Byers Choice figures- and new Cakes

 

I recently was lucky enough to win a lot of Byers Choice Carolers on Ebay, and I have been wanting some of these for so long! Ever since I have been going to Williamsburg, where I would see them at the Visitor center boutique, and the Yankee Candle store, as well as the Christmas Mouse, I have lusted after these collectible dolls/figures. As well as their props!! They are just as expensive as a collectible Silkstone Barbie or Poppy Parker individually so to win a lot of them at the price I did I was thrilled. 

I also have some new Christmas cakes in the Ebay store Pumpkin Hill Studios

Click on the link and it will take you directly to my Doll Food catagory. I have currently added a 1:6 scale Christmas Gingerbread Man Cake 

as well as a 1:6 scale Christmas Peppermint Stick Cake with candy jar 

I am hoping to include a more variety of plain, iced cakes with doilies like the one behind the two Christmas cakes. Trying this for staging purposes to see how it looks on my little Christmas stall!

The two Valentine's cakes are already listed in my Ebay store, one is listed as 1:4 scale - the one with the two heart shaped cookies next to the cake slice with the raspberries on top, but this cake would work well for Byer's Choice ( #Byerschoicecarolers ) as well or Barbie too, it would just a little large. 

The other one, the bundt cake, comes with four heart shaped iced cookies. 

Both cakes come with doilies. 

New dolls and other goodies...

New dolls and other goodies arrived this weekend....

Royal Treatment Veronique2015  online event doll and Techrat from Jem and the Holograms, a 2014 last W club exclusive doll, both arrived on Friday. I just got around to deboxing Techrat halfway this weekend. I took Veronique to my Barbie club for show and tell, still in her box- I still haven't deboxed her.  I think I may save deboxing her for a special occasion for when I'm feeling down in the dumps. I sometimes do that. Save a special doll like this for deboxing. I have so many that aren't deboxed it helps. 

This weekend I purchased two Cinderalla dolls at Walmart that were on sale for $13 each- the Fairy Godmother and Cinderella bride. The one in the blue dress, the one I really want was scanning at $30 so I put her back. I will try another walmart and see if she scans out at the sale price. 

Annabelle also got in her new wig and it is adorable. It is a little more carrot blonde than I imagined from the photo on eBay but it makes me think of Buffy from Family affair, which is kind of endearing in a way. I had wanted a lighter blonde in keeping with Annabelle in the book who is 'fairer' in Tasha Tudor's drawings but this suits my Annabelle to a tee. She looks more rosey and cheerful with this color wig, kind of like a young Aunt Pittypat from Gone with the wind. lol.

I also got in the mail the Byer's choice croquet mallets I stumbled across on auction that are the perfect fit for Annabelle's scale! I have been wanting more than anything to make her a croquet outfit, but put it off because could not find the croquet set in her proper scale. Now that I have just to find the fabric which I saw a perfect blue and white striped seersucker at Hobby Lobby. One mallet is red and one is blue with the matching ball. I am going to make the matching hoops with wire and decorative tape.

The Gildebrief pattern books I ordered also came in the same time as her wig. I find it irritating on some sellers who print out a label and wait THREE freaking days to go to the post office. I ordered her wig and paid immediately yet it took this person until almost the middle of the week , Wednesday or Thursday to get it to the post office. I ordered my Gildebrief magazines on a Thursday and they were here within two days the same day as the wig, on a Saturday, from California to Virginia. Unbelievable. As soon as I paid they were shipped. 

In these two issues they used the same pattern in a 2 part article of "1 governess and six cousins at a picnic, " with different variations of sleeves, belts, and pleats in the skirt, and one has a coat. The dress done in plaid is adorable and I was thinking of making one in a fall plaid for her like that one as I have a fall plaid in my stash, it is like a challis. Her croquet outfit would be a little more elaborate that will be another pattern, this is more simple, like a working dress. 

Here are some pics of her with the croquet items-

Enjoy. I will have more photos as I wade through all of this. Techrat is incredibly hard to get his sneakers on! I am also going to try and blog on this blog every day in September, which will be hard, so here's hoping I can find something to blog about every day!! Lisa

Day tripping with Poppy....

Sorry for not posting more this weekend with new photos, but my hubby and I took a day trip this weekend on Saturday to Williamsburg, Va. I live about 45 minutes from Williamsburg, in King William County, which is centrally located to the Northern Neck , as we call it - or the rivah, if you're a local, near the Kilmarnock- Tappahanock region. It is a beautiful, lovely and historic area. We sometimes like to get away and just go see the sights, have lunch and poke about looking for antique and cool shops.

First we visited the newly re-vamped Williamsburg Pottery. This place had older structures but sadly, has been redesigned to look like Northern Va. nightmare. Prices are higher and you are definitely paying for the ambience/scenery of the Pottery now, the merchandise is not worth it. I miss the quaint charm and the wholesale atmosphere where you could order custom floral arrangements, push a basket over rickety concrete floors, and dig in huge bins. It was a crafter/designer dreamhouse. Now it looks like a cross between Garden Ridge and Bed Bath and Beyond, only with Northern Va. price tags.

But they still had a few oldies from the old store that used to beon display. The Pottery is over 60+ years old, heck, even going on 80 years since it was started in the 30's. One of the items they had on display was this HUGE chinese ivory carved scene in a display case. I'm over 40 and it's been there as long as I have been attending /shopping there with my parents...

In this photo, my hubby Chris stands in front- the display case is huge and they have cleaned it up and repaired it a bit since it is quite old. 

Poppy in front of some of the intricately carved scenes of the display. As a child, I adored looking at this intricate miniature.

Next was lunch and then Yankee Candle factory.

The Christmas village inside is actually like walking in Christmas town- overhead on the dark black ceiling are lights to simulate stars- and occasionally- it snows inside! Christmas music plays and you go in and out each one of the little shops that is devoted to certain Christmas brands- German nutcrackers, Ornament stalls/wagons all over the place, decorated trees, and I somehow controlled myself. I took pics of Poppy next to the Department 56 Downtown Abbey display and mainly to scope out their trees- but the biggest ones are barely high enough. I love this place because of all the miniatures for my dioramas. I could barely contain myself in the Buyer's choice shop- the fencing and that market stall- I so want it! They had three different ones. I was salivating to say the least. 
They also had a Fontanini display and some 1:6 figures, but the ones that caught my eye were the HUGE ones, in 1:3 scale.

They were quite lovely....outside, the decoration mania for Fall went on and on...

We then traveled onto the historical part of Williamsburg-my all time favorite part. There were alot of things going on, and parking couldn't be found, so we by passed getting out and walking around the historical part on Saturday- it was college mayhem, as it appeared games were going on, and fall events such as a craft fair, so we drove thru and went to the Williamsburg Visitor center, which was fun too. 

The fountain above is a Millionaire's memorial of all the people who funded the restoration of Williamsburg and its museums, the buildings, etc. I also couldn't resist taking pics of these t shirts. I thought they were funny and would love to go back and pick them up.

We then headed home, but not before stopping at the little gem of Charlie's Antiques.

First thing you see when you walk in is a cornucupia of hard to find, unique antiques/vintage items. That handmade 1:12 scale dollhouse was a delight to discover and take pics of. I admired the workmanship and use of the veneer throughout the house, it is my guess they were trying to do the palace at Brighton with their own spin, but I could be wrong. Pricey at $2000 there are more photos on my Facebook page. Another unique item was the child's or doll canopy bed and these unusual birdhouses. I would call them vintage rather than antique myself.

There were also child sized replica Chippendale chairs and this lovely French armchair. There were simply some AMAZING statues that are more photo indepth on my Flicker album if you click above on the stream, you can see them. 

Did I buy anything? Of course! At the visitors center I did buy two pictures for my dioramas. I will take photos of them later in a diorama. I may go back before Christmas and snap up some items in the Byer's choice shop- I adore those little market stalls and would love to do a Christmas market place type of diorama, it would be extremely cool.