"Whatever you are, be the best you can be."

Sunday 16 May 2010

The Borrowers - New Miniatures

I've been buying some new miniatures from ebay. I love ebay for the unusual items you can find, plus I've found by looking in non-dolls house categories you can find suitable things for The Borrowers. For example, a search for McDonalds Toys could contain something you could use as an ornament. Do you remember the Chess Piece Ornament The Borrowers used in their original home under the floorboards at Firbank? The 'statue' gave the room an air of prestige. Although a McDonalds toy isn't quite so majestic, it does give an amusing and colourful addition to a Borrowers living room, or bedroom. Here's my recent addition:


When I first bought him I didn't realise he came with such a large base, I'm now wondering if my Borrowers would even be able to lift Sylvester & Tweety Pie? Although they would probably be able to sit on the edge of the base quite comfortably!


Spare Board Game pieces are also handy as ornaments or even useful utensils. This Scrabble Tile Rack is handy as a shelf for displaying coins or ornaments, and these spare scrabble tiles could be used as a chopping board, or turned upside down and becomes a bowl! Try searching on ebay for Spare or Part in the Board Games section.



Looking under all toys and games on ebay is where I found these Lego Helicopter skids. These will be good for propping up against a wall and hanging laundry from. A Borrowers gotta do their own washing!


Food is important to a Borrower, so I picked some grapes in a basket from ebay's Dolls House Miniatures section. To a normal 12th scale dolls house these would be perfect size for grapes, but I found them excellent size for Blackcurrants or Brambles, in a handmade basket! Perfect! I also have this crazy idea that as Borrowers would go foraging for food humans drop, and if you look on the streets these days, humans drop all kinds of food, mostly chips in plastic cartons, but also many different kinds of sweets. I imagine a half-eaten Mars bar would make a great dessert for a borrower, just keep it cool (in a dark shady place under the floor), cut a triangle shape out, maybe put a small slice of fresh fruit on top (a sliver of fresh wild strawberry perhaps?) - and it would look a lot like this novelty bead I found on ebay!


Now as for wall decoration, wouldn't keyrings be the most easy to hang wall ornament available to a Borrower? Nails are easily found dropped down the back of furniture, with a small stone to hammer it into an under-floor joist. Keyrings come in all shapes and sizes, but these picture ones would be the closest to having your very own framed picture! And yes, I did choose Bella and Edward from Twilight, but it's only because they are both climbing in trees, and it reminded me of Arrietty and Spiller climbing the hedge in The Borrowers novels - honest! ;)


I hope you like my choices, and hopefully come up with many more of your own - I'd love to hear about them!

7 comments:

  1. I love browsing on eBay and Etsy too! For eBay, I usually hunt for bargains or unique items. For Etsy, I drool over others' fantastic and artistic creations. :-)

    You're so talented - can draw and sketch, I envy you ... I also envy your large DVD collection. I am a subscriber to Netflix and get to see a lot of the new releases. Pretty good a deal for about USD $9 a month.


    Louise

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  2. Hi Louise, I totally agree! I think ebay and etsy are my two favourite places for Dolls House Miniatures, I love finding something unique I've not seen before!

    LOL, Thank you! Though I am finding it takes plenty of practice and I'm still not as skilled as I'd like to be - though I am enjoying the 'journey' getting there!

    My DVD collection is both a blessing and a curse, if I watch one a week for three years, I will have nearly watched all those I've bought and not watched! I am a spendaholic! Netflix sounds a great idea, is it like renting a DVD by post/online? Then I wouldn't be so overwhelmed by heaving shelves of DVD's! I think we have a similar service in the UK, Lovefilm.com or something like that it's called - I keep seeing it advertised on TV, but never actually visit the site. Probably too busy shopping on ebay and etsy!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog! :)

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  3. forgot to add that I look forward to seeing more of this project!

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  4. Thank you so much for posting about your Borrowers house/room! What great ideas you have already- those helicopter skids for hanging laundry is brilliant!

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  5. Tienes mucha imaginacion y la haces servir muy bien!!!!
    De cualquier objeto, buscas su utilidad en mini.
    Por cierto mi nieto tiene, a Silvester & Tweety Pie, intentare sacarle parido si me lo da jejejeje
    besitos ascension

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  6. ¡LOL, gracias usted ascensión, me divierto mucho el escoger de los artículos, intentando pensar en artículos de nuevas maneras! ¡La empanada de Sylvester y de Tweety Pie es grande, y agrega un poco de la diversión! :)

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  7. LOL, you're very welcome, Kim! You appear to be very enthusiastic about my Borrowers! I will definitely have to keep posting updates for you - so glad you're enjoying it! :)

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