The Grand Town Hall

I bought the Grand Hotel on the 25th of September 2015 on an auction of eBay. While I prefer the colours of the Regency Hotel, I think that the Grand Hotel suits Lingondale better, and it was very, very cheap. Since I got it, I haven't known what to do with it.

It's a gorgeous building, three stories high, and I love the details, such as it being possible to slide up the windows. The balcony is also gorgeous.

But I was so unprepared for the size of it. It is massive. Absolutely massive! I can fit the main part and one "wing" into my bookcase, but when it's folded together, it's huge!

It's really gorgeous though, and the size make it look really impressive when folded out. (as you can see, I'm missing one flowerbed! D:)

There is also this issue, a hole! I don't think it's too noticeable, and I'll probably get around it by simply not taking any photos from this angle! XD I have no clue how to fix it, and it was broken before I got it.

The inside is as well huge. On one hand, that mean you can fit a lot of furniture and critters into it, but on the other the depth of it mean that the light can't fully reach into it.

Look at it, there are so many shadows and I don't know how to light things up that well! Haha! I'll find a way though, and maybe learn how to properly light all my pictures as well.

There are some paint scuffs here and there, and I don't know if I want to try my hand at repainting or just ignore the issue?

Two doors are broken. I don't mind it too much as they still fit as they should and as I collect and take photos rather than playing, it's not going to annoy me.

So what are my plans? I have always wanted the Grand Hotel to be an official building in Lingondale, the home of the mayor and his family. I see it as the main building at the end of the square of the town.

I've seen some people making the hotels into apartment blocks, and I think that's a wonderful idea! I decided to make my Hotel a building with the residential area on the 2nd and 3rd floor, and on the first floor there will be a post office and the mayors office, as well as two undecided areas. I am thinking of a reception, perhaps? Maybe an archive or library? I'm not sure, but I want to get crafty with these areas.

Time for breakfast

The weather is lovely this time of year. I think it's the perfect time to cuddle up and eat lots of yummy, warm things, that aren't as bleak as the weather is!

Here are two pictures from an upcoming story! I've decided to stop using the buildings with more than one floor for any photos other than exterior as they are impossible to light correctly!

Aidan

Today is a rather big day, as her son is leaving for a travel across the world, so Mrs. Osborne decides to make pancakas.

She uses her new, shiny mixer to mix the batter together. It's a very handy tool, she muses as she wonder why anyone would ever want to hinder technology. Except for the Lingondale Historic Buildings Conservations Society of course.

"I have to leave for the shop," Mr. Osborne informs his wife as he comes downstairs. "I forgot that I have a shipment coming in today, and the postman is going to be mad at me if I don't see him." He promised that he would be back to drive them to the airport.

The pancakes were turning out wonderful, golden brown and fluffy, even the first one, which was seldom the case.

Aidan was already up when she went to wake him and his sister. "Oh, have you been awake for a long time?" she asked.

"Not for long, but I wanted to pack one more thing," Aidan said, but his mother could hear that he was more nervous than he was letting on.

In fact Aidan was a bit worried about where he was going, even though he was looking forward to the trip. This was the longest he would have been away from his family, both in time and distance. But he was sure that it would go well.

The kitchen smelled wonderful from the pancakes, all of them absolutely perfect.

Aidan got the tea as Mrs. Osborne placed Jason in his high chair. "I know how much all of you like pancakes," she said.

Mr. Osborne arrived as his family members had finished breakfast. He had grabbed a sandwich at the grocery store, just across his store as he had met Mr. Reynard, the owner, who was just opening up.

Mr. Osborne was just was worried as his wife about his son's travel, but he 

And once everyone was in the car, they drove to the airport to see Aidan off.

"I hope he remembers to send a few postcards!" Ava said.

The Osborne Bear Family

Arthur Osborne always knew that he would own a toy shop, and when he found the one in Lingondale for sale he decided to move his family, quit his job as a school teacher and settled down in the quiet town. His family loved the new place, as they were all quite adventurous, and Carol quickly started the first book club in Lingondale!

        Father Arthur

        Mother Carol        

        Brother Aidan        

        Sister Ava        

        Baby Brother Jason

I got the Osborne Bear family from my grandmother for my 22nd birthday. I have wanted to replace the Porridge bears with this Bear family as I find them a lot cuter.

The Walnut Squirrel Family

Cedric and Melia Walnut meet grew up in Lingondale and knew from the very beginning that this was were they wanted to live. Cedric wants to get a library in town, as well as an archive. Hazel loves yellow and the spring, she loves drying leafs for scrapbooking memories, and Ralph loves playing with Winton.
        Father Cedric
        Mother Melia
        Sister Hazel
        Brother Ralph
        Baby Brother Ambrose


This Christmas I got little Ambrose in a swap from the lovely GSnail! He has missed his family I think, and on my birthday I got the Walnut's from my family! Haha! What a perfect gift! I love the squirrels, their tails are very cool and their outfits are very pretty. Perhaps a bit matchy-matchy but well.

2 year anniversary - Iona Dale

Two years ago, I got the Dale Sheep family for my 20th birthday from a dear friend of mine. This past year I've been sadly connecting some sad emotions to my collection, but now it seems as if I can just see them as the objects they are and not bearer of my past life. C: I hope that this autumn and the next year, and many years to come, I'll be able to have lots of fun with these little critters! I got to remember to bring my camera out more often as well! :D

Sylvanian Lucia!

On the Sylvanian forum, bloem organized a swap, and not just any swap, but a Baby Ornament swap! I thought the idea was lovely, hanging your Sylvanians in your Christmas tree. I was paired up with the lovely bloem and since she said that she hoped that we could do this every year I decided to give her a little bit of a Swedish tradition. So I made her a Lucia!

I have never made anything in clay other than basic circles and I think it shows, but it looks good at a distance. The dress is painted because I can't sew at all! 

I am very happy about my wreath making, it's very easy to make, you just glue and dump glitter/grass on it and it turns out looking very cute!

Below is a little history of St. Lucia and how it's celebrated in Sweden from sweden.se. It is one of my favourite Christmas days. :)

The Lucia tradition can be traced back both to St Lucia of Syracuse, a martyr who died in 304, and to the Swedish legend of Lucia as Adam’s first wife. [...] In the old almanac, Lucia Night was the longest of the year. It was a dangerous night when supernatural beings were abroad and all animals could speak.
The real candles once used are now often battery-powered, but there is still a special atmosphere when the lights are dimmed and the sound of the children singing grows as they enter from an adjacent room.

 Merry Christmas all fellow Sylvanian collectors!

The Tale of Trick-or-Treat and the Headless Mouse

Here comes a little Halloween tale! I love Halloween and got inspired by ashmimi.com to do some wreaths earlier this month. I wish I had so many cute things I could create costumes for my critters, but well! I have been busy this month, with an exam and being ill,  and this thing took a week to shoot! XD The story is very picture heavy and maybe a little bit spooky as well!

Enjoy and happy Halloween!

"Children!" Mr. Springer said when the last class had ended. "Have you heart the tale of the Haunted Mansion?" he asked his class.

The children where all silent. Some of them, who had lived in Lingondale, had heard about the Haunted Mansion before. As well as it's inhabitant, the Headless Mouse.

"I have heard about it." little Iona Dale said.

"It's an old, old story." Mr. Springer said. "Dating back to when the mansion was first built."

"The Headless Mouse was not always headless, but he lost it because he was a bad man, it was his punishment." Mr. Springer said and dramatically turned his back against his students. "But when they brought his body back to be buried, weird things began to happen at the mansion!"

Mr. Springer took a pause. "Cookie jars went missing, one could hear strange sounds at night!" he said. The children sat completely quiet, capivated by Mr. Springer's story. Except for Joanne who felt very embarrassed. "No one have lived there for 200 years after what happened that one night..." Mr. Springer said.

He ended his story there and returned to the black board. "Will you go trick or treat tonight?" he asked his class. The girls nodded their heads, they had planned it all already. "It will be the first time!" Evelyn Waterbrook said and smiled. "Well, watch out for the Headless Mouse!" Mr. Springer said and laughed!

Brick Oven Bakery Capsules "Review"

When I saw these capsules on the Sylvanian Families forum I knew that I had to have them. Food is definatively my weekness in the world of Sylvania, I think I want just about everything. So I bought them off eBay really quick and they arrived recently! I thought that I should do a little review of sorts. :) Mrs. Dale kindly offered her help to model the items!

The capsules themselves, all different colours and everything neatly packed inside. If Kinderegg start selling eggs with these sort of capsules I will become their biggest costumer!

We'll start with the pink one, the cooking set! It includes a rolling pin, a bowl, dough, a cookie cutter, a plate, rolled out dough, icing pen, a punched out cookie and three cookies. Quite a lot of it! I think the sat is really cute and most things fit very well with SF.

Except for the plate which is huge! Like really huge! It wouldn't fit into any home oven, but I think that it would have a chance in the bakery's oven. It looks fine with the critters though. :)

Next one is the blue capsule, the waffle set. It contains a rather big waffle iron, four kinds of waffles, a tong (not a thong as pointed out by Nutkin! Haha!) and a basket. One waffle had some chipped paint and I am not a big fan of the more artificially coloured waffles. I think just plain ones and chocolate would be enough. It's still adorable though!

Green is next with the danish set! As a Swede, danish pastries come with vanilla cream and icing, or chocolate! But I love this set. Everything is attached so there is only four items, three pastries, two sweet and one which I assume is savoury, a tong, a plastic bag and a big, big plate. It looks very out of proportion on it's own but works well with the critter. I got three of these plate with all the 6 capsules.

The plastic bag makes it really clear that the set isn't really compatible with SF, it's HUGE! It's the size of a child critter, and almost that of Barbara Dale! It's cute, but big!

The black one with the sandwich set is my favourite set together with the bagels set! It includes the big plate, a baking pan shaped as a bear, three bread pieces (only one has the painted face) and three kinds of toppings, but I am only sure of one of them: the salad and salmon. Haha! It's really tiny and versatile! Really cute!

The red one is another simple but cute! The eBay seller called it the drawing set, because it includes an icing pen and as you see the kitten has a pink face! The basket is really cute too! The set includes a basket, a plastic bag, a tong, an icing pen and three buns, one rabbit, one cat and one bear.

 The last one is the bagel set in the yellow capsule, which is absolutely gorgeous and the set with the most pieces! It has a tray, a plastic bag, three types of bread and three types of topping! There is a dark bread, a light bread with a "painted" bear, and a normal bagel. The toppings include jam (I think?) lettuce and cheese and lettuce and tomato! The variation is really big and you can have lots of fun with it!

Over all I really like these capsules and think they would look great in the Brick Oven Bakery, which I of course have to get now! ;) Thank you for looking! ♥