Ten random facts about myself…

I was tagged by Rebecca and Bea a little while ago, so here finally is my response...

1. I´m the younger one of two sisters and I always was the one with the sunny disposition in our family. Maybe it came with all the dimples I have?! It wasn´t easy to fulfil this determination some days…

2. My sister and I we are so different you can´t imagine. Not just the fact i´m blond with blue eyes and she´s brown-haired with dark brown eyes.

3. I was a child which played all the day and lived in some fantasy worlds I conceived myself. I always loved toys and I still do

4. I was called Nicki when I was small and my friends and family still do.

5. When I grew up I played the piano, sang in different choirs and played at the drama group of my school. One of the plays we did was “The lord of the flyes” by W. Golding.

6. I have twin daughters and we have the disposition for twins in our small family – maybe i´ll be a twin-granny someday?

7. I love to go to fleamarkets and to collect vintage things. At the moment i try to reduce all these “treasures” here at my tiny house, because it´s to overcrowded. I decided to close some collections and just to collect doll´s houses, dolls and furnitures, german children´s books not younger than 40 years and käthe kruse dolls – of course!

8. I am a fashion designer with a diploma but never felt like one :) I like to design children´s clothes and accessoires but I never was one of these fashion victims which go with every fashion hype you can get. You would be very surprised by a look into my wardrobe!



9. I love the art of “Friedensreich Hundertwasser” since i´m a small child. Sometimes i dream of the kind of life he lived: making art, sailing with his boat “Regentag” (rainy day) or just living a very simple life on his little piece of land in New Zealand… just a dream I know :) I would miss all my odds and ends I cumulated around me!



10. I don´t like to cook, really! But if you´ld ask my girls they would say i´m a good cook… I just hate the fact to do all the work to cook a good & healthy meal and then it´s eaten up in minutes. I would prefer to spend all that time in doing patchwork or things which will last for longer!

The rules of this game were: if you're tagged, upload a photo saying you were tagged, put 10 random facts about yourself into the description, and tag 10 other people by adding them to the photo.

I uploaded more than one picture... I chose some pictures of my childhood photografic album, some of an album where i collected pictures from catalogues and drawings (all from my younger years in the 70s) and one picture of a cute spelling book my mum once made for me - all drawn and written by herself (by the way - she´s a teacher ;D)!

And because I had so much work with the pictures :) and a lot of my contacts here have been tagged before, i just chose 3 persons, i hope it´s okay for you...

I tag:
1. Die Puppenstubensammlerin because I adore her collection and she is also from Germany like me
2. Amy´s Miniatures and Smalls because I love her little, funny stories around her peeps
3. And Florine from My vintage Dollhouses and other treasure, because I love her humor and her great collection, too

*Phew* I´m happy I´ve already done this...

Have a nice weekend, Nicola

Mrs Lundby´s Birthday

A big surprise at Lundby´s Livingroom! Today it was Mrs Lundby´s birthday and look what Mr Lundby bought for her - a new sofa, armchairs & a matching table. That was her heart´s desire since years, because they used all the time the old furniture Mr Lundby had in his bachelor flat, before they married.

All children painted cute pictures for her and here you can see the family sing "Happy Birthday". Even baby tried to sing! Mr Lundby also gave a lovely fish sculpture to her. It´s made from murano glass like the little bird on the shelf.

Later on Mrs Lundby´s in-laws came to celebrate. They had a wonderful afternoon with coffee, cake and sparkling wine... Baby was happy too because grandma & grandpa came with Kerstin, the little cousin, and she played the whole afternoon with baby!

I tried to make some pictures with the new installed lights, but i´m not so happy with the result... Maybe i should better take the picture with the lights of :(

*Nicola

PS: Christine and Hans-Herman were busy the whole week, so they had no time for the little shopping tour at "Furniture & Antiques". But Mr Lundby brought the black lether furniture there to buy the new furniture and i guess Hans-Herman will like a livingroom with a black lether sofa & armchairs...

There´s a light....

During the last days I "played a bit Hans-Herman" and fixed all my Lundby lamps to light my houses.

Some of these came with the Lundby Gothenburg /Lundby Götheborg, I bought for Family Lundby last summer.

Some others came with furniture & things i bought on eb** or tra**ra. I was realy happy there was this little pack of plugs through the Lundby things from my childhood, because a lot of the lamps from the gothenburg were without plugs. The yellow lamp above is interesting, too. I bought it in the original package and all looks like Lundby, but as you can see, there is "Lillbo" written on it. Is "Lillbo" the same like "Lundby"? If anybody can tell me more about "Lillbo" I would be very happy.

I don´t know if all lamps are original Lundby, but i think the most are. Now, i have to decide which lamp should be in which house in the end... I have to do a little research in pepe´s old catalogues, because i´m a real nitpicker and i want the houses with the lamps from the right period :)

And could anybody please tell me why Lundby made these very practical little retaining pins on the ceilings of the Gothenburgs and stopped it when they produced the Stockholm??!!! I bought my Stockholm without any marks from stuck on lamps on the ceiling, because the former owner had no light in the house. And now I should start to stick lamps on the ceiling :O... I don´t know if I can do this... How do you stick your lamps on the ceilings?

*Nicola

Hans-Herman´s visit

Friday it was Hans-Herman´s day...

Hans-Herman: Hello, I´m Hans-Herman Anderson, but you can say Hans-Herman if you like.

Christine: Hi, Hans-Herman, i´m Christine. Do you want to take a look at the apartment first?

H-H: Wow, what a wonderful room - so much space and i like the light wooden floor and the chocolate brown wallpaper very much, because brown is my favorite colour. hum, the furniture is a bit like in the smoking lounge of an english club *laughs*...

C: I´m so happy you like the wallpaper! The furniture is not my taste either, but i bought it with the house. You can rent the flat unfurnished and bring your own furniture if you like.

H-H: I sold everything after my wifes death. The house and the furniture...

C: I´m so sorry about your loss...

H-H: Thank you. But i´m feeling much better now. I had to leave it all behind. I´m living at a friends house at the moment. But i would like to move to Lundby Village because of my job at the hospital and to start another stage of live...

C: Yes, i understand you very well... Would you like a refreshment?

H-H: Yes, great idea. I would like to take it here to get a better feeling for the atmosphere here in the apartment, if it´s okay for you?

Later on they talked about this and that...

C: *laughs* By the way, where was this picture of you taken?

H-H: Haha, it was taken at my friends house - all these crazy posters, yes!! Hahaha... but it was the only picture i had at hand when i wrote the letter. I´m happy you didn´t jump to wrong conclusions...

C: *coughs slightly* hum, yes i always try to get to know someone before i draw conclusions. So, how do you like the apartment?!

H-H: I really like it! hum, but i would need a kitchen, wouldn´t i?

C: *hesitates a bit* Yes, of course... There are fittings for a kitchen in one corner... or if you like you can use the kitchen upstairs together with me...

H-H: Oh, yes really?! What a nice suggestion!

C: The handymen just finished my kitchen and i know how much work it is to install a kitchen... we can take a look upstairs if you like?!

H-H: Lovely light room and you furnished it so tasteful!

C: Oh, thank you... yes nearly everything is perfect, i just need an electrishian for the ceiling lamp. I have two left feet and something is wrong with it.

H-H: Oh, no problem i can maybe fix it for you. *jumps on the table*

C: I can get a ladder...

H-H: Don´t worry it´s quickly done...

Hans-Herman fixed the lamp and Christine couldn´t believe how fast the afternoon was over and how good she felt in Hans-Herman´s company!

C: So, would you like to rent the apartemant? I would like to welcome you as my new lodger.

H-H: Yes, great! I could move in the 1. April... But i would like to get some furniture before.

C: My neighbours told me about a new shop in town, "Furniture & Antiques". You can take a look there. They have new and secondhand things. I´ll bring the english club furniture there...

H-H: Well, maybe we can go together - I can help you with the furniture and you can help me to find new ones...

C: Good idea - i´ll call you next week. Bye, it was nice to meet you!

H-H: I´m very happy all turned out so well, Christine - bye!

What do you think - will Hans-Herman be the right one to move in?!

*Nicola

A weird afternoon...

Today Christine invited two of the three guys she selected to be eventual the flat lodger. First Thorfinn arrived with his bulldog Sweetie-pie...!

Thorfinn took a very short look at the apartment, said some impolite things about the wallpaper and the furniture and didn´t listen when Christine tried to tell him, that he could change everything. Meanwhile they had some coffee sweetie-pie sat on her owners lap like a queen. Christine didn´t know that he would come with a dog and the situation was very awkwark, because Piff & Paff were really unhappy about the third dog in the house! Paff didn´t stop to growl and Piff was so untamable, Christine had to hold him during the whole conversation...

In the end Piff jumped up the stairs and started to bark and Thorfinn had nothing better to do than to tell Christine that her dogs are very uneducated and that he´s not sure if he wants to live in a house with two little gadflies!! You have to know Christine loves her two dachshunds and they never behaved like that before. I guess they sensed Thorfinn wouldn´t be the right logder!

Later on Brodde arrived. He also took a very short look at the apartment. He didn´t like the furniture either and started to tell her what he would change and that he is a very good handyman. The weather was fine and so they they decided to sit on the balkony. Brodde came with a "Bild" newspaper under his arm and when Christine brought the applejuice he tossed his stupid newspaper on the table, his jacket on the floor...

and slouched on the gardenchair, while he started to talk about himself: why he would be the perfect man to live in the apartment... because he is so modern and his taste is so great and that he´s such a sporty guy... blah blah blah... every sentence started with "i am..."! Christine was totaly fed up with his self-adulation. Even Piff and Paff started to yawn! After a while he took his newspaper and asked if he could move in next week! Christine was speechless!

After Brodde left Christine was very unhappy with the afternoon. She felt like everything went wrong and it took a long phonecall with Mrs Lundby (who had unfortunately to stay at home with four children with chickenpox) to make her feel a bit better.

Friday it´s Hans-Herman´s day... :)

*nicola

Awards...

I received some lovely awards lately and i want to say THANK YOU to all who gave them to me!

it makes me very happy you like my lundby village stories and all the other little things i like to show!

and i really appreciate all the contacts and friendships i found here the last months. i started this toy blog without any expectations and i never thought i´d find so many other people who like toys, dolls and especially dollhouses like i do. it´s so great to have friends to share a hobby with!

and because i´m not a real award-type and it´s to hard for me to select just six people, i´ll leave these awards here for all readers of my blog - which received the awards from others around here anyway :)

i was also tagged by petra, rebecca and beafordolls and i´m still thinking about this game :) i would like to play it but i´m not sure my english is good enough to tell 10 random facts about myself... and that´s no fishing for compliments - you don´t know how looooong it sometimes takes to write the texts here!

*nicola

New guys in town

yesterday christine invited mrs lundby to take a look at the three guys she chose from all the mail she received... she got a lot of letters, but a lot of the men who wrote weren´t appropriate for christine.

here you can see thorfinn. he is 32 years old, a teacher and got a new job at the local primary school. and he apparently like stripes in black and white. hopefully he isn´t just thinking in black and white... :O

this fellow is called brodde, he is 35 years old and he works as a physiotherapist in lundby village. christine calls him the "pril-flower-type" because of the "pril blume" behind him at the wall :) (pril flowers are very typical for the 70s era here in germany.)

and last not least: hans-herman. he is 33 years old and a widower. he is looking for an appartment because he´s got a new job as a pediatrician at the hospital in the next bigger town near to lundby village. christine was a bit concernded about all the posters you can see in the background of his picture... but she likes his letter and his sad & friendly look... *sigh* ;D

what do you mean - what should christine do next? invite them alone to show them the appartement or together? she doesn´t know and mrs lundby has no idea either...

*nicola

credits: all the men are lundby dolls. thorfinn and hans-hermann are older ones from the late 70s up to the 80s. brodde is a real modern lundby guy from today. all the backgrounds are from a book about the 70s here in germany.