Guess what I have been up to...

2017 Arrived faster than I had anticipated and I find myself struggling to get my brain into fully fledged working mode again. The Christmas holidays were just too short this year, since we did not close down at work except for the few public holidays in December.

I did, however, manage to get a lot of work to my website done during this time and things are looking good to finally get it up to date.  My first few pages are already done and I still have a few photos ready to be sized and processed before adding them to the website. I just can't get over how CUTE everything is!!! I find myself playing with the items so much that I am simply struggling to get everything photographed because of this.

My website has been placed in "under construction" mode, so I have deactivated all of the pages that have still not been changed to the new template during 2016. The idea about this, is that it should provide me the opportunity to finally get everything in the same template, even though some of the pages might take a bit of time to be up again.

But at least it is progress!
I am looking forward to sharing my collection with you all again soon. Well... as soon as the post office starts delivering mail again.

Love, hugs & Sylvanians.
Santie.

So it has been a really bad year Sylvanian-wise

This year has not been kind to me. Health-wise things have been going well for a change, except for a little accident that landed me on my back for a little while - yes, yes... I took a tumble and landed on the ground very unceremoniously and totally un-flatteringly! But things have not been so good on the Sylvanian front lately. Since 2015, I have been trying to save a little and go slow on my Sylvanian purchases. The things that I did buy, were very dear to me or where pieces that I have wanted for a very long while to get. Then came the Christmas season and I found an auction that I was just DYING for... My first Solitaire kitties!!!

I had a dear friend help me out, since the seller would absolutely not ship to SA and we won them for a reasonable price! (Yay!) The kitties were in fair condition, fully clothed (except for brother's shorts - which I had a spare set for, so this auction was obviously fate, right!?) and just as lovely as any Solitaire kitty could ever be. Said dear friend even included some handmade dresses that I was not even aware of until now. (More on that later, I am bemoaning my loss here...)

But then the SA post office got their hands on my parcel and lost it in the most spectacular fashion ever. This parcel is so lost, that my poor little Solitaires might as well be lost at sea, starving and alone on some island... At the same time, I purchased another lot for me and a friend from one of my favorite Ebay sellers... And guess what? That one got lost as well! Now, before you place the blame on the senders, they are totally innocent in this, as both of them are as well known in the Sylvanian community as can be. This was totally a post office blunder.

So, I lost a few parcels and a little bit of my will to live along with them. The big thing though, is that I really wanted these figures. I was looking forward to having them and I really had great ideas for them to feature in the story that I had just written the day that we managed to win them off Ebay!

Then it started - my collecting friends started disappearing. First the local ones, then the ones over the seas and finally I started feeling very alone. All of the knowledge of my little hobby, all of the friendships that I have cultivated. All started vanishing one by one.

I must admit that this year has really been one of my collecting lows. But I have recently had the courage to get back on my high horse and charge forth. I have got a trade going, two trades pending and just placed some bids on Ebay. (I even won the first one!) But that is not what got me out of the deep dark hole, they are merely the result.

Depression is a very difficult thing to deal with. It is a monster of our own making that lives in the deepest, darkest depths of our minds. It lives in the closet and loves to come out and find you when you feel vulnerable, when the little things get you down or when you just take some time to be alone with your thoughts. But it is a monster that can be conquered, kept at bay and put back into the closet where it lives. It is a monster that I know well, because I met him when I was in High-school. We have been rivals ever since and periodically we have epic battles. She wins, I win, She loses, I lose myself... And so it goes on. The ever-waging battle. This time, she was too much and I was the one who ended up in the closet. For the longest time.

So I started colouring - heck, I am an adult who plays with toys, I might as well start colouring as well, right! I pulled out the books that I have had for months and never quite found the right mood to start on. I dusted off my pencils. And I coloured. I coloured my heart out. This went on for days, weeks! Sometimes the colours were bright and cheery, other times dark and dreary, but I kept at it until I finished my first picture. And the next and the next... Until I finally saved up enough money to buy myself a half-decent set of pencils - they were 50% off. It was fate! I hated it, I loved it! And finally I started coming back to myself, started venturing out of the closet and found a way to shove my monster back in her place.

Now, this is where this post should have ended, but hold on for a bit. (You managed to read my bleating this far, you might as well continue!) A few surprises have been in store for me lately - they each deserve their own post, so I will hold off on the details until I have the time to show them off properly over the weekend. Once again my Sylvanian friends came to my rescue - I don't always know how you know when I need you, but you do. And I am thankful for you. Each and every one of you!

I will start with the lovely crochet dresses that were made just for me - even though I did not have the chance to see them in person, the thoughtfulness of your gift has given me something to remember my lost kitties by. And that gave me a little bit of closure on their loss.

Aren't they stunning!? And in my favorite colour too! 

So perhaps my Solitaires have rather found another happy home and were not really meant to come home to me. Perhaps they brought joy to someone else's life and did not end up in a dead letters/parcels bin. I like to think so.

We will never know. But what I do know is that I have a network of faithful friends who mean the world to me! And I love you all dearly!!!

The Relatives are Coming!

It has been quite some time since I last had a moment to post on my blog. I guess life has just been a little difficult this past year and I have not had much time to enjoy my little critters as much as I would like to! 

I have decided to take some photos for a story that I have written a while back. (Or re-take the photos, as the originals were not to my liking!) The story was supposed to have been done by Valentine's day, but there simply was not enough time to edit all of the photos in time. This story is also the first of a trilogy for the Billabongs (You guessed it, the other two have also been written for quite some time...) and I am glad to announce that I am about half way through taking the photos for the next installment. I have set myself a goal to complete the other two parts before the end of March, so I am hoping that I will be able to stick to that timeline!

As for the photos of this story, they were taken with my brand new LED lights that hubby installed in my photo/crafting area. They are "cool white" and wreaked some havoc with my colours, so I added a reading lamp (which had almost yellow light!) and that made things a little better (worse)... I am still undecided! 

I really hope that you will enjoy seeing a day in the lives of my lovely little Billabong Koalas!

So without further ado, let me tell you about the day that the Billabongs' relatives were scheduled to arrive in Rooibosch Hill...

The inevitable health update - Part 1

It has been some time since I last wrote anything here... I have been absent on my blog a lot this year and in fact, I have been neglecting my little hobby waaaay too much lately... But, at the doctor's orders, that is about to change starting right now!

I recently wrote about how my life came to a screeching halt and I realized that I needed a bit of help. Well, after the normal medical poke, prod and repeat, we have come to the root cause of my troubles and have devised a plan that will get my life back on track.

So, what is causing this total system shutdown of mine? As previously mentioned, I have PCOS or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and some of the symptoms include insulin resistance, depression, insomnia, mood swings, headaches, feeling tired all the time, mind fog and other lovely hormonal imbalance issues... Oh fun! :(

But, the big thing to remember and keep repeating to myself is that it is treatable, although not curable, and many women get through this same trouble every day. But that still does not take the sting away from thoughts that I might end up getting diabetes, heart disease and cancer in the near future, I might never have any more children (Not that I was planning any, but I like to keep my options open and could see myself with a little curly haired daughter some day when my son grows out of my arms...) or that I have to limit my diet to things that I despise, and cut out all the things that I love. But perhaps the worst part for me, is having to remember to take the seemingly endless amounts of drugs... Metformin to keep my insulin balanced, Omega 3 supplement to prevent inflammation, Iron supplement for energy, progesterone cream to keep my hormones in check, the list goes on and on!

Right now I am struggling with the change in diet - Dairy free, Gluten free, Soy free, Sugar free, Low GI. I am learning about things like rice milk (I despise the taste of this stuff), 100 ways to cook greens (Umm stir fry and stir fry?), exchanging coffee for tea (NOOO WHYYYY MEEEE??? Oh, thank you, I would LOVE a cup of rooibos tea without milk and with 6 drops of stevia - I am praying that this stuff does not kill me...-  while you have your double cream Lattè!) and eating protein at every meal and snack. Then, of course, eating like a Hobbit is tough for me since I am so forgetful these days that I need to write everything down or lose it two seconds later...

It seems like when those things have all been implemented in my diet, I have been turned into a very forgetful rabbit! So I guess that is where my Sylvanian Families come in...

I spent the past two weeks repairing some of the code on my website that made it display incorrectly on some browsers - I find that burrowing myself into the endless lines of code makes me forget about the urge to nibble. Especially when I have to find the problems that beginner-coder-me created way back when!

Now that is finished, I have to start updating the pages that are already created, but are still stuck in limbo... At least all new pages will be created in the correct format! I write it off as a learning exercise - How NOT to change the layout of your website... O_O Next time, I will start from scratch and go from there!!!

After that, I still have to update the endless list of items that are not even featured on my website yet - yes, I now have a list! Some of their photos have already been taken, but most still need a little editing and watermarking. It is a big job, but it is a very nice feeling once something is actually completed. (Even though I can't see any changes yet, I know they are there!)

Love, hugs & Sylvanians.
Santie - LadyLollipop

The tiniest traveller.

Just a day before my birthday , I received a parcel slip in my mailbox...

Since I am still waiting for parcels from Ebay sent in December, I did not find this strange at all, and instantly set off to collect it.

The parcel was a small brown envelope without a return address, and it took the post office staff quite a while to track it down between the large parcels overflowing in their small sorting room.

On my way home, I could hear soft whimpers coming from inside the parcel...

I thought to myself that I must be imagining things and set the parcel down in the study to attend to other things first.

But when I returned, the parcel had moved a whole two inches from where I had left it!
Obviously, whatever was inside, wanted to come out very badly... O_O
So, gathering all of my courage, I carefully opened the parcel to reveal what was inside.

First, a piece of white paper appeared, as though being pushed from inside the parcel! Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was a note. The note was just as mysterious as the parcel itself, stating no place of origin or name of sender. It was a happy little note that instantly brought a smile to my face and a tear to my eye.

Swept up in all of the emotion, I totally forgot that there must have been something else in the parcel too... After all, that note didn't pop out of the envelope by itself!
As I set the note down again, I saw that the tiniest little traveler had climbed out and was now standing on top of the parcel!

And she was gorgeous!!! :-)
My very first Sylvanian mole! And all the way from the vintage (1985-1989) line of Japanese Sylvanians too.

She introduced herself as Hayley McBurrows and we had a nice chat over pre-birthday caramel tart and tea since the long trip and the awfully long wait in the post office sorting center was almost too much for this little critter to bear. She told me of the amazing village that she comes from and asked about my own critters living here in Rooibosch Hill.

Afterwards, I took her to my village and introduced her to the Clearwater vole family, who will be looking after her until I can find her real family. Little Hayley looks very happy in her new village and Sybil enjoys having a little one to care for again.

To this day, little Hayley's arrival is a mystery to both me and all the villagers of Rooibosch Hill.


***Little Hayley was a special gift from a friend abroad and reached me at a time in my life when it felt that the dark clouds were once again getting too much to bear. She was so unexpected that I woke the next morning feeling as though the weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I immediately started working towards chasing those dark clouds away again!***
**Oh, and the last little bit is not true... just call me Nancy Drew!**
*Hayley is not her official name - baby sister McBurrows is called Mo... Now you also know why I changed it!!! *

It's the small things in life that get you back on track.

Back in January I made a resolution to complete my website this year by doing a little every day. This resolution was cut short after the first week because of a family tragedy. Before we were completely back to normal after that, we were hit by "load shedding", our government's desperate attempt at stabilizing the power grid. These planned and sometimes (read mostly) unplanned power cuts wreaked havoc with cables and transformers and ended up damaging a lot of equipment, which made it even worse and after some time we were stuck without both water and electricity in my hometown, due to the water purification pumps failing. Things were tough, but TIA - This Is Africa, so we just kept going until things settled down again and returned (mostly) to normal.

Then, of course, while this chaos was brewing, we had a country-wide postal strike of nearly a year long which created an enormous backlog of mail items when the post office finally managed to sort things out - to the extent that I am still waiting for parcels to arrive from all over that were mailed out in December... This is not even considered a long wait at this stage, since the average waiting period seems to be six months by now. I have parcels that I need to send out as well, but my local post office is not taking international mail every day at the moment - to try and lessen the burden and clear some of the parcels out first... (It's not working...)

This year also marked the first time that my son attended "big school", since he is now in grade "R" and his days are suddenly filled with maths and reading instead of playing and running all day. We initially had some difficulty with the first school that he attended, since within the first week I was told that he is impossible in class and needs Ritalin because he most certainly has ADHD! A lot of tests, angry words, mommy tantrums and a change of schools later and he is now a little star student. But while we were tackling the problem, it felt like the end of the world was upon us and I felt like the worst mother in the world on most days.

I started alienating myself from my friends and even from my online friends, but still found some solace in my Sylvanian collection. I managed to at least do a lot of the research that I needed for my website, but during this time I found myself visiting some of my most familiar online haunts, the ones that I still had bookmarked from when I last felt lost and alone. Places with names like Sycamore Springs; Mystique Valley and Sugarbush Valley. I found myself spending hours on Hayley's website and Mel's Website just to pass the time. But before long, I inevitably started following the broken links back to websites that I knew so very well from the start of my collection - some completely abandoned, some still valiantly holding on to their little space in cyberspace, some of them with messages of collectors moving on in life - the online ghost towns of Sylvania.

As I wandered through the now-forgotten streets of Carrot Creek (On Youtube of course!) I found myself at the bottom of a pit of despair that I had not known for a very long time. It was too much. Everything was just too much. The thought of how pointless it all is came to me more than once and I found myself on the verge of giving it all up, of packing up hundreds of little critters and their little lives into plastic boxes and forgetting about their existence - the same critters that I so lovingly admire every day. I thought about deleting the seemingly endless strings of code that make up my website - the same site that I have so lovingly spent years developing. And these thoughts struck me as odd! It was not like me to not feel at all. I was usually the one to cry at soppy movies, halfway through romance novels and at all manner of inappropriate times. the one who stops to pick up strays...

So, I made a list of the things that I needed to change, saw a doctor, who confirmed that my PCOS was back in full swing and that I needed some medication to get my hormone levels balanced again, because I was suffering from mild depression. I stopped listening to the "trained professionals" and followed my mother's instincts to get my son into a different school. Life was returning to "normal" , but I still had the huge, cute, fuzzy obstacle to get over. My collection was a mess! I have not been adding my new purchases to my displays and in stead some of them were put away in my study closet, others in the cabinet under my display case and still other critters were sitting in unopened parcels on my desk because I didn't have the heart to open them and see what the yellow post office repackaging tape hid underneath... My website was a mess - so many pages couldn't be updated, because the information was unobtainable or because the critters were still stuck in the postal system somewhere.

So, this week, as a birthday gift to myself, I started opening the parcels one by one and I was astonished at what I found inside!!! Some of the items were my own - Ebay purchases long overdue, others belonged to a good friend of mine whose husband won't let her buy off Ebay and still others were not even expected! Gifts from friends who know me better than I know myself, little notes added to parcels, handmade trinkets and even big surprises! And suddenly the joy came flooding back all at once. Not joy over opening parcels, or receiving gifts, but at the knowledge that at some moment in time, someone thought of me.

I decided there and then that I would continue the tedious task of updating my website on a weekly basis - that way I could do a little each day and upload it all at a dedicated time each week. I managed to write some stories that need to be uploaded soon and I even got things ready for a weekend of photographing critters! I remembered why my collection took off so steadily in the first place. It was not the cuteness of the critters or the constant joy of getting "new" things, but rather the personal connection with people who understood me. The friends that I have made over the years collecting Sylvanians, the amazing people who all fight their own battles, just like me, and win! The ones that inspire me to keep going when life gets me down and who make me believe that anything is possible just because they live it every day and keep coming back for more!

Thank you to all of my friends for helping me to find my passion again. Thank you for the moments you all took to write me a little note, to send me a card or even to send me a little gift! Thank you all for checking in on me via email, pm or even connecting on Facebook when the only way for me to get internet connection is on my tablet with "Wimpy's" free Wi-Fi! You all helped to save me from a very dark place and I feel honored to be able to call you all my friends!!!

We have our winners!!!

In my last post, I announced that I will be hosting a photo competition on my blog.

I know that the winners were already announced on the Sylvanian Families and Calico Critters Community forum, but I felt that they needed to be placed on my blog as well.

We received such lovely entries and the decision was a really hard one! But, it was still fun to judge the photos with my best friend and fellow collector who braved the hour-long drive just to get to me so that we could chat about Sylvanians and decide on the winners. I also have to thank my darling husband and mother both who gave some input on the entries and to my two anonymous judges who could not make the drive down to me, (You know who you are) thank you for being the tie breakers. ;-)

Our winner is PaigeLeeann with her lovely little romantic sunset dinner. 

The judges loved the dreamy sunset feeling that this photo has and overall it is super romantic! :-)

Our runner up is Kyraja with her wonderful little Snow-Warren grandparents having their fondue picnic.

The judges loved the grandparents being so overly cute having their picnic in the park! 

I have to admit that there was very stiff competition and in the end we were glad that the judging was over. If I could have my way, everyone would be a winner in their own category! The hardest part for me was that the photos all came from different people of all ages with different levels of skill and different outlooks on the theme.

Our winners have both been contacted and arrangements made for their prizes. 

I hope that I will be able to host another competition again next year!

Just for pure enjoyment - the other entries are posted below. You can enlarge the images by clicking on them. ;-)

Sylvanian Families Valentines Photo Competition!!!

That special time of year is just around the corner... Everywhere you look there are hearts and roses and everyone around seems just a little happier. You guessed it, Valentine's day is drawing near!

And what better way to celebrate this glorious occasion than with a little photo competition!?

The Rules:

• The competition is open to everyone from all around the world, just as long as you are also a member of our Sylvanian Families and Calico Critters Community forum. If you are not yet a member, go sign up now! :-)
• Your photo must be of original Sylvanian Families and/or Calico Critters.
• Your photo may contain items from other toy lines for decoration etc, but the main focus has to be on the Sylvanian Families / Calico Critters.
• Photos must fit the theme of Love / Valentine's day.
• Photoshop effects are allowed, but please don't overdo it! The idea is still to have a photograph when you are done, not a whole digitally drawn image that once was a photograph...
• You are allowed to enter a maximum of three images.
• Entries have to be sent to me via email - sands@ladylollipop.co.za (I will reply to your message to let you know that I have received it.
• Entries have to be sent in any digital format and need to be at least 800x600pixels big.
• Closing date for entries is 14 February 2015.
• Prizes will be drawn as soon as all entries have been received.
• The winner will be chosen by a panel of judges - these judges will not be allowed to enter in this competition!
• The winner will be announced on 15 February 2015.

The Prizes:

• The winner will receive a Sylvanian Families Harvey Cat Family.
• Second prize will receive an Easy Buy dressing table. (Figure not included)

So go dust off those cameras and get your creative juices flowing!!! It is time to celebrate the month of love! <3

A Champagne Breakfast for grandmother Hazel.

Rooibosch Hill recently received a brand new critterzen! Hazel Dappledawn has decided to move from the busy city of Sylvania to spend her retirement in the serenity of the countryside. Of course the esteemed ladies of Rooibosch decided to celebrate the new arrival with a lovely champagne breakfast in Dove Dale's garden. Maurice Chantilly did a wonderful job with the catering and all of the old ladies enjoyed the outing immensely.

------

Hazel and Rihanna are my first two members of the Dappledawn family! I think that Hazel is just very cute and looks oh so hip with her bright pink shawl! ;-)

Visiting the Diaz Museum - Part 2

The grounds of the Dias Museum Complex are filled with a collection of fynbos and other plants that occur naturally in the Mossel Bay area. Most of these plants were used for shelter, food and for medicinal purposes by the European settlers and indigenous people alike. The museum keeps samples of these flowers from their botanical gardens in vases at the entrance of the complex so that visitors can study the plant samples while they read about them in the exhibit. 

There is also a Braille trail that makes the gardens accessible to visually-impaired people so that they can read about, feel and smell the wonderful collection of plantlife. 

The Dias Complex also includes a shell museum with a small aquarium, which Shelly and Sandy were very excited to explore. There are a number of fish tanks with various sea creatures inside the museum, as well as large shell exhibits. Shelly was particularly fond of this little fellow who hid behind his rock every time we tried to snap a photo of him.

But she was a little unsettled to stand in front of the lobster tank! 

Everybody loved the little Octopus on display and we enjoyed watching him eat his lunch. 

Then we found these bright little spiky starfish. Aren't they pretty!?

The shell museum has lots of beautiful shells of all shapes and sizes on display. The children enjoyed looking through all of the lovely displays and we all loved picking our own favorites in each display. 

Shelly decided that her favorite display was the shell house diorama. She promptly decided that she wants to live in a shell house just like it one day. 

In the center of the shell display, we found the biggest clam shell ever! 

On the top floor of the shell museum, there is a whale and dolphin information section with information and identification charts and dolphin models. 

As you leave the museum, you are greeted by these friendly fellows! It took some coaching and pleading to get all of the kids back down the stairs to the exit, but we thought that these guys were an awesome ending to our tour of the Dias Museum Complex.

Visiting the Diaz Museum - Part 1

While we were on holiday in Mossel Bay, we visited the Bartholomeu Dias Museum Complex and, of course, my furry friends were quick to join in on the fun! The Neptune family posed for some photos so that we can give you all a tour of the facility - you can also read more about the complex and its history on the Dias Museum webpage.

Bartholomeu Dias de Novais was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488 and was the first European known to do so. The museum complex is built on the very site where the European explorers first came ashore and made contact with the indigenous people.
There are also five National Monuments on the museum grounds, four of which dating between 1830 and 1902.

Inside the maritime museum, we found a big hand painted mural of the Portuguese land and sea trade routes. Some of the many items transported along this route, included silks and spices like ginger, pepper, cinnamon, cloves and coriander.

They also have scale models of ships on display in the museum, one of which shows an example of how the decks are arranged inside a ship. Caspian found this very interesting and posed for a photo with one of the models.

They even have a scale model of the ship that Bartholomeu Dias used for his exploration missions around Africa. It is called a Caravel and is a small, fast and highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century. Because of their size, they had limited capacity for cargo and crew, but their smaller size and shallower keel allowed the Caravel to sail upriver in shallow coastal waters.

If the scale model of the Caravel was not enough, the Dias museum also has a full sized replica of Bartholomeu Dias' Caravel on display! The ship is 23,5 meters long and was launched on 14 June 1987, she sailed from Lisabon with a crew of 16 and arrived in Mossel Bay on 3 Fabruary 1988 - the 500th anniversary of Dias' landing. She then sailed to Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Port Edward and Durban as part of the Dias88 Festival, before arriving back at her permanent home in Mosselbay, where she was dry docked and the building closed up around her.

The kids were a little afraid to walk over the wooden bridge to board the ship, so we had to take all of our photos from the walkways around her! Caspian, however, was willing to pose for a photo on the railing and all of the other guests waited patiently for us to finish our mini photo session before boarding the ship again. 

There are also some very interesting items on display all over the museum, one of which is this replica Backstaff. The Backstaff (Or Back Quadrant) is a navigational instrument that was used to determine latitude by measuring the altitude of the sun in the sky.

Nestled between some of the antique and vintage items on the top floor of the museum, we found this very old bicycle. We all had a very good laugh at the thought of having to actually go anywhere on it though!

One of the monuments in the museum complex, is the postal tree. (Only a branch is visible on the top of this photo because the tree is so big!) The tree is a Milkwood tree and is considered to be over 500 years old. In 1501 the navigator Da Nova found a message that warned him of rough sailing near Calcutta, in a sailor's boot under this tree. This tree is considered to be the first post office in South Africa and since Da Nova was so grateful for the message, he built a small stone hermitage to be used for religious purposes - the first religious building in South Africa! 

This is the post box under the Old Post Office Tree, where you can send out postcards and letters. A special frank is used on all outgoing mail to commemorate that South Africa's first post office was this tree. The letterbox is shaped like a boot because the first letters were placed in a sailor's boot under the tree...

Unfortunately when we visited the museum, the postal strike was still going strong and we were advised not to send out postcards from the postal tree at that time. :(


------
P.S - I only realized today that yesterday's changes to my website were not as easy to find as I had thought they would be! I apologize for the confusion that I have created and have now updated the home page of my website to point to the "Updates" page that shows what changes were made and when. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, it totally slipped my mind!

The Neptune's Holiday

I recently acquired the Neptune Sea Otter family and as I was packing and getting ready to leave for our December holiday, I accidentally let it slip that we would be spending some time at the coast...
These little critters just begged me to take them with me and after seeing their little pleading faces, I just couldn't resist! ;-)

These little cuties accompanied me (Safely wrapped in a big washcloth, tucked snugly into my camera bag) everywhere we went for the whole holiday. Sadly, we had a lot of very cloudy weather and conditions were not ideal for taking photos.

On our way to Mosselbay, where my husband's parents live, we stopped by another collector friend who gave me a wonderful little surprise....

Little Lucy Huntington has been transferred from the orphanage in Sugarbush Valley to the Timbertop Orphanage in Rooibosch Hill, where nanny Timbertop hopes to find her family soon.

I have been looking for Huntington bears for quite some time now, and although I have a trade for another baby pending, (Thank you post office... :(   ) his little critter is a very welcome surprise! 

For the time being little Lucy will be staying with her cousins, the Honey Bears.

The drive from our house to Mosselbay can be anything between 14 and 17 hours, depending on the amount of time spent stretching legs, the number of fuel stops, traffic, potholes and roadblocks.

For us, it was a little closer to the 17 hour mark this time and after only having cookies, crisps and candy to eat for most of the day, we decided that it was time to have a late lunch at the Three Sisters fuel station.

The fuel station has the name three sisters, because of the three distinctly shaped hills (locally called "koppies") nearby. These hills are topped with dolorite and look nearly identical. Because of the flat Karoo scenery all around, the three sisters stand out and have become a very well known landmark.

Being the mommy, I was of course tasked with taking the little one for a bathroom break. Upon my return, however, I found Shelly and Sandy Neptune happily munching away at my bacon and cheese hamburger that hubby was so kind to order for me! I didn't see much of my pink milkshake either, but at least we had two happy little sea otters for the rest of the way. 

Before we got back into the car for the last stretch of our drive, we had just enough time to take a picture of the famous Three Sisters Weather Forecast Apparatus. This apparatus is 100% accurate at any time of the day or night and requires no electricity, batteries, sun power, wind power or anything else to operate. 

It really is VERY high tech, extremely rare and crazy expensive!

It is also, essentially a rock... A really BIG rock, suspended in the air by a rusty old chain that hangs from three wooden poles that are cemented into the ground and held together with rusty nails. Comparing the weather stone to my previous photos taken in 2012, the addition of binding wire has been made in recent years (possibly as some sort of attuning mechanism for better accuracy?) where the rusty nails have now failed to keep the massive stone in the air... :-)

To help the common person to get some use out of this amazing weather stone, there is a sign post with instructions next to the stone.

It reads as follows:

Happy New Year 2015!

http://sylvanianfamiliesforum.co.za/phpbb/

Today marks the official one year anniversary of our Sylvanian Families and Calico Critters forum!

It has been a great year on the forum and I have been amazed and awed with the creativity of our humble collecting community. I am very grateful for the friends from all over the world that I have made on the forum and all of the support that you all have given me through both the good times and the bad over the past year. But I have also learned so much from all of the amazing members who so graciously share their ideas, knowledge and skills.

Happy 2015 everyone! May this year be filled with lots of love, hugs & Sylvanians. 

-------

***If you have not yet signed up on the Sylvanian Families and Calico Critters forum mentioned above, please feel free to do so. We have a lot of members from all over the world and we have people from all ages and all walks of life chatting together. It doesn't matter if your English isn't good enough according to your own standards, and it doesn't matter how big your collection is - we love meeting and chatting to collectors young and young at heart both.***

The night before Christmas!

It was the night before Christmas and all around Rooibosch Hill, little critters were sound asleep in their beds, dreaming of the wonderful gifts that would be waiting for them under the Christmas tree.

But in the Tuxedo household things were not as calm as they seemed, for the smallest members of the Tuxedo family, triplets Angelica, Midnight and Pepperment, lay awake in their beds listening for the faintest sounds from the living room.

Angelica and Pepperment had all but given up on their quest, but Midnight was determined to see their plan through and suddenly he was startled from his near slumber by a sound from downstairs. Midnight jumped from his bed and dragged the covers from his two sisters while hushing them at the same time.

The three didn't make a sound as they crept down the stairs and into the living room. As they came closer, the triplets could see the jug of milk and the Christmas pudding that their mother had left out, still sitting on the coffee table. In the fireplace the flames had burnt out a long time ago, leaving only embers smouldering in their wake. 

The triplets felt the heavy weight of disappointment set in. Maybe Midnight had imagined the sound that made him jump out of his bed so quickly. But, just as Angelica opened her mouth to tell her brother exactly what she thought of losing so much sleep on their doomed quest, something amazing happened!

A jolly looking bunny with a big beard, wearing a red suit stood in front of the tree! He had a big bag, overflowing with beautifully wrapped boxes and started placing gifts under their Christmas tree as he softly hummed a jolly Christmas carol to himself.

The Tuxedo triplets couldn't believe their eyes, and watched in awe as the jolly old man stacked more gifts under the tree, then turned his attention to the Christmas cake and milk on the coffee table. They watched for a moment more before the candle in the middle of the room suddenly flickered and went out! 

When Midnight opened his eyes, the first rays of morning sunshine were already caressing the horizon and he found that he was in his own bed. Angelica and Peppermint were both still fast asleep, snuggled up in their own beds and he could still hear his father's snoring floating through the air from down the hall.

And as Midnight thought back at the events of the previous night, he found that the memory was slowly becoming more and more vague until he himself was no longer certain of the facts! But, as Midnight lay his head back on the pillow, trying to make sense of things, a thought suddenly came to him. - Right before he had fallen asleep the previous night, he had distinctly heard the chiming sound of sleigh bells ringing in his ears...

---

May this Christmas end the present year on a cheerful note and make way for a bright and happy new year!

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all the critterzens of Rooibosch Hill!!!

Rainy days are here again! It is time for PANNEKOEK!

It has been such a lovely rainy weekend here in Rooibosch Hill, that the spicy-sweet smell of cinnamon is drifting through the entire villige...

Why cinnamon, you ask? Well, because everyone is baking pancakes of course! :-D In Afrikaans, we call them "pannekoek", and they are deee-licious!

For those who don't know, it is a rainy-day tradition in most of South Africa to bake pancakes and cover them in cinnamon and sugar. (LOTS of cinnamon and sugar!) In fact, no church bazaar, country fair or any other public gathering for that matter is complete without at least one pancake stand, regardless of the weather!

If you have a large family, and have to bake quite a few pancakes, the smell of cinnamon will waft through your house and leave everything smelling sweet for hours after! Baking pancakes on a rainy day is also a sure way to pave your way into your prospective husband's stomach heart... ;-)

Of course South African pancakes are very flat and very thin, and to the rest of the world, they are known as crêpes... So since real South African pancakes differ so greatly from pancakes in the rest of the world, I have decided to share my tried and trusted family recipe for anyone willing to try them.

You will need:
4 eggs
2 cups of cake flour
1/4 cup of sunflower oil
a dash of salt (Yes, I cook and bake with dashes!)
15ml white vinegar
300ml Water
400ml Milk
Sugar (White / brown, it doesn't matter)
Cinnamon (LOTS of it!)

Add the cake flour to a big mixing bowl, then slowly stir in the milk. Then add the eggs, oil, salt and vinegar before stirring them through. Lastly add the water. Mix everything together until you have a lump free batter. (If you do have lumps, simply pour it all through a sieve! Grandma won't know!) 
Your batter should now be quite runny and resemble a milkshake - we are not making flapjacks here, we are making "pannekoek"!

Put the batter in the refrigerator to rest for 10 - 15 minutes. Add a cup of sugar to a clean mixing bowl and stir in a tablespoon of cinnamon. (Or more if you like - If I had my way, I would reverse the proportions, or forgo the pancakes and just eat the cinnamon neat while I am at it!)
Dust the bottom of a serving plate with the cinnamon sugar mixture. (don't skimp!) This will form the base for your stack of pancakes and this first one will likely give you diabetes, but at least you will die happy!

Heat about a quarter of a teaspoon of oil in a non-stick pan. (Yes, I know it is non-stick, but just do it, because grandma says so!) Repeat this every  now and again if your pancakes start to stick to the pan.
Once heated, scoop a large spoonful of batter into the center of your pan, and quickly swirl it around to cover the whole pan. (If you find the batter too thick, feel free to stir in a spoonful of  water before baking the next one.)

Cook the pancake a few seconds until it turns light brown, then lift the edges with a spatula and flip it over to cook the other side. (Don't let them burn, you have to keep a good eye on them!)
Once done on both sides, turn the pancake out onto the prepared plate, then cover with a layer of cinnamon and sugar mix before adding the next pancake on top. Repeat until your batter runs out!
Serve your pancakes by rolling them up one by one and enjoy the spicy-sugary-goodness!

P.S - If a pancake flops, just scrape it out into a bowl, add some of the sugar mix to it and eat it with a spoon in front of the tv later. (No one has to know!)

Lovely Lavender rabbits

It has been so long since I have been able to post anything, that I am ecstatic to get back online to show you the newest happenings in Rooibosch! I have been forced offline for a while now, since my ADSL connection is giving us some problems... Of course, on the better days that we actually had some connection, I managed to set up a nice little post to post itself over the weekend - as you can see, that did not  happen! Oops...

I honestly don't know why I am experiencing so much trouble with Blogger, but hopefully I will sort out the kinks soon. This time around, I managed to delete the whole post while editing it!!! But, at least it seems like my internet connection was at least partly to blame this time around.

So, without further ado, let me rave on about my lovely Lavender rabbits, who have all been photographed out of their box for the first time. :D

How stunning are they!!!? O_O
I have been meaning to do a little write-up about them for some time now, but never quite got around to it. This is the first photo of my whole family out of their box, how exciting!

Since receiving the Lavenders on 27 April this year from all of my friends on the Sylvanian Chat Forum, as probably the bestest best gift ever, I have not had the heart to take them out of the box to photograph them.

Well, that is not entirely true - I carefully cut the tape on the box, removed the inner and snapped a photo of them all strapped in place. Yes, I realize how stupid that looked, but I couldn't take them out of the box!!!

So, one morning not too long ago, I realized that I needed a bit of a pick-me-up, so I decided to take some photos of my little Lavenders to create their webpage for them. The family photo turned into a whole photoshoot and I even did a little story about their snow day on my website.

Since the Lavender rabbits don't have official names, I found it difficult to write about father Lavender or mother Lavender and ended up giving them all suitable names. To be honest, thinking up names relating to purple wasn't that hard, so I ended up with father Carmine, mother Lydia, sister Violet, brother Tyrian and baby Lila. I decided to shorten Lilac to Lila so that she isn't just a colour. Mother Lydia is probably the only one that doesn't have a name that is also the name of a colour, but her name does hold the meaning - woman of purple, so I felt that it fit after all. :-)

Sylvanian Snow Day!

We don't have snow in South Africa. :(

Well, let me re-phrase that... We don't have snow in most areas of South Africa.

I have seen snow in the distance on the Drakensberg before, but I have never seen snow up close before. (Not real snow anyways)

We do, however, have heat here... LOTS of heat and it isn't strange to have a 40 degree (Celsius) day in summertime - which is most of the year, since we only have a few days of autumn and a few days of spring around here.
The rest of the time, it is summer, summer or winter. (Oh and did I forget to add summer?)

My poor polar critters are finding it pretty hard to survive in this heat due to the extended summers and total lack of snow! So, I have decided to remedy that for them even for just a little bit.

So, in the 38 degree heat, I made it snow in Rooibosch Hill... ;-)

It has been an idea that I have been playing with for a very long time, but it just never worked out for me. Fake snow is really expensive and I couldn't get my critters to stand / sit still on the quilting fleece stuff from the fabric shop! So, it has never snowed in Rooibosch before due to my lack of imagination...

But today was the day! I picked up a bag of white sugar from the grocery store and tipped the lot out onto a tray, collected my camera and some arctic critters and happily snapped away. The results were much better than I anticipated and overall I think the photos came out pretty well.
The critters enjoyed their snow day and even my little terror had some laughs watching is crazy mother play in a really big pile of sugar! (2,5kg of Huletts pure white sugar to be precise!)

Now it is time to clean this mess up... O_o

You can all probably guess what everyone is getting for Christmas presents this year, huh?
Say it with me - Sugar Scrubs!!!

Little Dolly Polarstar does not look too happy with this sudden cold weather...

Perhaps a ride on the sled will cheer Dolly up?

At least the rest of the family seemed to enjoy the snowball fight!

The polar bears couldn't have all the fun, so the De Burgh penguin family decided to join in too...
These critters are quite tricky to photograph, since they don't really "do" much and they are in reality nearly stark naked... O_o

♫ ♪ ~ Do you wanna build a snowman... Uh... Iglooo? ~ ♪ ♫

Penguins, penguins everywhere!