Diet? What diet? House Renovations, and Why I Think I Like Salvation Army More Than Goodwill Now

  I confess to having been really bad the last couple of weeks. Between Ken's birthday and Ken wanting to eat out for Valentine's Day, plus he bought me candy, it has been really hard. When I do my diet it has to be all or nothing: no giving in here and there. Ken can't understand that. (Mind you, it's all about food to him, so he can't understand how I can do the diet at all.) For some reason I am also having a really hard time sticking to my diet this time anyway. It didn't help that the battery is going out in my scale, so the numbers have been all over the place, even at the same weigh in! That's why I wanted a plain old scale, one with no electricity involved. Do you know how hard it is to find an affordable scale like that?! You practically have to buy one of those scales like doctors have---and most of them have electric scales now too! And of course, Ken, who loves gadgetry of all kinds, liked the electronic scale. Now he's realizing I had a point when I complained that the scale would continue to cost us because we'd have to keep buying batteries for it! I checked batteries last night, and they are $6 or $7! It's ridiculous! I just want to weigh myself!
  Anyway, I have gained back some of what I lost. I'm going to try to get back down to the 10 pound loss during the rest of this week and then on Monday I will have a new battery, and a new start on the diet.
  This week I am also starting on my first This Old House project in my list of projects. I'll be putting a new ceiling, walls, and flooring in my upstairs bathroom. I also bought tiles while they were on sale for 9 cents a piece. That's a projects for later though, and frankly, it scares me to death.The walls are bad enough. I think I might have to pull the old stuff off, (Has anybody alive today even heard of rubber asphalt?!) , and I'm afraid of what will happen to the plaster underneath if I do. On the other hand, if I don't, will the rubber asphalt start to come off after a while and take my new walls with it?! Or should I just remove the plaster too, to begin with? But then I have to put up dry wall. More expense and more stuff I know nothing about doing!
  I'm going to have a couple of doll posts up in the next few days. I made some more finds at Salvation Army last night. I'm beginning to like Salvation Army better than Goodwill these days. Salvation Army was so dark and kind of smelly too.And we used to be friendly with a lot of the staff at our Goodwill. Emma worked there, so we knew about everybody. That was  several years ago now, and the staff has almost all changed. I know a few that are still there, and some that have come since,but the current staff at Salvation Army are much friendlier. It's still kind of dark in there, and it still smells a bit musty, but I have had so many good finds there in the last year and a half or so. (Don't forget my 10 cent Barbie's New Dream House!) So stick around for the upcoming posts. If you liked the last Salvation Army Strawberry Shortcake find, you're going to love what's coming...

Anniversary Presents

  So Monday was our anniversary. One of my gifts to Ken was agreeing to eat out for lunch and dinner. After my lunch of a grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup and garlic mashed potatoes at Applebees I was ready to pop. I'm really only good for one decent sized meal a day, and he knows it. So when I ate a dinner of a salad,Parmesan asparagus, some bread,and about three little stuffed mushrooms for dinner I was really about to explode. Absolutely miserable. Ken wanted everybody to share a brownie sundae so we could all have at least a taste of dessert, but the girls were too full to have any, and I couldn't eat more than three small bites. You KNOW I was full when I leave a brownie behind! For a fat lady it doesn't take much to fill me up. I'm like a reverse Tardis. I'm bigger on the outside.
  Ken's gifts to me included this Merida.

  I had been hinting...ok. Outright saying that the Merida dolls were on sale for $5 at Meijers, (and then having to again explain, "The 'Brave' girl!") so he bought me one...and promptly left it out where I found it.So I actually had it early, but I didn't open it until the day had passed. I also wanted to compare this one to the Disney Store one I got in June. So I'll be posting a full review of her tomorrow.
  If you read this blog last week you'll remember that I left an absentee bid on an Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra doll. Well, I didn't win her. Neither did I win the box of 1920's German dollhouse dolls,or the 1930's doll. But I did win the box containing this girl.

Tessie Talk. Her shoes make her feet look invisible, but they are in fact black.

  She's not everybody's cup of tea, but I think she's so cute! She is, as her collar says, a Tessie Talk ventriloquist doll, made by Horsman. I've always had an infatuation with puppets and ventriloquist dummies anyway,and red haired dolls,and I love Tessie Talk. This is actually my third. They all have different original outfits, which makes me think there must have been a lot of combinations of hair and clothes available.My first has a brown  version of this girl's hair, and my second has long red hair. When I bought her it was in what I always call a 'country singer hairdo', since I grew up in the era when lady 'country and western' singers, as they were called then, had big hair. Like Loretta Lynn...

 ...and Dolly Parton...

Dolly seems to be a pretty nice lady, but that hair! Please! Can you imagine poor Tessie Talk with that hair?! That 'do came down as soon as I got home from the toy show!
    Ken also indulged my love of treasure hunting and we stopped at several thrift shops while we were in the Big City waiting for Emma to get off work and join us for dinner. I found these girls for .59 cents each!

Nancy Ann Storybook dolls. These are the later, plastic ones. They could do with a trip to the hairdresser, but they're pretty nice.

  Ken also bought me this pumpkin headed fellow made by  Gathered Traditions, and designed by  Joe Spencer.     .

There is a girl to match, and bigger size. This reminds me that I need to haul out the Halloween decorations soon. Until next time...

Moxie Teenz Wig

  Yesterday I broke down and bought a wig for my Moxie Teenz girl. (I hated to buy a wig for her in a store when I paid almost nothing for her at a yard sale or a thrift store. I was hoping to find a wig the way I found the doll. The wig cost me more than she did!) I have to say, she does look better with hair, but this is just about the worst wig I have ever seen for a doll.

  The hair is cheap looking and thin.

  The hair itself looks greasy and you can see the clear plastic wig cap through the hair!

 

Also,the wig won't stay on her head.
   There's no way a kid could play with this doll and keep the wig on. It would end up being very frustrating and in the end the doll would have to be bald because the wig wouldn't stay on during play. It would be a much better idea if the wig had a little nib that fits into a hole in the doll's head, like the Liv dolls.(Liv doll wigs are much better quality too.)   I don't think Liv wigs would fit on a Moxie Teenz even if I cut the nib off because they'd be too small, otherwise I'd try it.
    My Moxie Teenz girl has found that Barbie dresses fit her ok, even if they are a bit short. (She has chosen this one for the time being, but she's looking for something a little longer.)

  And she can put up with the wig if shes just sitting still so it doesn't fall off.

   However, there is still one problem:

  "What am I going to do about these?!"

  On another subject, I recently found an extra Little Missmatched Uptown Girl coat,purse, and sock at Goodwill. I am ruining the whole idea of the 'mismatched' look, but I was excited she could have matching socks! I got around to changing her sock a couple of days ago,in 90 plus degree weather, and when I did I found I couldn't get her boot back on.

   I think the boot is too warm and soft, so it won't slide up on her heel. Ivy suggested ,"Why don't you put it in the freezer..or put her in the freezer." Evil child!