Mystery in the Briarberry Woods

   I am still alive. I've been cleaning away soot and trying to get our things unpacked from moving back from Emma's. You accumulate a lot of things in a year, and especially if you are bringing things from before the year started. I had brought a lot of things to Emma's to clean up, or save from the unheated house, and also art supplies for the various things I made while I was there. 

  I feel I am never going to get done with this, and I am feeling daunted by it. I don't know where to start. I got this fortune in my cookie the other week.

I should be, but can I?! I kept it to inspire me, but I think I need more fortunes...

  We also took a couple of days off this week to celebrate Ken's birthday. One of the things he wanted to do for his birthday was go to a bin store, because he hadn't been to one for a long time. We had a few things we needed, including some of that plastic stuff to put on the bathroom window, since the window that came from Lowe's was supposed to be frosted, and wasn't. This might not be such a big problem, if the window wasn't IN the bathtub. Anyway, so that was on our list, along with dog poo bags for my sister, and squeezable treats for her cats. Also, I wanted wallpaper, because we'll have need for a lot of that. So those were all on my list, AND WE FOUND ALL OF THEM! What are the odds of that?!  Okay. The universe let me down a little bit, because the wallpaper was ugly, but it was there! 

Today we are  still getting snow, after a pretty full day of snow yesterday. But it's warm in here now, and we know our boys are not freezing. All three spend a lot of time with us. At night they fight and drive me crazy though.

  Anyway, as I was packing up Ivy's kid books I came across a lot of doll booklets or catalogs. She has some really old American Girl catalogs, a My Twinn catalog, and some booklets that came with dolls. If anybody is interested in seeing the My Twinn and American Girl catalogs, let me know. I can photograph the pages and do a post on those. Today I am showing you a Briarberry booklet. I could have done it as a Doll Book of the Month Club post, but it goes with all the other doll booklets I found in Ivy's room, so here we are.

  Does anybody remember Briarberry? Briarberry was a line from Fisher Price in the 1990's. The line included plush, jointed bears and other animals, old fashioned looking furniture, carded fashions,  and a tea party set, etc. I always thought the bears were cute, and the furniture was really nice. The clothes were nice quality. Some of the dresses and things were made of a heavy velvety velour, as were the cushions to the kitchen chairs. The bears were soft plush, with jointed heads, arms, and legs, and plastic faces with flocking. Through the years I've had, (mostly through second hand finds), the armoire, the canopy bed, the couch/bed, the table and chairs, the tea set, the stove and accessories, and a boatload of the bears of various sizes. I'm pretty sure I sold most of the stuff, but I know I still have a canopy bed in the box, and maybe an armoire, and I came cross some bears in our stuff just the other day. There are probably more somewhere. I don't think I've ever found any of the non bear animals in the wild. They came out later, and maybe they didn't make as many of them. There was a lamb and a bunny, and a dog and a cat.

  Ivy had a Briarberry storybook magazine in her stuff. I don't remember where it came from. I don't know if it was a promotional thing handed out somewhere, but Ivy didn't have any of the Briarberry stuff except a couple of the outfits I got on clearance that she used on baby dolls. So I don't know where she would have gotten it. Maybe it was an insert ion a magazine. Possibly it was an insert in Good Housekeeping or something, because Ken's stepmom used to get that. Anybody else have one of these?

  I'm going to start by showing you the back cover, because there's some information on it. For one thing, the baby bears and the Briarberry Friends, which were the non bear dolls, were introduced in December of 1999.

  There was a website.

  Now for the story. Here's the front cover.

The story is fully illustrated with photo scenes with the toys. 

There's that stove.

  The last page is a big two age spread, so the wording is shown smaller and harder to read. So I have shown it in full, and in individual pictures of the pages.

  The story manages to showcase all the dolls and some of the accessories. Of course, it also shows a bunch of things that weren't available.

  I hope everybody enjoyed this. I have a few more booklets to show you, of other dolls available about the same time as the Briarberries. We'll see those soon. Also, there's a doll show next weekend! I need the fun, but definitely not more dolls. I'll go anyway, and try to show you some dolls, but I promise I'll ask before I photograph them!

Doll-A-Day 2023 #364: Blossom

   Here we go. Next to last post of the year! I won't be doing Doll-A-Day next year, because I'll be doing house-repair-of-the-day. That's likely to take up most of my time, although I will post occasionally. I still have dolls and things to show you, the rest of our trip to post, and I'm sure I'll be thinking of things all the time, or coming across things I want to show you. And, of course, Tammy World might want to pop in every now and then to say hello.

  For the next to last doll of the year, I was trying to decide. I had a few choices laid out. In the end I chose Blossom because I had already shown you her friend Six earlier this year. I found Blossom after Six's post. I found her at a thrift store in another town. We hadn't been there for a while. I was looking for something else, but I found Blossom, and some Fashionistas.

"Blossom" was a TV show that ran for  five seasons, starting in 1990. The character of Blossom was played by Mayim Bialik, who had made a splash playing the younger version of Bette Midler in "Beaches", two years before. (And many years before she showed up as Amy Farrah Fowler, a love interest for Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory.) Made by Tyco, there were three dolls in the 'Blossom' line, including Blossom herself, her friend, Six, and her brother Joey.

  They did a pretty good job making the doll look like Bialik.

I think the doll especially looks like her from this angle.

Tyco knew the teeth were a big part in getting the likeness right, and they bothered to sculpt the teeth as teeth, and not just a big blank white space in the doll's mouth. And accident or not, they bothered to also leave a strip of unpainted pink gum above the upper teeth.

Blossom has piano keys on her vest.

  Somebody tell me what these earrings are supposed to resemble. They are each different, and she has a necklace too.

  Her legs bend, but not very much. This is about it.

  The doll is about 9 inches tall. She could hang out with Bandai's Power Rangers girls, and not look out of place. 

  Okay. One more doll tomorrow and I will have completed a whole year of Doll-A-Day! Big cheer for me! In the coming year...well, we'll talk about that tomorrow. See you then!

Doll-a-Day 2023 #348: Barbie as Snowflake in The Nutcracker

   Today's doll is one Emma puts out every Christmas season. She's Barbie as Snowflake, in The Nutcracker.

  Her box describes her as having 'specially designed legs so you may pose her in actual first through fifth ballet positions'.

 She was made in 1999, as part of the Classic Ballet Series.

  As you can see, she has sparkly tights and point shoes. Her outfit also consists of a white tutu with blue trim and a snowflake design in the fabric.

There are double straps.

There's a printed braid trim on her skirt.

She has a tiara. She would originally have also had false sleeves too. 

  She has rooted eyelashes, and curls at her forehead.

 

  That's the doll for today. It's catch up time for the rest of the year! Don't forget to also check out the last day of The Twelve Days of Tammy World today. Tomorrow we will see an amazing doll I got for Christmas! 

  .

Doll-A-Day 2023 #335: Prince Tommy

   We're getting caught up by the end of the year, I swear! Today's extra post is Prince Tommy.

I think he's from the same series as the Jester Jenny we saw yesterday. He's from 1999.

So he's just pretending to be a Prince.

Unlike the picture on the box, he didn't come with a crown. I'm pretty sure Fuzz had this one, and no crown.

 

He does have a cape that's a separate piece though.

What a cute little face. I always wished they had made a red haired Tommy. It would have made creating Fuzzy the Doll a lot easier, for one thing!

He also has his tunic, pants, and black boots. He came with a poster that showed all the Kelly and Tommy dolls. 

  That's it. Also check out today's regular post, #334, and day one of Twelve Days of Tammy World.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #333: Jester Jenny

  Today's doll is Jester Jenny.

  She's a Kelly Club doll, from 1999, back when a poster of all the dolls available was included in the box. Jenny's bio is included on the back of the box.

  Jenny is wearing a pink and gold jester suit, with a pink collar, pink tassel loafers, and a velvety pink jester hat.

 

  Jenny was a Kelly friend. The smaller Jenny has dark hair, but the large 16 plush 'Cuddly Soft' Jenny Kelly friend was a red head. They're both cute.

  That's it for today. See you tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #328: Totally Hair Barbie

   Today's doll is Totally Hair Barbie, wearing a Disney outfit.

 The clothes were part of a set of Disney Barbie clothes called Mickey's Stuff Weekend Wear, available in 1992. There were quite a few pieces in the set, and they could be mixed and matched.

Totally Hair Barbie premiered in 1991, (just like Emma!). The series of  dolls with incredibly long hair was so fondly remembered, that a 25th anniversary reproduction was sold.

When they named her Totally Hair, they weren't kidding!

  I'm spending a couple of days with my sister, and we will be doing some fun stuff. So the catching up is being out on hold until I get back, because I needed to do a couple of posts ahead of time. See you tomorrow.

 

Doll-A-Day 2023 #275: Sweet Lavender Barbie

   If I tell you I was so tired today that I didn't get around to photographing anything, I think that still won't impress upon you exactly how tired I am, and have been lately. I think I know why now though. I had my bloodwork done for the endocrinologist last week, and finally got my prescription refilled, and she has DOUBLED my dosage of thyroid medicine. Well almost doubled. It's doubled on 5 out of 7 days a week, when I already took double the normal dosage. Apparently my thyroid has been off again, which might account for my tiredness, and why I want to lay down and go to sleep about 5 o'clock every day. 

  Anyway, my tiredness is why I am falling back, once again, on some pictures I already had taken. And I apologize for their blurriness. That seems to be becoming my trademark, unfortunately.. I have GOT to get that taken care of!

  So today we're seeing Sweet Lavender Barbie. Does anybody remember Woolworth? Way back when this doll came out, in 1992, Woolworth was still big enough to have their own exclusive Barbie doll, of which, this was one.

She was one of the big dress, big hair Barbie dolls so popular in those days. She came in this blonde version, and a black haired African American version.

  For some reason the picture on the back of the box shows the dress a much different shade of purple.

  If I can motivate myself tomorrow we'll see the last doll from the toy show. (Slaps face on both sides to wake self up. See you then.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #269: Baby Sisters Doll

  Today's doll is a tiny one. She's a Baby Sisters doll.

  She was made by Blue Box, as far as I have been able to learn, in the late 80's or early 90's.

  The Baby Sisters are small dolls, about the size of the Uneeda Pee Wees. The dolls came in a round cannister package that included four dolls. They were cheap dolls, with the cannister of four selling for around $4. Still, they have rooted hair and actual clothes. Each set of sisters all had the same face, but different hair colours and styles. Some of the dolls had curly hair. The sisters also had totally different dresses, in different fabrics and colours, and even different styles. This doll is wearing her original dress. There seems to have been more than one series of the dolls, as I have seen others in the cannister, with different head sculpts than this one.

  I had a different doll planned from yesterday when I didn't post it. I had some other stuff to do today, and although I wasn't as tired today, I haven't felt great. So you got this girl. See you again tomorrow for another doll, but at this pint i don't know which one!

  

Doll-A-Day 2023 #267: Beach Fun Barbie and Ken

   Today's dolls are grabbing the last sunny days of the year to hang out on the beach. They're Beach Fun Barbie and Ken.

  These two were made in 1993. That was the days of big haired Barbies and stiff looking Kens. These two are no exception.

  They are a 'special edition', but I'm not sure what was special about them.

They had the standard articulation of the day, which was not much. I really didn't like the stiff straight arms and the bland smile of the Ken's then. This wasn't my favourite Barbie face either. And those clothes! The 80's and the early 90's had some loud coloured clothes, and some wild patterns. Not my style. I was more of a black and white and dark green and dark brown dresser. I still am, although I try to branch out into blue sometimes! These two survived high and dry in the Room of Water. They are for sale, but for the life of me I wouldn't be able to find them now. They have been tubbed and gone to storage. 

  I had an exhausting day today. I had an appointment with my endocrinologist, Yay! My thyroid nodules have not changed, and I don't have to have a biopsy! What a relief! She also said that if I get a clear ultrasound next year I don't have to have any more! After that I had to have blood work done. I'm not good with needles, but the girl did a pretty good job. I felt it a bit, but it wasn't too bad, and the rubber thing they put on my arm to squeeze the blood down there didn't pinch my arm too much, as it does sometimes. Then we went to the house to wait for a guy who was coming to tell us how much new windows for the Room of Fire might cost. I was wondering if I would need to mow the grass. Well I couldn't have if I had wanted to, since the yard was inches deep in leaves, switches from the walnut trees, and fallen walnuts. I spent all my time raking leaves and walnuts, and picking up nuts. Ken helped pick up nuts, as long as I raked them over to him. We picked up two boxes, and one giant bucket, of nuts, and the yard was still full of them. I got most of the leaves either to the tree line, where the leaf sucker truck will get them, (Or not, as you know if you've read my previous complaints about the leaf sucker truck,), or in a couple of big piles in the yard, which I'll deal with on Monday. We had a couple of stops to make after that, and had to pick up some groceries. I fell asleep waiting on Ken as the store. Tomorrow I'm going to try to take another partial day off, after I finish repairing AJ's favourite chair. (Yes, the honeymoon couple is back home from Italy.)

  See you tomorrow for another doll.

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