It's a matter of time, we always get lost..

I still haven't opened up all my Christmas Lundby yet, but I took some quick photos the other day as the last 2 sets (Smaland dining room & kitchen) arrived last Saturday.  So far the only set I've opened is the Stockholm set with the shower & jacuzzi, as I wanted to see if the shower would fit in the small left hand upstairs room in my "Dream House" (the Lundby version of Barton's Caroline's Home).  I feared it would be too tall, but it *just* fits in.

I still have some more recent Lundby pieces on my wishlist. I think the sets are the top of my list are mostly Smaland sets - the bathroom set with the roll top bath (I'm sure the Stockholm jacuzzi will come in useful, but I much prefer the roll top bath), kitchen accessories set with the herbs, & the new stereo sideboard, + the older Stockholm bedroom set (which I'd buy in a heartbeat if I could just find one).

I'm planning on using all of these in my Dream House but still need the roll top bath to complete the bathroom, the sideboard to complete the living room, + a complete bedroom set & more furniture for the spare room upstairs, though I'm not even sure what that room will be yet - possibly an office/craft room (the old Smaland TV set with the yellow bookcase might be handy to go in there with the brightly coloured Stockholm table & chairs).   However I think I have enough to start figuring out how I want to decorate the walls & floors of the house.



I'd love to find a way to replace the stairs in the dream house, whether that's making some myself, or using some made for another house.  I really love the stairs in the old Stockholm but don't have an old or new Stockholm myself (yet, maybe one day - I'd love both)  to measure to see if they would fit in the Dream House.  I do have a spare staircase (the type in the Smaland/old Gothenburg) but I don't think they would work in the Dream House - they're too tall & would need modifying + I want some open stairs, so you can see through to the rest of the room - the large room downstairs, which is supposed to be the living room, but which I'll be making into a large open plan kitchen/dining room).

I'm looking forward to opening the rest of the sets & trying them in my Dream House, & really hoping the layout I've visualised will work. 

Oh.. & Happy New Year! 

Replacement & different parts.

A little progress for the Gothenburg. Yesterdays arrival - 4 doors, 4 windows, stairs, banister & step (from a 1980's Gothenburg?) should resolve some of the issues - the missing windows, & the broken door handles.  All the pieces smelled very musty, but the musty smell seems to have gone since giving it all a good clean.

One of the door handles dropped off on its own while the pieces were soaking & I was able to get the handle from the other side of the same door off easily, & without any breakages. Hurrah!  However the door handles are a different colour than the door handles in my Gothenburg.  The "new" ones are gold, the ones in my Gothenburg are a darker coppery colour (& less shiny), I'm not sure if I should try spraying or painting them to match.  Something to consider..

It was interesting to see the difference in the banisters from the top of the stairs. 

At the top is the banister from the Småland, below is the banister from the 80's (?) Gothenburg. 

I don't understand why the Småland banister has the extra bit at the end (top left in the upper photo, top right in the lower).  

I've been frustrated with the extra bit since I put the Småland together, the banister doesn't fit properly because of it, & I've been wondering if I should try shaving some of the plastic off to make it fit properly.

Unlike the older Gothenburg banister (which appears to have been glued into place), the Småland one attaches with a screw at one end & a small round plastic piece which fits into the floor at the other end.  Because of the extra bit the banister ends up bending & not standing straight, which looks awful.

No progress with the Form Group in basswood yet, though I did finally dig out some stain & clear matt varnish, so hopefully I can get that done this weekend.  The next step will be gluing everything together.  

The stain I had in storage was rosewood, which isn't perfect (I think teak would be more appropriate), but I'm treating the 2 section I'm working on as another test piece anyway, as the wood I used isn't quite the right size.  What I already had, & have used, is 1.5mm thick, for a "proper" version I want to use 2mm thick, which I think is more to scale.

Adventures in Small Land.

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The Mames have a new house, which arrived today.  A Lundby Småland + extension.  

Their first house was a wooden Early Learning Center house (purchased secondhand from eBay in 2009).  Nothing fancy but I like the dimensions of the rooms.  It's still very much a work in progress, I'm happy with how it's coming together so far though. 

They also have the Playmobil Vacation Cottage & Family Vacation Home A-frame, which I love, but they're a little on the small side for the Mames.  

Mame Momokos are an awkward size.  They're 9cm tall, but are super-deformed, so finding what works with them has been a little tricky, & I've found that i have to use a mix of scales in the furniture for them.  I'm admittedly dreadful when it comes to weights & measures, so getting used to dollhouse scales has been a slow process, but I'm getting there.  

Why "Fragments of Bean".. 

1. Mame in Japanese means bean

2. In reference to The Borrowers, in which people are referred to (by The Borrowers) as "human beans", a mispronunciation of human beings.

3. "Fragments of Bean" is borrowed (& mispronounced) from Maurice Merleau-Ponty's The Visible & the Invisible:

"There is a meeting ground which is Being itself...each experiences 

himself given over to a body, to a situation, through them to being, 

and what he knows of himself passes entirely over to the other the 

instant he experiences the others' medusan power.  Hence each one knows that he himself and the others are inscribed in the world;  what he feels, what he lives, what the others feel and live, even his dreams or their dreams, his illusions and theirs, are not islets, isolated fragments of 

being:  all this, by reason of the fundamental exigency of our c

onstituitive nothingness, is of being, has consistence, order, 

meaning, and there is a way to comprehend it."