Happy New Year!

  A happy new year to all! Not much going on around here. As I don't drink, my new year's celebration involves waiting for the moment and toasting with the kids (and Ken if he's not working), and maybe popping a few confetti thingies.
  We had a bit of a surprise last night, when I found an EGG in Irving's cage. (Yes, Irving is a girl, parakeet,but we thought she was a boy when we got her.) Poor girl has no mate, so it won't hatch. All it does is mean I now have to worry that she might get egg bound!

Had myself a merry little Christmas!

  I hope everyone had a nice Christmas! For me, in spite of not feeling my best on the day, it was one of the best Christmases I've had in years.Our oldest, Emma,stayed all night Christmas Eve, so we had a nice, cozy Christmas eve, with our tradition of everybody falling asleep on me while I read "A Christmas Carol".(Everybody but Fuzzy, that is, who did his tradition of going to bed before everybody else so he didn't have to listen to "A Christmas Carol".) Christmas morning we were all here and Ivy didn't nearly explode, waiting for Emma to come over so she could go downstairs and open her presents. We took the kids' picture in front of the Christmas tree like we have done most of their lives.Fuzz, who has tried to prove how 'adult' he is for the last few years by claiming not to care about anyone but himself, went Christmas shopping! He bought presents for all of us and his best friends.I didn't have much of a chance to do any decent shopping because I only went to The Big City three times since Halloween, and two of those were rush trips.But, in spite of that everybody liked the gifts they got. I did a lot of online shopping, so that helped. As it turned out, a few things that were last minute finds or decisions turned out to be favourite gifts. The down side of online shopping was a few things didn't get here until after Christmas, but that was still ok. So, we had a very cozy Christmas, with everybody here, which is my favourite thing.That was my best gift.
  Of course, I got some other gifts too!

The haul. Note the gift 'for the woman who has everything': that new laundry basket we've been needing. Ken, good thing I know you're kidding!

A couple of Monty Python presents,( a DVD from Ken and a CD from Emma.), and a few Beatles ones,(socks from Emma and magazines from Ken).

Something for my viewing and listening enjoyment,

An obscure and short lived 70's tv series, the soundtrack to a great, underrated movie,and one of my all time favourite movies.) from Ken. 

Dolls, of course!

Maudlynne Macabre and China Girl wonder why Meygana is still in her box. So does Meygana. That sock monkey is just a ham.

  Maudlynne and China Girl are from Ken,as is the set of E.J. Taylor Ivy Cottage dolls,(The kids and I loved the books when they were small.), and the gum ball mini dinosaurs.(I really wanted those!Well, all of those!)And the sock monkey was from Fuzzy.
  And this Lalaoopsy from Ivy!

Guess who got me food!

My favourite Russell Stover chocolates,the best vegetarian marshmallows,candy,chocolate hazelnut Jif, and that bottle of Hershey's syrup I've been wanting to get for ages.Oh, and Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits to make at home! I had to promise Ken I would still go with him to the actual restaraunt. Of course I will: you can't get the Bar Harbor Salad with that blueberry dressing anywhere else!
And then there are some gifts that defy category!

Like this pig whisk from Emma.It matches our pot holder, spatula, and corn forks.
  I hope everybody's holiday was as good as mine was!

December Doll Reads: Miss Hickory, and Happy Christmas Wishes!

  We're well into December and I've only reviewed one book! I'm not keeping up with all my promises.But Emma, I am reading The Great Gatsby right now! (Well, not this second, obviously.)
  This post is dedicated to "Miss Hickory" by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, another of my favourite books from my childhood.

  Miss Hickory was originally published in 1946 and won the Newbery Medal for children's literature the following year. The story concerns Miss Hickory, a doll made from an apple wood twig, with a hickory nut for a head,and what happens when her human family goes away for the winter and leaves her behind--outside, no less. Miss Hickory is used to living under the lilac bush in the summer, and having her neat little corn cob house moved inside every year, to winter on the kitchen window sill.

Before it all begins,Miss Hickory fastidiously cleans her corn cob house.

She now has to face a hard winter, with nowhere to live once her house is taken over by chipmunks, and danger everywhere. Even her 'friend' the squirrel takes an uncomfortable interest in her hickory nut head.

Squirrel surprises Miss Hickory in her bird nest home.

  Miss Hickory was cranky, and stubborn, and obsessively orderly before all this happened to her, but she finds she can't control every little detail out in the big, wide world. She must clothe herself with what is available,live where she can, and cope with the animals around her.Her stubborness causes her to miss the miracle in the barn on Christmas eve, which all the animals line up to see.Squirrel describes it this way: 
 "In the barn," he told her, "Something wonderful happens there every Christmas Eve at midnight...Only we animals and the winged creatures see it.Large and small, wild and tame,of the Earth or with God, we all go over to the barn to watch for it, and no one is afraid of those larger than himself."

Animals from all over the world somehow appear to view the miracle on Christmas Eve.

  In the end,her constant lecturing to others is her undoing in a way. I won't spoil the end by telling you what happens. It's another tear jerker, and yet happy in  a way. (I tend to recommend a lot of books like that. What was the matter with me when I was a kid?! Maybe it was both cause and effect of reading all these books!)
  The illustrations, lithographs by Ruth Gannett,are beautiful. The shading gives them so much mood, and the detail is wonderful.They're the perfect match for the story.

One of the most beautiful pictures in the book. Miss Hickory on Christmas eve.

  I always loved the descriptions of what Miss Hickory made her various outfits out of:
"The woods were full of lovely stuffs for her sewing.Velvety leaves not yet dried and colored rose,gold,scarlet,and russet. Soft beautiful mosses of many different kinds:furry ones, that grew close to the ground;trailing ones;upstanding feathery ones like plumes.And each moss was green and everlasting.The tiny brown cones of the larch trees made excellent buttons."

Miss Hickory sews her winter clothes: a coat of moss, and a skirt of leaves.

  When I was in elementary school I did a book report on Miss Hickory, and I still have the project I did to go with my report.

Thinking about it, I guess my Miss Hickory qualifies as the first doll I ever made.(Please keep in mind this was elementary school!)

  We had an apple tree at the bottom of our back yard, and since I was as addicted to realism and detail then as I am now, I'm sure I used an apple twig for her body.(It was tough finding one with 'arms', and 'legs', and the appropriate 'fingers' and 'feet'.)

Her head is a hickory nut.

I have no idea now how I got the nut to stick to the twig body, but it has stayed attached for around 40 years, so whatever it was, I made a good choice. I think it must have been Elmers glue, since that's what we always had around. I seem to remember trying to sew real moss into a coat and having it fall apart on me. In the end I resorted to an old wash cloth, coloured green with a marker.Her skirt is real leaves though.

  I read Miss Hickory to my kids. They did like it, but I'm not sure they were very happy with the ending! The end might be a little upsetting for very young children.Pre-read it and judge for yourself, because no one knows your children as well as you do.Amazon recommends an age range of 7 to 12 for this book, and a grade level of 2 to 7, although I'm not sure you'll find many 7th graders reading this type of book.) The book may still be in print, but in any case, it's not hard to find a copy, and it's not usually expensive.
   Cuddle up Christmas eve and read a nice book with your kids.We read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol every Christmas eve, but I always end up being the only one still awake long before the end.
  I won't be here again until after Christmas, so I will wish everyone a very happy Christmas!

Ok. Now it's getting weird...

  Not that it wasn't weird before. If you read this blog you'll remember a couple of posts back I found 52 Ideal dolls(mostly Crissy and Velvet) at Goodwill on Sunday. Well, today Ken mentioned that I hadn't been to Salvation Army for a while, so while I was at that side of town Christmas shopping I stopped in. The first indication I had that history was about to repeat itself was a lone Crissy sitting behind the counter on the 'Hey these things are valuable shelf'. I looked around the store and went back to the shelf next to the toy aisle that contains the 'Hey, these toys might be a bit valuable too' stuff. I then had a flashback to Sunday: the shelves were full of Crissy and Velvet dolls! I counted them:42!! There was a lady picking one out. She ended up with two Crissy dolls actually. I showed her how the grow hair feature works on the first one ad she decided to get another one. These dolls were mostly in very nice condition, much better than the Goodwill dolls. Some of these dolls even had shoes, although they were also wearing those homemade dresses, from the same pattern as the Goodwill dolls.There was a curly haired Crissy and a Country Crissy, but these dolls had a slightly higher percentage of non-Crissy and Velvet dolls. I saw at least 2 Harmony dolls, (They were blonde ones.Did they make a blonde Harmony?), and three Mias.Two of the Mias were really nice, so guess who came home with me!

  They were priced at $2.99, but today is half off day, so $1.50!

Unfortunately when I got home I found that I had lost one of Flowered Mia's mint condition blue shoes. While I was wrapping the Christmas presents I had bought for Ken while I was out, he called Salvation Army to see if they had found a stray blue doll shoe. And they had! They were actually holding it at the register, so I have to go back tomorrow and get it.

Flowered Mia needs her bangs to lay down, but her growing hair was braided and is beautifully silky.
  I also found a BFC Ink Addison and a 70's or 80's Ginny, who I am probably going to steal the clothes off for a World daughter.

   I'm pretty sure they'll fit. I know Madeline clothes fit Stacies, and they're a pretty similar size. Which reminds me. I still need to hunt down those two Madeline outfits I have been debating on keeping or selling. That velvet dress would be great on Jo for Christmas.
  And before I leave I have to show you something. I found these at Family Dollar the other night.

These are the perfect 1/6 scale chocolate Santas! I wish they had had these when the kids were little!

Here's Santa next to an AAA battery for size comparison.

There were bunnies out at Easter, and although everybody is too old for doll Easter baskets now, I had to pull the doll's baskets out just so I could give out the tiny chocolate bunnies! Well, I guess we know what all the dolls are getting in their Christmas stockings this year! (Don't read this Emma!)

Here's a nice close-up so you can see how detailed the little guy is.This is way bigger than life size.

And another bonus is, they're Russell Stover candies, so they taste great too!
  Have to go now. If I really get my act together there'll be a Worlds Christmas story soon.

Monster High and Lalaoopsy Clones on sale now

  Just a note to tell those who like Monster High and Lalaoopsy dolls that Family Dollar and Dollar General stores have some knock offs you might want to check out.Family Dollar had Lalaoopsy wanna be's called Little Dizzy Doo. They have button eyes and molded hair, and come in the large and tiny sizes the real ones come in. They aren't as well made as the real thing.They are cute, and if I had never seen the real Lalaoopsy dolls I might have found the Dizzy Doo dolls even cuter than I did.There's also a playset for the small Dizzy Doos. The Monster High knock offs were called Gothic Girl (Dollar General),and Midnight Madness (Family Dollar). (Sounds like a sale.) The Midnight Madness probably came closer to the real thing, with similar hands and jointed arms. The legs were solid though. I think the clothes were probably better made and of better quality fabric than the Gothic Girls, but the designs of the Gothic Girls clothes were better. Gothic Girls weren't jointed anywhere but the neck, shoulders, and hips.I think the faces on the Gothic Girls were better though. So if you could roll Gothic Girls and Midnight Madness together you might have one fairly decent rip off. I didn't have even a phone with me, so no pictures. Sorry. You can actually get results if you Google Dizzy Doo dolls, but I couldn't find anything on the other two.
  By the way, don't be fooled by the store names. They sell things at every price point. It's just that most of it isn't worth more than a dollar.(Although I doubt that's what they had in mind when they named the stores!)
  I thought I'd mention these since some people like to collect clones of their favourites too.I hope you are all getting your holiday shopping done. As for me, I am amazingly close to being finished now. Unfortunately, it's the hardest people on my list that I have left!

Whaaaat??!!

 I saw one of the weirdest sights I've ever seen in a thrift store this morning at our local Goodwill. I stopped in to check out what they had since I was in the shopping center anyway, dropping Ken off at work. I almost always check first up front, where they keep the dolls they think are worth something. This time I almost forgot to check there, and when I turned around to do so I was met with this:

  They are almost all Ideal dolls. Nearly all of them are Crissy and Velvet, and there was one Mia

and a Harmony.

And I think this is Magic Hair Crissy. Whoever she is, she's missing her growing hair.

 It was bizarre! I counted them. There were 52 in all!!

They were all priced at $2.50. Some of them were nice, but a lot of them had had haircuts or had marker on their faces, or just were generally messed up.

Kind of makes you wonder. If they had belonged to a collector, you would think they would have had nicer dolls. If not a collector, then why SO MANY? Maybe they had had or wanted those dolls as a kid and made it their mission in life to rescue all the ones they came across and give them a home!
   Mia had had a massive haircut or I would have bought her. I like Mia, and I have Crissy and a couple of different Velvets. Harmony didn't look too healthy either. They were almost all the original Crissy dolls, but I did spot one later Country Crissy, from when they started using Velvet's face for her. There was a Miss Revlon wanna be who was wearing that Crissy's dress. Other than that I think they were all wearing homemade dresses, which seemed to all have been made from the same pattern. One of the people who work in the store said the dolls had been there since at least Monday, and another person said there was a lady who came in and bought about 5 of them, but that's all she knew of that had been sold.
  I got a bit excited because I thought, if they have all these, what other older dolls might they have in the toy section? So I headed to the back, where I found this Little Sophisticates doll.

I still have the one I bought as a kid. I thought they were beautiful when I was little, and I still think they're cute.
  I also found this American Girl Addy. She was wearing Samantha's tea party dress.

 The dress is missing the collar and needs a cleaning, but I needed a dress for the Samantha I was keeping, as she didn't have any clothes of her own. What are the odds I would find an American Girl in the wrong dress, and it would be one I needed? Anyway, Addy will need some clean up and rehab, but she's in pretty nice condition, and she's Pleasant Company. She'll be finding a new home, as one American Girl is enough for me. (Although I would have preferred Emily or Saige to Samantha.)
  With Christmas fast approaching I have been working my...fingers to the bone. I have most of my shopping done. Most of that was accomplished in ONE DAY on our trip to the Big City to visit my Dad in the nursing home. I figured that would be our only trip out of town before Christmas except for visiting Dad on Christmas eve. That's not going to be much of an opportunity to shop though. And while I'm here, right now Big Lots has all Barbie dolls or playsets 'buy one get one half off'.
  I have also been plowing through with the Ebay. At the moment we can't move for packed auction items, but it was nice to see a stack of them go out the door to the post office the other day.I know I have a house under here somewhere.

December Doll Reading: The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden

 Throughout December I'll be suggesting some nice doll books to read with your children. First up is The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden.

This is the version I have. The pictures are only coloured in green and red.

 Rumer Godden wrote several children's books with doll characters, including "Miss Happiness and Miss Flower", about a pair of Japanese dolls, and the sequel "Little Plum",and  "Impunity Jane: The Story of a Pocket Doll".She also wrote many books for adults.
  The Story of Holly and Ivy was a book I had as a kid. It became one of Ivy's favourites because one of the characters had her name, so we read it every year for years. Still do sometimes.It was originally published in 1958, but I believe it's still in print. You can even get it for your Kindle!

This is a more modern edition.

   It's a very sweet book. The first sentence is a very good description of the story: "This is a story about wishing. It is also a story about a doll and a little girl."Set at Christmas time, it follows the story of an orphan named Ivy.When all the other children at Ivy's orphanage are taken in by families for Christmas and the last staff member must leave to take care of a sick relative,Ivy is sent to the babies orphan home. Stubborn Ivy insists that she is not a 'baby', and sets out to find the grandparents she is certain must be out there waiting for her. She gets off the train, only to find herself alone in a strange town, with no money and night quickly falling.It's also the story of Holly, a doll who has only just been unpacked for sale on Christmas eve. Holly is afraid she won't be sold in time for Christmas. The other toys warn her that with her red and green outfit, she is considered "a Christmas doll", and Christmas dolls will be returned to storage when the holiday is over, to wait out a long and lonely year in the dark.As for the wishing, Ivy wishes for the beautiful doll in the window,and a home and someone to love her. In spite of the warning that a child's hands are rough, Holly wishes for 'her' little girl, who will love her and muss her clothes in an embrace. Of course, we know they will end up together, and maybe Ivy will find the grand parents she's looking for. At least, we hope so. So many times it's so close, and yet so far that we're on the edge of the page, so to speak. The story is well  written.When Ivy falls asleep in a bakery shed and wakes up to find the shed has cooled in the night, we can almost feel how cold and stiff her legs have become. The ending always has me crying happy tears, which has always prompted Ivy to laugh at me. (Such an insensitive child for someone who cries at the drop of a hat to have had!)
It's a fairly short chapter book and can be read in one sitting if your kids are patient. (And so are you!) If not, you could surely do it in a couple of readings. Young kids can read it themselves.Age recommendations are all over the place on this book.The younger scale is for having it read to them obviously, but I've seen 4-8, 5-10, and up to age 12.As usual, you know your child and what they can understand, and what they'll put up with. (The story might be a bit slow moving and serious for some very young children to stay interested in.On the other hand, the characters of talking toys,and a villan that's an evil owl might do the trick!)

And even more recent.

 The book was made into an animated tv special called "The Wish that Changed Christmas" in 1991. The tv show isn't nearly as mystical (Was that toy owl really alive?) or beautiful as the book, but it's nice. I know it was released on video, but I don't know about DVD.

 It can also be viewed on YouTube. But read the book instead. And if you happen to cry at the end, well, maybe your kids won't make fun of you.

My Christmas list is ready, if anyone's interested...

  Ok, It's December now. I feel it's finally ok to put that mental Christmas list that's been living in my head for months into print!
  Apart from that DVD recorder (which is VERY doubtful), and the black socks (which are possible.), I also have ** SURPRISE!** quite a few dolls on my list! Here are my top doll wants for this Christmas:

  This Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse Midge. If her bangs aren't looking screwy, she's so pretty. But even more than Midge, I want...

Life in the Dreamhouse Raquelle. She is so cool! I love that smirk! And Smirky Raquelle is articulated too.And that's the one I want. It has to be the smirky one. Not the one with the regular face.
  I also love the Bratzillaz Meygana dolls. I have had the first one for a while, but they just keep coming out with more. I like them all, but this one has glasses!

I seem to have a thing for dolls in glasses. I know for a fact that this one is already in Santa Ken's bag, because I put her in the cart myself when I found her clearanced at Meijers last week! Actually, I went looking for her since this particular Meijer was the only one I knew of that still carried her. Then I panicked because the entire line was GONE. I was desperately looking at the clearance shelves to no avail, when a Meijer worker walked up and placed her on the shelf right in front of me.She was the only doll of the entire line left in the store and the guy sat her on the shelf right in front of my face. That was my excuse to Ken that she was obviously MEANT to come home with me. He insists I wait until Christmas though, so she disappeared the minute we got home. I just hope he doesn't do something he frequently does, and lose her in his computer room and/or forget to give her to me.
  I also want the China Girl from Oz the Great and Powerful.

I like the tiny one, and the large, limited edition one is amazingly accurate but too expensive. But I have actually found the 14" regular line one in stores.
  And Tonner still has Maudlynne Macabre on sale for $34.99, although not with the extra 20% they had after Thanksgiving. Just saying...

  And in the category of 'dolls I will never own because they cost too much', there's always Amelia Thimble's friend Hamish.

Amelia is nice too, and I wouldn't turn her down if I were gifted with her, but Hamish is so cute. I love little boy dolls.

And the amazing R.John Wright Red Queen.

Again,I wouldn't turn down any R. John Wright dolls, but that Red Queen is wonderful! I've seen her a couple of times at the BIG doll show, and she is so, so...AMAZING. That's the only word for her. And of course, I collect Alice stuff.
  Back to more affordable things. Ken, if you're reading this, (and I know you're not.), I still want a vinyl Diana Effner Willow.  They turn up on Ebay at affordable prices occasionally, and I'd be willing to sell my porcelain Willow if I got one...Ken! Are you reading?!
  And I really like the Journey Girls Kelsey doll, available at Toys R Us Ken.

This one, with the sweater.
  I like a lot of variety in my doll collection.
  I have only just discovered that Barbie has twin siblings again, and one of them is a boy! Check this out!

Not only is he a boy, he wears GLASSES! What was I just saying?! Apparently even the dog wears glasses! I'll have to see them in person first to be sure I want them, but they look cute. And toy companies make so few boy dolls. The World kids have very few male friends and most of them bear a great resemblance to Harry Potter characters! Check this out Emma! Emma collected Stacie dolls when she was little because Emma the doll was a Stacie. I even had to get her one of these new Stacies when they started them a couple of years ago. She would definately have had this set!(Her 'Dolltown' was so desperate for male characters that she resorted to a Toy Story Woody Burger King doll, a Pee Wee Herman action figure, (He was the town trouble maker and led Woody, Snow White's son, astray many times,), and a figural Arthur (As in the aardvark from the children's books.) flashlight.She did eventually get a Todd and all those Harry Potter dolls, but for most of her childhood Woody, Pee Wee, and Arthur were it.
  And ok, I need new Beatles socks too.

 They're more sensible gifts, right? I mean, they are socks.