Year 2010

Well, this past year, I had considered putting Thimble County on our bar since we bought a new table that was smaller, but I ended up using the original console table and put a folding table on one end for added length.  I also had a few new items to add.  I bought a rock wall centerpiece at a yard sale and bought an additional mountain for the far side.  Other little things cropped up for me to buy to add in.  A few new houses.  Additional items for the amusement park.  More trees.  Another light (billboard for amusement park)













I bought a new tree with blue lights for the center, but it was simply too big.  Nothing compares to the original tree, so although I first put in the new tree, it was later removed.






Then the craziest thing of all happened.  Every year, my daughter and I exchange tree ornaments for Christmas.  These are usually hand-made or unusual in some way.  So, I mentioned to her that I wanted to make ornaments of each of the planets in the solar system.  She jumped on it.  She said she would make them and that it would be EPIC!

She wasn’t kidding.  She made the entire solar system out of Styrofoam balls.  It was awesome!  However, when I got the gift(s), my tree was already up, and I wanted to display her gift.  I looked around.  Above Thimble County on the original console stand is a light-up picture that has air vents around the frame.  I hung a set of blue lights (for stars) from the bottom of the light, and hung the planets from that--over top of Thimble County.





Everyone loved it!  Therefore, my daughter’s solar system became a permanent part of Thimble County.

At this point, my husband said that it was no longer small enough to be a county.  I thought he would say it was a state or a country.  But no.  He insisted that it is Thimble World.

So, Thimble World came to be.

Now I realized that the good citizens of Thimble World could not view the planets without a telescope.  I went to work and made an observatory for them.





But, I couldn’t stop there.  Among my many interests, I’m into the paranormal.  My husband has some Bigfoot items and where we live (Skamania County, Washington) has a law forbidding the killing of a Sasquatch.  This gave me another idea.  I needed a Bigfoot in Thimble World.

After searching for a month, I could not find a Bigfoot thimble anywhere.  So, I resorted to making my own, which I must say, turned out just fine.  The thimble is coated in sand and dirt and rock so it looks like a mountain.




But, Bigfoot only gave me more ideas.  Universal ideas.  Unidentified ideas.  After another fruitless search, I resorted to making my own UFO thimbles.











I don’t know how much more I will add, but I haven’t stopped.  I’ve bought some thimbles with animals.



I plan to add another of my own “haunted house” as well.  I have one that I bought, which is very nice.



I made one already, but it is disappointing since the printout shrunk so poorly.




But, hand making the thimbles is rewarding.  Frustrating at times, but wonderful in the end.

Grandma’s village never looked like this!