Pies, Cakes,and Beatles,(and a nice lady named Donna.)

  I'm getting behind. I only just got around to posting about last Saturday's doll show and here it is Saturday again already. Of course,yesterday was Yard Sale Friday,so Ken and I went around until I ran us out of money.(Sorry Ken!)I did get some really cool things though, and this week was the second sale of the summer for the sale I like to call The Peanut Butter Pie Sale. It's actually a church yard and bake sale, but I go every year for the peanut butter pie! The best pie ever! My family all know that if they want a piece they have to go with me, because any pie bought by me will be consumed before I get home! (This is where Emma usually says, "How's that diet thing working for you?" It's NOT!) In spite of my not knowing they were also open Thursday, there was pie left when I went Friday. Yes! Ken went, so he even nabbed a piece for himself. I had eaten pear cake for breakfast, so I didn't eat my pie until last night
  One year the lady who makes it every year for the sale gave me the recipe. Thank you lady! I need to get around to trying it out. But here it is if anyone else wants to try. (You can call it whatever you like, but I call it Peanut Butter Pie Sale Pie.)
Slightly more than one cup of peanut butter
1/2 tsp milk
1/2 cup  powdered sugar
12 oz. Cool Whip
1 package cream cheese
Mix all ingredients together and pour into a graham cracker crust.Refrigerate.
  I believe the lady from the sale uses pre-made graham cracker crust, but freshly made is better. Just crush graham crackers, mix with sugar to taste, and enough melted margarine to make  it stick together when pressed into a pan. Let cool before pouring in filling. 


  Anyway,I got this record case for Emma, who has been after another one.

  Her records runneth over, and her cat Otto thinks they are his scratching pad if the stack is left out.Emma has quite a record collection, especially for a 22 year old. Music is her thing though. She even has a radio show called "One Mind Tracks", (as opposed to 'one track minds',because each week she plays songs that all have a theme in common. This week was songs about working or jobs, in honor of Labour Day.). So it's all research Emma. Take them off on your income tax...(Just want to mention here that the spell check told me 'runneth' wasn't a word, but totally missed that I had earlier misspelled 'after' as 'aftre'.)
  I got a bunch of interesting singles. ("Strawberry Children", by The Hobbits, anyone?)  And a Bobby Darin album for Fuzz. (But he still needs a record player...)

  But I passed up "I'll be Your Baby Tonight",by Burl Ives. Ewww! You may remember him as the sweet little Sam the snowman from Rudolph, singing about Silver and Gold and scootching his little snow butt through the snow.

 But he was also this creepy looking guy.

Burl Ives, alias Sam the Snowman.

  Oscar and Golden Globe winner, and he does actually kind of  look like Sam the snowman (or, vice versa), but he always creeped me out. Sorry Burl.
  But I digress...
  I also got this Marina Anchors Lalaloopsey, with her pet.

I don't think the life preserver
is hers, but it works.

  The mini I got a few weeks ago when I made the big modern doll score. I just forgot to put her in that picture. I have been waiting for the Lalaloopsies to hit the yard sales, and the time has come!
 But records were the finds of the day, and I didn't even make it to the sale that advertised that they had records! I got some great records at the Peanut Butter Pie Sale, but the records that top the day's buys are these.

Original releases in beautiful nearly new condition!

  One of the nicest things about a day out yard saling is sometimes you meet some nice people and have a good 'natter', as my English friend Cheryl says. (That means, 'a talk'. )I got these Beatles albums from a nice lady named Donna. They are in great condition. Donna bought them way back when they were new releases. Donna is a young 70 years old and encouraged me to 'get out and dance'.Maybe I should take Donna's advice. She looks and acts much younger than 70, and looked thin and fit in her shorts and camisole. I should look so good now! (For the record, I have never worn a camisole in my life,haven't worn shorts in 24 years, and, as I told Donna, I wouldn't dance unless I was locked alone in a room where even I couldn't see me.) I jokingly told Donna's husband Mike that THIS is what 70 year old ladies are supposed to look like!

  (I bought these from Donna too.)
  He suggested she would no way go for that! My Grama had a bun and a hairnet. THAT'S what old ladies used to look like!
  I imagine my Mom would have been a bit like Donna if she had lived. She never stopped moving. She was slim, and like Donna, ate plates piled high with food. (Well, she didn't eat the plates, but you know what I mean.)
  I also got these other goodies, and this mixer from Donna for $1!

  It's just like my Mom's, but I don't have the bowl for Mom's, and since I have been known to bend the beaters by stupidly trying to scrape the sides while mixing and getting a utensil caught in them, extra beaters are always handy to have around. Maybe Emma would like to have the mixer:"Just like Mommy's!" (Now she won't want it!)
  I also bought Donna's grandmother's hats.

 They are beautiful and almost like new. Donna said this one...

 ...looks like the ones Miss Kitty wore on Gunsmoke.

  Mike wondered if she meant Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies.                                                    
        

                                     
   I also got this girl, which is one of  Donna's childhood dolls.

  The lady paying up as I got there bought a boatload of vintage toys and dolls. Pooh! Always a minute too  late.
  Anyway, we paid for our goodies, but as we were driving away down the road  it occurred to me that Mike had only charged us $20 for both albums, instead of $20 each. I hadn't gotten Donna's phone number to give her the cake recipe we had been talking about either. (My pear tree actually had pears this year! It's been a while since it grew enough to do anything with. I used to can them, make pear cake, pear pancakes, and pear syrup, plus we ate a lot of fresh pears.The last few years I have been lucky to get 6 a year. So this year I got to make pear cake again.) We turned around and went back to make sure Mike had charged us correctly. Sure enough we owed them another $20. While we were there we started talking about the cake recipe again and Donna gave me a tasting tour of their apple trees. I tasted them all. (The apples, not the trees.) The best were these little yellow ones from a tree Donna planted herself 45 years ago.

  She gave me a bag full so now I have to make pie or something. Ivy likes to bake, so maybe if I peel them she'll bake something. One year Ivy entered an apple cake in the baking contest at the local Apple Festival and she won. It was the very recipe that I'm giving to Donna, which I bake pear cake from. It's actually an an apple cake recipe, but I have been making it with pears for a zillion years because we have a pear tree, not an apple tree.  In case anybody is interested, here it is.
Shenandoah Apple Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease and flour 8" round pan or loaf pan
Ingredients:
3 cups chopped apples (or pears),peeled
3 large eggs(see below for variation)
1 cup oil (see below)
2 cups sugar (see below)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional. I never use them, but black walnuts would probably be very good with this.)
For topping:3 tsp white sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon.
Combine oil and sugar. Add eggs, beating well after each addition.
In separate bowl combine dry ingredients. Add vanilla to egg mixture. Add dry ingredients, apples, and nuts if using them.
Pour into pan and sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar.
Bake for approximately 1 hour or until top is browned and knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Variations:  I always add an extra egg, and an extra slosh of oil. That makes it extra rich and extra moist. I also use 2 cups of packed dark brown sugar instead of white.

  After Donna's we scraped together enough money to share a giant chocolate malted, which are really good from the ice cream place in the little town down the road from Donna's. Then we were broke, so we had to go home!
  I had a very nice day. Ken went with me, which he doesn't do very often. We got some neat stuff. And we made some new friends and had a good time.Plus, that peanut butter pie. Ken's is still in the fridge...

Doll Show Saturday and Malabar Farm

  So Saturday was the doll show, albeit a very small one. No money was made, but that was expected. It was nice to see my doll friends again though. Since it was such a tiny show and there were almost no customers it was a chance to visit with everybody.(For the big show in October I must insist on making money though!) The room was so tiny we were all able to walk around and see each other's stuff and talk to each other. I got a cute little baby and a Harry Potter I don't recognize.

  Emma was VERY into Harry Potter, (We all loved the books and read all of them as a family.), and had everything there was to do with it, so I'm surprised we somehow missed this guy. I thought he might be the Wizard Sweets Harry, since Emma didn't get him until she was older and she never took him out of the box. I am less familiar with him. But I checked him out today, (Since Emma moved out and left her dolls.) and it's not him. This guy is a good likeness of Daniel Radcliffe, much better than the other ones. (Luckily they got Rupert Grint right the first time, because Mattel only made one Ron.)
  I also did some trading. I got a handful of dolls clothes from my friend Casey and she'll pick a pile of mine at the October show.
  I got one of the best condition vintage Skipper Flower Girl dresses I have ever seen from a lady. I'm going to sell her awesome miniature spinning wheel online for her in exchange.

   (This thing is great! The parts really move and it even has wool on it. I have a couple, but I think hers is the best I've seen.)
  And of course my friend Connie GAVE me more stuff (She does that.),

Anybody know who this kid is? She has a body like a Tiny Teen, and is marked Takara, Made in Japan.

...and restrung the doll I got a few weeks ago, which you might have seen in my Fantastic Finds of the Week post. Since I was thinking about it anyway and everybody was advising that I do it,I removed her silver ringlet wig.  She has cute molded hair underneath.  I thought she would make a cute boy, but they were all for keeping her a girl because they preferred girl dolls. I'll think about it. I need to remove her /his wig glue. Someone recommended Goo Gone, but if anybody knows anything better I'd love to hear it.
  I think I did pretty well. I didn't spend too much, and we made almost what the table cost. It was for a good cause anyway, because the table fees go to preserve the beautiful historic house the show is held in the annex of. (Is that correct grammer?!) The house is great, with lots of old features that it would be a shame to lose if the house were sold and updated, like all the bells in the kitchen that were used to ring to from the upstairs rooms. They're all still on the wall and you feel like someone is going to ring down to the kitchen for breakfast in bed or something any minute.I could move in there right now and live, except for that shag carpeting...

   Speaking of, I could also move in and live quite happily at Malabar Farm, here in Ohio. It was the home of Pulitzer Prize winning author, screenplay writer, and conservationist Louis Bromfield. (He wrote 'The Rains Came', which has been made into a movie several times, including 'Rain' with Joan Crawford.), and is now a State Park. The house has been preserved as it was the last time the family lived there in the 1950's. Much of the decor is much older. Apparently Jimmy Cagney sold vegetables from their farm stand out at the road (which you can still buy vegetables from, although Jimmy is no longer there.) Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were friends of the Bromfields and were actually married in the house, and spent their honeymoon there.

That wall paper is still on the walls.

Ivy and I, who love old movies,had fun coming down the double staircases 'Bogie and Bacall ' came down when they met in the entryway to take their vows. We also stood behind the table where they stood to cut their wedding cake.

This table is still there, and they have a fake wedding cake set up.

  Anyway,go if you ever get a chance,especially if you are a Bogart or Bacall fan. I've been there twice and would go again. It's like a walk back in time. Plus there is a nice farm and animals to see. (And there is a house with a ghost story nearby, (on the property I think). )They also have a walking trail and events throughout the year.It's a beautiful place and a nice day out for the family. Check out their webpage at www.malabarfarm.org  I also have to add that Lauren Bacall, who is now 88 years old, still signs autographs, and with amazing speed. I wrote to her a couple of years ago and she sent back the two pictures I sent in about a week, both with a wonderful signature.

I was going to give one to Emma, but until she cares to take it they are both MINE!

  So that's it.See you soon.

It's just another yard sale Friday...

  Well, today was Friday, and we all know what THAT means, don't we boys and girls? That's right! Yard sale day! I was lazy this morning but finally managed to drag myself out and leave the house at 9 instead of 8. It was worth it. I made a pretty good haul today. I started out in our town, but later headed for ******* Springs. (Name withheld to protect the innocent, since I renamed the place Beer Breath Springs due to the fact that a large percentage of the sales there were run by men with beer breath.)
  The first thing I found was a Stardoll in her original outfit. She'll be showing another of my finds from today. Let's see what she has for us...

  From 'California Perfume Company', this beautiful WOODEN CUPBOARD!! The door opens and there are shelves inside!  Thank you Star! (She seems to be gesturing somewhere else, but hey, it's her first day.)

  I also got this box of vintage Christmas decorations, and these 'NOEL' candle holder angels.

When I found them they spelled LNOE.

  There was also a beautiful pink tablecloth with matching napkins, (and a few that don't match.)and this box of vintage scarves, hankies,a table cloth, an apron, and a child's apron that says 'Lunch time', that was $3!

  There were a couple of stowaways in the box.

The Niagara Falls souvenier is a compact complete with mirror and original 'puff'.The doll still has her Woolworth tag marked 10 cents!

   This Bradley doll is in her original box. She's a March girl, and so am I.

  All these cool vintage Valentines with envelopes and original packages for 50 cents!

  This doll has stinky hair, but I'm hoping she'll air out. The bed just fits her.The dress however, does not.

 

More vintage aprons, and a child's scarf.

These vintage children's aprons. The 3 skirt style aprons are TINY.

 

Makes you wonder about 'Kay', whose mother or Grandmother lovingly made her these little aprons.

A close up of a couple of the fabrics.Kids on pogo sticks!

 These glasses are killer!

These kids came home with me.

Both are Pleasant Co. The dress isn't in perfect  shape. The furry hat is American Girl too.

I think that's Samantha, isn't it?

Also, this amazing hutch with a little tea set.Show us what we won Samantha.

The cupboard has a name and date written on the bottom, so it's apparently handmade.

And we brought alot of this stuff home in this beautiful new (Ok, old.)Clothes hamper...

  

 It's a vintage wicker hamper by Hawkeye, featuring a gray 'cracked ice' lid with matching lucite handles! Use it in your bathroom to replace the almost identical one someone poked a hole in! By Hawkeye! Thank you Samantha!

And there you have it. I hope you had as much fun as I did today. For those of you in the Central Ohio area, there's a small doll show and sale in Marion tomorrow. The Women's Club Home on Center Street, (Route 309.)10 to 4.

Camping,Shopping, and how to wash a doll...

  Well, we had our mini vacation recently, which is all we had time for this summer. It was a few days camping. With Emma moved out and Fuzz officially an 'adult' now, (And THAT'S a matter of opinion really...), Ivy was the only one camping with us. (Apparently 'adults' can say, "I'm not going.") She still wants to hang out with us, but she'll be 14 soon, so I'm sure those days are numbered.
  It was Ken's ideal camping experience. In other words, we got the van hooked up to the electricity and turned on the air conditioning, (Ken,suffers from a bad case of "I'm English and it's too hot over here."), gathered wood and started a fire, and he cooked, and cooked, and cooked. (As with everything else in Ken's life, camping is all about the food.) The rest of the time we played games and watched a DVD on the lap top. Yep, Ken's a real out door type.

 

  Everybody was roughing it in the great outdoors. (That's our van in the front.) When I passed the camper behind us they were watching cartoons on a big screen tv.We used our air conditioner, microwave, and refrigerator.But uh...my bed was uncomfortable...

  Our camping neighbor was enjoying the hammock...

  To be fair, we also took a walk on the song bird trail and traipsed  around in the woods looking for firewood. We also took a ride and went to a cheese shop, Grampa's Cheese Barn, (Which did NOT have Venezuelan Beaver Cheese, but DID have cheddar.) where we tasted sample cheeses until our eyes fell out. We even bought some. (Listening to Ivy trying to get the name of her favourite, 'Cayanne Pepper cheese', right was pretty entertaining too. I just wish I had written down all the different incorrect names she used.)
  I stopped at a yard sale on the way to the Cheese Barn, but the doll-est thing they had was one of those wooden Polish dolls, and Ken insisted that the one we have, (Which his mother rooted with his own childhood hair when the original fell out.) is plenty.
   We went to a couple of stores too.Ivy got a new pillow...

  Sunday was the last day of Ivy's summer vacation, so I went out before she got up and got the last of the missing school supplies. (I swear that list gets longer and more ridiculous every year. Why does it matter if the painter's tape they asked for is BLUE?! When I could have gotten other colours for at least a dollar cheaper!) Since Goodwill is next to Big Lots where I was looking for her preferred socks and baby wipes for school I ducked in quickly to give the toy aisle the once over. I got a bag of dolls for $3 which contained these lovely ladies, and the chair for $2.

I have several Moxie Girlz with feet now, so I guess I should start weeding out all the ones without.

   This corn husk doll had followed me from a recent yard sale where I had considered her, but decided the corn husk doll population around here was getting out of hand and passed on her. Since she bothered to follow me all the way to Goodwill (and before she did it again and it got spooky) I decided to buy her.

  It was back to school Monday.Poor Ivy has a very long day this year. She is only in middle school but is taking high school French AT the high school. That means she has to get up extra early and be at the high school at their starting time for her French class, and then be bused over to her school for her regular school day.She gets high school credit for it,which will leave her room on her high school schedule for college credit classes. This has replaced graduating early, which is what they did when I was in school if you got all your high school  credits done early. Still, she came home pooped on Tuesday. May have to rethink that bedtime.
  Yesterday was second hand doll washing day.

Dogs, and Babies, and Bears,oh my....

    Some will stay and some will go, but they will all be squeaky clean!
   All of these were yard sale finds this summer except for the Asian Bitty Baby,which came from a small Flea Market, and the 'grunt face baby' (an old phrase of my neice's.), which came from the 'Auction of the Century'.(I'm hoping it was anyway. I couldn't take another one like it. We spent a monstrous amount,and took home so many dolls I could hardly fit them in the van, even living up to my self proclaimed title "The Master Spacemaker". I was literally dreaming about sorting Italian dolls after a a while. Luckily we made our money back and I got to keep loads of dolls I had been wanting for ages, as well as some I never knew I wanted before I saw them. I donated loads too, but I'm still trying to get rid of the rest!)
  All the Bitty's are Pleasant Company, and the Asian baby is an Our New Baby.Two of them came in tagged diapers.

 These guys are going to go. Eventually I might have a 'Dolls for sale' page for you to click on, but for now they will probably just end up on Ebay at some point.

Rub-a Dub-Dub...

   I know it says American Girls and Bitty Baby's are surface washable only, but don't you believe it! If I'm keeping  a doll I'm only going to display in the case, or that I intend to sell  more as a collectable for adults, I don't wash it unless it's a hopeless case otherwise, as it can ruin the doll (and the value). But if I'm selling a doll that is most likely to be bought for children to play with, I like to wash it. I know I would wash it if it were for MY children, so I like the buyer to know that it's sanitary for their kids to play with. Let's face it, kids put things in their mouths. They handle things, and then put their hands in their mouths. There's no way around it. Germs are going to end up in their mouths. Kids take dolls into their beds. It's just a good idea for second hand dolls and toys to be cleaned. I'm more comfortable selling them that way, and I think people are more comfortable buying them that way. These guys were washed in hot water, scrubbed and/or soaked where necessary, (I use a baby toothbrush and extra soap if there is soiling,and sometimes baking soda for vinyl dirt or marks and stain remover on the cloth body.),  thoroughly rinsed, run  through the drain and spin cycle in the washing machine, and put out in the hot sun to dry.

Look Ma, no hands...

 Tips: don't machine wash the dolls! A cycle through the washing machine will scuff the paint and possibly ding the vinyl. (Yes, past experiences...). Use the spin cycle to remove the excess water. Be careful your spin cycle doesn't use the agitator! (Some of them are 'rinse and spin' and they agitate on the rinse cycle.) When spinning, place the dolls carefully around the agitator FACING INWARDS. This will insure that the dolls faces aren't dinged against the wash tub in spinning. When in real doubt also put them in a pillow case(individually) to prevent scuffing. Tie a knot in it.When drying remember to turn the dolls occasionally. Dolls like Bitty Baby and American Girl, and others with cloth bodies and vinyl limbs hold water in their limbs. You can think they are dry, and then when you pick them up water runs out of the limbs, re-wetting them.

Three on a teeter. After hanging upside down all afternoon, these guys sit up to drain the other way for a while. Middle Baby developed an embarrassing wet spot when turned upright, which is hidden by the head of the Baby in front.

  I condition the hair on dolls that actually have hair. (nothing personal Bittys.) I have heard you're supposed to use fabric softener on doll hair, but I don't even use it on my laundry. (It's not really neccesary. And it's just more chemical junk in our water. Besides, I hate scents.) I use cheap conditioner, like White Rain or Suave. If the hair is really dry I sometimes resort to my own dry hair conditioner,(which I have to use now that I'm old!),Fructis. I've had pretty good luck with it. I've managed to rescue some American Girls, and even those vintage Skipper dolls with the dry frizzy bangs that are so balled up they look like they've been cut. (You have to HEAVILY condition those, leave them to soak in it, and comb them out with the conditioner still in the hair, and then rinse. I have often used a pin to pick out the mattedness in really bad Skipper bangs. It's almost the only thing that works. When they are really badly matted you can't really comb them until you have picked the matting out first.The brunette Sample Skipper in the Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen post is one example. Her bangs weren't absolutely terrible, but they well were on their way there.)  
  Well, until next time, when ever that may be.    

Who??

  Ok, this is another P.S.from the Fantastic finds post,for those too young to remember, or who just don't know who actress Nanette Fabray is. She's 92 years old. In her hey day she did alot of theatre and TV, and appeared in the movie The Band Wagon with Fred Astaire. Here she is:

  And here are those dolls again:

  See what I mean? I think it's the nose. Sorry I couldn't find a picture of her with her mouth shut. She did have red hair in The Band Wagon too. Rent the movie and check her out. It's a good one. Who doesn't love Fred Astaire?

Sorry for the confusion..

  This is a postscript to the last post. Sorry about that over lapping business. I've got to figure out how to move this stuff over! Bear with me. I'll get it right sooner or later...

Fantastic finds of the week!

  What was that I said a few posts back about not being able to top the Larry the Lion find the rest of the summer? Well, this may not top Larry, since he was a life long yearning, but it's pretty good!Get comfortable. This may take a while!
  I went yard saling Friday and found some nice dolls.

  I'd been wanting a Flynn from "Tangled". I don't like this Rapunzel as much as the other two I have, but I didn't want to break up a couple! Two more Moxie Girls, and they both have feet!I have also wanted the new Stacie and Skipper, but I didn't want to pay store prices. These two have all their original clothes too, which was great.And yes, that's a like new Twilight Jacob in his original stuff. He'll either help pay for the stuff I'm keeping, or he'll don a shirt and be somebody else.A My Scene guy, fully clothed and with shoes!The guys from Mulan and Pocahantas:you never come across them. And two Monster High girls in their original stuff too. If anybody knows who the short doll in the blue and white dress is, let me know. She's marked 2001 Mattel.

These came from three different places in groups of 10,2, and 5.I think my total was $17.00, but I got some other stuff in with them. I also got these cute girls for a dollar a piece. They need some rehabilitation, but I couldn't resist rescuing them.Their bodies are oil cloth, I think.

 I think they look like the old actress Nanette Fabray.




 

  On Saturday I was heading to a big 'community sale' at a housing development just outside of town. On the way I stopped at some sales that were being held on the grounds of the high school and found this.

  I REALLY wanted one of these, but they are so expensive.The guy selling it cut it down from $15 to $10 for me,so I let myself have it! It's 1/6 scale.(And cast iron and weighs a ton!) It's missing one lid, but it has the coal shovel,and the thing to lift the lids with, as well as a skillet, a pan,and the coal scuttle.
  From there I went on to the community sales.I got some doll stuff, a CD, and some other things. I was there for two or three hours and decided to head for home. But the real find of the weekend still awaited me.I went home by a route I don't normally take. I don't know why. I was on the far end of the street I actually live on when I passed a yard sale with what I though were Miss Revlon feet sticking up out of a box. I whipped into a parking space and went to check it out. When I walked up to the sale I forgot all about Miss Revlon. There spread out before me were four old doll cases, filled with clothes and dolls. One of the first things I spotted was a pink skinned Ricky doll. I wanted a pink skinned Ricky and Ken (My husband Ken, not the doll.)bought me one online a few years ago. He was affordable because he has a barely noticeable nose nip. This guy was nice,and no nose nip. The guy running the sale said he would take "$100 for all the doll stuff." I neither had $100, nor wanted to pay that much. The dolls were mildewy and dirty and might not clean up very well. There was a nasty faced Midge wearing the Floating Gardens dress though, and the cape was in one of the cases. I thought if I could get the stuff for a reasonable price I could sell the Floating Gardens so I could afford to keep what I wanted. After some haggling I got some of the stuff for $40 and went home. After fortifying myself with a soy 'chicken' sandwich and rounding up the troops, we went out for ice cream. The guy still had his sale on so I stopped back and offered him "the grand total of everything I have left in my purse", which was $16. He insisted he had to have at least $25, so I said ok and left. Before I could get back to my van he called me back and relented. So here is what I got for my $56.Those of you who are offended by non-anatomically correct naked plastic, beware...

A Barbie only body, Skipper and a spare body,the Miss Barbie swing canopy,clothes,and Allan, in desperate need of medical attention for those arms. At least they were both there!

Ricky, TNT Barbie (wearing the Suzy Goose rug as a dress,Midge in Floating Gardens, Senior Prom,Trailblazers,Pak clothing,Francie's Fresh as a Daisy,FQ wig, and more!

Some paper dolls, including Scooter and...Jane? How did she get in there? (I wanted one though, and she even has her shoes.)

Some of the same, plus Francie,her Concert in the Park dress and hat and It's a Date dress,a bubble cut, Fashion Queen head and a wig, and the unfortunate legless girl. Unlike Allan's arms, her legs were nowhere to be found.

                                                         

A suspicious looking Allan (Maybe she ripped his arms off...)with the girl who started it all. She turned out to be a nobody.

Tiny Thumbelina (with knob--and she works!), her original dress,slip,and one bootie, her pink corduroy outfit with hat,Chatty Cathy's flannel PJ's and blue dress with over blouse and crinoline, plus more clothes and a couple of Pee Wees.If anybody can identify any of the other clothes, I'd love to hear from you.

More Barbie clothes, a Tressy dress, the Suzy Goose vanity, and a very nasty Tammy doll in Barbie's Pak playsuit. (And yes, I had a Tammy as a kid. For some reason my mom threw her away when I was very small. I still have her gym suit and shoes though.)

Poor Tammy.

   Luckily, they cleaned up pretty well. Here they are after their initial trip to the Tam Spa.

  Turns out Tammy has lovely strawberry blonde hair and a high colour face. Midge and Francie will need eyebrows, but I can do that. Francie's had a haircut, but it kind of looks like an American Girl Barbie cut. Twist and Turn looks pretty good. Allan's arms went back on (and in the case of the one, out) easily after putting him in very hot water. They aren't even swingy.

Beautiful Ricky!

And Midge looks pretty good in Senior Prom.Actually, I'm going to put it on a red haired Midge,but shh. Don't tell her...

Here's what she looked like before. She looks like she's been in a fight.(Maybe that's what happened to Allan's arms...)

   The cases were a couple of generic cases,a common blue Skipper case, and the Barbie case with Sophisticated Lady on the lid.
 So the moral of the story is,don't overlook mangy looking dolls. Sometimes they can clean up to be beautiful. I'm pretty tickled with these guys. My family is unimpressed,especially Ken, who can't get over that I spent $56.
  Oh, I forgot.On Friday I got this girl. She doesn't have any markings.Does anybody know who she is?

  She needs her arms restrung, but she has teeth!Aww!

  Ok, that's it. I've done my happy rant. Thanks for listening.