Doll-A-Day 304: Wedding Day Piggy

  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. It was a family day around here, as usual. Unfortunately my son had to work.Since he works nights, that meant he slept through the day,so we didn't see him then.Then he had to go to work early, so we still didn't get him.Those of you who have been with the blog for a while will know that my dad passed away in May. As I was eating my pumpkin pie I thought of Dad, who loved pumpkin pie, and how I don't get to share it with him this year.I'm sure Christmas this year will be pretty hard too. I think of Dad all the time, but almost always I can enjoy the memory and go on with the day. The holidays may make it harder, maybe just because they mark a passage of time and stir memories of particular days. My dad was not a holiday person, so holidays don't specifically remind me of Dad. But I remember taking Dad pie in the nursing home, or holidays spent with him, and then I have to realize that's all over. I won't be looking for the perfect Dad gift anymore. But, as with my mom, I know there will be times I'll see something and think how Dad would have liked that, and I can't give it to him.
  Emma and I did some Christmas shopping today. I was thinking I didn't know what to get for anybody, and it's just that I haven't been shopping! I saw all sorts of things I wanted to get for somebody.  Unfortunately, I also saw several things I want! I have been living in a hole the last few months and had no idea Hallmark has done a Planet of the Apes ornament this year! I'm hoping it's the first in a series!
   Anyway...
  Today's doll is this Wedding Day Piggy.

I was going to use her for my anniversary post in September, but I had misplaced her. Ken bought her for me at an auction right before our 25th wedding anniversary this year.(When I couldn't find her in time I instead posted the story of how I accidentally copied Kermit and Piggy's wedding cake topper from The Muppets Take Manhattan.)

She was made by Direct Connect in 1989.

She was one of three in a series of Miss Piggy Fantasy Dress Up dolls, sculpted by Cynthia Woodie.

The other two dolls in the series were High Fashion Piggy and Princess Piggy.

Piggy's full name was mentioned one time on The Muppet Show: It's Pigathius.(Of course, she may have been joking/lying...)

Piggy is about 11" tall.

She has six points of articulation: neck, shoulders, hips, and waist.

She wears her wedding dress and veil, white undies,painted on shoes and her trademark lavender gloves are also painted on.
  See you tomorrow for Skipper Saturday.

Doll-A-Day 237: Baby Miss Piggy

  Since I wasn't able to do the Miss Piggy bride doll the other day, I thought I'd go to the other end of the spectrum and show you Baby Miss Piggy.

Her trademark lavender gloves are white for some reason. The stitching is lavender though.??

She's from the line of Hasbro Softies, made in the 80's.

The baby Muppets were first seen in a daydream of Miss Piggy's in the movie The Muppets Take Manhatten in 1986. (The next time you see the clip,with the song "I'm Gonna Always Love You", make sure you watch for little Piggy's tapping foot seen under Rowlf's piano.)They were so cute and popular that the animated series Muppet Babies was created.

Awww. Makes me think of baby Ivy, and the way she kept her legs drawn up for ages. I always tell her she was like a little sack of sugar on my shoulder: no legs and all the weight in one little lump.

Unsentimental Niece loved The Muppet Babies when she was little, and so did my kids. I thought it was a great cartoon, inspiring kids to use their imaginations and engage in creative play.

 And of course the whole idea was just so cute. The 'real' baby Muppets in the movie were way cuter than the animated ones, but still. I always had to wonder though, where all their parents were, and why their 'Nanny' was a human. I thought it was a clever idea to include Kermit's nephew Robin as a tadpole in a bowl!
See you tomorrow for another doll.

Happy Anniversary to Us, and How I Stole Kermit and Piggy's Cake Topper

  Today's doll was going to be a Miss Piggy bride doll, but I can't locate her.The reason I chose Piggy for today was twofold: For one thing, Ken bought her for me at the recent auction we went to, as a gift for today, our anniversary.And that's the other reason I was going to use the bride Piggy today: She's a bride, and 25 years ago today, so was I!

How young we look! I was 27 and Ken was 26. He was the only man I ever went out with,which was just the way I wanted it. I didn't want to 'date', I just wanted to find that one person.

   Last year on our anniversary I told the story of how Ken and I became a couple. This year I have another story.
  I have always loved the Muppets. I grew up watching them on tv, long before there was even Sesame Street. I watched the tv show when I was in school, and saw all the movies when they came out. (Except somehow I missed seeing a couple at the theatre: Muppet Treasure Island, (No big loss.) and Muppets From Space, (Which I actually love.)) I got my mom to take me to see The Great Muppet Caper at the movies, where the scene where the Muppets climb a drainpipe to escape some watchdogs intent on shredding some felt prompted Mom to proclaim it, "The dumbest thing I ever paid money to see: a bunch of stuffed animals climbing up a drainpipe!" I thought it was hilarious. I saw The Muppets Take Manhattan in 1985. Years of Muppet movies were stored away in my brain.
  When I was planning my wedding in 1989 I looked through a lot of pictures of wedding cake toppers. The bakery promised they could recreate any cake topper I saw. I didn't find anything that was the 'perfect' cake topper. I liked various aspects of several toppers. Could we combine them, I asked, to come up with what I actually had in mind? Of course,they said. Just tell them what I wanted and they could do it, they said. So I described what I had in mind. The lady made the topper and I was very upset. It wasn't what I had in mind at all. I said I didn't want any tulle background. I want the arch to be heart shaped. I want driplets of pearls hanging down behind the bride and groom. So she wasn't happy, but she remade it. Finally I got what I wanted. Ken, being English, suggested what an English wedding cake topper should have. I think it was my friend Cheryl, who came over from England just before we got married, who brought us the  little silver horseshoes for our cake topper. So instead of wedding bells, we had horseshoes on our cake topper. I wanted them at the top of the arch, I said. So there they were, attached firmly above the heads of the bride and groom.
  Some time later,a year or so after my wedding, I am alone in our apartment and Ken is at work. I am simultaneously cleaning and watching The Muppets Take Manhattan on tv. I am running the vacuum I think, when I look at the tv. A big musical production number is happening on screen. The Muppets have finally gotten their play to Broadway, and the big finale is underway: Kermit and Miss Piggy's wedding. As I look up, the Swedish Chef turns around and sits the topper on their wedding cake...and my mouth drops open. At the commercial (because I'm taping!) I run the tape back...over and over again. I can't believe what I'm seeing. Seems those Muppet movies didn't just lay in my subconscious. They forced their way through into my wedding plans. What I was seeing was Kermit and Piggy's wedding cake topper, and it was IDENTICAL to the one I THOUGHT I had designed! (Other than theirs had Kermit and Piggy and ours had what was supposed to be me and Ken.)

The Swedish Chef puts the finishing touch on Kermit and Piggy's cake in The Muppets Take Manhattan.

 
And they had little silver wedding bells and I had little silver horseshoes.

Our wedding cake, with the topper I designed, (Ahem...). Note the little horseshoes. Kermit and Piggy had a more extravagant cake and topper than we did, but then, they have more money.

Kermit and Piggy's cake topper from The Muppets Take Manhattan. They have bells instead of horseshoes. It flashes past so quickly in the movie you hardly get to see it. It's almost impossible to find a picture of the thing,(and it doesn't show up well in my screen capture.) This one belongs to a lady named Ellen, otherwise known as eee1313. I have asked her permission to use it, and I hope she doesn't mind. She took this picture at the Center of Science and Industry in Chicago a few years ago, when they had an exhibit called The Fantastic World of Jim Henson. I believe the same exhibit was at our COSI too, but we didn't have a vehicle we could drive that far while it was there.

After I got finished being stunned I started to laugh. It still makes me laugh. It makes my youngest, Ivy, sigh and roll her eyes, (She's such a teenager!),"You copied Kermit and Miss Piggy's cake topper?!" Not intentionally!
  
   Now that I look at it, Piggy and I had similar dresses too...

Hers has more lace, mine's more satiny.I like her veil better! I wanted Ken to wear a mourning suit, like Kermit's!

Hey. A lot of wedding dresses looked like that in the 80's...