Gifts from the Family

My daughter and her fiancé gave me the vintage Gibson Girl Barbie doll for my birthday last week. It's kind of a surprise that I didn't already own her, since I love Gibson Girls. I use it as one of my online names and one of my emails. However, as I pointed out to my daughter, when that doll line came out, we were newlyweds, and then most of our disposable income started going towards our children. :) I think her shirtwaist and parasol might have yellowed, but at least it all looks the same shade still. 

Then Mr. BTEG presented me with this pack of mini totes after his last trip to Costco. At first they were only available at DIY stores like Home Depot and Lowe's. Apparently they have become one of the "popular" items right now. Not only does Costco have them, but Dollar Tree does too. Some of Dollar Tree's come in pink. Some people are even making mini wooden shelving units for them, like the life-size ones that you can find in garages across America. The "human" sizes of black totes with yellow lids are used for storing all kinds of things here in the US. I also have some mini utility buckets a couple of the DIY stores put out that I need to find. I'll throw in a picture of a Barbie with a few of these bins to show size when I get pictures of the buckets.

I haven't been doing much with the My Collection posts, but I might as well add Gibson Girl Barbie to my list.

Total Dolls: 93

Independence Day 2026

Sadly, I didn't get any photos of dolls for Independence Day, but here are some photos of Cleveland's fireworks, as well as some of the surrounding area. This year we sat on the rooftop of the apartment complex where the Dancer and her boyfriend live.

This barge is typical of ones coming in to the Port of Cleveland. It had to anchor here until the fireworks were over.

Fireworks were going off in the distance before, during and after the city ones.

Here's the barge all lit up at night.

The small lights are private boats out on the lake to watch the fireworks.

I hope all of my readers in the United States had a great Independence Day!

P.S. If you've ever watched the movie A Christmas Story, you can see the red, white and blue building in the Cleveland skyline in that movie. You can also find the house used in the movie here in Cleveland, and even stay the night! Apparently the Terminal Tower (the red, white and blue building) can be seen in Major League also, which makes sense, as the movie was about the Cleveland Indians baseball team.

Cute Miniature Toys from Five Below

There are lots of cute characters that I love besides dolls, and I couldn't resist buying these cute little figures from Five Below at various times. It's nice that they can be posed with my dolls too. I chose Teen Skipper and Stacie sized dolls to model. They're about the right age/size to have these cuties on their bed or in the toy box. The fuzzy ones are cute as snot, but they have a tendency to look dusty. I'll have to keep on top of keeping them clean.

I've liked Strawberry Shortcake since since she first came out. The original Strawberry Shortcake is popular again, with her image on clothes, bags, hair clips, stickers, and of course toys. I think I still like her original iteration the best. This group of four appear to be Strawberry, Lemon Meringue, Blueberry Muffin, and I think Raspberry Tart.

Then there is a group of Winnie the Pooh characters. They were sold in sets of three, so I ended up with two Winnie the Pooh figurines.

Lastly I got these two stuffed Sanrio animals quite a while ago. One of course is Hello Kitty and the other is Cinnamoroll. These are more like actual stuffed animals, but they're rather big. Kind of like the ones that you win at a fair.

Even though these figurines aren't articulated, a child could still play with them like dolls. I'm going to either display these by themselves, or with my dolls as props. 

Easter Gifts: Minibrands Books Series Two and Make It Mini Cinnamoroll Stationery Set

Mr. BTEG went out the Saturday before Palm Sunday to get an Easter basket and fillings for our two-year-old great niece. He also picked up a few small Easter gifts for our daughter and me. Mine included two mini balls, one from the Miniverse Books Series 2, and one from the Make It Mini Hello Kitty collection. I was very thankful that all three of the books that I received were ones that I like. I posed the books with mini American Girl Caroline, as I thought she was the closest to a reasonable scale. She was the easiest mini AG to get to, but then I realized it was perfect for her, as Sense and Sensibility would have been published in her childhood. I also got the candlestick, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and a Hardy Boys book.

 

 

You can't tell which member of the Hello Kitty family you get until you open the ball, but Cinnamoroll is one of the ones that I like. This set seems to work well with the 8" Eden Madeline. You get a notebook to put together with included tabs and pages, a pencil case, a pen and ruler in plastic and cardboard packaging, and a cutting mat. The ball it came in can be used for display if you have the ball open. It's also cute with it closed.

These pictures are so poorly lit because I can't get to my photography table very easily right now, so I took them on my new craft table instead. I've mentioned before that Mr. BTEG and I have been rearranging rooms since our youngest daughter moved out. The master bedroom is becoming my computer/doll/photography/sewing/craft/art room. We finally moved our bed to the much smaller bedroom. Now I have to get the big bedroom organized, and move a few things left in the small bedroom to my craft/doll room. Here's a picture of my new computer and craft table set up, with my new doll display bookcases in between.

I hope you had a nice Easter holiday. We spent Palm Sunday with my in-laws, and Easter Sunday our daughter and her boyfriend came over for the day. It was all very enjoyable; I like spending time with family. We found out that we're going to have a new great-niece or -nephew later this year, which is fantastic!

I'm also announcing that I'm thinking about moving this blog to Substack. I won't charge a subscription; I just want to get off of Blogger. There's someone with an actual Blogger account who is spamming my comments every few days, and I can't figure out to block or report this person, nor can I get the attention of anyone at Blogger. I've tried WordPress in the past and it's not easy for me to figure out how everything works. I'll make an announcement here and post a link if I do make the move.

Bookcases and Catching Up

There have not been too many doll-related things going on here. Mr. BTEG bought me a couple of IKEA Baggebo bookcases to display some of my collection. They're a nice size for the 1/6 scale, leaving enough room for dolls to stand, but not so high that the bookcase gets too tall. So far, I have a couple of Barbies and most of my Rainbow High dolls moved in. Please excuse the lighting. I have to get better photography lighting into that room. 

Jaye mentioned on Instagram that there were some different styles of those jewelry boxes that also work as doll couches and chairs at a store called Home Goods. My store didn't have any, so Mr. BTEG also got me the couch and chair above from Amazon. I'm sorry you really can't see them very well, but they're certainly fine for doll furniture. The brunette Barbie is new. She's one of the Little Debbie Barbie dolls. She came with a straw hat and a cardboard bag full of cardboard Little Debbie boxes of snacks.

 

 

RM, we've had quite the weather up here. Last week, there were high winds for several days. A few big trees were knocked down, which led to our power being out for 25 hours. I'm so thankful for our generator. It's not one of the whole house ones, but Mr. BTEG was able to run our furnace with it, as well as a few important appliances. Then on Monday morning, we heard a very loud boom that seemed to shake our home to the foundation. Turns out it was a meteor exploding in our area and creating a sonic boom! I've seen some video of it; it looks like a shooting star, only in our atmosphere. It came what looked like rather close to the ground, but probably wasn't, before it self-destructed. I haven't seen for sure whether any of the pieces, or meteorites, made it to earth.

I guess I might as well mention my back issues here, since I'm talking about other things. Turns out I have arthritis degradation in my lower spine, which was causing the pain. I got an epidural block in the region, which has cleared up the pain quite a bit. I may need to get more as time goes on, but it's very easy procedure. MoonGirl, I hope your back problems get resolved as easily!

Pleasant Company Samantha Scenes and Settings

Mr. BTEG has been scrolling Facebook Marketplace for things for himself for several months, as a way to pass the time. He happened to see the long-retired Samantha's Scenes and Settings book for a good price, so we picked it up. This was a very large book made for each doll available at the time, which showed some of the important settings from her books, as well as the picture of her home on the cover, and a map of her local area on the back, as well as a few bits of historical information. It was meant as a way to enhance doll play acting out some scenes from the books. Samantha's book featured the kitchen of her home, her bedroom, her schoolroom, the ice cream parlor in New York City where she has ice cream with her grandmother and Aunt Cornelia, and Piney Point, which also figures in 2026 Girl of the Year Raquel's story. Some of the accessories that you could buy for Samantha, like her school lunchbox, her doll stroller with her teddy bear, and the basket and butterfly net she carries at Piney Point, are included in the images. For those not familiar with American Girl dolls, Samantha measures 18" (45cm) tall so you can see how large this book is.

I had quite a lot to say over at RagingMoon's blog about the new historical girls dressed in modern day clothes that are based on their historical meet outfits. I think the main thing I want to say is that history is important, play can be a good way to learn, and we shouldn't expect Mattel to carry on what Pleasant Rowland started as a passion project. I love reading, so I devoured books like the Little House on the Prairie series as a child, and liked to pretend that I was Laura. The old-fashioned school desk from my last post played a big part in the play. I will also point out that ironically, Rowland had to have had some decent funding behind her to start Pleasant Company. I've dreamed about starting my own line of historical dolls, but 1. Mattel would very likely sue and 2. There's no way I could get the money to get it off of the ground. Would any of you like to create a doll from another time?

Meet Elizabeth Gabrielle

My friend RagingMoon is a big Cabbage Patch doll fan. I don't collect them now, but I do have one from when I was a teenager. I told RM and fellow collector Treesa that I'd put pictures up of my doll when I found her, because she got mixed in with my daughters' toys. I finally came across her when organizing boxes, so here she is. Oh, and her name was given to her by me.

Originally, Elizabeth Gabrielle came in a gray tracksuit with green stripes and a cat on it, but I don't think I have that anymore. Her dress is Cabbage Patch brand, but the elastic in the sleeves is shot, and there were baby bloomers that were supposed to be worn with this, but I don't know where they are either. Her shoes and socks might still be around somewhere. I bought her apron at a craft fair back in the day. My daughter put the glittery pipe cleaners in her hair at some point when playing with her as a child. I also have a couple of photos that I took of her in 1986 when I was a senior in high school too. I like to think I was made to be a doll blogger from way back.

 

RagingMoon and Treesa, I'm sure that you know a lot more about my doll than I do, so I'm interested to hear what you have to say! Anyone else like the Cabbage Patch line?