Making a Splash

Apparently bathtubs were the hot home-decor item at Michael's this spring. Of course, the doll collector can't help but wonder if any of the tubs will work with her dolls. I ended up buying three. 

The white tub with the black feet is just about right for 16" dolls. Sam's legs can't extend all the way out inside the tub, but she found it a nice place to soak and day dream.

There were two other sizes of this tub at Michael's. At least, I think that one next to the biggest tub, is smaller than the medium tub. I forget now, and it's hard to tell!

Teresa liked playing with a rubber ducky. This tub is just a bit on the big size for a 12" doll, maybe, but I think it looks fine when pictured from the side.

There were three colors of that bathtub at Michael's: the one above and the two below.

Marie thinks this bathtub just the right size for her and her school friends. The Eden line of Madeline dolls included a set of bathroom furniture long ago, but as with just about everything from this line, it's super expensive on the secondary market now. The soap/dish and bath brush came from a Madeline set, and I also have a Madeline freestanding towel rack which came with the towel that Marie is using.

I happened to go down a different aisle at Michael's and saw that there were also bathtubs like this one in red and green, in the "strawberry theme" section of home decor.

I tried the trick of putting clear Contact paper on the floor tiles, which is supposed to make the paper look more like shiny vinyl tile. Maybe it's just my lighting, or angles, or something, but I don't see a big difference.

Also at Micheal's was a bathtub/candle holder, in two different colors.

Someone else on Instagram bought it for dolls. I was debating getting one, but I didn't want to bother digging out the candle. These tubs were pretty small, too.

Also, there was this galvanized tub with a shower head. This would be about right for American Girl or a large doll like that.

Don't mind the prices on Michael's things. The newest stuff goes on sale practically from the minute it comes in the door. This conveniently means you can't use their coupons for the newest stuff, as most Michael's coupons are not usable with sales items. Occasionally you do get a coupon which gives you a percentage off of your entire purchase including sales. On the other hand, last month I walked out with a plastic scrapbook paper storage case, two rolls of materials for my Cricut, and a several foot long garland made up of foam-type pastel Easter eggs for less than $8. I felt like I was stealing something. The trick at Michael's is to keep your eye on sales and to be signed up in their membership program, which gets you coupons.

Also at Michael's of doll interest was this piece of artificial green grass. It was labeled as a placemat, but can you imagine crumbs and spills on this? Maybe it would be nice for a centerpiece, with an Easter tree on top. It's smaller than the other piece of fake grass that I have; I used this one for my Easter shoot.

Then there were these chairs. I thought really hard about getting the red one, but decided against it. Someone on Instagram showed one of those chairs with a Tonner doll, and it looked okay, but didn't make me regret not buying one. I feel like the yellow and white chairs had too deep of a seat. They're probably made to display something-not-a-doll on, so that makes sense.

That reminds me that Michael's did have a small group of little plants of the kind that rarely need water, like a bromeliad. They might make good plants for a doll house or display. If Michael's doesn't have any more, because it took me forever to get this post up, or if you don't have a Michael's, I'm sure they can be found other places. At least in the US, these plants are another one of the things currently in style for home-decor.

Michael's happened to have these trash and recycle cans. I've seen those for a long time in other people's pictures. I think they're supposed to be for use on an office desk.

 

Lastly were these wall-hanging shelves. Or at least, they're supposed to be shelves. I thought they would make good side tables for dolls. Jaye of Jaye's Doll Space put up a picture on Instagram where she used the shorter one as a raised cocktail table. It's fun to see other people find the same things to re-purpose for dolls that you did. The small and large are two different size options, not the same piece.

I happened to be at Hobby Lobby around the same time, but the only thing doll-adaptable that I saw, besides the dollhouse things that they sell, were these mugs and teapots. And of course the mugs and teapots aren't the same scale, unless maybe the teapot is a one cuppa size. Both items were also too big for 12" dolls, but could work with a larger crew.

How often do you find regular decor that you can use for dolls?

J-Doll Punkka Street

This is the second J-Doll I got during the sale at Groove; the story of that purchase and the other review is here. This doll has been gracing the top of my blog for several months now, but I'm finally getting out her review. As always, this doll is named after a physical locale. Punkka Street is in Finland, "where an old castle sits amid surrounding forests and lakes." The theme Groove chose to use with her was "water sprite." I named her Anni after a Finnish vlogger I watch.

Anni photographs beautifully, but it was hard to capture the real color of her hair. The above picture was taken in our front bedroom, which faces north. I also took some pictures in my bedroom, which faces south. The southern pictures did not accurately capture the color of her hair. The ones in the north bedroom turned out better, plus I took a couple of pictures outside in the sunlight. Here is Anni wearing most of her outfit.

That's the last you'll see of those shoes. They're the same as the ones that came with Stephen Avenue Walk; they're way too big and don't really march the arch in her foot. She also has knee-high stockings, a dress with a thick belt, a small lace jacket, a hat and a purse.

Above she is standing, holding the purse that came with her. The purse is another wasted accessory, honestly. The faux leather has cracked and come off in multiple places, and I think this probably happened to all of these purses, and not just the display model. The color of her purse, shoes and the flower on her hat are also interesting to me. They don't match her hair, eyes, or the beading on her dress, nor do they harmonize. At least the hat is nice, so she could wear it with something else.

Here are up-close views of her jacket and belt. As usual for J-Doll, the jacket is a little on the small size. The belt is really more of what you might call a sash. There's actually a lot of material in it, sewn together in bunches, and decorated with beads.

I was not fortunate with Anni as far as cracking plastic issues. This is what her left arm looks like just below the wrist. Of course, she was a traveling display doll at one point.

And below are a couple of pictures I took of Anni in direct sunlight. I don't think the picture of the back of her head accurately captured her hair color either. It's probably actually closest to the pictures with the northern light. It's very nice hair, not super soft, but not overly coarse either.

She's a beautiful doll, and I'm glad I managed to get a good deal on her. She has too many outfit issues, plus the arm crack, to have been worth full price. Her delicate face and inset eyes are her biggest appeals; she'd make a lovely water sprite.

Doll Items for Sale

Since my daughter's wedding is coming up, I'm finally getting together all the dolly things that I want to sell. For now, I am putting them on Mister Dollface and trying to avoid eBay. I've only put a few things up as of September 24th; I want to steadily get everything else up over this week. For some reason, my ads are not showing up on my seller page yet. I'm giving it a little while for them to appear. I also should be getting the next chapter of my storyline up tomorrow or Tuesday! Have a good week!

9/30/17 I've added more things to Mister Dollface. I'm also going to add some items for sale directly on this page that I don't feel will draw much interest at Mister Dollface. There will be a tab on the top of my blog, with the link above to my Mister Dollface page, and images added of things I'm selling here.

J-Doll Abbott Street Review

I've been holding off on buying any more J-Dolls, even though I had some on my wish list, because in my opinion, the retail price was just too high for the quality of the doll that you got. However, I was fortunate enough to read about sales at the online Groove Store that is in English and ships to the US. One of the sales Groove runs is a sample sale, which means dolls that were on display at conventions. The dolls usually don't come with a stand, and they may not have all their accessories. Supposedly Groove is very good about inventorying the sample dolls and letting you know what you're getting; there are no refunds. I ordered two dolls and it looks like both of the dolls came with all their accessories. The stands aren't that great, in my opinion, so I wasn't worried about getting one of those. I did end up not getting a stand with either doll. Shipping was also very minimalistic. This is how the box looked when I opened it.

When I pulled away the paper, the dolls were wrapped in plastic with their accessories loose. This is probably how they were transported to and from conventions.

Since I have a lot of great pictures of each doll, I'm going to review them one at a time. Today I'm reviewing the blond on the right. This J-Doll has the Type 4 body, and originally came out in 2010. She is named after Abbott Street, in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Even after looking it up online, I can't really say much about Abbott Street. Some of it looks like a business area, some of it looks like residential, with gorgeous lines of trees on either side of the street. I didn't see many pictures of actual shops or housing.

So my girls needed names! I have named J-Dolls in the past, based on the streets they were supposed to represent. However, I just wasn't feeling Abby as a name for this doll. Since she's from Australia, I could have been somewhat cliche, and named her Sheila. I didn't feel like doing that either. I decided to name her after my favorite Aussie doll blogger, Rachael (only I changed the spelling; sorry Rachael!) So Rachel is her new name, unless the blogger Rachael objects!

Even though my first view of my new dolls was through plastic, I was reminded again of how delicate the faces of the J-Dolls are. Rachel also has shades of pale pinks and browns on her face, that come together really well with her hair and blue eyes. She's probably one of the prettiest J-Dolls I've bought yet.

Being from Australia, she of course has to have a hat. But Rachel seems to be a very girly girl, so she's put her own spin on it, adding a pink cameo on the front.

Some of her hair is held behind her head with a piece of off-white lace. I don't know how long that will stay on; it doesn't really seem to be firmly attached.

Her dress seems very boho, with her multi-tiered skirt. She has also decorated her dress with a belt and a chain, with circular and leaf-shaped charms on the chain. On her legs are lace knee-high stockings. She finishes her look off with what we in the US would call cowboy boots. Of course, she has also girlied the boots up by adding lace trim and applique.

As you can see in the middle pic directly above, she also has a jacket that she is wearing half on, half off. When I took pictures on the day with the Angelina Ballerina house background, I couldn't get the jacket on, because her right hand would not come off (and still won't!) However, I wanted to get some more pictures with better light, and this time, I managed to very carefully work the lace sleeve of the jacket over Rachel's right hand. With the left hand, it is far easier to do, as the fingers on her left hand are curled up. As is usual with J-Doll jackets in my experience, the jacket is very prettily detailed, but could have used a bit more material so you could see more of it from the front. Also, there is a loop in the threads woven through the top of her dress, where the thread got pulled. I'm going to have to try pulling the green thread straight, with tweezers.

And speaking of details, I really do like the details in her necklace, especially the fact that Groove used a lobster-claw fastener, which is rare in dolls Rachel's size. I also like all the lace and tiers in Rachel's skirt.

It seems, however, that the purse made absolutely no impression on me, since I only realized when I sat down to write this review, that I took no pictures of it at all! I didn't want to do a *third* photo shot with Rachel, so let me share this manufacturer photo, where the purse looks pretty much like what I got. Like her hat, the purse is made out of a kind of suede material, but Rachel has girlied it up with lace. Girlfriend really likes lace!

In the past, I've talked about my good fortune in getting J-Dolls that didn't have cracks in the plastic of their limbs. Well, my luck did not hold out here, although to be fair, these dolls were technically second-hand. I have no idea what previous handling these dolls had. Rachel's right arm has a crack near her shoulder joint.

When I went through my older J-Doll posts, I noticed that Abbott Street was on a wishlist I posted in 2015. Getting her in only two years isn't really that bad! I'm happy with the price that I paid for her, too. I've learned to enjoy these dolls for their beautiful faces, lovely inset eyes, and their poseability. The clothes and accessories can be hit or miss in terms of quality; I like most of what Rachel came with. Ironically, the boots are the sturdiest pair of J-Doll shoes that I've gotten to date, yet the lace on them makes the boots look a little off to me. Still, I am happy to have added her to my collection.

A Girl for All Time on zulily

I know some of you are interested in the Girl for All Time dolls, so I thought I'd let you know that there are dolls and outfits available on zulily starting today. Zulily items are generally available for three days, but individual items can sell out during that time. You do not need to pay to be on zulily, but you do need an account with them, which involves a name and email address. Zulily does take Paypal, if you do not want to give out your credit card number. I'd love to know if any of you end up buying anything.

Disclosure: I have a zulily account and have bought from them, but I am in no way affiliated with them and am not being compensated for this announcement.

Welcome to My Online Garage Sale! --Updated

I'm going to be putting up a "real" post, hopefully tonight, but in the meantime, I wanted to get up some more things for sale, especially since I found a Monster High doll at a garage sale today! It's a Cleo de Nile, with one top that doesn't really cover her fairly well, in case you don't want to scroll down.
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I am finally starting this! I took some pictures today so I can start getting stuff online. Be warned, this is not a super fabulous sale! I'm putting up now (May 18th) a little less than half of what we have. However, since a lot of you bloggers that I read seem to enjoy picking up a deal or two at the thrift store, I thought I'd throw this stuff up here cheap and see if anyone finds a little gem inexpensively. I'm also up for trades

Just a few things: 1. Anything that is not labeled as being from my collection, or an actual garage sale, is from my daughters' toys. That means that very often these items were lying on a daughter's bedroom floor. We Have Cats. That means that anything that comes from my girls' toys was exposed to cat fur and dander. The cats are not allowed up where I keep my toys. :) Also, the "toy" dolls' hair will be a mess, matted, and often rather dry. However, it hasn't been hacked up, nor are there huge plugs missing.

2. If you see something you want, but want to see what else I put up before you buy it, I can put it on hold.

3. I think for the most part Paypal will be the easiest way to deal with payment. I would consider a check, but is it worth writing a check for such a small amount?

4. I will ship the cheapest way possible, or however you prefer. I have several small boxes saved up, and a huge wheel of bubble wrap, so I won't charge for handling or packaging or anything similar. I will only be charging exact shipping.

5. I'm going to be super lazy with my descriptions. I'm assuming that you have a general idea about the world of Barbie. I'm also generally going to put up just a picture of the face, unless there's marks on the doll or something else worth noting. If you want to see a doll's entire body, let me know.

6. I'm going to keep a bookmark either at the top or the side of my blog, so as I post more, this will still be findable.

7. All monies raised by the sale of the toys will go to my daughters. Or perhaps just my youngest, who is too young legally to work yet.

DOLLS

A blue-haired fairy. I'm also including a picture of her body, as her legs are permanently light blue with blue flowers. I didn't realize she had crud on her face until I looked at the picture! I'm going to wipe what I can off. I'm also including the one shoe of hers that we could find. Maybe you'll find the other at a thrift store someday, or you could use this one as a template to make her more? $1.00

Gabriella from High School Musical, aka Vanessa Hudgens. Will come wearing her red bathing suit. Gold paint on her earrings is wearing off. Her body is smaller and shorter than the Barbie body. She has flat feet. She has paint on her leg, and possibly some ink. $1.00

Sharpay from High School Musical, aka Ashley Tisdale. Will come nude. Gold paint is also coming off of her earrings. Has the same body as Gabriella. Has some glitter on her upper legs from her dress. $1.00

Gymnast Whitney, friend of Stacie. Joints aren't exactly loose, but the best word I can think of to describe this body is floppy. Kind of like a puppet, perhaps? $2.00

Gymnast Teresa. She has a crack on the seams of her upper right leg, front and back. $1.00

Cali Girl Teresa. Don't think this was the bathing suit she came in, but she rocks it. If you would like just the bathing suit or the doll, I'll split them up. Legs curve a bit strangely down by the ankles. $2.00

Monster High Cleo de Nile. Found her at a garage sale. She doesn't seem to smell like smoke or anything, and her hair seems intact. Comes in the "top" that she's wearing, which doesn't really cover much. Seems like it is an overblouse. $1.00

My Scene guy. Jointed elbows and knees. $2.50

My Scene Barbie. Jointed elbows, rubber click knees. Mark on right breast. $1.00

 CLOTHES

Fashion Fever jacket. One plastic snap at the top which is still intact. Ribbon belt is gone. One ribbon belt loop is intact, one is broke. $1.00

Esmerelda's dress from Hunchback of Notre Dame movie. One piece dress with attached shawl. Doll that wore this was not standard Barbie body. May have been like Gymnast Teresa's body, as the doll was jointed at elbows and knees. Tagged Disney. $2.00

Neon is back in style this year! I think this fits the Barbie belly button body. $1.00

My Scene boots, purple with blue laces. $2.00

My Scene purse, one solid molded plastic piece. Also throwing in matching boot. Again, maybe you'll come across the other one some day. Showing the purse next to Teresa for proportion. $2.00

My Scene high-heeled shoes $2.00

My Scene boots. For some reason, one of the boots has the number 7 drawn on it in ink or marker on the side sole. $1.00

Accessories and Furniture

2-liter bottle and bowl of pretzels. $1.50

Soda fountain. $1.00

Footstool. Probably could use repainted. I have Gabriella sitting on it to show size, although the picture is unfortunately at an odd angle. Her feet are not touching the table, although her legs aren't bent very far either. $2.00

Two starfish. Have included a Barbie hand in the picture for proportion. Will split these up. $1.00

Pink bathtub. Has slots on the side of the tub where something probably clipped in at some point. Has little "jets" in molded gray plastic on either side of the tub on the inside. You can see one by Barbie's right hand. $2.00

Treasure chest. Pink with a clear pink sparkly lid. 2 inches (5 cm)  high. $1.00

Plastic pinata. Has a little door that opens on the bottom so the loot can come out. Perfect for your Cinco de Mayo celebration next year. Pictured with older Stacie and Kelly dolls so you can get an idea of proportion. $1.50

Kelly size bumper car. From amusement park playset. Rolls. $1.00

Boomboxes. Smaller two $.25 each. Larger one $.50

 
 MY PERSONAL DOLLS AND ACCESSORIES

Spring in Tokyo doll comes as you see her, in suit with attached gold chain necklace. Her hair is pulled back into a hard gelled ponytail "bun." $5.00

I think this doll was a holiday Teresa. Her hair is rather static-y right now, but the twisted braids seem to be intact. $2.00

Fashion Avenue skirt and matching cloth purse. Front of skirt is wrinkled because I had my doll sitting down while wearing it. $1.00

Only Hearts Club shoes and tights. I bought the outfit and kept the other pieces. These have never been played with, never even been on a doll. $.50

This is all as of Thursday, May 22nd. I will update this with more items as soon as possible. Thank you for looking!