sparklythings

Despite my love for all things miniature, I’ve never been one for Christmas villages. I can appreciate other folks’ but that’s just a road I don’t want to go down, ya know? People dedicate entire rooms for those setups – I don’t have the time, space or money for that kind of thing right now.

But then Martha had to go and ruin it for me when I saw this in a Grandin Road advertisement:

And in particular, this little A-frame house grabbed my attention. (okay, the bottlebrush trees did, too! Can’t. Let. Go!)

What charming details! What precious jadite trim! The simple lines appealed to me – if only they were a smidge more mid-century, right? That got my wheels turning…why couldn’t there be a little midmod village, filled with houses something like this:

Oh, this Marx tin litho house would be perfect…if it wasn’t 30″ long! (I could fit one on top of my china cabinet, i think – and nothing else!) But it would be so fun to restore one and Christmas it all up. And there are so many different styles to choose from; this website is a great resource (check out the limited edition with the bomb shelter!!!)

I came close to purchasing a tin house on eBay, but Lord knows I don’t need another fix-it-up project. Besides, the Martha houses are really reproductions of old Mica or Putz houses:

Popular in the 50’s, they’re readily available on eBay at reasonable prices. At least they’d be period-appropriate! I never knew about them until just recently, and while they’re really cute I just don’t see myself amassing a collection of vintage cardboard houses. I think they’d take a lot of care to make it through a Florida summer in storage, not to mention they’re COVERED IN GLITTER which, of course, is BANNED from decorations in my home.

I did consider making my own mid-mod cardboard community (sans glitter.) I have all the floorplans and illustrations I need already; I can cut patterns out with the cricut and shellack the hell out of the houses so they’ll last a few years. There is a fantastic resource at Little Glitter Houses with loads of inspiration and patterns for making the traditional style houses. Mr. Lamey is even in Jacksonville, how about that?

It’s a significant project that i’d need to start working on during the summer, though. What do I do for instant gratification? I present you with Plasticville!

There is a whole line of perfectly sized vintage plastic buildings meant for model railroads: stores, factories, motels, a TV station, and even a TRAILER PARK.

Most importantly, though, there is the ranch house in a variety of colors:

These are also all over eBay and just as affordable as the original Putz houses. I’m kind of kicking myself because I think we found a box of these at The Cape’s Community Garage Sale – I poked around for a bit but ultimately let them go. Arrrgh!

In any case…there will probably be some sort of mid-mod village making its debut in our home next Christmas. Damn you, Martha!!!

I’d seen this post on craiglist just the day before:

NICE LITTLE HORSE ABOUT 28 INCHS TALL.JUST HALTER BROKE IN THE PAST FEW DAYS.HEALTHY WITH NO PROBLEMS. I HAVE 2 AND THEY BOTH LOOK ALIKE. 1 FEMALE AND 1 MALES. … $250 EACH

Just $250 each? That seemed like a bargain price for such an adorable animal. They used to keep one inside the independent pet store down the street; it had its own room right at the front. I also saw a service horse in action inside a Wal-Mart once, though with the crowds that it drew it seemed difficult for the horse owner to get any shopping done. But the animals are supposed to be very intelligent, loving, and eager to please.

Yesterday we found ourselves down at the St. John’s County Fair watching the “Horses, Horses, Horses” show. It was not exactly Cirque du Soleil, but they tried their best. Part of the show included a demonstration of six tiny miniature horses mostly running around in circles:

Though some of them had their own special talents:

While I enjoyed watching these little guys running around, I was completely smitten by this tiny horse:

Yes, this one sent me into “awww” overload.

Especially when he bowed to the audience:

Then I began to beg and plead with Jim, telling him about the Craigslist ad. Our backyard is plenty big enough, right? My sister-in-law owns big horses; she’d be able to tell us everything we’d need to know, right?

We’d need a pickup truck to carry the little horse around in, and I’ve been wanting one of those anyway. We’d need a tiny little barn, too. The Guide Horse Foundation has some cute barns on their site:

But in my head, i envisioned something more like a children’s playhouse for my tiny white horse:

or even this awesome, awesome one from the Big Yellow Treehouse Company:

But my playhouse dreams go beyond the scope of this post. Suffice it to say, i saw a cute little barn in our backyard, and inside this little barn was a little closet. Inside the little closet was all kinds of bridles and harnesses, covered with an array of sequins, rhinestones, feathers and glitter. I’d come home and the little tiny horse would be happily running around in the backyard. I’d call him over to his tiny barn and get him dressed in his rhinestones and feathers. Then we’d go for our daily walk around the neighborhood, slowing traffic and charming little kids and doing amazing tricks.

Yes, in my fantasy the only things the horse was missing was a pair of wings and rainbows shooting out of its ass.

Jim was so good, indulging my fantasy even as he realized that a $250 pet would rapidly become a $10,000+ project. I went as far as researching residential zoning requirements to see if this dream could become reality. I mean, people have dogs bigger than some of these horses. What’s the big deal?

Christmas is just about a month away. We’ll see what happens…

dollhouse 053

Originally uploaded by sparklerama

In an effort to get this blog up and running again – and since I’m not doing any work of my own right now – I’ve decided to start doin’ that “blog love” thing I’ve been seeing so much of on Etsy. Not to mention, this dollhouse by sparklerama is spectacular!

When I was little I was obsessed with tiny things. If it was miniaturized, I wanted it. My mom’s crafty friend Donna had put together a real, hinged, electrified dollhouse together for her daughter, and it was my first exposure to “real” miniatures. When we’d go to her house, I’d politely ask for them to take down off the high shelf so I could just sit there and stare at it. Since I rarely did anything politely in those days, this was a big deal. I remember when there was only like one Michael’s in town (not 20 like there are today) they had the best miniture section. Anything and everything you could want was in there!

I eventually got two dollhouse kits of my own, but I was never satisfied with them. My parents sort of turned me loose on my own, and I wasn’t aware of how much work it would be and frustrated when I achived less than perfect results. I was not really into paying attention to detail at 14 years old, LOL. The dollhouses lasted until high school, when in a fit of teenage angsty rage I took a hammer to them. It wasn’t that big of a loss given the shoddy construction, and looking back on my nomadic 20’s they never would have lasted anyway.

But I found an unopened dollhouse furniture kit at a garage sale not too long ago, and found it impossible to resist. I had plans to funk it up, paint it wacky colors and use crazy fabrics. But it’s on my list of things to do, which I’ve just realized is at like 200 entries…

So sparklerama’s dollhouse is incredibly inspirational. You have to flip through some of the other pictures, because when it comes to miniatures it’s all about detail. She’s got a great eye for color and has mixed it up in fabulous ways. She’s also got another dollhouse for a mini-Blythe doll that you have to check out – the craft room is FANTASTIC! And for when I get back to my own dollhouse, she turned me on to jennifersprintables.com, the perfect link for folks who want to make their own groceries, games and more – exactly those kinds of things that used to be in Michael’s! I love it!