First Post!

Hello! Welcome to my Sylvanian Families / Calico Critters blog, Lavender Hollow. I am very excited to finally start a blog about these cute little critters that I absolutely adored when I was growing up. My brother and I were 80s kids and we loved collecting them and had a lot of fun playing. I had most of the vintage figures released in the U.S. and since about a year ago, I have been getting some of the family members I missed. I stopped collecting in about 1988 or 1989 and then briefly started again in 1999/2000. About 3 years ago my brother took a trip to Japan and brought me back the newest Marlowe cat family, known to me from my brother translating the writing on the box as the Charcoal cat family. I loved them and immediately joined SSK's fan club and got the Dante cat family. Then for some reason I didn't get any more after that (it was probably because I have several hobbies and collections and a limited income.) But finally I made some purchases from SSK and started scouring eBay.

Even though I am from the United States where they are now called Calico Critters, I stick with the original name, Sylvanian Families because that is what I grew up calling them. Also, I will be sticking to the UK character names regardless of where I purchased them for consistency. I don't buy multiple versions of families, I just get what I can, even if the clothes are wrong.

On the pages with some of the vintage families, if I have a story I remember doing with the family when I was a kid, I'll share that story with you. My brother and I had some crazy ideas. I may even incorporate some of those memories into any new stories that I post under the "Tales" section of on the sidebar. 

I'm not super crafty and i'm definitely not an interior decorator and I don't have tons of money to spend so I won't always have the fanciest photos or displays, but I'm just going to do my best and some of it will be imperfect. 

I hope you can find some enjoyment out of my blog and I hope you'll leave any positive comments or tips you may have as I play around and have fun!

~Kim~