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!

Asian Lantern Festival, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo July 22nd 2023

This year I took Mingmei along with me. She posed with this creature guarding the entrance to the zoo, which traditionally is said to protect Chinese buildings. It's called a fu dog, among many other names. I also took a picture of the entrance by night.

Mingmei and I took turns in an oversized Adirondack chair.

Mingmei liked this lantern, because she looked like another doll.

She also wanted to pose with a blue flower, and a row of stars, suns and moons.

The large display in the lagoon this year was a dragon boat.

 

Of course, we saw some animals. Here is a snow leopard, a swan family, and elephants. My camera has a fantastic night setting.

We also saw some wolves this year! The wolf enclosure is attached to a log cabin, which holds a fish tank, some places to sit, and some information about the 1925 Nome Serum Run, featuring lead dogs Togo and Balto. Balto and his team have a Cleveland Zoo connection. The back of the log cabin faces the wolf enclosure, which has large clear windows. As we were there around dusk, the wolves were apparently coming out to move around. These are Mexican wolves, so they don't look as enormous as wolves from further north.

Once again there were several displays with light and movement. This group of butterflies and vines was part of an open tunnel.

Lastly, here's a picture of the vast difference between lantern displays by day, and by night. Of course, these umbrellas are also colored differently by night.

Mr. BTEG and I enjoyed it, although we will never go on a weekend again if we can help it!

Early Birthday Dolls

 

 

Technically, these aren't birthday gifts, since I bought them all myself. However, it was serendipitous that the Pullip doll arrived today. I would have preferred her to arrive earlier, since I pre-ordered her in March, but shipping has been an issue with Pullips for a while now. Avery and Natasha were on sale for good prices during Amazon Prime days. Natasha has been on my wishlist, but I only bought Avery for all the extra clothes and accessories. Once I sell Avery, I should make most of the money back that I spent on the set. I have a lot of new doll reviews to do now, and maybe more after my birthday tomorrow! :) I went through some difficult times recently, so I wasn't interested in doing any doll dioramas or crafting, but I find new doll reviews easier to do.

Rainbow High Emi Vanda

This doll was my Mother's Day gift from the Dancer. I don't have many pictures of her. The lighting was weird, and honestly I'm not quite feeling this doll. She needs a lip repaint (I hate lips lined in a different color from the lip color.) She also has some body stains from her black top, and a pink stain on her leg, which is a little more of a mystery. I like her eyes, and I like her hair, so maybe with new lips and re-dressed, she will really grow on me.

She stands quite well in those boots on a regular surface. On the cardboard this room box is made out of, it was a bit more of a chore. There are still some of those little stupid plastic ties on her top, but I didn't bother to cut them off, since I took this top off of her immediately after the pictures.

And her skirt hangs kind of funny because... there's a mistake where the yoke is stitched to the pleated skirt. In this picture, she's wearing a crop top that came with her second outfit.

Here she is wearing the crop top and skirt of her second outfit. She's barefoot, because her second pair of shoes is awkward to put on, so I just skipped it. The shoes came with socks, which is just weird, but there are several cases in Rainbow High dolls where high heels come with socks. Maybe it's the latest style for teens? I also notice many of the RH jackets have a slit or cut out area on the arms. I really like her second skirt. Maybe because it has a sort of 80s vibe?

Her other shoe has an R as the heel, of course.

She came with a short sleeved hoodie to wear over the crop top, and two hangers, which was a feature with newer dolls. I tried to put the hoodie on over her top, but, remember when you were a little girl and your mom was putting your coat on over a long sleeved top, and you held your sleeves down with your fingers so the sleeves didn't ride up? Yeah, only Emi can't hold her sleeves for me. And I knew she wasn't going to wear the outfit for long, since she needs to have her stains treated. I also have a poor Kurhn head on a Liv body that needs to have her time on this blog, who still has a stain that needs more treatment. Time to get out the Clearasil and get serious.

 

Total dolls: 86

I should add that Emi was one of the dolls on my wish list, so I did want her. I still like her; she just needs a little more work than the other Rainbow High dolls I have.

Shadow High Nicole Steel

Here is the third doll in my Rainbow/Shadow High collection. She's Nicole Steel, and she's cute as a button. Her eyes are the most luminous of any Rainbow High doll that I've seen, and her curls are super adorable.

This is Nicole's jacket from her first outfit. Since the Rainbow High students are Sparkle, the Shadow High students are Anti Sparkle. Fortunately, they seem to be moving past that theme with newer dolls. It was getting pretty boring. She has a motif on the left sleeve of her jacket. The cat is related to a band that is made of up three other Shadow High students. It looks very 1930s, and like it could have been on the nose of a WWII plane, at least to me.

This is Nicole's base outfit, minus the jacket. She's a basketball player, and her interest is in street clothes and sports wear. It's nice that the dolls have different fashion styles that they're interested in, but I think this outfit is pretty basic compared to the other dolls that I have.

The fact that these shoes have ties is a little annoying. Of course they come untied, and then they're difficult to re-tie. The backs of the shoes have a sort of lift, to accommodate the fact that these dolls' feet are made to wear heels.

When I took off her shoes to take pictures of her in her second outfit, I got an unpleasant surprise. There are holes on the bottom of her socks.

Nicole needs to learn how to darn.

Here's a picture of one of her earrings. They tend to fall out easily, and I have a short funny anecdote I will tell about them at the end of this post.

When I went to change her into her second outfit, I noticed there are two notches in what I guess is supposed to be a dress, that looks like a sports jersey. It's possible that I made those snips myself, when I was clipping out all the tiny plastic ties attaching the dress to the cardboard. It was still a bit disappointing to see.

Her second pair of "shoes" is really stretchy knit fabric on top of a plastic shoe base. I did find it a nice touch that the shoes had toe caps to slip the dolls feet into. They serve to keep Nicole's toes from showing through the fabric. They might help hold the shoes on better as well, but I haven't moved the doll around enough in these shoes to know.

Her jacket is the most impressive piece of her second outfit. It is a beautiful reflective silver on the outside, and features a faux zipper. The jacket actually closes at the back.

I guess the circles and triangles are supposed to mean something. They look like laundry instruction marks to me. :) When the jacket is closed, the pattern at the back becomes clear. The jacket technically has working pockets, but they are very small and tight, so not useful for much.

The jacket has a beautiful lining. I'm torn between admiring it, and feeling sorry that there wasn't more effort put into the stuff that can be seen. The jacket isn't reversible, and since it closes in the back, Nicole can't even wear it open to show off the lining.

I wish Nicole would have come with a basketball, to make up for the fact that her outfit is lacking compared to some of the other dolls. MGA chose to make a black and silver "purse" shaped like a basketball, that was put into one of the blind boxes that they made. Considering there were 27 different purses in all, buying blind boxes trying to find Nicole's would be rather a waste. Also, it's a purse, so she can't really "play" with it. I think this Barbie basketball is a bit small to look realistic. Just a bit? Other than the basketball, this is her entire second outfit. Good thing I didn't buy her for her clothes.

Also, I forgot to point out in my other posts about these dolls, that they have a "joint" in their upper thigh, so that their legs can be twisted around. 

So, this the second Nicole Steel that I purchased. I took the first one out of her box quickly, to enjoy looking at her. It wasn't until later that I noticed a flaw in her face makeup.

Oopsie

Since she came from Amazon, I just sent her back and ordered a second one. When I started to pack the first one up, I realized that one of her earrings was missing. I looked for it for several minutes, then sent her back without it. It was just as well, because the second doll came without one earring! I finally found the missing one, so she ended up with two earrings after all. The left one, where there was no earring originally, tends to fall out easily. It gets caught in her curls a lot, which is good, because it doesn't get lost, but bad because it takes a bit of work to work the earring out without messing up her hair too much. The right earring also fell out during this photography shoot.

As a review, this one doesn't have a lot of high points. If you're a big fan of sports/play them yourself, you might find her clothes at least a bit more interesting than I do. Except for the jackets, they still aren't as detailed as other dolls, even the rest of Shadow High Series 1. Luna Madison's prime outfit is a bit... interesting, but I like her overall looks better than Nicole's. I bought Nicole because she is just such an endearing doll, not for her clothes. It's actually why I got her third off my list of dolls I'm interested in, just so she has other stuff to wear. I am working with a dress pattern that I have for her, too.

Next up is going to be the doll that I received for Mother's Day. Since it may take me a while to get the doll and all of her clothes out of the box, I'll let you know ahead of time that is Emi Vanda, who is about as different from Nicole as can be. :)

Total dolls: 85

A Pop of Blue

This post is a touch of serendipity. I bought a plant last year to plant next to our front walk, solely because it can exist in total shade, which is what that spot gets. To my happiness, it produced small blue flowers in the spring blooming season, and the plant has gotten larger when it came back up this year, and sprouted more flowers. The flowers are so small, that I thought they would look great with a doll.

At the same time, I noticed that my new Shadow High doll, Nicole Steel, looks great in blue, as I'm working on a new dress for her. So I decided she would be the perfect doll to pose with the flowers, and I think the photos turned out nicely.

Nicole was my latest Rainbow/Shadow High doll, until I received another Rainbow High doll from my daughter, for Mother's Day. :) However, the photos that I wanted to take to review these two dolls will have to wait. Mr. BTEG is in the hospital with an infection, nothing serious, but something that needs to have an eye kept on it.

Here's a picture of the plant that the flowers came from. I've completely forgotten what the plant is called, but it's thriving, so I'm happy with it.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

This past Sunday, I attended a Ladies' Luncheon with a friend who I have known since college. It was given by an Irish-American club on the east side of Cleveland, and my friend has attended several events there. The theme was Breakfast at Tiffany's. There were several gift "baskets" given away in a raffle, and I won one! The theme of my basket was Paint and Sip. Does your country have anything like this? Where I live in Ohio, there are one-night art classes hosted by local organizations, as well as small local businesses that offer you the chance to paint a ceramic item, or paint on canvas, or similar creative things. For adult only evenings, you can craft and also partake of alcohol, and these evenings are called Paint and Sips. I just found out there's a local business where you can get refreshments from a charcuterie board to jello shots at your Paint and Sip evening. This gift basket was a bunch of items for you to have your own Paint and Sip time.

Here's a picture of the table centerpiece, and me dressed in my best Breakfast at Tiffany's outfit.

And here are the items that I won. The paint brushes are awful quality, but I can still use them for something, I'm sure. Everything else is pretty nice, even if all the art items are from the $1.25 store.

The Paint, part one

The Paint, part two

The Sip

You might notice in the last picture that there is a gift card to a store called Meijer. It's like a Walmart, a giant store that offers groceries, housewares, clothes, and lot of items in between. Our local Meijer is actually bigger than our Walmart, but the Meijer closest to me is lacking in one distinct feature: the toy department. Still, I wanted to buy something doll related with my gift card, and I picked out a Calico Critters house.

I already have a couple of Critters animals, and my Cu-Poche dolls and mini Pullip will also like this house. The card didn't entirely cover the price of the house, but it paid for most of it.

To really make this doll-related, I'm going to share a couple of pictures of a Breakfast at Tiffany's outfit that I made for a 16" Gene doll, around 15 years ago. 

I sewed the dress, gloves and wrap, and Mr. BTEG helped with the bakery items. I made this for someone online who was looking for someone to sew the costume for her. She saw these photos first, before she officially bought the outfit. I saw many years later that she had it up for sale. I hope she got a lot of enjoyment out of it while she owned it.

I was going to post about my luncheon experience on Instagram, when I realized that Instagram won't let you post vertical photos, and they get cropped to the point where a lot of the stuff you wanted to show is cropped out. Ugh. I'd rather be able to share these pictures with you guys, anyway.

Has anyone else won a raffle? Was it something you wanted? This raffle was the kind where you could put as many tickets as you wanted towards winning a specific basket, so you would only win something that you were interested in. Have you ever attended at themed event?