Stark

The Villa Sibi is the first house I purchased (or rather, it was purchased for me as a gift), and it has a place of honor in our living room. The rest of my houses reside a floor below. It's actually more of a place of necessity, since the Sibi is quite large and could not fit elsewhere. Sometimes the house becomes a dumping ground for minis, which is not good for a variety of reasons. And sometimes, the people around me get a bit fed up with its appearance.

So...the perfect excuse to whip up a quick scene with a few new things! You will see that a few of these pictures feature a ceiling light -- it is actually a battery powered "flameless" tea light that I picked up at West Elm this weekend, along with the porcelain origami squirrel ornament. The squirrel's a bit odd, I know, but I think its lines are pure and beautiful. He inspired me to go (almost) all white. Scurry over to West Elm if you have one near you -- lots of interesting things for 1:1 and 1:12!

Credits: Shelving is Re-ment; squirrel and tea light are from West Elm; couch and pillows are AG Minis; luscious white rug is hand knitted by The Shopping Sherpa; coffee tables and chairs are Bozart; TV is by LiLu Shop on Etsy; wall divider is from the Villa Sibi; lattice wall covering is a Chilewich placemat; toilet is IKEA; "hot tub" is a soap dish; wine rack is actually the base of the coffee table from the Kaleidoscope House Living Room set. Accessories are Bozart, Michaels, Manor House Miniatures, Playmobil, Re-ment, Mighty World, and random dolls house store finds.

Keeping House

An older style iron inspired this scene, along with its compact flowered ironing board. I decided to use the bathroom in my large VERO for a cleaning room, complete with a sewing kit, a chair for knitting, and a vacuum should the need arise for further tidying up.

Some flowers brighten things up while keeping house.

Speaking of keeping house, I wanted to share a very neat set of Keystone Village houses, purchased on eBay recently ($29). This set appears to be complete, with trees, grass and cobblestone squares, brick walls, and a complete complement of houses: cape, garrison, colonial, etc., as well as a garage, church, and restaurant. Charming, right?

Have you seen Rebecca's post about her Keystone mini houses? They are slightly different, but equally lovely, and she even paired them with some N scale Preiser figures. Rebecca also posted a very interesting and thorough history of the Keystone company, here.

On that same scale....a custom mini train display in a larger train display in a "pop up" Lionel Train store in New York City. The train was motorized!

We visited there for Thanksgiving, and did a lot of walking with the kids. The train store was a major highlight, especially for my littlest. We all love trekking along the city streets, with the towering buildings, and gorgeous scenery, like this lovely tree by Wollman Skating Rink:

New York City is also home to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which in all my years a city kid I had never seen it for real, just on TV. For those of you who may not be familiar with this event, Macy's department store sponsors huge parade of MAMMOTH balloons that fly uptown, along the New York City streets, on Thanksgiving morning to the joy of many, many onlookers who line the sidewalks 15 deep! The balloons are often popular cartoon or book characters, and they are held by trained string operators. Marching bands join the fray, and their ordered lines look fantastic from above.

This year, my brother and his family invited us to watch the parade from their apartment roof, which was a treat. Now that I look at things a bit differently through mini eyes, the whole experience struck me as both amazing and...odd!

On a final note, my sister-in-law and brother are in the garment business, and I could not resist photographing the lovely spools attached to their home sewing machine, by one of their windows.

Credits: Ironing board, iron, flower pot, watering jug, cleaning supplies and basket, and vacuum by Re-ment; clock is Bandai; cabinet, sewing box, table, and chair are vintage German; pillow is by minimodernistas; basket is by Peppercorn Minis; light is AG Minis; folded shirt is a dolls house store find; "rug" is an envelope from the Paper Source.

Re-ment: The ironing board and iron are from Nostalgic Household Goods #8, and are large for 1:12. The flowers and watering jug are from Pure Flower, Pansies, and are slightly large for 1:12.