The iconic Sydney Opera House. It was designed by a Danish architect and is 41 years old this year. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Missbunny dreams one day she can watch a performance there.
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The desert sunset was beautiful as we drove our way towards Nevada county. When we arrived in Las Vegas, it was already dark. And it was perfect! Missbunny could clearly see the lights and glitz of Vegas city. She could hardly sleep for the excitement she feels being in Las Vegas. The next day, she walked the Strip and admired the huge hotels and billboards. In the evening, it's time to hit the slot machines. Sadly, Missbunny did not hit any jackpot. Oh well, she couldn't buy anything expensive in the shops of the hotel. Just a bar of chocolate. But Missbunny was contented. Chocolates are the best! After a few days of Vegas and chocolates, we continued our journey towards Lake Tahoe. Los Angeles and Las Vegas both seemed like busy cities to Missbunny, so she actually liked to relax for a bit during her holiday. What better place to do this than in Lake Tahoe. It was about 7 hour drive from Las Vegas. About halfway through the long drive, of which we were still in Nevada county, we stopped to admire Walker Lake. During her stay in Lake Tahoe, Missbunny felt she was in another world. It was so peaceful. She was surrounded by greenery, and snow. The air was crisp and fresh. The views of mountains and water were awesome. Missbunny daydreamed that she has her own holiday cabin in Lake Tahoe. She can go there in winter to ski and toast s'mores; in summer, she can go fishing and bicycling. It would be a wonderful life. Back to reality, it was a few more days before we were due to head back home. Missbunny spent the rest of our holiday time in the charming city of San Francisco. Sadly all good things must come to an end. Missbunny learned a few new things while she was in America: 1). Food there was diverse (best guacamole ever!), delicious, and not expensive. The servings were so generous, she could never finish a meal all by herself. Except desserts. 2). She can spend a whole day browsing in the supermarket (hello Whole Foods and Target!). 3). Everyone drove on the wrong side of the street...well, that is according to Missbunny's world. I just managed to compile Missbunny's latest holiday photos, so here is the continuation of the story from my previous post. 2 weeks before Christmas, Missbunny flew more than 15 hours across the Pacific Ocean to USA. It was a gloomy and wet day when the plane took off, but the weather did not dampen Missbunny's excited mood for one bit. She will be staying around the west coast of USA. Los Angeles was her first stop. Missbunny did not get a decent sleep on the plane as she was too caught up with the in-flight entertainment. She arrived in LA in the late afternoon and tried very hard to stay awake until her usual bedtime hour. After sleeping 12 hours and feeling less like a zombie, Missbunny headed to Route 66 Santa Monica beach for some fresh air and winter sun. She did all the touristy things expected when one is in LA. Missbunny loves movies, so she did not miss the chance to pay homage to Tinseltown (Hollywood). After spending a few days in LA, Missbunny proudly stood in front of a sign she saw at some beachfront shop and decided she needed to follow this theme for the rest of year 2013 and into year 2014: The food servings in America are very generous, so Missbunny happily indulged herself in yummy sweet desserts, everyday. Next stop after LA is the Entertainment Capital of the World. Stay tuned for Part 2 of Missbunny's American adventure.
Hello from Kintamani in Bali, Indonesia. Missbunny and her travelling buddy stopped by to see Mt. Batur. Mount Batur is an active volcano; Missbunny just hope that it is not going to suddenly spew out ashes while she is around. Oh, in case you are wondering...Missbunny is the more ragged-looking critter in the photo (she has been on too many adventures lately). ** Thanks to MK for the photo **
It's a wet day today but Missbunny is still very excited. We are going far and away this time. There will be more photos of Misbunny's latest trip coming soon. This is a cute set called "Himitsu no o-Niwa", meaning the secret of the garden. It is indeed that. This accessory set seems to be meant for use as a garden extension to the Sylvanian homes. It comes with three fences, two of which are to be fixed onto the holes of the garden base, and two felts (one green color and one brown). There are other extras, which will help to transform this garden base into several uses. The big 8-shaped hole that is on the base can be used as a water scenery. One of the extras is a set of plastic logs that becomes a bridge: Or the logs can be used a raft: The 8-shaped hole can also be used to grow real plant seedlings: Included in the set is a packet of real seeds (!) and a couple of plant labels for you to write down what it is that you are growing. The packet of seeds has remained unopened since 1987. I have not tried to see whether any plants can still grow from them. So that is why this set is called the secret of the garden. Pretty neat isn't it ?!
This is one of my favorite buildings. I love the elegant look of the building, the color is such a sweet and gentle pink, and I like to visit coffee shops! The Cafe Terrace was released in 1988, and the shop serves refreshments such as coffee, pastries, pancakes, sandwiches, burgers and some sort of soda drinks in yellow and red bottles. Yummy. Here are more close-up photos of the building: A separate accessory set was also available to complement the Cafe Terrace. It was called "Osharena Master" set (literal English translation is "stylish/smart" master). I like to think that the accessory set is for the urbane owner/barista of the Cafe Terrace, Master Cream Cat! Inside the box there is a background insert of the Cafe Terrace. Very cute. Here is my Urban Life Cream Cat wearing the smart outfit. He is busy measuring the coffee beans to make fresh coffee for his customers. The promo picture on the box of the Cafe Terrace also showed a cafeteria waitress in a pink pin-striped uniform but I'm not sure whether a separate accessory set for the waitress exists. Mama Cream Cat was the waitress of course. The Cafe Terrace supposedly fits underneath the green Urban Mansion, released in the same year. As I do not have the Urban Mansion, Tomy's Country Manor house stacks on top of the Cafe Terrace just as perfectly: I thought the color scheme of the cream Country Manor suits the pink of the Cafe Terrace rather well.
I love all the figures, buildings and accessories that were released under the Urban Life Series. You can check out photo of the Urban Life Telephone Box in the Gallery section. There will be more photos of Urban Life series to come later. Today I am posting about a set called "Forest Concert". It was released in 1987 and seemed to be a special packaging for a "Love's Gift Set" (literal translation) series. The box say that the set is series number 7, and unfortunately I have no idea what other series of Love's Gift Set were released around the period. If you have any additional information about this series, I would love to hear from you. I was happy to discover that the item I got was in near mint condition. The box was not damaged despite its age. The accessories were complete and the figures were in excellent condition. The previous owner must have taken very good care of his/her collection. The figures, as you can see, are the gray rabbit, the brown rabbit and the ivory rabbit. Here are some photos of them with their musical instruments. My favorite figure is the brown rabbit. He looks like a really cool musician. The Forest Concert set comes with two pairs of staircases for the concert stage (I call them "stage staircases") which can be re-arranged in a number of different ways: I really like these staircases as they are so well-made. Some of the railings can be taken off and when I put them back on, they fit just right into the crevices. As for the rabbit figures, they are the same as the early 1980s brown, grey, and ivory rabbits. I took some photos for comparison. The musical instruments in the set are the same ones that were sold separately during the 1980s. They feel solid and are finely made, which explains why these instruments always fetch a high price in auctions. I have also seen the staircase sold separately as an accessory. It is used as decorative addition to some of the early-released houses, although it is quite hard to come by it nowadays.
Hope you enjoyed this mini concert in the woods. I have been looking for this JP Cotton Rabbit figure ever since I saw a photo of the figure at a Japanese collector's website. I am sooo excited (!!) to be able to track one down and add her to my own collection. The special figure is an adult size and came with her own Crepe shop. Isn't she simply adorable? I love the details of her dress and the little triangular bandana thing on her head. Mother Rabbit does look like she sells waffles and crepes in that outfit. The Crepe House in my photo above is the UK Flair version (I was lazy as I had it unboxed and displayed already) with the roof/awnings of the shop in the colors yellow and green. The Crepe House set that comes with the figure have blue and white awnings/roof, matching the colors of the Cotton Rabbit's outfit. Below is the promo picture on the box of the special Crepe House set: The special Crepe shop and Cottontail Rabbit set was released in 2001. Other accessories included with the set is a bench and a waste bin with umbrella stand. For further comparison, the JP Crepe House which was released in 1999 has pink and white awnings/roof. This JP Crepe House does not come with a figure, or the bench and umbrella stand: Apart from the color theme of the awnings/roof and the little Crepe House signage, all the little accessories that come with the Crepe shop such as the crepes, pancake-maker, tongs etc are exactly the same.
I guess it's good news for the Sylvanian critters to have so many different Crepe shops they can visit. Maybe sometimes they feel like buying waffles from the Pink Crepe House, and other times they like the taste of the crepes from the Blue Crepe House. Mother Rabbit has settled down quickly in my Sylvanian Village and waste no time in setting up her Crepe shop: |
About MeI like to experiment with photography and dabble in crafty things. I started collecting Sylvanian Families in 2009 and hope that someday my little daughter will enjoy playing and collecting Sylvanian Families as much as I do. Archives
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