Ecole d'autrefois - data base

As long as it's pretty hard to find any information about the serie, I asked a couple of people (I just saw their publications about it) if they would be kind enough to share the data they have. I mean those people got the serie, whole set or partly, and they have useful informations. Like when you see someone selling some individual items, they hardly put the content, they just say "I have number 6 and 24". Great. But what is the item with number 6, nobody can tell. Or is willing to tell. 
Gosh... is it the same with absolutely everything then ? 
When you ask for informations, be it regarding scrapbooking, dolls, figurines, you have some pretty hard time finding someone actually willing to answer. And not telling lies. 

Should I speak about some sellers who are just the dumbest people on earth ? Yes, I should. I could. 

I am. 

Let me tell you about my last experience...

I found a man on ebay selling some of those mags, leaflet + miniature. I first asked him if he could just select for me ALL those he has with a board, a piece of the structure, a kid, and the stove.
It took him a week to answer "I'll have a look and tell you". Then no more news. I asked him again.
He said "I'll have a look and tell you". 3 times more. THREE.

Then I asked if he could *please pretty please* list the number he has, for I give him a list.

He answered "many"...So I asked if he could tell me how many after number 30 he has for I get them all, + numbers 16 and 25.... he answered "some"....
It's not hard to tell me "I have x, and the price would be xx". I insisted "H-o-w  m-a-n-y please ?". He answered "several, not following numbers". Pfffffffffffffff.... *deep breath*. 

*me*

"ok, I'm taking them all, just send the invoice with the total". I admit, sometimes I'm a kamikaze. 

He answered "I can't answer". 

He can't ???

WhyyyyyyyyyyYYYY ????

Get ready
"because I don't know how many I have exactly"
"But you are selling them, right ? So maybe you can just COUNT - you put those on ebay, I assume it's because you are intended to SELL it, so how the hell do you want me to buy if you are not able to drop this all in a box, and send me the total for I pay ?????"
I was screaming in front of my computer. My dog believes I'm mad.
Best answer ever : "some have the leaflet, some not. Not following numbers. I can't tell you".

*me, again*

I even had someone ask for me (just in case it's a "me" thing"). He dropped me a line asking if this man is joking or what. Then we both laughed when we discovered a new line on his ad "the shipping for one will be 5€, if it's a letter, but if it's too big, the price will be different". He played a little bit, asking him the price for a particular number, and the seller answered "I don't know, I'll send a first bill for the price with 5€ shipping, and another bill later, when I weight it". He is still waiting, 10 days after asking, he didn't get a single bill, not even the 1rst one.

Ok, so one more time, I'm doing the job of sharing what I can. 

Alas I have few of those leaflets/miniatures, but the few I have will at least be available for those who search for some informations. I've grouped the list of the numbers I know about, or have, with what was offered with. 4 per page, and if I made no mistake you can click the pics to have them at a better size. 

I spoke with a kind woman who is doing her own schoolroom. She has only the 3 first sets, so it's not really exciting to create a scenery. I'm scanning the paper things for her, and sharing also infos from the few mags I have. If someone is doing a school miniature project and want the scans too, wave the hand. 

the teacher. 

I'll take pics of the kids I have, and the accessories.
I can't tell you how deep the room is, because I don't have enough pieces to be sure, probably around 51/52cm, but the width is 63cm (outside, including the thickness of the walls), walls and ground are medium (MDF) 1cm thick, and the height is 32cm. That's HUGE

I only have the top row of the floor, and for the sides I have only the window near the back wall and the door unit. I miss all the front part, walls and floor, and the wall at the back

Here is the way to "build" the floor and the walls, from the rare pieces I have

I guess from the holes I see here and there that the floor sections just connect like real floor panels, and then the walls clip the same way, and you attach the whole "walls part" to the floor with screws. Doesn't sound really sturdy, but....

the door unit is just 2 pieces between which you insert the door, and then you simply clip the last part the the wall on the right. Then you have the total for the right wall (I miss the 3rd part, of course)
Now for the windows

I only have one wall and one window. Big challenge huh...
There is a frame to keep the window in place. I guess I should put it inside, and not outside like I did, but then why are there holes on the outside part ? I'm going to arrange this. But I'm a little bit lost...The outside is not ment to show up at all. Maybe I can put the frame inside, and cover the  outside (all of it). I even believe I'll have to put wallpaper inside, because the joining between parts is quite awful. Atlas Editions things are all quite... mmm... approximative LOL
I already found a piece of wood (old furniture part) that I'm going to cut to make the floor. I'll see what I can find to make some of the missing walls. I am putting only 2 rows lenght for the floor, because I have few desks, and the room would look empty with 3 rows. 

New project (long story involved)

It's not Sylvanian related, but might interest Sysy collectors as long as the scale would almost match.

If you don't want to read the "story behind" you can jump to the area after the line of ***, if you want the whole story, you can read it all :-)

For quite a long time I've had my eyes on a miniature serie, that was sold like a weekly publication. My ex husband was a frantic collector of those things, but he just wanted those to pile-up more things everywhere. He never had any interest for those as soon as they were home.

On my side, I did 3 only, one in 1990 when I settled with him. I knew nothing about cooking so I bought a kind of cooking encyclopedia. Then later I bought a part of the dinosaurs ones (yep, I love dinosaurs....), but stopped quickly because he needed this money to get one with DVDs (that he never watched at all). I recently found back my dinosaurs encyclopedia in a box he stored outside home, totally destroyed of course. I cried, really, it broke my heart each time I discovered he filled the house with trash to put the few I had outside without protection. Most of my things are destroyed, mostly pictures. 

Well, later I bought the "little kitchen", and same, I found it not long ago, partly destroyed. I've started rebuilding it, not finished but it's not too bad. He let me buy most of the serie, but stopped at some point, to get egyptian sceneries, that of course he never cared about. Not a single minute. So.... I don't have some "important" parts to finish my little old time kitchen. But it's still ok, I'm creative enough. I also discovered he glued most of the things (WHY ???) in MY kitchen. I'm upset. 

Then, I think it was in 2006, when I had all that medical stuff to try having a baby (and not knowing he was doing in my back everything for it doesn't work), there was this serie for an old school miniature 1/12 scale. I asked him if I could get at least 10 or 20 of the parts, over 80, to create a tiny school. He said yes. I got the 3 or 4 first, and then... he wanted to have a serie of cars, so I had to stop getting my miniatures. I totally forgot about it. I found back the parts not long ago (pristine condition, woohoo, miracle !), and was planning to sell them. You can't do much with just a teacher, a student, a blackboard, and a desk. But François told me I should create a tiny scene. I really couldn't see a use to "loosing" my time on it. But he insisted too much so... I understood. He had a very complicate and painful relationship with his mother. I know what it is, I've been raised by awful people. His story is not the same, but still heartbreaking. It's like a hate-admirating thing, he can't find a way to deal with it. His mother was a teacher, in the 50/70's. So the miniature was quite matching, and for some reason the teacher is looking close to his mother. I understood he wanted me to do it for him. It sounds like it's so important... I'd do anything to soften/cure his pain. Ask me to go to the other side of the earth crawling, I'd do. So, I started to search on ebay, the bon coin, vinted, whatever... I found a couple of those mags+miniature, but everytime the seller wasn't serious, or refused paypal, etc

Sometime it was awfully expensive. Just to give you an idea of the average price

ouch....21.50 + 8 of shipping for just this... that I already have

Most of the people get only the 5 or 6 first parts of those series, and those who try to get the whole set usually end giving up because the editor is not serious, there are always delay, added numbers (with nothing interesting, just to make you pay more and more and more)...

It turned to nightmare. I totally gave up maybe 3 months ago. I thought I'd simply create a tiny scene with just what I have, maybe a kind of frame ? I had NO motivation at all, but I wanted to do it.

Yesterday evening, between 2 storms, I was wandering on auctions sites when I found a buy it now thing on "le bon coin". Ah ??? Alas very far from home, and on this site people never accept paypal, few accept to send by the PO or Mondial Relay... I asked, without any hope... and the seller said "yes, no problem, it's ok with me to send AND I accept paypal". I bet my face was like

*********************

So, if things turn well, if the seller is serious (I don't actually have much luck, right ?) I am getting 27 numbers over 80, each number was around 10€ and for the total with shipping it's going to cost me 35€...Good deal ! And with 27 numbers, it should be more than enough to create what I expected

I'll have an extra teacher, teacher board and blackboard, but I'm sure I can make something with this, this would make me a total of 4 kids desks, 6 kids, and a part of the building itself. Great ! Ok, I had to spend what I wanted to save for another project, but I don't mind eating pasta and rice only for a couple of months if necessary. When I told François I "might" be able to finally create the little school, I saw tears in his eyes. He even wanted to pay for it, but no. 

Just have a look at what the "basic set" could look like

cute, isn't it ? Porcelain head and feet and hands, fabric body

this last one was build following the exact scheme.

Yet, we are talking about something that cost around 750€...

AND

there was a "full coverage subscription" when you paid something like more than the double (someone told me 3.000€... but I have no proof of it), where you got everything to create the whole building, and then it looked like this

stunning, but if they wonder why almost nobody bought it, I should remind them the price is just totally SILLY !

there was a dormitory, toilets on the school playground, outside of the building (something that was usual up to the mid 80's in some schools !)

I'm sticking to a very simple version LOL, mostly because I'm not going to have much to create the scene

If you want close-up pics, you can follow this link, where a women has build the "basic" one

ECOLE

Then I thought about Sylvanian. The size isn't very far, maybe some of you creating a Sysy school might be interested by the accessories (printable things I mean), like wall cards, booklets, notebooks, papers, etc. If so, just let me know, I can scan what I'll get (if I get it, of course)

:-)

Elsie's ice cream cart - Sylvanian

I've just received my last item from ebay. Nothing else is planned or bought, so there will be few new things to share.
Just I had a laugh when I saw the packaging. I've got everything I believe, mostly trash bin bags, cat food boxes, shoe boxes, tupperware, coca cola can.... But this one is sure new.

a simple envelop....

at least the item in a bag (!) but wait, what is this ?

yep, aluminium foil tray. Used and rinced, but... 

I should have yeld, because there was NO protection at all... but it came unbroken (miracle !) and the best is that I expected no accessories (they were not pictured on the ad)... and they sound to be almost all there.. 

I only miss a pink long ice cream ! Marvelous !

The cow still has her sticker under the foot...and only the apron is not the original one. Ok, I'm not complaining, 5£ something isn't bad. I'm happy !

But really... used fragile aluminium foil tray...

?????????????????????

A tree obsession.... (Sylvanian)

I always said that I would get a 2nd tree for my school if I could find a cheap one. I found one. And now my school is so big that I had to remove the old bus because there was no space enough on my shelf.... LOL. Nevermind, it's just PERFECT.
Even better, one of my trees is more white than the other (that is brownish). Some would probably don't like the difference, but I do (yes, I'm weird)
Now let's see if I can find a lunch set, and maybe some babies playing music...with less than 10€ in my pocket, I guess it's going to be quite hard huh. I am also thinking about adding a level to the school. How ? No idea... I don't have buildings enough to find one that could simply fit... maybe a sheet of MDF or cardboard would do....

Tutorials ? - And a new village "delivery service" soon :-)

I was wondering about some Sylvanian awfully expensive items lately. Like the florist cart. 

I truely love it but... Am I willing to put something like 60€ for it, when I can hardly gather that much to simply eat for a whole month ? Nah....

I also wanted to create a couple of booth to make my market a little bit more attractive. But Sylvanian ones are totally over my budget too, even if less expensive than the cart, still not "that" interesting to put much money on the table. I had a look at Playmobil... expensive too. And kits made of MDF. Still too high for my budget. 

Then I was looking at my Big Shot cutting machine... and I thought about some cards & boxes I made years ago. Maybe I could re-use my ideas to create funny cards to make some accessories.

I'm talking about this kind of things

A little bit like what I did (never finished, missing supplies) for the tiki bar, or Captain Horatio's one. Maybe I can create something.... sooner or later....probably in august.
Did some of you make some of those things ? Do you know about reliable tutorials ? 
I'm willing to share what I come up with, if I manage to create something "clean" enough, and if some people are interested.

For now I'm trying to end the total redo of my 1rst level balcony at home, and it's NO fun. It's an awfully hard job, and now I'll start putting the tiles on the floor, that's not my favorite part of the job ouch... I'm not that clever, and I have really few tiles, if I break just a couple of those it's going to be a catastrophe. I'm not even sure I have enough... Let's cross finger...


Well, this being said, I bought something. I shouldn't have. But again, it was one of those "nobody-want-it".... I wanted to buy this set from SSK and I started to save money to get the 2 matching sets...but the price jumped up one of a suddent... and then I had no money enough. I was more sad than upset. I gave-up. The price on ebay is reaching the sky.... Except for this one. I guess it comes with no accessories, but I don't care much, it looks clean...
 

I've let the price for you understand why I just couldn't resist LOL
I can still make some ice cream... If only those sets weren't that expensive, I'd get several to organize a delivery larger service hehe. At least, with some hope, I'll get this one !
*happy*

Some news (Sylvanian related & not)

Hello !

I just come to give some news, and the very first is that I am SO happy to tell that Bois Joli's post office is going to be totally efficient now, because a little guy is flying to me. Yes, I found a Samuel postman, it was a bit overpriced (because of the silly shipping cost, 1.5 time the price of the item itself huh). François said it's going to be my gift to reward me for all the hard job I did at home, and the gift for my "feast". I'm not sure it's something celebrated in other countries, but here we have a catholic Saint for each day of the year, so on the day it's the Saint matching your name, you are kind of celebrating it. I believe it's a tradition that's getting lost because now people name their kids with foreign names, or even invent some... So I guess I'm now belonging to the dinosaurs team, having a name that's matching one LOL. Mine is July 27.
We usually don't celebrate much more than wishing people a happy-you-day, but some get flowers, or chocolates, or a little gift. Most of the time only a card. I've always been celebrating ALL the people's "day", but hardly celebrated mine as nobody cared. That's great to have "my day", finally :-) And mostly when there's Samuel Stamp involved hehe

So, for anything else, not much to tell beside that I've been working awfully hard at home, trying to prevent it from falling apart, I still have no clue if I'll be able to keep it, I wish so. Until then, I'm working as hard as I can. I no nothing about all those big home jobs, I'm learning by myself, and using tutorials on youtube (!)
My last big project is to finish the balcony that is on the 1rst floor, and it was NO fun at all. Huge holes in the walls, etc
I'm almost done with the major problems, now I need some finishing and doing a kind of concrete ground before I can try to glue the tiles... Wish me luck
I'm suffering much, I hardly sleep more than 30mn in a row. ALL my body is hurting, and if I know what the problem is (diagnosed by a foreign doc), here they just consider it's not interesting, they don't care. As I have no money to run from a doc to another until I find one that has knowledge about all those things, I just do nothing at all. I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrom, and endometriosis, plus a large amount of tumors here and there, and a weird other orphan illness. It's getting harder each day.

But I still work. Nobody wants to employ me, I get no social help (because I refuse to go living in one of those dangerous building in the middle of drug traffic and other wonders). Working at home is keeping me kind of alive. In a certain way...

I first tried to just fill the holes, gaps, etc

but it wasn't working well. So I started covering it all with a heavy coat of cement/resin/sand

There are a bunch of ugly junctions, but it was too painful, I had to do it over many days...

walls weren't finished, no corners, etc

can you see the gap I had to fill ?

I used a kind of rail made of metal, and started filling the missing corner with rocks and a kind of very sturdy concrete mix

it started to get better

after

I still need to change a part of the glass (broken), repair all the wood of the window, and the door is not better... argh

*

and then I coated the walls too. Why not ? LOL

before/after

I start to enjoy cement and concrete more than stitching LOL

Ok, so I'll be back soon I hope, to show you my last creative finds, I tried to order a couple of things online with the last money I had on my paypal account (we are talking about 12 euros, don't expect wonders LOL), I tried a couple of asian sellers for scrapbooking dies, ink for my stamping, etc. I have more trust in asian sellers than french ones, and I believe I'm true about it. Most french sellers are *** ***** like the one that is living 25km from home. I bought from her a used stamp set from Stampin'up, and after 2 weeks nothing came... Ah ?! I asked her. It took her 3 more days to tell me she had been busy but she'll try have it done this next week... HUH ?! "TRY" ???? No, do not try, DO IT ! And maybe telling me instead of having me wondering and waiting for nothing ? Or maybe telling "I'm sorry" ??? No ???? I sometimes wonder if those people were raised by wild boars. Or salmons maybe. Gosh, I had the ugliest parents in the world, they taught me nothing, but still I am telling things like "thank you", "I apologize", or ....Argh.....

 I'm going to let her know the bottom of my thoughts when (if) she finally sends it. No matter it's a 5€ thing. And if I don't get it by the end of next week, I'll start a paypal dispute. Grrrrrrrr. So ok, lesson learnt, I've been ordering several times in my own country and it always was a problem. People are just not serious. That's why now I'll get anything from elsewhere.

That was my "venting" moment, sorry so LOL