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Happy Bungalow Makes Wooden Toys, Repairs Plastic Toys

As you might guess, there is no shortage of toys here at the Bungalow.  Plenty of wooden toys, sure, but we have some plastic toys as well.  We encourage everyone to buy handmade wooden toys, perhaps in our online toy shop, but there are some thing you just can’t make out of wood.  Like a tiny ladybug just a bit bigger than a penny (see below).  Perhaps you’ll recognize her as the companion of a well known [and skimpily dressed] fairy.  Wears a lot of green, has a fondness for lost things, and tinkering.

Anyway.  The ladybug is a mighty favorite of one of the Kids here at the Bungalow.  A faithful companion for months (literally never leaving his side).  Some of the paint eventually wore off, and then off came an antennae.  Liz and I were well practiced in finding the ladybug, so despite odds to the contrary, we found the broken antennae (about the thickness of spaghetti and 1/8″ long).

A superglue fix lasted about an hour.  “The ladybug broke again!”

Okay.  It’s time to get serious.

We can rebuild her.  We have the technology.  We can make her stronger.

tiny plastic ladybug undergoing antennae repair

I take our injured bug to the shop (note penny and vintage Lance’s X-Acto knife for scale).  She needs a metal rod implanted to strengthen the break.  By some miracle a company makes a drill bit just a bit thicker than a human hair (only sort of exaggerating).  I carefully drill into the ladybug, then manage to drill into the broken antennae (and not my finger).  Snip a piece of wire, glue it together, glue my fingers together.

Wait, what?

Ugh.  Yeah, I super-glued my fingers together.  Note than slicing the fingers apart with an X-Acto knife is more challenging than you might think.  But soaking your fingers nail-polish remover will [eventually] loosen up the glue (read:  1/2 hour of your life spent considering why you didn’t wear latex gloves).

But most importantly the ladybug was made whole and the Kids were happy and thankful.

Of course three weeks later it broke again.  To our workmanship’s credit though, the new break was above the bionic implant.  The broken piece was lost to eternity, but the Kids came to terms with the loss.

We’re happy to report that Ladybug is worn around the edges, but still well-loved.

 

 

Fairies and Unicorns!

Fairies and Unicorns.  All the girls here at the Bungalow love the fairies’ newest friend:  The Unicorn.  I hope you’ll love them too.

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Yes, We Are Happy In Our Bungalow

People ask me if I live in a happy bungalow.  95% of the time.  Here’s proof:

A mixing of the toy worlds!  Not only are Happy Bungalow toys mixing with those rascally store bought toys, but if you look closely you’ll see cars taking a snooze on some dollhouse beds.  So here are some castle prototype parts, dollhouse bookend furniture pieces, a wood fairy, along with some old Legos of mine, and loads of toy cars.

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The castle is built from Castle Bookend prototypes that predate the official launch of Happy Bungalow.  I wasn’t able to quite work out the mechanics of the castle.  Maybe we’ll take another look at it some time.Happy-Bungalow-wood-toy-castle-bookend-prototype-570

tired wood robot toy after long day of work

One Year Anniversary

Happy Bungalow is one year old!  We celebrated at our hometown show.  We’ve come a long way since last year (view here)

There’s a number of new products and new show furniture to display them on.

A new easier on the back sign

And ever popular dollhouse furniture.

I’ll be adding more products for the upcoming slate of fall shows and I’m going to tweak the booth o give things a bit more pop.

The anniversary show went off well – increased sales from a year ago, loads of business cards handed out, and bunches of conversations.  A tiring day, but fun.  Phew.

Wee Folk Fairy Fest – Post Show

I’ve been taking lots of new product pictures and working on the etsy shop these past few days, but I wanted to recap the latest show before it’s too far from my memory.  A lot has changed since my first show a little more than a month ago.  The booth display looks much better and there’s more neat product on display.

Happy Bungalow Wee Folk Fairy Festival Booth Display

I had the time to finish the tables with tung oil which really helps them pop.  I shifted the alignment of the tables as well, and more densely packed items.  I also have the super nifty tree display.

Gone is the red paper with handwritten prices.  Also gone are the painted clocks.  Not making a second appearance was the train set on the ground.  There’s a whole separate blog post (or three) about that thing.

Happy Bungalow Wee Folk Fairy Festival Booth Display

The animals were the biggest seller from the last show and they were again this show.  I moved them to the center table to give them more visibility.  Once again people like the dollhouse bookends – who wouldn’t?  They’re so darn cute.  The new hardwood clocks got quite a few nods as well.  I appreciate all the kind comments given.

Happy Bungalow Wee Folk Fairy Festival Booth Display

The show itself had a lot of activities for the family – a petting zoo, music, belly dancers, singers and dancers, and a parade.  My kids had to leave before the parade, but had a great time before they left.

Happy Bungalow Wee Folk Fairy Festival Vendor Lane

 

Happy Bungalow Wee Folk Fairy Festival Princess Parage