Thrft Store Finds Part 3: Madeline Case and Miss Clavel

  If you have been reading the last few days you'll know I made quite a thrift store haul about a week ago. I showed you the Woodseys and Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Today, in part 3, I'm showing you this Madeline Doll Case and the goodies inside, which I got at Goodwill for only $2.00.

The case is made to look like the 'old house in Paris'. The front shows Madeline and friends looking out the windows.

The case is from 1999, and was made for the 8" Eden Madeline dolls.

The back shows Madeline's friend Pepito upstairs, and more girls in the downstairs window and hiding behind a tree.

There's Miss Clavel in the downstairs side window.That latch is REALLY sturdy.

Miss Clavel was inside the case.The ribbons on the right are for storing two dolls.When the case is opened there is a little table printed on the left. It's a flap, which opens, and on the other side...

...is a vanity.

In addition to Miss Clavel there were several items of clothing and a couple of hangers stuffed in the two storage drawers. The yellow smock and blue beret are from a Madeline artists outfit.

There is supposed to be a bar on the left for hanging clothes, but this one is missing. It can be replaced with a  tiny wooden dowel.

There were also 5 socks, a pair of cozy slippers and matching robe,a pink and white striped shirt and bibbed overalls, a red plaid shirt,a school dress, and a yellow Madeline and friends hat.

You may have seen Tammy World wearing the same kind of red plaid shirt in my First Day of School photostory.

I love the Madeline dollhouse,(You can see mine HERE.), but the dolls never interested me much. There are some really cute clothes made for them though, and they fit the original style Barbie sister Stacey doll pretty well...

 Like this Stacey given to me recently by my doll friend Connie. Thanks Connie!The overalls are a little short, but if they were rolled up they would look like they were made that way.(Or Stacey would look like she should be in the 80's band Dexy's Midnight Runners...)

Come on Eileen...

She hasn't had a trip to the hairdressers yet, Her bangs are a little matted.

They also fit the When I Read I Dream dolls like Tammy 'Fern' World. That's because those dolls were made with the Stacey body. That's what interested me. I wanted the overalls and robe and slipper set.
  Miss Clavel is wearing her habit, but not her wimple.

She looks a little disheveled, but then, taking care of all those kids must be hard on the nerves.

She has quite an elaborate bun.

She wears some clod hoppers.

Maybe they aren't her shoes.They fit very loosely. They're really floppy on her feet. Is she missing some socks or tights?
  Another question: Her legs seem to be molded in a bent position.

Floppy shoes.

Bent knees. I thought at first she had bendable legs and they were in the slightly bent position. They aren't bendable though.

It makes her look a little bow legged. Is she meant to be this way?
  I still have more to show from that week's thrift store hauls. Keep watching...

More Thrift Store Finds: Kenner Strawberry Shortcake, Friends, and Enemies

  As I mentioned last time, I made quite a few good finds at thrift stores last week. Today I'm showing you this lot of vintage Strawberry Shortcake dolls.

 I got these at Salvation Army. The bag included 8 dolls and was $7.99. Not bad.They all had shoes and hats too, (Except the boy, who is missing one shoe.),which is not usually the case when I find them. All but Strawberry still had their hats attached to their heads with those plastic things.
   Strawberry Shortcake was originally a character created in 1977 for greeting cards made by American Greetings. She was created by Murial Fahrion, who was an illustrator in the Juvenile and Humorous card department.She designed 33 characters in all. Later characters were designed by others. The first doll was a rag doll designed by Murial Fahrion, and created by her sister Susan Trentel. Unless you've been living in a hole you'll know that there has been a massive amount of Strawberry Shortcake stuff produced over the years. The licensing  has traded hands many times, and all sorts of products, including many different sized dolls, have been made by Kenner, Hasbro, Playmates,and Bandai.The dolls I'm showing you today are 5" tall,and were made by Kenner starting in 1979. They came scented with a scent that matched their character name. The dolls have usually lost their scents over the years.These are all super clean and still have their scent.
  I'm not up on my characters. I know Strawberry herself...

She has the original flat hands. The rest of the dolls have the curved hands

...and the Purple Pieman, (with his pet. I've seen it called Berry Bird and Cackle. Which is right?) and Sour Grapes, (and her snake Dregs), are the villains...

He even has his spoon.

...and the boy is Huckleberry Pie.

The others I had to do a little research on. From left to right: Lime Chiffon, Raspberry Tart,
Lemon Meringue, and Angel Cake. Raspberry Tart and Angel Cake are wearing each others shoes.

There were even three combs. I have never come across the combs, even though I find dolls now and then.

And some extras. The cape came in a carded fashion set.

 The blue hat belongs to Blueberry Muffin.

And don't worry about the little socks. The other one was hiding under Huckleberry Pie.I think they belong to Lem n' Ada or Apple Dumplin'. But where does the nightgown (?) come from, and what is the yellow thing? A sock?
I like the newer regular size Strawberry Shortcake dolls from Playmates and the mini dolls by Hasbro. I have several of each of those lines.I found one of the mini dolls with 'real' hair at Goodwill last week too.

Luckily I have some spare dresses for the mini dolls that I got at a yard sale a couple of years ago, because these dolls are always naked when I find them.
  I was never interested in the original generation Strawberry Shortcake dolls though. Maybe it's at least partially because they came out when I was going through the "I'm a grown up and no longer interested in toys" phase. (That didn't last!) But like most collectors I don't leave something of value behind when I find it. (I'm not stupid, after all!) So these dolls will be heading out when I get around to listing them.

Diet Week 3 Results: Better Than Nothing, Which is What I Will Now Be Eating at Red Lobster

  Well today is the first day of week 4 of my diet. I was really undisciplined last week. I went off the plan a bit, and then found I was going to be seeing my friend Lori for lunch the next day. Lunch out is hard to keep track of anyway. Lori chose where we ate, and it ended up being Red Lobster. Being a vegetarian I didn't mind doing Red Lobster because they have a delicious Bar Harbour Salad with dried cranberries,nuts, and blueberry vinaigrette dressing, plus those great Cheddar Bay Biscuits.(And for the record,vegetarians DO NOT just eat salad! I usually want something more...chewy than a salad, but I love the Bar Harbor salad.) Well, correction: Red Lobster HAD a Bar Harbor Salad! They got rid of it! I had to tell the employee who told me that that they needed to tell somebody in charge that they had just gotten rid of the only thing that brought me, as a vegetarian, into their restaurant. (The only other thing on the menu I can eat is the mozzarella sticks,which are good, but not a meal. Occasionally I have the cheese sticks and the salad if I'm really hungry.) That's not a big deal to them I'm sure, since they are a seafood restaurant and they don't cater  to vegetarians. But I eat out with friends and a husband who aren't  vegetarian, and we won't eat there if I can't actually eat. The only salad on the menu now is a Caesar salad, which has anchovies in the dressing. The waitress did offer me a salad at no charge, and it wasn't on the menu, (and it should be so people will know.), but they have three salad dressings besides the Caesar, and one of them is the blueberry vinaigrette. So I had a tiny plain salad which consisted of just iceberg lettuce,about three cherry tomatoes, and one circle of onion, as well as the biscuits and mozzarella sticks.I tried not to be too bad and took most of the cheese sticks home to Ivy.
  So anyway, I lapsed that day, but I tried not to be too bad. But still, last week I only managed to lose one pound. If I'm very strict I lose 2 and a half pounds a week. That means I should be at 7 and a half pounds so far. Instead, due to my back sliding my weight has gone down and up and down. I am at 5.4 pounds for three weeks instead of the 7 and a half. I need to be more disciplined, and get some exercise. Emma wants to start exercising with me, and maybe we can get Ivy to do it too. The problem is finding a time in her busy work schedule. I am horrible at making myself exercise. I just hate it. If I could jump outside on my bike I would be ok, but regular exercising is not my thing. (Of course, I need to get my flat fixed before I could do that too!) But that's where the diet is this week. Having to tell on myself here hasn't seemed to make me behave better. It just comes down to not wanting to be fat more than I want to eat...much of anything really! I was good today. One day at a time...   

Latest Thrift Store Finds: Fisher Price Woodseys

  To begin with, I have to say welcome to my two newest followers, Mommy and Me Dolls and Jenkypoo. Thanks for joining us!   
  Last week I made several good finds at thrift stores here in town. Since there were so many good things, I'll be showing them to you over the next week. First up is this Fisher Price Woodseys playset and family.

Their house is a log. It's a padded nylon type fabric with hard rubber ends and handle.

A closer look at the furniture.

The Woodseys came out in the late 70's and early 80's.

That would have been Unsentimental Niece's childhood. I bought her a lot of toys, and would definitely have bought these if I had seen them. I love this stuff! It's so cute. And I did always buy her stuff I liked!  (Fortunately we had a very similar taste in toys!)

  The playsets came with Woodsey books too. I'm not sure if they were sold separately.

 

Borrowed from the internet. I'll be glad to remove it if asked.

  The books were illustrated by Cindy Szekeres, who has written and  illustrated many popular children's books. She's well known for her illustrations of anthropomorphic animals,(Animals with human characteristics.), especially mice.

On the left is the little boy, on the right is the Dad. One end of their log house has a window.

And the other side has the door and a small window. The Mom is in red and has a molded plastic mob cap. The guy in green is Uncle Filbert. (A 'filbert' is a hazel nut, for those of you who don't know. Now you get the joke. He's a squirrel see, and...oh, you know.)Uncle Filbert runs the airport.

Or maybe he's just a pilot.

The door is supposed to close tight, but this one's fit is a little off and the door won't stay shut.

This is the outside of the fold down side. I love the artwork.

The inside is printed to look like a room.

Velcro keeps the front flap closed so the house can be used as a carry case with storage for the whole family and their furniture.

The handle on top is made to look like part of the log, complete with a cut off branch.

  The triangular thingy is the airport.

It has one of those airport windsock things on top.

The side.

Inside tools and a workbench are printed on the fabric.

The Woodsey logo on the bottom of the airport.

A closer look at the windsock.

  There was also a plane made of the same squishy padded fabric.
  The Blue Bird is V. B. (For 'Very Blue'.) Bird.

He's the mailman apparently.

 

This is from the internet. I'll remove it if asked.

  I would have wanted this set when I was a kid. I totally love the little log house. I always had a soft spot for books about mice and other tiny animals wearing clothes and making tiny miniature houses and furniture.
  There was also a Woodsey store playset and some other characters.
  Later this week we'll see some more thrift store finds I made recently.