Ch-ch-changes

Today in the United States, it's the Labor Day holiday, and Mr. BTEG and the Dancer are doing some serious laboring today. As I write this, most of the Dancer's furniture is being unloaded at her new apartment! Pretty soon, Mr. BTEG and I will have a truly empty nest, which means we're going to be doing a lot of re-arranging and moving things around. In the meantime, posting might be a little light (not that it hasn't been for a while anyway.) Things have been pretty crowded and stressful here, but it's going to be great to spread out and have space to do things that I have wanted to for a long time.

To that end, Mr. BTEG and I took the two hour and fourteen minute drive to our nearest IKEA, to pick up some furniture for the new work spaces we're planning on. When we arrived, the power was out, and only backup generators were in use. The lights were on, the cash registers worked, but there was no air conditioning, and not only was the restaurant closed, but all the freezer sections too. So we wandered for almost three hours through a warm building, with only a lukewarm soda to sustain me. I'm excited about the new tables and storage that I bought, but I also picked up the IKEA Huset.

I bought the bedroom set several years back, but I never owned this iconic set until now. It's going to stay packed until we get my doll area in its final set-up.

This Saturday, I went to a few garage sales and an estate sale. At the estate sale, I found several American Girl sets, including Samantha Parkington's nightstand.

Long time readers may remember that I already owned the nightstand, but the drawer knobs weren't complete, and the towel rack was missing. This time, all the parts were there, and it came in its original box, too. For $15, it was a fantastic find. I also picked up a few other AG sets, which I'll share with you soon. Some of it I am keeping, and some of it I will try to sell. I will also sell the old nightstand that I own.

I hope my Northern Hemisphere readers are enjoying the weather as we move into autumn. To be honest, it's been quite hot here the past couple of days, but that will change soon enough. And to you guys down under, spring is coming!

Vacation!

Yep, it's early in the year to have a vacation, but Mr. BTEG's employer paid for him to attend CodeMash again this year. CodeMash gives a yearly tech conference, based out of the Kalahari indoor waterpark in Sandusky, Ohio. There are a handful of hotels that offer overflow rooms, and one of those is Great Wolf Lodge, also an indoor waterpark, and just down the street. Mr. BTEG has attended CodeMash before; you can read a review about the waterpark and general facilities here. You can see a doll-sized 3D printed tea set that I had printed at CodeMash here.

We as a family have very fond memories of Great Wolf Lodge. The first time we attended was in 2004, and we've been back several times since. Since Mr. BTEG knows how much I love GWL, he booked his room there this year, and I hung out and used the waterpark, while he was attending classes and functions at Kalahari. So I had a lovely vacation from Monday night to Friday morning.

Great Wolf Lodge is really targeted more for younger kids. There are no large water slides or more adult-friendly only water activities at GWL. There are several storytimes, including one at night when kids get to come down in their pajamas. There is a "dance party" where they play kid-friendly dance music, and the kids bop around in their jammies.

There is an "interactive, live-action, roleplaying game" called MagiQuest, that is really slanted towards tweens and younger, although I have seen some enthusiastic roleplaying adults running around the hotel. There are various treasure chests, and interactive screens and so on, situated throughout the hotel lobby area's four floors, and there is a scenario that you go through, after you buy a "magic" wand to activate the items. There are also accessories like capes and swords available for purchase. My niece had a great time playing this back in September. She was ten.

There's also a small craft area, where coloring pages and other simple activities are offered throughout the day. It was fun to see that the chairs are the same as the one as I have in the doll-sized Ikea furniture set that I bought. For some reason, I forget to get a picture of the doll-sized chair back then, so here it is, and then the (small) human sized chairs.

Here's a picture of the waterpark, and of the giant water bucket that fills up and tips every so often.

There is a doll (figure) involved here! The gift shop at Great Wolf Lodge offers some of the World's Smallest brand items. This trip, I picked up a Totally Hair Barbie mini. Despite the name, this Barbie is definitely not the world's smallest Barbie doll. The mini original Barbie, that I got with the 40th Anniversary Barbie doll, is much smaller. The stand is a nice touch with Totally Hair, though.

There was also another figure involved in the trip, a 3D printed one. Thursday night, CodeMash paid Kalahari to keep some of their water attractions open late, and there was food and free beverages, as well as alcohol to buy. There were also a bunch of board games available in one of the conference rooms. Some of the CodeMash coordinators hid mini, 3D printed Baby Yoda figures around the conference area, and if you found one and turned it in, you got entered into a drawing to win a larger Baby Yoda, about a foot and a half high, or 31.75cm.  Mr. BTEG found one, but he didn't win the big Baby Yoda.

He did win an Artistic Achievement award in the Badge My InternetofThings Life competition. Badges were given out (run by an ESP32, if you're a geek) and people customized them. Mr. BTEG designed the 3D printed case, but he also created a program on the screen that Rickrolled other convention goers.

Lastly, I wanted to share this picture with my Australian readers, especially. It's a ride at Kalahari, that gives you the chance to surf, if you can get up on the board. Most of the people that tried it couldn't stand up. A few did a 360 in the wave; most just held on. It's the closest thing that we have to surfing here in Ohio, although I did have a Surf Ohio shirt when I was in my twenties. :)

I hope you don't mind this mostly off topic post! It's what has taken up most of my time so far this year!

IKEA Furniture

A couple of weeks ago, Mr. BTEG and I drove from our house on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio down to the IKEA in Columbus, to buy a bunch of items that we have been needing for quite some time. Since we did buy several big items, the drive was worth it, and it was also fun browsing, and picking up a few things here and there that we could also use. One of the things that found its way into our cart was the toy bedroom furniture set from IKEA, of course. :) While this set has been around a while, and there are lots of pictures out there, I wanted to show you my own pictures that I took. Plus, I've never seen who could fit in the bed when it is stretched out to full size, and I've always been curious to know how Barbie would look. That picture will be at the end. :)

Mini American Girl Kirsten told me that she was a natural fit to model this furniture, seeing as it is her size, and also came from a store that originally came from Sweden, just as she did. She also told me that if I brought her along on our next trip, she could teach me how to pronounce all the Swedish words everywhere. I dunno, we enjoyed making up wacky pronunciations, just for fun. Or trying to use the German pronunciation that we are used to, to pronounce some of the words, which may not be the right way to pronounce Swedish. Anyway, on to the pictures.

Okay, I don't remember furniture looking like this back in Sweden.

The bed comes with a comfy pillow, mattress, and blanket.

The bed also comes with a plush dragon. I would prefer my Sari doll, made for my size.

The wardrobe is a great height for me, and even has a metal rod where I could hang the clothes that I don't have.

Somehow, a picture showing the chair, that Kirsten is sitting on at the table, didn't make its way into my folder of pictures. Not quite sure how that happened! Anyway, the chair is just a little red chair, suited for dolls Kirsten's size. As I said, there are lots of pictures out there of this IKEA set. It's been around awhile. The colorful striped rug also came with the set. It's solid red on the other side, and is reversible.

The blanket that came with the bed can be problematic. It's a stiff felt type fabric, and doesn't have any drape. It has a giant fold on one end, as does the mattress, to accommodate for the fact that the bed can be stretched out, and wouldn't lay well over Kirsten in the bed, nor Barbie, for that matter. Of course, that wouldn't matter for most of the small kids this set was actually made for. :) My two daughters had Duplo dolls with furniture and bedding very similar to this when they were little, and exactness was not a concern to them.

I do have making more clothes for the mini AG dolls on my list. Actually, I thought it might be fun to try to make a mini version of Kirsten's spring outfit, since I do have mini check pink gingham. I also might now have to try to make mini dolls for my mini AG girls. The list just keeps getting longer. I did not know Kirsten could be so good at throwing shade.

And yes, when the bed is stretched out all the way, it does fit a Made to Move Barbie doll. Her head and feet come just to the ends of the bed, but she could sleep in it. It might actually be convenient for Barbie's Studio Apartment.

So is this picture going in the IKEA catalog?

I hope you enjoyed seeing my pictures.