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

 

No comment yet from the much-loved Keeping Ken site...

I got a real Halloween Horror going on...urgh.

 

Current Mood : Achy busted tummy.

 

Sorry, ya'll. Evidently, after a month or so with no Chinese food, my system wasn't used to it anymore, and I've had a violently upset tummy all day. So I've slept most of the day away, when I wasn't in the nice, clean bathroom. About all I've been able to eat is English muffins. Glad we bought some Thursday !

 

For your weekend reading / distraction news, I direct you to the fun of My Life is Average - I've been reading it all day, since I can't even focus on TV.

 

http://mylifeisaverage.com/

 

I'm on page 107 out of 831. I may never finish !

 

Happy Halloween, ya'll !

Siiiiiilent...Halloween....(that doesn't sound right)

 

Current Mood : Oddly restless, now that the letter's sent, and there's no party...

 

Not a lot happening today. We sat around watching TV and napping. Without a party to rush to, we all just took it easy. I got an e-mail from my used-to-be-favorite machine embroidery site, Designs by SiCK, telling me that sets were on sale once again - but this time, it wasn't a cash sale, it was a points one. I had about 1300 points, earned from various site gimmicks, minus 400 for the Christmas set I snagged last month. I figured I'd look over what they had again, maybe use up my points stockpile.

 

In the end, I spent 700 points, on six sets and four individual designs. Got ‘em all downloaded and stored with images and stitch guides, and checked my points, expecting to see around 200 or so. Instead, I had over 600. Huh ? I scrolled down through ‘points purchases', and saw that the last one I bought at full points-price wasn't listed. So I double-checked my designs. They're there, and I know I paid for ‘em, otherwise they wouldn't have downloaded. Not sure why it wasn't deducted or listed, but I'll just leave ‘em, so when they figure out what happened - someone else already recorded the issue - they can claim the points later. I don't much care, really.

 

Dearest got to spend some time with his Grandparents, so I tucked the Betty Boop doll in with the candy apples and cupcakes we sent with him. I should have known DFIL would see her face through the bag. His excitement and happiness at pulling her from the bag was worth so much more than the dollar she cost.

 

We're going out for dinner and chat, Beloved and I - but first, the night crew at 7-11 gets some candy apples ! Hope your Friday was fun, too !

 

Change of plans...oh, well.

 

Current Mood : Frustrated, but well-stocked with snacks !

 

My fingers still sting a bit from hand-sewing three pieces of Velcro to Dearest Son's Jedi belt last night. But he looked so adorable today ! Luckily, his costume was big enough to accommodate a shirt and sweatpants beneath, since it was seriously thin. Notified his bus driver and monitor that today's his last with them via letters tucked in with their bus ornaments, and there were tears and sad waves when he disembarked this afternoon. But he soon cheered up - while his Doritos donation didn't make the party (?!), he brought home three ‘goodie bags' of candy and small treats.

 

We had a few errands to run, and Beloved Hubby was home, so the three of us were soon off to get those done, and do some grocery shopping - especially for tomorrow's party ! Mailed off the school notification, picked up some library books, returned some unused car maintenance bits, etc. Dearest managed to cajole a set of Clone Wars action figures out of us, and we soon had all we needed. It was fun to shop together. I got nice pillowcases for the Joanne (In The Pink) project - 250 thread count, set of two, only $6. ! - but held off on other goodies. I even turned down rice crackers this time.

 

Once home, with all the goodies put away, we all settled into our usual habitats while dinner cooked. Naturally, I checked my mail. Well, shoot. The party was cancelled. Had been announced as we were on our way home. Wasn't sure what to do with 30 cupcakes and 15 candy apples - the two bags of candy would be consumed, no doubt - before they went bad / stale, but we figured between keeping some for us, and giving the rest to our horse tenant, the folks we like at 7-11, and Dearest's Grandparents, they'd be used up quickly. Especially the cupcakes.

 

Had a lengthy conversation with Dearest's best friend's grandmother - he and his brother live with her - to inform her of Dearest's school change, and just chat a bit. Don't want to lose contact with them ! Turns out, DBF's brother, a first grader, got suspended for behavioral issues, so their grandmother was very interested in what I'd learned about home-schooling. ‘Someone' told her recently that, pulling him from class would pretty much target local Child Protective Service agents to her back, and she'd have tons of paperwork to complete - not easy for a blind woman. I still wonder who told her that, when I could give her the exact statute number that says otherwise in our state's laws.

 

Oh, we don't expect to get away with pulling Dearest cleanly - Beloved and I fully expect phonecalls Monday or Tuesday, but we can deal. Bluntly, they've had nearly seven years with our son. We let them convince us that they knew best about his education. We know better now.

I'm in love with today's image - squeeeee !

Current Mood : Happily tired

 

Current Image Notes : Found this during a Halloween Image search. Isn't it adorable ?

 

Aside from drafting letters, which I can do later, I pretty much got everything done. Looked up local grocers' ads online, found a sale on Doritos, so Dearest is taking two bags for his party tomorrow. Nothing really at the thrifts, although I found a beanie-baby style Betty Boop doll - DFIL is a Boop fan, so I got her for him. Luckily, I had enough change in the car for her (she was only a buck) and my lunch-splurge. Bonus lucky - her price rubbed off the intact hang-tag without damaging it !

 

The local thrift had a couple of male dolls that were interesting, including one of the Flavas line. I may go back and get him, when time and funding are right. I wonder if I can scrub the tacky tattoos off his back...

 

The bathroom and our bedroom's a lot cleaner now. Still a lot of work to be done in both, but a bit more tidy is always better than a bit more wrecked ! One of us could actually take a tub-bath now, if we wanted to. I hate tub scrubbing, so it's been put off embarrassingly long, until today. It should get easier if I'm in there an hour a week - I hope ! There's maybe another half-hour of dishes to catch up, and then I can spend tomorrow cleaning off the dining room table, once again buried in Lego, junk mail, miscellaneous papers, and shopping bags. I find it really helps to get stuff done early - I forget that I've already done half the work when I go back to finish !

 

In late-breaking news, we've been invited to a Halloween party Friday. While Dearest is already well-costumed, Beloved Hubby and I are foraging for ours. Turns out he has pretty much all the makings of an Indiana Jones costume - including the hat - already. I wasn't quite sure what to do with me, until I was tidying up our bedroom. Where the Princess Leia hat-wig resides. Hmmm.... No real time for a long white dress, and I'd just feel silly in one anyway. But... what if I just go with the hat-wig, a white shirt, jeans, and my grey sweatshirt-jacket. Can always say I'm going as ‘Leia's day off'. Potential here. Skylarking a bit further, I thought it'd be fun to add the Rebel Alliance symbol to my jacket, since I'd been trying to decide what to put on my otherwise blank jacket for a long time anyway.

 

Unfortunately, Clone Wars is getting all the attention, so there was no ready-made Rebel Alliance ‘starbird' logo embroidery design. Plus, even if there was, I wouldn't have $20. for a licensed version, and I'd hate to spend $5. on a bootleg. Sounds like a challenge to me ! Thanks to Google Image Search, I soon had a good representation of it, and Stitch Era Universal digitized it in about ten minutes. I then did it again in the right size - I'd neglected to update the correct setting. (headbonk) Well, at least I have a one inch by one and a half inch doll-size version of the logo now. And, while messing around with stitch patterns, I figured out how to make an appliqué of it ! Awesome - I've been trying to figure that out for weeks ! It's just a click-button away.

 

So. I now have my perfect Rebel Alliance logo, correctly sized in a smooth pattern of stitches, ready to go. I'll probably test it out tomorrow, if I don't get to later tonight, and stitch it out soon after, if it's good. And later on, play with the appliqué one. You gotta love costuming an entire family for $40. (which is what we spent on Dearest's ‘Deluxe Anakin Skywalker') . And, as Beloved pointed out, we're even a theme - we're all Lucasfilm characters.

 

I never thought I'd finally get to be Leia on Halloween... I mean, when I wasn't in 1978, I didn't think I ever would !