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.

2016 Tonner Convention Day One

Meg was eager to take her first long trip with me. She had to settle for sitting in the front passenger's seat after I explained I needed to be the one to be doing the steering.

I didn't get to Columbus in time for the afternoon registration, so the first event was the dessert event at 7:00 PM. The doll featured here was the DeDe Denton doll. There was a DeDe Denton doll centerpiece which one person at a table could win a chance to buy. Each attendee also received a basic DeDe. Half of the dolls were blond, half were brunette. Interestingly, the doll's name is spelled DeDe everywhere, except on the box we received the doll in, where it is spelled DeeDee. DeDe comes on Tonner's 17" athletic body. She is the granddaughter of DeeAnna Denton, whose story was that she was the socialite heiress daughter of a man who'd made his fortune selling Denton chewing gum. I'll be taking pictures of the doll I received soon; she's going on eBay, as I don't want her. Nobody at our table wanted the centerpiece doll either. Actually, my table is interesting. Everyone at my table is attending her first Tonner convention, except for our hostess. There is also one guy who seems to have been to other events. The person to my left used to be a dealer, apparently, back in the days of Betsy McCall and Magic Attic. She also collects American Girl, but misses Pleasant Rowland's passion for the line. The person to the right is a fan of Tonner's Wilde Imagination products, and doesn't really know much about his Tonner doll range. The grandmommy, I mentioned to the former dealer, and another woman at my table, your adventure of finding a Magic Attic doll in your backyard!

The centerpiece doll was very nice. Just not anyone at my table's cup of tea.

The theme for the evening was "sparkling white." I wore a white tee, and dressed my Tyler in white. When people saw me taking my Tyler out of my bag, they were confused and thought she was the event doll. One of the things I like about Meg, who also came along as my travel doll, is how so many Mattel Barbie and family clothing pieces fit her, so she's easy to find clothes for. She wore a Teen Skipper camisole and blouse, with the denim pants she's worn before.

Here's a couple of pictures of the room where we had dessert. I assume we'll be having all of our meals in here.

The last event of the evening were a couple of videos, and a slide show. We got to see Robert as the anchor of DNN, the Doll News Network. He talked about the new Barbie bodies, merely presenting the pros and cons. He also talked about the Lammily doll line. Some of the attendees were surprised when I assured them that the more, um, controversial accessories of the doll line are real.

Tonight was also the night Robert gave an overview of his 25 years as a doll maker. Here's one of his first displays at Toy Fair.

Here's what I believe he said was the first vinyl doll he produced.

He also talked about how well dolls with a famous story, such as Alice in Wonderland sell, and talked about his various licensing deals.

I only have one quibble, which is the way we got dessert. Tables went to the dessert line, in a group, one by one. We were one of the last tables to go up, if not the last. By the time we got to the dessert table, most of the plates of desserts were completely cleaned out. Robert also started the door prize portion of the evening while we were in line.

The best things about the night, from my point of view? Each child under 12 got a doll as a door prize. I'm not sure what doll they got, though. Either it was not announced, or I missed hearing about it in the hubbub. In a not related to children category, they were not stingy with the champagne which was served with the dessert. I'm not a champagne drinker, but I think it speaks well of an event when food and drink are plentiful. At least in this case, the drink was. One advantage of our table was also that we were right next to one of the stations serving ice water.

I already picked up a few things in the sales rooms, and we got a few nice things with the registration materials. I'll probably do a post showing my total "loot" when I get back from the event. I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow's events bring.

Only Hearts Club Dress on Barbie's Little Sister Stacie

A lot of my time and energy right now is going towards the Tonner convention, which starts on June 2nd! I've also cut out doll spending so I can save money to buy things at the convention, and at the doll show which is the last thing taking place, on June 5th. I'm planning on doing blogging from the convention, hopefully putting up something new every day, describing the events.

In the meantime, I decided to throw up this post, for which I took pictures ages ago, and never put up. I know several of you have Stacie dolls, so hopefully you will find this review interesting.

This outfit was made available to buy separately. It consisted of a dress, bolero jacket, shoes and purse. Because of where the waistline is on the dress, this dress does not suit the J-Doll, as some of these OHC outfits do. Stacie looks cute in it, although she has to wear her own shoes.

I think the purse which was supposed to come with this outfit was made in the same fabric as the bodice of the dress, but I got this purse instead. This purse came with another OHC dress, which I have reviewed previously. I totally missed my chance to put this outfit on eBay as: RARE ONLY HEARTS CLUB OUTFIT WITH MISTAKE PURSE!!! :)

Even without the jacket, the dress fits Stacie well and looks nice.

On a hunch, I tried the purple shoes, which came with this outfit, on one of my older Barbie dolls, and they fit! Of course, I don't think they suit Barbie's style very well. They're a bit clunky for a grown-up doll, I think.

One more thing to add. I tried going to the old Makies website to see if there was any new information there, and the site is no longer secure and safe to visit; I got a warning message. I'm hoping this simply means the company will be going with a new website once they open back up, but I don't think it's a good sign. :(