All my happy tiny things...

Recently I found myself standing in front of my typecase again - starring on it for hours ;D I really adore all these tiny things! They make me so happy and looking at them makes me kind of relaxed, too!!

A mix of things from the flea market, my granny´s treasure chest, leftovers from my childhood and my children´s childhood...

Tiny things made by these fantastic wood carvers of the "Ore mountains" and stuff from the "kinder" surprice egg...

Do you have a typecase, too - And what´s inside?

Have a nice weekend, yours Nicola

Please click on the pictures to enlarge and see more details!!

I love Mertens Kunst - Mertens Art

First of all i want to say thank you for all your sweet words you wrote! It´s so good to know you think of me and understand why i had to make a break!!


I´ll try to move on with my little toy blog here... but all Lundby houses are covered with a heavy layer of dust, so i come back with another theme - Mertens art wooden toys:

If you were born in the 60s or 70s, you´ll probably know them. Mertens Kunst is a german company which is specialized on wooden toys and decorations like wall plaques, coat racks, jumping jacks and puzzles... The Designer is Ute Mertens and she works together with Alfred Mertens (unfortunately I don´t know how these two people belong together - a couple, father and daughter?! If you know something more, please let me know). Mertens Kunst is so characteristic for my childhood and nursery - I couldn´t imagine it without Mertens sweeties!

And every time i went to a fleamarket i always found somthing "Mertens" :) so i hoarded a lot of these lovely things in my tiny house over the years. Recently i decided to sell some of these treasures and one thing leads to another! I took pictures, opened a Dawanda Shop (it´s like etsy) for vintage things and also founded a new flickr group.

Now i can collect them virtual, have more space for Lundby stuff and Käthe Kruse and earn some money, too... I´m smart -or not?! ;D

I hope you all have a wonderful advent season and i´m wishing you a peaceful & happy time!

Hugs, yours Nicola

Maria, Rosi and Tonda the bear...

were my Sister Andrea´s beloved Childhood toys she kept carefully for all the years...

Now they live at my house because we lost Andrea forever at the end of July...

Andrea at the age of 2 years Christmas eve 1965 with Maria. I think she was her first doll.

I´m still so very sad, sometimes kind of speechless and i guess it´ll take me some more time to handle this. So i´m not in the mood to write little Lundby stories I just try to get back to something normal.

I´ll be back and this toy blog will move on - promised! ...but not at the moment.

*Nicola

Tiny & cute things from the fair:

Sabrina & Sabine are very happy with all the toys I brought from the 1:12... I adore the tiny-tiny „The Very Hungry Caterpillar“ /"Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt" book (it was my favorite book when I was small). It´s made like the really book - you can read every page!

The guy on the right isn´t Mr Lundby in cooler clothes - I found him on the fair too and he will live in the 1975 Lundby Gothenburg...

Petra and I planned to swap at the fair and she brought a bag full of treasures with her... aaaand I forgot mine at home! But I had to take Carry and Petra chose some of the furniture I once displayed at Furniture and Antiques. Thanks to the Internet it was no problem :)

Carry is a lovely old Caco doll and I first fell in love with her when I saw her at Petra´s blog! When I was small I always used my Mum´s old Caco dolls as dolls for the Käthe Kruse dolls, because to my mind they look like small K. Kruse dolls!

Perfect - isn´t it?! And because I don´t have a dollshouse in Carry´s size she now lives with all my Käthe Kruse dolls in my dolls showcase.

*Nicola

The Käthe Kruse Thumbelinas are both from 1977 - She´s called Margit & his name is Guido. The rocking chair is from Monchichi also from the 70s. The wooden bed is from my childhood. My parents once brought it along for me when they went for a hike without Andrea & me. The baby is from my childhood too and I think it´s ARI.

Happy Birthday...

...to... me :)

Today is my 44th Birthday and because it´s impossible to celebrate it with you here in my real life, i would like to have a virtual party with you:

So, come over and grap what ever you want ;D jelly roll with strawberries, fruit cake, cookies, marble cake, sweets, tea or juice... You are welcome here at dolly´s little birthday party!

Credits: Dolls - E.S. from the 70s, Cat - Bully, Dachshund vintage from my granny (ment to be a holiday souvenir, because on his side is noted "Bad Schandau"), Furniture vintage, some from my childhood and all unknown, carpet (real a doily) embroidered by me when i was a child, buntings made byme right now, marble cake and teapot with sugar bowl & creamer are from my mum´s doll´s house, some of the dishes are Bodo Hennig and Vero (all vintage), some are also from my childhood, jelly roll - yogurette (german chocolat), fruit cakes - Haribo fruity bussi, sweets - fimo & chocolate crumbles...

*Nicola - who had a wonderful birthday breakfast with a friend at "Das Puppenmuseums Café" in real life :) (Please klick the button "Rundgang" the museum is awesome!)

Doll Fashion

because i am a fashion designer (with a diploma - hohoho ;D ) i collect everything i can get which contains doll fashion:

i found this "neue mode" doll fashion magazine at our local charity shop, last summer and i can´t get enough of the pictures!

all dolls are wearing outfits from the 70s i grew up with.

my sister and me had this printing set with disney animated characters, but we never used it to print fabric for our dolls - isn´t that cute?!

all the dolls are from schildkröt, wehncke and zapf, three well known german toy companies and they are shown in sizes from 30 cm up to 52 cm.

i had one of these schildkröt baby dolls called "schlummerle" ( i can´t translate that - schlummern is a cute word for sleeping...), they have a soft body and cute baby arms and legs made of plastic.

i even adore these very, very cute drawings at the sewing instruction part of the magazine.

and i´m a bit sad that i never had a granny or mum, who would have sewn dolls fashion like this for my dollies - maybe that´s the reason why a began to sew myself and guess what were the first things i sewed.... yes, doll clothes :)

*nicola

Sometimes...

everything is different! i planned to show you a lot of new things - i had so much ideas when i came back from my short sylvester trip. but actually i had to care for my youngest daughter cosima, who is ill with mononucleosis. she was so ill :( we had to go to the hospital over the weekend. now she is recovering day by day and i´m very thankful!

but leastwise i have some wonderful pictures from a lovely doll´s house you can get at ebay on sunday.

the seller allowed me to show some more pictures she send to me today.

this house is from the 60s and the scale is 1:12 (no scale for me but i think it´s absolutely lovely). the measurements are: base plate: 82 x 55 cm, width 76 x 32,5cm, the rooms are 20,5cm high, the terrace roof is 20,5 x 33cm, and the height of the house is 21,5cm. awww, i love the dolls they remind me so much of the dolls a played with when i was a small child (before the lundbys came into my life). the furniture are great too - aren´t they?!

i hope you enjoyed these pictures although they are not made by me... :)

*nicola

Herzlich Willkommen...

in meinem neuen Blog! Seit Jahren bin ich begeisterte Sammlerin. in diesem Blog soll es sich nun auch um Käthe Kruse-Puppen, -Spielzeug, Geschichtliches, Sammelleidenschaft und alles was es rund um dieses Thema zu erzählen gibt, drehen. Auf dem Bild seht ihr meine allerersten Kruse-Kinder aus den Siebziger Jahren, mit denen ich ausgiebig gespielt habe. Die kleine Luise mit den blonden Zöpfen und dem blaukarierten Kleid (Typ Däumlinchen, 25 cm) war die Erste. Für sie habe ich fast mein ganzes Taschengeld zusammengekratzt, ge-babysittet und Flohmärkte mitgemacht, bis ich die (für mich damals fast unerschwingliche Summe) von 87,00 DM zusammengespart hatte.

und ordentliche Sammlerin die ich bin, habe ich natürlich alles aufgehoben, was von diesem ersten Puppenkauf aufzuheben war :)

Ich weiß noch, wie ich wochenlang in dieses Spielzeuggeschäft in der Bäckerstraße gepilgert bin und die Puppe in der Vitrine angeschmachtet habe. Es war so ein althergebrachtes Vedes-Fachgeschäft und es gab noch Tresen mit Glasplatten, in denen in Schubladen jede Menge zuckersüßes Puppenzubehör lag: gestrickte Strampelanzüge, Schühchen, Unterwäsche, kleine Schultaschen und Schultüten... hinter dem Tresen war ein Glastürenschrank, in dem die Käthe Kruse Puppen in ihren roten Kartons standen. Einmal habe ich eine Verkäuferin überredet mir meine "angebetete" Luise aus dem Schrank zu nehmen und zu zeigen. Meine größte Angst war damals, dass mir jemand zuvorkommen würde und Luise kaufen würde, bis ich das Geld zusammen hatte. Das ist aber glücklicherweise nie passiert - auch damals waren Käthe Kruse Puppen eben nichts, was man seinem Kind mal gerade so kaufte, sondern ein besonderes Geschenk zu Weihnachten oder zum Geburtstag.

Ich hoffe der erste Beitrag in meinem Spielzeug-blog hat euch gefallen?

LG, eure Nicola