Turtles at Kassandra's

Today I visited Kassandra, and I found her busy, getting settled... a pair of turtles!  That was most peculiar, and so I asked her about them.

 

 

"Oh, these are Cassiopeia and Sirius".

"Are they yours?"

"Oh, no, they belong to the children.  They were a gift of a classmate that breeds turtles.  They are staying here while summer lasts."

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Fantasy apart, I saw these tiny turtles at the Beautifully Handmade shop, and fell in love with them!  I wanted to buy this lovely set up:

But it was gone when I went to purchase it.  So I decided I had to make my own.  Firstly, I cut some popsicle sticks to make a box for the turtles:

My arm hurt after all the wood cutting...

Gluing the boards

Trying the box with the turtles for size... Good enough!

Then, I covered the inside with a brown cardboard, spread a thin cover of glue and sprinkled some fake sand over it:

Adding on some green tufts

But of course, the turtles needed a little refuge, and half a pot was not enough.  So I made for them a little house with some spare parts of balsa wood:

And it looks great!

I still have to make for them a little food, like some lettuce, tomatos or strawberries.  But I enjoy having some pets in miniture!

Vampires and witches need pets too

Although the regular pets in a dollhouse usually are cats and dogs, (and other cute animals such as rabbits, guinea pigs or mice) sometimes they simply don't fit in the designed scheme. Don't get me wrong; my dollhouse vampire occupant has a black cat in her bedroom, but she needed other type of companion as well.

Since the Harry Potter series became popular, I have begun to see more unusual pets for dollhouses, such as frogs, snakes, snow owls (like the one Harry has) and ravens. I myself wanted to buy a raven, since my vampire friend is very fond of Mr. Poe and his work, but the raven in question seemed more like an altered pigeon, due to the placement of the eyes on his head and the small beak. So I decided against it. What, oh what, could she use as pet? But of course! Which animal speaks more clearly of vampires than the bat?

Well then, the first step was to buy a cage for the little one to nest. I searched high and low for empty cages - the majority of them had already a little bird inside, and no possibility to open it to exchange the occupant.

I made a search on Etsy, because it has become trendy to use this type of birdcages to make necklaces, and I found it, empty and with opening door. Too cute! So I ordered one.

Then I sewed a tiny fabric bat upside down to the swing, and this is the result:


Isn't it adorable? Now he rests comfortably in the study of my vampire friend.