So random, December '24

December 1st.  I'd just learned that Twyla Boogeyman's eyes glow in the dark, and I was planning on doing a post on that.  It fell through, but I still have the picture I took.

I don't talk much about Twyla, but she's always been one of my favorite Monster High characters due to her smaller size and her coloration.  Unfortunately my Twyla is falling victim to time just like Lagoona Blue has, and her hair looks pretty nasty.  I'm hoping I can save it.

December 2nd.  Bae Day Monday was for Jesmars.  I only have the one, Candela Laura, still in her fall dress.  Here she'd offered to help me shake out the winter quilts so that the family can avoid another spider bite (that lovely saga is here and here).

The ninth and the sixteenth are for Lily Ledy and Tsukuda, respectively.  I don't have any of those, but I'm looking forward to seeing the other folks' dolls.  The quilts got a clean bill of health, by the way; I guess the only spider in the pile was the one that bit me.

December 3rd.  Autumn Leah (right) finally arrived in the mail (she was listed as "out for delivery" for a solid twenty-nine hours).  Here she leans on Gwenda Cecile; my friends on Failbook wanted to see them both.

Y'all have met Autumn Leah, but I never talked about Gwenda Cecile, even though the two arrived around the same time.  Gwenda Cecile is a poseable Kid from the Hasbro era, with thick, pale blonde braids and bright blue eyes.  She has a head mold that reminds me of the crazy-expensive Coleco #19 head, which has a big toothy smile.

December 7th.  It was a Saturday, and I'd been to work and Mama hadn't.  When I came home that evening I found this.

Adora was wearing Bluebelle's hat, and poor Bluebelle was in the floor!  I presume that Mama brushed against their shelf at some point during the day.  Her coordination isn't any better than mine is at this point.  Bluebelle's hat is too small for Adora, but it still looks kinda cute!

December 12th is about as random as they come.  This headshot of Rosemary turned up in my Failbook memories.

Rosemary doesn't look like that anymore!  She's got a new wig and no eyelashes, and I need to fix that latter bit.

December 15th.  I was putting Jazzie's post together and decided to fool around with the rest of my Barbie dolls.  For some reason I included Marlo, even though she ended up not being in the post.

Y'all know how I like opposites, and Dionne and Marlo are about as opposite as it gets.  New and old, red and blue, brunette and blonde, black and white.

Since I once compared Marlo to Midge, here they are together.  Marlo is slightly in front of Midge here; in reality the two are the same size.

Hmmm, maybe she doesn't favor Midge as much as I thought she did.  She doesn't look much like TNT Barbie either.  It doesn't really matter much, but I like to nitpick.

Lastly, here's Marlo with Jazzie.

These two don't look a lot alike either, but that's to be expected since there's at least twenty years separating their production dates.  I have to admit that even though Marlo can't pose worth a doggone, she IS photogenic.  I need to think of some other scenarios for her.

December 16th.  This is a Failbook memory, of Yasmina and Raya together. 

I don't remember why I had them together, but I did.  I've always loved Yasmina's yellow, slightly creepy eyes.

December 18th.  Another Failbook memory.

Imani was so new that I didn't have her whole outfit yet.  I only had her sleep sack.

December 18th, present day.  Shelley (left) got a new dress that coordinated with Barbie's.  Y'all can see what happened next.

Now Shelley needs some shoes of her own!  I'd like to find a similar outfit for Midge too, so she and Barbie can pose together again. 

December 21st.  Saturdays on that Cabbage Patch group I like are called Seasonal Saturdays, and the Saturday before Christmas doesn't get more seasonal than this.

Besties Elisabeth Clara and Shelley Fred are ready to deck the halls...or they would be if we were bothering with a tree.  My goofy tree at the library is up, but both Mama and I are too crippled up to put a big one together, and Uncle Man-Child would be of no help if we tried.  So Elisabeth and Shelley are just chilling out, staying warm.  Elisabeth's left pants leg has the Grinch on it.

Everyone oughta love the Grinch! Unlovable as he's supposed to be, he's...pretty darn lovable.  

December 22nd.  Two radically different Barbie dolls.

Malibu P.J. is on the left and Isolde is on the right.  I think they're discussing the differences in their joints and how P.J. can sit comfortably with her legs outstretched. 

December 23rd.  Bae Day Monday is for Tri-Ang Pedigrees.  Again, I have one, my beloved Kitrick Randolph Fergus.

My friend from Newfoundland got her first Tri-Ang Pedigree doll a few days ago, and we had a discussion about Tri-Ang eyes.  Because the paint used was absolute crap, these dolls have very distinctive eyes.

Kit's eyes used to be brown, and the Newfoundland doll's eyes appear to have once been green.  Now both of them have...well, mud-colored eyes!

December 24th.  Failbook memory from 2020.

I apparently had just gotten Justine-Marie, because I showed this random headshot to everyone. 

December 26th.  This popped up in the mail.  Another gift from Mama. 

Nathan Hunter looks fine in his blue corduroy suit, but it's nice to change things up a bit.  This should hold him until the end of winter.

December 27th.  I took this in preparation for another series of posts. 

Barbie and Sindy.  Mattel and Marx.

December 28th, the not-too-smiley day that really wasn't that bad (for me, anyway).  Courtney got a new outfit in the mail.

Any of my balloon-headed Skipper dolls would've looked alright in this, but I love hot pink with dark hair.  Oh, and fringe.  I love fringe. 

December 30th.  Friend from Newfoundland needed a way to fill in the last Monday, so she declared it IC and UT Day.  These factories were both based in Taiwan, and Cabbies from there have their own special attributes.  In this case I have one of each; Shelley Fred is an IC3, while Elisabeth Clara is a UT2 and has the cheeks to show for it.

UT Cabbies have VERY rosy cheeks, and IC Cabbies have very pretty complexions when they haven't discolored (some of 'em do).  Shelley Fred is lucky and has not discolored so far; indeed, his face reminds me a little of porcelain.  This porcelain look is also common for IC kids.

Later that same day.  Fluff and Farrah cuddle.

Farrah is the younger of my two Malibu Barbies.  I unfortunately don't know where her older sister is.  However, I do have a rough idea about where to look.  I'm very fond of the Malibu Barbie line, so I'd like to have 'em all together. 

Still December 30th.  Two of my blue-eyed girls.

Danica and Martina, complete with That One Hair for both dolls.  By the way, it should be remembered that blue-eyed Furga dolls can look possessed if the camera's flash is wrong.  Martina, Caroline, Eva, and Gia have all fallen victim to this. 

I was restless on the evening of the thirtieth, and while waiting for Mama to come home I ventured outside with Martina. 

We were both in the mood to enjoy the last few hours of mild temperatures before a strong cold front pushed in.  The last week of December has been delightfully mild (with tornadoes for the south), and the first week of January is predicted to be "colder than a well-digger's butt," as my family puts it.  With snow.  Blaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!!

And with that, the year has come to an end!  It was an okay year, free of a lot of tragedy and illness...well, for me, at least.  I know that people in Appalachia are still digging out from Hurricane Helene; that recovery is gonna take a long time yet.  But for me, thank God, all is well.  My family has a home, we're all alive and well, we've got enuff money to pay bills, that's a lot to be thankful for.  And the eclipse...that was the highlight of my year, and I hope I never forget it.  As to you, my dear readers, I thank all of y'all for popping in with comments or with views, for the gifts, for everything.  This blog would be pointless without readers.

I love y'all, and happy new year!

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

Sweet relief

First things first:  I wanna thank all of y'all who left comments about the mail situation.  I understand now that it's hairy every damn where and my area isn't the only area having trouble.  This information did nothing to solve the problem, of course, but hearing from y'all was tremendously encouraging and I thank you.  In the end I griped for nothing, as out of nowhere my new doll's tracking number started updating again, and she arrived yesterday.  Meet Angela Grace Fitzpatrick.

Shoot a monkey, it's been a long couple'a weeks.  If I were Angela I'd be passed out asleep.  Anyway, Angela has a face that I didn't already have in my collection (Madison) and more importantly, a hair color that I didn't have.  Justin, Rosemary, and Salome are blonde, Rael is a brunette, Xenia's hair is full-tilt black, and Angela's hair is unquestionably red.

When Miss Emily designed her own My Twinn she had to specifically ask for bright red hair, and when she was running the My Twinn Project Shop I think she ran into...maybe two dolls that had this lovely shade.  So red-haired Twinns aren't the most common things out there, and that was the primary reason why I wanted Angela.  Oh yeah, she's also got freckles, though in this picture they're impossible to see.  I love freckled dolls.

She's just a sweet doll all around.  As far as I know, though, she is NOT a Denver-era doll.  Her body tag says "2003," which I think is from what Logan's Ladies calls the "China era."  Logan's Ladies goes on to note that China-era dolls can be eschewed by My Twinn fans because their vinyl parts are smaller than those of the Denver dolls.  That can make customization jobs a pain in the posterior.  I make note of this because Angela's right eye has an alarming pinkish tinge to it.

Since Angela is a China-era doll an eye swap may not be the easiest thing...but then again, her arms don't look any smaller than Rosemary's (left) or Justin's (right)...wait, maybe it does.  But in this case Justin's right there with Angela.  Rosemary looks like she may be thicker in the arms than both of them.

Pink eyes or no, I can't tell y'all what a relief it was to wake up yesterday and see that her tracking location read "CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO" after a solid week of radio silence.  Now to change that outfit...I have a copy of it already and I'm not a big fan of sweatsuits anyway.  I did have a new dress waiting...but Rosemary's wearing it now.

Blick, that new wig looks horrible!  I had no choice but to go back to the one that's too small.

If I find the perfect double-braided wig this one will go back into its box for a doll with a smaller head.  Anyway, I was talking about that dress, but...there's not much to say about it.  It's a linen shirtdress with subtle colors that would look nice for just about any occasion.  Miss Emily says that it's a harder-to-find My Twinn outfit, and indeed I've only seen two available for sale:  hers, worn by a doll she named "Safiya," and mine.  Maybe I need to look harder, LOL.

So that brings the total Twinn count at Uncle Man-Child's to three:  Rosemary, Angela, and Justin.  Like me, Rosemary is smitten with Angela's flaming hair.  Angela just wants to hit the sack, and to Justin's chagrin she chose his shoulder to lean on.

Notice that Angela's shoes are on the wrong feet...and that Justin's shoes aren't in yet.  Same ol' song and dance, the tracking number has stopped updating.  Patience is a virtue, I s'pose. 

By the way, I should probably mention that our plans for a house swap have changed.  If all goes the way we want it to, Uncle Man-Child will be taking Rent House (my childhood home), while Mama and I will be moving to his Grandma's house.  Grandma's house has three big bedrooms and tons of space, so I won't have to cull out as much of my stuff as I'd planned.  That said, I do plan on doing a mass offload of porcelain dolls.  Y'know, those that I bought on impulse and/or weren't gifts.  I may have enuff room for a Giggles doll now...but I'm not gonna push it.  I still have cats, after all, and one more doll is one more thing for my snoopy crew to break.

Victory, 

RagingMoon1987 

Time to gripe: just venting about our mail service

I wanna ask y'all, has your mail service been ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC lately???  This mainly applies to my American readers, but non-Yanks are free to answer too.  Admittedly most of the things I've ordered have either arrived on time or haven't had enuff time to arrive, but I've got two parcels that haven't updated in quite some time.  The first item is (spoiler alert) another My Twinn.  Her tracking number says she was supposed to be here on Monday, and it's Wednesday now and she's still not here.  Indeed, her tracking number insinuates that she hasn't even made it to St. Louis.

Even more alarming is a set of dollhouse items that I bought clean back in March.  Those were scheduled to arrive April 11th at the latest and did make it to St. Louis, but on the fifteenth the tracking number read "arriving late."  It hasn't updated since.  And what day is it today, kids???  The twenty-fourth!

To add to that, I've spoken to one of my friends, who is a mail carrier.  She told me that our local P.O. has had a helluva time keeping new workers on.  K told me that the new hires would come in, work for maybe a week or two, and then either quit or just not show up.  So the P.O. here has been both slow as molasses and understaffed.  The man who delivers Uncle Man-Child's mail sometimes doesn't show up until after dark, which is saying quite a bit since the days are getting longer.  I don't fault the poor carriers for this, of course.  One can't control what lazy new hires do or don't do.  And who knows?  Maybe the boss is an a-hole.  I doubt that's the issue (we'd have heard, LOL), but you never know.

So here I sit, waiting for my poor dolly and for my dollhouse trinkets, and wondering if the issues at Malden's P.O. are more widespread.  If places like Hazlewood (usually my mail's last stop before it reaches Malden) are having the same problems then I'll understand a little bit more.  Yeah, it doesn't make the waiting any less annoying, but I'd understand at least.  BUT...what if that's NOT the issue and the people between here and there are just idiots?

How about you, Rosemary?  What say you about this mess?

Rosemary is more focused on the fleabane growing in Uncle Man-Child's yard  (she and I both love fleabane).  I'm the one that wants a new wig for her.  Her current wig looks cute, but the cap is too small and it won't stay on.  The new wig is coming from St. Peters, which is a St. Louis suburb...so God only knows when or if it'll get here.  We'll see.

Hugs,
RagingMoon1987

Rosemary's rough day

Don't let that smile fool you.  Rosemary has not had an easy day.  I'm just thankful that she's one of my easier dolls to deal with.

I grubbed Rosemary out of Storage Hell earlier today, and I guess the lid on her box wasn't tight enuff because she was absolutely filthy.  Her wig AND her eyelashes came off when I started dusting her, and most of the dust wouldn't come off with a simple dusting.  Oh yeah, her shoes also fell apart.

Guess what, though?  It turns out that My Twinn clothes can go for a spin in the wash as long as the water is cold.  I did just that.  Rosemary's current wig is sadly too small for her, but she'll be getting a bigger one soon.  So that leaves eyelashes.  I hadn't realized how vacant these My Twinns look without eyelashes!  At least Rosemary's eyes haven't shifted color.

God only knows what other unpleasantries await me in Storage Hell.  Hopefully not brown recluses...Shudder.

Dusty love,

RagingMoon1987 

Random blather about My Twinn

Since Monday is my day off I passed some time fooling around with my larger My Twinns.  I kept thinking back to...February, was it, when I bought Rosemary?  No, it was late January, when I was convalescing from whatever illness it was that kept me home for a week.  Anyway, on a whim one morning I took this picture of Rosemary and my other then-new Twinn, Justin.  

Rosemary and my other two girls (Rael and Salome) are quite fair, and Justin is significantly...more orange than the girls.  See?

Yay, I fixed Rael's eyelash!  Anyway, I spoke to some friends on Failbook and the consensus is that Justin is an Outstanding Orange Blossom.  I don't know what the consensus among collectors is about Outstanding Orange Blossom dolls, but I quite like Justin's unusual complexion.  In real life he's got a lovely peachy glow, like he's spent some time outside. 

Speaking of outside, Salome has been enjoying the fresh air.  The weather here has been summery, then rainy, then springlike, then the cycle starts again.  I could handle a summer like this, LOL.  Anyway, Salome has a new dress and some new shoes.

Salome is my resident tomboy and prefers her overalls over dresses, and she's not usually fond of pink either.  But when I told her the shoes were a gift she happily slipped them on.

Oh yes, the shoes.  Barb the Evil Genius sent these to me after finding them at a doll show.

Pink kitten-heel sandals!  LOL, kitten-heels with a kitten dress?  How fitting!  I had a pair of shoes like this at one time time, only they were blue.  The heels are clear, making me wonder if these lit up at one point.

Barb didn't know this beforehand, but for me May got off to a terrible start.  Mama had...had something wrong with her stomach and spent two separate nights in the emergency room.  The second night was really bad; a woman in the back of the building started screaming like a banshee.  Turns out the poor thing was a mental patient having a bad night.  As scary as it was for Mama and me I can only imagine what it was like for the nurses...or the patient herself.  Anywho, Mama recovered and is fine now, but the month started bad.  Receiving these shoes in the mail was a tremendous pick-me-up, and I owe a debt of gratitude to Barb for that.  Thanks, Barb!

That will just about do it for now!  Unless I can find a red-haired Twinn I won't be discussing them again for awhile. 

Stay sober,

RagingMoon1987 

Rosemary has a broken neck!

Rosemary Green,
and Lavender Blue,
Thyme and sweet marjoram,
Hyssop and rue.
--"Rosemary Green and Lavender Blue," English rhyme

Maybe that's where everybody got the idea that lavender is blue rather than...well, lavender!  Don't worry, I'm not going to rip Miss Emily off completely and start flipping My Twinns, but this little poppet needed someone to love her.  So in the heat of the moment I bought her.

It was the heat of the moment, tellin' me what my heart meant!  Or more like the heat of my fever, since I bought Rosemary while I was sick.  Anyway, Rosemary Caitlin Green dates from 1999 and came in a full outfit, including shoes.  That's more than Justin and Salome came with; I thought Justin's shoes would never friggin' come, and Salome still doesn't have any.  Anyway, Rosemary's outfit is a nice outfit, with kind of a mori girl vibe to it.  Granted, the shoes are peeling a bit as shoes like this will inevitably do, but I can make that look less unsightly with a little fabric paint.  

For that matter Rosemary's clothes all can do with a good washing, easy if one has a dab of Dawn and a large pickle jar, but her main problem is this.

As I bluntly stated in the title, Rosemary's neck is broken, but thanks to Miss Emily's awesome My Twinn blog I know how to mend this.  Some glue (will tacky glue work?) and a new cable tie, and she'll be good to go.  Now I just need to get the cable ties; I've never worked with those before, but how hard could it be? 

The rest of Rosemary's armature is in one piece as far as I can tell.  She holds all the poses she should, and probably some that she shouldn't.  She squeaks a little, more than Justin and Rael do, but far less than Salome.

Rosemary brings another new face to my collection, one that I like quite a bit.

As with the Ariel head there are two variants to this head, one called "Rosemary" and one called "Caitlin."  "Caitlin" has bigger, slightly crazed eyes, and both have the sedate, relaxed, Mona Lisa-esque smile.  After some discussion with friends on Failbook, I learned that some folks don't believe the "Caitlin" variant even exists, or if she does the difference is pretty subtle.  So I just used my own judgement and have labelled this head a "Rosemary" head.  Since I don't have a doll named Rosemary yet, the name stuck.

Aside from her broken neck and a loose wig Rosemary is in pretty good shape.  She's blonde and blue-eyed like Justin is, but her wig is original and needs...oh, maybe it needs a little TLC.

It's kinda dry like Salome's is, and it has heavy bangs up front that can be a blessing or a curse for these dolls, but I like this wig enuff to keep it around.  Rosemary's eyes are a darker shade of blue than Justin's are, but I wouldn't quite call them violet.

Hmmm...then again, maybe I would.  They have that purple cast that Miss Emily doesn't like and I do like, and because Rosemary is a Rosemary head her eyes are a tiny bit wonky.  Her eyelashes are all the way attached, which is more than I can say for Rael.

LOL, I'd better trot out the tacky glue!  I'll be needing it for Rosemary's wig anyway.

As I was readying myself for work this morning I caught Rosemary and Justin..."cuddling," LOL.

Don't get me wrong, the relationship between these two is strictly platonic (Justin has his eye on one of my American Girls), but they make for a cute pair.  But...notice how...well, how ORANGE Justin is compared to Rosemary, and to Rael and Salome too, for that matter.  Justin is from an era where dolls sometimes came in this unusual orangish tone, referred to as Outstanding Orange Blossom.  LOL, I may have to ask the folks on Failbook if Justin is one of them.  He dates from the correct year, 2002, when skin tones varied quite a bit for some reason or another.  I don't know how popular the Outstanding Orange Blossom tone is among collectors, but I rather like it.  With the right wig and eye combo it can look quite nice.

So my little My Twinn crew has expanded to five (four big ones and Xenia), though I haven't yet given up the search for a nice Denika.  I just need to be patient, I guess...and patience is NOT one of my virtues!  

Love,
RagingMoon1987