also moved there to open an Icecream Shop, and we hadn't enough beachfront to accommodate them all. 

As you can see, there is now an extra stretch of beach, and also a sand dune leading down from the Lighthouse, so it looks like a proper little scene now!  The Holiday Park is off to the left of the Icecream Shop (it includes the Yapleys' caravan, a Hot Dog Van, and plenty of grassed space for visitors to set up tents etc).  We do want to add some more plants to soften the line where the sandy beach hits the grassed area (ie the green table), but if I wait around for that, these photos might never get taken! 

Anyway, to celebrate this area now being (almost!) finished, and as their way of saying goodbye to the lovely warm weather (Winter is starting to properly kick in where we live), my Patches dalmation family decided to take the train to the Seaside for the day.  They didn't swim - it was just a bit chilly - but they had a lovely day on the beach!

Sarah Patches busied herself making a most impressive sandcastle.  She imagined it filled with beautiful princesses, and dashing knights!

The boys went to investigate the sand dune - Zac enthusiastically started to climb it, while his dad opted just to watch.

After a while sunning herself on the picnic blanket they had brought along, Pippa began to feel a bit peckish.  "Ben," she called.  "Do you fancy an ice-cream?"

The men in her life did not need to be asked twice.  "Come on then, love - let's see what flavours they have this time!"