Doll-A-Day 284: American Girl Samantha

  I'm feeling a bit better today, thanks to Emma agreeing to pick Ivy up from 'play practice' last night. That meant that I didn't have to take Ken to work to have the van, which meant I didn't have to pick him up from work at 2AM or whatever last night. With that sort of freedom, I took a hot shower, and took my carton of orange juice and my glass and went to bed not long after 9 o'clock. I totally conked out without even getting comfortable first. All that extra sleep did me a lot of good and while I still have a whopper of a cold, I feel much better than I did.
  Today's doll is American Girl Samantha.

She's by Pleasant Company, not Mattel.

Cute little teeth.

Samantha is one of my yard sale finds. If you've been reading the blog you might have seen her in the post from the day I got her. She cost me a whole dollar. That sounds great, but perfectionists would not like that she has had some of her fingers squashed.

You can see her hand problem here.

Her legs are a bit loose too, but that doesn't bother me very much.

Her legs are so loose she was having trouble standing up today.

I've had a lot of American Girls pass through my hands, but Samantha is the only one I've kept. I would kind of like to have a Saige, but unless I find one the way I've found the others, (at yard sales and thrift stores), I probably won't get one.

She's wearing a coat I got recently.

 It's actually a Bitty Baby coat, but it fits her pretty well. I love the toggle buttons. They don't stay buttoned very well though.

They kept popping open during her photo shoot.

It looks so warm and cozy.It even has a nice plaid lining. It was on a cheap baby doll at Salvation Army, but I could tell the coat was a really nice quality piece of clothing.

I have a thing about coats. I like to have coats for all my dolls.I like to feel everybody is warm.

The same baby was also wearing the brown Battat pants and the shirt, which is a different maker, but matches both the pants and the coat.Unfortunately, the kid wasn't wearing any shoes...

...forcing Samantha to hide her feet until she gets some brown boots.

Not long after I got this Samantha doll I found an American Girl Addy at Goodwill, and she was wearing Samantha's Meet dress. What are the odds?

The job of the day was raking leaves. We live on a corner, so the leaves (and trash) of everybody in the neighborhood end up on our property. The leaf sucker truck will be by sometime soon, although no one ever knows exactly when.So, I thought I had better rake my leaves the 4000 miles down the street to the front of our house where the leaf sucker truck comes by and vacuums up only what is left in the tree line. Except that they don't always come, so I might be doing all that work for nothing and just killing all the grass in the tree line AGAIN.As it was, I started feeling too lousy to finish,so with my luck the leaf sucker will come tomorrow.

How many American Girls have crossed my path? Let's see. There was the Molly from a yard sale,the Girl of the Year from a Goodwill,Molly and Josephina from Goodwill,Addy from Goodwill, Josefina from a yard sale,and Samantha from a yard sale, (My best American Girl buy. She had her tights, complete with runs, her Meet dress with the Bertha collar,and she was 75 cents. She did, however, have one arm off, and it was duct taped to her body.It took a lot of hot water, dish detergent, and scrubbing with a baby tooth brush to remove the tape residue. I reattatched her arm, but then her leg came off!I reattached her leg and her new owners were very happy with her.)

This Samantha has very silky hair. She just needed some combing when I got her to straighten it out. I did fully wash her though, and conditioned her hair.The other Samantha I had had crispy ends on her hair.Is it the earlier or later ones that have the crispy hair?

See you tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A-Day 283: Mystery Italian Doll

  Today is another quick post since I am still downed by the flu. I haven't had a cold or flu this bad in ages. I'm freezing, and just want to sleep. Emma's picking Ivy up from play practice tonight, so after this I'm getting in a super hot shower and then cozying down with my heating pad!(Not in the shower, of course! That would be bad...)
  Today's doll is an Italian doll, but that's about all  I know about her.

She's marked 1969, and made in Italy, and...Roo? Poo?Anybody know what this says?

She's got kind of a crazy eyed look about her, but she has freckles and buck teeth!

There's a dark place around her left eye that makes it look like she's been in a fight...

...and sleep eyes. That one is drooping from her black eye...
She's about 10" tall.

If anybody can identify her, please let's hear from you.
  I'm going to go revel in my illness now. See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 282: Mystery French Doll

  Just a quick post today.
Today's doll is this pretty little girl.

I don't know who she's made by, but she's made in France.

She's about 10" tall.

Anybody know who she is or who she's made by?

I'm betting this isn't her original outfit.
  See you tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A-Day 281: Pos'n Tammy

  Today's doll is Pos'n Tammy.

  She was made by Ideal in 1965, as the latest version of the Tammy doll.

  You may have seen her before, in a recent post I did about what I got at the flea market, which included her.

Here she is as I bought her. That dress is a little slinky for a Tammy doll.

She originally came in a red leotard with a big white organdy collar. Her box was made to look like a phone booth, because obviously if you were the new Pos'n doll the first thing you'd want to do is get on the phone and tell everybody about it.

"I can't believe this! I'm "Pos'n" now and nobody's home!"

This one's bow has seen better days I guess.

  She has a similar face to the other Tammy dolls that came before her, but her head is smaller, to match her smaller body.

She's slimmer than previous Tammy dolls.

The main difference though, is her bendy arms and legs.

She was running so fast the picture blurred!

 She's not called Posin' Tammy for nothin'!

 

  There was a previous Pos'n Tammy in 1964,who had the same old Tammy head as the earlier dolls, a braided bun, and only bendable legs. The bendable feature is sort of like Penny Brite's, with wires in thick, smooth plastic, and not rubber, like Tutti's. Fortunately, Tammy is way easier to bend than the hernia inducing Penny Brite.
  Our girl today has the same arms as Ideal's Glamour Misty, The Miss Clairol Doll.

Her hands are very detailed for being so tiny.

  We had Glamour Misty when we were kids. She was actually my sister's, but she eventually gave her to me.

My childhood Tressy, Glamour Misty, and 'Barbita', the former Swirl Barbie.

My favourite thing about her was her hands. They were so realistic and so graceful. But Tammy here goes her one better: when you pose her hands they can stay that way. 

 

 

  This Tammy, and the Pos'n Tammy that followed her have a page boy haircut none of the other dolls have.

There were several other Pos'n dolls in the line, including Pepper, Pepper's friend Salty, and brother Pete, and even a Pos'n Misty.

  This Tammy is wearing a nice dress that is, as far as I know, just a generic dress from the 60's. Does anybody recognize it?

It's too bad the pockets are fake because she could actually get her hands in them!

It has one snap in the front. The black parts are a very thin vinyl.
  Tomorrow we'll see another doll. Two more months to go in this 'doll-a-day' thing. Can I do it?

Doll-A-Day 280:Skipper Saturday: Blonde Twist and Turn Skipper

  This week's Skipper Saturday doll is this work in progress. She's a Twist and Turn Skipper.

When I got her she was completely paled out and a bit yellow. I faded the yellow with strong sunlight over a prolonged period of time. (I know you're not supposed to leave your dolls in direct sunlight, but in this case there was nothing to lose, so why not?)Then I pinked her back up a little bit with some watered down acrylic paint. She still needs some work: evening of her skin tone and blush. Plus she needs her lashes rerooted.

She's wearing Triple Treat, from 1970.

Triple Treat consists of the velvet pants and matching jacket, hot pink long sleeved shirt,dress with blue velvet skirt and multicoloured bodice that matches the waist band on the pants, and a scarf in the same multicoloured fabric,and a pair of blue flats.

I have paired them with the squishy hot pink Skipper flats to other outfits, because I like them with it, and because...I don't have the blue ones...

It's been super cold today and we even had some snow! It didn't stay and melted as it landed,but...BRRR!! The cold weather is here!

If she were real she would have definitely needed a coat today!

See you tomorrow for another doll.