Happy Easter with "Lümpele"

Recently i found a bunch of old easter children´s books at our local charity shop. The most of them went into my lil´ Dawanda shop "RetroPüppi", but i couldn´t resist to keep one for me, because of the so very cool pictures/illustrations of 50s furnishings and life style! "Lümpele, the little easter bunny" (Lümpele means little scallywag or rascal)

The text is in German, but the pictures are telling the story without any words:

 Awwww, so cute isn´t it?! Look at the wooden wall plague with the poodle - a bit like Mertens Kunst i adore so much!

I´m wishing you a very happy Eastertime with lots of eggs and little "Lümpeles"!! Yours, Nicola

Lundby Göteborg/Gothenburg 1975 - Part 1.

Come and meet the Lundboms (Gunilla & Bertil) :) They are the new owners of the Lundby Gothenburg doll´s house from 1975. They bought the house because they needed more space for their fast-growing family...

Mrs Lundbom is a child care worker and after the birth of their first daughter Kerstin they decided to have some foster children and also a private little day care, so she could work at home.

Here you can see Kerstin´s new foster siblings; Tilda & Linnea playing doll´s at the children´s bedroom.

I decided to furnish the children´s floor not just with Lundby furniture, because the range of Lundby nusery furniture wasn´t really big in the past! They always had bunk beds, a wooden play table and stools or later little armchairs (you can see both variations here) and (yes indeed) the blackboard!

So I mixed it with these cool green (typical 70s) plastic furniture made by "modella" and i really like the result! Gunilla´s visitor is a mother who wants to bring her baby girl to Gunilla´s day care...

Some more children playing with "playmobil toys".

Kerstin together with a cute Caco baby in adorable yellow terry cloth rompers :)

 These rooms are not furnished like "pressed into a time frame" as you know it from my other Lundby doll´s houses, because i wanted a real "day-care-look" for them. So it became something more free-style - Oops ;D

Credits: The furniture are Lundby and modella. The desk and chair is Playmobil. I guess the baby bed is Caco as baby´s bed at the Lundby´s house (it still needs some bedding). The lamps are Lundby and most of the pictures, too. I put some typical 70s illustrations into some Lundby frames at the bedroom. The round picture is made by "nutella" (a very well known german chocolate spread). In the 70s they put different kinds of naive art pictures into a small space between the glas and the cap, to make the children collect them all. The little toys are wooden ore mountains toys (erzgebirgs spielzeug) from my granny´s treasure chest and also from the 1:12 at Soest. The mini matrjoschka dolls are the smallest baby-matrjoschkas form some bigger ones i got. The plastic baby dolls are from my childhood - one is from a "kinder surprise egg". The books and blue cans are Bodo Hennig. Unfortunately i don´t know anything about these "Sesame Street" puppets Bert and Cookie Monster i found at a fleamarket - any informations are welcome! All dolls are Caco from the 70s.

I hope you like the little house tour?! To be continued!

*Nicola



Let there be a spring cleaning...

Do you remember this Lundby Gothenburg house from last year?! I do :) Since last year there lives a lovely family in the house, called the Lundboms. I´ll tell you more later... Aaaand as you all know (because i told you a thousand times) all my Lundby houses still need to be dusted!

So i told Mrs. Lundbom that she needs to do this for me, because I´m so busy all the time - AND LOOK WHAT HAPPEND! She is so great, isn´t she ;D

 

Here you can get a sneak peek into the Lundbom´s home... More pictures will follow, when Mrs Lundbom has finished :))) Promised! (And *pssst* - don´t tell her there are visitors upstairs at the children´s floor - maybe she stops to clean promptly...)

Have a nice weekend, yours Nicola

The Lundbys become famous...

Last winter some students of architecture from the university of Weimar discovered my picture of the Lundby´s home at flickr.

They asked me if they could use it for the cover of a magazine they make, called "Horizonte" (Horizons). Yes, sure :)  - I was so proud they asked me! And don´t ask Mrs Lundby! She is still speechless being on a magazine cover! 

It´s a very interesting and special magazine and i didn´t read everything, but a bit of this and that... The layout and design is very stylish and there are a lot cool pictures and illustrations inside:

They used diffent kinds of paper and there are parts with folded pages - All in all the magazine is design at itself!

I really like the idea of this livingroom in a suitcase - maybe ít´ll be an inspiration to make one...

*Nicola

70s doll´s fashion for Kruse dolls

Recently i found some pictures of cute Käthe Kruse "Hampelchen" in chrocheted and knitted 70s doll´s outfits in bright colours and with lovely details:



I love these old magazines, books and tutorials to make doll´s clothes :) They often show which kind of fashion was hip at that time and also reflect the spirit of the time in the mini version.

*Nicola

It´s finally time for something new!!

Sorry, i didn´t no postings the last time here at my toy blog - I´m to busy with my job & business... No time for playing with the Lundbys or to show news from the collection! (And i have to show news - but first i have to take pictures...)

One thing i want to show you for the moment is cute tiny "Coraly". She was the present for the club year 2010/2011 at the Käthe Kruse club and she is a real Erna Meyer doll´s house doll - Meant to be a pin, but i´ll use her as a doll :) Just 2,4 (6 cm) tall - perfect for Lundby houses! Isn´t she as cute as cute can be?!

Also in the parcel the K.K. Calendar and a nice card! Sometimes it´s really nice to be a club member :)

Hugs yours Nicola

A blurry picture and blurry memories ...

When I recently sorted a bunch of pictures i found through my sisters things, i discovered another picture of me with my Lundby doll´s house...

And after i starred a while on it (and smiled a lot because i look so funny and also about Maria lying on the windowsill) i was really surprised about the fact, that my Gothenburg was not the well known one, i thought it was... no, it was a so called: economy or plain Lundby Gothenburg... My memories seem to be kind of unreliable :)

(This house is not mine - sold on eb** in 2010)

And because i didn´t find any pictures or informations in the old Lundby catalogues, i surched in the www and found a lot to show and explain the differences between the Lundby Gothenburg and the economy Lundby Gothenburg - if somebody is interested :). I think it was produced from the beginning of the 60s to the end of the 70s - but I´m not sure about that...

(Also not mine, but furnished with some funiture you sure know from the Lundby´s house!)
To tell the truth: If something is called economy it´s meant to be cheap :) So the plein Gothenburg is missing some details you can find at it´s more expensive sisters. First the roof:

It´s bright red like all the other Gothenburg´s roofs from that period, but without a chimney!

The back is made from just a simple hardboard and without a Lundby sticker or anything else.

The "bricks" at the sidewalls are directly printed on the hardboard.

The wooden edging at the front, is painted beige. It has nor windows neither doors - just white window sills and doorframes.

All floors are blue... And what makes the real difference: You can find no stairs and the bathroom is at the first level in the middle! And because there is no stair and no little space for a transformer underneath, you can´t find any electricity in the house... :(

At all the economies i saw at different sources (like this one from add_knitter here at flickr - Awwww, I love this picture!) they used light and simple wallpapers and you can find always this yellow-white patterned wallpaper in the upper left room, you can see here.

Funny is, i really can´t remember my "Economy" i played with for years! I was sooo sure how it must have looked and i guess "my memories" were influenced by some "little girl´s dreams" i had in my brain, from the past...

If you know something more about the economy Lundby Gothenburg (Das günstige/schlichte Lundby Göteborg) - all informations are welcome!!

*Nicola, who is wishing you the best for 2011!!!

Thanks to the eb** seller fiete106 who gave me the permission to show her/his pictures!