Millie's Post/The Garden Shop

Hi, it’s Millie. I like to read, write stories, make miniatures for my dolls, and to play with my sister. When I'm outside I play basketball and go biking. My favourite colour is pink, my second favourite is yellow. Now, let's get started!

I really like our new home. It’s really nice. I like my school and my new friends and our neighbours. My favourite thing is when Mom takes Daisy and I to the park so that Dad can work driving the older residents of town around… well, town.

Me in my room! You can sort of see my miniature diorama peeking out in the bottom left side of the picture

Daisy always wants to bring her pretend car. She makes Mom and I push her. Sometimes, Mom will take us to the fruit wagon. Mr. Dale owns the fruit wagon. He is very nice and he gives kids fruit for free. Mom and Dad like that because then they don’t have to pay!! ;)

Daisy, Mom, and I at Mr Dale's fruit wagon

Mom has a part time job for the flower shop. She signed a contract and will work there for three years. Her new friend is the owner, *Pamela Hunter-Smyth. She told Mom yesterday that she is going on a summer holiday for a week and Mom will watch the shop!

*Pamela is not the real name the mother figure came with, it's of my own creation.

Mom and Pam 'negotiating' about Mom's new work schedule

Back to our subject… I also like our dentist since he used to be Dad’s best friend in high school. Then he moved away, and now we can see him again! Dad says that he likes the way it’s such a small town and that you practically know everyone living in it. I like that, too.

Me at the dentist's, getting a cleaning

My school is called Sir Wilder Elementary. It’s nice and it has a big park in the back. My homeroom teacher is named Mr. Wilder and he is the grandson of Elmer Wilder, the first mayor of this town who founded this school. Elmer isn't alive anymore, but his grandson who is now ALSO mayor, keeps the school going strong and actually teaches in it.

My school - the entire class. I sit next to Nathan Tuxedo (as Emilie, I have two Tuxedo Cat families, the same ones, except one is new and one is old and worn. I re-dressed and re-named my old Tuxedo Cat family sister. The name is from my own creation, not any real set)

One of my other teachers is Mrs. Outback. She is strict but lovable and she knows a lot of facts. Anyway… wait… Dad’s back home with Daisy. They went to the post office and picked up some mail. “Millie?” Dad calls. “There’s a letter for you!” “Okay!”  I shout back. “Coming!” I rushed downstairs from my room and Dad hands me the letter. It’s from my pen-pal, Maya Grunt. She used to go to my school before we moved. Dad still drives me to see her, but it's only once every 3 months. So, we have become pen-pals!

Dad showing me the letter

Here’s the letter, and I think after showing and reading it to you, I’ll just stop short since my hand is aching and I want to stop writing and acknowledge my real life. Here it is…

Hi Millie,I’m having a great summer.. Are you? I’d like to know what you’ve been doing lately. My uncle takes me to play tennis. I’m learning how to roller skate. I like this new book called Sylvanian Cooking my Mom got me for my eleventh birthday. I just turned eleven! I am happy to be eleven. Now I am almost as big as my brother Hugo, who is now thirteen. I want to be either a fashion designer or an athlete. I think it would be fun to decide what people wear but it would also be fun to win big medals and stuff and then I would give them to my family and we would be really rich. Hehe! I have a new favourite colour. It is blue. I goes well with the pink polka-dot scarf mother knit for me. I want to learn how to knit. I know how to sew. Mother taught me. Do you know how to sew, or knit? I miss going to school together. Well, what’s new in your life? How are your parents? How is Daisy? What is your new school like? I want to know. Do you still like making paper-bag puppets as much as you used to? Or painting my nails and then letting me paint yours? I was so bad at doing it and our joke was that “how was I going to be a fashion designer if I couldn’t even paint another person’s nails!” I am better at doing it now. I’m better at doing a lot of things, now. I wish you a great rest of your summer and a wonderful day…Love, Maya Grunt in her best penmanship

And she sent a picture, too:

Well, that’s that. I’ll be writing back. See you later, readers! I love you all!

1 week later... Bev gets to babysit Daisy for the second time, Theodore is at work and Millie is at school. Pamela is going on holiday and Georgina has been asked to watch the shop. Let's check up on her and see how Mrs. Maple is doing...

A NOTE BEFORE WE BEGIN: 1 - This story isn't as long as my first one, but is still fairly big. 2 - There are no captions for the pictures. 3 - I added a background of sky and grass to one photo that was showing a lot of my bedroom, where I keep my Sylvanians. Except for a picture where Georgina's eyes are closed, the rest are not photo-shopped.

Here she is, at the front desk. I guess he's waiting for the first customer of the day to arrive...

Here's some extra pictures of the actual gardening shop, before we begin. A sign (a piece of black construction paper written on with a white pencil crayon) reads - Pam's Garden Shop. We must remember this place belongs to Pamela Hunter-Smyth, not Georgina ☺️ Next to the sign is the contract. It has been bolted to the wall in honour of Georgina getting employed.

A smallish table in the middle acts like an isle in the shop. The table is just a wooden block. On it are two bird statues, gardening books, and a blue garden gem. The bird statues are Playmobile chicks, one book is from a Sylvanian Families set and the other is also Playmobile. I can't remember where I got the gem.

A large selection of potted plants are on the ground and a shelf is resting on the wall. It's made of foam board. The red bag is from Shopkins.

A bit further than the shelf, a hat hangs on the wall. It came with Rosie Macavity from Rosie's Row Boat set, very similar but I think rarer than Yvette's. A few more potted plants are standing in the corner.

Here's the edited photo of the whole gardening shop!!! Yay! I'm so happy with how it came out (the shop, not the edited-ness...) ! Anyway, let's move on to the story...

The first customers to arrive were Mr. and Mrs. Teak. They are very rich and have a lovely garden with large, green, nicely trimmed hedges, potted plants and more. They come early to the shop since they've never been there before and want to make sure they get to look at all of the newly stocked items. Georgina greets them with a smile.

"Hello, how may I help you today?" she asks.

"We've come to take a look around to see what we can use for our garden." explains Mr. Teak.

"It needs more small things," adds his wife. "Right now all it has is tall hedges and large plants in ceramic pots. By the way, are you Pam?"

"Actually, my name is Georgina. I've been hired by Pamela Hunter-Smyth to take care of her shop while she goes on holiday with her family." Georgina says. I might have to say this every time. She thinks to herself.

"Alright then, Georgina. I guess we'll have a look around." says Mrs. Teak and she and her husband walk to the shopping part of the place. "Call me if you need help choosing!" Georgina says as they leave to browse things.

That was pretty easy. Georgina thinks.

Mr. and Mrs. Teak continue to shop. They end up buying...

Two small purple plants and the blue gem. "Lovely choice," comments Georgina as she scans the items. "That'll be 21 dollars and 50 cents, please."

After the Teaks leave, the second customer is Mrs. Maces. She comes often to the store and although her garden might not be as fancy as the Teaks, it's still very beautiful. "Hello, you must be Georgina," she says cheerily. "That's correct. How may I help you?" Georgina responds.

"Well, I'm looking for new gardening tools. My old ones are worn and stained, and my watering can's handle just broke off yesterday. I've had them for seven years, now. I'm looking for new ones."

"Of course I can help you with that, just follow me." Georgina says and pulls out a stepping stool so she can reach the gardening tools for the customer. "Here you go."

On the way out, Mrs. Maces also grabs a book about gardening, since she loves to read.

"That'll be 15 dollars and 3 cents, please." Georgina says and before she knows it, her second customer is gone and happy.

The third customers are Bruce Outback and his two young children, Joey and Adelaide. Adelaide is feeling mischievous today and climbs up the stool so she can see what's on top of the shelf.

Luckily, Georgina and Bruce spot her before she could have gotten hurt. "Be careful, Addie." Bruce says, then asks "Why are you up there, anyway?"

"Watering can. I like it."

"Alright then. We can get it. How much is it, madame?" Bruce asked.

Georgina paused, not knowing if Bruce would the answer. "13 dollars."

Then it was Mr. Outback's turn to pause. "Uh... well..."

"Please, Daddy?" Adelaide asked with a grin.

Bruce couldn't say no. "OK then, besides, your birthday is coming up soon. How about this is Daddy's birthday gift to you?"

"OK!! Thank you!" his daughter said and happily continued shopping with her father. They bought lots of things and so Georgina had to help load the heavy plants into the car.

Please don't notice about the red car in the background. I totally forgot it was even there while I was taking the picture, and since my original plan was to edit all of the pictures but found it was so much work and so I only edited one.

A couple minutes later, I actually realise that this is a good mistake, and that is Georgina's car.

"There we go! Almost done!"
Little Adelaide was watching from the backseat. Can you find her??

There she is!!!

After the Outbacks left, the next and last customer was Dr. Periwinkle. Like Mr. and Mrs. Teak, he is very rich, as he has been a doctor for many many years and is loved by everyone. He's been to the shop many times and has met Millie and Daisy for children's check ups. He instantly recognised Georgina and congratulated her on getting the job.

He explained that it was his wife's birthday and that she loved gardening. He wanted to get her some plants and saw the shop. He bought a lot of things...

A LOT OF THINGS, I REPEAT.

After he left, Georgina closed the shop. Time had gone by so quickly, and it was now already almost 4:00 PM. She sat on the stool and rested there for a moment to catch her breath. It was tiring to work there, maybe even more tiring than Daisy! But she had enjoyed it. And it was a good career to have, since she was fond of helping people.

Slowly, she closed her eyes and fell fast asleep. But not for long... the sound of footsteps were coming, closer and closer, and they were moving fast!!!

"Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1"

"Millie!"

"How'd it go?"

"Great!"

"That's good. Who were the customers?"

"Well, my first customers were Mr. and Mrs. Teak, and then it was..."

THE END!!!

FRONT

In small photos, I took pictures on crafts and showed how they were made. Bruce's baby carrier is made with three hair elastics. Haha! It actually turned out really well, if you ask me.

BACK

 The water can and gardening tools were made out of fimo. My dad helped me make them.

The potted plants were made with air dry clay (the pot) and the actual plants were crafted using all different plant materials, fake leaves, fake flowers, miniature hedges from a craft store, etc.

I made the butterflies by printing out butterfly pictures on a smaller scale, cut them out and stuck them to pieces of cut wire. Then I carefully glue gunned them into the pots. You can use ribbon to wrapped around pots, like I did with the one that has the blue butterfly sticking out of it.

These plants were made using fake flowers and paper scrap-booking flowers. I even added a yellow pompom to elevate the height of the one on the left. You can hardly see it in the picture, though :(

Last but not least, candles made out of real colourful wax!! So cute!

That's all for now, bye-bye! Sorry it was so long again. I can't believe it! I guess as long is it fun to read, it doesn't feel that long. Haha!

XO, Emilie 😀