What I've Been Up To Lately

  I haven't posted as much lately. What have I been doing? Well, as you may know if you've been reading the blog, Ken, the girls, and I are taking a trip to England this summer. That has meant some planning and shopping. (We needed new suitcases. Our old ones are too heavy or the wrong sized to be allowed on flights these days, at least not without extra fees.) Ken and I had to get new passports since ours expired years ago. The girls have never had passports, so they had to get them too. We took our own pictures to save some money, which meant using an online program to size the heads right, etc. Emma handled that and she did a good job. But we then had 'the background is too dark' and 'there is too much glare on the eye glasses'. Emma and I had to retake our pictures a few more times. She eventually gave in and had hers redone at the store where we were getting them printed because we just couldn't cut the glare. So we were back and forth to the post office about the passports several times. It seemed like every time we went there was something else to deal with. I even had to go get a copy of our marriage certificate because my name had been different on my last passport! I got the old one in 1985 and I had gotten married since then. I had to go back to the town we used to live in to get it, and it still only had my maiden name on it because it was just where we had taken out the license. We used it, and it turned out to be ok, (I still use my maiden name. I just added Ken's last name.), and we all finally got our passports.

Yay!

Unfortunately it has also meant alot of time spent trying to straighten out some booking mistakes. (Talk about impossible.) My sister in law booked the flights, and she spelled my maiden name wrong, listed one of the girls as 'Mrs.', and left out Ken's middle name. These days everything has to be so precise because of the TSA. Every name on the flight list has to match the names on the passports exactly. In the end Ken's sister who is treating us to the trip, (Not the one who booked it.) just paid an outrageous fee to have everything fixed, even though we notified the airline of the mistakes within 24 hours, as was the rule. Just a tip: Be very careful if you insist on using GoTo Gate to book your flights!
  Anyway, other than that I have been trying to keep up with the yard, and the garden.

There's a lot of stray stuff growing. I put pepper and cucumber seeds out amongst the corn. I have to wait until some of the stuff is up a bit more to see what it's going to be, since I don't now what the pepper plants look like when they start. The pile of sticks in the foreground is what's left of a mulberry tree that 'mysteriously' died a few years ago. (My demon neighbors are no doubt the culprits, as they poisoned my huge rose bush to death a few years before. Anything they think is too close to their property is in peril. I keep moving myself...) I planted a tomato plant in the middle of it. I know a lady who planted one in a dead stump one year and it went crazy with tomatoes.)

...but the tomatoes are going nowhere fast. Most of the ones I set out have died.The potted ones aren't doing much at all.

That one on the right looks pretty shot.

 But there are at least three that are trying.

I bought some horseradish.

I thought I might as well. It was cheap and for a good cause, (It was a yard sale to benefit Hospice.), and we like horseradish.

Most of the mulberries are ripe and I'm supposed to make cobbler. It's almost as good as raspberry cobbler, and the berries are right here in my yard. I haven't found a good source of black raspberries yet.

When I was a kid we had red and black raspberries growing at the back of our garden. There weren't many bushes though, so Mom used to go raspberry picking for the black ones. (They're the best.) She made jelly out of them. When Emma was little we had some growing in our yard, but not much. Dad found a good patch somewhere and used to go pick them for her and bring them by the bucket full. People don't seem to like the black ones as much as the red for some reason,and it's not very often you see the black ones for sale at the grocery store.Although, I've noticed lately that there is a lot more black raspberry stuff being offered. The stores have ice cream, and the local ice cream place even has it in soft serve.

And I've been making dollhouse scale rugs...

That's a penny to show size.

That's a tiny braided rug. I couldn't find the other tiny one.

Found it. That's the first one on the right, lost rug on the left.

One of these days I'll get around to putting them up for sale.
And I've been working on a tiny paper clay doll. I love working with paper clay. It seems I can get so many more details in without squashing out what I've already done than I can with polymer clay. I made this doll  with holes for stringing the parts.

The parts need sanding.

For the last one I was making, (As yet unfinished.), I used wire loops and they have rusted!

For size reference, that's a small coffee mug he's leaning against.

I really liked how he was turning out too.

I see him as sort of a Pierrot, 

I don't know what I can do about his rusty joints.
  I have also been yard saling and thrift store shopping. I haven't been having to drop Ken off at work as much lately, since Fuzzy has a girlfriend who drives him around. Normally I had to take Ken to work to have the van to take Fuzz to work. When I drop Ken off I stop at Goodwill, which is in the same shopping center as Ken's place of work, and Salvation Army, which is down the street. In upcoming posts I'll be showing you some of the things I've found lately.

Quite a Yard Sale Haul: Tammy, Bears, a Troll, and a bunch of old stuff

  Yard sale season has really taken off in the last couple of weeks.It has been a very cold, rainy spring, but now  the weather has warmed up and the sales are coming out of the wood work. This past Friday and Saturday I made quite a haul.

All the stuff spread out behind the car was in two bags that were 'fill a bag for $2'!

In one of the bags I managed to fit all these doll clothes and this doll sleeping bag. The clothes include Build a Bear, Battat, handmade vintage clothes,some unknowns, and the plaid Bitty Baby pants near the bottom right. The pink dress under them fits my American Girl perfectly, but there's no makers label in it. Anybody know?

A mini bear, some Breyer horse stuff, one celluloid and one plastic deer some vintage drinking glasses and hankies.

On the right, 2 unopened rolls of cross stitch fabric.And next to that a pin cushion rocking chair.

Better shot of some of that stuff.

 A pop up version of "A Christmas Carol", a little vinyl Cabbage Patch doll, a couple of beautiful old Johnson Brothers coffee mugs, and a piano that might still play music.(I haven't put batteries in yet. If it works, the keys move too.)

I love the piano and these glasses.But...

Why would you need a puppet theatre in your piano? Anybody know anything about this piano?

Vintage scarves and hankies, and an old Simplicity pattern for a cool cape.

A doll sized cloth parasol that opens and closes,a hanky still in package, and all these really old cook books,an almanac from 1934,and...

Dr. Pierce's First Aid Book.In an emergency, blame that guy on the left. He seems to be offering to punch anybody trying to approach the guy on the sidewalk, thus almost admitting his guilt! The book is really handy though. Where else could you learn to do this:

Put a tourniquet on it, especially if the blood is gushing out like water out of a faucet.Man, that's quite a hole. What happened to this guy? I don't know, but it probably involved that guy on the left.

I picked this kid up somewhere. Is this a Holly Hobbie baby, or what?

All of this stuff was in a 'fill a bag for $1' bag. I also stuffed in a bunch of squinkies and some Polly Pocket clothes and one doll.

And Tammy is showing us this lovely...What's this thing called? As far as I can find, it's called a 'ship's engine order telegraph'. It was on the bridge and connected to the engine rooms.

Like this one on the Titanic. Either Captain Smith was veeerrry short, or my telegraph is something like 1/12 scale. In any case, I love it!

I literally grabbed it when I saw it. I found it at a church sale. It was something like 50 cents.It's metal, with a wooden base. As for Tammy, she was at a different sale. She has a high colour face, perfect silky hair, and she was 50 cents!

  As was this little guy I got at the same sale. The bear was elsewhere. I paid $5 for a bag full of stuff, including him.

He's a Yoski Pet.

All this stuff was from the sale I got the bear from. The troll is flocked, and perfect. He's a Dam troll made by Dark Horse comics in 2011 I think.The duck is soft rubber.

  It was a pretty good week. I also got a load of fabric from a lady who was selling off a lot of her stuff in preparation for moving to a smaller house. I almost got a vintage Christmas elf there, but when she saw it in my pile she flipped. It was her childhood elf and she couldn't believe it had shown up. I guess she had no idea where it was and it was a total surprise. She was having a really hard time letting go of her things anyway. She kept apologizing for not wanting to sell various things I asked about,so she just kept thanking me for letting her keep the elf! I told her it was her stuff and she should keep what she wants. She should keep her elf. I couldn't have made her sell it to me. That would have been obnoxious anyway, but she was so excited to see him again! It was sweet.
  On Saturday we had loads of blooms on the pear tree.

You will have seen them in my Alice review too. Today the tree is pretty bare. I just hope there was some pollination going on before they fell. I look forward to my pears. I'm just afraid we won't have any because all I've seen in the yard is a few bumble bees.
  I went out to my friend Lori's today and collected some...uh...horse poo to put on my garden so I can get my corn started. It's a stinky job, but hopefully it will be worth it!

A Review of Journey Girls Kelsey Doll,a Few Updates, and a Big Annoucement (For me anyway...)

  A while back you may have seen that I had been trying to lose weight. That effort kind of got laid aside for a bit when I got sick in March,(And managed to actually GAIN weight while sick and not eating much for a whole week!). Since then I've been trying to maintain the 10 pounds I had managed to lose before I got sick. (Maybe the pills the doctor has just put me on to take care of a slow thyroid will help get me on track.)Since I have been fighting a nearly losing battle to lose weight and had requested that Ken not buy me a lot of candy for Easter, instead he bought me something I've been wanting for a while now: a Journey Girls doll.  

I love red haired dolls, so Kelsey was my choice.I think this is the third series of Journey Girls dolls. The previous series was Paris, and this one seems to be London. That makes this doll a fitting gift for me right now, for a reason I will tell you at the end of this review!
Apparently the Journey Girls have won a Best Toy award.

Her box is decorated with pictures of the other Journey Girls and their non-doll counter parts...

...and images of travel stamps, and pictures of Kelsey's destination.

My favourite place: London.

One side has a window so you can see more of the doll before you buy.

Her box was sealed with the usual tape.I cheated and sliced it instead of peeling it. I'm lazy.

The insert slid out easily.

Kelsey was held in her box by wire twist ties on her ankles,some elastic bands,a piece of plastic...

...and this strange thing:

I didn't realize what it was at first. It actually has claws in the front that had an elastic band on them that held her head in place.

The elastic was easily slipped off the 'claws', (It's off in the picture, but the claws are around her neck.) and she came out.All in all she was easy to remove from her insert and kids really wouldn't need more than minimal help, (If any.) to remove her.Here is Kelsey straight out of the box.

 The inside of her box is decorated with airline tickets and pictures of Big Ben, (Actually, 'Big Ben' is the name of the bell inside The Elizabeth Tower, the clock tower at the end of the Houses of Parliament.Over the years the name has come to include the clock tower as well.), and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.(Ok,why the Leaning Tower when the theme of this series of Journey Girls is London?)

Inside there is also a 'luggage tag' with a picture of the human version of Kelsey, and some information about her in three languages.

The human Kelsey doesn't look much like Doll Kelsey.

Here's how Kelsey's hair looked straight out of the box.

It had three elastic bands on it. The top one was twisted a couple of times, but the bottom two were just slipped on. In spite of that, when I  took them off they still brought a lot of hair with them.

That worried me a bit.I combed her hair after removing the rubber bands, and found that the bottom was very knotted and hard to comb through.

The hair is somewhat thinly rooted too.

This is pulled back a little, but you can tell it started out thin.

She lost a bit more hair when I tried to comb the knots out.

Why was it so knotted straight out of the box? This doesn't bode well for future hair play, does it? But otherwise her hair is nice and silky. It looks a little like oily hair though. But it's a great colour of dark auburn. Ivy's friend Lainey has this colour hair, and the more orange haired Ivy covets it.

She has non-blinking inset eyes with 'real' lashes. Her eyes are quite realistic. My only negative comment on her face would be that the colour of her eyebrows is a little strange.

Her head doesn't tilt up or down, but when her head is turned to the side it slightly tilts upward on the swivel.

Kelsey is wearing a comfy looking shirt with a crown on the front. The only thing I don't like is the slightly leathery look to the sleeve fabric.

The shirt closes in back with Velcro.

Her head band matches her skirt. It's attached to her head with a couple of those little plastic thingies.

It has elastic in the back to make it easy to take on and off.

The cute plaid skirt has an elastic waist.

A lot of the Kelseys in the store had problems with their pleats. They didn't seem to lay properly.

Her sheer looking tights are actually lined all the way inside, even the legs.

That will make them much longer lasting for play.It does give them a weird side seam though, that looks like they are lined only at the bottom half of the legs.

Her shoes are rubber slip ons, but the bows are real ribbon.

Under her tights she has plastic covering her feet.

That is a good thing, considering that the plastic has black stains on it. There aren't any stains on her legs, so it has to have come from the shoes and not the tights. Nice of them to put the plastic on her feet, but since they obviously know the shoes will stain the doll, why not do something about it instead? What if the owner wants to use the shoes without the tights? It's clear you aren't going to be able to without staining  the doll. 

Journey Girls have vinyl limbs and head, but they also have a vinyl chest plate, which makes them look nicer in V-necks or clothes with shoulder straps, than the cloth chested dolls like American Girl.

She has a fairly detailed and realistic looking clavicle.

But absolutely no behind.

This angle looks really strange.

She has the Journey Girls tag on her body.

'Geoffrey' is  Toys R Us' own brand.

She's jointed at the neck, shoulders, and hips.Her arms and legs have some outward movement as well as up and down.

Her legs can be turned outward a little, which is necessary sometimes when balancing her for standing.

                                                       But she can stand on her own.

And sit fairly ladylike.

She has a beautiful face.

 She's very fair skinned, but anybody who thinks real people couldn't possibly be this pale hasn't met me and my kids.

This gives you a look at her ear.Not especially detailed, but it looks fine.

Today we are having temperatures in the low 40s. (That's Fahrenheit.) When I took these pictures last Friday it looked like Spring was actually here and deciding to stay. The daffodils were blooming...

...and the wild violets,

and the iris's and the peony bush are coming up.The garlic is VERY prolific.

That's not grass she's standing in. It's garlic.

 The amaryllis' were starting to bloom. I've since had to bring them back inside.

The lilacs will be blooming very soon, if they don't get frozen tonight.

I LOVE my lilacs! They smell wonderful!

 And here are some more pictures of the very photogenic Kelsey.

There are those leathery sleeves. They're soft, but somewhat shiny.

 That gorgeous face.

 These shots are nice...

...but they do have one drawback:

This is sideways, but you can see the problem. My own hair kept falling in the way. I really should tie it back before doing this stuff.
Her body seems nice and sturdy. That hair worries me though. It could definitely be improved on.Her clothes are nice quality and easy to take on and off. I don't like the staining aspect of the shoes. It would have been nice if her head could tilt, for more expression in her poses.
  And one more shot of beautiful Kelsey.

My baby tomatoes are growing like crazy.

These are the ones I left growing in the amaryllis pot.

These are growing from the method that I used on purpose this year, after it happened accidentally last year: I dropped a 'past it' tomato in a couple of my amaryllis pots at the end of last season and let nature take it's course.Some of the tomatoes started too early and died out, but this batch is doing really well, other than a few I moved to their own little egg carton. A few of those, which I moved to thin out the seedlings so they could keep growing,failed to take. I am notorious for my black thumb, so that's not really surprising.
   I also finally managed to find actual full blooded beefsteak tomato seeds at an Earth Fare grocery store. They're heirloom seeds. Up until now all I had been able to find were hybrid seeds for some kind of beefsteak crossover. I don't want any changed around, mutated seeds. I want REAL beefsteak tomatoes. So I'm hoping these will grow as well as my 'nature's course' tomatoes!
  My nose is healing nicely, although it's still a little sore and red and slightly puffy. The doctor says it will be that way for a while, but eventually the swelling will go away.My head is still tender too, but I got the stitches out today. Turns out, there were actually more than four in there. Probably more than 6. But the cyst was benign, so that's ok.
  I finally found a hat that didn't look quite as idiotic on me. That's a relief since I'm supposed to wear one all the time. This one is soft and squashy too, so I can take it places with me without having to worry that it will get messed up like a straw hat might. I was forced to borrow one of Fuzzy's hats to go to the flea market last Saturday, and the bill wasn't nearly big enough. It was one of those almost Andy Capp type hats, so there wasn't much bill at all. My nose and head were covered though, which was the most important stuff to cover right now.
  As for the reason London Kelsey is the perfect gift for me, here it is: My family is being given a tremendous gift. Regular readers may know that my husband Ken is from England. He celebrated his 21st birthday over here, and hasn't been back since. I've been there twice since he's been home. (Both times were before I met him, even though most people assume I got him while I was over there. Weird, huh? For that story, go HERE.) He's now 52, so that's been a LONG time. One of Ken's sisters was going to bring the other two over with her and come to visit. When they couldn't get their schedules in sync Ken's oldest sister had another idea: Bring Ken over instead! I was thrilled when she suggested the idea because I knew Ken would LOVE to go home. We have always wanted to, but it was just never in the budget, especially after we had kids to include in the trip too. I thought the offer was for only Ken to come, so when the sister's called back when Ken was home and I found out that I was going to be included too I was shocked. How could we be so lucky?! Ken has always wanted to show the kids where he grew up, and Emma has always wanted to go  to England. I suggested I would tell Emma and maybe she would want to come along. Ken's sister said she couldn't bring three of us over, and I assured her I meant Emma would pay for herself. We also were going to try to get enough money together to bring Ivy too. (As I figured, Fuzz didn't want to go.) A couple of texts later we were told that Ken's sister was going to bring all four of us over! Ken can't stop talking about it and making plans. Emma has been making sure we get the things done we need to do, like getting our passports sent for and getting appropriate luggage. (Ken's old luggage is too heavy, and nobody thinks I should use my nylon bags.) Most of our time will be spent with family, but we wanted to let the girls see a bit of London, so we added a few more days to the trip. Ivy can't think of anything specific she wants to see, just 'stuff', but the rest of us have plans.Emma insists that I go stand on the Greenwich Meridian, since I have always said that I regret having lived right across the street from Greenwich Park for three months and never got around to it. Ken is making a mental list of all the foods he wants to eat while he's there, or bring home with him. It will eventually become a paper list. We've been trying to arrange getting together with some friends while we're there.Ken hasn't seen his best friend Robert for 31 years! Robert lives in the south, but is prepared to travel north to Ken's sister's area if he has to. That's a good friend. Not to short my friend Cheryl. She's coming to London from where she lives to meet us, but it's a much shorter trip than Robert going all the way to Yorkshire.
  Anyway, we're all thrilled and excited. I'll take lots of pictures and hopefully I can do some posts on dolls available there when I get home. Maybe I'll even buy something...