Maybe some of 'em will end up as cat toys...

 

Current Mood : Exhausted elation

 

Whoo. I'm exhausted, and I've already had a nap. But today, I wouldn't trade for anything...

 

For some reason, I didn't sleep well last night, so once Dearest Son was on the bus, I was back in bed. And I overslept. I barely had time to check the stars as I wrapped them, and then I remembered that I wanted a photo. So everything ground to a halt so I could wrap the boot box in foil - nothin' says Christmas like a shoe box encased in aluminum foil ! - since that's how I'd be distributing them. Everyone could pick their own small, wrapped bundle from the boot box.

 

I made three colors of stars - green, yellow, and black - with one special one made of glitter red felt. That one is made from the same yardage I bought for Dearest's first Pre-K class' project. I made stockings for the whole class, with train ribbon for the boys, lace for the girls. I don't have much of that felt left, so I don't use it often. I get a little nostalgic when I see it, it seems like I used it a lifetime ago. I really wanted his teacher to have something made from it. So hers got a small bag, so I could tell it apart. 

 

Got it all done, and dashed out the door. I had pangs of gift inadequacy on the short drive over, but figured this was better than nothing, and after looking at them and not much else for two days, they weren't coming back home with me in any scenario. I was happy to give the first one to the school custodian, since I'd missed her last year. I got one to everyone I wanted to, then doubled back with a few extras. In short order, they all had new owners, and I was headed to ‘party set-up' with an empty boot box.

 

But then, I got a gift. Seems our librarian's daughter was the Star of Bethlehem this year at their church. Which entailed wearing a large star costume of... you guessed it, yellow felt. And guess which one she got ? She was so happy she hugged me, saying her daughter would always have it as a special memory. I may have to make her another one, so both mom and daughter can share the memory...

 

Dearest had a great party, and I was glad I got to see him having fun with his friends. We ended up storing the non-perishable leftovers in the boot box - pencils, rings, stickers, hard candy. His teacher can use that stuff later for rewards and such. She loved her red glitter ornament, and I left the boot box with her. She asked if I needed it, because she kinda needed one later that day, so I was glad to pass it along.

 

It wasn't until party's end that I remembered that I still had that really good box lid, still in the truck ! She didn't need it, though. But I was glad I helped a bit.

 

Whoo. What a great, if tiring, day. So. What have I learned ? I don't have to top myself every year when it comes to gifts. Sometimes - and I of all people should know this ! - it's enough to know that someone thought of you. Even if it's just a felt star, knowing you matter is important.

 

Photo link, if you'd like to see what the stars looked like - they're not much, but they made some folks happy, and that's quite a lot ! 

https://dorriebelle.tripod.com/dolls_of_my_life/boxostars.jpg

(they really would make good cat toys...)

Stars, stars everywhere...

 

Current Mood : BUSY !

 

So today, I woke up, got Dearest Son to school and Beloved Hubby off to work, then didn't go to the computer. Went to the Lab and knocked out a pretty yellow felt star ornament, with a silk ribbon hanging loop, in about 20 minutes. And there went my day. By 2pm, I had the first ten completed and the next ten cut out. After a break, bus watching, and some housework, I went back to it, and had those ten, and a special one for Dearest's teacher, complete. Seriously, they're nothing special. Everything I used - felt, brand-new Poly-Fil, and thread - I already had, and it took maybe five, six hours total. I almost feel bad about giving something so small.

 

But it's more than I had to give yesterday. Unfortunately, between doing it all in one day and not doing much else, I'm sick of looking at the blasted things, so final quality control checks and wrapping ‘em up will have to wait until tomorrow morning, before I leave for Dearest's party.

 

Showed one to Dearest, and he was so entranced, I gave him the wrong-thread prototype. I may have to make some of these for us. I still got plenty of felt and Poly-Fil...

Another rather bleh day...the magic of the season just ain't gettin' to me, ya know ?

 

Current Mood : Well, I have shiny pencils now...

 

Had to scootch out to Dollar Tree today - glad all the ice melted ! I'd volunteered to send cookies and pencils to Dearest Son's Christmas party, but the Cars and Disney Princess ones Mal-Wart had in the Holidays section were sold out yesterday. So I got shiny iridescent ones at DTree today. Sneakily, I kept a green and a silver one, but I still sent more than enough for the class.

 

Dearest Son now says he wants me to come to the school party. (sigh) Honestly, I don't want to go if I'm not bringing gifts, so...

 

According to the Post Office website, ‘Melody' and the other eleven dolls are enroute. They've been circling Tallahassee for three days now, so I'm sure they're dizzy.

Only nine more days to gooooo....

 

Current Mood : Bleh.

 

Beloved Hubby's off this week, so we did grocery shopping together. We've had some bad weather, too, and I'm really nervous about driving in any sort of ice or sleet. Folks like me should really stay home when roads are unpredictable !

 

But we needed a few things, so off we went ! And Beloved bought me the most beautiful new green boots ! They're soft and nubbly, like suede, on the outside, with rubber soles, and fleecy insides. My feet have been warm all day ! He raised an eyebrow at me when I exchanged a new boot-box lid for the slightly battered one that was on ‘my' boots, but you know me, I love boxes. And why not get a good lid when ya can ?

 

Other than that, it was kind of a bleh day. But my feet were warm all through it !

Stored lace

 

Current Mood : Weary

Spent on eBay dolls yesterday : $13.50

 

Back to the ole grind. Did some laundry and tidy work, and goofed around some. This evening - since Melody drained my PayPal account, no more eBay trawling ! -  I set out to store all that gorgeous lace I bought Saturday. Took every last recycled ziplock-type bag we had, but it's all sorted and stored, and believe me when I say it took hours. I donated several pieces, too. Stuff I know I won't ever use. But it was still kind of a wrench to see those old-time piece-goods tickets, knowing that lace - ten yards at 79c a yard - was purchased over twenty years ago. It didn't change anything, there was no way I'd find a use for it, no matter what its history was. But it was an odd sort of nostalgia.

 

With just ten days to go ‘til Christmas, I find myself sort of on edge. I want it over with, truthfully, so parking lots aren't dangerous to pedestrians, and aren't jammed with traffic at 8am. I'm very lucky in that Dearest Son is the only person we buy for - the rest of the family decided years ago to just visit, and not exchange gifts. It makes things much easier and less worrisome, but it also makes things a lot less exciting.

 

I'm also a bit disappointed in m'self that I haven't done anything for the folks at Dearest's school this year. Never even attempted the felt star project. Beloved Hubby said I don't have to do anything I don't want to, and I'm seriously not much in a holiday mood... but I kinda wish I'd planned things a bit better this year, ya know ?

Mermaid 'Melody'

 

Current Mood :  Surprised and elated !

 

We were supposed to put the tree up this weekend, but Dearest Son wasn't much in a mood to help me clean up the living room enough to do so, so I've put it off ‘til he's home from school - he'll have lots of time to put away toys then !

 

I just barely got all the lace tidied up before he was home. I still can't believe how much of that there was. In with it all were several pew bows, but they didn't want them back, so I took them apart. A few more yards of lace, about a half-dozen big silk flowers, some ribbon, and a single bracket was added to the huge pile. I'll have to wash most of the lace, since white glue and hot glue were used to secure the bows. I hope it comes out. If not, I can always cut around it !

 

The silk roses have a dried appearance, which always seems odd to me. Seems like if you were going for dried flowers, you could use the real thing in most circumstances. But, hey, it's not like I made that choice. I'll add the newly freed fake flowers to an old wreath I've had sitting around. I'd always meant to glue Barbie shoes to it, but never did.

 

Tonight, I got so bored - well, I had plenty to do, but my lazy excuse was that I didn't wanna start dishes at 9pm - I trawled eBay for ‘Barbie under $5. in the US'. And found something. Flipped to a few other websites to confirm first, but I already knew... and soon, I ‘won' a lot of twelve dolls that included a Little Mermaid 2 "Melody" doll !

 

This is another of those ‘kinda-sorta' dolls I've wanted for a while. She's kind of rare, and wasn't made for very long. But, as a tie-in to the direct-to-video sequel, a limited TRU-exclusive run of Ariel and Eric's daughter dolls were made by Jakks-Pacific in 2000. Mint-in-box, Melody can command over $200., and loose, over $60. Ya'll know I wasn't about to pay that much in this lifetime ! But still, when one appears, grab it ! The one I won was unidentified in a lot of Barbie and cheap clone Kellys, and was $3. plus shipping. I was the only bidder. Sadly, she didn't have her mermaid tail, her gown, or her shoes but I was happy to see she still had her blouse and bloomers.

 

The rest of the lot wasn't photographed well either, so I'll have to see what I get when the box arrives. But I'm pretty excited !

The most lacy yard sale ever !

Current Mood : Blissed out

Spent on decor and sewing : $4.25

 

Oh, wow, did I ever have fun today ! Surprisingly, some might say amazingly, there were four yard sales listed in our town this weekend. This is pretty much unheard-of - yard sale season around here normally dries up shortly before Halloween, but may linger a bit into November if the weather's especially mild. But December ? Never, no matter the weather.

 

Until this year. Charted the four I found between Craigslist and our local paper's online listings, and dismissed one as being too far away. Another was literally across the street, and two more were five miles away, but a couple blocks apart. I still had $4. and some change, so it's not like I'd break the bank. I really didn't think I'd find anything, plus I was starting waaay late, didn't even leave the house until 12:30 or so.

 

Unfortunately, the nearest one, and the first one I went to, had evidently cancelled. Not a single box or table was visible anywhere at the address I had. Oh, well. The next one was so much fun, it made up for it. I bought several lengths of tiny lace, four ‘Honey Hill Bunch' dolls, a vintage Disney Cinderella figurine, a lace-bedecked Barbie wicker sofa, and a bag full of rug yarn. $2. for the lot. The grandmother running the sale just wanted things gone so she could start wrapping it up. We chatted, and on learning that I made and donated redressed dolls, she insisted that I take the rest of the lace - right down to the stand it was in !

 

Well, her daughter decided she wanted the stand, and that was fine with me, I also made sure they kept some other stuff, but wow ! What I bought fit into a Mal-Wart sack, with room to spare. What she gave me took a 13-gal trash bag to haul away ! I now have miles of lace that'll take me days to sort and store  - I can't wait ! - and some other fun craft stuff, including silk roses, corsage pins, beige ribbon in two widths, and several small boxes. Wow. I made them take the other $2. I had on me, but I hauled away at least $50. in lace alone. 

 

I almost skipped the next sale, since I only had pocket change left, but went anyway, since it was two blocks down and one over. Almost got hit by a speeding car, but I may have almost hit him/her, so I was just fortunate and darned lucky to not have been in an accident. Anyway. The next sale was pretty thin, but I still spent 75c on a striking cat pin I gave to DMIL, an Ariel mug I use for hairclips on the nightstand, a small toy cat I gave to Dearest Son, and a pink coffee mug that reads, ‘You think it's easy being a *itch ?' in curly swirled lettering. I love that mug.

 

Once home, I just sort of relaxed and let the day take me away. I have to go clean up lace from where I just looked at it all - I'm still stunned ! - before Dearest gets home, but I can't wait to use it ! Although storing it all is gonna be a challenge...

 

I'm kinda glad yard sale season is more or less over now. Weather's just starting to get challenging, and it's due to be brutal-cold next weekend. Seriously, though, I don't have the space for any more amazing days like this !

A sick son and bad eBay sellers...fa la la la la, la la la laaaa !

 Current Mood : a bit out of it, really.

 

 

Dearest Son woke up and barfed, so he's home today. School said there's a tummy bug going around, so I fully expect to be bleh tomorrow. Such is life ! He's slept most of the day, but he still wants to go to his grandparents', and even knowing about the bug, they still want him over. So we'll drop him off this afternoon.

 

Last night, his throat hurt, so I ran to the IGA down the street and got some Chloraseptic spray. The spray pump was shielded by a plastic cap... that's perfect as a large glass for Elphie and Fiyero ! Yeah, I did that as a kid, too. But some ideas stand the tests of time.

 

Since the not-Skipper holiday dress fit the Jesus doll, I tried it on the Musical Disney Princess girls. A bit too wide for them, but I'll take it in a bit on the sides. The Pirates digital pocketwatch keeps good time, too. And the white Happy Meal bunny toy looks adorable with LDP Snow White. So I didn't do so bad with yesterday's purchases as I thought.

 

And I learned, to my surprise, that the cute Barbie saddle shoes that I have always liked are simply the ‘everybody's got a million of ‘em' flat white sneakers with black ‘saddles' painted on ‘em. It's true ! Looking closely, I can see the two Adidas-like stripes molded under the black paint. Sheesh. And here I am, so happy I had another pair ! I can make as many pair as I want, in as many colors as I want, with those darn sneakers and a fine-point Sharpie !  Man, I am sooo silly...

 

Saw something interesting on an eBay auction today. In tiny, eight-point print, one seller said how she'd always paid up if she'd estimated shipping incorrectly. But no more ! If shipping was more than she said, well, she'd just send the ‘winner' an invoice for the balance. And if it was really necessary, she'd provide post office receipts. If the buyer didn't pay up, she'd leave bad feedback.

 

Umm, dear ? It's up to you, as the seller, to set shipping correctly and accurately. I'll bid - or not bid - based on the item's total price, including shipping. For me to pay, say $15. for the item, and $5. to ship, I've budgeted $20. max for the transaction. If you try to hit me for more because you screwed up, well, sorry, hon. That's your problem, not mine. I've already paid as per our agreement, and don't think holding bad feedback over my head as extortion really plays well with others - or eBay's Terms of Service. 

Jesus in Barbie shoes...

Current Mood : Researching tedium

Spent on dolls : $9.64

 

 

 

I don't mean to be sacrilegious with today's title. It's just what I found today in one of the two thrift store 50c ‘small toys' grab-bags I bought. Yeah, I'm terrible - I went back and took good, long looks at the Cinderella and Snow White dolls that've had my interest since Tuesday. Ended up getting the Snow package, since she came with another doll I found intriguing. More later.

 

But back to the grab-bags. I bought two - one had a small beige saddle for a doll-size horse, a high-bounce glitter ball with a tiny horse figurine inside, a doll-size brass vanity mirror, a small male doll in a cool-looking trenchcoat, and a soft bunny rabbit. The other had several small cars, some Army men, a fish-shaped water-bomb toy, a Happy Meal Pirates ersatz pocket watch with a digital clock inside, a doll-size bottle of orange ‘Crosh', a great kaleidoscope, a footless miniature Bratz doll, and, ironically, the unopened Hot Wheels HM car I donated last week. Possibly. Could be someone else's unopened #6 Iron Man-colored Sidedraft toy.

 

The glitter ball's going to Tammy, the nice lady who's boarding her horses at our place, and the two new-lookin' cars and kaleidoscope are going in Dearest Son's stocking. I'm keeping the vanity mirror, the toy rabbit, the Pirates watch, the soda bottle, and the cool trenchcoat and Barbie saddle shoes that were on the small male doll. Rest gets redonated.

 

There was a similar doll in another bag. For some reason, I thought she might be a religious figure - and that got me to thinking about the one I bought. He sort of resembles a traditional representation of Jesus Christ, minus the coat and saddle shoes. So I did some research. Took nearly an hour, but I finally found a matching photo for ID on Megolike - http://www.megolike.com/weewintys.htm . It was just so odd, seeing a Jesus doll in Barbie shoes. Clearly at one point, he wore a pink and white robe, sandals, and came with a story on cassette tape. He now wears just the unbleached muslin boxer shorts he had under the coat, and he'll get redonated. Quite well-made, with many, many points of articulation. If he was anything but a Jesus doll, I'd probably keep him as an escort for the Disney Musical Princesses - he's the right size ! - but you know I just can't separate celebrity dolls from their celebrity affiliation.

 

I also ID'd the other doll, and I was right. She's Esther, even wearing her original outfit. http://www.megolike.com/rainfall.htm . She was purchased by the woman and her daughter who kept getting out of line to put something back and get something else, but getting back in when they thought it might be checkout time. It was bad enough that I got in line while they were still picking through the bags, but they wedged in front of me anyway. It was the constant, ‘we're here again /no, we're not' that made them very annoying. I hope they recognize their own behavior when someone else does the same to them.

 

Anyway. The store moved the dolls to just under the cash register, and since only us non-cool oldsters bothered to form a line instead of making random clusters that branched out in every conceivable direction, I was constantly in the way. I've never seen the thrift so busy. It was like Christmas was tomorrow, and everyone had only $8. left. The two plastic bins were overflowing, so the only way to see what was there was to pull everything out. (sigh) Even after removing my selections, I couldn't get it all back in there, so I cleaned up as best I could, and left two doll packages propped up amid the candy bars. Maybe they'll get more attention that way.

 

Decided against Cind, since I already had a very similar Cinderella I liked better, I wasn't much on the LED holes in her feet for the ‘light up shoe' effect, the potentially Best Buy dress she wore wasn't, once I got a really good look at it, and the other doll in the $3.99 package with her wasn't at all interesting. Snow White, on the other hand, was nearly new. Still had the clear elastic on her neck and shoulders. Her costume was flawless. Some research revealed her to be ‘Gem Princess' Snow, and all that's missing is the kid ring, her shoes, crown, and necklace. For a $10.+ discount on a $15. doll, I'll gladly give up the small accessories. I was in love with her huge brown eyes !

 

But that wasn't all. Packaged up with her in the $3.99 bag was Barbie Fairytopia's Lumina, a gorgeous elfin doll with dark blue hair, huge blue eyes, and a really neat molded-on bodysuit, decorated in pearls, moons, and stars. You know what a sucker for those I am ! I'd been curious about her since her Toy Fair debut, but never saw her on the shelves around here. So it was funny to find her second-hand ! All she had was her bodysuit, and I knew her crescent-moon wings had been removed, but that was fine with me. It'd be easier to fit new clothes on her this way. Not sure when the trend of ‘always include tacky-huge kid jewelry with dolls' came from, but Lumina also had a necklace for the kid owner that'd gone AWOL. Imagine what my jewelry box would look like if I had all these ‘treasures' !

 

Once home, I found that Lumina's hair was almost all dreadlocked. What a mess ! It took a while and I pulled a lot of hair out, but eventually, I got it tamed. She is lovely. And she looks so mysterious in the trench coat ! Especially with the saddle shoes. Snow may have been a bit scared when she saw me go after Lumina's locks, but I didn't see much wrong with hers. I'm not sure how it originally was, and there was still factory hairspray on the ends. So I ended up pulling it into a little bun at the back of her head, urging the curls to loop around my fingers. It may not be what Mattel had designed, but I like how it looks.

 

Here they are, all cleaned up, with their new friend, Dori - 

https://dorriebelle.tripod.com/dolls_of_my_life/trueblue.jpg

 

I also bought two $1.99 bags of clothes, and this is where I messed up. I should have bought neither. One, I got for what I thought was a holiday Skipper dress. Um, nope. More like a Stacey dress - too small for even vintage Skipper, much too large for even the biggest Kelly. Several other pieces in the baggie were just trash - dirty hair scrunchies, two knockoff crayons, several bits of paper, one spike-heel shoe, and some sort of weird hat or something - or just useless - what may be a My Little Pony swimsuit, a helmet too small for anyone larger than Kelly, some sort of pink/purple/blue tulle arm gauntlet or something, and a badly torn skirt. The other baggie wasn't much of an improvement. A weird orange swimsuit that so far hasn't fit anyone, an even oranger cropped tank top, a stained Mrs. Heart pink with white lace ‘pregnancy' dress, and a badly picked pink jacket. I salvaged two blouses and a dress out of it, but for what I spent, I squandered.

 

Oh, well. Guess I'll learn to not buy stuff when I feel rushed and pushed. Still, I got the Snow doll I wanted, the Lumina doll I was interested in, a cool trench coat, a pair of saddle shoes, a few fun play items and clothes, and still paid less than I would have for either doll new. So I did OK.

 

What kinda ranks is, the not-Skipper-size holiday dress fits Jesus pretty well... and so does the helmet. Oh, and the collar to ‘Platter Party' popped back up after a few hours. (sigh)

Aarrgh...

 

Current Mood : See-saw (and other playground delights)

 

Kind of a up/down day. Finally, as time's getting short, I made time to sew a prototype for the Christmas ornaments I hoped to distribute as gifts at Dearest Son's school Dec. 19^th. Nothing like waiting ‘til the last minute to find out your idea won't work. (sigh) I'll probably do the same thing in a different fabric. I'd seen these sort of rough-fabric lightly stuffed soft ornaments on a craft site that were frayed around the edges, and they looked interesting. It'd certainly be easy and time-friendly - no turning right-side-out, and no hand-sewing that last bit closed !

 

Well, let's just say it's not gonna work the way I wanted. Spent about two hours looking for the ornaments on craft sites I frequent, and various web searches, and never did see the original inspiration again. So, I'll keep most of the idea, but I'll try felt. Still no right-side out, but I can trim the edges close to the sewing instead of fraying them (since felt doesn't fray or unravel) and still machine sew the closure. I just have to work it up tomorrow. Don't much feel like messing with it any more right now. Also got the last few bits of fabric cheap-serged and ready for the wash.

 

And while trying to excavate the lab from all I've crammed in there, I had to keep shifting the bag of doll clothes that needed washing. You'd think, with all the laundry I've done this week, I could have just fit it in, but I hadn't. So today, I did a load of whites and doll clothes, and a load of blankets in dark colors and more doll clothes. And the last of the fabric bits.

 

The paper-clip pinch on Skipper's ‘Platter Party' collar seems to be working.