My Grocery Giveaway Package

I was one of two people who won a prize in Xanadu's grocery giveaway. It seemed like it took the package forever to get here, but it was actually less than two weeks, which is not bad coming from Australia.

I also received my Cu-Poche Alice doll order today, and Alice insisted that her curious nature made her perfect for opening the box and checking out the contents. So here's Alice, and her thoughts.

I see.. um, another box.

I am hungry after my long trip!

This lid is on too tight!

Maybe I'll just go shopping instead!

I might need my Cu-Poche sisters' help to put this together!

I also got some cute clothes, that I suspected would fit my 10" Tonner dolls. The first was a hand-knit orange dress, with orange buttons down the back. There was also a pair of orange tights. The dress looks fine on Ann Estelle, and orange is the perfect color to wear here this time of year. The tights "fit" her legs and feet, but there is a lot of extra material pulled up around her waist underneath. Unfortunately, the tights were too thick to allow me to put her own shoes back on. There was also a pair of shoes in the bag, which don't fit Ann.

In another bag was a blue sun dress, or this could also be what we would call a jumper, since a blouse would fit nicely under it. It has a faux button closure over Xanadu's favorite, snaps (press studs.) There was a separate turquoise underskirt with a ruffled trim, too. In Xanadu's honor, I got my redhead, Sophie, to model these.

There was also a blue hand-knit cardigan sweater in this bag, with real buttonholes and buttons. Sophie can wear this, but it is not quite wide enough for her.

As I sat down to write this, it occurred to me that this cardigan might fit Meg, my Makies doll.

Alas, Meg is in several separate parts right now. I want to give her a face-up, and also find her a new wig, that isn't so long and cumbersome. I've been putting off the face-up because I was nervous about it. The Dancer, though, has gotten me interested in make-up for the first time in my life, and doing make-up on myself, has given me more confidence in making Meg's face look right. I'll be sure to update you, of course, when Meg is back to herself, and we'll see if the cardigan fits.

I also got this adorable pair of baby shoes and socks. These might fit my daughter's Bitty Baby.

And lastly, two more pairs of shoes. One is a rubber pair, that look like they came from a Frozen doll. They have the effect of being gathered to a flat sole underneath, which reminds me of my daughter's ballet slippers.

And a pair of black boots with black and glitter accents, and a buckled strap. I was hopeful that these would fit my American Girl dolls, but they are just a liiiiittle bit too snug to be able to pull up over the foot. :(

This is such a fantastic bunch of doll clothing and props! I'm so thankful to Xanadu for all these items, especially since some of them were most likely hand-knit and hand-sewn by her. It was a nice way to brighten my day.

Mattel Barbie Sewing Machine Desk

This set is one of those Mattel head-scratchers, or at least the distribution is. I saw it on someone's blog of new Mattel releases last year, and supposedly it was scheduled to be released for Christmas 2018. Mr. BTEG and the Dancer tried to buy it for me for Christmas, but couldn't find it. Early in 2019, I found it on Amazon, going for about $40. Then a few months ago, I saw it at Target for $9.99, and grabbed it. Mattel can be so weird at times.

So, this desk set includes the desk, with the sewing machine attached, the pink chair, a dress form, a measuring tape, two "thread" cones, three pieces of fabric, a tomato pincushion worn on the wrist, two hangers, a pair of scissors, a "fashion design" sheet, and a plant.

It's nice to finally have a realistic-looking machine in 1/6 scale, and the accessories are not bad, for Mattel. :) The machine will need some paint to bring out the details and make it look better, but at least it's not pink. The scissors don't open and close, and they're clunky. Wouldn't want to make the scissors much smaller for a kid's toy, though. The plant is cute, but kind of a "meh" accessory. I would constantly be knocking it off of my work space. :) This plant fits into a recessed circle on the desk.

The pincushion could also use some paint. The green leaves on top of the typical tomato pincushion are molded on, but not painted.

The desk would look nice with clothes hanging off of the hangers, but the desk can't be pushed all the way against a wall, because of the hangers sticking out. That's not awful, but I do keep wanting to push the desk up against the wall, and being stymied by the hangers. The dress form looks good from the front, but is only partially done in the back. It's also rather wobbly standing up. I haven't measured it to see if it is the right size for the Fashionista or Made to Move bodies.

The fabric has the feel of a spandex knit, but barely stretches. Each piece measures 3.5" x 2.5", or 8.89 cm by 6.35 cm. I really only like the polka-dotted fabric, but there is not enough there to do something meaningful with anyway.

The fashion sheet is weird. There's a hole in the top center, so you can hang it up on one of the two pegs on the "peg board" at the back of the desk. That makes the model in the middle odd proportionally to the other two, even if she is supposed to be petite. Also, the hole on the sheet is round, whereas the peg is slightly rectangular, with a rounded end. You can see by the slight wear around the hole, that I tried to get it on a peg, but didn't want to force it, as I was afraid that I would tear the cardboard.

This seemed like the perfect opportunity to share a Re-Ment sewing machine set that I bought quite a while ago. This set is number 6 of the March Comes in Like a Lion - Kawamoto Family Living Room series. In addition to the Living Room series, there seems to be at least a couple of other March Comes in Like a Lion group packs. These all seem to be somewhat related to a manga, which was made into a movie.

The main item in this set is a sewing machine, but on a slightly smaller scale than the Barbie one. Like several of the March Comes in Like a Lion sets, this one has a cat theme. There is a cat on the decorations along the bottom of the machine, and the brand of the machine is Nyanome. This is probably a take on the real Japanese sewing machine brand Janome, which means "snake's eye," based on the round bobbin that the founder of the company pioneered. Nyan is the Japanese version of the English "meow," but I don't know what, if anything, Nyanome means.

The Re-Ment set also came with a spool of "thread," a small basket holding a pincushion with molded pins, and a bag decorated with a cat face.

There is a sewing pattern, of sorts, included with this set. It's actually part of the small card that typically comes with Re-Ment sets, and since it's stiff paper, it won't bend very well, the way it is shown in official photos. I have no plans to use it, but since it does come with the other things, I wanted to show it.

What do you think of these two sets? Do your dolls do any of their own crafting, or design projects?

A Doll Blogger in the Making

I just got the opportunity to scan these photos, and they make me smile to see how I might very well have been a doll blogger if there was internet back then. I was very careful in my layouts, and of course I had to frame the picture properly when I took it, as there wasn't easy access to photo cropping tools back then either. These pictures are from January 1986, when I was 17 years old, and a senior in high school.

Here my Cabbage Patch doll is ready for bed. I wrote on the back of the photo that she was "6 months," so I must have received her for my 17th birthday in 1985.

And here she is seated at a desk down in our basement. It was an old-fashioned desk, with two seats, although the front seat did not have a desk. It looked rather like American Girl Samantha's school desk, with the wrought iron and everything, but ours had the extra seat in front. I'm pretty sure that's a real apple on the desk.

Here's a picture of Samantha's desk, when American Girl was still making nice stuff (did I say that out loud?) I got this from the American Girl Wiki page, but this is obviously a AG sales photograph, and not a personal one.

My sisters and I loved to play "old-fashioned" school with our desk. We especially enjoyed playing Little House on the Prairie school. The Samantha Parkington doll was released for the first time in 1986. How I would have loved the desk set even more if I had owned a Samantha!!

2000 Birthday Wishes Barbie, The Good, The Bad, and the Greasy

I have a Facebook account, only because I need one to be linked to for my LoveNikki online game. I found a local buy/sell account on Facebook, mainly because I want to sell my daughters' graduation gown. But I have to admit that I've also bought a few dolls from there, as well. Birthday Wishes Barbie from 2000 was one of them. I also bought a DC Super Hero Girls Wonder Woman at the same time for my youngest, as Wonder Woman is her "Queen" (as in Yaaassss Queen!) She's strictly not a doll person, but she does have a few dolls representing things that mean something to her, and she loved the Gal Godot movie. The seller and I met in front of the local police station; I paid in cash. It was all easy.

I will admit that I bought this doll mainly for the dress; I don't think I ever would have bought it online. The doll herself is just an old-school straight-arm Barbie, and her face and hairdo remind me of the 1950s Era Barbie (the one with the poodle skirt), only this doll has ringlet curls. I took a few pictures of the doll in-box, which I always try to do.

The dress is very nice (it doesn't hurt that blue is my favorite color.) The bodice is fitted and closes with three snaps in the back. The skirt is attached to a waist yoke, and also closes with a snap. There are lace gloves with a pink ribbon. While they're not beautifully done, I wouldn't expect that from a playline doll. They don't look like oven mitts, at least. Barbie is carrying a gift bag, and wears earrings and a necklace. Once I captured what Barbie looked like in the box, I opened it and began to remove the doll. Unfortunately, when I held Barbie's legs while working on getting the rest of her off of the cardboard, her legs felt greasy. I got the skirt off of the doll as quickly as I could, and realized that both her legs felt like they'd been dipped in baby oil. Yuck! I got everything else off the body, including the head, and then tossed the body in the trash. Maybe I could have cleaned it up, but I have no idea what that greasiness is, and I should be able to find another body for poor ringlet-curled Barbie if I really want one. This doll was made in Indonesia, which I thought had a better reputation for making Barbie dolls, but this one, for whatever reason, had something happen to her. One final note, this doll also came without shoes. I guess she was meant to stay in the box, which seems kind of silly for a play doll. It doesn't bother me much, because they would have just been the basic Barbie pump anyway, but I'm giving Mattel a D on this doll overall.

I did get one more picture of the dress for you, so that you could see it better. What better choice than one of my Cinderella dolls? She was happy to model such a lovely gown.

So, good thing that I only bought the doll for the dress, and that the dress wasn't affected by the greasy legs. I guess I got exactly what I wanted, in the end. :)

Romantic Alice Pullip

Alice was a birthday gift from my husband back in July, and I finally freed enough space on my worktable to get some pictures of her. Alice in Wonderland is a popular theme in Japan, and Groove, who makes Pullip dolls, has made several takes on Alice, with Pullip's friends filling in occasionally for other characters in the stories. For example, Groove has also made Romantic Alice in pink and monochromatic versions. And my Pullip Alice du Jardin is yet another "take" on Alice in Wonderland. Alice du Jardin is really stretching the Alice in Wonderland idea. Romantic Alice at least has a blue dress, apron and striped socks, even if the clothes are rather Lolita-esque. I took these pictures at different times of day with different lighting, so don't mind if the color in the pictures is all over the place.

Here is Alice, mostly complete. For some reason, Romantic Alice also came with a lace cape. It's pretty, even if you can't see it from the front very well, as it's not very full. However, Alice can't wear hers, because not only is the neck fastening super tight, but instead of a hook and eye, this cape has a hook and... hook. Luckily, it is an easy enough repair if you can hand-sew.

Alice's dress and apron have net, lace and tucks galore. She wears a chain with three charms: a teacup, a key, and a crown. Her necklace was "Made with Love."

Like other Pullips, Alice has an eye mechanism that lets her eyes look left, right and center. Rachael pointed out that with Pullip Alice du Jardin, her eyes seemed to go farther to her left than to her right. Romantic Alice's eyes seem to go a bit further.

A note about the brown hairbow: it's a pain. It came on the top of her head, with the lace ties wrapped around and around her neck. If you want to see her necklace, or put on her cape, or redress her, or whatever, the hairbow has to be tied at the bottom of her head at the back. Tying a top-heavy bow on a huge doll head that has lots of hair, was not fun. Maybe I'll put elastic on instead.

Even under the net overskirt on Alice's dress, there are tucks and lace, that you can't really see because of the overskirt. And I think this color is the closest to the color of the dress in real life.

A last couple shots of Alice, with and without her apron.

I think it's funny that the first doll I debut in my new roombox is really too tall for it. I will probably add more on top of the wood paneling, but I haven't decided what yet. Most of what I will be sharing pictures of in my next posts will be better sizes, although I do have another new Pullip in the queue. I should be able to improve my lighting for those, as well.

Grocery Giveaway Submission

Xanadu is giving away some doll-sized grocery items (in various scales) at her blog. She asked that you post an interesting pic of your dolls on your blog, and link back to her giveaway post. For some reason, I read it as her wanting pictures of tiny dolls, so I killed two birds with one stone. My Cu-Poche girls are enjoying a day at the beach relaxing, with a LORI patio swing that I've been meaning to share. It came with the lemonade pitcher, two glasses of lemonade, the tray, and the "grass" rug for the swing to sit on. Unfortunately, Little Red's big hair made it impossible for her to sit on the swing, so she's lounging on the grass with her lemonade.

This is really made for the mini LORI dolls, and similar dolls like the mini American Girl dolls, but I thought the Cu-Poche girls might look cuter with it. I think they do, except poor Little Red can't sit on it!

I have a huge backlog of new purchases to blog about, so stay tuned! I just finished up a nice new roombox for the photography. It doesn't take up too much space on my worktable, but it's large enough that I can feature a few dolls or items in it at a time. I finished covering the floor last night; I took this photo the day before.