Saturday 11 May 2013

Thank you Butterfly.....

On the eve of the day that we open Small Worlds to the general public for the first time, and our immediate departure for England tomorrow evening, me for ten days and Butterfly for at least 3 months, maybe longer, it seems fitting that I will be directing you to her website, Words and Pictures, for an overview of some of what she has been doing in the past nine weeks.   Without her I would have achieved very little and I owe her huge thanks for her creativity, ability to think outside the box and her staying power!  I shall miss her enormously.  (For those who don't know - she's my daughter.....)

But before I give you the link, first of all a quick mouse update - when we left them they were about to move in, and those pesky pigs were hanging on to the tailgate of the wagon for dear life.  They've now reached the front door and are clearly considering their options.   Maybe they are about to burst into a Christmas Carol?  

Actually, bursting into song might gain them admittance - 


because if you take a peek inside the house then you can see two groups of singers in rehearsal.   Maximilian himself is conducting the teenage boys whose voices have broken...
 


and in the next room Nameless Mouse is tasked with whipping the younger mice into shape.  Butterfly was moved to wonder about the sound-proofing between the two rooms...... 







Meanwhile, elsewhere in the house, all is calm, all is bright.   


The servants are bustling around in  the kitchen,




most of the children are waiting for their tea, 






and the babies are amusing themselves upstairs.


And what of the pigs?   Well at least someone has answered the door .......

I seem to have spent much of the past few days fiddling with teeny tiny things - what the Czechs describe as piplačka, a lovely word. 

  For example there are the flowers I have been assembling from the Britains Floral Kits that have been lurking in boxes for many years. Purists should look away now because I confess I have been misusing them and turning lupins and delphiniums into wisteria, and sticking things in vases rather than in flower beds.   

Some of the flower heads are truly tiny as you can see from the tulip head next to the point of a toothpick. 

So when I drop them on the browny-red floor you can imagine that the language is not of the sweetest......

The flowers will feature in the new window we shall reveal tomorrow when we open.  As will something else very piplačky - the model that I started to build about 20 years ago and which Butterfly and I finished earlier today 
                                                                                                                      Imagine our horror when we discovered that we were expected to glue the bonnet down over all that painstaking wiring I assembled so long ago.  We decided to disobey the instructions and leave the car with a removeable bonnet so that in due course a chauffeur can bend over the engine and do some running repairs....

And now prepare to be amazed as you head over to Butterfly, for a look at what she has achieved in the past nine weeks. This post is dedicated to her with my heartfelt thanks and admiration for what she has done - take a look!

Thank you for staying with us on this journey.  It's not over yet so I hope that you will come back for many more blog posts.

11 comments:

  1. It is truly something special you share Cestina. I look forward to seeing your continuing partnership and creative journey.

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  2. I love the mice, I love the houses and all the piplaka (it is a great word!) I played with the floral garden kits as a child, I remember it well (indeed it was still stored when my brother and I cleared out our parents house!) it was brilliant (fiddly) fun! so it is nice to see it here with your houses. Good luck!!

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  3. My brother and I had a Britains garden - fiddly indeed, and bits got lost between the floorboards!

    Hope today goes well!

    Ruth xx

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  4. Oh! Oh! Oh! My mouse cup runneth over...They all look thrilled with their new abode - and how lovely to have mouse music filling the museum! They sing every morning how lucky we are, living in Small Worlds with Ce-estina!

    Is it me, or does the door-opener look a little menacing? I fear for those mischievous pigs. Perhaps they need an apartment of their own, although they do seem terribly keen to be near the mice. Perhaps they could perform in the show? Three little pigs from school are we, pert as a piglet well can be, filled to the brim with girlish glee-ee...

    A xx

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  5. I enjoy your house adventures and remaking them is a act of love. I adore Alison and glad you two could work together.
    Hugs Kelly

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  6. I've just read this together with Alison's long post about what she's been doing in the 9 weeks. I'm lost in admiration for all the two of you have accomplished - it's truly mind-blowing! I'm delighted to note from your CBB post that today's Open House was so successful, and hope that you'll continue to have crowds of people throughout the season. Meantime, I wish the two of you a safe journey back to the UK, and a successful season for Alison as well - I don't think I can post on her blog.

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  7. Hi Cestina, I love your mice, the house and the story! Wunderful blog. Gr. Nancy

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  8. The Swan Whisperer definitely wants to come and see it, too, which is great!

    But the flowers - we used to have them, and I'd forgotten all about them until this minute. With a splendid little tool for pushing them into the relevant hole in the flower-bed, and for uprooting them again, and although this was what it was for, they were never quite the same after first use!

    Love, love, love the mice and the little pigs!


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  9. All so amazing-I hope you had a wonderful opening day. I just love Alison's blog and you are both very special people

    Love Chrissie xx

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  10. Well I hope you had a good trip home, I just want to thank you very much for sharing this incredible wonderful journey with us, I have laughed and sometimes cried but its all been wonderful for me. I do loooove anything miniature so it's been a pleasure for me to see and witness a dream come true. Life is good. Have a wonderful day, it's mothers day her so I'm wishing you a Happy Mothers day to a wonderful Mom..

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  11. I saw the post your daughter did on you and your work. So cute! I didn't know you were related! LOL! The mice look so cozy in their gorgeous home!
    hugs♥,
    Caroline

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