The Twelve Days of Tammy World, Day Four: Nativities, Big and Small, and a New Christmas Sweater

   It's been a long year in one way. In another way, it's flown by. Living in our house seems ages ago. But I also can't believe we've been away so long. It helps a little having some things from home. I was afraid my nativity, the one that sat n our TV every year when I was a kid, would get damaged with things being thrown around in our bedroom. (And things have been thrown around. I have found things that were on the attic stairs on my vanity! Second hand books from the landing were thrown in my bed! I suppose they were needing to clear up the landing, but it seems a weird place for some of the stuff.) So I had Ken bring it to me, along with the Christmas stockings I had to wash, and the box they were kept in. I have been keeping it in that box all year, (After cleaning it. Everything in our room has a nasty feeling soot coating.) I got it out recently.

 And Tammy World got out her nativity. 

 It's a mini version of mine.

It's missing the shepherd and the sheep from the left. But then, mine's missing the star and part of a Christmas tree from the roof. That's okay. I have a couple of unbroken ones in their original boxes at home.

  There are a couple of versions of this nativity. Some have stars at the top, which I'm pretty sure ours did, and some, like Tammy's, have an angel.  

Both are made by Shiny Brite, famous for their Christmas balls.

Mine. Only mine says Shiny Brite on the back.

Both have a hole in the back so they can be hooked to a light string. 

Ours was never lit though. As I said, it always sat on top of our TV. You can't sit anything on top of the TVs these days!

  Tammy's is a lot bigger in comparison to her than mine is to me. That's okay. We'll pretend it's one of those big ones a kid could almost get inside, like Ken's dad and stepmom had. She's got the tiny one I showed you on Day Two to put on their TV!

Mine does look nice with some light shining in. I put some tiny lights around it. I need a really tiny light for Tammy's!

  I know my poor little nativity is broken, but I still like to see it every Christmas.

  Tammy also wanted to show off her new Christmas sweater. 

Her favourite part is that the lights go all the way down both sleeves.

  I got it last year, I think. It was a Christmas ornament. The bad thing about trying to get Christmas ornament sweater on a doll is, the neck doesn't always stretch. You can't get their heads through! Such was the case with this sweater. Tammy took it with her to my sister's house, intending to wear it for our trip to Malabar Farm. That's when I found out she couldn't get her head through it. I had to cut it up the back. Lucky we were at my sister's, because she appropriated it, and stitched the edges of the cut so they wouldn't unravel. I still need to put snaps or hook and eye closures on it though.

  That's Day four of the Twelve Days of Tammy World. We'll see what she gets up to tomorrow.

It's Sweater Season Once Again! Shopping for Doll Sized Sweaters

   I hope everybody who celebrates it had a good Thanksgiving Thursday. We celebrated with the kids and my sister. 

  Today it's snowing here in Ohio. That makes it a good day to talk about this year's crop of doll sized sweater ornaments. 

  Target has four different sweater ornaments this year. I wasn't going to let them get away this year, so I nabbed them a couple of weeks ago. I chose these two.

The other two were a white sweater with an actual wreath glued to the chest, (making it impossible to just remove it and have a regular sweater.), and a red sweater with cable knit sleeves and a plaid reindeer on the chest. 

  The sweaters are only lightly glued to the teddy bear hangers they come on, and are easily removed.

  They fit Barbie sized dolls very well, as you can see on Made to Move here.

  Paul McCartney volunteered to pose in the other sweater.

He says it makes him think of a Wonderful Christmastime...

   He's 1/6 scale, and the sleeves are slightly short on him. But I think he has arms that are slightly longer than a Ken type doll. He was much more easy to get the sweater on though, because his hands are removeable! 

All the sweaters are $3.00, just like last year, and are available at your local Target store, or at  Target.com, HERE.

  World Market has sweater ornaments too. As usual though, they are made of very thick, rough yarn, and make for some awkwardly chunky sweaters. They are also a larger scale, and might fit a doll the size of Tonner's Marley/Patience/Agnes Dreary, but definitely not a 1/6 scale doll. They have several different types and a couple of sizes,(both as I described). You can find them at World Market, where there were more styles than I see on their website, and online HERE.

  Christopher and Banks has sweater ornaments again this year. I haven't seen them in person, but I have seen them in previous years. Their sweaters are more expensive than the previous two places I mentioned, but you get what you pay for. The C&B sweaters are made of a finer yarn, and so look way more natural on a doll. They are described as 3 1/2" in length and 3" in height. Huh? Isn't that the same thing in this case? I assume they are like the previous years' sweaters, which were 1/6 scale, or 'Barbie sized'. This year they have six styles. They are normally priced at $7.95, but at the moment they are 30% off if you buy them on line. You can find them at your local Christopher and Banks store, or online HERE.   

  Michael's craft store has Santa and Mrs. Santa jacket ornaments. They are described as measuring at 6.5 and 6 inches. I don't know if they are glued together/closed/on the hanger, or are even 'wearable' but they are cute, and would look cute hanging in a Christmas diorama at least. They sound like they'd fit a male 1/6 scale doll or large action figure of similar or slightly larger size. Unfortunately they are sold out online, so head to your local Michael's store. 

  Michael's also has a really cute vintage style radio ornament that plays a Christmas song. It's described as 4.75 inches. It's an online exclusive. You can fin d the teal one HERE. You can find the pink one HERE.

  Tito's Vodka has a doll sized sweater that comes free with their vodka in some stores. You can also get it online HERE. I saw the sweaters on the way home from Georgia, and they're super nice quality. They will fit a 1/6 'Barbie scale' female doll, but the arms might be too narrow for a male doll. The sweater will be a bit long on a female, but it will look fine. Actually, as I recall, with the last Tito's sweaters I got, they were all relatively 1/6 scale, but were all different sizes and lengths! Some had longer arms and some were shorter in length, so some fit a male better, and some a female. You'd better have a the doll you want it to fit with you and choose accordingly.

  That's it for this year's sweater crop. If you know of any others, please leave the information in the comments. 

My Birthday Gifts at Last!

  Well, Ivy is now home safe and sound. She was supposed to come home before the 20th,and she had planned to come home on the 18th. Then the governor closed all schools and colleges,and she was told she had to be out on Monday,the 16th. We had to rent a van to get all her stuff home in one shot. She brought home an entire houseful of stuff she had in her dorm room,and she left her bike and fridge at the school! Emma went to college in San Fransisco,so she lived on two suitcases. How in the world does Ivy  have or need so much just because she can put her stuff in a car and have it driven home? But at least we are all home now and ready to wait it out. Well,not literally in Ken's case. Ken is a waiter, and all restaurants have been closed except for carry outs. So we'll see how everything goes as far as money. Luckily someone just bought most of my extra Mini Brands, so that's a little help since we'll have no money coming in,or,at least, very little,since Ken might be able to get about half his average income in unemployment. So don't forget to check out the sales page,which you can find a link to in the upper right corner of this page,and buy something already!
  I promised to show you my birthday presents. I'll start today with this stuff.
  First of all, I have to say that Ken started spoiling me at the beginning of the month with a dozen roses. Now we know he shouldn't have spent so much money on me,as we're going to be needing it now.
  I went to an antique store in February and picked out a couple of small things Ken bought for me.

Dolly World is there for scale,but I couldn't get her and the things in focus at the same time.

I'm guessing they're salt dips, but the one on the left makes a good planter or something,and the one on the right looks like a soup tureen to me. I can imagine it with a ladle in it. I may have to make one.

  You can see Dolly is wearing one of my other gifts in the first picture.

  Ken and I spotted these Tito's Vodka sweaters ages ago, in Indiana, the last time we took Ivy back to college. They came on bottles of  vodka. I don't drink,so I didn't much care for the Vodka logo,but the sweater itself is great. It's soft, so it seems more to scale than a lot of the Christmas ornament sweaters and other mini sweaters. It lays properly. The sleeves are also more close fitting and a more appropriate length. That is, some of them are. Ken managed to scrounge up three for me,(without buying a single vodka!), and they're all a different size! Dolly got the smallest one.

These are the two larger ones. They aren't the same size either.

This Flavas guy was handy to model one of the larger ones.

There is a hood, with draw strings, that really draw the hood up. There's also a real front pocket. I forgot to pose somebody with their hands in it!

There are a lot of snaggy threads inside, so I put tape on Dolly's hands to get them through the sleeves without them grabbing threads. Plastic wrap works better.

Ken also gave me this sweater.

It's a Christmas ornament from World Market. He'd been saving it I guess.

The day before my birthday Ken and I went to a small town where there are three antique stores and a thrift store. I got these three butter pats that match my Friendly Village dishes. I already had one,and it's different!

  I'll show you what else I got that day in another post. The next day was my birthday. Emma joined us and we returned to go to the third antique store, which closed before we got to it the day before. I made a massive mini haul.

The vase and the fire extinguisher were still in their packages.

The fire extinguisher is probably going in the World's garage, if I ever get it made.

The tiny blue container is a souvenir from Germany,I think.

The vase is 1/12 scale. I also got this little ceramic container with a lid. I think it works for 1/6 scale.

No?

 Somebody had made this little candle wall sconce out of  a small latch. I took it apart, because what I saw was a door knob and scratch plate.

I'll need to put a bigger door knob on it though.

Plus I still got a candle out of it. And all for $1.

I got a little bag full of tiny road signs and traffic cones. They're probably model railroad things. But I thought they'd be great toys for somebody Gareth World's size.

There were a few broken signs in the bag,but not enough bases to go with them. 

I'm not sure they can be fixed either. That's a very tiny area to glue.
  Emma spotted these tiny Beatrix Potter books.

There are seven in all.

They were $20,which I thought was too much. But then Emma pointed out that they were all printed inside! They're real tiny books!

Being printed makes all the difference to me! I still didn't want to spend that much, since I didn't know what else Ken had already bought for me. But Emma said I HAD to,and Ken said get them. They made me buy them.

I couldn't resist these two little guys, who were still in their packaging.

  That's it for the miniature haul. As for my other presents, Emma got me this set of Little People Beatles! I actually had these in my Ebay 'watching' as ideas for Ken at Christmas, but she had already bought them ages ago,when they first came out.

Emma also got me cool socks and a really nice cozy sweater,and Ken got me an antique glass like my grama gave me when I was a kid, (My original got broken years ago.), the latest Kate Bush rarities CD,and a couple of things you'll see in an upcoming post.
  This wasn't for my birthday,but I wanted to show you this little shelf unit I got at the thrift store a few weeks ago.

It's like a tiny Ikea shelf. I know Ikea does sell doll sized ones,but I thought they were in colours.

  So I'll see you soon with my other gifts.

Sweater Season Again...and Lantern Season Too

  Here it is December already! I know people always say it, but where has the year gone?! Time really does move a lot faster the older you get, which, is really unfair when you think about it. Not only does it mean the few years you have left go even quicker, but it means those miserable teenage years lasted FOREVER! I could have done with those going at a faster clip,believe me.
  Just an update,I found my original Mattel Hogwarts Heroes Harry Potter dolls and I have updated my post on the new Ron doll with a few comparison photos.
  Anyway,I wanted to show you a couple of things that are out this holiday season that might be usable with your dolls.
  The first is this 'ugly sweater' I got at Target.

It was $3.00

It's a Christmas ornament. It came on a little metal hanger, and was thankfully only attached with a couple of stitches.
  It fits Barbies perfectly.

Like Tammy's mom, Dolly World. She has the older Barbie body, but she's looking to upgrade.

Most of the time the sweater ornaments are too bulky,too short or too long in the sleeves

Perfect!

Dolly liked the sweater so much,she wore it when she went Christmas shopping with Tammy.

You know how hard it is to get everyone in a photo looking at the same time.

Of course, when there are only two of them it should be easier!

Oh brother...

Forget it.

The sweater is nice though. Tammy's is from the 'Wizard Sweets Hermione Collection'.

Another find I made was this lantern from Dollar Tree. They have been sold out for a while, since I first spotted them. But when I was there the other day they had gotten them in again. I had an idea, so I nabbed one.

It looked like the bottom was painted cardboard.

I thought I could remove the bottom and put a battery powered tea light inside. However it wasn't. It was plastic.So what I thought was going to be an easy removal...wasn't. The joint in the middle was at least a starting point. I used a wire bending tool to pry it open.

I thought I could just snap pieces out, but the plastic was too bendy.

 

Then I also discovered that the whole lantern was easy to pop apart. I didn't want to do that though,in case the whole thing split. I think it might have been better had I done that. In the end it fell apart anyway.

 

I think the space inside is big enough for one of those battery tea lights,especially the smaller ones. However, I couldn't remember where I put the one I had out JUST THE OTHER DAY! So I have faked it up for you to show you how it looks lit up.

 I wanted to show you the lantern with a doll for size comparison.
 

   So there you go. In the coming weeks we'll look at vintage Christmas photos and toys, and there will be a review of the latest from Maru and Friends.