So Random, July-August '25

At the beginning of July I was unsure what my immediate future held, so I combined two months again.  First picture was taken on June 30th, a few hours after the last random post went up.  I had yet another new dress for Chatty Cathy.  I was only then realizing that I had nothing patriotic for her, but this getup will do nicely. 

Or rather, it was new to her.  I'd had it laying aside since she looked so cute in white, but I was ready for a change.  I had someone comment on Cathy's hair when I shared this image on Failbook, by the way; the friend noted how red Cathy's hair is, and I don't remember it being this red.  I do know that Mattel hair from this era can change colors with time, so maybe that's the deal.  But if that's the case, then the change only took ten years.  But either way my Chatty Cathy is a strawberry blonde now and I'm not gonna knock it.

Also from June 30th came a Failbook memory, dating back to 2016.  Alistair decided to channel his inner C.C. DeVille.

I'd just gotten a fukubukuro wig bag for my ball-jointed dolls, and Alistair promptly claimed this one.  I'd gotten some beautiful champagne-colored eyes in another package, and the pairing made Alistair pop.  Up until this point I'd had a hard time bonding with him, but this combination made him.

Failbook memory again, this one from July 1st, 2021.

I'm glad I found this picture, as it's the only one I know of that shows all three Magic Nursery triplets in their original outfits.  Not long after this I threw Lulu (left) in a Build-a-Bear Small Fry dress and she hasn't been out of it since.

Another Failbook memory, from July 1st, 2016.  This one also concerns Alistair, and my attempts to tame his hair.

I thought Alistair might make a good decora boy, but as y'all can see Alistair is having none of it.  He reminds me a little of that scene from Beauty and the Beast, where the Beast is getting gussied up for his date with Belle...and a hairstyling session goes a smidge awry.  

July 2nd, in the aftermath of my visit to the hospital with a torn-up ankle, and possibly Day One of a depressed spell (I didn't really start perking up again until July 22nd).  One of my Failbook groups declared it Maryellen Week.  Alas, I have no Maryellen, but Silver Bird does.

Had I the room I would add Maryellen and Addy to my collection in a heartbeat.  I freaking love them both. 

My ankle was killing me that afternoon, so I passed the time by monkeying with the dolls I had within arm's reach (quite a few, LOL).  During this time Aimee gently reminded me that she hadn't been played with in awhile.  By the next evening I was in much less pain, so I moved Aimee up front and let her pose with Flower Magic Mary. 

My, oh my, the aesthetics sure changed in the twenty years separating the seventies and the nineties.  Big eyes were prevalent both decades, but...oh, I don't know.  There's more than just the clothes that tell me Aimee is older than Mary.  But of course dolls are ageless!

July 4th, 2016.  Another Failbook memory, another goofy wig for Alistair. 

I didn't like this one on him as much as I did the golden wig, and I think Alistair was ready for me to just pick a look for him already. 

Same day, present day.  I changed Terri Lee out of her patriotic dress and into something else.

This is a case of "I saw it in a window and had to have it."  I saw those jewel tones and knew my doll had to be the one who got it.  It's not tight across the shoulders like the patriotic dress is.

Same evening.  My mobility sucked on Independence Day, so I'd let quite a group of dolls accumulate on the back of the couch.

Flower Magic Mary and someone else's My Child doll are the focus here, but Candela Laura can also be seen on the right of the image.  On the left Aimee chose not to look at the camera this time; I joked that she was trying to be artsy like the members of Pink Floyd did back in the day.  In the linked image Syd Barrett is staring into space, while Roger Waters is turned away from the camera in an Alfred Hitchcock sort of way.

July 10th.  One of those pictures that I grabbed while I was getting ready for work.

Chou Chou and Xue don't look like the happiest little dolls, but they've become fast friends due to their somber expressions and their similar heights.

As I stated in a prior post, it gets chilly in Casa Pizarro, and Candela Laura decided to steal my blanket.

We can share, LOL!

July 13th.  I was watching a distant lightning show, and my pretty Francie was watching me.

Like me, Francie is thankful for what she's got (a home, new friends, a soft coat), but she also dreams of a life without pain.  Unlike Ilaria, Francie's broken knee does hurt her some.  Not long after this I stabilized it with some brightly-colored duct tape, and now Francie is happy again.  Treesa, Francie and the rest of the Pennsylvania Gang send their love.

July 15th.  This is Mariannina. 

Mariannina is another Furga doll, one that is quite popular on one of my Failbook groups.  Seriously, EVERYONE in that group has some variant of this doll.  Mariannina is small enuff to ride in the bag on my walker, and sometimes she does exactly that.

July 26th.  Alistair sort of got a redress.

All I had to do was take off his cardigan, cap, and scarf.  He was wearing a red T-shirt and a black tank underneath all along.  As if y'all couldn't tell, Alistair's favorite color is red.

July 27th.  Suzette made a reappearance after a long battle with mold.

I'd just cleaned her eyes, and one of them momentarily stuck shut.  Normally these dolls don't wink unless one manually holds their eye shut, but Suzette did it for me.

August 1st.  Johnny Hailey made a reappearance, with my present for Courtney Moore in tow. 

That, in his arms, is a Pillow People character, Mr. Sandman.  The Pillow People were pillows and stuffed dolls rolled into one, and they had a number of different themes.  Thunderclap, from the Nighttime Sounds category, is my favorite, though I'll maintain to my dying day that things that go bump in the night don't necessarily want to be my friends.  Yes, apparently the tagline for that subgroup of Pillow People was "These noises in the night want to be your friend."  When I was growing up the absolute last thing I wanted to hear in the middle of the night was a friggin' thunderclap, and I still don't 100% love it because it means I have to pop out of bed and unplug my phone, lest it get fried by an errant lightning strike.  But I still love the Pillow People character.

As for Johnny, his clothes are a little worse for wear than Alistair's, because Johnny was right next to my open window during a couple of very hot summers.  He's dusty and his clothes need a bath, and as usual Johnny is none too happy about it.

"Admit it, you forgot about us."

Y'know, I never realized until just now what a sad expression this head has!  Not the paint, but the head mold itself.  Here's how it looks without spectacles.  

Those eye wells...but then again, that's what I wanted.  All of my ball-jointed dolls have backstories with a healthy amount of tragedy, and Johnny lets his feelings show.  Alistair tries to hide his.

Oh, and that musical instrument by Johnny's side?  He's taken up playing the balalaika.

I have no idea why, but I like a well-played balalaika so I won't complain.  Marillion may have had something to do with it; I love their song "Estonia," and it features a balalaika.

August 2nd, 2025.  The resin takeover of Casa Pizarro continues.  This is Wozzeck, my eternally sleepy, eternally chill Wishel.  Despite my claim on his original post, Wozzeck is not a Festivous Wishel, but rather an Unbeknown.  Festivous had angel wings and a halo, and Wozzeck does not have those features.  Unbeknown Wishels COULD have angel wings and halos, but they could also have demon wings and little horns, or a single horn like a unicorn, or none of the above!  Unbeknown or Festivous, Wozzeck is a Wishel, and Wishels are tough to find.

His hair isn't that red IRL.  Surprise of all surprises, none of my ball-jointed dolls are gingers...not yet, anyway.  I do have a red wig, waiting for a doll to wear it, but that'll have to wait...that is if bugs haven't eaten it.  More on that at eleven.  I apologize for the glut of ball-jointed doll chatter.  I spent a decent amount of money on those dolls and am only now trying to pay attention to them again.  In the time that I've been away most of the Etsy shops I went to for BJD stuff have closed, so finding things for Alistair, Johnny, and Wozzeck is going to be no easy feat, but I've got several crates of stuff so it's all good. 

August 7th.  The first picture I got of Ayla Diamond.

I like these My Mini Babies a lot, but I only want the one.  I don't want her to have to share clothes with someone else, LOL!

And now for the eleven o'clock news!  August 9th I retrieved Chloe from Casa del Luna...and the aforementioned bugs had destroyed her wig!

Darn it, the shop where I got that wig isn't open anymore!!!  

August 16th.  Johnny got some new threads.

As usual Johnny doesn't want his picture taken, but since I'm bigger than him I prevailed.  His new clothes came from ETDolls, and since most of my favorite haunts for BJD clothes are no more I may hit this ship up often.

August 22nd.  Mama nearly measured herself in the middle of the night and knocked over some of my dolls in the process.  While I was setting things back up I got this picture of Bunnie Candie and Malinda Irisa.  Please ignore the Blue Emu in the background.  That stuff is good stuff.

Once again it's possible to see the difference between a neon Preemie and a non-neon.  These girls need Halloween clothes, but unfortunately finding themed clothes for Preemies is pretty tricky.  Take that back, Christmas items are semi-easy, but Halloween and fall?  Forget it!  I really need to whip out my sewing machine and start making doll clothes myself.

I must say, the past two months have been very dynamic.  At the beginning of July I was depressed, tired, and hot, and now the end of August has come and I'm...well, not depressed.  But I get frustrated more easily, and that's new.  I don't like that.  What can I say, going from gimpy but ambulatory to full-tilt crippled in less than a year is infuriating, and I don't think fibroid surgery is gonna be the cure-all I was hoping for.  But it's a step in the right direction.  Come the middle of September I'll know for sure what the future holds.

All of my love,
RagingMoon1987

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

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