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The Sylvanian Snow Queen

Created for the Sylvanian Families Collector's Forum - 2019 Creative Challenge (1) Snow Day

Honey Porridge at the Waters' Log Cabin

Created for the Sylvanian Families Collector's Forum - 2019 Creative Challenge (2) Winter Breakfast

When Wade Water's cousins moved to Mellowdene with their families, they took over the old sawmill. Working together, their first task was to design and build log cabins for their homes and they moved in soon afterwards. Being a close family, they were always popping into each other's homes, and even built a communal cabin between for group activities. Sometimes, they used this cabin as a place to eat together.

On cold winter mornings, Wolfram and Florabelle Waters used to cater not only for their own children - Crispin and Ripley, but also for Lester, Lee and Lindsay (Wellington and Lisette's children). The kiddies particularly looked forward to Florabelle's special honey porridge, which she cooked on the coldest days.

Bear Headed Fun

Some bears meeting at Minestrone House used to chuckle at Henry Bearbury's large hat, but one day they decided to join in the fun by choosing their own hats to wear, encouraging the Gingerbread bears to join in. Young Ethan Gingerbread suggested that they should wear them all the time, but his mother persuaded him otherwise - that it could possibly be an annual event. She probably hopes that Ethan will forget this, but she may be disappointed...

Tong Poem

On 4th November 2020, there was a "Tong Festival" instigated on Instagram by @dianas_sylvanians @ludwig_von_asparagus @critternoir.

This was to highlight the number of tongs found in assorted Sylvanian kitchen sets, and also as light relief from the US presidential election the day before. 

Chris Snow-Warren decided he wanted to contribute.

Tong Poem by Christian Snow-Warren 

I work with my friend Jackson;

together we write songs -

'though sometimes I write poems, 

and this one's just 'bout tongs.

It's not that he's refused me;

I don't think tunes belong.

Simple words are more in style

and suit the stark grey tong.

The two sides echo couplets,

and look at all those prongs!

They're metaphors for syllables -

per verse but straight: these tongs.

From stinky, hot or cold things they

protect my paws from wrongs

so hold them high and celebrate

the wonder brought by tongs.

#festivaloftongs #sylvanianfamilies #calicocritters 

Marmalade Party

Isambard Marmalade thought it was about time his family came together to enjoy each other's company, so he arranged a small celebration of his son's success in a cooking competition judged by Sawyer Honeydew. Two dozen perfect cheese scones (less one eaten by Sawyer) were created from the winning recipe.

It was a rushed occasion as he didn't want it to conflict with the imminent Melting festival, but he felt young Norton Marmalade would enjoy an informal garden party.

Isambard invited his brother Maurice and his family. Young Oscar had time off from his apprenticeship with the Seadogs so all Norton's immediate cousins were present. More distantly related, but also living in Mellowdene, the Gingerbread family came too.

After they'd eaten, Isambard surprised the family by producing a guitar. He had borrowed it from Sancho Marguerite, and he'd been secretly brushing up on his twangy skills.

Norton was delighted, and started to jig about in time to the music.

All told, it was a happy occasion. No scones remained.

Sylvanian Families Collector's Forum Challenge 11 -  June 2021 

The theme was Musicians, Bands and Albums.  I produced this homage to David Bowie's 1973 album Aladdin Sane. Although - for once - I created something unrelated to Mellowdene, I suppose it's not beyond the realms of possibility that glam rock exists somewhere else in Sylvania!

Pen Pals

The Collector's Forum contains a "penpals" thread whereby members can have particular Sylvanian characters write to each other. The following letters are from Mellowdene residents Troy & Sheridan Marlowe following an initial letter from hedgehog girl Holly Pricklepants in Charltown. 

These Marlowe boys make their first appearance in the Mental Hugging story and are seen again in How the Marlowes came to Mellowdene.

Letter 1

Hi Holly!

I'm called Troy Marlowe and me and my brother Sheridan read your letter and thought it might be fun to have a pen pal. We live in Mellowdene, by the way. We looked at the Sylvanian map to find out where Charltown was and when we saw it was on the Island of Rut we agreed that was brilliant. My mum's family were sea cats and they'd sometimes visit there when she was a girl. Oh, and she's called Atlanta.

I think chores are just one of those things we have to do. It's not too bad for me and Sheridan as we like to work together, but our sister Marina isn't keen. She'd rather spend her time swimming, which she does whenever she can. Her trainer is an alpaca called Miguel Woolly and he says she's good. It shouldn't excuse her doing her fair share of chores - and mum makes sure she does her bit!

Sheridan says he hasn't really got a favourite colour. I like yellow and as I wear yellow dungarees that's great - I'm as bright as the sun! I told my brother and he pulled his face - wearing brown he could only think of mud. He hadn't thought of chocolate, so he cheered up when I pointed that out.

It's great that you play a bass! We like music but we can't play anything. Someone said that our school might be changing the timetable to let us learn music. We don't know if they'll start teaching us to play instruments though. Our parents have become friendly with some rabbits called the Buttergloves. The son (Brendan) is around our age and his sister (Beverley) is a bit older. They seem fun. The dad writes music and we've been told he's friends with Lionel Grand. Yes! The Lionel Grand. He's got a holiday home in the village but we've not seen him. We will, I expect.

We live in a district of Mellowdene called the Mews. It's only a few streets but the critters living there are all cats. That's a bit boring. Like our mum, we like to meet other sorts of critters. That's why we sometimes go out and about to find out how others live in Mellowdene. I suppose you could say that's our hobby. Maybe that makes us sound a bit nosey! If we find out anything interesting we could let you know if you like.

Sheridan noticed you have a friend called Gingerbread. We've got some bears in our village who have that name. Wouldn't it be amazing if they're related?

Anyway, dad's calling us down for tea. In case you're wondering, he's called Melvin.

Bye for now,

Troy (and Sheridan)

 

The response from Holly included a picture of her in a hammock, and amongst the text there was mention of a lion called Aslan and a plea for an autograph from Lionel Grand if possible. 

Letter 2

Hi Holly Pricklepants! (We love your last name! It makes Marlowe sound so boring!)

Sheridan here. Troy said I could do the writing this time. 

It was great reading your letter. Those hammocks! We've never been in one but it looks fun. We asked mum if we could have our own, especially when she said she'd been on some boats that use them. She said she and dad wouldn't buy them just on a whim (her words) but she'd check to see if anyone had one we could borrow so that we could try it out. That's what I like about mum - she thinks of things that we should have thought of, works things out, you know?

Your family owns a chocolate shop? Wow. That sounds amazing. Troy agrees, says he'd be sampling quite a bit if our parents owned one. Except he wouldn't - I can't see mum allowing that! We don't do too badly for chocolate though, as we know the rabbits who run our chocolate shop. Some sea cats are involved in delivering the beans that go to Frasier Chocolate's business, so mum has "connections" that way. Dad knows Mrs Chocolate's parents too as he's helped them fix a problem they had with their cruiser boat. We play with their son Coco at school. 

Talking of school, some music classes have started there but we haven't been given instruments. Maybe they will later. At the moment we're mainly singing, learning about timing and notes and that sort of stuff. There's a boy called Figwort who is pretty good in class, but I think he's also getting lessons somewhere else. Fair enough, I guess. He does help others when they get stuck. Oh! I forgot. We do have a couple of tambourines, a few chime bars and some cannisters that rattle when you shake them. I think they have dried peas inside. They are supposed to help us keep time. There is an old piano that the teacher uses. We've heard Figwort on it too.

We've not seen Lionel Grand properly - he only visits sometimes, and we don't know when - so I don't know how easy it would be to get his autograph. I like drawing and usually carry a small pad and pencil, so if we DO meet him and remember, I'll do my best. We saw him play at the Melting last year, but we weren't near the stage. The Melting is a spring festival the village holds each year. So we've never really met a lion. Not yet. I thought it was interesting that you have a lion called Aslan Gingerbread. Our Gingerbreads are a family of bears. Something to do with the Marmalade bear family. We don't know how - related or maybe just friends.

You asked how many families there are in Mellowdene. The short answer is that we don't know. The thing is, it's not just the village. Families are dotted throughout the county. There are some dog families in the grasslands. Beyond the village there's Timbertop Farm, Blackberry Orchards, Buttercup Dairy and DingleDale Worm Farm. Some polar bears live up the mountain road. Towards the far edge of the county there are homes that don't have the power or piped water like we do. I guess newcomers could find a bit of unused land, dig a well and build a shack for shelter. Neighbours would help them. So there are lots of families. Hundreds, I imagine. Troy agrees that this is one of the things we like about living here. Plenty to poke our muzzles into!

Take care! Sheridan (and Troy).

P.S. Troy says we need to get this letter posted to catch the out-of-town collection. He's daft. (He's not read this bit.) We've already delayed writing until now (sorry about that) so I can't understand the rush. Unless he has another reason to go out?

Bye for now. Sheridan.