So random, September '24

When one "so random" post goes out, I start to work on another.  This one picks up where the last one left off, on August 27th.  Remember when I said that Elisabeth Clara was envying Morgan's hair bows?  The very next day she got her own.

eBay shop is jmtolananny, and they have a lovely selection of Cabbie clothes.  I'm a hippie at heart and thus I'm always looking for tie-dyed stuff for my dolls, but those aren't the easiest things to find.  I guess the risk of dye transferring to a doll's vinyl body is a very real deal.  But I was able to find this blouse and slacks set that has the tie-dyed aesthetic.  Even Elisabeth's much-desired hair bows are rainbow.

August 30th.  One of the 65th Anniversary Fashionistas struts her stuff in front of my domestic miscellany. 

This is Dionne, inspired by the one and only Black Barbie from 1983.  I'd been hoping Mattel would honor Black Barbie with a Fashionista...and if I recall, one of y'all told me that they eventually would.  Anyway, I had Dionne on the chest of drawers with the #FailFix crew, but she was standing straight, with her head facing forward.  Now she looks like this.  I solemnly swear to y'all that I did not do it.  I figure that either Mama knocked her over in the middle of the night and put her back...or Uncle Man-Child has been fooling around with her.  I doubt that second one, but then Dionne is his type.  He likes his chicks young, unfortunately.  Either way Dionne is showing off, and I'm letting her do it.  If I had the body for a slinky red dress I'd show off too.

August 31st.  I was gearing up for September's first Bae Day Monday, and I realized just how cute Hugo Jack and Kiara look together. 

I've had these two nestled together ever since I moved Kiara over to Casa Pizarro, but I'm only now realizing what a cute pair they make.

September 1st, 2024.  Dionne swan-dived off the chest of drawers one too many times, so I threw her atop the OTHER chest of drawers, where I keep about a dozen other dolls.

Dionne's new friend is Bubblegum DJ, one of my O.M.G. dolls.  She's a smidge more demure than dramatic Dionne.  Emily and Jettivee can also be seen in the background. 

September 2nd, better known as Labor Day 2024.  Bae Day Monday was for baldies and those with tufts...and do I have plenty of bald Cabbies!  There's Matthew Tommie and Hugo Jack...

...brothers Esmond Brant and Nathan Hunter...

...twins Stella Rae and Cara Raelean...

...and the little ones, Taniyah Yasmin, Owen Presley, and Sammy Sloth. 

I unfortunately didn't have any tufties at the time, but as we saw, that changed.  I also don't own any baldies that will take a pacifier...yeah, I do.  Owen Presley will take one if I can find the right size.  

On September 3rd another Cabbie group asked for head mold #3, so I acquiesced.

Nathan Hunter is a Preemie and Elisabeth Clara is not, but they're very close in size.  The sizing of Cabbies is a difficult matter, I'm afraid.

September 4th.  Foster child Precious arrived after the battle with the local mail carriers.  Elisabeth Clara also got another new dress.

These two have a lot in common.  Both are brown-eyed brunettes in pigtails, both have the #3 head, and by something of a coincidence both are wearing variants of the same dress.  This is called the "swing dress" and it comes in a number of color variations (my favorites are yellow, spoilers).  Elisabeth Clara is wearing ballet flats with her dress, which apparently aren't the right shoes for this combo...but they fit her fine so who cares?  As for Precious...well, she's still hanging out at Casa Pizarro, and I've slowly been building a special wardrobe for her.  I do still intend fully to give her to my friend, and what a gift she'll be!

Speaking of Precious, September 7th.

I have Precious at my workstation, where Idalia Gale or Beryl June often sits.  I keep her there just in case my friend comes, and on the 7th Ernest John decided he wanted to keep her company.  The two don't have much in common except for brown eyes.  Precious now sits in a sparkly gift bag with her panda dress and a sheet of tissue paper covering them both, waiting...

September 8th.  Ernest John made another friend.  Morgan is a serious little poppet, but she is not unkind.

Here it's possible to see how close My Child and Preemie Cabbies are in size.  By coincidence, they match in the as well with their nautical garb.  I've never tried putting Preemie clothes on Morgan, but it couldn't hurt to try.  Stay tuned...

September 9th.  My sister's birthday was that day, and Mama and I celebrated with Chinese food.  That particular Bae Day Monday was for Cornsilk Kids.  I don't know if the admins meant Coleco only or all Cornsilk Kids, so I went full Monty.  Here's my Coleco Growing Hair pair, Cleopatra Chantale and Andrea Doria...

...the blondes, Lucey Dena and Iris Evangeline...

...Leslie Emily, who is both in a class by herself and dazzled by the camera flash...

...the gimmicky ones, Julie Emmalee and Kory Aryan...

...and the little ones, Carol Kasey and Skye Kitty. 

There are Cornies out there with hair a deeper red than Cleopatra Chantale's, believe it or not.  More on that at eleven. 

The same day my other Cabbie group asked for pictures of head #9, so once again here's Andrea Doria, sitting pretty.

I need to change this girl up a bit.  Give her a new dress or a new 'do or something. 

Finally, here's Candela Laura in her new overalls. 

I got this outfit around the same time as the others, but I bought this one myself (the others were gifts).

September 12th.  The remains of Hurricane Francine made for a cool, windy, rainy evening, and when the weather is like that I usually think of something cozy.

Usually my American Girls and my Cabbage Patch Kids keep to themselves, but on this particular evening Rita Cheryl fancied a cuddle with Ernest John.  Ernest is proving popular with the ladies!  Oh yeah, and he wanted to show off his new binky.  No #4 Cabbie stays without a binky on my watch!

September 16th.  Bae Day Monday was for popcorns.  I got to kill two birds with one stone that day, because my popcorn girls get something new for fall.  Usually Wednesdays are for sharing new clothes, but I jumped the gun.  This picture was obviously taken before Beryl June got her shoes.

Beryl June has had nothing to wear since she arrived but that green bubble dress.  I like that dress a lot because green and because polka dots, but it was time for a change.  Idalia Gale has also been wearing the same thing since...I think since last March.  So change did her good too.  Of course my friend from Newfoundland loved it, LOL.  By the way, does Idalia Gale have long legs or what!  Her short dress makes them look long anyway, but clothes notwithstanding she's lankier than Beryl June. 

September 18th.  

My new boy Gavin Andrew wanted me to take his closeup.  He also wanted to wait until his sister gets here for a full-body shot.

September 19th.  Gavin's sister didn't arrive, and Gavin decided to pose with Kitrick Randolph Fergus and Julie Emmalee instead. 

I had Randolph and Julie out because they're getting new outfits!

Randolph's outfit is a gift from Mama, and Julie's getup is my own find.

Now, time for the eleven o'clock news.  September 23rd.  Gavin's sister FINALLY arrived.  Karen Sheila will be her name.

Both Gavin and Karen have the flaming red hair that I was referring to in September 9th's entry.  See how much darker this hair is than Cleopatra Chantale's?

As y'all know, I love a good redhead.  I don't have too many at Casa Pizarro yet, but the ones I do have stand out!  Hmmm...would one of Bailey's extra heads count as red?

No, that's pink and orange.  Cute, but not red.  Bailey does have a little red-haired friend, though.

Bailey and Shannon share the same patch of real estate, and they've become thick.  

September 23rd was also Bae Day Monday.  This Bae Day Monday's theme was reroots, and I only have one.

The last Monday in September was for shaggy and fuzzy boys, and I don't have any of those yet.  I haven't given up completely on finding a fuzzy red boy, so we'll see. 

The weather on the 23rd was a little stormy, and the lightning freaked two of my tinies out a bit.

They are Milk Shake Bonnie and Lady Doolli, from this post back in May.  I thought it might be nice to display the dolls Setsu-P sent with my other little ones, and that proved smart.  Whimzee and Antu have become fast friends. 

September 26th, 8:27 p.m. CDT.  Hurricane Helene's landfall was thirty minutes away, and I had a pair of cuddle buddies.

Geneva and Morgan, both of whom I'd been playing with a lot at the time.  They both feel nice in my arms.  Note that Geneva was still in her poncho.  Oh, and by the way...thirty minutes came and went and Helene STILL hadn't made landfall!  Sometimes hurricanes speed up as they make landfall, and sometimes they slow down.  Helene slowed down, I got sleepy, and I went to bed early on the 26th.  Landfall happened sometime after I went to bed.

September 27th.  Malden football homecoming!  The weather was horrendous, but our boys played anyway. 

Seriously, Helene's outer bands were that big.  It poured all day Friday and most of Saturday.  Anyway, by luck of the draw, Coleco's sporting uniforms are dominantly green, just like my own high school's uniforms.  Shelley Fred is our little linebacker, and Elisabeth Clara is cheering him on.  Heck, everyone in the bedroom is cheering him on, even Terri Lee.  That said...I can't wait to dress these two in Halloween clothes and get Shelley out of that heavy helmet.  And now I can, because homecoming is over!  We lost.  Malden's football team stinks on ice this year.

Now remember when I said above that rainy evenings put me in the mood to cuddle?  Ernest John and Alice Helene took the opportunity to chillax.

September 29th.  Another random head shot of Beryl June. 

My friend from Newfoundland likes all the dolls I've shared with her, but she hella loves Beryl June.  I'm still not sure why; popcorn Cabbies are popular, but I don't think that's Newfoundland's sole reason for loving Beryl June the best.  I need to ask her; I know she'll tell me. 

And that concludes September.  I know that I posted about feeling depressed and frustrated yesterday, and I still do, but hours after I posted yesterday I saw pictures of Hurricane Helene's effects.  The devastation in Chimney Rock, North Carolina looks like the destruction raught by the Galveston hurricane or the Johnstown flood, both of which were extremely deadly catastrophes that are still talked about in the modern day.  Later I spoke to a woman who lost her house and belongings in the flooding...including a large, visually attractive collection of vintage and antique dolls.  It just made me sick.  Helene did drop a boatload of rain on the Bootheel, and I know that some of y'all lost power.  Inconvenient?  Very.  But thank God, we have our families, our homes, our pets and possessions.  So I need to count my blessings, and I hope y'all will too.

Love,

RagingMoon1987 

Autumn's flora and fauna, and Real Baby

It's been another of those weeks.  Mama's oldest dog Lucy died at the beginning of the month, and after that the rest collapsed like a house of cards.  The last cat, Vladimir went, and then Hulk went, and finally our parvo survivor Molly died.  We loved them all, but Molly was extra special and we're taking her death hard.  Last evening when I went out to bury her I discovered a large patch of mushrooms in my own soon-to-be-former front yard.  These two are growing appropriately where I buried Edgar last November. 

The rest are growing not in a ring, but in a large cluster like so.

I took a couple'a pictures of specimens that attracted my eye, like these...

...and these...

...AND these!

There was a time when my bratty kid self would've kicked these over just for the helluvit.  I was so rotten back then!

Meanwhile, my sister has more time on her hands thanks to a new boss, and she sent us pictures of this spider that lives near her apartment. 

My sister says the spider has glutted herself on cicadas and is thus now the size of a small grape.  In case any of y'all are wondering, that IS a black widow.  See the red on her butt?

Black widows are fairly common in both Fayetteville and Malden, but they're shy and prefer to hide from humans.  Indeed, in all my years of turning over rocks to look at creepy crawlies, I've run into exactly two black widow spiders, and Daddy had to kill one of them because she was where our cats liked to play.  My sister, on the other hand...well, she's not as afraid of spiders as I once was, and she actively hunts for these.  She's found them everywhere she's lived except for Edmonton, Alberta, and she even was roommates with one while living in Vermont.  Alas, the Vermont widow had to go to Spider Heaven, because Sister's cat wouldn't quit pestering it.  That cat is such a dolt.  A loved and pretty dolt, but a dolt.

As for me, I washed my hands and settled in with Geneva, my Real Baby.  She got a new poncho yesterday.  It's still too warm for a coat, but I threw it on her anyway.

The poncho was advertised for Cabbage Patch Kids, but it feels like it's made of real wool and it's (possibly) handmade.  I promptly declared it too good for Beryl June and company, thus why Geneva is wearing it.  Geneva needed a coat anyway.  For the record, she's still wearing Quacky Cords, LOL.  I  like that outfit so much that I've left her in it.

Sigh...okay, I feel better.  I hope all is well with y'all.  I know that for at least one reader spring is just around the corner rather than fall.

Much love,

RagingMoon1987 

Quacky Cords!

Nothing much today, really.  I just never pass up an opportunity to talk about Real Baby.  LOL, I adopted Geneva from Tam expecting to like her; indeed, Tam has yet to send me a doll I DIDN'T like.  But I wasn't expecting to fall head-over-heels in love with her the way I have!  It's not like I don't have other baby dolls, LOL again.  But no, Geneva isn't so old that she's peeling and cracking like compo babies do (nor WILL she peel and crack, since she's NOT compo), and she's not painted and customized to the hilt so that I fear carrying her around like I might a higher-end reborn.  I can, in a sense, do what I like with Geneva.

Well, for the most part, I can.  Geneva's head is so heavy that it doesn't stay up very well, but then that's true of real-live babies.  This does little more than make some photography a pain in the posterior.  But anyway, I sometimes complain about the difficulty in finding clothes for certain dolls (Bailey is impossible, for example), but Geneva is relatively easy to shop for.  Relatively easy, that is.  0-3 month-sized tops and onesies are kinda big on her. 

Regarding clothes made specifically for Real Baby, I've found a few brand-name things and some cute stuff on Etsy, but this bad boy is mint on card...for now.  <rubs hands together>  Bwa-ha-ha...but seriously, this came in the mail with zero delays, so in theory my other packages could've too.

I always like showing the price stickers when they're visible.  In this case the sticker reads "Villa Clara Store" plus a price of just under ten bucks.  

Villa Clara Store is apparently still in existence.  They're located a world away from Malden, in Miami, Florida, but then this little dress came from Fort Lauderdale, so it all makes sense.

Now...this little dress is called "Quacky Cords."  It was once used as a mail-order item, but apparently it could be found in stores as well.  According to the back of the package there were four little outfits in this particular wave...none of which are the two brand-name outfits that Geneva modelled last fall.  Those two dresses were probably stock outfits.  Anywho, here's a look at the other outfits.  Four little getups isn't bad for a baby doll!

Quacky Cords is on the bottom right; the others are Starry Sleeper (ooo, pajamas!), Ready for Play (overalls), and Jumpin' Jills (blick, a jogging suit).  I love the word play in "Jumpin' Jills," by the way.  I think that jogging suits are hideous and I refuse to wear them myself, but they look fine on a baby.  Babies don't give a crap what revolting attire you put 'em in...unless it's a hat, LOL.  Most of the babies I've known hated wearing things on their heads.  Fortunately for Geneva Quacky Cords doesn't have a headband or anything like that.  It does, however, have a pair of tights.

I don't know of anyone who likes wearing tights!  But does Geneva look adorable in this or what?  For some weird reason I've always loved ducks on kids' clothes (my old Suzy Cute has an outfit like that).  Another thing that a lot of babies I know don't like are shoes, and Geneva has those too.

Since babies don't walk until nine months or so there isn't much need for shoes until then!  But Geneva is sized about like a nine-month-old...I guess.  I recently met a nine-month-old that was about Geneva's size, so i guess that works.  Geneva is an armful, I know that much!  Anyway, these shoes fall off a lot so when I'm moving Geneva around I just take 'em off, just like I do with some of my Cabbage Patch Kids and quite a few of my American Girls.

Now, as usual, time for a tangent.  I've done some reading about reborn dolls, including Miss Emily's Saskia Project (posts here, here, and here).  When it was time to place Saskia's eyes Emily first gave the little doll very dark eyes...kinda like Geneva's.  Emily wasn't happy with the result and swapped the eyes out, an easy feat with Saskia's soft vinyl.  That got me to wondering...Geneva and her Real Baby brothers and sisters are hard as rocks, harder even than My Twinn dolls.  It's possible to swap out My Twinn eyes with the use of a hair drier, but I wonder if such a feat would ever be possible with a doll like Geneva?

Not that I want to, of course!  One of my favorite things about Geneva are those big, dark, uniquely blue eyes that stand out against her otherwise fair coloring.  But mishaps do happen, and doll eyes can get damaged.  I wonder if a swap would ever be possible, as hardheaded as Geneva is?  For those of y'all who have never handled Real Baby, the vinyl is...I'd almost compare it to porcelain.  It's that hard.  Indeed, the lady who designed Real Baby did do porcelain dolls.  But I've seen My Twinn fans compare the vinyl on the older Twinns to porcelain, and it still becomes malleable when heated.  So I don't know about Real Baby.  It's not a big hairy deal since Geneva's eyes are fine, but I'm curious.  If any of y'all know, let me know.

And that should do it for Geneva for now.  I'll remain on the lookout for cute little dresses, but for the foreseeable future Quacky Cords will be what my Real Baby wears.

Cheers,

RagingMoon1987