Exhibition at Caramel Cottage

Mommy has spent the past weeks making ornaments and dioramas for her friends for Christmas. She asked whether Pickles and I would allow her to show off her finished items at Caramel Cottage. Of course we said yes. 

We invited Hester Hogwart who conjured away all my furniture and conjured up her large work table to display Mommy's deer ornaments.

Hooray for Hester's magic powers. She also conjured up a beautiful grammophone so that we can listen to Christmas music. I placed cups and a pot of warm cocoa on a little side table so we'll have something to drink. 

Hester is resting in her red armchair. She conjured that up too. She has sprinkled the deer ornaments with some sort of gold dust from a large bottle. She says this will bring the new owners good luck for the entire next year. 

Now she is admiring my collection of fudges. I decided to share those, so that we'll have something to eat. I hope the others aren't very hungry... 

Look what Mommy did to Caramel Cottage. She gave it a real stone wall. What do you think? I am very excited to show it to you and if you are interested Mommy can post a tutorial on how she made it.

Birgit, my other mommy, sent me this wonderful chocolate Santa for Saint Nicholas' Day. She also sent an advent calendar filled with chocolates. Pickles is sitting on top of one of the bars. He likes his gianduja chocolate very much.

Here you can see Mommy's deer ornaments. Some have got glittery snow on top. Others have a pearl attached to it and bits of moss and bark. 

 

Mommy hopes the recipients will like them. After all, she made them with a lot of love (and sticky fingers from all the glue) and we should not forget that Hester sprinkled them with lucky gold dust.

Upstairs are the others - Jemima and Ralfie. They are looking at Mommy's dioramas. Here is a spooky looking one of a witchy tree surrounded by shrubs and fairy lights.

Mommy made tree skeletons out of wire and wooden toothpicks. Then she covered these with clay.

She also gave this tree eyes and a nose, because some trees do have them.

Here is a magical tree surrounded by fairy lights and with a little healing crystal in front of it.

Next is something Hester likes. She already told Nina she wants to have one. It's a diorama of a witch's cottage with a stack of logs and a tiny little broom leaning against a large tree. There are stones and weeds in the garden and smoke is coming out of the chimney.

This is another witchy garden, only in this one, there is the tiniest little fir tree in the left corner.

Here's another Halloween themed item that Hester approved of. A group of bats flying through the clouds in the twilight. The children seem a little taken aback by their hypnotic googly eyes.

Here is a similar group of bats. Quackie is very brave right now, as she decided to have a chat with one of them.

This is another look at the process. Did I tell you Mommy made the dioramas using matchboxes? 

I already showed you how she made the magical trees. She painted the inside of the box dark blue, stuck on the fairy lights and added a glossy varnish.

She made the witchy cottages using pieces of felt that she coloured black. She also cut tiny little windows into them and glued doors onto them using pieces of cork. The stone steps and chimneys are made out of tooth picks. The brooms were the hardest to make. They are made out of little slices of tooth picks and two different sorts of twine.

Last but not least are the tiny bats she cut out of black paper using very sharp scissors. She painted clouds and the moon and a blue-green sky into the boxes to give the impression of twilight.

Two of the bats were stuck onto the back of the box. The one in the front was stuck onto a piece of wire to make it look like it is flying above the cloud (made of cotton). 

The black tree in the witch's garden is of course hand painted. Here, Mommy chose a light blue background.

She glued pieces of moss onto the branches of the magical trees to give the impression of leaves.

Hope you enjoyed your visit to the museum. To Caramel Cottage, I mean! Quackie has decided to pose next to the witchy tree. 

Pickles and I are going to have some cocoa and fudge now...

🎅 HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS. 🎅

🎄 HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND BEST WISHES FOR 2018. 🎄

Quackie Takes Care

🍃 🍪 🎅 🍪 🍃

I greatly enjoy watching the Periwinkles in their home, even when they are sleeping. It's very relaxing to me. 

If you like, you can come along. It's very late though, so please be quiet and mind your step.

Jemima is asleep...

  ...and so are her parents. 

The Periwinkles have made some changes to the interior, see? They have turned the knitting/reading room into a room for the cats. 

The cats seem to be awake. Molly is sitting inside a green cat cube and Pip is staring at a large piece of kitty paté. Outside on the balcony, a squirrel is scuttling past the window.

Let me show you some more changes. I can't turn on the light though, I'm sorry. I don't want to wake anyone up.

See how the Periwinkles have rearranged their bathroom? 

The toilet is on the left side now and they have attached a light next to the door. They have also added a shelf and a picture of a rose. 

The bathtub is in the far right corner now and they have placed a pink shower curtain next to it for more privacy.

Here you can see the sink and a little cupboard next to it. James has placed a shiny white vase with a yellow flower in it on top.

Have a look at the new decoration of the sitting room. Julie is crazy about reindeer this christmas. 

No, do NOT touch those cookies. *slap!*

Sorry, but the cupcake, cookies and hot cocoa are for Saint Nicholas. Jemima placed them there before going to bed. She has heard that children in Germany receive sweets or other gifts from Saint Nicholas if they leave their cleaned shoes in front of their bedroom door on the night of the 5th of december.

Jemima did not place her shoes outside of her bedroom. They are definitely too small to put anything inside (apart from baby rabbit feet), but she is hoping he will come anyway, attracted by the smell of pastries and hot chocolate.

While we're downstairs, let's enter the kitchen, too. 

Looks like James's dirty shirt inside the clothes basket. -Okay, that is really  boring, sorry about that...

But how about that; on the kitchen cupboard on the left there are two more of Julie's reindeer. These are white to match the picture of the chicken.

And someone has attached a christmas wreath on the wall next to the window.

On our way back upstairs, let's have a look at the family photos.

Now we are back in Jemima's room. Quackie creeps out from under Jemima's blanket. She has heard a noise. Four noises to be exact. They sounded like this: SWISH, SWISH, SPLAT, CLONK!!!

Somebody has to check that everything is in order. So, Quackie jumps out of the bed and lands on her - *ouch!* - beak.

Quackie passes by Hans, who fell from the rocking horse as he fell asleep and says to herself, "Useless, this teddy. You can't rely on him for anything."

As she reaches the bedroom door she starts to feel a little sick. What if the door is closed? She would never be able to reach the handle! It's too far up.

She's in luck. The door is ajar and she manages to push it open.

Quackie looks at James and Julie who are fast asleep beneath their blankets and snoring.

She tiptoes across the carpet.

She wishes she could be back in bed with Jemima. Her feet are getting cold.

She lets herself tumble down the step that leads into the cat's room. 

"Oh dear, this is going to be a looong night," she sighs.

As she crosses the cat's room she snorts disparagingly. "Useless, these kittens," she thinks, "you can't rely on them for anything."

Then she reaches the top of the staircase that leads to the ground floor. *gulp!* 
Did you just hear that? I did...

"Don't look down, just DO it," Quackie encourages herself and then leans forward for the fall.

Her feet are too short to walk the steps, so there is no other way down than to tumble. Quackie is almost there.

Ouch!!

Quackie is excited. Somebody has brought them a large sack full of goodies. "Presents are always welcome," Quackie thinks.

But then she looks to the other side of the room and sees someone in a red hat lying on the floor munching one of the cookies that were meant for Saint Nicholas. 

"Hey you!!" rants Quackie. "What DO you think you're doing??"

The elf - because that's what the guy in the red hat is - looks at Quackie. I can hear him swallow loudly. 

"Oopsie," he mumbles.

"Are you the dog?" he asks and Quackie scoffs. "No, I'm the duck! And you better get out of here, mister! These snacks were meant for Saint Nicholas."

"Sorry, Ma'am," the elf says respectfully. "I'm Elmar. Saint Nicholas put me in charge of  Riverside tonight and I was really tired, since it was the last house on my route and this last sack was particularly heavy, because Jemima P. has been such a good rabbit all year, so... I just thought I'd lie down a bit and then I got hungry and thought I'd have a teeny bite. I'm sorry..."

"Okay, okay, enough with the explaining. Just put the plate on the floor now, please." Quackie orders.

As Quackie starts to eat the cupcake, Elmar sighs and quietly thanks the heavens, thinking he will probably get out of this house unscathed, after all.

After Quackie has finished all the food, he watches as she downs the entire cup of cocoa. 

"Now I feel better!" she says to the elf and burps loudly.

"Or not..." she mutters, as she burps again and falls over from pangs of indigestion. 

"You!" she says to Elmar. "You have to carry me back upstairs. I can't walk like this..."

Molly and Pip have eaten the kitty paté. Instead of it, there is now a blue toy mouse lying on the plate.

As the little elf enters the cat's room holding Quackie, the two kittens stare at him curiously. Elmar feels uneasy. 

"Sylvanians!" he thinks to himself, as he enters the parents' bedroom. He is hoping Quackie won't awaken them with her continuous burping.

Done! He is almost inside Jemima's room and everyone has remained sound asleep. Saint Nicholas would be proud of him.

In Jemima's room, Quackie tells him to stack Jemima's chairs on top of her table, so he can climb up and lay her into Jemima's crib. 

Let's come back in the morning...

🌞⛄🌞⛄🌞⛄

James walks up the stairs in his pijamas and wishes Julie a good morning. He has some news.

"Saint Nicholas was here over night!" he tells her. 

"Oh, that's wonderful!" says Julie.

"Let's go and tell Jemima right away! She'll be over the moon!"

 

 

The parents jerk back in astonishment as they enter Jemima's room and see that there is something green and red inside her bed.

It's little Elmar the elf and he is still holding on to Quackie, just like last night when he carried her back into Jemima's cot where he fell asleep next to the little rabbit girl.

The Periwinkles' facial expressions shift between incredulousness, surprise and amusement.

Elmar holds Quackie in front of his face as if to 

shield himself from their glares and says, 

"Oopsie."

THE END

P.S.: I made Elmar the elf from Fimo.

P.P.S.: Quackie and I wish you a wonderful Saint Nicholas' Day.