Road Trip Day 1: Western NY

Hi all! It's been an awesome day, and a long one too! We drove from Albany to Buffalo and stopped not terribly far from Rochester on the way. I took lots and lots of pictures which I am going to upload to Flickr and/or facebook at some point, but I will share some here, too. At least the mini-related ones!

Today's journey took us to two shops: Lilliput Miniatures in Fairport, NY and Niagara Hobby and Craft Mart in Cheektowaga, NY.

Lilliput Miniatures (web)

This shop is run by a really friendly guy and his family. Tom is the name of the owner (I think) and he chatted with us while we shopped around. He does a lot of custom work on dollhouses that folks bring in, which are shown throughout the shop. He carries mostly Real Good Toys houses, and there were a few others I didn't recognize, all seemed to be made with the cabinet grade 3/8" plywood. One in particular was a HUGE house that someone started to build with Houseworks Plans and that he plans to sell for about 80 bucks. If I had the space and the time, I think that would have come home with me...

As for accessories, he really does have a little bit of everything, including some items I hadn't seen before. I picked up a number of items, some for the historical society, and others for grab bags and some other projects. ;)

Here's what I bought:

Niagara Hobby and Craft (web)
We had plenty of time, we discovered, left in the day, even after checking in to our hotel, to visit the Niagara Hobby and Craft Mart in Cheektowaga. So we did! :-)

Now, if you're looking for a HUGE selection of dollhouses and accessories, you might be a little disappointed here. However, this place has an amazing railroad selection - all different scales, with several in-store train displays - as well as a respectable dollhouse department (for a shop that carries a wide variety of crafts!). Their prices were pretty reasonable, too.

Here's what I got:

That trunk is part of the Lincoln Line of furniture, which I would like to collect as someday I'd like to build the Lincoln Springfield Home from RGT. :) For now, I think it will go in the historical society. That little white thing is a stepladder (so cute!) and of course another kit from the Daisy House. I love their kits - they are relatively easy to assemble and look great when finished.

Also, at Niagara Hobby I found flyers for some upcoming events that may be of interest:
42nd Annual Toy Show - Oct 28, 2012 at the Hearthstone Manor, 333 Dick Rd, Depew, NY (Sponsored by Motoring in Miniature Association, Ltd)
The 31st Annual Greater Buffalo Train and Toy Show - Nov 17 and 18, 2012 at the Event Center on the Fairgounds in Hamburg, NY (Sponsored by the Western NY Railway Historical Society)