How many of you collect miniatures? Often doll collecting and miniature collecting go hand-in-hand; especially, when searching for the perfect scale accouterments for a particularly beloved doll or collection of dolls. But, seriously, how many of you collect miniatures for the sake of something being, well, miniature? I have already confessed to being a irrepentant doll collector and yes, it is true, I do often search for and obtain perfect scale items for my dolls. (Yes, my dolls absolutely needed that scale model bed, tea set, stuffed toy and *insert other items here*!) But I have another confession to make... I... collect... miniatures... just because... they are soooooo, soooooooooo.... tiny! It really isn't even necessary for a perfectly miniature item to be appropriate for any doll currently in my collection. If it is a functional miniature and it causes me to squee uncontrollably inside, chances are I want it. Or more likely I already have it. So what is the point of all this discourse? Other than turning the spotlight on miniatures (which, if you haven't yet discovered from this post, I think are absolutely fantastic) it concerns some old paperwork I came across just this evening. What does some random paperwork have to do with miniatures? In this particular instance it had to do with a purchase of some of the most fantastic, well-priced and most perfect micro miniature handcrafted glass animals I have ever come across in my many years of collecting (and purchasing) miniatures. The random paperwork in question was the physical printout of the sales confirmation for a purchase made from the company that sold these fabulous micro glass animals. I was terrifically excited to rediscover the printout because I literally have been searching for this shop for years since the original purchase was made. I really wanted to order more of the teensy tiny itty bitty glass miniatures from the online storefront and the computer that had the storefront bookmarked went kaput so I had no easy access to it. Hence the years (and I mean literal years) long search to rediscover the storefront in which they were originally found. | Guess what, though? The printout did not contain the storefront's url. It did however contain the words 'mini neighbors' so I thought to myself, " 'bingo' I will finally be able to find that storefront!" Guess what again? Along with a negative 'buzzt' for effect: No such luck. The search using the keywords 'mini neighbors' yielded websites not even remotely related to miniatures, much less glass figurines or animals. I was actually expecting that, which is why I added 'animal' , 'figurines' and then 'glass' to the keyword search. Yet, the results were still a bust. I did a couple of other related searches in hopes of unearthing the elusive website and ultimately... discovered... the online storefront... closed. So all these years of fruitless searching for the most wonderful fantastic itty bitty teeny weeny handcrafted glass animals was in vain. I even stumbled across the possible url domain-name for the site up for sale on a web domain-name shop-front. Just so you know-- the domain name was for sale under $1500. So my years of searching were seemingly all for naught. Yet the fruitless search for those terrific miniatures actually yielded a wealth of other websites filled with miniatures. So all was not a loss. My very favorite ? Miniature Garden Shoppe came out at the top of the list of the websites I perused while searching for the defunct web store. This was not just because the miniatures for sale in their online storefront but for their terrific Tips & Tricks page and their fabulous Inspiration Gallery link (also the squees were abundant). And, yes, there are possibly (actually quite probably) some wonderful scale items for your smaller dolls available in their store. Miniatures to make a miniature collector happy, found there. Most definitely? Why, indubitably! Perhaps I can get some inspiration from this miniature site and create a perfect little garden-scape for my smaller dolls to frolic in-- at least that is the excuse I will be using if and most likely when I click the 'buy' button for some miniatures there. |
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