She may be Grandma Heart, but she's not dressing like that anymore !

 

Current Mood : Confused

Current Image Notes : Isn't Gramma Heart some hot stuff ! Yes, that's her dress, she wore it when we met !

Spent on dolls and crafts : $6.

 

Well, I have a quandary. At least I'm awake and alert enough for it today !

 

With Dearest Son at his grandparents' already, Beloved Hubby and I had all day to goof off. Yup, he was off, too. So we slept in, had a late breakfast, snacked for lunch, and watched TV. Yesterday, I'd announced my intent to hit the Habitat Re-Store sale again by m'self, and Beloved pretty much shoved me out the door, with some cash clutched in my fingers. He's so sweet !

 

Not that he really had to push hard, once I found a yard sale offering ‘70's Barbie townhouse and Plaza multi-story playsets' on Craigslist. I beelined it, telling m'self that, for sure those items would be long gone. Nope. They were still there, the ‘new improved' 70s Barbie Townhouse (the one with the yellow elevator and plywood printed floors) and the Barbie Fashion Plaza mall playset, both with lists attached to their in-good-shape boxes of what few bits were missing. Too bad the Townhouse had a $75. price tag and the Plaza had a $50. one.

 

Yikes. Yet I still had a dilemma. Tomorrow at noon, whatever didn't sell would go on half-price. Did I really want either ? Sure, there was still a good chance they'd sell long before Saturday dawned, but was I interested in trying just in case ? Hrmf.

 

I was still thinking about it as I hit the thrift - nothing - and the Re-Store sale, where I snagged a boxload of craft supplies, a Grandma Heart doll, a tall stuffed Betty Boop doll (for DFIL), and a bag of Barbie pizzas and props for $6. While I didn't need all the ribbon in there, it's all so beautiful. Pinks and whites and peaches and silvery-greys...I just love to look at it all. There were also kids' stamp pad sets, a Perler Bead set, large teddy bear and Christmas tree hole punchers, several mini cross-stitch kits, a brand-new bottle of Craft Bond glue, a large Create A Basket shrink wrap bag, and a pack of miniature green silk rosebuds. Also a lot of florist supplies - a mid-size foam brick arrangement base, green pipe cleaners, florist wire, and a large bag of some odd things called Florists Pins. Nothing as cool as corsage pins, these are more like a cross between a bobby pin and a staple. A quick bit of research shows that Florist Pins (aka U-Pins, fern pins, or pole pins) are favored for their ease of use in tacking down moss or decorations to foam blocks. Their long ‘legs' anchor the items well, allow for repositioning, aren't permanent like glue, and are easily reused. I have nearly a whole bag that clearly came from Hobby Lobby, with no idea of how I'll use ‘em. I may check with the florist closest to our house, see if they can use ‘em. I can find uses for the foam, the pipe cleaners, and the wire, no problem.

 

Came home and cleaned up the dolls - Betty had a slight water stain, and Gramma Heart had some surface grime, but they're both clean and sweet now ! - and dug through the Crafts box. It wasn't long, though, before I was online looking up both ‘Barbie Townhouse' and ‘Barbie Fashion Plaza' on Google and eBay. I knew, though, that the ‘folded felt' graphics on the Townhouse just didn't ring any bells with me. It's kind of odd, because I have no problem with the quasi-mod décor of the Country Living Home or the Friend Ship, but I knew that, childhood memories or not, I really didn't have much interest in the Townhouse.

 

So it was kind of a pain that there were so few pictures of the Plaza. According to the list, it was only missing a sign and the bridal veil, neither of which bugged me. I could always make a duplicate sign by scanning one of the present ones, and I have enough veils for 30 brides or four Scheherazades. I could have it, if it was still there tomorrow, I had the cash on me. But did I really want it, or did I just want it because I saw it ?

 

Truthfully, I'm still wrestling with it. Beloved wants me to go get whichever I want, or even both, but I still don't know. I don't really have space for it, I have no idea if I can figure out how to assemble it , and I'm sure it's positively huge.

 

But part of me really does want it. Well, I guess we'll see tomorrow !

 

Bedtime Barbie, take me away !

 

Current Mood : Barely conscious.

 

Lotta stuff going on around me, but I was wiped out all day and could barely stay awake. Luckily, all the stuff going on was to other people.

 

Uncle, who'd been taking care of Grandma (Dearest Son's Great-Gramma) until her passing late last year, has decided to pull up stakes and move back to his home state. That means Beloved Hubby's brother has to move, and who knows what'll happen to their house-mate. Since BIL will probably move back with DM&FIL, that necessitates a serious house-shuffle at their place. We thought about offering to have BIL with us, but between BIL's constantly rotating schedule and his bossy cat, and our occasionally howler-monkey-like Dearest and overactive Friday, I don't know if he'd get much rest at our place.

 

DFIL took the opportunity to do a full furniture shuffle, since they inherited stuff from Grandma and BIL comes with his own stuff. He asked if Dearest could come over earlier this week - as in, today - to help paint and move things. We agreed, and sent along a DVD player we don't use for their bedroom. Hope it's working out over there.

 

I've offered to help Uncle with a yard sale, but he wanted to have an estate group come by and give him a bid on various chattel. I don't blame him, it'd be much easier to go  that route. He's pretty much leaving with what fits in his sedan, not much else. While it doesn't matter to me what'll happen to all the pink porcelain poodles, I still wanna help in my small way if the estate bidder doesn't offer much. There's nothing in Grandma's house I want - he's already given me a sewing machine and (sigh) yes, another box of fabric, which is more than generous - but Uncle's always been nice to us, and we all want him to be happy. If a yard sale will net him some traveling cash, I'd love to help.

 

Beloved Hubby was home early and put my wiped-out backside to bed, and after a two hour nap, I felt much better. I have no idea why I'm so exhausted lately- laundry's work, but not overwhelmingly so.

 

Welcome to my Drive-In !

 

Current Mood : Doll Overload !

 

Other than getting big Bedtime Barbie redressed in her velour gown - now stain-free ! - I didn't get any doll time today. Oh, that's right, I forgot. I ordered a couple of dolls from Kelly on In The Pink last week, and they arrived today. Deboxing them was doll time, too, but while Scully arrived perfectly attired and coiffed, right down to her FBI badge and no-nonsense shoes, Mulder is still rollin' around nekkid. His hair is perfect, too, but it's easier for him, since it's sculpted as part of his head. Not being an X-Files fan ( it debuted during one of my ‘working three jobs' phases), I had to look up who was who. I just thought both dolls were attractive, but I'm too cheap to pay the original price for licensing. Although now I can't remember if the set was $60., $40., or what. I just knew I didn't buy it at the junk shop for $15., and Kelly asked even less than that. And now I have them. Yaaay !

 

She also included a cute Barbie Halloween bag, with a matching pencil and vintage-style luggage tag. How sweet ! Next time she's selling stuff, I'm gonna give her a great endorsement. I love it all. Just wish I had more time to play today.

 

I mostly spent the day doin' laundry, which is boring and makes for a boring entry. But it was so gloriously nice outside, I hung the quilt and sheets out on the clothesline. I forgot that Beloved Hubby had shanghaied my clothespins for miniature craft clamps, so I used several of my hair clips to secure the sheets to the lines. Everything dried nice and gently - it helped that we didn't have much wind today - and the sheets smell great. I got everything put away but the mountain of socks, which is a great feeling. There's maybe two loads left, but they can wait ‘til next week. I'm kinda tired of laundry.

 

Re-Store sale lots of re-fun !

 

Current Mood : Eager to read !

Spent at Habitat for Humanity sale : $10.

 

Yup, I had a huge bagload of fun this morning ! The local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store is less than a mile from Chez Insanity, so when I read their Craigslist ad for a yard sale, you know I was going ! Since they don't have to go by the ‘home' yard sale rules - $10. license fee, can only hold the sale for three consecutive days twice a calendar year, no refunds for rain - it began today. Like any volunteer-run organization, there's always delays and glitches, so I waited well past the opening hour.

 

They were still setting up when we left, but I made some great hauls ! Dearest Son found two action figures and a copy of A Dog for Life he liked, but the rest of the paper grocery sack was my stuff. Mostly books. When they're 50c for paperbacks and a buck for hardbacks, it's stock-up time if you find stuff you like ! I got a h-u-g-e Barbie coloring book - that sucker's 20 inches tall - mostly uncolored, and five various paperback Doll ValuesDon't Know Much About History for Beloved Hubby, as a bedside reader. books (they're out of date by the time they see print, but I love to look at the photos), and a paperback

 

As further proof the Universe loves me, I'd just finished A Charming Princess Collection last night - for a paperback Scholastic pre-teen volume, it had a lot of great fairy tales I'd never read before - and was bemoaning my lack of new stories, thinking I'd pick up my read-cover-to-cover copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales that I've had since college. It's a great research volume, heavy with annotations, history, and interpretations, and I'd always meant to go back and get the companion Hans Christian Andersen volume. You know where this is going. I found hardbacks of Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales, The World's Best Fairy Tales, and The Complete Illustrated Stories of Hans Christian Andersen. Not the same as my Grimm near-textbook, but I was thrilled. All the books are in fantastic shape, and I don't see me wanting for bedtime reading in the near future ! Just bookshelf space.

 

But there was yet more in my bag. I found four pretty blue table napkins to embroider, a set of four ‘decorate your own' glass ornaments (yeah, sure, now I find the darn things !), a pair of American Girl-sized doll boots, a Kelly-size dress and shirt, a Barbie dress and two blouses, a Princess Annika (Magic of Pegasus) Barbie still with her crown and two-way gown, and the big 18-inch soft body bedtime Barbie, for her crushed velvet nightgown. It fits Tiffany Taylor, so now I have one that isn't so wrecked.

 

Whew ! There was a lot in that lot ! When I got it to the register, they offered $5. for the whole shebang, but I insisted they take $10. I had nearly that in books alone ! And it's a fundraiser for a group I believe in. I would have felt like we were taking advantage of them (and cheap) for only giving them five bucks for so many wonderful things. And my second-hand mantra is, ‘It's not fun or a great haul if you feel bad about it !'

 

Princess Annika's dress had a couple odd stains and storage box dust on it, so it went through the doll clothes washing machine, conveniently still out from when Friday mouthed a pair of Prince Ken knickers. Not sure what the rusty spots were - food, possibly - but they came right out, and the dress is drying on one of the Castle turrets. Similar stains dotted the back of Bedtime Barbie's nightgown. So I did a doll clothes wash mini-marathon, and everything's drying nicely. Poor Bedtime has to go naked until her velour gown dries. Annika is kicking back in the narrow-box floral dress I also got at the sale, for now.

 

I may go back Saturday - yup, the sale is going on through then - without Dearest Son. He's a great shopping buddy, but he gets restless long before I'm done looking at everything...twice.

Triana's all healed and out of surgery - happy March !

 

Current Mood : Miffed

 

Tried some new experiments today. I have to really be in a mood to try new stuff, I have such a fear of screwing up that it takes a ridiculous amount of effort - or a sudden yen to do it already. When I had so many computer problems as the year first began, we replaced my CD drive. Although it wasn't the issue, it no longer burned CDs, so out it went. Twice before, I'd had the opportunity to get LightScribe devices, but dismissed them as a gimmick. This most recent time, the best component for the cash had LightScribe included, although I was still convinced it was just a near-useless toy. It uses special discs and drives to print designs directly on the discs, no Sharpie required.

 

This weekend, we needed DVDs, and believe this or not, LightScribe ones were our least expensive choice. So we got a pack of them and headed home. I spent a couple hours today, unable to locate either the drivers or the product number to our drive, since I needed it for specific downloads. I researched our purchases via the rewards program, but it didn't match anything on the company's website. (sigh) While I didn't need drivers, I did need a LightScribe program and an LS graphics editor, and those should have come with the drivers package. Since I couldn't locate even which one I had, I downloaded the generics from lightscribe.com. It wasn't until I was midway through burning one that I bonked m'self upside my head. Clicking on Windows' Device Manager would easily have told me the specifics on my CD drive. D'oh !

 

I'm always nervous about installing new software on my system - back in the Win95 day, a Star Wars screensaver package somehow ate half my hard drive, and it was legally purchased and licensed. I've been timid ever since. But I did it anyway...and it worked ! The editor includes customizable templates and access to dozens more online, and it was fun to use. Burned my first one in a ‘normal' setting, but it's kind of faint. Next time, I go to high resolution, baby ! It was fun, and I love having the new ‘canvas' to play with.

 

Speaking of playing, having LDP Tinkerbell on my desk, for comparison/ contrast to Rainbow Brite, encouraged me to play with her a little. I never really did before. She was the last of the ‘classic' collection that I needed for the whole set, and I had to go eBay to find her. I knew that I could have waited about a month for the new ‘Pixie Hollow' ones to reach Mal-Wart, but I'd seen Toy Fair photos, and knew the newer ones had an eye design that looked out of place with the other LDPs. As it was, the one I wanted was only about $5. more, and to me, she was worth it.

 

Anyway. Since she was played with, her hair was OK, but not in the best of shape. Oh, it'd never been cut, but it still had frizzy ends and wasn't styled well. Today, it is. I took it down from the odd garter thing it was wrapped in, and gave it a good, all-around nice brushing. A bit more research showed how her hair was from the factory, so I curled the little bun around my fingers, pulled the shimmery pink flower off the headband-garter-thing, and reattached it to her hair. Much better. I still want to find her a nice green ribbon for accuracy, though.

 

In other doll news, this morning I actually saw Friday knock a doll down - from our bedroom window ledge - and start mouthing it. Luckily, I got to the Tyco Ariel in time, but I was pretty ticked. Now I'm wondering if Triana's fall was due to me having her too close to a desk edge, or if Friday decided he needed a new toy. It's really annoying because he has chew toys all over the house, I trip over them all the time. I don't move ‘em though, because he's a growing puppy with emerging adult teeth, so he needs to chew... but there's no reason for him to go after things out of his reach when he has leather, rawhide, rubber, and food treats every five feet in here.

 

Since I can't do much about Friday - besides yell at him when I catch him, and ban him to his ‘house' for a while - I took some time to dog-proof every doll area I could think of. I even moved the dollhouse residents to a higher floor, just in case. He still can't get into the Lab, but he'll be blocked at night from now on, just in case. If I'm not around to monitor, the hall door is closed.

 

We also got to the grocery shopping, which started out a bit scary. I'd forgotten to renew my license plate, and there was a city cop on my butt for about eight blocks. Luckily, that was on the ‘to do' list, and I had a current insurance card in Molly's glovebox. Last time I remembered, I was broke. Luckily, the kind policeman didn't pull us over, and he peeled off a block or two later, but I moved the tag renewal up a few places. It's done now, so I don't have to worry about it for ten more months. Told ya'll I was late.

 

I was going to get the $11. ‘ballet' set of Barbie clothes I've been eyeing, but after my most recent Mattel purchase proved to be nearly beyond cheaped out, I decided against it. Instead, I hope to sew ! Of course, that was my hope last week... Sometimes I wish I could buy time - I'd probably value it a lot more that way !

Memories of toys that weren't even mine...

 

Current Mood : Sleepy

Spent on fabric yesterday : $1.07

Current Image Notes : Here's the cutaway thread ornament, all done and ready for nearly a year's storage ! 

 

Dearest Son was totally thrilled by his GI Joe RHINO, and happily agreed to pick up AirSoft ammo in exchange for it. It's taking a while, since his last ammo-cleaning wasn't terribly thorough, but at least it's getting done. I really hate stepping on the things. They get scattered on the carpet when Beloved Hubby's loading magazines or does any custom or repair work. Or when the semi-shredded targets come back inside so they'll last for another test session. Reusing ammo can damage the weapons, so they get trashed. Our otherwise awesome vacuum hates them, and spits ‘em back out on new trajectories.

 

Right now, two Anakin Skywalkers are manning the back machine gun emplacements, Ahsoka's in a front cockpit (there's two), and Obi Wan is in the troop transport section. The figure that came with is in the helicopter. Only thing bad about the RHINO is that figures need bending knees to use most of the spaces, something few of the Clone Wars characters have.

 

It's a weird wash of nostalgia for me. Gosh, decades ago, when I was a bike-only teenager, my neighbor was a few years younger. Had to be early 80s, since this brings Empire Strikes Back toys to the story. That Christmas, he wanted a certain GI Joe figure that'd work with both his ESB and Joe playsets - an Arctic Trooper. Unfortunately, that guy was sold out everywhere. I guess a lot of kids had the same idea, since stocks of the other 3 to 4 inch figures in the Joe line were plentiful. I ended up getting him a $2. parka-wearin' knockoff, with the promise I'd get him the real deal once it was back in stock. I had rainchecks for him in four stores. His mom was successful in getting him the right one, but he still played with the knockoff, and didn't want another.

 

Decades have passed, my neighbor is deceased (his on-again-off-again wife shot him, thinking he was a prowler, long story), but when I looked at the GI Joe aisles, I thought of him. Especially when I saw that Target also stocks knock-offs...and they're still $2. If I hadn't been staring so stupidly at them, frozen in memory, I might have looked for a parka guy. Next time, I will. I'll probably give it to Dearest, or I may keep him - let him be one of those ‘why does she have this ?' mysteries that always linger after someone's gone.

 

I also forgot to mention that we also hit Hancock Fabrics for a few minutes. Dearest wanted to make another fabric survey, since he's thinking of crafting a Ghillie suit. I've seen several fabrics I'd love to have online, but of course, they're not at Hancock's. I snagged a half-price fabric quarter, of white ballerinas silhouetted over a dark pink swirled background, and hope to make a new Rainbow-size dress - or possibly a tutu, if there's enough left - from it.

 

But first, I gotta get off my butt and get stuff done ! Luckily, here's another week starting up ! And a whole new month, even better.

 

Whoo-hoo !

 

Spent on dolls: $21.58

 

Yup. I got her. I knew several moments of despair when I couldn't find her, either with the Disney Princess dolls, the Disney TV Stars dolls, or the Barbies, or the Fancy Nancy or the Moxie /Liv / Polly Pocket sets, or in with the Hello Kitty aisles, and I really wasn't looking forward to hitting a TRU on Saturday. Beloved Hubby actually found her first - in with the Fisher-Price toys ! Seriously, she was right beside a Ni Hao Kai-Lan doll, right above several ‘old style' Dora the Explorer sets - not the new tween computer-active ones.

 

Our Target had three, so of course, I lined ‘em up. It was kind of funny. The upper blue sleeves on all three were slightly different. One had no sealant /Fray Check, and had a deep pick on the left side. The next had thick, lumpy trails of sealant, and the third had thin, even lines of it. So I went by eyes, one of which had a small scratch. Ended up with the good Fray Checked one, with the best eyes. Beloved helped me pick her out, which makes her extra-special.

 

I also got to see all three of the ten-inch-tall Fashion versions. Ours had two Rainbows, one Moonglow, and one Tickled Pink. Interesting, but they had large heads that were oddly flat-faced when viewed from the side. Beautiful hair and clothes, though. Cheap bracelet-gauntlets. I may go back for Moonglow one day, but today, I was happy to have the Rainbow Brite I wanted.

 

The box back gives the story on all three characters and their domains, then mentions that they're also available as fashion dolls. Hm. I wonder if that means they'll make LDP Moonglow and Pink dolls, if these sell well. I'd definitely buy a toddler Moonglow ! Probably a Pink, too, to get the whole set.

 

But it's not something I have to worry about right now. I got a new Rainbow at Chez Insanity ! Her hair is noticeably different from the prototype photo I posted yesterday, with curled-under bangs instead of side-part sweeps, but I still find her adorable. Her fingers and toes aren't quite as detailed as the LDPs, which is a bit odd, you'd think they'd come from the same LDP molds. Rainbow has a few other differences from them. First off, no twist-around wrists, but the last Playmates LDPs had deleted those, too. Rainbow has molded-in panties, painted white with raised stars - LDPs had either cloth panties or white hosiery. There is no tag whatsoever on Rainbow's outfit, and her bottom has only some form of ID sequence (K9313) instead of manufacturer and licensing info. All that is on the back of Rainbow's head. On the LDPs, it's reversed. No head mold info, it's all on the doll's bare butt.

 

Anyway, I'm so very happy I got the doll I wanted. I've been incredibly lucky these past few weeks when it comes to dolls. So much that I had to ditch doll boxes - but they make great AirSoft targets ! Beloved's thanked me several times for Rainbow, Tiana, and Triana's boxes, demolished as he tested repairs to his latest upgrade of weaponry. While that was going on, I traded Tinkerbell and Rainbow's clothes, and they each fit perfectly. Feet are the same, too. So that's some added fun !

 

We didn't forget Dearest Son - while trying to find his latest obsession so we could see what he was talking about, we found an awesome item instead. He's starting to get interested in GI Joe, although he finds the recent movie ‘scary loud' (violent) and doesn't want to see it. He mostly likes the guns and heroism and action, which is part of why we loved Star Wars, so we're OK with it. So there we were, with a Rainbow Brite doll clutched close to my heart, perusing the always-darker Boys Toys aisles. While I don't really believe in ‘boy toys' and ‘girl toys', it's like saying you don't believe in clothes being gender-specific either, but that's the way stuff's always arranged in stores, and I find more boys into Transformers than girls. C'est le guerre.

 

I've just never really figured out if the aisles of GI Joe and Nerf are darker due to poor lighting, targeted merchandising research, or simply a side effect of mostly black and red packaging. I mean, in many Targets, you need sunglasses to get through the doll aisles. Anyway, we found a GI Joe tank and helicopter combo, with a convoluted acronym that designates it RHINO, that was uniquely awesome. It even came with a figure, and enough guns to take out any terrorist enclave or domestic compound. The helicopter lifted out as a separate toy, but fit in so well, we had to read the box to make sure it wasn't a ‘sold separately' deal. Was $50., now $23. What a great deal !

 

We got the one with the better box, deciding to encourage Dearest to pick up AirSoft BBs to ‘pay' for it. It's not really fair to buy him something he didn't choose, then make him pay for it with hard-won coupons, but with a simple task, it still reinforces ‘earning' his toys instead of being entitled to them . We hope he likes it, even though both of us think it's awesome, there's a chance he might not.

 

Well, with all this buying stuff, I haven't made anything - again ! (sigh) I gotta get back to my cheap roots. And not say ‘I don't want anything' ever again ! I love that the Universe loves me sooo much, but enough's enough. At least for a few months.

(sighing shrug) Oh, Universe...

 

Current Mood : Eager

 

Beloved Hubby took Dearest Son's latest Delorean apart, drilled in a screw, and glued the broken selector switch back over the screw. So now it's reinforced, and works better than before - he also spritzed the moving parts with silicone spray. Dearest is thrilled, and I'm very proud of Beloved's work. I hadn't a clue what to do !

 

It was a good day for Beloved. He came home with a wonderful four-armed floor lamp ! Aunt S. had the unenviable task of directing the repositioning of all her stuff back to a now-finished room from a just-now-started one, and decided that, with 20+ lamps in there, she could part with a few. So, Beloved came home with this one. It's perfect ! It has a nice brown palette that fits with our butterscotch walls in the living room, and tucks into a corner just right. It even has a long cord, so we can move it around and has a floor switch ! Wow. I'd about given up looking for a cheep second-hand floor lamp, and here's one better than I ever thought I'd have !  Seriously, I was just waiting for a break in the grocery budget to pick up a $10. - $15. Mal-Wart halogen.

 

Well, if you have a minute, go read yesterday's entry. From today's photo, you can guess that I either know myself very well, or have divined how the universe loves to play with me. Yet, clearly, it loves me. Ahem. Yes, a day after decrying how many dolls I've recently bought - and bought new, too ! - and saying I couldn't imagine wanting another, bam !

 

This afternoon, I had no idea this doll existed, and now, I can't wait for tomorrow morning to dawn so I can go on a doll hunt. It started so innocently. I was noodling around TRU's site, seeing if any new Barbies had come online, and there she was. I saw the fashion dolls first, and was intrigued, but once I saw this pretty - and very familiar ! - girl, all I knew was, I want.

 

You may not recognize this pretty girl, since she's had a radical costume change, but she's Rainbow Brite ! I was a bit too old when she originally made the scene - shoot, I was graduating high school when she debuted ! - and nearly all her dolls were ragdoll-types. Even though the colors and shiny fabric intrigued me, ultimately, I wasn't as excited about the line as I could have been. I'd see them on toy shelves and smile - Shy Violet was rather cute, I thought - but never bought so much as a sticker from the entire line. Although, I confess to owning several Moon Dreamers dolls that were remarkably similar, once Brite's star had faded.

 

And I admit it - a great deal of this doll's appeal is that she's clearly made from the same molds as the Little Disney Princess line, by the same manufacturer, Playmates. In fact, if Wisp (RB's ‘real' name, I've learned this evening) can be found, I fully intend to photograph her next to Tinkerbell, since I think they not only have the same hairstyle, but the same color, and very similar eyes. Since there are 10 Playmates LDPs and one Mattel, I'd love to add another Princess ! I'm sure LPDorrie would love her ! And would just love to borrow her costume...

 

I really think this doll is beautiful. And I would like to see the ten-inch fashion versions, especially Moonglow, because... well, ya'll know I always favor anything with ‘moon' in its name or title.

 

So I'm all excited. Wish me luck !

Not a good day for toys at Chez Insanity...

 

Current Mood : Wiped out !

 

Today started off pretty badly - I kept waking up last night gasping, so I ended up sleeping in a bit. Dearest Son got me out of bed PDQ with the awful phrase, "Friday's chewin' up one of your dolls !". And he was. Somehow, Triana got knocked off my desk, and Friday took that to mean ‘one of my toys now !' and chewed both hands off, and was gnawing on her back when I got to him.

 

He's still canine non grata with me. While it's not what I wanted, I had the 50^th Anniversary doll to swap bodies with, so it wasn't a total tragedy, but I'm still rather ticked. Dress got torn, too. Shoes and stand were untouched, I just had to locate them.

 

Once rebodied, Triana needed an all-over bath. While Friday had clearly mouthed her head, it was undamaged - luckily for him ! Shampooed her hair and brushed it, snipping some stray ends and making sure she was OK with the new body. I also washed her dress, but I'm not sure if I can fix the tear in the back. She's now in a new outfit that's cute on her, if out of season. And I'm getting used to the one bent, one straight arm body. Her chewed one had two bent arms instead.

 

I'd barely dealt with that mess when Dearest erupted again. The lever that moves his latest Delorean's tires from 'drive' to 'hover' broke off. Not sure how we'll fix it. Gluing it back won't solve the problem, with any pressure it'll just break again. Not sure how we're gonna fix this one. 

 

Yesterday, Beloved Hubby did some work for Aunt S. You remember her, she gave me all that fabric ! Well, he came home last night with Barbie and American Girl doll catalogs - I thought he'd checked our mail. Nope. Those came from Aunt S. Not sure why she gets them, her sole grand-daughter is firmly in the ‘I hate dolls' camp, familiar to anyone who knows a high-school student or ever was one.

 

But Beloved was given a mission - Aunt S. wanted me to pick out a doll from either catalog, and she'd buy it for me ! A very generous offer, but I can't. AG dolls are $95., and we all know how expensive those dolls in the Barbie catalogs can get ! It's very sweet, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted, but I can't do it. I'll take the thought as the deed, and thank her profusely when I see her this weekend.

 

Besides, Beloved has offered me any doll I want, too, since he's bought all that AirSoft stuff. One day, I'll take him up on that, but there's nothing I want right now. I've found - and bought - so many dolls lately, I'm kind of on overload already. Heck, there's Charlotte, Triana, Kira, Becky, Becky, American Idol Tori, Prince Ken... I'm amazed I can walk around here with all these dolls ! And the few Mattel clothing purchases I've made recently have been very disappointing. So I'm not sure if I'll buy much anytime soon.

 

Of course, as soon as I post this, I'll find something amazing ! It never fails !

 

Got some work done, and Dearest cleaned out his closet, dumping ten toys. So he's paid off his Delorean. He's already got his sights set on a more mass-market toy for his next obsession, and hopes we can go look at it tomorrow. Too bad we're expecting snow again...

 

Heeeeeere's Kira !

 

Current Mood : Still kinda dizzy

 

Beloved Hubby actually came over to watch me cancel the ongoing recording of Clean House. Tired of erasing the same episode three times a week, tired of the same lazy idiots whining over trading a $50. breadmaker in exchange for $500. worth of furniture - and about $5000. worth of cleaning he/she/they refused to do. Unless it's heirloom vintage sentimental, you can buy a new one when they leave, but good luck trading it for a three-room home makeover to anybody but this crew. Besides, I got plenty to clean (and lots of stuff to get upset over) without the time this show takes. 

 

Took two hours to finish cleaning our bedroom - it really needed it. Friday's been hiding toys and shredded tissues from the trash under the bed, and there was the usual litter of socks and books everywhere. Decided to donate a few, and stored the rest, sorted my shoes, bagged up Lego and toy cars for Dearest Son to put away in his room, and got all the laundry in one place. I'll wash sheets and blankets tomorrow, since it'll be a nice day, and I can hang them out. I'm hoping to vacuum in there this week ! And I loaded the three bags of donations into Molly's trunk, which filled it. Hoping to get those dropped off tomorrow or Friday.

 

And with Dearest's help, all the trash, from the house and the garage, has been Dumpstered. What a relief ! Between the AirSoft stuff and the Delorean, there were shipping boxes everywhere, and always in the way. I swear, once the worst of the clutter is cleared away, I feel much better - and want to do more !

 

Right now, though, I'm about to pass out. Hope your day went well, with next to no clutter !