Auction Fever (Well, auction nausea anyway.)

  I wrote this last night, but then was too tired to take the pictures, so it's outdated by a day.
  Well, here I am again at the end of another auction day. I'm absolutely exhausted from watching other people win stuff. Ok, I did win a few things, which is the reason for my other malady: auction blahs. When I spend money I get nauseated! I am going to have to move some of this stuff to justify going, or else I'll just have to crawl into a hole and die.(Which is entirely out of the question.)
  There were some beautiful Stacey dolls today, none of which I won. There was a really nice Todd with blushy cheeks, which I also did not win. None of the Skippers absolutely bowled me over, but there was a very pretty brunette Skooter: which also did not come home with me. Ditto the Father of the Bride Elizabeth Taylor. (Crossed fingers on my absentee bid for Elizabeth as Cleopatra tomorrow.) I almost did better at Goodwill on the way home from visiting my Dad last night.

  I swear this isn't my fault. The computer's acting weird. Not even my computer illiteracy is to blame for this one.

 I got this bunch of dolls, including a vintage Allan,with shoes,this Tangled doll in all her original stuff, Maxie,and these other more boring ladies, all for $3!

  Today I did score a Gene I've been wanting though!Creme De Cassis is mine at last.

   Thanks Ken for the early anniversary present!
   I also got a great Skipper/Barbie case.

  I have been needing some more cases to keep my stuff in. Missed out on the Ken and Midge cases though.
  Nice graphics on this Barbie and Skipper electric drawing set.

  I love dolls of real people that really look like them. Even people I don't especially like. (That's why I have two different Frank Sinatra dolls and a Clark Gable.)

I loved all the little guitars on the other Elvis'...Elvis's....Elvi...but this was the only one I could afford.

  Now here's my question. If Barbie loves Frankie AND Elvis, when is she going to love The Beatles?! Now that one I would buy new! (Well, probably not, because it would be 5 dolls and cost a fortune. But I would stalk it until it became affordable.) If they could make a set of Beatles dolls with head sculpts as good as the Frank Sinatra and Elvis dolls they've done that would be amazing! And they have to be next. (And where does it stop? I don't see anybody else that is on a popularity par with those guys.For the 70's, Barbie loves...? Kiss? The Bay City Rollers? The Bee Gees? See, it just doesn't work. For one thing, I don't think Mattel would let her love Kiss.
  Ken (Husband, not the doll.)loves Coca Cola stuff. He never buys himself anything though. It took me saying that I really like this Coke Barbie for him to make a winning bid.

We had already lost out on a whole box full of Coke Barbies, the Coca Cola soda fountain, (So Cool!!),and Coca Cola Ken. (I said, of all things, we should have a Coca Cola Ken. Other than Ken that is. Actually, Ken can't be Coca Cola Ken anymore, because he drank SOOO much pop that he now has mild diabetes. He used to drink almost nothing but pop, and he's a thirsty guy, so that was A LOT of pop. The guy could drink a whole 2 litre bottle in seconds, and frequently did. Drinking a highly caffinated beverage probably added to his thirst, which made him drink more pop, which made him thirstier...well, you get the idea. These days he is a good boy, (well, a better boy.) who drinks mostly water.
  I got a few stray pieces of vintage stuff, including the rare Sears exclusive Red Fantastic, which is actually not red.

  After finding the Tammy house, last weekend---remember I said I'd never seen it in person? Well, there it was in tomorrow's auction stuff. And better than mine. It had stuff inside and parts of it looked like they'd never been put together. Oh well. Mine was only $5....
  And because the auctioneer was begging me to take it I bought a Barbie Dreamhouse. Unfortunately not the second one. We had that one as kids and I'd love to have that one. Anybody want a Dreamhouse? 

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.

    

Yay! Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen at last!

  Today I got something I have wanted for ages! Connie,a doll loving friend of mine was offered a Deluxe Reading kitchen by the maintenance man in her apartment building when he came in to do some work and spotted all her dolls. Connie doesn't collect Barbie (She has a few, but her love lies with Nancy Ann Storybook dolls and Mary Hoyers.),so she called me  to see if I was interested. When she started to describe it I knew exactly what she was talking about! The Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen! I have wanted one of these for years. In the early 90's, when we were doing doll and toy shows, we did the first Barbie show by the Paducah, Kentucky Barbie club. After the show all of the dealers were invited to go to one of the members home to see her Barbie collection. I can't remember her name at the moment, (I'm thinking her first name was Rosella.),and as she was pretty old at the time she is probably no longer with us. But she was known as The Barbie Lady, and there was even an article about her in Barbie Bazaar Magazine once. Her house was literally wall to wall Barbie dolls. She had a finished basement where they obviously hung out and relaxed, and that's where she kept her vintage Barbies. Her husband had made her an enormous doll house, in which she had a Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen. I fell in love with it then and have wanted one ever since. It isn't really my favourite era, (1930's and 40's.),but it's totally 1960's, which is when I grew up, so I do have a soft spot for it. Well, good things come to those who wait. Yesterday I had a look at the kitchen and made the guy an offer. This morning Connie called me to tell me he had turned me down, but this afternoon she called back to say he had changed his mind!

 
  The kitchen looks pretty good, and will will improve with a little cleaning up. 

That's not exactly what I had in mind. Get busy guys.

  

That's more like it.

 

Skooter wipes down a chair...

  ...while Fluff gathers up the dishes for washing.

 

 
Sample Skipper scrubs out the freezer.

  Fashion Queen tries to get those yellow marks off the table.

 
Color Magic Skipper has a strange idea of 'helping clean up'.

Ok, everybody, you've earned a break. Stop and have a drink.

 Any suggestion of food or drink of course, attracts guys. Typically, Allan and Ricky show up to scope out the fridge. It's a little early. No food has arrived yet. There is milk and pop though. And ice.

  Conscientious Sample Skipper and Fashion Queen continue to work and get those dishes done.

The Dream Kitchen isn't in perfect shape, but it's not too bad, other than the dishwasher having a broken counter top.(All the pieces are here, so I may be able to repair it somewhat.)

  It also came with loads of dishes and stuff, including the the dish draining rack,salt and pepper shakers,the fridge shelves and a crisper drawer, and both cute little ice cube trays WITH the ice!  There were also some actual Mattel Barbie utensils to a couple of vintage sets.

  I stopped at  Goodwill quickly today to get change to pay for the Dream Kitchen and found a brand new roll of black and white checked Contact paper that makes a perfect kitchen floor. (And another Moxie Girl...with feet this time!)
   There are a couple of 70's pieces I'll get rid of to help defray the cost of the Dream Kitchen, because without doing that I couldn't really afford to spend money on myself right now.  Now that I think about it, with all the bad things that have been happening to me and around me, (My best friend has been having heart trouble lately, and my son cut his face and had to have stitches, and today I sliced my finger open on some broken glass.), this has been plopped in my lap to remind me that,while it doesn't make up for the heart problems or the facial scar, it at least means that not everything coming my way is bad. At this point a little hope means a lot!