Threads and trains...and bad personal traits.

 

Current Mood : Relaxed and happy.

 

We got to sleep in this morning - I slept for ten hours straight ! My breathing's good, I had a great breakfast, and I'm not in any real pain, just a very minor sinus headache. It's the best morning I've had all week !

 

Beloved Hubby had some trouble sleeping last night, so I put him in for a mid-morning nap as soon as I was awake. While Dearest will stay indoors if we're both asleep, neither of us like to both be out of it when he's awake, so only one of us will sleep at a time. Since he was awake, he let me sleep in. He's so sweet ! When I woke, I felt great, so I hoped Beloved would feel better once he got some rest. It's just so difficult to wake him, though.

 

While he crashed - ten minutes after I sent him to bed, he was snoring ! - I did my usual morning puttering while Dearest watched Clone Wars. Cleared off half of my cluttered desk and brought Brody in for new designs. Today was the day to test that ‘Rebel Alliance' design I made for Halloween -  that never got used. I actually have four ‘starbird' designs - a doll-sized one I did by accident, a full-size one, and two big appliqué versions. Loaded up the biggest filled-in one, and also the ‘In The Pink' silhouette. It's identical to the two I pictured here Sunday, it just has the site name aligned with the neck. Gotta test it, too.

 

Hooped up some of the too-narrow cotton. Ya'll are gonna laugh at my cheapness, but here it is, I recycled some of the masking tape that marked the price on the test pillowcases I got from the church sale Saturday. You can see it in the photo. Learned last week that masking tape will extend the fabric just enough for the hoop to grip it well. Done it several times before, always with fresh tape, but this worked well, too. Once masking tape's been stuck to itself, though, it's pretty much useless, but at least this stuff got two good runs.

 

Since you're giggling, here's another example of my bad habits - laziness this time. Whole reason I did a ‘fire girl' version of that Barbiesque appliqué was because I saw that shade of red thread in the Madeira Treasure Chest, and knew I wanted to test my Rebel Alliance Starbird design with it. Reasoned that I could do the Barbie test with it, too, so I ended up picking fabric to go with the thread, instead of the usual other way ‘round. Did two tests with it, without changing thread. Goss, I am so lazy ! 

 

Speaking of lazy, I never removed the last CD-Rom from my ditched attempt to burn an embroidery design back-up. Lazy, pure and simple. But it showed as a viable disk, so just to be a witch to my misbehaving computer today, I dragged the Blog and Musingbook files over to it, and dropped ‘em. Lo and behold, it worked ! Burned ‘em perfectly. So I did the same with Photos. Ding ! Went for broke and dropped in the often-failed machine embroidery designs. It took over two hours, but it worked ! Whew ! I finally have it all backed up. I get nervous when that stuff's built up for a while without being saved off . Not sure what I did wrong then and right now, but I'm happy !

 

With all that done, I decided to turn my attention to Joanne's pillowcases again. As mentioned, and unbeknownst to the group, the final versions will have ‘In The Pink' embroidered at an angle along the bottom of the design. I already did it, but if I flipped the design to face the other way, the letters would be backwards. So I knew I'd have to do an actual ‘left' and ‘right' design. Figured I'd flip the face, then add the words, like I already did.

 

Well. Alphabet XPress is a fantastic program, but when you can angle and shape text, it doesn't retain the size you originally set. One line of text was noticeable larger than the other. Since it was still within my 100mm x 100mm size limit, I liked the bigger one. So I had to redo the first one. Too bad AX won't let me edit once a design has been saved. Had to make a new left-facing one from the start, and try to keep it about the same as the right-faced one. Half hour and four printouts later, one is still just a tiny bit off from the other, but the printouts look fairly close and not bad at all, so I'm gonna say it's all good. Now I just have to delete what I just put in Brody's memory and another design, too, so I can install both for testing before I go for the final.

 

I would erase the non-ITP design, but I wanna try it with a ‘floating' layer first. May even get to that tonight ! Or this weekend. I'm kinda eager to finish this pillowcase project - because I got six more ideas on back burners !

 

As for tonight, I started watching a new anime - so far, so cute ! It's called Miracle Train - you can find out about it and watch it as well, right here. à http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-534920/miracle-train-1/

Swim in the emerald ocean of dreams...

 

Current Mood : Very very sleepy...

Kind of a slow day today, since everyone was ill in some fashion. Beloved Hubby's back and shoulders hurt, and I had a massive headache and didn't sleep last night. It's been quite humid lately, which triggers my asthma. That makes me hit the inhaler, which is basically vaporized speed, so I don't sleep, no matter how much I want to. Dearest Son was just plain hyper-everything.

 

So we kind of took it easy. Since there were only three loads of laundry, I got those done - mostly because I wanted to test the stitch-outs. They did OK, but one is barely hanging on, so I know to be careful on the next one in that spot. It's about all I can do.

 

I've heard several times that the new Billions of Dreams Barbie was on sale at some Mal-Wart stores for $25., and was that price at Malwart.com, too. Verified the online price, and thought about getting one. I'd have to order it, because our store still wants $35. for the Star Trek dolls clearanced at everyone else's stores at $17. a month ago. But when I really thought about it, I didn't like the doll, wasn't much on the glitter-and-sequined pink puffy gown, and the display box probably wouldn't come in handy for much. Even at half-price, it didn't seem to be such a big value for me. I liked the ‘collage' print, but the glitter and sequins just seemed to be too much, and huge ballgowns... well, I'm never much on those, really.

 

Beloved Hubby said I could order or buy one, no problem this week, but I just couldn't push m'self into it. So I returned to BarbieCollector.com and checked that silk scarf - was it still in stock ? At ten inches wide and five feet long, and the same print as the doll dress, I'd have plenty of fabric to make my own versions with... and it was only $29. Hmmm...

 

With shipping, it'd be $37., which seemed a bit much - until I found a promo code for free shipping ! So I got it for $29. after all ! Yaaay ! Should be here in about a week of business days or so. Heck, at five feet long, I'll probably have enough fabric for several Barbie dresses and still have a fun scarf to wear. I've had very limited experience with sewing silk, but I'm sure I can do it. After all, I've sewn lining nylon, and that stuff's slick !

 

After that, I decided to contribute to Blue Monday on In The Pink, and get a photo of my Malibu Mermaid - both the doll and the outfit rescued from the Flea Market this weekend. It took 22 tries, and I still don't like the background, but isn't she pretty ?  I swear, no two of my scavenged Malibus look alike. Some have much larger eyes than others.

 

As you can guess, today I'm really tired. I took an hour-long nap, but I can barely keep awake. Hope tomorrow is better for everyone !

I think I'd call them 'Sugar' and 'Spice' !

 

Current Mood : Hungry, actually. 

 

I had so much fun last night, picking fabrics to go in the dollhouse. I ended up lining it with some slick brown vinyl I've had for ages instead - I'd thought of donating or just plain ditching the stuff, so I was glad to finally use it. It's just a bit too thick for doll shoes. Anyway, I really like it, and you'll get the updated photo sometime this week, I promise. I didn't even have to cram it, it's nowhere near stuffed. It took about what was in the milk crate, too. Yaaay !

 

With that done, I didn't want to leave the rest of the weekend's acquisitions sitting around either - so I dressed dolls, put embroidery practice fabrics in the laundry, stored the ‘ready to wear' doll clothes and isolated the ones needing cleaning or repair, and emptied the dollar bag. It occurred to me that I hadn't gone through the patterns bag I bought, so that was next.

 

I figured the stack of hand-drawn cutout pieces went with the Cabbage Patch Kids Butterick #5358 pattern, for a fluffy dress. Peeked into the envelope - nope. There were the full directions, and all eight original pieces, right there. Well, then. What were all these pieces ? I pulled a stapled set of photocopied directions out of the bag and alphabetized the pieces - they went together. But there was no indication of the source of copies. Figured from the size and the Butterick that they were probably also for CPK dolls, and started researching there.

 

OK. The ‘vintage' Xavier Roberts "Little People" (the precursors to the mass-produced CPKs) books had the same groovy-70s font. With no pictures to go by, it was only a matter of elimination. There ! The pieces and directions were from Xavier Roberts Presents Cabbage Patch Kids Designer Clothes, published by craft giant Plaid in 1984. It featured 25 outfits, with pieces A to EE. And I had the full set.

 

Dug around on eBay and soon had photos to go with all the outfits. Saved ‘em off to computer, and trimmed the legal-size copied pages to fit in the Ziploc bag with the pattern pieces. That left just a few other bits, and they were charming. A small card from Fisher-Price, apologizing for the delay in shipping the My Friend doll pattern - along with the pattern itself ! It was a nightgown for the Jenny doll, and tucked inside was The Fisher-Price Dolls Book of Values, dated 1983. Lest you think F-P was extolling attributes of thrift, loyalty, and punctuality, I feel I should tell you that it was a small catalog of My Friend accessories, along with Baby Soft Sounds, Bundle Up Baby, and My Sleepy Baby promos, with an order form on the back. The line art is adorable. I need to scan it.

 

That done, I decided to research my dollhouse a bit more, this time using online scans of old Christmas ‘Wish Book' catalogs. Never found what I was looking for, but seeing that as late as 1973, all Lego sets fit on one page was astounding. Poked through some 50s books, too, and seeing Toys Before Barbie was enough to make my head spin. Nothin' but baby dolls, baby carriages, kitchen sets, and stuffed animals, and a few ‘Dolls Too Nice To Touch'. I started feeling sorry for those kids. Sure, I played with baby dolls back in the 70s - Baby Go Bye Bye, Kissing Thumbellina, and my life-size Baby Dear clone the year I pined for Baby Crissy - but I really preferred Barbie. She was simply more interesting, and capable of more imaginative scenarios than ‘Baby cries' and ‘Baby needs food/diaper/medicine'. 

 

We spent several hours house-cleaning, and I even got the neglected dishes caught up. Time to play ! I had some ideas about the ‘crowned Barbie' appliqué, how to make it smoother and more durable. During the first trial, the lavender one, I learned that the final satin stitch row is very narrow, and doesn't cover the edges of the appliqué fabric like most others do. So bits stick out, and it looks awful. Luckily, it doesn't show in the photos.

 

So I thought, what if I applied Fray-Check to the appliqué edges once I cut ‘em, and cut them as close as possible ? It'd keep the edges cleaner, and if I cut ‘em close, hopefully the final stitches would cover them better. So I pulled out a fabric scrap, hooped some more white cotton, flipped the design to face the other way, and went for it. I was a bit worried, because I never heard of anyone using F-C on machine embroidery - it's very combustible. Would the rapid stitching friction cause it to ignite ? Or would it gum up the needle ?

 

Neither. It worked very well, but it turned out, I cut the appliqué ‘flame' fabric a bit too close. While de-linting after the cut-out, some pulled away from the tack-down stitches. Shoot. I smoothed it down with the F-C, and let it dry for 15 minutes. And then I remembered - it does two sets of tack-down stitches before it starts the final satin row. The pulled-up places were soon sewed back down securely, and no loose bits showed through the stitches. Success !

 

But not quite. Once again, some of the flame fabric was too close to the edges, and might pull out later. So I applied another row of F-C, this time, inside the stitches. It's holding quite well. Tomorrow, both test stitch-outs go in every load of laundry, wash and dry, to make sure it won't pull free. If it survives, I'll go ahead this week and stitch up Joanne's pillowcases. I may do one more test, this time with the ‘In The Pink' lettering, and possibly again, for an attempt to ‘float' a layer of heavy stabilizer, for a magnet.

 

But it was a really great day, and I got a lot done. I'm ready for bed and a good night's sleep ! Hope your weekend was as fun !

Today, there was a theme...

 

Current Mood : Thrilled !

Spent on dolls and...stuff : $8.

 

Today must've been ‘Change What You Don't Like' day, because that's about what I did with this lovely Saturday. Started things off briskly by going through my downloaded embroidery designs and re-sorting and re-organizing them. Y'see, when I first got Brody and a buncha designs, I didn't really know enough yet to organize them efficiently. And when a simple design of a cat can go under ‘Cats', ‘AnimalsBirdsBugs', ‘Appliqué', ‘FreeStandingLace', ‘Holidays : Halloween', ‘Redwork',  "Minis', or even ‘Misc.SinglesAndSets' depending, you can see how quickly finding a design can take longer than stitching it.

 

So, with my months of experience under an ever-larger belt, I streamlined the whole thing, and looked through the individual folders to make sure everything is where it belongs. It took a while, but it's much easier to go through, and should be easier to find specific pieces. I'm now content with my machine embroidery designs filing system.

 

After Beloved Hubby picked me up for lunch, I got a bit restless. Decided to return to the Flea Market, poke around some more. It's kinda hard to sift through a bin of Barbie clothes when Dearest Son is eagerly tugging you elsewhere ! Plus, there's more sellers on Saturday. Snagged a few Mattel outfits and two pair of flat shoes - including a set of ballerina slippers, with slots for ribbon ! Yaaay ! I'd been wanting some of those. I snagged a Mulan outfit, a Barbie mermaid costume, the purple-and-white teddy from 1990s ‘Fashion Play Barbie', and a vintage blue windbreaker from Ken's ‘Yachtsman' set, dating to 1962. That was about it for the Flea this week.

 

Hit two yard sales that had folded, but the sellers neglected to remove their signs. Decided to visit Dollar Tree, since the finger-skateboard stairway I bought last week came with a sticker proclaiming that the rails were underneath. Mine didn't have rails. So I wanted to check. But on the way, a church's parking lot was hosting what looked to be a good-size sale, and what the heck.

 

Found a jacket for Dearest, and the organizers handed me a Mal-Wart-type sack. Closing time - anything I could cram in there was a buck. Fill it up ! Well, then ! I quickly found the toys and circled a two-story tin dollhouse. It seemed so familiar. Not nearly big enough for Barbie, and very dirty and rusty, with the inside walls missing, it still seemed to call to me. Earlier, I'd admired photos of how some folk had used old dollhouses to hold fabric or papers - here was my chance to do the same ! Secretly, I'd been eyeing them when they turned up, but they were always shoebox-sized, usually rusty...and the seller still wanted $20. Vintage toys, don'cha know.

 

Another organizer asked if I wanted it, she'd put it aside for me. I agreed. She handed some new arrivals bags and started my way...and a swarm of little girls suddenly pounced on ‘my' dollhouse ! The organizer and I glanced at each other awkwardly as I stood there. Neither of us really spoke their language, so there wasn't much we could do. After a long minute, someone called them away, but they didn't go willingly. Kinda felt like crap when they so clearly wanted it, but they didn't take it with them, and I never actually saw the parental units, just heard them. So they may have been told no - it really wasn't in good shape, and I'd be a bit nervous about giving today's active kids a rusty metal dollhouse m'self, but I still felt a twinge of guilt.

 

But it wasn't enough to keep me from picking it up and asking her to hold it for me anyway. I quickly stuffed my bag with the jacket, a hardback copy of Stephen King's Skeleton Crew, four pillowcases and four yellow handkerchiefs for embroidery practice, a display easel, a small Christmas gift box, a hand towel, and a ziplock bag of doll patterns. All this cost me the princely sum of...$2. And they even carried my stuff to Molly-car. I tipped my ‘personal shopper' a buck, for kicks.

 

At Dollar Tree, I found my rails at the bottom of the bin, and told the cashier what I was doing, which they were fine with. I was so excited, the stairway was already out of my mind as I reversed Molly out of my parking space. My idea was to dump the milk crates of bundled fabric off the cabinet, and use the dollhouse to store it instead. I could clean it up well, line the semi-rusty floor with shelf gripper, and it'd be much more visually interesting than yet another milk crate. Plus, dollhouse ! I can swear I played with a similar one, before we moved and all but the Barbies were left behind. I was very pleased with me.

 

Beloved Hubby took one look at it and shook his head, even as I explained what I'd do with it. But he had an idea for me. He had a solution that would keep it from rusting more, all I'd have to do is sand the worst of the rust, then don gloves to apply it with an old rag. He had to admit, though, that a dollhouse holding fabric was much more ‘theme' with the Lab than a milk crate.

 

However... my idea actually had me moving two milk crates of fabric off the cabinet. Um, there's only one. And that won't nearly clear the space I'll need for the dollhouse. I forgot I moved the Barbie Country Living Home to the second crate's space a few months ago. Hrf. My eyes cast around the room for possibilities - and lit on the cutting table. Back of it is still cluttered with a Little Mermaid yard-sale lamp find, a paper crescent lamp (thrift store) and my radio/CD player. I didn't like how it looked, but never figured out how to change it.

 

Well, now I had an idea. Slid the milk crate of fabric from the cabinet to the floor. Moved the CD player to the cabinet, in the just-opened space. Relocated the never-used Ariel lamp to my bedside table. Placed the moon on top of a nearby fabric crate tower - it looks cute next to the doll case - and wove the on/off switch through the side of the top crate, so it wouldn't vanish. Once I got the dollhouse in place, I'd have instant access to material, in the perfect place ! I could hardly wait for the dollhouse to dry. While cleaning it, I discovered that it was a Wolverine dollhouse, made in Arkansas, and the zip code dated it to probably the early 60s. I looked it up, and found several online - and also that Marx tin dollhouses are nearly identical. I still have to research that one.

 

It took a lot of shuffling, and dragging stuff out just to put it back ten minutes later, but I moved everything, and tested my CD player. One of the speakers wasn't working. Not a lot for that, besides wire testing, and after a bit of wiggling ‘em around, it works. Tucked power cords behind moved boxes and such, and noted that not only was the calendar still on October, but the clock was still an hour off.

 

But once everything was more-or-less restored, I got to place the dollhouse in its new location. It actually takes a bit less space than the lamps and CD set did. That's today's photo, of course - I still have to line it and fill it with fabric. The one I saw years ago had the fabric folded flat, but I may leave it rolled up, for kicks. I turned on my moon lamp and basked for a bit. Much better. I'd been meaning to do something with that cutting table for over a year, and now, I really like what I did.

 

Guess I was just waiting for one crucial element. An old, rusty Wolverine dollhouse !

 

Flea and flu...

 

Current Mood : Happy tired. 

Spent on dolls : $3.50

 

Busy day again. Dearest Son and I got flu shots, drove his best friend's family around to get theirs, went to the Flea Market, cleaned up our finds, wore out the local Burger King's play area, and got ready to visit Granny and Grand-dad for the weekend. Whew !

 

We had a short school day today and headed out to the Flea Market. Brenda, my normal doll supply connection, said she simply had too many dolls already, so I'll find out week after next if she wants to do a trade then. She didn't have anything I wanted this week anyway.

 

But I still bought doll stuff. One of my other favorite booths had several finds ! I immediately spotted another vintage Alan, but he was $10., and I already have one. They offered me him, two Ideal Tammy dolls, a vintage but generic case in pieces, and a handful of mismatched Barbie and no-name clothes for $30. I much preferred the dollar table - where I soon snatched up another Malibu Barbie. I am such a total sucker for those ! She wore a gold bikini top (from Sun Sensation Barbie, 1991) and a green tulle-lined skirt (probably from the ‘94 redhead Cut and Style Barbie), inside out. I also grabbed a nude 90s Hasbro Han Solo, and a nude Beverly Hills 90210 Brenda doll. While I've never been much for the show, the character, or the actress, I always thought the doll was pretty, so it was nice to find her so inexpensively. Oh, and I also found a blue and cream geometric Barbie sweater, from the ‘Made In China' toy company, 50c.

 

Dearest made a Barbie find of his own - a somewhat worn Barbie airplane ! Not like my old one, but the newer blue one, with sound effects. It's missing just about everything it can be missing - chairs, speaker, cart, props, tail, all gone. But the day / night windows still work, it rolls well, both wings, all the storage doors and the ‘steering wheel' are still intact, the engine sounds are cool, and that's all he needed ! While I scrubbed dolls, he went after his dusty airplane, peeling off Bratz stickers and wiping down everything. With that done, he liberated a pair of seats from a doll car his grandparents gave him, and now, they're plane seats. He mostly moves cargo, though. A small stuffed Stuart Little pilots, and he transported several other stuffed animals and Star Wars figures from his bedroom to the living room and points beyond.

 

After a quick lunch, we departed to pick up his best friend, his grandmother, and youngest brother, and left for the Health Dept. for the flu shots. It took remarkably little time. Once he saw me get the shot, Dearest had no problem getting his. Since the inhaled version is known to trigger seizures, he had to have the shot, but he took it like a Jedi. In a month, he has to have another, darn it.

 

Since his friend's family didn't have to be straight home afterwards, we took the boys to BKing, and let them run around for an hour. Friend's grandmother asked if I could take her home, pick up Friend's other brother, and take her to Mal-Wart, but I was kinda tired, and Beloved Hubby was due home, so I more or less begged off. As it was, we were only home for an hour before Grand-dad arrived.

 

But the kids have off next Friday, for parent-teacher meetings. Since Friend's grandmother will have all four of her grandchildren that day, we volunteered to pick up Friend for a while, host him at our house. Maybe now, I can get Dearest to help me keep the place picked up !

 

Once home, Dearest went straight back to his plane and played ‘til Grand-dad called. I'd call that $5. well-spent ! He packed it with his other toys, and couldn't wait to show it off when DFIL arrived. As I got a kiss goodbye (and one for Daddy, who hadn't made it home yet), I got a bonus hug and a sweet ‘thanks for today, Momma'.

 

Yes. I will move the universe for this child. 

Who'd have thought I just needed sleep ?

 

Current Mood : Sleepy again - zzzzzzzz....

 

I feel much better today. Was in bed a bit after 10pm, and didn't wake up ‘til 4:30 this morning. Which would normally be my wake-up time, with Daylight Savings and Dearest Son in school. I kept falling asleep and waking back up until 7am. Didn't get a lot of work done because I was wheezing a bit, but Dearest's class went as scheduled, and I got some of the dishes done.

 

Burned another coaster in the continuing effort to back up my machine embroidery designs. It stops soon after it starts, then just sits there for hours. Very frustrating.

 

Got the big box o' misc. stuff put away. Stored the ‘landscape' pieces from the Habitat for Humanity yard sale in one of the hanging doll cases, where I can get to them. Claimed the empty milk crate for Dearest's school stuff, and got it loaded up. Decided to keep the ‘Talk With Me Barbie' computer desk and chair on my desk, and rotate a new doll in the seat every week. I get to enjoy a doll, but she's not in the way, and it's kind of fun to look over and see him or her ‘online' with me.

 

Discovered a hole in one of Dearest's shirts, and I'd thought to put an embroidery design over it - the design and the stabilizer would cover the hole, especially after I Fray-Checked the edges. But it's low on the shirt, and not many designs really look good on anyone's belly. So I did the Fray-Check part, then sewed a star-shaped patch over it. While watching Penguins of Madagascar on Nickelodeon. Dearest was in the shower. Beloved Hubby and I both love the penguins ! Much as I don't really enjoy mending much, it's not so bad with a fun TV show.

 

Oh, and I found out that the flea market's back this weekend ! It's not on the schedule ‘til the 20^th, but I know the owner - whenever he can get the fairgrounds, he'll arrange a sale. Not sure if I'll go tomorrow with Dearest or wait ‘til I can go alone Saturday. Hopefully I can trade the dolls this time. Wish me luck !

Woke up loopy, goin' back to bed.

 

Current Mood : Still looped. 

 

Woke up today dazed and confused. I've been light-headed and a bit dizzy all day. Not sure why. I felt a little better after I napped on the sofa this afternoon, so maybe I just need more rest. Once Dearest Son is asleep, I'm gonna go crash. I don't care if Joel Hodgson (Mystery Science Theater 3000) and Harold Ramis (Ghostbusters, Stripes,  feature director) are discussing guy stuff and how much they love nerd girls, with Nicole Kidman and Carrie Fisher, who love to chat about their favorite dolls and agree on tape that brunettes are sexiest of all the women, I'll set it to tape and go to bed anyway. What can I say, at one point of my life, I've had crushes on all four of ‘em. But I am that worn out.

 

Somehow managed to drag m'self through the day anyway - and believe me, ‘drag' is the optimum verb here. Did Dearest's Chez Insanity school, cooked two meals, washed some dishes, ran some errands that Beloved didn't. He was home today, working on Big Red, his diesel-sweetie truck. I don't think he realized how awful I felt, but moaning about it wasn't gonna get me through, so I didn't whine much.

 

Tried to back up a few things, but ended up locking up my system five times and burning enough raw material for four more coasters. I'll do a complete restart tomorrow and try again. Kinda frustrated, since each effort took about an hour, from disk formatting to endless waiting for the burn to move, to trying to get the computer back from an endless loop of ‘program not responding'.

 

I gotta confess, I'm now addicted to Sudoku puzzles. I'd seen ‘em, of course, but never tried one, because, you know, numbers. I figured each one had its own rules, and they'd be a lot more difficult. So I didn't learn how to work one until I showed Dearest how to, and now I enjoy the challenge. The cheap ‘Kappa' Christmas-themed book of ‘em I bought at Dollar Tree had me all cocky, so I found a website, and chose a ‘medium' difficulty one. An hour later, I was stumped, and guessed. I got it right, but after learning that the normal time to finish that one was 26 minutes, I kinda felt humbled.

 

Well, it's bedtime. Hope your day was a lot less dizzy !

I got a brand-new bag ! (pause for short guitar and horn solos)

 

Current Mood : OK. Pretty good, actually. 

Spent on Barbie and just plain 'me' stuff : $9.71 

 

Got to see DFIL and DMIL, for the first time since DMIL's mother passed. Uncle T., who lived with and took care of Grandmother, is currently sorting and distributing clothes and quilts and such. We inherited a lovely octagon-flower one. I'm sure that design has a name, all quilt patterns do, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

 

DMIL told me that there's bags of clothes and such that no one knows what to do with yet. I said that, once everyone had gone through them all and gotten all they wanted, if they dropped ‘em off here, or told me when/where to get them m'self, I'd make sure they got donated or used up. Of course, my way of ‘using up' often includes cutting up and repurposing, so our place would literally be the last stop. As long as everyone was OK with that, I'd be glad to help, but I understood that my way may not be acceptable. And, of course, I'd never cut up a quilt. Just clothes.

 

In the meanwhile, I kinda went nuts at Dollar Tree today. Dearest Son wasn't in much of a ‘Library' mood, so we skipped it. He scored a Ice Age 3 coloring book, a mini-skateboard ramp (for his Hot Wheels cars), a fresh box of crayons, and a stop-sign shaped stamper - just have to find a stamp pad around here. For Chez Insanity school, I got a card of two decks of playing cards (last time we bought cards, they were $2 a deck, and cards are great for math games), a book of holiday Sudoku puzzles, and a set of Spiderman-themed math flash-cards, ‘cause he didn't want the DPrincess ones. BTW, they got more mini-DP tea sets in, and Pooh-themed yellow ones, too. If not for the hive-shaped tea pot, I'd have been sorely tempted.

 

But as it was, I went crazy enough without ‘em. Chose a sparkly gold sweater (doll clothes material), a DP holiday-themed pen, another set of DP stickers, a mini-skateboard set of steps (just the right size for doll photos !), and two boxes of crackers I like, that everyone else here hates.

 

We also peeked in to Walgreen's, in search of cheep after-Halloween goodies. Didn't find any of those, but did find today's image ! It's so cute ! And at $2.99, cheap, too ! I'll probably use it for small purse-things, or attach a handle to it, like those vintage airline mini-cases. I always loved those, and my dolls used ‘em as luggage long after the candy or jacks inside were gone. This one is a bit bigger, but it'll be just about the right size for Elphie to use as a skate case ! It's nearly four inches long, and about two and a half tall. Back of the package cautions that the makeup included is real, not fakey kid stuff. I can vouch - it's real nail polish, but nearly as thin and light a color on your nails as a highlighter pen. Still, I like my little star-shaped polishes !

 

I was about to toss the packaging, but instead, I pulled out the ‘Barbie' signature logo, the doll image, and the ‘My Zippered Makeup Bag !' medallion. They crinkled a bit, but didn't crack. So they'd hold in the package, the sticker glue is on the good side, but that just means I have to be a bit more creative in using these freebie stickers. Ended up attaching the signature to a Lucite star that has soap bubble colors, so I have a festive Christmas doll ornament for Babs' anniversary. The doll and circle ended up inside the see-through lid of my doll accessories box. It holds doll jewelry, aprons, crowns, etc. Now I have a custom-decorated accessories box, and a one-of-a-kind ornament. For free !

 

The cardboard back has a neat quilted design I wanna scan, and when that's done, the doll drawing on the back, as well as another signature logo, will probably become either bookmarks or ornament designs. Not sure yet. But isn't it amazing how much  you can get from a $3. splurge ?

 

Once home, I busted butt and got four loads of laundry washed, dried, and put away. Whew ! I even line-dried the blankets and towels, and fluffed ‘em up in the dryer while storing the rest. I also cleaned up the kitchen to catch up on dishes, and took out all the trash to the today-emptied Dumpster. I'm hoping the effort will lead to a good night of sleep. I don't care what anyone says, it always takes me a week to adjust to a Daylight Savings time-shift, and when I add a major schedule change, it's no wonder I've been waking up at odd times since the month began, wondering if I was supposed to be awake or not yet.

You can leave your hat on, too, if you want !

 

Current Mood : Sleepy

Spent on dolls : $4.31

 

Well, the first day of Chez Insanity School went well, even though I overslept this morning. I thought I'd be a bit nostalgic for our usual routine, but it turned out, I slept straight through it ! Dearest Son blazed through the third-grade worksheets I downloaded, and pretty much understood the ‘ongoing process of elimination' involved in the kid Sudoku I printed. It was just a bit too big for him, so he got bored and a bit restless halfway through. We took two breaks during the morning, and did a half-hour on the Wii Fit, and were still done before noon.

 

Actually, at about 11:30, we were on our way for a bit of catch-up shopping. Our trip to Target Thursday didn't quite get everything, so I got more sale Doritos and sausage, and the soda and other Mal-Wart brands we prefer. Also hit two thrifts, but the only thing I bought there was the Liam ‘Flavas' doll I saw earlier. He came with pretty much all you see here, which is, of course, darn near naked. I tried to see his hair before I bought him, since that particular thrift has masked issues with clothes and bag-wrapping before, but I couldn't.

 

Once home, I discovered that his hat was sewn to his head by Mattel, so it wasn't the thrift's doing. His hair was pretty much factory-intact, in a blonde GI-Joe style flocked buzz-cut. All the ‘tacky tattoos' were just plastic stickers, originally intended to customize his clothes, so they peeled up, only leaving a bit of sticky behind. What a relief ! Here he is, dancing up a storm during his 'home alone' version of The Full Monty.

 

I also ‘fixed' our living room clock. Yesterday, when I went to correct the time, it rolled from my touch and hit the living room floor, hard. Since it was a cheap $4. Mal-Wart plastic model, I figured it was 50/50 that I broke it. Reinstalled the flung-from-impact battery, and an hour or so later, noticed the second-hand wasn't ticking past the 9. Well, shoot. I adjusted it again, thinking that if it stalled once more, I'd need to score a new one. Completely forgot to do so when we went out, though.

 

Figured I'd give it one last chance, and changed the battery that'd been working perfectly when it decided to explore aerodynamics. That worked. Have no idea why, but it's been about ten hours, and it's keeping the good time once more.

 

Tomorrow's the local home-school association's library day, so I hope to meet a few others. If nothing else, I can ditch those two American Girl ‘Julie' books. I don't think I'll get any others, although I was planning on reading the Molly ones before I saw how bad the writing was. Hoping to hit Dollar Tree, too !

 

Better, so here's a ton of 'branding' !

 

Current Mood : Better. 

Current Image Notes : Courtesy of ‘World Famous Design Junkies.com', I am proud to share a photo of the single most branded object in the world. This pendant -official name, "Bling Bling Medallion" - would surely save many label-fans tons of money, if their necks could support the thing. It's kinda fun for me to see how many of ‘em I can pick out, but of course, the first thing I saw was the classic ‘B' in the current Barbie logo.

 

Feeling a little better today. Still spending a good chunk of the day in the still-clean bathroom, but at least it doesn't hurt much anymore. I'm thinking Beloved Hubby caught some of the same, since he complained of similar symptoms this morning. It may well be the first time my glacial metabolism has burned through something faster than his.

 

Dearest Son came home, with more candy - his grandparents had taken him on rounds yesterday. He was good and amped. But we still took a few minutes to transform one of the Happy Meal Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs Scrat toys into a Scratee, with Sharpies. She has feathery black eyelashes and half-closed eyelids that Dearest drew, pretty green eyes that Beloved altered, and rich, red lipstick from me. And I just ‘whitened' her front teeth with White-out. You can now tell, from 30 feet away, which saber-toothed squirrel is which. He then made the never-used-by-DC cat hideaway I got at a yard sale last year into her swingin' apartment, complete with a doll chair, a box for a sofa, and a small trophy.

 

Beloved got us the DVD set, complete with Scrat Pack, last week. Since his Grandparents hadn't seen it yet, it went with Dearest - so he probably watched it five or six times this weekend. What can I say, we all love Scrat, and now, Scratee, too. Our versions wrestled with the sole pop-off acorn piece for well over an hour, in Dearest's hands. He thinks the other acorn is still at his Grandparents' house, and can't wait ‘til they both have one, so they won't fight. ( how cute !)

 

It's kind of funny - DFIL dropped Dearest off darn near running, late for work. I don't think he realized today was Daylight Savings Time yet - so it wasn't 9am, it was only 8. I'm sure he got clued in when he arrived at work.

 

A confession : When we visited the Library Thursday, I snagged two American Girl books. Seems ours has ‘em all. I chose two from the Julie series, based in the 70s, mostly because I grew up then. Even for kid-lit, I'm not impressed. In the first book, Meet Julie, her new school's demerit discipline system is described. Three of ‘em, and you get detention, which puts those naughty kids to work washing desks or cleaning classrooms. In the other book, Changes for Julie, she runs for class president, on the platform that detention consists of uselessly writing ‘I must not' sentences a few hundred times - time that could better be put to use cleaning the school or picking up trash. Hmm.

 

It's funny how the books mention Julie playing with Little Kiddles, but not Barbie. Even though Mattel owns all three. I simply think Mattel mostly knows better to not mingle their worlds much - even though, at one point, Julie had a Barbie make-up head, long since discontinued. That may be in other books, but then again, maybe not. I kinda hope to find one someday, at a yard sale or somesuch. Having a half-size Barbie head seems so funny, for some reason. I could probably pass it off in the dress form collection...

 

Late-breaking doll news (at least, it's new to me !) - actual Mattel product ‘Palm Beach Sugar Daddy Ken' hits the media, with the usual WTF ? response from the normals... read all about it (and raise an eyebrow at the photo) here ->

 

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/latest_ken_putting_on_the_dog_KLVuku7q6iDK4vh2gtj9AP

 

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