The Spring Toy Show, and What I Bought There, and What's Up With Ken

    I haven't been around for a while. I think the last time you heard from me our car had died. We were without a car for a while, and then some people we've known for a long time offered us a van for a really great price. They got a lot of things fixed on it, using their own money, because they knew we really needed a car and were low on funds. It was a nice van, and had cool stuff like heated seats, and a CD and cassette player, and even a DVD player and tv for the back seats! I doubted we would ever use that, since we don't often have anybody in our back seat these days. It was still kind of cool to have though. We might have taken a trip at some point, and pulled over to enjoy a little TV while we ate lunch or something. I say 'might have', because three weeks into having the van, on the way to a doll show in fact, it became hard to break on the highway, in the rain no less, and the weird noises the van had been making: clunks, pops, etc., and the weird things it had been doing: juddering when reaching 55, listing to the left, having super tight steering, became worse. Before we reached our destination the van was feeling very scary. We did actually get to the doll show. It was a Saturday afternoon, so we weren't sure how we were going to get home. I actually took Ken into the venue where the show was being held, while my sister checked around for somewhere that might be open and able to take us on such short notice, and so close to closing time. When I came back out to park the van, she had found somewhere. I went back in to get Ken, and reloaded Ken and wheelchair back in the van  We carefully drove to Midas. The manager was going to take the van for a test drive, but ran back in saying, "I was going to take it for a test drive, but noooo! I'm going to run it in here and check it out." So he did, and was back in seconds. The subframe had broken. He said he was surprised we even made it into Midas. He said it would take at least $2000 to even start fixing what was wrong with it. With the miles on the vehicle and all the other things he said would probably come up next, the only thing that made sense was junking the van. Midas Man also said he couldn't see how anybody could have been under there working on the van recently and not seen that this was about to happen. 

  So once again, after three weeks, we were without a vehicle again. And by the time we got everything straightened out and a van rented  to get home before the car rental place closed for the day, it was too late to bother going to the doll show. There was less than an hour of the show left, and it costs $10 to get in now anyway.

  Last week Ken went in for a heart catheterization to have stents put in. He'd been in the week before, when they went in through his wrist. They decided he had more to do than they wanted to do through the wrist, so he had to come back. I was very scared, but he did fine. We were supposed to go home after it was finished, but they ended up keeping him a couple of nights so they could flush his kidneys out with IV fluids. Turns out, the contrast dye they use for the procedure can damage the kidneys, and Ken already has kidney damage from his diabetes. They did one side of his heart, but he was starting to have to move because his back and leg were hurting from laying on his back so long, so they had to stop. Now he has to go back in a couple of weeks to have the other side done. I'll be terrified again. If any of you want to do a few prayers, or send some positive vibes or thoughts Ken's way, it would all be appreciated.

  But before all that happened Ken and I went to the toy show with my sister. It's the Xenia, Ohio toy show, and it supposedly one of the biggest in the county. It may or may not be, but it sure is huge. It's held at a fairground, and it encompasses many buildings. We have always gone to every single building...except this time. It was supposed to be very cold, but turned out to not be too bad. But I have been having a lot of hip and back pain the last few months, and my sister recently had surgery to correct her botched double mastectomy, so she was tired, and not feeling her best. Only Ken was doing fine, although he was getting wheeled around. I could have done better from a wheelchair too. So we called it quits a bit  early. There were lots of dolls, as has become usual with this show. For once I didn't buy anything from the dealer I bought the Saucy Walker and lookalike from at the last show. I did buy a couple of things though, which I'll show you in a minute.

  First I'll show you a few interesting things I spotted. 

  I'm not sure if I have shown this same doll in a previous post. She looks familiar, and I know I photographed some of the same dealer's dolls before. This is a Lisa doll by Takara.    

There was this boxed set of Cousins dolls at another dealer.

  The Cousins were baby sitters to go with the Quints dolls by Tyco. (Why weren't there 5 of them? Somebody got off easy, watching only one kid.) I am familiar with the Quints dolls, but I never heard of the Cousins before. I knew they had to be connected with the Quints though, from the look of the packaging. Apparently they were supposed to be teenagers. There were several sets. Their gimmick was that when they stood close together their outfits formed a picture. How weird.

  I also saw something I've never seen, even in ads.

Can you spot which thing it is? It's Casper, in a box! I always wanted my cousin's Casper doll, and I finally got one as an adult. I've never seen his box though.

  Another thing I saw that I had never seen was this Liddle Kiddles Talking Townhouse.

I've had the Kiddle Klubhouse before, but I don't think I'd even heard of the Talking Townhouse. Apparently it had a pullstring talk feature. If this house was in good shape, $30 was a good price for it.

 

 There was also a dealer with Monster High dolls, including the giant sized 17" ones.

  I also saw this Strawberry Shortcake house.

  I didn't take many pictures this time. It was dark in the buildings, and most of the stuff wasn't displayed in a way that made it easy to get good pictures of. And I was in pain that day and just not feeling it. As I said though, I did buy something. It was near the end of our stay at the show. What did I get? 

  

  I spotted some Barbie and Skipper dolls at one table. Most of the dolls weren't in great shape. One of them was my favourite Skipper, the Mod Era, red haired, eyelash Skipper. I have a few of these Skippers, but  one has a reddish face and is missing most of her lashes, and one is paled out a bit.  One is nearly perfect but for a piece chopped out of her bangs. This girl has thin hair, and her lashes are there, but short. But you know what? I can fix that. Her face colour is pretty good.

She was marked $35. I asked the dealer what the least she would take was. She said $25! There was another Skipper I considered, a sausage curl. She was marked $25.While I was on a roll, I asked the dealer what she would take for both. She said $40, so I said okay. 

Her head is great, including her lashes.

 Unfortunately, her feet and ankles aren't in very good shape. 

 I can always switch her head to another sausage curl body that has a bad head. I probably have one.

  I might try to sell the sausage curl girl, or at least her head. 

I really can't afford to spend that kind of money any more. I hadn't bought a Skipper for myself in a long time. (I did buy a 'Sample', or Test Market Skipper at a show, but she was to sell. I have to pay for going to shows somehow. They are quite a drive, and the doll shows cost $8 to $10 each to get into, and the toy show costs $5.And now Ken has to go with me, because I can't leave him on his own, so it costs twice as much.)

  I also missed the other Spring doll show because Ken had only just come home from the hospital and had to take it easy for a week or so. So the next doll shows are this Fall. We'll see what happens then. 

  

Doll-A-Day 2019 #76: Sausage Curl Skipper

  I'm baaa-aaaack!  Happy St. Patrick's Day! Lori and I got back from Georgia last night. We looked at a few houses, and Lori thinks she might have found one.
  We left Wednesday afternoon. Tammy World was raring to go.

"Who said you were even going?" Tammy: "Me!"

  We went pretty far down in Georgia. It was very warm Thursday. We looked at some houses where tons of flowers were in bloom. When I left home the temperatures were not nearly as warm. My poor daffodils aren't even up all the way, but they have buds. This is why Lori wants to move south. She's sick of the cold. Of course, today it snowed here again!
   I was hopping happy when I spotted some Shoney's restaurants! I thought they were hard to find these days, but they were everywhere down there. I hadn't been to a Shoney's in years, since the last time we took a vacation in the south. Ivy, who will be 20 this year was probably about 3 the last time. Shoney's do a great breakfast buffet, with the fluffiest scrambled eggs and a really good,(although probably artificial) cheese sauce. I got a buffet breakfast to go on Friday. I couldn't eat it all at once, but it lasted me all day.

It's hard to tell, but there are pancakes, biscuit, mixed mystery fruit, spiced apples. fried potatoes, grits, and cinnamon bread sticks. Bit heavy on the starches.

By Friday though, it was really windy and starting to get cold, even in Georgia.

Lori's dog Dante' wasn't enjoying the wind.

There was sand!

    It was chilly, and the strong winds made it even colder. It was drizzly too.

Peanuts and pecans, two of Georgia's biggest crops...

...and swamps, another one.

These little flowers were blooming in a cotton field belonging to one of the properties Lori looked at.

Lori travels with her dogs, including this one, a nine week old sheltie she has only had a week.

It got so cold that I went back to a long sleeved shirt on Saturday.

And Tammy World changed to a sweater.

  The south is literally covered with Kudzu, and it's honestly kind of creepy looking.

  We headed home Friday night, but were still in Georgia when we set back off on Saturday morning.

It was chilly, but the skies in Tennessee were blue on Saturday.

A little farther North, Kentucky was also sunny and cold. I ended up putting my winter coat on.

The trees were blooming in Kentucky

It looked sunny and warm as Lori let the new sheltie potty again. It was sunny, but not warm!

  When I got home I found that while I was gone Ken had caught up on the laundry, cleaned up his stove messes, refilled my prescriptions, and restocked my deodorant. When he got home he surprised me with a belated birthday cake he made for me. It's the kind I make for him, and it takes ages to make, so he had spent a while on that and then gone to work that day. What a sweet guy!
  Tomorrow we'll look at my birthday present doll, what Emma brought me for my birthday from her recent trip to London, and what I bought on my trip.
  Today is a brief post looking at this doll.

She's a Sausage Curl Skipper.

Sausage Curl dolls were produced in 1969 and 1970.

They have rooted eyelashes, twist waists, and click bend knees.

This girl is wearing a rare coat, from the 1969 Sears gift set Bright 'N Breezy. and a shirt, from the Sears exclusive fashion set, Young Ideas, which was sold from 1970 to 1973. The Bright 'N Breezy set came with a blonde Sausage Curl doll.

This 1969 Sears ad is confusing me.

  See you tomorrow!

Spring Finally Springs and Skipper Teeters

  It seems to be finally Spring! Ok, so it snowed on Thursday. But on Friday it was warm enough to hang laundry outside. I also worked around the yard. I picked up trash out of my yard for the THIRD time this Spring. (We live on a corner, so the neighbourhood's trash always blows into our yard,and it's been a VERY windy Spring.) I pulled up the rest of the old growth from last year out of  my hostas,peony,mint, and garlic. I had already pulled up some of it,but some of it wasn't dried out enough. If you pull it up when it's not ready, it takes the bulb out of the ground with it,or roots, in the case of the peony and mint. I even mowed the yard. So to celebrate Spring, and the other thing I was finally able to do that day,(Take some doll photos outside.),here is a very Springy Sausage Curl  Skipper.

She is wearing the Skipper fashion Teeter Timers.

The fashion came with a teeter board.
 

I saw the endocrinologist earlier this week. That was pretty much pointless.

  She is already telling me stuff I have no faith in. For one thing,she said my thyroid is not enlarged,as I was told by the other doctor who had the ultrasound done. Ok, she should know better on that one. However,she also said the four nodules I do have aren't big enough to be causing the swallowing trouble I've been having. Well, I  suppose there could be another reason I feel like I'm being strangled, and I choke on my own saliva, and can feel a lump every time I swallow. On the other hand,the two larger nodules measure 1 1/2 and 2 centimeters! How can something that size NOT cause you swallowing trouble?! I have to go back in about a month to have the nodules biopsied. When we see if they are cancerous we'll discuss what we're doing about them.
   Her only suggestion as to my feeling strangled etc. was to send me for a swallow test. What's the point of that? I know I'm having swallowing issues,and I can feel that larger nodule every time I swallow, just where she said it is. That pretty much says the nodules are my problem. So I turned down the swallow test for the time being since I can't afford it, and we haven't checked out these nodules yet anyway.
  For another thing,I've read that thyroid problems can be caused by iodine deficiency. Vegetarians can sometimes have an iodine deficiency because they don't eat seafood. When I tried to ask her about iodine and tried to tell her that I've been vegetarian for 30 years, she wouldn't even listen to me. She just shut me up and started saying how in this day and age it is almost impossible to have an iodine deficiency because iodine is added to everything. As she said,fast food,processed food,and soft drinks all have it added. Ken pointed out to her that I rarely eat fast food,or drink soft drinks,and don't very often eat processed food. She ignored him and just told me to go buy some over the counter prenatal vitamins because they have iodine. Well I read that most processed foods etc. don't bother to use iodized salt in their preparation. I have also read that it's dangerous to take an iodine supplement without the advice of your doctor, because you can easily get too much. Shouldn't they test my iodine to see if I have a deficiency,and how bad it is, so a dosage could be recommended? So I'm already not trusting her much.
  So that's where it stands at the moment.

On the good side of things, even though we have had snow and freezing temperatures lately,things are budding around here.

These little flowers are blooming in my yard,as are the wild violets.

My pear tree has buds.Apparently they were camera shy though.
 

The lilac bushes have buds.

The peony is about a foot and a half tall now. The Rose of Sharon hasn't come to life yet, but when it does it will bloom well into the Fall. The Dogwood tree has little blooms too. It's a Spring bloomer,so it should perk up soon. It's beautiful,with tons of pink flowers. It blooms early and then drops leaves ALL summer. How can a tree even do that? You'd think it would run out of leaves at some point. But that thing drops leaves until all the other trees join in and run out themselves.

I'm hoping the strawberry plants Ken won last year will come back this year. SO far they aren't looking like that's going to happen though.
  See you again soon for some doll goodies.

Doll-A-Day 203: Skipper Saturday: Java Brown Sausage Curl Skipper

  Today's Skipper Saturday doll is a java brown Sausage Curl.

 This doll needed redone when I got her, but her 'sausages' turned out beautifully.

 

 She has little 'spit curls; at the sides of her face.

It would have been interesting to see some titan Sausage Curl Skippers, but they only came in blonde or java brown.

This girl needs a few eyelashes replaced, and her twist and turn waist is a little loose. Otherwise she is pretty nice.

She's wearing Jeepers Creepers from 1969-70.

Jeepers Creepers consists of the top, 'pedal pusher' pants, clear red plastic visor with blue fabric tie...

...striped rubber ball, and light blue flats.

There's one button on the back.

I don't have the ball. It's hard to find. And my girl preferred to play barefoot on this hot summer day.

 A boat is nice to play with when it's hot: in the water.

And of course, an ice cream soda can help to cool you off.

There are two versions of Jeepers Creepers. The one this girl is wearing is the printed fabric version. The dots and stripes are printed on to the fabric.

The version she is holding is one where the dots and stripes are woven into the fabric.

And yes, she borrowed Francie's hanger. She couldn't be bothered to dig out her own.

It's easy to tell which version you have.The dots and stripes are sometimes faded or worn off on the printed version. Mine is a little worn. Or just turn the pieces wrong side out. The printed dots and stripes don't show as much on the back of the fabric. The woven in dots and stripes are easy to see.

I'm not sure if I'll be posting for the next few days. We're taking a couple of days' vacation before Ivy goes back to school.