Hospital for Dog Chewed Sylvanians

Following the latest Sylvanian Families mauling by my dogs, I saw a suggestion on my favourite Sylvanian Families forum (see 'Links' page) that I should make a sort of 'Hospital' exclusively for them! Unfortunately, most of the beds I have are already in houses, so I have had to use the home-made beds my dad made for me when I was little. Also, as the Sylvanian Bank (me) is empty, I have had to use a very small cottage. I would like the hospital at some stage but it will be a while before I get it as my current wishlist is quite long.

The whole hospital is situated in the Country Cottage with Balcony. The hospital was put together in a rush, so please ignore the dust, and the random bar of soap on a bookshelf on the ground floor. The Sylvania Council is sending a plea of help to any residents of Sylvania who are willing to donate some money towards a more modern, spacious Cottage Hospital! :)

The Ground floor of the Hospital for Dog Chewed Sylvanian Families. A window on the left has broken off and is awaiting a replacement (or, I am waiting for my Dad to glue it back in place). The light is from Hobbycraft, and it did work...until I tripped over the wire and it snapped (Also awaiting my Dad's services).
On the right is a cloakroom and reception area, and to the left is a empty bed, and two infant casualties being cared for by a Nurse.

Nurse Emily Nightingale checking up on Emma Dale, who has suffered several head injuries, and Blue DeBurg who is adapting to life without a wing. Ensuring infant casualties have more comfortable cots is one of the many features the Sylvania Council hopes to include in the new hospital.

A welcoming bed sits next to the medicine cabinet (it's a Maple Town one, but I really like it anyway) and a bubbling, hearty stew stands on the stove. The window has been temporarily fixed (I love blu-tac :D).

Doctor Murdoch Jr. books in a new patient with volunteer Nurse Mabel Periwinkle, who is in charge of the cleaning the hospital, doing the paperwork, and cheering up patients. When the Bramble Hedgehogs moved house, they kindly donated their old telephone to the hospital.

Radish Dappledawn has just been brought to the hospital. He waits in a wheelchair in the cloakroom whilst Dr Murdoch Jr. books him. The cloakroom has a bench beneath for waiting visitors.

Upstairs in the attic room are the Cottontail Grandparents. Although the beds are handmade, they have comfy mattresses and warm covers. The beautiful views help them re-cooperate and relax. Grandfather Cottontail has suffered injuries to his arm, whilst Grandmother Cottontail has suffered injures to both her arm and her foot, and is currently ridden to her bed :(

One of the most generous volunteers at the Hospital is Roxy Renard. She provides the Hospital with all food; bringing round pots of porridge for breakfast, soup and home-made bread for lunch and a hearty stew for dinner. She also does all the washing for the hospital, and is often seen hurrying between her house and the Hospital with baskets full of clothes and bedding! 

I got Roxy Renard from my mum. She had purchased her in a set with a darling sewing machine from an old lady's collection of Tomy Sylvanian Families. When I got her out the box I immediately started to play with her. But whilst she was in my hand, a massive spider crawled out of her skirt. Even after my Mum had stripped her clothes off and washed them, I still wasn't keen on her. I shut her away in one of my storage boxes for many years. A couple of days ago I rediscovered her, and she's really grown on me! I don't have any of the other Renard foxes, but I plan to buy her a house to herself! Actually, I would love to get her the Old Mill (on my Wishlist, a previous post) to live in, as the Old Mill is too small to house any family bigger than two!  

Wishlist

I am currently saving for a new phone, and my calculations say I will not have enough money until Christmas :(. Basically, this means, no more Sylvanians until after Christmas. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing though because I will be able to concentrate on renovating The Rose of Sylvania canal boat, and finally finishing decorating Oakwood Manor. Anyway, here's my wishlist ;)

1) The Old Mill. I will have to get it second-hand as it is no longer available. The only ones I have found on eBay have been sun-bleached yellow, so I will have to repaint it white when I get one.

2) Bramble Cottage/Ivy Cottage. These will both be small homes for my currently homeless families, and I will stack them on top of some shops to create a sort of town scene. Again, they will have to be brought second-hand as they are no longer available new.

3) Blackcurrant Cafe. I haven't decided what to stack on top of this, as I don't think either of the above cottages really 'go' with the colour schemes of the cafe. Perhaps Cedar Terrace, as it is only £20 on Amazon.co.uk

4) Vintage Bakery. This is adorable and would look lovely once it has one of the cottages stacked on top of it. Will have to get second-hand also as it is no longer available.

5) Vintage Village Store. Again, it will look adorable with a cottage stacked on top. Because it is so old it's quite difficult to find one with as many of the original accessories included.

If I ever get round to buying ALL of this I will be amazed at myself. It really isn't likely I'll have the money to buy all of it any time soon. And having seen all the Autumn 2012 new releases, I'm more likely to be buying that stuff instead as I hate eBay (I'm always so disappointed when I lose an auction...which is most of the time!) Oh well, I'll buy all the Sylvanians ever made when I win the lottery... ;)

Handmade dresses

I found this pattern online and although there are no instructions my mum managed to make it using the pictures. I found the fabric on eBay in both pink & blue. My mum didn't manage to finish it off as she went out so I sewed on the velcro myself (note: that's why it does not meet properly probably!)

Grandmother Cottontail was more than happy to model the dress as her usual one is being washed. Unfortunately, one of my dogs had a nibble at her arm and her leg when I first got her when joining the Sylvanian Families club 8 years ago (2004). It is not too difficult to make apart from the seams for the armholes, as making a seam in a circle shape is very hard. You'll need to be mildly good at sewing to make this, but why not have a go anyway even if you're a beginner! The back only looks terrible because I did it, but it is actually a perfect fit.

The pattern can be found here and the instruction pictures here.
When I printed out the pattern, it printed too small, I'm not sure how to fix that but I'd definitely enlarge it when cutting your desired fabric. The pattern comes in both Mother and Sister sizes, obviously the small one on the left is Sister size and the large one is the Mother size. I have only made the Mother sized one at the moment and I found it fitted perfectly however I will post some photos of the Sister sized dress when it is finished.

Dappledawn Fawn Rabbits

I was ill today so my mum said I had to stay home from school. I don't mind school really because I see all of my friends, but I always miss my Sylvanians. The Dappledawn Fawn Rabbits have to be my most favourite Sylvanian Family ever! So the today when passing my dog Bramble's bed I found this figure I was quite upset.

My naughty puppy Bramble has mauled yet another Sylvanian Family. Poor little Radish Dappledawn is lying on my pillow right now recovering from this trauma. The worst thing is, last month, Bramble completely ate the mother, Theodora Dappledawn whole, leaving only her dress! And even my favourite figure, Tilly Dappledawn has a few teeth marks on her. Only Herbage and the two babies (Dillon & Cotton) from the Dappledawn Family remain unscathed, so my mum has agreed to buy me a new Dappledawn family. It's such a shame because that Dappledawn family were vintage Tomy ones :(. Oh well, I do love Bramble, but the amount of figures her and my other little dog Mabel have chewed up is unbelievable. At least my mum always offers to replace them, but really, it's my fault I don't shut my bedroom door to be honest. I will take some photos of the new family if I get them.

My First Ever Post - Bluebell Woods

Yesterday evening I discovered some beautiful bluebells in the woods near the Ridgeway, a short drive from our house. I grabbed a bag of Sylvanian Families and my rather old camera, and set out trying to take some photos. A few came out quite nicely, but I cannot get the hang of the autofocus on my ancient Sony 5 mega-pixel camera! But here they are, on my first ever post on my first ever blog!

This is the Bramble Hedgehog family! They are probably my second-favourite family. My favourite family, of course, are the Dappledawn Fawn Rabbits.

The Underwood Badgers - the family are the current Flair version however the babies are Tomy. As they were one of my childhood families they have become very worn, particularly the babies :( However I think I may re-colour in the black bits with a permanent marker, but I am undecided whether this is a good idea.

The Buckley Red Deer family. Although I do love this family I would love the Moss Reindeer family as well, but it would be a bit over-obsessive! I do have all of the babies in this family but I couldn't fit the other two in. Both of these came out very fuzzy because of me trying to work out the silly autofocus >:-(

All of this took me almost 40 minutes as positioning Sylvanians on a narrow, mossy, bumpy fallen trunk is quite difficult! For my first attempt I think I did pretty well. At some stage in the future I also hope to get a new camera.