Christmas Dolls and Stuff, and a Request for Your Prayers and Positive Thoughts

   I know you haven't heard from me for a while. I'm still here. Kens doing better, and I have been spotting some interesting things while out shopping. Here are some I thought I'd share with you.

  First of all there's this year's Holiday Barbies. There were three at our local Meijer.

  These included the Barbie that used to be called the Hispanic Barbie. Not sure what they're calling it these days.

 She's made from the Teresa head sculpt. I have always been partial to this sculpt, and I have a lot of different dolls made from it. This Holiday doll kind of reminds me of Mary Ann, from "Gilligan's Island", when she hit her head and thought she was Ginger. ("Mar-ey Onn Ann isn't Mar-ey Onn anymore, because she thinks she's Gunger. And Gunger isn't Gunger any more, because she thinks she's Mar-ey Onn." )

  There was the usual blonde Barbie.

  Then there was the African American Barbie.

  She has sort of a surprised look about her. Maybe she's shocked that she was the only one of the three to get two bent arms instead of just one. What's the deal with that?

  As you can see, they were $45. That seems a lot, but I'm not sure that isn't cheaper than some years.

  There was also an additional Mattel holiday doll, Mariah Carey.

  I supposed she has sort of become synonymous with Christmas., Sort of the female Bing Crosby.

  This endcap shared space with the Wicked dolls, before they got recalled. They were gone pretty quick, although I think some of them dribbled out of Kohl's for quite a while afterward.

  I am still amused and kind of surprised by the huge display of Snoop Dogg merchandise at Walmart! It isn't really their thing. And there's so much of it! There must be 6 or 8 feet of shelf space for the stuff. 

The Snoops on the Stoop were sold out.

There are a couple of different sized Snoop on the Stoop dolls, and, to keep him company, there's Martha on the Mantel. 

Kohl's has Hallmark ornaments I never seem to see at Hallmark. (Mind you, I don't knwo where there IS a Hallmark anymore!) The X-Box is a little big for 8 inch kid dolls in 1/6 scale, but will be perfect for 12" guys like Ken, etc.

The Golden Girls TV is perfect for 1/6 scale.

It lights up, has a screen with changing lenticular pictures, and plays sound clips from the show.

  As for Ken, he got out of the hospital after about 4 or 5 days, and was back to walking 50 feet with the therapist two days later. He was very sick though. He had a very bad UTI, and they were afraid he was bleeding internally, because his red blood count was so low. It was down to 7, and they said that if it went any lower, they would have to give him a transfusion! They finally found out that he had no internal bleeding, but that the low red blood count was because he had such bad infections. They found he also had infected pockets in his colon too, (diverticulitis.). But they changed his antibiotics, and things got better. He's now doing well, and pretty much back to where he was before he got sick.

  But it isn't Ken I'm asking for all your positive thoughts, prayers, and well wishes for. (Well, him too.) My sister has been diagnosed with breast cancer. I have previously asked for others, that you send all your positive thoughts, prayers, or whatever you believe in. Now I am asking for my sister. We don't know much about her cancer yet. If you believe in the power of collective positive energy, or the power of prayer, or whatever, please use some of it on her.   

Ken in Hospital again

 Just a quick post to say that I'll be gone for a while, as Ken is in the hospital again. I never knew how serious something like a UTI could be to someone with Ken's medical situations.

Be Kind Dolls at Ollie's

  Has anybody heard of the Be Kind dolls? They're from a few years ago, and I vaguely remember them. I saw them recently at Ollie's, in Ollie's big Christmas toy display. There were three different dolls.

They have an Ivy. I would have bought this one for Ivy when she was a kid.

   

They're 12 inch dolls, but they seem bigger.

  There are five dolls in the series, but our Ollie's at least didn't seem to have received the Koral or Nora.

   They are articulated at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and knees. Unfortunately, there's no ankle joint. They each come with a DIY project. 

  Daisy is my favourite. 

                                 

  Daisy 'loves animals'.  

In spite of Daisy's theme being animals, her project is making a bean bag chair, (For her, not the child.), instead of something to do with animals, specifically, the horses she likes to ride. They didn't even give her animal print fabric to make her chair out of, although there are some paw prints involved, and she comes with a bunny. Her box also says something about decorating a purse. Apparently Daisy's purse can be covered with the fabrics too.

  The dolls try to promote reusing and recycling, and generally being eco-friendly.

When they say the 'dolls wear eco fashions', does that mean their clothes are made from recycled products, or natural sustainable fibers, or that they just have 'eco' themed graphics on them? They don't explain.

  

   

  The boxes have a ribbon handle on top, which you are encouraged to reuse as a hair tie or bracelet.

 

  Even the doll's box is supposed to be used to make a 'kindness board', where you can 'display your creations'.

The dolls were made by Jada Toys. I can't think of anything else they've made. Apparently they mainly make model cars and their products are 'predominantly aimed at the collectible market'.
 

  I just thought I'd show these dolls to you. They are cute, and fairly articulated. Ollie's is selling them for $14.99. If you don't live near an Ollie's, I'm sure you can find them online, or maybe at other stores that sell older, discontinued items.

Happy National Redheads Day!

   Let's ignore all the political turmoil for a moment and celebrate National Redheads Day. 

Little Tam.

Tammy World suggests you view some of her previous posts by searching 'Tammy World' and 'The World Family' in the side bar. 

As for other posts on red haired dolls, you might want to peruse my Red Heads Week posts, starting HERE, with Georgette, by Eegee. You can find other red haired dolls by searching 'red haired dolls' in the sidebar.

  Also, today is the 36th anniversary of my and Ken's first date. That story is a doozy, so if you have any interest in that, please see my post on the subject.

I'm Back! With Free Toys and More about Ken

   I know it's been a while, but I'm still here. Ken is improving all the time. He has therapy twice a week, with two or three different therapy sessions each time. He has physical therapy, which works on  his walking and stair climbing, occupational therapy, which works on  his arm and hand, and speech therapy, which, in spite of the name, works on all kinds of things, including cognitive, vision, swallowing, etc. Ken's swallowing is fine now, but his vision is not good. (He lost his peripheral vision in his left eye, and his general vision is blurry.) He also still has some brain fog. So we've been pretty busy between therapy and doctor appointments. He also does therapy things at home. I've also been having to figure out what food I can make for a guy with diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.         

 Anyway, we are still living with nothing but a mini fridge, and a tiny one at that. Our regular fridge stopped working when we had the fire. The electricity surge must have blown it.) Even as mini fridges go this thing is tiny. So I've been having to go to the store frequently, since I can't buy much at a time. I usually try to check out the toy aisles when I go, so I have accumulated several Mini Brands display boxes recently. 

  I've been getting them since the beginning, but they are getting harder to get. The stores seem to think they refill the display boxes when they get more stock, which is wrong. The stuff comes in a new display box each time. It's a shame to think a lot of the displays get thrown out, with the sample toys attached. What a waste. A lot of people have caught on though, and either take the empty display boxes, or just plain rip the samples off the boxes and take them. I haven't done that. I only take empty boxes. Mind you, I am not above cramming the two or three balls that are left in a box into the next box, or leaving a single ball on the shelf. The other reason they are getting harder to get is, the practice of putting sample toys on the display boxes seems to be on the way out. There don't seem to be nearly as many boxes with sample toys on them any more.

  Here are some of the display box samples I've gotten over the last year or so.

  I got three on this day. My favourite was the esspresso maker.

There was also this plant one.

And this one makes a mini aquarium.

  Another time I got this LOL Surprise display. This is after I already ripped it off the box...at home.

  It's quite a free haul, considering that it includes two complete sets.

  In fact, I ended up with two of these. I usually don't take sets if I already have them, and leave them for someone else. I figure there are kids who could use a free toy. 

  And later I got this one. It contains squishy hairdos you can mold. I think it didn't have the squishy stuff though. 

  I also got this one. I seem to have hit on a LOL streak.

  These were in the last couple of months, so these are still available at the stores.

   The bottles that would normally contain the resin to do the 'make' part are empty. That's okay. I can handle that for free stuff.

 This Harry Potter set is pretty great stuff. It's one of my favourites of the ones I've gotten. Lots of little potion bottles and cauldrons.

    Yesterday I got the best haul yet, I think. These are some great sets, and there were multiple sets on the one box!

Min Brand Create Garden.

Mini Verse Hello Kitty waffles. 

Tiny individual strawberry slices and blueberries!

Mini Verse Make It party sets! There was so much fun stuff in this display! 

Three sets! 

  Now, be forewarned. Some of this stuff is hard to get off the packaging. They have it glued on there pretty well. But with a little work you can get it loose. The cake that came off the cake stand was stuck down with some really sticky greasy glue. But it washed off with warm water and dish soap. Some of the other stuff has thick glue you'll have to peel off.

The cake came unstuck from the cake stand. And look. This is more than one full set, because there are two cakes and decorating bits.

  I still haven't freed all the Harry Potter stuff from the packaging. I think it's going to be a little time consuming to not break anything, and I don't have much free time these days.

      And don't forget, Micro Toybox also has samples on their display boxes. These were clearanced for  $3.49 at our local Meijer.

  So get out there and get yourself,(or someone else) some free stuff the stores are going to throw away otherwise, while you still can.

  I don't know when I'll get a chance to post again, but I'm still trying to keep my hand in.        

Ken, But Wait, There's More: Dolls

  Finally, a post that isn't  all about Ken, although my life is right now. He is home, and  keeping Fuzzy and me very busy. It's  been super hot, so he has been sapped by the heat, as have I. We were under a heat advisory all week, so we went to Emma's house to  hang out  in her air conditioning a couple of days. He has his first real outpatient therapy this week. Temperatures are supposed to drop a bit, so hopefully he will be feeling more up to it. We did some stuff at home, but generally it was just so hot that he was weak, and I didn't want to put a drain on him. Today we did a bit more, as it's a little cooler.

  But, what you're really here for is dolls. I was out shopping for a  blood pressure cuff, etc. this week, and walked through the clearance and toy aisles at Walmart. Normally I don't like to encourage Walmart shopping, but there were a few good clearance things, and some nice dolls.

  As for the dolls, I saw that Walmart now has Naturalistas dolls. I showed you some from Target in a post last year. 

They also had the fashion packs.

I love the nightie.

  They also had a line called Latinistas, which I assume are by the same company. 

They are also very pretty dolls, and worth checking out. Both series of dolls were priced at $12.97 each. They also had the Naturalistas clothing packs.

  I also saw a couple of very articulated Fresh dolls.

 Both were good looking dolls, one being male and the other female. The articulation looked good, and they had nice faces. 

  There was a line called Fresh. Not sure if they're related. The hair on the blonde one is great.

 

  There was also a line of dolls I've never seen called Luv, which stands for Limitless, Unique, Vibrant, and their accompanying fashion packs.. They were interesting looking dolls. I'm not sure if they have any extra some articulation. I liked them though. 

  

There is a Ron in the currant line of Harry Potter dolls! Yay! 

Ron was always my favoutire character, and he gets the short end of the stick. I'm glad to see him making an appearance.

The VIP dolls looked a little cheap and ugly.

But the current line of Disney Descendants are pretty cool

The selection of Mini Brands was great. They had the books, shoes, purses, make sets, and what seemed an endless selection of others. I think at least half of one side of the aisle was Mini Brands. There were so many I'd love to buy, but they are so expensive. And of course, we've had no income for 7 weeks now.

 

 

  

  There were some great Mini Verse sets. Have I mentioned that I love tiny stuff?

  The Harry Potter Mini Verse sets were great too. Some of the stuff was so detailed. I love this stuff!

In the clearance aisle they had Rainbow High shoes and purse singles for only $2.00, and Mini Bratz for only $4.00. I had to go back today. The Rainbow High stuff was all gone, but the Mini Bratz were only $1 each!

  Yeah. Okay. That one display doll fell off while I was looking at them. Honestly. It really fell off on it's own.

 Which is not to say I didn't take it home with me.

   That's it. Ken keeps Fuzz and I busy, so I don't have much time any more. This post took three writing sessions. Sorry there were no photos. If I have to go back, (which I do, to return the blood pressure cuff I got.), maybe I will get some pictures.