All that glitters...

...is often made of vinyl and comes in a cardboard box!  I got bitten by the glitzy toddler doll bug, LOL.

Yeah, glitzy toddler dolls, the ones that dominated the early part of the nineties and then vanished into thin air.  I admit that I like these dolls a lot, though I might feel differently if I were a mama (just like with the Bratz).  I'd say that the biggest beef I have with these dolls is that they're ALL.  BLONDE.  AND BLUE-EYED.  And all in pink!  Sort of, anyway; Alexis/Pretty Crazy Curls has lilac eyes that I love.

Granted, Tiffany and Mary did come in Afro-American versions, and Mary could be a cute little brunette as well, but...well, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.  Mary was a gift so I won't complain, and the black version of Tiffany is apparently hard to find (there weren't any when I looked on eBay the first time).  As for Alexis and Susie...well, if I'd been a bit more patient I could've gotten a black Pretty Crazy Curls doll MIB instead of the beat-up doll that I swiped off of Etsy.  Ghost of the Doll implies that the black variant is hard to find, so if you like her, better get her now.  Sixty bucks is a fair price for a doll like that.  Surprise Hat Susie (bottom right) also came as a black doll, so a little diversity can be had if one looks hard enuff.  It all comes back to that patient thing, and as I've said and heard before, patience is for wimps.

In other news Alexis's glow-up is slow but steady.  I don't know how to fix her mangled bangs without removing her head, but I did add a little piece of frippery to her dress.

That came as a freebie in an Etsy order, so I hooked it to the mesh part of Alexis's dress, kinda like Chloe Charms might've done.  I haven't tried Alexis's curlers on her hair yet, but I did try Twist 'n' Style Tiffany's styling gun on her and it worked...pretty well.  Alexis's hair isn't as slippery as Tiffany's is, but it worked okay.

The star of this post, though, is Flower Magic Mary's "sister," Surprise Hat Susie.  I touched on this doll in this post, since she's one of so many that I know named "Susie."  I wanted a doll that still had her hair concealed, so I got one MIB.

These dolls could have one of four different highlights in their hair, pink, blue, and two shades of purple, and I wanted that to be a surprise, thus why she's still in her box.

The box also shows the doll with twisted little braids like what Twist 'n' Style Tiffany has, but as far as I know Susie doesn't come with a tool that does that.  She can use Tiffany's styling gun, but still...would that count as false advertising???

Since I have Tiffany and her accoutrements with me it's not such a big deal, but keep that in mind if you have Susie and NOT Tiffany.  So here's how Susie looks fresh out of her box.

In order to be a surprise hat doll Susie's hat had to be fastened to her head, and look how Tyco went about it!  A plastic tie!

Yikes, reminds me of the time I lashed myself to my bed with a ball of yarn!  Daddy had to cut me loose with a pocketknife!  I don't know what in flaming purple hell I was thinking, doing that.  Speaking of purple, part of me wonders if the decorations on Susie's clothes don't give some sort of hint to her secret hair color.  The bow on her hat is purple...

...as is the bow around her waist.

Indeed, when I finally took Susie's hat off she had a purple streak hiding amongst the blonde, kinda like Luciana Vega does.

Again, I'd have taken what I'd got and been happy, but I'm VERY happy with the purple.  Glitzy toddler dolls go WAAAAY too heavy on the pink, and pink was an option for this highlight so I'm pleased with purple.  Al-right, hold tight, I'M-YOUR-HIGH-WAY-STARRRRR!!!!!!  LOL, Deep Purple for the win!  Ghost of the Doll implies that there should be two highlights (purple was always paired with a shade of pink), but so far all I see is purple.

It should be noted that while Susie's box shows her hair accessories spilling out of her hat like confetti, the initial box-opening is not that messy.  The items are indeed tucked into Susie's hair, but they're wrapped in little baggies like so.

Susie came with a set of instructions, and they suggest that a mama or a daddy dump all that into Susie's hat, put it back on her head, and then let the child pull off the hat so everything goes scattering everywhere...no thanks, I appreciate the baggies.  She's got beads, some flat sequins, bits of ribbon, and what the package calls a honeycomb headband (the pink sparkly thing).  Oh yes, and hair extensions; those are in the longer package.  Susie's tools include a hairbrush (which I will not be using), a large-eye needle, and a blade thing for curling the ribbon bits.

Like Tiffany's stuff, Susie's hair baubles can be shared among the other dolls, and...well, maybe I'll let 'em share.  Mary doesn't need much more frippery and Tiffany has her own stuff, but Alexis might benefit from some of those beads.

I'm not gonna do a full review of Susie since she's a pretty simple little doll (and I don't like her dress much), but for the say-so of it here she is with fellow Tyco doll Flower Magic Mary.

Notice that their shoes are the same mold, further attesting that they are from the same company.  Indeed, of my four glitzy toddler dolls, only Tiffany has separate shoes.

Other than molded shoes and the blonde hair/blue eyes thing, Mary and Susie don't have a lot in common.  Their faces can be told apart with ease, and Mary has shorter hair that's cut in a winged style that I like.

During my Google searches I got results for both Surprise Hat Susie and So Surprised Suzie, so for the helluvit here my two are together.  They have nothing in common except for...you guessed it!  Blonde hair and blue eyes!

They're cute.  I can get over a glut of platinum hair and blue eyes if they're cute.  And sometimes that combo is the one I like the best.  Case in point.

Camille is my favorite Wellie Wisher, hands down.  All six of 'em are cute, but Camille's my favorite Wellie.  Her short, straight, low-maintenance hairstyle trumped the color...oh, and she was wearing green and blue.  My favorite colors.

Y'know, I think ALL the dolls I shared in this particular post were blonde and blue-eyed!  LOL, thank goodness Dawn's friends weren't stuck in that rut.  I'll have that post put together sometime next week.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987

Time to gripe: two more days...

Two more days of this crap. 

All my weather apps swear that a front will be passing through on Tuesday night, bringing rain chances and a steady cooldown.  I just hope this forecast doesn't end up like the ones in hell.

Sorry, I just had to vent.  Heat puts me in a foul mood, and the A/C isn't helping much.  It'll run for about an hour and a half before puking out, and then Yours Truly has to be the one to fix it because it hurts Mama to move and because Uncle Man-Child is is too stupid.  It needs to be reset and turned back on, that's all, but doing that over and over gets old.

ALICE UPDATE:  I think the only one enjoying the heat IS Alice.  She was hanging out in her web, likely waiting for mosquitoes. 

Of course she booked it when she saw me.  I think she may be gravid again, by the way; I'll be on the lookout for Brood IV.

Stay cool out there!  I know I'm not the only one having to put up with this crap!  I have a Dawn post in the making so that's some good news, I s'pose.

Love,

RagingMoon1987 

If it's not too early for Disney then it's not too early for me

Walt Disney World kicks off Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Bash today (it'll run until Halloween proper).  I can only imagine how those cast members must feel in those Halloween costumes, particularly when August is so cotton-pickin' hot!  But then again, a lot of those cast members have to run around in full-body costumes anyway, folks like Mickey and Minnie and Donald and Goofy, so it's hot 100% of the time.  Still, I hope they'll be okay!  Heatstroke and heat exhaustion are no joke (I've had the latter).  But either way, Halloween Season has begun at Disney World, and if it's not too early for them then I can do it too.  Halloween is Mama's favorite holiday, and she...well, she's bought one little Halloween-themed outfit so far.  Exhibit A.

Silver Bird is already ready to hit the streets and gather some candy!  She's even got her little bucket, which the sticker says came from Oriental Trading Company.

Oh Lordy, I used to love Oriental Trading Company catalogs.  I look back on it all and realize that most of it was just junk that could clutter up a kid's room, but to my child's eye it was TREASURE!!!  A lot of the Halloween stuff glowed in the dark, so I always loved those catalogs the best.

Rita Cheryl is a little more understated than Silver Bird, but she too is ready for the oncoming fall, and the blazing weather that will inevitably come before Halloween gets here.

I do have a jacket and footwear for her to wear when it does turn cold, but for now Rita Cheryl is happy as a lark without all the frippery.

Of course no post of mine is complete without a Cabbage Patch Kid.  Mama got this for my Kids, and I promptly assigned it to Idalia Gale.

There's always gotta be one in the mix who WILL.  NOT.  wear a dress, and for me that someone is Idalia Gale.  Oh, she'll wear dresses when I push the issue, but it's like pulling teeth without anesthesia.  Idalia Gale is a jeans-and-overalls Kid, full stop.

Going a size down now, I have a Halloween-themed outfit for So Surprised Suzie around here somewhere (always somewhere!), but because I'm so organized I can't find it.  Never fear, I've had this outfit waiting since last winter.

There's always something available for a Baby Face doll if you know where to look, and not to brag, but I know where to look.  This particular dress is an eBay find, from Luvable Creations.

This next doll is a new face to the blog.  She's Lorifina, though I call her Lori.

Lorifina dolls came in simple little sleepwear, and items for this doll can still be found on eBay, but a healthy cottage industry also exists for this doll, and that's what this is here.  The eBay shop is dea850, and most of the items in this ensemble are handmade.  The shoes are not handmade, being Lorifina-brand shoes.

Pretty sweet kicks, I must say.  These slid onto Lori's feet with zero fuss, by the way.  Lori has sizeable feet, and the openings to the shoes looked kinda small, but they gap open enuff that I had no trouble getting these on her.  

From the very tall to the very small, here's another new face.  Meet My Mini Baby!  Ayla Diamond is her name.  Ayla...I've got another Ayla in my collection, but don't tell the Baby Name Genie that.  I like the name Ayla anyway, so I can live with having two.  Here's the new Ayla; she looks nothing like Big Ayla.  My Mini Babies have sweet little faces...but they're all asleep!

Yeah, I ripped Miss Emily's blog off again, name generator and all.  She recently talked about tiny blind-bag silicone babies (posts HERE and HERE), and when she mentioned that Etsy has a thriving market for clothes, I was sold.  Most of the items for these dolls are crocheted, and I love tiny things that are crocheted.  Crocheting something that small is NOT easy; I've tried it and it made my hands and eyes ache.  This little outfit came from PaulasCrochetArmoire.  As an aside, the Star Babies in the second post are WAAAAY more expensive than My Mini Baby, but the only way they're superior is in the name (I think they're also handmade, so that's something).  Staaaaarrr baby, flashy little shiny little lovin' machine!  LOL, I freaking love the Guess Who.

Ahem...not all of my kids are getting ready for falling leaves, fun-size M&M's, and pumpkin spice lattes.  Summer Daisy is ready to soak up some rays.

Thank you again, Treesa!  She said she wanted to get that little outfit to me before summer ended, and she succeeded!  Maybe that little outfit would look better on a neutral-colored critter like Flaxie, but I STILL haven't found Flaxie!!!  The pink provides a nice contrast to Summer Daisy's fur anyway.  As an aside...have y'all seen this year's Build-a-Bear Halloween cats?  They are ADORABLE!!!  One of 'em has ghosts printed on its fur.

Mia isn't really dressed for fall either, but she and the next two dolls look so cute that I wanted to include them.  I guess frogs can be for early fall, since they're still hollering on warm nights.

There's a story behind this outfit, one that shows that our local postal service still has problems.  I ordered this super-cute little outfit for Cinnamon, one that mixed go-go dancers and tie-dying, and IT.  NEVER.  CAME.  The tracking number said "delivered," but I never got my cute little outfit.  So, not wanting to give the shop a bad review for something that was out of their hands, I messaged them and they offered me my choice of the other outfits.  I picked the frog dress above, as it was the same price as the lost dress and since Mia needed something nice and new (Cinnamon didn't).  We see the result!  The eBay shop is called Park Ave Doll Clothes, and they have a nice selection of items for a number of vintage dolls that aren't the easiest to clothe.  They've even got some things for my buddy Sasha.

Lastly, here's two more of my Cabbage Patch Kids, Rowena Skylar and the beloved Candela Laura.

As usual, these were gifts from Mama.  Candela Laura's set has Peppa Pig and Rowena Skylar's set has brightly colored insects.  More springtimey, these colors are, but my cares are nigh next to zero.  By the way, remember when I told y'all that Beryl June (one of my double popcorns) has a fan?  Candela Laura does too; a friend on Failbook told me that Candela Laura was her dream Jesmar.  I have seen a couple'a Jesmars that look a lot like Candela Laura does, so if my friend looks hard enuff she should be able to find one.  Candela Laura kinda just fell in my lap...but then so did Rowena Skylar, LOL!

The jumble of colors and themes doesn't matter too much since fall is a mixed bag in the Bootheel anyway.  Some years it stays hot until the middle of November, and another year it snowed in early October.  Still other years have seen the temperatures see-saw wildly, with a wave of severe weather accompanying each swing.  Last fall was very wet, thanks to Hurricanes Francine and Helene.  Seriously, Helene didn't cause my area anywhere near as much trouble as she did Appalachia, and she was STILL a doozie!  I hope it's a long time before the country has another terrible storm like that.  I wouldn't mind a nice long soaking rain though, as the crops are starting to need it.  Speaking of hurricanes...here's Erin's baby picture, taken on the 11th. 

Not gonna lie, this hurricane has me concerned.  She formed in the Cape Verde area, where some of the worst hurricanes form, and she's got nothing but the wide open sea in front of her.  Those waters are warm, perfect for Erin to grow.  So we'll see what happens.  As for me and for much of the east-central part of the U.S., the weekend and the bulk of next week are looking to be hotter than the hinges of hell.  We're not quite to "Everyone in McKinney is dead" mode, but we'll be close.

ALICE UPDATE:  My resident black widow has had a third clutch of babies, and I've seen her oot and aboot a couple'a times, but no more pictures so far.  Alice hides when I come around, and I can't say that I blame her.  I'd hide too if something a trillion times my size looked at me.  But Alice is alive and well, still spry, still beautiful, still nimble as a jackrabbit.

Sunny love,
RagingMoon1987

Regarding Sandra, my reborn doll

It's been almost exactly two years since I talked about Sandra, the little reborn doll that I got off Temu.  She's still alive and well, and yesterday I grabbed her from Casa del Luna.  Here she's sitting on my lap, waiting for the carhop to bring us our food (Mama and I ate at Sonic).

While waiting I realized that Sandra has rotating shoulders and hips.  Yep, I've had her two years and I didn't know that, though admittedly I haven't played with Sandra much since I got her.  Anyway, now she can stretch out and look...well, a little more like a real baby.

Unfortunately, while I was monkeying with Sandra I noticed that her eyes have changed color.  They were hazel, and now they're deep blue with a violet ring around the center.

This was my own dumb fault for storing the poor child in an area where A/C can't reach.  Though this eye change would have to be noted and accounted for if I were trying to sell Sandra, I actually like the change.  I can always say that Sandra is a fairy baby or changeling of some stripe.

I have to admit that I like these iCradle babies.  Had I the room and the money I'd have more of them, but I don't so I won't.  These dolls are a good way to begin the reborn hobby though, kinda like Hujoo dolls make good starter ball-jointed dolls.

Ciao,
RagingMoon1987

Dear America

In May I learned that I have at least one Dear America fan among my followers.  I can't say as I was a fan myself, though I had three of the books in my kiddie bookshelf.  Margaret Ann Brady was a passenger on the RMS Titanic, and I was hoping for a good disaster story, but Margaret spent so much time setting up her life story that I lost interest before she even boarded the ship.  I usually skipped ahead to the actual sinking, which was indeed interesting...and tragic, since Margaret lost a friend/love interest in the sinking.  The final pages included some images and descriptions of what like was like for the various classes on the Titanic, and what the sinking was like, and that was the part I liked the best.  So yeah, my experience with the Dear America series was brief and not the most positive, but...well, to each their own.  I did learn that Mary Pope Osborne wrote a couple of the books, and I happen to be very fond of her Magic Tree House series.

Now to the dolls.  Madame Alexander took a stab at a line of Dear America dolls in 1999 and 2000.  There were four dolls in all, versus thirty-six books, so this line didn't get far.  Remember Patience Whipple is a passenger on the Mayflower, meaning that she dates back to 1620.

Catherine Carey Logan is a Quaker girl who got kidnapped by Native Americans.  Her story begins in 1763.

Abigail Jane Stewart witnessed the Patriot troops try to survive the winter at Valley Forge.  This began in 1777 and lasted until the next June.  Abigail would thus fit in nicely with Felicity's timeframe.  

Lastly, there's Margaret Ann Brady, the aforementioned Titanic passenger.

Margaret doesn't look a thing like her book's portrait, by the way, and neither does Remember.  Margaret is on the left and is an obvious brunette (her doll is blonde), and Remember has even darker hair (her doll is even blonder than Margaret).

Just Magic says that these four dolls have "bland" faces that follow the typical Madame Alexander aesthetic.  Their hair isn't great quality, but their clothes make up for it by being both detailed and authentic to the doll's era.  They can also wear American Girls' clothes with flying colors, meaning that I could throw Abigail in Felicity's threads and vice versa if I so wanted.  But I probably won't since I've already got a full house of eighteen-inch dolls, and I'm not a big fan of these dolls' faces.  They remind me of Alissa's overly smug visage.

At first I liked Alissa's expression, but as time passed she looked more and more like the pompous intelligentsia that I sometimes had to deal with in college.  I eventually gave her away.  My other AG-sized Madame Alexander dolls don't look as self-important as Alissa or as cherubic as the Dear America dolls.  But for my Dear America fans, there's y'all an option.  eBay has 'em for relatively cheap, and some of 'em are still in the box if y'all are the NRFB type.  Even the ones that are out of the box appear to have stood the test of time well.

Stay cool,
RagingMoon1987

Fall WILL come!

Or at least I keep telling myself that.  A cold front came through Thursday night and it's nowhere near as hot as it was on Tuesday.  So fall eventually will come...oh Lord, it had better!!!  Anyway, Mama got these cute little outfits for me, and the fabric on the little dresses got me to thinkin' about fall.

These are a size that I've never owned before; American Girl sadly doesn't make separate clothes for its mini dolls, but Etsy does.  That's what these are.  I have several of these mini dolls, but at the moment the only one within arm's reach is Silver Bird's doll, Maryellen Larkin.

I love Maryellen.  Jus' sayin'.  So let's see how these look on her.  Dress #1 is cream-colored with flowers, leaves, and an orange sash.

The lace looks more like something Josefina might wear.  This fits Maryellen like a dream, but the ribbon is a smidge big and a smidge long.  I also wish I'd switched her hair bow out, but the only bow I have for Maryellen right now is the one she's wearing.

Dress #2 is burgundy with sunflowers and black and white checks.  It ties at the waist and at the neck with matching ribbons.

Again, I think the ribbons are too big, but anything smaller likely would've made the ties hard to do up.  And hard to sew too, for that matter.  I love the print on this dress, though!  Sunflowers are a summer thing, but overall this dress looks very autumnal.

The dresses are more my speed, and they're more like what Maryellen probably would wear most of the time, but the blue jeans are what Silver Bird is dying to see.

Yeah, that's definitely more what Silver Bird would wear.  She's always preferred jeans and shorts to dresses, and like me she projects herself onto her dolls.  Maryellen doesn't mind; like my dolls, she's just pleased to have something new to wear.  

Somewhere along the way I removed the extra rubber band from Maryellen's hair, and that allowed Silver Bird to hold her doll close.

I love it when I can get my dolls to do that!  I wish that more of 'em could cradle their dolls in one arm, the way I did when I could carry my dolls around, but can't have everything!

Maryellen's new clothes were supplied by GumbieCatDollClothes on Etsy, and by my mama.  Who else?  Gumbie Cat also makes clothes for Kruselings and Lottie, and other small dolls and stuffed animals.  I also saw a few things for full-sized American Girls, but for the most part it's all about the small dolls.  Suits me.

Cordially yours,

RagingMoon1987