Mad Hatter tea party....

Come with me...and welcome..to Wonderland!

I have long wanted to do some unusual art scenes with my dolls that & props that I have collected for my Alice project...which is an ongoing , tabled project because of funds, space and most precious of all...TIME...Like the hatter, sometimes I wish I could kill Time to make it stop!

For instance, I had no time to do this- Fanciful McTwist Mad Hatter Tea party

The owner of the blog, AFancifulTwist, hosts a Mad Tea Party that is 'virtual' and on that day you link to the blog and register so your blog link is on her blog for that day, and everyone can visit the different blogs & tea parties. I so wanted to do this, but had no time to gather together everything for the staging of the props and the dolls.
Though I have a Moxie Alice, my new acquisition, a Factory Blythe, which I won on
Ebay  looks like what I would think Alice would look like, especially with all the shrinking and growing! I was lucky to win her, because she appealed so much to me, and some of the other 'stock' ones did not. I figured if I was going to buy a doll, get what appealed to me and I liked.

In preparation, I took alot of photos today...of my Mattel Mad Hatter, who I keep displayed in our den on the mantle, and my Dollfactory Bobo mouse bjd- known as Minuette and also Doormouse.

To create this scene, I used odd pieces from my collection. The swan chair and table are Bespaq. The china are vintage teapots I had for my dolls as a child as well as a Ruetter Hummel set. The large teacup on the table with a tiny scene is a project I did a few years ago with my miniature club, Va. Miniature Enthusiasts, and I have loved it ever since I created it. I thought it would add to the unusual scale of Alice. My bjd with her mohair wig is holding an empty bottle and she has obviously drank too much of the 'Drink Me' potion and so has grown so large she has to sit on a crown! The red chess pieces are from Hobby Lobby bought on sale...the white ones are much more expensive. I used miniature books from the bookstore for Minuette Mouse to stand on.

Of course, though we do not have Cheshire here at the Pumpkin Patch, there are always cats at Pumpkin Hill, and of course, they are black!

Meet our 'Guardians' - they regard the house and yard as THEIRS...we simply live here to feed them.

Sweetie Pie (or she also answers to 'Little Girl' as my husband nicknamed her in the first picture above) Below, staring confidently into the camera, is June Bug, aka 'Big Man'...if you could see him in person, you would understand the name--- he is a large cat!

I encourage you to browse the Fanciful Twists' blog and click on all the links to the tea parties- also browse her archives. Some of the most beautiful pictures of tea, and all sorts of 'mad' color schemes and tea parties.
I hope you enjoyed this 'mad' little adventure ....and watch our blog as I endeavor to create more!
~Lisa

First day of school......

The Tinies of Pumpkin Hill began their first day of 'official' school with their new Professor, Wallace. After he had settled in and got to know his students, Wallace felt quite at ease, and quickly interested the most unalert brownie fairies and entreprenuer mice in literature. Dixie being the official tiny blogger of the Patch, she wasn't sure she was going to like homework, but surprisingly, found she liked it.

As you can see, Wallace provided alot of composition notebooks for essay writing and lots of research books on birds, as he thought it would interest the tinies to study about birds, since their postal carrier, Marigold Finch, is a small bird with pretty amazing sorting abilities. Wallace explained a little bit about their study program, and rules and so forth.

More pictures soon, as the new school gains more students!

New Tiny arrival- Professor Wallace

A new tiny has arrived at the Patch at Pumpkin Hill....Professor Wallace. Wallace is a learned and educated bear, or the polar region. Wallace also has the distinction of coming from our friends at the
Wylde Bunch from the Treehouse.

The tinies are quite suspicious, as they are not exactly the most studious of dolls, but since Gracie goes to Pumpkin Hill Academy with Miss Ashton, Lisa felt that the tinies needed a school as well...Wallace is kind of cool, he had bought all of us notebooks, and met us all in the parlor of the dollhouse. He liked the dollhouse, and was quite cordial to everyone for a teacher.

He had a fancy smancy briefcase, we were expecting someone stiff and stuffy, but he was quite funny and told us lots of stories of our friends at the Treehouse, and Miss Wendy, who we've all just been dying to meet, and Miranda too. He also said that we would have fun with some new books he had brought for us to read together. Turns out Wallace is really smart, and not your usual run of teacher/professor. He's pretty cool. After settling in, he asked to see the school, and prepare for the next day's program, which he wanted to set up that evening. So far on our list is me, Maizie and Minuette, and possibly Emily, one of the mini American Girl dolls, and Kit. April Mae is being difficult, but I think once she sees how much fun we have at school, she may want to come too.

Wallace showed up at the schoolhouse and was quite impressed, I don't think he expected it to be as clean and neat at the beginning. He liked the modern schooldesks, and said he was expecting a Laura Ingalls type of schoolhouse, and was relieved we didn't have ricketty desks and all. He was disappointed there was no chalkboard, but liked the alphabet and numbers border stenciled at the top of the ceiling. He set to work immediately re arranging things, and getting things in order.

Wallace soon had everything ship shape, and ready for the first day of school. Meanwhile, back at home, Minuette packed the tinies' lunch boxes.

The lunches were packed with peanut butter sandwiches, bags of pretzels, and a candy bar...hope all that sugar helps us focus on what Wallace has planned for us on the first day of school.

Professor Wallace is already looking forward to the first day of school, and is excited about teaching at the 'pumpkin Patch! Welcome to our new resident at Pumpkin Hill!

New stuff happening at Pumpkin Hill- Dixie's on Facebook!

New things are happening at the 'Patch on Pumpkin Hill...one, our kitchen fridge, stove and sink arrived! You should have seen Minuette's face! (she loves to cook and was having to cook all our meals at the sweet shop, which everyone was getting tired of candy and brownies and pie...well, not really...)

Minuette was quite happy, but there are some kinks with it- the furniture, I mean...

I, Maizie and Minuette are a little 'short' but the furniture fits April Mae just right...no, Goldilocks doesn't live here, but April Mae was a little smug. overgrown princess.
But we also got into the 21st centure and our big screen TV arrived as well!

April Mae & Maizie wanted to try it out NOW, but I pointed out that we didn't have a TV Table, or anywhere to plug it in just yet. Miss Lisa said our other windows arrived, so the house is coming along..
and now drum roll............
I'm also on Facebook ! I hooked up with my pal in Denver , Colorado Miranda Wandering and Lisa set up my email and everything! So now I'm official...you can friend me on Facebook and also follow all of our updates from my facebook page for the other dolls as well. I did such a great job of making some of the new dolls feel at home that I've been given the job of reporting on the 'Patch and its inhabitants...hmm..sounds  like work to me..
All for now!
~Dixie way down South in Virginia

And now to sleep...

One of the hardest things on re-doing the dollhouse is not the papers, trims, windows, etc. -- it is deciding on furnishings. Another problem- deciding on how many tinies will actually LIVE in the dollhouse. Real estate at the 'Patch is scarce and quite expensive right now....Last night I visited Bell's Exclusives, one of the oldest dollhouse shops in Richmond- Mr & Mrs Bell have been in business since I was a small child of 10 or 12. (er, that's 30+ years....) I purchased the two beds and a small table for Kit's attic bedroom. Kit's bedroom is a project within itself since I am trying to replicate her room in 1:12 scale fromt he catalogs. Biggest thing I am looking for is her bed, which I will probably have to paint green.
I will probably order the kitchen sink, stove, and fridge, along with the windows for the house. I have a nice set of bathroom furniture for the room at the left of the Kit attic bedroom...but have wondered if maybe I shouldn't make that into a small bedroom for Wren (realpuki soso) and Marigold Finch. I will probably redo the linens on the beds as they do not really go with the wallpapers, but are big enough for the tinies. So looks like Dixie may be sharing with Maizie. April Mae is not too happy at sharing a room with Minuette, who is quite independent and I;ve been told she snores loudly for such a small mouse. Enjoy the pics!

Part 2 of Tinies Moving in...

 I told alot yesterday about our chaos of

moving into the dollhouse. Well, turns out we didn't move everything, so we had to go back to our rental house from the Woodenhouse family for more tubs of stuff! The Woodenhouse family has been very understanding, and storing our stuff, er junk, in their attic rooms. Minuette and April Mae are such pack rats!

So we piled into the van and stuffed ourselves, the tubs, and Duke between Maizie & I in the front seat. Our van is a used one, (for some reason if you push a button on the dash a voice says, 'are we there yet?') but otherwise, it is serviceable. It was a long drive, Minuette and April Mae amused themselves by waving at everyone out the back windows.

Maizie makes me extremely nervous by constantly yelling 'Don't hit that tree! or Kid, on the sidewalk!'. I am going to have an extra cup of Java in my C&M Coffee cup that my buddy Miranda sent me to calm my nerves, and maybe some cookies too...It didn't help when Minuette and April Mae began singing '99 bottles of beer on the wall' and we made it to the number 40!  before we arrived.

Hopefully the new windows, what are painted and done, will be installed. We are still picking out furniture and figuring out how many beds we will need. Miss Lisa is hedging, and when she hedges, that means another ! Tiny might be moving in and need a place to crash! I will probably have to share with Maizie, as the mini American Girl dolls are taking one of the attic rooms. sigh..I'm beginning to think I need a house of my own, instead of driving nervous nellie tinies about with tubs of STUFF. hmph....I'm feeling grumpy today.

After we had arrived, and everything settled down, I went with my pal Emily out back and watched the sun going down.It is really pretty back there with what is known as soy growing in the field.. Sometimes they grow corn too out here in the country. It varies year to year and at fall, with the leaves beginning to turn, it's really pretty. Emily & I sat on the fence post and watched the sun set.

After watching the sun set for a little bit, we decided to climb the old pear tree, and it was fun! And so relaxing. ...the other tinies grumbled I didn't help unpack- but what's to unpack? Just more STUFF...and we don't have much furniture yet. Sometimes you gotta smell the roses, or like me, climb the trees....

Now if you haven't gone to my buddy Mirand's Blog , then you need to. She's just inherited a whole new house...kinda needs fixing up like our house. Ok, not as much as our house...but more on our house restoring later....

Have fun! ~ Dixie from way down South in Virginia...