Balls!

 While I was in New Zealand last month a friend mentioned the Miniverse balls as something I might be interested in: adding that they were generally more 1/6 scale but many of the items some in a variety of sizes in real life so would work in 1/12.

As I'd already spent my budget for the trip and was running out of time, I decided to look into it further when I returned home.

Except everywhere I tried in Canberra had no stock, and my local Kmart, even though they showed online as having stock, came up with bare shelves when I visited ("Oh, they've probably all been stolen" shrugged the sales associate when I asked after them).

So yesterday when I was doing my occasional trawl through internet to search for them (while contemplating if I could justify a 50km round trip to the next closest Kmart that was showing as having stock, with the very real possibility of getting there and finding that their stock levels were lying too), I was intrigued to find another shop that was showing stock: an easy 12km scoot down the hill into town, with motorcycle parking just across the road.

So I went on a wee quest after work, and found a fresh new box waiting for me:

I'd read somewhere that the front of the ball showed what was in it, so was disappointed to find this not to be the case, and so chose 2 at random, hoping that I'd get a cactus or another of the plant options as I had hatched plans to use my colourful Eames chair in a bright dining room setting and thought one of the cacti would look rather good on the sideboard at the back of the scene.

Back home, I cracked the first one open, which was quite fun with its 3 layers of packaging.

only to find it contained a fishbowl.

Which I'm sure I'll use at some stage, but it was disappointing to spend that amount of money on something I didn't really want (and here's the rub with blind boxes, isn't it? You're almost paying for the joy of anticipation rather than the end result. Like lotto tickets).

But onwards, with fingers crossed!

It was a candle set. Which was slightly better as it had more pieces I could use more readily (possibly because it had more pieces to start with!), and I rather liked the gold daisy-shaped tray and the candle holders. But it was no cactus.

So I decided to consol myself by 'potting' one of the Daiso cactuses I bought in New Zealand (which, yes, I could have done in the first place but I'd rather felt like a Friday-evening adventure and treat).

While I waited for the clay to dry overnight my idea for a scene changed directions slightly as I found more and more cactuses in stash.

(Rats, when I chose the books for their colours, I didn't think of how the title might show in a close up! Also I'm a bit pleased with myself because those white 'rocks' around my cactus (which I'd so liked in the Miniverse versions) are actually course sea salt filched from my salt grinder, and today is Saturday so I accidentally just created this week's Saturday shelfie).

So here's the scene, with our cactus collector getting ready to pot up some succulent leaves to add to her plant collection:

Yep, I think she has everything she needs there:

I'm still yearning for some of the Miniverse Lifestyle designs, especially the cute cat planters and the larger cacti. Am I in a rush to buy some more? Tempting as it is, no, as the money I spent on them (and a few other mini treats I picked up this week) was earmarked as the 10% of the extra I earned while acting in my boss's role for several weeks that I'm allowed to blow on fun treats.

Which means that choosing to buy more will mean that my grocery budget would need to be lower that fortnight (which is doable and has been done previously when I had accidental book orders from The Book Grocer's clearance sales!).

Having said that, I might decide to buy a couple more when Kmart's stock is back on the shelves (or online), as their price is a cup-of-coffee cheaper that the ones I bought yesterday. And I get free delivery.

In the meantime I think I'll do a little research on the secondary market. Perhaps I need to plan an op-shop hop and see if they're showing up there yet, or check out the trash 'n' treasure markets again?

(Oh, and if you're wondering. Version 2.0 of the Tiny Timber Co's dresser build worked just fine, and hopefully will be part of a scene very soon).