More Amazing Barbie stuff today!

  This summer has been vintage Barbie Bonanza time as far as yard sales go. I have never run across so many vintage Barbie and family dolls, stuff,and similar friends in one summer. If you read one of my earlier posts you will have seen that I found quite a few vintage dolls and clothes at a yard sale earlier this summer. I also managed to get a Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen, thanks to a friend,a Tammy's Ideal House at another yard sale, and today I made this find:

Sorry about the plastic nudist colony.

  These dolls were waiting for me at a garage sale where I was helping the lady drag her stuff inside out of the rain. I almost missed them, but I heard her confirm to another lady that there were 'antiques and collectibles inside' on her sun porch. These guys were just inside the door. I also got a vintage Ideal Thumbelina and another older doll, some miniature baskets, a set of Krazy Ikes wooden building toys in their original box,and a couple of very cute old framed prints, which turned out to be 1959 menus from a Holland America cruise ship. I got everything for $31. The Midges are really nice, with only some minor lip rubs (I could fix that.) and hairdos needed. They have completely different skin tones.

The paler girl has super curly hair (Which makes me think she might be one of the earliest Midges.) and all her finger and toe nail paint. The other has all her finger nail paint.  Ken and Allan don't even have any hair rubs.The Tressy dolls have really nice faces. I love the dark haired one. The other one will look nice once she's dressed. She's very like the one I have from when I was a kid. The Thumbelina doesn't work, but she has her original wooden knob. I don't know who the other girl is, but I'm hoping my friend Connie can fix her up a bit. She has most of her mohair hair, and her crier still works.
  The pictures are so cute.

 
  The lady who sold them to me was an older lady, (To me, and I'm 51.) and they belonged to her mother in law, Flora. Flora wrote lovely notes which she kept with all the things she had saved over the years. The girl  picture had this written on the back.

"I think this little lassie has a guilty look---could she have swiped the flowers she is holding back of her?"

  I was very tempted to buy the napkins and tablecloth to which Flora had pinned some notes, including one detailing how she had bought 2 yards of fabric and sewed it into the set of linens in 1921, and how proud she was of her work at the time. So sweet. I wonder why her family wouldn't keep such such things.I was also tempted to buy a gift card to Flora from her husband Zeke. It had a pretty poem which I have unfortunately forgotten now.I may have Ken buy it tomorrow since he has to take back a necklace that was accidentally put in my bag. I'd go myself, but I am doing a doll show tomorrow. It's a long drive, so Ivy and I have to be up super early in the morning and we'll be gone all day. I just hope it's worth it.
  I also got something in the mail today.

  When I was a kid we had this Barbie's New Dream House. My sister gave it to me when she outgrew it, but then later she conveniently forgot she had given it to me and gave it to her first husband's nieces.It's one of the more expensive Barbie houses, so I thought I would never get one. I happened across one online recently and although it was a bit more than I would spend on myself,there were mysteries in the closet! There was only a little showing in the auction pictures, so I'm dying to see what's inside!

I'm already getting excited!

  I thought if I could sell the mystery items (I identified a couple in the auction pictures, but there are more lurking!), I might be able to pay for the house. I always loved that house, especially the sliding patio door! That was my favourite part!

The sliding door! And the handle isn't even bent on the outside!

When we made Emma a dollhouse one of the things I made sure was included was a sliding patio door! 

I'm hoping that one of these fur stoles goes to the Junior Prom dress that I spotted in the auction.

  And it  was! I think I just paid for my Dream House!

  And the good stuff just keeps coming.

I spy with my little eye Junior Prom,Enchanted Evening, Barbie in Holland,a red sheath dress,and Sophisticated Lady!

And the rest of Barbie in Holland was in the cupboard above the sink.(And the Spanish Inquisition was hiding behind the coal shed.) That's where I always keep my clothes.

Well now we know which Barbie this kid had.

I have to love the kid that owned this house. Look what they were using as a tv screen!

The Beatles card is taped to one of the original tv screens that came with the house.

  About the only thing I that can tell is missing is the base to the living room lamp, and, unfortunately, the other tv screens, including the one that made me fall in love with Larry the Lion!

Super minty Barbie in Holland, red sheath, and Skipper hat. Slight fraying on the Barbie hat.

The paper rug, which is the only piece I have left from our childhood Dream House, has no tears or dog eared edges.

  There is a bit of water damage, but mainly to the flap that will be covered by the bed when the house is set up. Set up where? I have NO idea!

  The furniture is minty. No bent chair or table legs. There's some tape on the house, but that looks like it may have been put on when they put the house together. The house seems to have been played with very little. Some of the walls and doors appear to have never been folded open.
  So I had a pretty good day!

October Reading Assignment #1: The Ghost of Dibble Hollow by May Nickerson Wallace

  I haven't done a book recommendation for a while.Over the summer I reviewed books set in the summer to read with your kids. In the month of October I'm going to review books with a little scare factor to them. Nothing too scary, because these are to read with your kids. (So I'll leave out The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright. It's a book I considered for these posts and Doll Books to Read With Your Kids,which I'll be starting soon, but rejected for both. It's a good book, but pretty gory. I think it's a bit much for some kids.) The books I'll be talking about are just scary enough to be fun, and usually they have some humor too.
  The first book I'm going to talk about HAS to come first. Ivy says it's one of our summer reads, and it's set in the summer. I maintain it's a Halloween read because it's a ghost story. So I figure I'll split the difference and review it now.
  The Ghost of Dibble Hollow by May Nickerson Wallace is my book equivalent of a one hit wonder. It was always one of my favourite books as a kid. I checked the Scholastic paperback out of the library more times than I can remember. Normally when I had a favourite book I read other books by the same author. But I never found another book by May Nickerson Wallace. The only thing I have been able to find out about her is that she wrote at least 6 books, the last apparently published in 1965, (which may have been The Ghost of Dibble Hollow.). She was alive into the 90's, but I suppose she was retired from writing. Her other books appear to have covered mysteries and books about children's adventures. Ghost of Dibble Hollow fits both of those categories.

  The story concerns a boy named Pug, who moves to an old family house in the country with his parents and younger sister. The first day they discover a feud has been going on for years between their family and the family on the neighboring farm, over some money belonging to both families that disappeared while in the hands of Pug's great uncle Miles. Miles was a boy of 10 at the time, and he disappeared along with the money.It's presumed that Miles ran away with the loot, but one night his ghost appears to Pug and tells the story of what happened. Pug must solve the mystery of where the money went,and heal the rift between the families, all the while keeping Miles' ghost a secret. Along the way he falls in love with his new country home, makes a friend, finds a secret hideout, and has adventures I know I would have loved to have as a kid. The book has humor and some ghostly happenings, but we get to know Miles, and he's a likeable character. The story of what happened to Miles is a little gory, but it's Miles telling it, so that kind of softens the effect. The story is a good mystery and a story of friendship, two friendships actually. It's got all the elements that make a great kid's book: mystery, adventure, a ghost story,secrets,humor,and great kid characters,(even if one of them is a ghost.). I would say the book could be for kids as young as 6 or 7 if it were read to them. If they are reading it on their own, maybe 8 to 10 would be a good age range. Ivy still likes to read it every year,and she's 13.  It's always been one of her favourite books too, so I've been able to enjoy it many times over the years! I asked Ivy if she had anything to add to this review and she said to say, "It's awesome!"
  Unfortunately Ghost of Dibble Hollow seems to have been out of print since the 70's. It's available online on Amazon and various auction sites, and if you're very lucky you might find it at a library sale or in a second hand book store. The average low price online seems to be about $15, but it's worth it.  

World Vegetarian Day

  Today is World Vegetarian Day. Since I've been  a vegetarian for the past 25 years I thought I would make mention of it. I won't go over all the moral reasons for becoming a vegetarian. I could show you all the cruelty photos and talk about that aspect, but it's like religion: If you aren't feeling it, no one is going to make you believe. It has to come from your own heart. I will only make a brief mention of the fact that with the world running out of space,it's 'food for thought' that according to the United Nations raising animals for food uses 30% of the Earth's land mass.It takes 13 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. Add to that the extra energy wasted transporting food to the animals and then transporting the animals to slaughter, and then the meat to processing plants and then on to stores. Cutting out the middle man and just processing the grains and vegetables in the first place makes more and more sense. There is also the health aspect. I think it's worth noting that I am a fat lady,(My metabolism was ruined years ago by pills I was given to level my progesterone.) and yet, pretty darn healthy. My Dad and my sister both had high cholesterol and high blood pressure by the time they were my age. All my levels are good. I had very slightly fatty liver last year from being overweight.But I lost 40 pounds so I am no longer ready to be pate'. 
  Ken agrees with vegetarianism morally, but he is, as he puts it, "a slave to his taste buds",and his favourite thing is Prime Rib. But when we talked about having kids he agreed that they would be raised as vegetarians, but would be given the choice when they were old enough to understand what eating 'meat' really means.I am proud to say that they are now 22, 18, and almost 14, and none of them have chosen to 'go over to the other side' yet! My Dad wasn't happy with the decision when Emma started to eat solid food. I also had to argue with our pediatrician when I had Emma. He told me he did not want her to be a vegetarian 'at this time'. I bluntly told him that whether he liked it or not, that's what was going to happen, so he might as well deal with it. He listed his concerns for the nutrition she would be missing, and when I had a substitute for everything, he finally said, "Well, you seem to know what you're doing." I was very careful with the kids' nutrition. I had the book 'Vegetarian Baby', and I made sure their diet was full of vegetables (My kids will mostly only eat them raw.), and whole grains, and plenty of protein, in the form of lentils and beans,tofu, and soy based artificial 'meats'. Happily, my kids have almost never been sick. They almost never get colds or flu. Not one of them has ever had an ear infection. (Breastfeeding is supposed to be a big help with that, so that may have been what protected them there.)I think Fuzz has thrown up 3 times in his whole life.They have been absent from school less days than most of the kids they go to school with.
  I do still eat dairy and eggs. I have a particular weakness for chocolate milk!But I haven't knowingly had meat or anything made with meat fat or meat ingredients for 25 years. You'd be amazed at the things you never think about containing animal products until you have to check all your food! Gelatin, (Indian and Asian groceries carry vegetarian safe versions. Beware though, they take a little longer to thicken, and they don't get quite as firm as the regular version.)and marshmallows are something you don't realize how much you'll  miss until you haven't had them for a while! Gelatin (in gelatin and marshmallows),is made from such things as horse hooves. Sound yummy?And watch that red colouring. You might be eating crushed beetles! (Carmine or cochineal colouring). We used to get some great marshmallows that were supposedly vegan, but, and the irony of this was not lost on me, THE FACTORY BURNED DOWN. Years later we found out they were cheating and using fish gelatin. (Ack!) The last couple of years we have found various vegan marshmallows that have had varying degrees of quality. The Sweet and Sara ones are great, but very expensive. Dandies were an alternative, but they weren't very 'puffy'. At first we thought it was because Emma carried them all through San Francisco under her arm! But we bought them again and they were the same way. They dried out and shrunk very quickly, even unopened. But they have obviously revised the recipe or something and now they are GREAT! Emma called me this summer. very excited, to tell me that Whole Foods now carries them and they were puffy and wonderful. She was absolutely right and I have been stuffing my face with them this summer.
   I eat a lot of  'fake meats'. I found I didn't like the gluten based artificial meats.Here is a list of my favourites.
For 'Chicken':
Morningstar Farms nuggets and patties
Verisoy drumsticks
Quorn Tenders (chunks) and cutlets (The Gruyere cutlets are good too!)
Loma Linda Frichik (Great for 'fried chicken!)
Loma Linda Fried Chikn and Gravy (I use it in my holiday loaf and it makes great 'chicken' salad.)
Loma Linda Chik Stiks (They taste a lot like croquettes.)
For 'Beef':
Morningstar Farms Grillers Original (for 'Hamburgers', or tacos)
Morninstar Farms crumbles (for tacos or stroganoff)
Loma Linda Linkettes 'hot dogs'
Quorn crumbles (VERY close to hamburger in taste and texture.)
Morningstar Farms Corn Dogs and Mini Corn Dogs (Fuzz's favourite)
For Pork:
Wham frozen 'ham' substitute (LOVE it! Creamed chipped Wham or Wham and cheese sandwiches!
Morningstar Farms breakfast patties (They also do link 'sausage' and maple and hot spicy patties.)
Morningstar Farms 'bacon'
Ken always loved the Loma Linda 'scallops'.
    The Morningstar Farms, Verisoy, and these particular Loma Linda products are soy based. The Quorn is what's called Micoprotein, and, don't gag, but it's a fungus. Remember, mushrooms are a fungus. Think of it that way. I can eat a whole cup of Quorn (Well, I can't, because it's too much!) and it's only 80 calories. The calories and fat content of soy 'meats' are way below the real thing. There is a slight amount of cholesterol because alot of them contain egg whites for binding.Also, there tends to be a lot of sodium, so don't eat too much of them in close succession.The products I mentioned are, to me, the closest in flavour to real meat. As you can see from my choices, I lean toward the chicken side of things. I think I always preferred chicken, turkey, and fish to beef anyway.I'm still waiting for someone to make fake 'tuna fish' that tastes good and doesn't smell like cat food! Morningstar Farms makes a lot of different burgers, but Grillers Original are the best 'burgers' they make, in my opinion. The burger crumbles are pretty much just as good though. I use either to make tacos. Other than not being as greasy, it's very like the real thing.
  Verisoy 'chicken' is hard to find and only available in Asian groceries, but the 'drumsticks' are very like the real thing, (Only with a stick instead of a bone!), even down to the somewhat sticky texture of the 'skin' when it's fried. Emma and Fuzz love them. Ivy doesn't like much food at all, so don't go by her! She only eats Morningstar Farms 'chicken' nuggets. My only problem with the nuggets and patties is that they are all breaded. Sometimes you need unbreaded 'chicken' to cook with. That's why I was so excited by Quorn. The cutlets and tenders are unbreaded and can be thrown into recipes where you would use regular chicken. I throw them in Indian food,noodle things,all sorts of things.They're also good in a sandwich with mayonaise! A tip though, Quorn can be a bit dry, so always have a drink handy.
  There are other non specific things that are also great, but not copying any particular type of meat, like the Morningstar Farms Pizza burgers.Emma highly recommends Gardein products.
  Morningstar Farms and Quorn are available frozen in most grocery stores, at least around here.I can't get Linkettes 'hot dogs' around here any more. Emma shipped them to us when she was going to film school in San Francisco, but now that she's back here we will have to order them by the case. They are totally worth the trouble though. They are the closest to real hot dogs that I have found.
  We used to be lucky enough to live very near the Worthington Foods factory, which makes Loma Linda and Morningstar Farms foods. We shopped at the factory outlet store until they were bought out by Kellogg's and the factory was moved to Michigan.Famously vegetarian Paul and Linda McCartney had food shipped to them in large quantity from the factory outlet too.
   Our Trick or Treat night tradition is Crescent Dogs,(Linkettes, with or without cheese, in crescent rolls.), because they were something quick and filling when I was busy finishing last minute costume stuff before we ran out for Trick or Treat. On Christmas mornings Ken's mother always made them eat before opening presents, so she made them Sausage Rolls. These are sort of the English version of crescent dogs. So on Christmas mornings Ken would never let the kids come down until he made the 'fake sausage rolls', out of Loma Linda Big Franks.On Thanksgiving and Christmas I have always made 'Meatless Roast'. The recipe comes from a cook book by Linda McCartney, but was originally sent to me by a vegetarian friend, with her adjustments. I made adjustments of my own, and even my Dad had to have some every year!There also nut loaves,and all sorts of things to replace that turkey or ham at holidays.Just replacing one meal a week with a vegetarian meal will save you lots of calories and fats in the long run, not to mention the animal lives it will save
.  Alot of people feel they couldn't survive without their meat because they love the taste. It takes a strong will to give anything up. I loved turkey. I ate tuna fish on a regular basis. French onion soup(made with beef broth)...mmmm. When I went vegetarian I thought I might cheat and have some fish if I ever went to England again, because the fish was so good. After I had been a vegetarian for a while the thought disgusted me. I went through stages where the smell of cooking meat made me sick, then I could ignore it. Now I just think it stinks. I am never tempted to eat meat. The thought that I would be eating the body or organ of an animal just seems barbaric to me now,and I was raised on a farm where I watched my mom wring the necks of the chickens we had for dinner. (Although somehow I'm not sure I connected the chickens she killed with the food on my plate.Seems amazing to me now, but I don't think I did.We had certain chickens that were our  pets, so I'm not sure how that works. When I was a little older my dad shot a pheasant and mom plucked and cooked it. I refused to eat it, hating that the beautiful animal I had just seen walking around  in the field was now dead, and it was our fault.Oddly enough,I was allowed to refuse. Normally my mom came to the table with a paddle or a switch to 'encourage' me because I wasn't much of an eater.)
  You probably eat vegetarian sometimes and don't even realize it. That ravioli, or fettuccini you had,that omelet ,macaroni and cheese, bean burrito. They're all vegetarian,or can be.The next time you go to a Chinese restaurant, try ordering bean curd (tofu) homestyle or braised bean curd. It's delicious!

Why 'Planet of the Dolls'?

  Ok, so you love your dolls. But do you sometimes feel a little overwhelmed? This blog is called Planet of the Dolls because, yes, it's a play on Planet of the Apes, which is one of my obsessions, (Yeah, I'm a science fiction nerd.), but also because sometimes it feels that way.My house, I mean. I love the movies "Magic", and "Dead of Night", which both have ventiloquist dummies that 'take over' their 'masters', and although I never liked the "Child's Play" (Chucky) movies, I did enjoy "Trilogy of Terror", with Karen Black being attacked and (Spoiler) eventually possessed by a Zuni warrior doll. In this house we have always said that those type of movies should be the most terrifying for us, because there are so many dolls in this house that if they came to life there would be no way we would come out alive. It would be like a plague of locusts or something! Kind of like the scene in "Small Soldiers" where they are fighting the Barbie type dolls that have been brought to life by the soldiers.
  Every now and then I look through my stuff and see what I can possibly live without, in an effort to thin the crowd. When I do this though, I usually end up weeding out very few dolls. I find myself using arguments like, "Well, these two aren't exactly the same." or "This one is so small, it really won't make much of a difference anyway." I recently went through about 4 boxes, (They were small boxes.), of Barbie sized and Kelly sized dolls to see what I could get rid of. Well, I ended up eliminating about 2 Barbie sized and three Kellys. Pathetic.  I've heard of the 'when a new one comes in and old one must go out' rule of doll collecting. I have a hard time with that one. Everything I have I got because I really like it.I rarely change my mind. That's why I have things I've had since I was a kid. I liked them then, I like them now. That's why Ken's fairly safe. I liked him enough to marry him in the first place, so he's not going anywhere.Now recently we made the buy of the century at an auction. I ended up keeping dolls that I hadn't even seen before, let alone been after for ages. These I question, and I may eventually send some of them packing. For now though, I have a Flirty Christina, a weird looking Ratti doll with freckles, teeth, and a somewhat creepy grin, and some others that I might not have even had a desire for had it not been for that darned auction.
  Ken complains that I have too much stuff, but then he goes and buys me more. You're just enabling me Ken! And he spoils me. He needs to learn to put his foot down and say no once in a while. When I whine at the checkout and want that candy bar, (Read: swear that I can make my money back if I bid on that Ebay lot and still keep what I want.) he needs to take my hand and lead me out of the store, (Read: tell me we absolutely can NOT afford it right now.) But NO! He just says, "I trust you. Go ahead. Just don't spend more than X amount of dollars." What can you do with a husband like that?! (In case you're wondering why I defer to Ken on the spending,it's because I make some of the money around here, but it's a drop in the bucket. I've been an at home Mom all these years and I am only starting to try to build a business with my hand made dolls and furniture.)
  I sometimes think, what if we had a really big place, and we could open a doll and toy museum? That would be really cool, and I could keep all my stuff and see it when I wanted to, but it wouldn't be in my way all the time.Well, I can dream, can't I?

Play line Disney Store Brave Merida doll review

 First of all, during a trip to Rural King yesterday for dog food I spotted a couple of things I thought I'd mention. They had some things called 'crystal lamps', which look sort of like Lava lamps for 18" dolls, only instead of liquid with a glob floating in it, there are 'crystals' and when the lamp is turned on different coloured lights go on and off inside. They're battery operated, so they could easily be used in a doll setting without a gigantic cord showing. The other thing was a Bratz doll that is slightly larger than normal. (We don't do Bratz in this house generally. They were always too sleazy looking for my tastes, and I didn't want my girls playing with them. There have been two exceptions. One is my Bratzilla with the red hair and realistic eyes, and Ivy's glow in the dark bathing suit girl. That was comparatively recent, so she was older and didn't actually do anything with her except watch her glow, which is her currant obsession. Glow in the dark that is, not watching the doll.) Anyway, these Bratz dolls were probably slightly taller than a Barbie, and the box proudly proclaimed, "I'm taller". I'm not sure what the advantage is supposed to be. They can't wear any of the regular Bratz clothes, so they'll need a whole new wardrobe. And they'll look like giants amongst the other dolls if the child has regular sized 'fashion dolls'. They might hang around with a Moxie Teen I guess. They aren't even extra articulated or anything. They didn't even have jointed elbows. Just saying.
  So, that said, I'll move on to the point of this post. Our anniversary was Monday and one of my gifts was a Merida doll. I had been "pointing out" to Ken that they were on sale for $5 at Meijers and he actually bought one.

 

And here's the back of the box.

That hair looks pretty impressive. I wish it really did hang like it does in the picture.

She's normally $9.99.The box is simpler than the box for the one I got at the Disney store earlier this summer. This one was way easier to get open, and it wasn't necessary to tear the box up either. All I had to  do was slit the tape on the sides and pull the back down.

 

 

Then I was able to get at the various ties and things holding her in place. There weren't as many of those either. And let's face it, why does doll packaging have to be like breaking into Fort Knox these days? I understand that because there are so many more dolls to choose from, and stores are so big that employees can't watch everybody, that they can't do the open shoebox type boxes Barbies, for example, used to come in when I was a kid. People would be stealing things and switching boxes all over the place. But so much paper and plastic is wasted in making impossible to infiltrate packaging, and then it all ends up in land fills. This doll's packaging is a bit better. There were only a couple of those plastic ties holding her head in place, a couple of threads on her hair, which could be cut or untaped on the back of the box, so her hair wasn't in danger. The bottom of her dress was held in place by merely poking it through a couple of slits in the cardboard, and her ankles were held by those clear elastic thingies.So removing her from the box was fairly easy. Parents would be needed to slit the tape on the edges and cut the plastic things in her head, but that's about it.

             

 

After that all there was to do was lift the backing up and there she was.

 

Freedom!  She comes with a little gold comb, but no other accessories.

Her hair is nice and full in back. I didn't even have to recomb it to fill a space from being hooked in the box.

Her hair is full, with no bald spots. Its also super soft, not stiff from hair spray. I'm not sure how long the curl would last after a child has combed it a few times, but I would think it would look better after combing than the Disney Store girl's hair. She has loads of hairspray, and combing the hair would ruin the 'do I think.

You look vaguely familiar. Do I know your mother?

Speaking of the Disney Store doll, here they are together for comparison. New girl is slightly shorter. Her hair is slightly lighter. Her face is WAY different too. D.S. Merida looks a lot more like the animated version, with that attitude on her face and the...uhh, unusual eyes. New Merida is also a lot paler than D.S. Merida. She's almost ghostly white, in fact. She has a more traditional 'pretty' look about her, with her little rose petal mouth and softer eyes with long painted lashes.

You know what? I like D.S. Merida better!

 

New girl is also less poseable than D.S. Merida. She's jointed at the shoulders, neck, and hips only. So she can tilt her head a little, and her swivel shoulder joints allow her to do slightly different arm poses.

One palm up and one palm down.

Other than the lack of jointing I was also disappointed that her knees don't even bend. They're hard plastic like the legs on the ballerina Barbies with the coloured plastic legs. She has less joints to break all around, which does make her a good doll for a younger child.

At least she can sit in a more ladylike way than D.S. Merida.

She does have some cool shoes though. Ivy likes them too. Here's a close up.

 

And the back.

They're open in the back so they're easier to slip on and off. But the rubber belt could have been better.

 Why couldn't it have been cloth? That certainly couldn't have added to the cost much? Think how much better that would have looked.

  All in all I like her, but I prefer the Disney Store Merida. I wish D.S.'s hair was as soft as this one's hair. But I like the face and clothes better on D.S. Merida, and the fact that she has a lot more poseability. This doll is a better choice for a younger child, or a child who is harder on dolls.

That's it. Bye for now.

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...

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

  I wrote earlier this summer about my crazy neighbors and how they were making my life miserable. That was a lot of my summer. Our garage was in bad shape, so we had to take that down.

This is what a two car garage looks like when you cut it up and stack it neatly (sort of.).

  Fuzzy nearly got his throat slit undoing the garage door. Apparently you have to unhook something to loosen the tension before you undo the spring...or something. I had been freaking out, telling him to get his head out of the garage door before something happened. But of course, he's 18, so he just said, "Everything's FINE." and went on. The next thing I know he's in the kitchen with blood pouring out of his jaw.SEE?! Why does nobody listen to me?! Ken took him to the emergency room and he got stitches. He had a couple of nicks in his neck too, and it chills me to think that if the cuts on his neck had been as deep as the ones on his jaw he would probably have bled to death before we could have gotten him down the street to the hospital.
  Ken also kept trying to take the garage down from INSIDE it. Who is that crazy? I was in a constant state of nerves until the thing was down.
  Anyway, now that the garage is down I have to look at even more of my neighbor's ugly fence, (That thing looks like it belongs behind a convenience store.)AND their stupid sign:

  'No leaning'. I like to go out in the yard and do this...

Danny Kaye defying gravity in "Wonder Man".

...and there's not a thing they can do about it!
  Seriously, what is the deal with that sign? I mean really. Did they think I was going to squeeze behind my garage, in the foot and a half between the garage and their monstrosity...I mean fence...with my nose to the fence---because that's the only way I could have read that sign. They have another sign on their front gate...the one with the padlock on it...which says '...and do not touch the fence'.Why do they think I have an obsession with touching their fence? Personally, I was glad they put it up, (Apart from the fact that they jumped the property line. But we won't go there. They will, but we won't.), because then I didn't have to look at them, or even pretend to be friendly. ("We hope you don't hate us." Well then why do you do so many things to MAKE me hate you?) I just want to ignore them, and have them ignore me,but they keep making that impossible.I mention the padlock because of it's weirdity. They bother to padlock that gate, but if you go around to the other side of the house to the driveway, or to the back of the back yard,you can just walk into their yard. (In the picture of the 'garage',that corner of the fence where the sign is, that's where the fence ends. There's no fence around that corner.) So what good does the padlock do? It's SYMBOLIC, obviously. They are locking us out. Like I want in. It's like the American flag they put on the side of their garage, facing us. Not on their house or even where they could see it properly, like a normal person would do. They put it there, kind of AT us, obviously a dig at Ken, who is from England.(Their way of saying 'Limey go home' I guess.)
  Every summer they do something to mess up our whole summer, and then lay low in the winter, feasting on their kill.("Ha ha, we ruined their summer again!")I won't even go into all the stuff they've done, like pouring trash cans full of poison into our yard until they killed the huge rose bush that had been planted in the 1940's, or putting a pile of 'cat food' in our yard (to poison our cat or someone else's?), or throwing glass into the other neighbor's dog pen, and then trying to sneakily feed the dog some 'left over noodles', or stealing a piece of the other neighbor's yard by fencing in an L shaped section by the property line because it's a rental and the people didn't know any better . Gad! For not going into stuff, that's a lot of stuff. All I did was have branches growing in their air space. (Ken questioned how far up the property belongs to them and when it becomes God's.)
  Apart from crazy neighbor problems there were the basement floodings and we're STILL disposing of the garage pieces. (Anybody want some free garage?) I am tired. I need the winter to recuperate.I'll need the strength. There'll be another summer next year...