A swift kick in my mail parts.

Just what I needed. A friendly shove in the right direction.

My friend Megan aka: MiniDork from modernminihouses sent me a swap gift!

I came home after a regular shitty Monday at my day job to a pair of generously sized boxes leaning against my garage door. I thought nothing of them at first. My husband orders lots of car parts and tools for his business, so I never let myself get a thrill from seeing a package. It's generally heavy, and cumbersome, and he's got two hands. He can lug it in. But no...

I inched closer and saw that one was a very distinct CB2 box.
So it's obviously not for my husband, who would likely guess that CB2 was a Star Wars character. My heart was aflutter with anticipation. I bolted out of the car and bee-lined for the labels. They were both for me. Fully knowing how broke I am and that I hadn't ordered anything, I looked for the name on the return address and smiled big. These were going to be really fun to open. Attempting not to be a total spaz, I maintained composure, changed into sweatpants, poured a jar of wine, and fed the dogs to get waggy tails distracted from what would surely be fragile stuffs.

I opened the big package first, it had been directly under my drippy (flow-rate: Niagara) roof. I'm sure it was merely coincidental, since I have an awning over my front door. Whatthefuck,postalservice?
I was really nervous that the water had seeped past the cardboard and damaged delicate things. Lucky for me, the contents were in another box, wrapped in plastic. Safe. But holy smokes:

That's her best "I'm impressed".

A new dollhouse!! You've got to be kidding me. Way to overdo it, Ms. One-Upper : )

You said it wasn't a contest... right there on that sticky note.

Well played.

But then, oh, then...
The box marked "fragile".

Luckily, this one wasn't waterlogged.

What treasures to behold! This box was packed with awesome minis. Many of which were hand designed/made and that makes them all the more special.

She specified that some of these items would require assembly, which means that this post is mostly a tease. I'll tell you what I got, but I won't really get to play with all of my toys until this weekend. I fully intend to, with a follow-up post with pictures of it all styled up.

Shouldn't be tough, since my new swag includes:
an incredible geometric deer head sculpture, two amazing bookcases, loads of original limited-edition pillows, books (and the ammo to make more!), vases, six chairs, two tables, and a countertop/workbench, and an outdoor fireplace (in some pretty amazing packaging), brass fixtures, accessories and miniature flora (the flowering cactus kills me). Plus, I had already received the entire "glam accessories collection" which will also be featured in this weekend's scenes. You may have seen a couple of the pieces already in my cubebot entry.

Not sure where I'll set them up yet. Might be another job for the roombox!

So, sorry again that I've been delinquent on posts. Mostly because I started playing my violin in a local college orchestra, a little treat for myself (and subsequently my mom, apparently love is blind and deaf). And I handmade most of my Christmas gifts for family this year (a la Pinterest) and they came out beautiful, but it was all a total timesuck. I'll have a post about those items coming (and how Santa treated me), and another on my plans for 2013 including a demolition derby and a new workshop, and another about how awesome the other submissions for the cubebot challenge were, another about my direction for the undersized urbanite challenge, and another about intermediate dollhouse wiring (eyelets: types, uses, and installation). And I'm dying to catch up on all of you guys! I know I've missed a lot. Promise to deliver soon.

I knew I had you at demolition derby.
You forgive me.
Suckers.

Happy New Year!