Disney Store Animator's Collection Merida and a Quick Diet Update

   Just a quick update on the diet. After back sliding around Ken's birthday I am not just back to the 10 pounds I had lost, but slightly below it. (Being sick the last couple of days has made not wanting food easy.) Tomorrow is my birthday and we're eating out at an Indian restaurant Ken and I ate at for our 25th anniversary last year. They have an all vegetarian buffet. Yay! I hope I feel up to it. And I'll try not to be too bad...
  I made a great find at Goodwill a couple of weeks ago. I actually gasped when I saw this Disney Store Animator's Collection Merida on the top shelf.

Yes, she did look pretty lousy and was going to need some work. But I have been wanting one of these for ages. She's even the original version with the dark green dress.

 She had marker earrings...

...and toenail paint...

...and fingernail paint and a ring.

As well as, not one, but two ponytails and a braid in her ratty hair.

  Her hair looked so bad I wondered if I might have to just cut it and one-of-a-kind her into a boy. That would have been incredibly cute actually. I have seen lots of the Animator's Collection dolls redone, and some of them are amazing. I haven't seen a boy though, and Merida would make a wonderful little boy.

  She was also pretty dirty. So the first step was a good bath...

She was none too pleased about the bath.

 And then a soak in conditioner.

In fact, she looked pretty peeved about the whole thing.

Then came the hard part for me: dealing with that hair. If you read the blog you'll know I don't do hair. (Even my own!) I just never acquired the talent, much to my daughter's dismay! And I know you're supposed to use fabric softener for doll hair, but I don't even use it on my clothes, so I don't have any around. I could buy some just for the dolls, but I can't stand the smell of the stuff. Conditioner usually seems to work pretty well.
  So it took quite a while to get that hair detangled and the part rewoven. I don't know how many episodes of the Great British Baking Show Ken and I watched while I did it, but it did give us a chance to get caught up!
  And the bad news:

She lost a pretty good sized wad of hair. You can't tell from this, but it's huge. Luckily she had a lot of hair to begin with!
  And the good news:

Ta Da!!

 Most of her toe and finger nail 'polish' came off. The earrings look here to stay though. I just managed to pale them a little.

Fortunately, as bad as her hair was,the original ringlets were still fairly intact.

  The ringlets have started to fizzle a bit by now, so they could really use a set and spray. But as I said, I don't do hair. I'm not even up to ringlets!
  But I'm glad I have her. From other dolls I've managed to find at Goodwill in the last year I thought someone who donates shops at the Disney Store. I was hoping Merida would show up some day. Luckily I was there the day she did!

Diet Restart

  I have to welcome our newest follower, but they seem to have gotten lost in the list.(And someone is showing up twice??) I don't recognize anyone new there! Whoever joined in the last week, shoot me a comment so I know who you are and I can check out your blog if you have one. In the meantime, welcome...you know who you are! 
  Well I finally got a new battery for the scale late last week. I weighed myself with the old battery and then the new one. The weights were pounds different! My scale has always given me several different weights depending on the direction it's facing, or just it's mood! So who knows where I was before I got the new battery! So I'm starting over. I'm going from what I weigh today and trying again. It's not going to be easy. My birthday is this month and Ivy wants to make me a cake and Ken wants to take me out to eat. I have a lot of work to do around the house, so maybe that will keep me active and give me no time to want chocolate! I have already gotten ceiling tiles for the bathroom, (They look like an old fashioned tin ceiling, but they're plastic.) So maybe I can make the house and me look better, at the same time!
  I have loads of doll related posts in draft form and they'll be showing up over the coming weeks. Look for one of them today!

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...

Diet Week Five: Trying to Maintain and Ken's Birthday

  To begin with I keep forgetting to welcome our two newest followers. I did notice you were there guys! Welcome to Anderson's All Purpose from Mrs. Anderson's All Purpose Blog and RagingMoon1987 of Confessions of a Dolly Lover . Both blogs might interest you so check them out.
  Last week was supposed to be Week 5 of my diet, but I eased on  it a bit, but tried to maintain my weight where it was. It still went up and down just a little all week.
  I started this week about where I was in last week's report.Yesterday was Ken's birthday, which means, (To Ken, that is.), Eating with a capital E. He would eat out for all three meals on his birthday. Fortunately he only went for lunch and dinner this year. He chose Mexican for lunch, but I was fairly good. Since I knew there was no way I could fit in two big meals even on the best of days, I sat out the full lunch and just ate some chips and salsa and a few bites of spinach dip, and I drank water.
  For dinner Ken decided on a steak place. Well, as readers will know, the kids and I don't eat meat. His birthday is the one day of the year that Ken allows himself to be selfish and go somewhere that has minimal food choices for us. That's ok with us. It's his day. We usually manage a meal of appetizers, and sometimes salad. (Except for Ivy, who won't eat salad.) Ken went all out, eating Oysters Rockefeller, steak,(Usually he tried to get Prime Rib, but this place didn't do it.), and a lobster tail. Ivy and I had macaroni and cheese, and Emma and I split a salad with spinach,strawberries, and goat cheese. Once again I confirmed that I do not like vinaigrette dressing. The girls and I also split mushrooms in a cream sauce served on sourdough bread. That was really good, other than the vinaigrette, which thankfully was mostly around the edges. Everybody but Ivy shared some asparagus with Hollandaise sauce. I had about three bites of Ken's free birthday cheesecake, but my biggest downfall was the almond and chocolate lace cookies we got at World Market before we went out to eat! Those things were calling my name, and I answered!
  We had birthday cake when we got home...very thin wedges! It was a chocolate sour cream cake I made the day before. The icing was orange, but not nearly orange enough. I used orange essence, orange zest and some fresh squeezed orange juice. I have made chocolate cake with orange icing before, and I must have used orange flavouring instead of essence because the orange flavour was a lot stronger.(If you read my post about the book "Miss Osborne the Mop" you'll know there is a chocolate cake with orange icing and walnuts in that book that has influenced my life!)
  So this week I am going to try to be VERY good and get myself back on track. Before you know it it will be my birthday!

Diet Week 4 Results: Whoo Hoo!

  Well, here it is, the beginning of week 5 of my diet. With all the up and down I've been having, I was pleasantly surprised, (Ok, THRILLED.), to see today that I have actually met my 4 week goal of 10 pounds! I lose about 2 and a half pounds a week normally when I'm on my diet,but this time I haven't been as strict with myself, so it took off slowly. Now I have caught up and I'm on schedule: 4 weeks = 10 pounds. Of course, 10 pounds is only, to paraphrase Jacob Marley in "A Christmas Carol", "a drop in the comprehensive ocean of my weight." It's a start though. It also means I am now officially only 20 pounds heavier than I was when I lost the last bunch of weight a few years ago. 20 more pounds and I'll at least be back where I should have started this time.
  It's funny, but, considering how long I have been a fat lady, I still have trouble thinking of myself that way. I still tend to think of myself the way I used to be, or at least, as not as big as I am. (You know you are fatter than you think when you accidentally knock things over with your butt when you didn't think you were anywhere near them...) At this point in my life I have been fat almost as long as I wasn't fat. I was a small person until a 'progesterone imbalance' at the age of 26 made the doctor prescribe pills full of progesterone for me that instantly sapped my strength and made me start putting weight on. I became so sluggish I could hardly move sometimes, (And this was when I was still thin.), and spent a lot of the time just wanting to sleep. I complained to my doctor that I thought the pills were making me gain weight. "Oh no." he said, "They won't do that." (I read years later that vegetarians shouldn't take certain kinds of birth control pills because they block the absorption of something and it messes with your metabolism. Great. I was right Doc!) I weighed 105 when I started on the pills in October of 1988. By the next fall I weighed 125 pounds. that was the fall I got married. I had gained weight so quickly at that point that my wedding dress fit fine when I bought it, and only a few months later when I got married it was getting tight. By the next fall I weighed 143 pounds and stopped taking the pills. At that point Emma got started and I gained 40 pounds with her. I lost little of that when she was born, and only slightly more as time went on, in spite of nursing her. I had two more kids, and gained 40 pounds with each one, losing a bit in between them, and after Ivy.(So I never got to 143 plus 40 X 3, in case you're wondering.) I have lost about 40 pounds twice in the last 9 years, but the first time it all came back. The last time I actually got lower than I had the first time, and I got back on my diet in less time, so only half had come back. If I had managed to keep it off both times I wouldn't be too bad now. I was doing so well the first time, but then my Dad got sick and was diagnosed with dementia and then came to live with us. I spent a lot of time at the nursing home with him and my eating habits got all messed up. When he lived with us I was very stressed and forgot all about trying. It took me years to get back to the diet.Hopefully this time I can be better behaved and keep more of an eye on it. I don't want to have to keep dieting.

Diet Week 3 Results: Better Than Nothing, Which is What I Will Now Be Eating at Red Lobster

  Well today is the first day of week 4 of my diet. I was really undisciplined last week. I went off the plan a bit, and then found I was going to be seeing my friend Lori for lunch the next day. Lunch out is hard to keep track of anyway. Lori chose where we ate, and it ended up being Red Lobster. Being a vegetarian I didn't mind doing Red Lobster because they have a delicious Bar Harbour Salad with dried cranberries,nuts, and blueberry vinaigrette dressing, plus those great Cheddar Bay Biscuits.(And for the record,vegetarians DO NOT just eat salad! I usually want something more...chewy than a salad, but I love the Bar Harbor salad.) Well, correction: Red Lobster HAD a Bar Harbor Salad! They got rid of it! I had to tell the employee who told me that that they needed to tell somebody in charge that they had just gotten rid of the only thing that brought me, as a vegetarian, into their restaurant. (The only other thing on the menu I can eat is the mozzarella sticks,which are good, but not a meal. Occasionally I have the cheese sticks and the salad if I'm really hungry.) That's not a big deal to them I'm sure, since they are a seafood restaurant and they don't cater  to vegetarians. But I eat out with friends and a husband who aren't  vegetarian, and we won't eat there if I can't actually eat. The only salad on the menu now is a Caesar salad, which has anchovies in the dressing. The waitress did offer me a salad at no charge, and it wasn't on the menu, (and it should be so people will know.), but they have three salad dressings besides the Caesar, and one of them is the blueberry vinaigrette. So I had a tiny plain salad which consisted of just iceberg lettuce,about three cherry tomatoes, and one circle of onion, as well as the biscuits and mozzarella sticks.I tried not to be too bad and took most of the cheese sticks home to Ivy.
  So anyway, I lapsed that day, but I tried not to be too bad. But still, last week I only managed to lose one pound. If I'm very strict I lose 2 and a half pounds a week. That means I should be at 7 and a half pounds so far. Instead, due to my back sliding my weight has gone down and up and down. I am at 5.4 pounds for three weeks instead of the 7 and a half. I need to be more disciplined, and get some exercise. Emma wants to start exercising with me, and maybe we can get Ivy to do it too. The problem is finding a time in her busy work schedule. I am horrible at making myself exercise. I just hate it. If I could jump outside on my bike I would be ok, but regular exercising is not my thing. (Of course, I need to get my flat fixed before I could do that too!) But that's where the diet is this week. Having to tell on myself here hasn't seemed to make me behave better. It just comes down to not wanting to be fat more than I want to eat...much of anything really! I was good today. One day at a time...   

Diet Week 2 Results: No Drum Roll Necessary

  Well, Sunday (yesterday), was the end of week two on my diet. The week was full of ups and downs. By the middle of the week I had not only met, but surpassed my goal for the first two weeks, which was 5 pounds.(I manage to lose about 2 and a half pounds a week. That's a good amount, because I read that if you lose any more than that in a week you are more likely to put it right back on.) Then the weight started to do weird things. It went up one day, and down the next, and then back up. By yesterday I had lost only .2 pounds since last Sunday. So my total for the last two weeks is only 3.8. I have to admit, I haven't been nearly as strict with myself as I have been in the past when I go on my diet. With me it seems it has to be all or nothing. If I slip and let myself have something I shouldn't I find it hard to stick to the diet at all. This time I have allowed myself a little here and a little there. The last two Saturdays I have allowed myself treats: cookies the first week, and brownies this past weekend. Both times I traded my evening meal for the treats, hoping that way I wouldn't overshoot my calorie allowance enough to sabotage my whole week. (That's bad, but a lot of the time I only eat twice a day anyway. That's one of the things that is so weird about my dieting. I have to actually make myself eat more. I have to make sure I eat three meals a day to get my metabolism started.)
  Well, it wasn't bad the first week, but this week I totally messed up. I have been having spells where I get extremely nauseous in a hot shower, and on Saturday I was actually feeling woozy. I thought my blood sugar might have been low. I've never had these problems before when I've done this diet. I think it may be because I was super hungry when I got woozy because eating my meal helped. As for the nausea, it could be because I've been taking my shower super late at night, (That's just the way it has worked out lately.),and the hot steamy shower and the empty stomach were not a good combination. I don't know why, but I'm feeling the hunger more this time than I have before when I've done the diet. Maybe I'm just not remembering how hungry I was before. I know I was, but I didn't think it was still this bad after  two weeks. I think I just need to get used to it. I really shouldn't be hungry. I'm actually eating more than I normally do!I've just cut the fat and spread the food out a bit. Whereas normally I would eat a couple of pieces of bread and one piece of protein at a meal,I'm only having one piece of bread, but I'm eating a third meal.So I'm getting more protein, but less starch,sugar, and dairy.Here's what I've been eating:
Breakfast: cereal and milk. Usually I have Cinnamon Life cereal, but I also had some flax cereal. The last time I did this diet I ate All Bran. It was like eating cardboard, but it was high in fiber and vitamins, low in fat and sugar. This time I have been letting myself off easy with the Life.
  So I'm starting a new week. I hope I can be better. I also need to start some toning exercises until the weather gets good enough and I can get out on my bike.
Lunch and Dinner: I have been having a Morningstar Farms soy 'chicken' patty, or Gardien 'fish' (I'm vegetarian.) or similar protein, with a big salad of greens, cauliflower, broccoli, onion,and just a few dried cranberries,and about a teaspoon of raspberry salad dressing, and a piece of some type of bread. The meal, including dessert has to come in at 333 calories or less.
Dessert: Once during the first week I had a couple of graham crackers and as little milk as fit in my calorie allowance. Dairy is supposed to help you lose weight, but I have to be careful not to have too much. Most of the  first week, and the second I had flavoured popcorn. It fit in the calorie allowance, but gets exactly half it's calories from fat. Normally I keep that under half, so once again, I'm pushing it eating the popcorn. (I HATE popcorn normally, but this stuff is really good. It's pumpkin spice flavour, which I love.)
  So, I'm going to have to be better this week.No more goodies, and easy on the popcorn. I was good tonight. Ken and Ivy got pizza and I didn't even touch it. It was even from one of the two pizza places that I really like best.

Drum Roll Please ! Diet Week 1 Results

  I've posted a dollish book review today too, so have a look.I'm still getting used to the idea of not posting a doll every day! It feels a little strange. Several times I've had to remind myself that, no, I don't have to decide which doll to use and get it photographed. In a way, that year slipped by. In another way, it seems ages ago that I started Doll-A-Day. I very nearly went out and photographed a doll in the snow today, but the temperature changed my mind! Maybe tomorrow though!
  I had a great idea for a 1/6 scale chair this morning, so this evening when I had to take Ken to work I went to Hobby Lobby to see if they had the fabric I was imagining it in. They didn't, but they had a lot of marked down remnants clearanced even further, so I came home with a small pile of stuff to work with. I'm sure I'll use it sometime.
  While I'm thinking of it, I also wanted to share a picture of the great embroidery Ivy did for me on a pillowcase she gave me for Christmas.

Sorry it's a little wrinkled. I've been sleeping on it.

She's 15 and has never embroidered before in her life, so I am very impressed. I thought she had bought it when I opened it on Christmas. I was amazed that she had embroidered it herself, and even drew her own design. She's itching to try again, and I'm anxious to see what she comes up with next.
  Yes, it's still cold here. Ivy was off from school again. They've had two days of school since they went back from Christmas vacation. We live where most of the schools are 'city schools', where there are a lot of kids who walk to school. When it gets too cold for them to walk they cancel school.
  I completed Week 1 of my diet. I  kind of fell off the diet a bit one day because I weakened and ate some cookies. But if I figured it correctly  I only went over my calorie allowance by 70-90 calories. My weight loss went back and forth during the week. At one point I had lost over 4 pounds, but my weight in today showed it as 2.6 pounds. My weekly goal is 2.5, which I can do pretty easily as long as I keep to my calorie a day limit. My limit is 1000 calories a day,not counting all the raw veggies I want. I also try to make sure less than half the calories are from fat, and I drink alot of water. Can I just mention here that I HATE water? The last time I did my diet I did actually find myself craving a drink of water after a while. It took getting used to,but I got used to it and stuck to the water most of the time, even after I went off my diet. Over time I went back to drinking more milk and juice and less water. I love milk. It's a family trait. My Dad's side of the family all drink a lot of milk. When my cousin Bobby fell down a few steps in his house and broke his wrist a few years ago I was amazed. I said," Bobby! How could you break a bone? You're a Colvin! You should have bones like granite from all that milk!" My Dad fell now and then during his last 10 years, and he died at almost 91 without ever breaking a bone,(apart from all the ones he broke as a young guy,by doing stupid stuff like getting towed on a  bicycle by a guy on a MOTORCYCLE.) Milk puts on the weight though.When I'm on my diet I have to keep it to just the milk on my cereal in the morning, and maybe very little milk now and then.
  I'll be posting some doll stuff this week. Don't forget to check out today's other post, a review of a doll based book you can cozy down and read with your kids in this cold weather.

The Diet So Far and More About Red Hair

  You may have read something about the Midwest weather at the moment, so yes, it is amazingly cold here!  There have only been two days of school this week, and it looks like there won't be school tomorrow either. It's not because of the snow, it's because of the cold. We have been in the negative numbers, made even lower  by the wind chill factor. I was supposed to get started on my paper and carpet stripping, and all that stuff, but with Ivy home and the temperature so low, even in our house,I have instead been vegging on the couch with Ivy, watching tv. I have been doing one thing I said I was going to do, and that's dieting. You have no idea how much I hate not being able to enjoy a nice glass of chocolate milk or some dessert. I'm a sweets person. That's my downfall. Plus I love cheese. So sugar and dairy are what I miss the most. I have dieted seriously before, and I lost about 40 pounds both times. Unfortunately,it came back. At least this time not all of it has come back yet.The first time it took me 6 years to try again. This time I've been on and off with it, so the damage isn't quite as great. I have been working on it this week, and so far I've lost just over half a pound. Talk about a drop in the bucket! But it's a step in the right direction. I'm never going to weigh 105 again, (Don't panic. I'm only 5' tall, and both sides of my family are just small people.), but weighing less than I do would be great. I know I feel better when I'm not so fat. I have less aches and pains, and everything is just easier to do. It's a lot of work hauling all this around. I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing. Knowing that people are reading this will help keep me trying. When the weather gets better I hope to get on my bicycle again. I'm not good on exercising, but I love riding a bike.
   For those of you who  have red hair, I have some more info along the lines of my Red Heads Week posts. According to a 2009 Harvard Medical School study redheads have nearly a 50% greater chance of developing Parkinson's than people with other hair colors. The colour with the lowest chance is black hair,then  brunettes, and then blondes.The reason is that the mutated gene that causes red hair is very close to a gene that can cause Parkinson's if it mutates, and being next to a mutated gene can cause another gene to mutate. Yay. I do have some safety margin. According to Svetlana Kogan, M.D., an internist at Lenox Hill Hospital, (and a redhead), the lighter your shade of red, the more likely you are to develop the mutated Parkinson's gene.Harvard researcher, Xiang Gao, M.D., Ph.D. says, “We found that people with a family history of melanoma had an increased risk of Parkinson’s.”
  Another result of the study explains me, my Dad, and my son Fuzzy. Apparently the same genetic factors that control melanin production,(that gives hair it's colour),also affect how your body manages stress. Margaret Lewin, M.D., a New York internist said,“The genes responsible for the ability to produce anti-stress hormones live close to melanocortin-1 receptors.” So we're back to the thing about mutated genes causing nearby genes to mutate. The 'red hair gene' can cause the hormones that produce anxiety reducing natural chemicals like pregnenolone to malfunction.Well, I knew we didn't manage stress well. Now I know why. (And of course that helps...)  
  I'll be back with some doll related posts soon.