Current Mood : Happy and hopeful
Spent on doll and hobby stuff : $9.94
Back when I was a single girl - waaaay back, when I had a paper route, even ! - Thursday was my favorite day of the week. As a newspaper delivery route person (i.e., papergirl), Thursday was all the excitement of Friday, but no papers to deliver. The one I delivered only came out twice weekly, and Friday was a big delivery day. By the time I pulled my bike back into the driveway on Fridays, I was too tired to want to do anything ! The ‘big day Friday' trend continued into my working life, plus the skating rinks had less teen-oriented sessions on Thursdays. So Thursday remained my favorite.
Today was one of those Thursdays that reminded me of why I loved ‘em so. Beloved Hubby was home this afternoon, and it was Fun Time ! I had some cash to spend, and I spent it ! I may just order those Mad stands next week - I'm still doing some research, and I'll have to wait anyway, for my deposit to clear the bank, then clear PayPal.
Beloved dropped me off at Hobby Lobby while he ran other errands, and I beelined it for the Christmas Final Markdown and Clearance aisles. Found a package of six glittery black star small-tree ornaments for 50c, and two yards of ‘Twisted Princess' elastic - purple with black lettering and crowns, for 64c a yard. From there, I picked up a half yard of gorgeous colored starbursts on a black background cotton fabric - 30% off ! The only two things I paid full price for were the package of four reusable pin-back buttons ($1.99) and the often-picked-up but never-bought set of three dollhouse windows ($2.99). So, I went in there with $10. - and spent $9.94 !
The fabric's been cheap-serged, and I played with the buttons - I'm getting more of those ! You can make your own pin-back buttons, and reuse them, the pieces snap together and apart easily. With the frequent 40% off coupon, I can get the twelve-pack for $2.99, which brings the price down to less than a quarter each. Back in the day, I had one of those Badge-A-Minit badge makers - and it cost about 25c each for supplies. And those, once they were crimped together, that was that. You couldn't reuse any of the parts, and frequently either the protective plastic or the pin pieces didn't seal all the way around. I was toying with getting another press when I remembered the reusable ones. They're often found in the kids' crafts sections.
I also found packs of 80 split-ring and other keychain rings. $3.99, but again, there's that 40% off coupon. So by the time I get the Wristlet Key Fob directions typed up, it'll be almost the cost of the felt stars to make ‘em ! Well, maybe a bit more...so far, it's about 25c each, which is funny considering the ones I saw two weeks ago were at least $1.50 for project-specific supplies alone.
We also visited Hastings, our favorite video store, for its vast stock of used DVDs. We got Batman :The Animated Series episodes for Dearest Son, two seasons of A-Team for Beloved, and I selected a dirt-cheap volume of Clerks : The Animated Series. I've seen a couple of them, but now I've got ‘em all ! And the ‘buy one used, get the next for $1.' sale was ongoing, so we got a lot of entertainment for a little cash.
Looked at doll magazines, caught the new issue of Haute Doll. Feh. Patterns for BJDs, nice 50th anniversary Barbie pictures, but not much of anything I wanted. It just seems kind of obscene, really, in this day of failing banks, business closings, and home foreclosures, to assume everyone enjoys splashing out $79. for a doll dress - not a dressed doll, just a doll's dress ! And of course, they're still all up the skirts of ‘exclusive' dolls that retail for over $400. - which also seems a bit oblivious, if not downright pretentious. Yeah, I know, that's their audience, and I'm not it. Sometimes I am sooo glad of that, I could sing !
Also slipped through Doll Collector, Doll Reader, and even Soft Dolls and Animals, but nothing interested. Most of the patterns in Soft Dolls were so simple, I could have drafted them from the photos. And I think I have to reluctantly come to the conclusion that, between all the patterns I own and the software I have, I pretty much have every doll clothes pattern there is - I just need to tweak what I have if I see something new I want. And I have thousands of soft doll patterns in various back issues of National Doll World.
For kicks, I even leafed through Disney Princess magazine, and I almost bought that one. For $5., there were at least some pretty graphics !
On the way home, we snagged lunch and planned our viewing for the day. Beloved's still watching A-Team, and as predicted, Dearest loves it. He's not even much interested in his Batman yet, because Daddy's show is fun ! I poked around online, and tried to hand-wash the tape marks out of the Swingy doll dress I bought Saturday. They originally held the pleats down. Nope. Nothing worked. I may have to remove the original skirt, make a new one, and sew it on instead.
Oh, and earlier today, I ‘gave' In The Pink a small gift - a brick wall. It should print out big enough to completely fill a sheet of standard copy paper. I knew I'd be asking for a product review later, namely the Mad doll stands, so I wanted to give something first, no matter how small. Link's below - Left click on it to make sure it's at full size, then Right click and choose ‘save image as'. Put it where ya want it, and you'll always have a super-simple background to use with your dolls.Think of it as a near-freebie Room With A View...
You can also use your image altering software to change the brick colors - or just tell your printer to go ‘grayscale' for castle walls ! - or use magic markers for graffiti. And while it's pretty much Barbie scale, it'll still look good with dolls Elphie's size. And you never know when someone you love or work with could use their own personal brick wall to smack their heads against !
https://dorriebelle.tripod.com/dolls_of_my_life/brickwall.jpg
