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.

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.