Christmas Doll Gifts

I didn't have too many dolls on my Christmas wishlist this year. All I had was Licca dolls, because I wanted to check out the Licca and Jenny dolls from Japan, but I didn't get expect to get any. However, Mr. BTEG came through and got me two Licca dolls and one cute outfit.

 

The Licca on the right is dressed in a 60s motif. The fabrics she wears are mostly a sateen weave. The only thing that I dislike about her outfit is her cheap rubber shoes. Her belt is too long, but it does make it easier to get the belt through the buckle. The green ribbon she is wearing around her neck in the second picture is stretchy, and I assume it is meant to be another hair band. I didn't really know how to tie it or what to do with it, so I just put it around her neck so you can see it, and how long it is.

 

Our blue-haired girl is wearing a kimono type garment that seems to feature animals and motifs from a brand called Econeco. The only thing that I could find it in English associated with this name are coloring books, which do match the print on the kimono. She also comes with geta which don't want to stay on her feet, as is common with these shoes when the dolls don't actually have toes, a fan with two of the Econeco characters, and a plastic headband covered with fabric. 

 

 

Blue-haired girl looks adorable in the separate outfit. This has a sort of star theme, with stars on the rubber shoes, and on two rubber bands that I'm guessing go around ponytails or buns like she has. I didn't want to mess up her hair right off the bat by trying to mess around with them right now, so I just put one in her hand.

 

I've known for ages that these dolls existed, but I decided to add some to my collection when I saw how photogenic they are in Instagram pictures. Lots of collectors seem to put them on Obitsu bodies, but the bodies they come with are okay. They are rubber over wire, and they are sturdier than I would have guessed. I may put them on Obitsu bodies eventually.The outfits are a slightly smaller scale than Barbie, but they are nice quality, except for the rubber shoes. I'm looking forward to spending more time with these dolls, and adding a few more to my collection.

Happy New Year

I admit that I was very blessed this year. In addition to other things, I got six Rainbow High dolls for Christmas. Goodness knows between them and the dolls I received all the way back in July, I should have plenty of material for blogging, so that's a goal for the new year. My photography table is in its final place, even if everything else isn't, yet. I really want to re-join the doll world!

 I pray that 2024 is a better year for everyone in the doll blogging community who struggled in 2023.

Merry Christmas

I didn't intend to take December off; it just sort of... happened. Heading into winter is always an adjustment for me, just more so this year, I guess. Anyway, my family celebrates Christmas until January 6th, which some of you will know is Three Kings Day, or Epiphany. Therefore, I'm not at all late in sharing my Christmas gifts with you. :)

I received two dolls for Christmas this year. The first one is an Ever After High doll, Hat-tastic Cedar Wood, daughter of Pinocchio. I appreciate the time that Mr. BTEG and the Dancer put into finding a nice EAH doll from my list that wasn't super overpriced.

As was usual for the Ever After Dolls, at least until the last dolls produced, she has some nice accessories and fun details. The teapot and cups are because her character was at a tea party in this costume in the related animated series.

The next doll is one that I knew about ahead of time. I've been saying that I want more male dolls in my collection. I started watching a NRFB Tonner 16" Sean doll on eBay, and the seller promptly sent me an offer of $100 off. I asked Mr. BTEG if he would buy it for me for Christmas, and he agreed. So a little haggling later, Sean came home, and I got to open the box on Christmas Eve, when my family opens presents now. I've posed him with a Tonner Daphne.

 The last gift is merely doll-related, but also useful for all kinds of crafts.

It's a Cricut Maker, and I'm so happy to have it. Not only can the Maker cut out things like paper or fabric, it can also cut out slightly thicker materials like balsa or chipboard. I've been eying some Etsy listings that sell patterns you can use to cut doll-related things out on a Cricut Maker, so I'm looking forward to using them. It will take me a while to get up to speed on using this, and Mr. BTEG and I have to find somewhere to put it! Should be a lot of fun once I get the hang of it.

Merry Christmas to all of you, hope you got some doll goodies under your tree, and New Year's wishes for prosperity, health, and fun doll times for all of you.

 

Merry Christmas!

My photo shoot didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it, but here it is. And you can say we have a bit of a white Christmas.

I hope all of you are enjoying your day (or enjoyed your day, for my Aussie friends), no matter what your weather looks like!

My Collection Part Eleven: Hallmark Christmas Barbies

One of Coffee and Dolls' posts reminded me that this is the perfect time of year to take pictures of my three Hallmark Christmas Barbie dolls for the My Collection series that I'm doing. Hallmark is a chain of stores in the United States that sells greeting cards, collectibles, and holiday ornaments. They have made Barbie themed Christmas ornaments in the past, and also some Barbie dolls dressed for holidays. All of the dolls that I have also came with, appropriately enough, holiday greeting cards, which you'll see as a group at the end. Every item that a doll is holding is from my own Christmas minis collection.

The first doll is the Holiday Memories Barbie doll from 1995. Her costume is based on a Christmas card, that was included with the doll. She also came with a Happy New Year 1910 card. Barbie's hat, cutaway coat, overskirt and narrow skirt are pretty close to a 1909-1910 style. Her hair is styled with rolls on either side, to approximate a 1910s hairstyle. The rubber band holding her hair disintegrated, so I had to re-band it. I had a hard time getting a good picture of the back of her hair, possibly because of all the blond reflecting in the light.

Yuletide Romance Barbie is from 1996. Her style era is a little bit more nebulous, 1890s, maybe. Unlike my other two dolls here who wear boots, Yuletide Romance only wears green pumps. She came with two Christmas cards.

Holiday Traditions Barbie is also from 1996. She wears an outdoor outfit, maybe suitable for ice skating or a sleigh ride. She came with one card, bearing a picture of two purple-y roses, to match her costume.

Here are all the cards that the dolls came with. I honestly don't know now where the two cards that fold over came from. The only cards I saw in pictures of the dolls for sale, that I looked at to remind me of their names and years, were all the flat ones. I have a Hallmark Valentine's Day Barbie, but I don't think I have any other Christmas dolls that would have come with cards.

I want to get a modern day doll-size living room with a tree set up before Christmas Day. We'll see how that goes!

Total dolls: 44

LOL Surprise Dollhouse Take Two

In one of my original posts about a LOL Surprise dollhouse that I made for my friend's daughter, I said that there were two little girls I knew who liked the dolls. The other is my niece, and although I wanted her house to be ready for Christmas as well, I kept putting it off. To be fair, we didn't get to see the extended family and exchange Christmas gifts until March. Some of you will remember that the entire BTEG family had a yucky cold through the Christmas holidays, and so we didn't want to spread our germs around. Then came a joint birthday party for the niece, and great-nephew, who have birthdays very close together in January. The three of us wanted to go down to Youngstown, OH for the day, but I think we were still a little wiped out from illness, and the high that day was about 16 degrees F, or about -9 C, so we were a little uncertain about taking a long trip in that kind of cold, anyway. Finally, Mr. BTEG's sister threw a surprise birthday party for her husband, earlier this month. Their daughter is our niece, who was getting the house. We made it to the party, and after most of the partygoers had left, their family and ours exchanged very belated Christmas gifts. Now, let's talk about the house.

I had some good ideas making the furniture this time around. Above, you see Stacie sitting next to what the store called plaques. I'm pretty sure these are generally used for decoupaging or painting or adding some sort of decoration to the front, to make a sign or message to hang on your wall. I painted these, added foamcore rectangles covered in muslin to the flat top, and they became beds. You could add a headboard, footboard, and feet, too. Of course, these particular pieces are only good for very small dolls.

Below you see the house in progress, and in front, a bathtub, chairs and a table. The bathtub and table were originally a box with a lid. The box itself became a bathtub, and the lid got legs added to it to become a table. The chairs were from a hobby store. I attached two beads to the "bathtub" for knobs, but I couldn't get a piece of wire to stick well enough for a faucet.

My work was not the best, but I used four pieces of balsa to make a couch with armrests, then painted it and attached four beads to the bottom for feet.

And below, the house completed and given to my niece. I had a hard time attaching the brick scrapbook paper strips to the front of the house. And I wasn't able to do careful cutting to the blankets that I sewed together with white fabric to make a blanket and flat sheet, and they weren't the same size. I ran out of time through procrastination (how often do crafty people do that?) I also learned that cardboard can warp a lot more than I thought it could, and that it was hard attaching something else to the sparkly scrapbook paper that I bought. But my niece got excited just taking the furniture out of the bag we presented it to her in, and was thrilled with the house. That makes it definitely worth it. She opened the two genuine LOL Surprise dolls that we also gave her and started playing with it right away. I hope she has fun dolly times with it.

Twelve Days of Christmas - Day Eleven: Madame Alexander Travel Friends

The BTEG family is very interested in foreign languages. Mr. BTEG studied Latin, German and Attic Greek, as well as being exposed to Italian growing up. I studied German and Spanish; Mr. BTEG and I went on a college trip to Germany together. Several of the ornaments on our Christmas tree have greetings in another language, so I thought they would be good for a photo shoot with a couple of my 8" Madame Alexander Travel Friend dolls.

My Germany doll poses with an ornament that says Merry Christmas in German, French, Italian, Spanish and English.

My Italian doll poses with an ornament that came in a series. There are only three ornaments; each has a boy and girl in representative costumes of the chosen country. Each says Peace on Earth on the front in the given language, in this case "Pace al Mondo." All three ornaments say Peace on Earth in English on the back.

Italy was the first one in the series, then Spain, then Poland. I really wish that they would have continued this ornament line longer. Only one day left of the Twelve Days of Christmas!