The Buckley House Renovation: Finished!

“Hello, it’s me, Agatha Buckley! Our house have been finished for a while now, thanks to all of the help that the villagers of Dandelion Creek provided, so I thought I should show you around. We have a lot of plants around our house, it reminds me of our old house when we lived in the middle of the forest. You can put your shoes beside Maria’s and come inside!”

“So this is the first ‘room’ of the house. Beside the door is are my son Freddie’s three pets, Bitty Batty and Botty; the three dwarf bats that he received from the wonderful Nina of Riverside. They like it here as it is a bit darker but they can still see us so they aren’t that lonely. Beside this is the armchair that was a gift from the Cottontail family. My daughter Maria did the two embroidery art pieces you see hanging there, you can see that she is really getting better at it since Molly Clearwater has been helping her.”

“My husband Rupert thinks that the armchair is the perfect place to relax after a long day with some crosswords and Sudoku!”

“This is the ‘heart of the home’ so to say, the kitchen! In the corner there is a refurbished stove and oven that we use daily to cook everything from stews to hot water for tea. Then we have the kitchen counter and sink combo. There is a lot of room underneath in the draws and cupboards to store everything we need. Over there is the table that we use for meals and the children use to do their homework on. Freddie uses it most of all, he is constantly snacking on something. Here he goes again with a glass of milk! No Freddie, we have not got any cookies, you ate the last one yesterday and I have not got the ingredients to make more.”

“Come up the ladder here to the bedroom. Catherine Cottontail sewed us these wonderful blankets and quilts, I am so thankful that she likes sewing. I don’t really have the patience for sewing and I fear any sewing by Rupert would be a bit of a disaster. In the corner we have my youngest sons bed, Oscar has quite a bit of room to play which I am happy with. He didn’t have much room in our old house”

“Here are the children’s beds. Oh hello Maria, I didn’t see you coming in! Each child has their own quilt which they chose the fabrics for themselves. Maria, you’d better sit on your own bed and practice or Freddie will be cross.

Anyway, this is our finished house, I hope you enjoyed the tour!”


Here it is! The final part in the series, I hope you like the final look of the house.

Hugs, Emily

 

Buckley and Clearwater Family Descriptions

Clearwater Vole Family

Sybil Clearwater

Sybil Clearwater is a kind woman with a personality with draws people in. Her laugh is contagious and no one can recall a day where Sybil seemed sad. Even when she is very flustered and stressed she is still smiling. Sybil loves to sew so it is no wonder that she is the village’s seamstress! Recently she bought the latest sewing machine, the Daisy 1000 which allows her to sew her things a lot quicker!

Molly Clearwater

Molly Clearwater is learning to sew from her Mother. She can already make a great number of things but Molly is eager to learn how to do so much more! Molly can be shy around others but when she opens up she is warm and bubbly just like her mother Sybil. Her favourite pastime is to gently swing on a swing and observe the nature around her while working on some hand sewing or embroidery.

Buckley Deer Family

Rupert Buckley

Rupert Buckley is a man who loves his Sudoku and crosswords. He collects all sorts of puzzle books and enjoys sitting down to complete a Sudoku or two before bedtime or after a long, hard day at work. Rupert is a teacher at the local Dandelion Creek school as the classes have become too large for just Aristotle Treefellow to manage. Every Saturday these two men get together to plan lessons for the upcoming week, a task they both enjoy as the meetings are held in the village Bakery, with free donuts provided!

Agatha Buckley

Agatha Buckley sometimes helps out with Art lessons at the local school but mainly helps Tabitha Hazelwood at the Dandelion Creek nursery. She loves little children and is usually one of the first people that is asked if any babysitting is needing to be done. All of the children adore her (not only her own) as she has a unique ability to make up stories on the spot that enchant the little ones. No wonder all the toddlers look forward to going to the Nursery!

Freddie Buckley

Freddie Buckley is a very organized boy who would like to be either a teacher like his Dad or a mayor like Elliot Beaman someday. He is quite patient and loves to help and teach others, which is why he thinks he may like teaching, but he also loves to organize which is why he thinks being a  mayor may be fun too. Like his father, he also adores Sudoku, colouring and crosswords as it gives him great satisfaction once the empty white spaces are filled in with letters, numbers or colours.

Maria Buckley

Maria Buckley is very good at crafts. She like painting a lot, which is why she enjoys helping at the Nursery with Art lessons when she can. Lately she has enjoyed embroidering and has gotten quite good at that too. Her and Molly Clearwater often meet up after school now to embroider together, as Molly is very good at it and is happy to help a sometimes struggling Maria. Next she wants to try making her own painting pigments with her mother.

Oscar Buckley

Oscar Buckley is a happy little boy who loves his Mothers stories or sitting on his Fathers lap when he does his nightly puzzles. Despite his young age, he is already beginning to read simple words and flips through every book he can get his hands on. Aristotle Treefellow and him spend a lot of time together as Aristotle is helping him further develop his reading skills so that he is able to understand more of the books he grabs.


I was so lucky to get both these sets brand new in their boxes, but for $25NZD each! The rest of the family descriptions can be found under the “Meet the Critters” tab ?

Hugs, Emily

The Buckley House Renovation: Nearly Ready

A year ago the Buckley’s house was nearly ready enough for the family to move in, though a few finishing touches were needed. In the garden the Cakebread family was hard at work making the garden look wonderful.

“I wish that Herb Wildwood was here, he is so much better at managing veggie patches than I am” sighed Martin Cakebread as he raked around the carrots.

“Don’t worry Dad, you are doing a fine job. After all, It can’t be too different to managing flower beads!” exclaimed his daughter Melinda encouragingly. Martin smiled at her, she always knew what to say to make someone feel better. He much preferred growing flowers to vegetables but as Herb was helping Aristotle Treefellow plan a gardening lesson, he had decided to step in and help finish the veggie patch for the Buckley’s.

“Wow Melissa!” gasped Agatha Buckley in awe. That lady was certainly talented when it came to flowers. “Those look amazing!”

“Aww thank you Agatha” Melissa Cakebread smiled “These ones are a new variety that Martin and I have created, they look lovely, don’t they?”

Everyone nodded, they were sure that the new variety would soon be popping up all over the village!

“They smell nice too!” said Marley Cakebread who was leaning over a pumpkin to help his dad.

Agatha continued on her way to the house. She had just helped with a Nursery art lesson and wanted to check up how the renovation was going. She was longing to move in as currently the family was sleeping in the village Bakery, with the oven going for warmth. “I hope that you aren’t thinking about climbing up that ladder Rupert!”

Rupert Buckley shook his head, remembering the last time when he was on the roof. What a telling off he had received! “No, I am just holding the ladder for Aaron here.”

“Yes” Aaron Cottontail agreed “You needn’t worry Agatha. I’m the only one going up the ladder to paint, Robert will be quite safe.” Agatha watched as Aaron strongly climbed up the ladder with Rupert firmly holding the ladder steady. The roof had been repaired so it shouldn’t leak and the soggy beams had been replaced, meaning that now everything could be painted and wallpapered.

Inside the wallpapering was in full swing. Agatha had chosen half the cottage to be wallpapered white and half with a lovely blue floral pattern, nearly matching the one of her dress!

“Pass me the glue please Christopher. I can’t quite reach it while holding the rest of the wallpaper up!” asked Herbage Dappledawn as he was putting up some of the floral wallpaper in what would be the kitchen. Christopher Cottontail pushed the bucket of wallpaper glue closer to him and handed him the end of the paintbrush. Herbage thanked him and applied the glue to the wall before pushing the wallpaper down. Before this project he hadn’t ever wallpapered before but now, after doing it for about a week, he was feeling quite the expert!

“When do you think you will have this finished?” asked Agatha curiously.

“Oh, it shouldn’t take longer than a day or two, we only have this wall and that wall there to finish” replied Christopher, pointing. A big smile lit up Agatha’s face and she thanked the two for their hard work.

Upstairs had already been wallpapered and had been used as a space to make the furniture, but now it was being used to produce the curtains for the windows. Sybil and Molly Clearwater busily worked on the curtains. They had recently moved to Dandelion Creek and had been delighted to find work so quickly.

“How many more do we need to sew Mother?” Molly inquired.

“Two more after this one Molly, then after that we need to finish those quilts and blankets for the beds” Sybil responded, cutting off a loose thread that hung at the end of the curtain she was working on. “Now you untangle those threads please Molly. Your paws are much smaller and more nimble than mine!”

Primrose Dante picked up one of the finished curtains. She smoothed it out and positioned it on the wall. The wallpaper was nice an smooth, Herbage and Christopher had done a good job! Primrose felt proud, as she had helped Herbage learn how to wallpaper and he had flourished under her guidance.

“It is looking much more homely now!” she remarked joyfully.

“Yes it does, but it will look even better once it has been properly cleaned! There is sawdust and scraps everywhere!” pointed out Bridget Fielding who had hauled up a bunch of cleaning supplies. She began cleaning the window. She had already cleaned the bottom windows and now it was the turn of the top ones.

“The next curtain is done!” cried Sybil.

“I will hang it!” shouted Velvette Slydale who had just walked into the house. Molly ran down to bring her the curtain, and a stool as it needed to be hung quite high and she wasn’t sure if Velvette could reach.

“Oh that means that it’s four o’clock! I need to go and pick up Jamie from the Cottontails!” exclaimed Bridget and she hurried off with Primrose.

“We can continue doing the cleaning” Marley suggested. He and Melinda got to work with Martin sweeping and then Melinda scrubbing off any little specks of paint on the floor.

“The garden is nearly finished too” announced Melissa as she marveled at how quickly the rest of the wallpaper was being put up. They might be able to finish the wallpaper that day!

“What are you doing Martin?!” called Melissa loudly from the top window. It looked like he was sniffing the carrots!

“I am seeing if the carrots have any bugs on them! Herb said they might and that I would need to remove any. I don’t think I can see any though, unless I’m not looking hard enough” he replied and continued to carefully examine the leaves of the carrot plants.

“I like lady bugs!” stated Milo happily.

“We painted lady bugs earlier in Nursery class today” explained Agatha who had come upstairs with Rupert. “Milo made a wonderful painting! It is drying now but he can take it home and show you tomorrow”. Melissa told Milo how much she was looking forward to seeing his painting and that she would hang up the painting in their bedroom at home.

“Well it is all coming along nicely, we should be able to move in very soon!” Rupert said, turning to his wife.

“Yes, I can’t wait!”


Hello everyone! Well, the first actual post at last! The Buckley’s house is all finished so this is the last part of the renovation series (if you haven’t read the first three parts yo can check them out under the ‘stories’ tab). I will soon publish the Buckley and Clearwater family descriptions and I will certainly create a tour of the finished Buckley home with it fully furnished and decorated. Anyhow, I hope that you are all having a good day!

Hugs, Emily

A Life Update

Hello everyone, just to let you now, I’m not dead. I guess that I lost motivation for my sylvanians at the end of last year. This year I have been busy with schoolwork and assignments and just have generally not been motivated to post, nor felt the creativity to create and craft. My sylvanians have been pushed to the back of my mind unfortunately. But since about a month ago, I have felt this need and tug to get them out and create stories with again. I don’t know what triggered this, maybe the stress of exams? My final end of year exams start on the 8th next week and are spread out until the 26th of November. It’s odd really. Stress usually makes me forget about my SF but now I think I remember the peace that comes with interacting and using my critters again, so this I think makes me drawn to them again. I don’t know what it will look like but I think I am going to get back into SF and updating this blog again. You can’t imagine the joy I felt when I opened my blog again for the first time in like nearly a year. Earlier today I went through and began to dust my collection; I don’t think that I have felt so excited in a long time!

So how has my life changed since last year? Well I am now in my third to last year of school so the pressure to do well is building, I have a part time job and next week one of my good friends is moving away to Australia. In general I am pretty good I guess, in comparison to last year I am a lot more stressed but I think I am managing it okay.

Anyway, I have the photos for the final part of the Buckley house renovation ready and I hope to have that posted soon (but who knows) as well as a final reveal of the house. We shall see! I hope all of you are doing well. In the next few days/weeks I will be going through all of the wonderful SF blogs I know and having a look at what you have been up to since last year.

Hugs, Emily