History of Little Eleville

History of Little Eleville
 
My earliest memory of my collection was in 1993/4, I remember sitting beside my sister who at the time was in her playpen. I was sitting beside the pen and I was playing with my first family that I can remember... The Wild Boar Truffle’s and a small playpen with a blue mat and mobile.. The mobile of which has been lost for a very long time. 

I have always loved Sylvanians and they have been a part of my life for 21 years. I remember getting very excited when I saw the adverts on the telly, Argos catalogues and in the shops! I remember the early 2000s like they were only yesterday...

My sister and I, counting our pocket money and then visiting the old Toyshop in our town (which closed down 5 yrs later!), we always spent a good number of minutes deciding which family or furniture set or individual set that we wanted. I was always very picky and took ages to decide! We loved coming home and opening the boxes and setting up... It was the best time and the real last time we were ever close.

I always looked at the fabulous buildings in the toy shops or on the adverts and wishing that I could own a few... One from that time was St Francis School and Treehouse... We were both lucky that one Christmas, we both received one of our chosen buildings on our lists... My sister got the Canal boat - The Rose of Sylvania (still have today!) and I got -The Old Mill which I sold a few years back. It was at this time when I was going through a lot of changes and having the Sylvanians they were like my little friends as well as good fun spent with my sister creating fun stories together... The setting up has always been my favourite pastime and it always will be!

Years went by and soon I was 17 and I still had the need and want of my Sylvanians but I grew to accept that I had to let them go up in the loft and into boxes and a few went to charity.... That was a very difficult thing for me to do. I had to battle to stop myself wanting more and be the lie I had become pretending I was normal (masking my autism as I went - Sylvanians were one of my obsession’s) I had a difficult few years and battling depression amongst other things... The newer families and buildings kept coming out, I was still excited and smiled when I saw them but that was all I could do...

Fast forward 5 years... 2012 came and I had finally cracked with the stress of pretending... I kept bugging my parents to get the Sylvanians back and eventually they did... It was then I started to secretly collect again... Parcels kept arriving from Amazon and EBay and my family noticed... But a year later I was finally diagnosed with autism which is mild.... And I accepted it... So since 2012 my collection has tripled in size... Buildings I had dreamed of owning were now mine - the School and the Grand Hotel, and then there were the Families I had always dreamed of owning and sets and everything... It is amazing how many sets, families, buildings and transport I now own. I wouldn’t change them for the world, something tells me that I will always be collecting but only the old Tomy and Flair items, unless there is a particularly nice Epoch items then maybe those to.
The Village name was originally called Sylvia but I had gotten to the point where it didn’t feel right anymore. My friends on Elefriends, who love my Sylvanian pictures, helped me come up with a new name… And that is when Little Eleville became real :) It is a lovely village full of homes, shops and families. 

I hope you enjoy reading my stories and posts from my collection :)