Babi a Fi

AKA the post where I keep track of what we're getting Marianna for Christmas / Birthday. (Because, of course, I had to arrange it so the two events are only a few days apart...) The biggest problem this year is just that she kind of already has everything - so suggestions on what to get a precocious almost six year old are very welcome! BOUGHT ★ Little Miss Book Collection. ★ Frustration Board Game. ★ Connect 4 Board Game. ★ 3x 'Lego' Animal Building sets. ★ Dream Wedding Sticker Book. ★ Lie Detector Game. (like the one they use on  TotallyTV ...) ★ Night Skies 2021 Book. ★ Rizmo Interactive Pet. ★ Make It Real Fashion Design Book x3. ★ Make It Real Paint Pouring Craft Kit. ★ Rainbow Scratch Art Mini Notes Box. ★ Headphones. ★ Watch. ★ Hairband. ★ Smiggle Notebook. ★ Smiggle Stationery. ★ Handbag. ★ Rings. ★ Claire's Accessories Make-Up. ★ Sunglasses. ★★★★★ ★ Remote Control Car. [mum] ★ 3ft Barbie Doll. [mum] ★ Colour Reveal Barbie & Pet. [mum] ★ Stuff-a-Loons. [mum

I've been making some mini noticeboards for the doll house this week. This one is a cork backed drinks coaster I won for a penny on ebay bargain hunt , covered in Re-ment cut outs, some patterned paper (actually cut outs from a kids clothing catalogue), and some tiny photos from the thumbnail sheet some companies do with your prints. This one is for the 'gaming' room and is made from some sticky back cork and an aceo art frame I bought ages ago on etsy. The little knights on top are from one of the Micro Playmobil sets.  For more like this, please click the image below:

Supplier:  CB Toy Collectables Website:   Ebay Store   Products: UK based seller of Action Man and other 1/6 scale loose parts. I am always on the lookout for splits and CB Toy Collectables are one of the cheapest on eBay. I got the above bag - a briefcase from DID's John Colman Guards Officer figure - for £4.99. Post and Packing:   Free. :) For more like this, please click the image below:

In 2016 Lidl ran a Little Shop promotion in Portugal, with customers getting a free blind bagged miniature for every 15 Euro they spent. Along with various larger scaled play fresh fruit, veg and meat there were 26 branded miniatures to collect:  1. Luso Water . 2. Fairy . 3. Coca Cola . 4. Garnier Peach . 5. Floralys Toilet Roll . 6. Nixe Tuna . 7. Nestle Chocapic . 8. Fula Cooking Oil . 9. Chaparro Olive Oil . 10. Combino Spaghetti. 11. Persil . 12. Danonino Yoghurt Drink . 13. Meio Gordo Milk . 14. Bellarom Espresso . 15. Cien. 16. Milbona Greek Yoghurt . 17. Ovos . (eggs) 18. Sondey Maria . 19. Fin Carre Chocolate. 20. Compal Peach Juice . 21. Manhazitos Leite. 22. Planta . (margerine) 23. Terra Vento . (cheese) 24. Alesto Miolo de Noz. 25. Dodot Nappies . 26. Almond Ice Cream.   For more like this, please click the image below:

Mini blog challenges where I'm given a year and tasked with listing my ten favourite tracks... ★  1959 . ★ 1966 . ★ 1973 . ★ 1978 . ★ 1980 . ★ 1984 . ★  1988 . ★  1995 .  ★ 1999 . ★ 2004 . ★ 2015 . ★★★★ ★ Birthday Songs . For more like this, please click the image below:

We were asked a few weeks back if we would like to review Nipper Cards, a deck of positive affirmation cards designed to help children talk about their feelings. As Marianna seems ever more disposed to apparently causeless tantrums I was really excited to give them a go. Designed by Janthea Brigden of Nipperbout Event Childcare , the cards themselves are lovely quality. There are 13 vibrant animal designs, each with 4 affirmation cards based around the animal's theme. Dolphins, for example, are a 'breath of life' while horses represent 'power and wisdom' and hummingbirds 'joy and love of life'. My favourites are the 'dreaming' lizard cards. :) The instruction card in the deck reads: "Each card has an animal that represents a quality - and each animal has four messages which reflect both sides of that quality. The opposite of fear, for example, is courage. Often the things we most dislike about others are in ourselves, and the qualities we most a

Switzerland kicked off the Little Shop trend in 2013 with Mini Mania at Migros , both the largest employer and supermarket chain in the country. Migros runs these kind of campaigns multiple times a year, gifting shoppers a free blind bagged miniature for every 20 CHF spent.  All the Mini Mania stuff I've had has run big and is best suited for 1/4 or even 1/3 scale. Probably the best fit from this series for 1/6 is the Soft comfort toilet roll.     There were 52 miniatures to collect. Click on the item below to see an individual picture of it - the promo pics seem to be lost to the swirling mists of internet past so the images are from various ebay and aliexpress listings.  1. MiniMania Card. 2. Der Orange Riese M Charm. 3. Miggy Charm. 4. Surprise. 5. Tomatoes . 6. Carrots. 7.  Apples . 8. ? 9.  Zwieback . (rusk bread) 10.  Riesen-Cervelas . (sausages) 11.  Heidi Berg-Bundnerfleisch . 12. Chicken . 13. Eggs. 14.  Valflora UHT Drink . 15.  Migros Choco Drink . 16.  Le Gruyere . (ch

Supplier:  Dollz With Love Website:   Etsy Store   Products: Awesome quality clothing for 1/6 scale fashion dolls. I was trawling Etsy looking for doll school uniforms for a different room and came across the 'school sucks' outfit. It had to be done! I also got a Ken sized Superman tee because, well, my stash of guy doll clothes is still very small. The Wildflower dolls look impressed, at any rate. ;) Post and Packing:   £4 from Croatia. For more like this, please click the image below:

Spend £20 on food at Marks and Spencer and bag yourself a blind bagged branded miniature. As with similar miniaturised product lines (think Zuru Surprise Mini Brands, Coles Little Shop, Lidl Shop, etc) the scale is kind of hard to pin down. Some stuff is clearly 1/6 scale. Some is clearly 1/4. Most of it is somewhere in between.  Last week we bought Marianna a new doll house via eBay and Shiply, and in with all the bits and pieces were a few M&S Little Shop items. I can't even remember the last time I set foot in a M&S - and we're not even counting lockdown - so it was the first time I'd actually seen any in the flesh. Contrary to all expectations, I was really impressed with them and have taken to eBay to bid on a bunch of the frozen food. Fingers crossed!  Little Shop launched in 2019 with 25 items to collect. 26 if you include the ultra rare (LE of 1000) golden Percy Piggy Bank. Click on the item from the list below to see its promo pic - ★  Gastropub Chicken K

Supplier:  Dolls Flowers Website:   Etsy Store   Products: Super realistic 1/6 scale flowers and greenery. Seriously, the flowers weren't the purpose of my order but I couldn't resist getting a daisy (£5.20) to check it out. The detail is amazing! I'd love to get a whole bouquet one day. My main reason for ordering, however, was the retro style wooden chairs (£9.20) the seller makes as a sideline. I've been meaning to get a couple of chairs for the kitchen ever since I swapped out the Sindy set for a table by Sixth Scale Studio . It only took a year... I love them so much though; they're excellent quality and really true to scale. Post and Packing:   £7.50 from Russia. Shipping took about six weeks and everything was very well packaged, including a little free gift of a milk jug. ♥ For more like this, please click the image below:

One of my bucketlist items for this year is to watch 33 new (to me!) films. Here's my progress list: ★ 1. Detroit Evolution (2020) ★ 2. Jungle Bride (1933) ★ 3. Millie (1931) ★ 4. The Cat in the Hat (2003) ★ 5. Christopher Robin (2018) ★ 6. The Lorax (2012) ★ 7. The Willoughbys (2020) ★ 8. Lady and the Tramp (2019) ★ 9. Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979) ★ 10. The Prince and the Pauper (1962) ★ 11. The Ghosts of Buxley Hall (1980) ★ 12. Show Dogs (2018) ★ 13. Fuzzbucket (1986) ★ 14. The Strongest Man in the World (1975) ★ 15. Pete's Dragon (2016) ★ 16. Big Business (1988) ★ 17. Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) ★ 18. Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) ★ 19. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020) ★ 20. The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) ★ 21. The Moon-Spinners (1964) ★ 22. Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) ★ 23. The Castaway Cowboy (1974) ★ 24. The Christmas Chronicles (2018) ★ 25. Treasure Island (1950) ★ 26. Jing

Supplier:  Butterfly Family Website:   Etsy Store   / Instagram Products: 1/6 scale wooden furniture. Premade furniture, at that. I'd been getting sick of building miniature furniture so I was super pleased to get my order from Butterly Family and just bung it straight in the doll house! I wanted a room to showcase all my 'cute' miniatures, from Sanrio to My Little Pony to the tiny little Polly Pocket I bought last year, and this seemed just the ticket. The doll house wardrobe (£24) and the two side bookcases (£11 each) are absolutely adorable, and I also got two short window cabinets (£15 each) and a chest of drawers (£13).  The furniture fit in perfectly with my spray painted Sindy dressing table and the bunkbed I got ages ago from Furniture For Dolls . I couldn't fit both short cabinets in so I made a little foam mattress and cover for the bottom bunk, meaning I could wedge the cabinet into place to use the space as a day bed / reading nook. Sindy's ward

Moose Toys new #FAILFIX doll line has hit retailers! Don't get me wrong, I'm as much of a sucker for blind boxing as the next collector - but it is good to see somebody other than Mattel attempting to be more innovative with their playline dolls.  The concept isn't perfect: why are girls always being told they have to fix themselves? Rock whatever look you like. And they haven't dropped the blind box element entirely; the website blurb says you might find a rare or ultra-rare outfit or make-up look. But it is something different and I like the explicit focus on hairplay and redressing. I'm looking forward to seeing some in hand reviews on how well the 'fix' features work. :) You can pick them up now at Argos for £20 each. ★  Dance.Stylz - box front / fail look /  box back . ★  Kawaii.Qtee - box front / fail look / box back . ★  Loves.Glam - box front / fail look / box back . ★  PreppiPosh - box front / fail look / box back . ★  SlayItDJ -

One of my bucketlist items for this year is to read 33 new (to me!) books. Here's my progress list: ★ 1.  Secrets of the Dulce Base: Alien Underground - Gil Carson . ★ 2. Annunaki Genesis - Andy Jardine . ★ 3. On the Trail of the Nephilim - L.A. Marzulli . ★ 4.  Nordic Aliens and the Star People of the Americas - Lars Bergen . ★ 5.  From Deep Within The Archives Of UFO Insight - Marcus Lowth . ★ 6.  How Skin Bacteria Created the Image on the Shroud of Turin - Stephen Mattingly . ★ 7.  The Shroud Of Turin: The Scientific Evidence - Cheryl Leonard . ★ 8.  The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: The Case for Authenticity - J.C. Iannone . ★ 9.  Debunking the Turin Shroud - Juha Rossi . ★ 10.  The Shroud: The Evidence - LM Cowley . ★ 11. Time-Slips: Journeys into the Past and the Future - Rodney Davies . ★ 12. Men In Black - Conrad Bauer . ★ 13. The Lake Michigan Mothman - Tobias Wayland . ★ 14. Man Monkey: In Search of the British Bigfoot - Nick Redfern . ★ 15. Aliens Amon