My favorite season!

Nooooo, not Tornado Season.  I'm not THAT nuts...not yet, anyway.  Probably if I were a chaser I would be that nuts.  But no, IT'S SPRING, and here in the Bootheel it has been for a couple'a weeks now.  Uncle Man-Child is mooning around like it's the end of the world (damn fool hates spring), but I couldn't be happier.  I never outgrew my childhood mentality, in which spring meant that the school year was winding down and that everyone could relax a little.  A little, mind y'all!  We still had a full quarter to go, but the end was in sight!  I love the way things smell and sound too; in the Bootheel things are always a little (or a lot) dusty, so the air smells of dirt, cut grass, growing flowers, and often rain.  In the ditches the spring peepers and the crickets start calling, the farm equipment starts puttering around in the fields, and of course, the birds have a field day.  Sometimes you can also hear foxes yarking in the fields; Daddy always said they bark in pairs.  There's also the crop dusters, who fly too low and too fast, but so far we haven't had any calamities.

My springtime children this year are largely going to be Cabbage Patch Kids, with a few other random dolls thrown in.  I'll start with the little ones and work my way up in size.  First, here are my bean-butt girls, Ingrid Jessica (right) and Sandy Eden, in little dresses that Mama supplied.  Alexandria Florida's bare legs are also visible. 

Indeed, the dresses prompted me to buy Sandy and Ingrid, as the only bean-butt I had beforehand was a boy.  Unfortunately it's not easy to find springtime clothes for bean-butt boys, or else I'd have included Esmond Brant.

Up a couple'a sizes we go now, to sixteen inches.  Alexandria Florida has been wearing this since I got her in February...and for that matter, y'all saw this last Sunday when the weather got bad.  A gift wearing a gift.

I'm fond of redheads in purple for some reason.  Case in point.

Oh, it's been a long time since I bought a new Fashion Avenue outfit, but Amy is worth it.  I love how retro this looks!  It's a smidge tight on Amy's Shani-sized body, though.

Back to Cabbage Patch Kids now, Joyita Emilia is rocking the Care Bears. 

One eighties trend meets another, LOL!  As y'all might remember I'm fond of the Care Bears, and thus I was pleased as punch to see this dress.

Just as I like redheads in purple, I love brunettes in yellow.  I promised Christa that Beryl June would make an appearance as things warmed up.

Another gift from Mama, LOL.  In truth it's a smidge short for Beryl June, which surprised me since she's one of my smaller full-sized Cabbies.  But she looks okay.  I'll scrounge up some shoes and socks and she won't look as leggy.

Happy spring, y'all!  So far ours has been...oh, I'll say moderately stormy, and this weekend it's supposed to be hot!  We're talking mid-eighties hot, which is insane for March.  I hope that doesn't mean we're in for a scorcher of a summer.  And OMG, Barb and Tam, I forgot to ask y'all about the meteor!  Sounds like that was pretty wild!  I freaking love meteors, but my feelings would probably be different if one blew up right over my head.

Spring love,
RagingMoon1987

Sunshine and onesies

We're always waiting for something.  Waiting for that promotion at work, or for a baby or a death, waiting for finals week, you name it.  Currently I am waiting for the rain to finally stop.  The storms finally moved out late last night, but the rain is hanging around.  I love rain, but we've had too much of a good thing.  A bunch of our local roads are impassable, and this is what Grandma's back yard looks like.  Did I mention that Grandma's house is built on what used to be a frog pond?

I'm also waiting for Clive Elliot's onesies to come.  I ordered those LAST Sunday and they haven't even shipped.  Clive doesn't mind so much, but I'm tired of looking at him nekkid.  Clive just wants to share my lunch.

Mmmm, Taco Bell chicken chalupas (no tomatoes).  As long as Clive has a warm home and something to "eat," he's happy.  Have I ever mentioned that I think he's got cute feet?

What can I say, I like doll feet, and Clive has good-sized feet for a doll his size.

So I'm digesting my Taco Bell, enjoying a few quiet moments before Uncle Man-Child comes home from wherever he is, waiting for sunshine and onesies.  Are any of y'all waiting for anything?

Since I like soda, have any of y'all ever tasted Pepsi Peach?  Pepsi is in financial trouble and is cutting back on its lineup, and one of the flavors that got the axe is Pepsi Peach.  But then again, the box does say "limited edition."

Drat, I've never had it and it sounds not half-bad.  Have any of y'all had it?  Was it worth it, or did it taste like floor polish like Pepsi Twist did?

Love,

RagingMoon1987 

Do it again

<sings>  And we're back where we started/here we go 'round again!  Tornado warning is in effect for Malden.

Mia got a new dress a few hours ago, and so she joins Candela Laura and Rita Cheryl.

Mother of God, I'm so sick of this crap!

Yours prayerfully, 

RagingMoon1987 

Level five

I've got the Severe Squad with me again.  Candela Laura in her new spring clothes, Rita Cheryl in her Boston T-shirt and her TARDIS leggings.  They're sitting.  Waiting.

The severe level has been steadily increasing since I last posted, and early this morning it hit level five, the highest it can get.  My area is smack-dab in the middle of it all.

Now buckle up, because I'm about to use some meteorological jargon.  Picture the atmosphere above you as a slice of layer cake, a cake with at least three layers.  The plate the cake is resting on is equivalent to the ground where we stand, and each layer of cake is one mile of atmosphere.  Now suppose that here on the ground, the wind is blowing from the west.  One mile/cake layer up, the wind is blowing from the southwest.  Two miles/layers up, the wind is coming straight out of the south.  Three miles, the wind is coming from the southeast.  When the wind blows from different directions at different levels, it makes the atmosphere around it rotate, and that (in a very, VERY simplified form) gives tornadoes their get-up-and-go.  This atmospheric rotation is called helicity, and our local meteorologist said that the helicity in my neck of the woods is similar to the helicity on March 14th and 15th, when we had tornadoes coming out our ears.

Several of the local schools are either letting out early or have called off entirely, just as most of Alabama did in 2011.  Dunklin County's storm shelters are open...and look where citizens of Clarkton get to hide.

The high school gym.  Without going into too much detail, a gymnasium is one of the worst places to hide in a tornado.  I pray that nothing hits Clarkton High School, both because their shelter sucks and because I like Clarkton.  The people there are rural farm owners and blue-collar workers, much like the citizens of Malden, and I have a lot of respect for them.  

As to the rest of y'all...I don't know where this storm system is headed after it hits us!  I've got friends in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Alabama who are reading, so I'd advise that all of y'all keep a sharp lookout and do what you can to protect yourselves and your loved ones.  God willing, I'll be around to update y'all tomorrow.

Love,
RagingMoon1987

What became of Shopkins' Shoppies (plus another bad forecast)

This is super-old news, but what can I say, I live with my head under a rock and had no idea what Moose Toys was up to aside from #FailFix dolls.  Now...for awhile I was a fairly ardent fan of the Shopkins.  The little toys made superb props for Barbie and smaller ball-jointed dolls, and I liked how each little piece had their own personality.  That linked post is ten years old, by the way!  Ahhh, those were the days of jointed Fashionistas, separately packaged clothing items, two-outfit packs for Barbie...I took it all for granted, as people often do when they have something nice.  Anyway, the Shopkins were ubiquitous for awhile, and then they just...disappeared.  Or rather, they segued into the Mini Brands, which I also like because some of the pieces make good props for Barbie and other like-sized fashion dolls, or for a dollhouse like I'm still puttering around with.  Some pieces are too large or too small for such a shenanigan, but I make it work.  When you're working with a doll with a big noggin and a small body, something like Blythe, Bratz, or Rainbow High and Shadow High, scale isn't much of an issue anyway.  That said, I don't have a huge collection of Real Littles (I have around thirty Shopkins somewhere), because they don't have half the personality of the original Shopkins.

Now...when you have something in miniature, sometimes a doll line follows with it.  That eventually happened with MiWorld, and it happened with the Shopkins.  Shoppies were...kinda psychotic-looking, but I have three of them hiding in my room at Casa del Luna.  To my surprise, the only pictures I could find of my Peppa Mint doll were both size comparisons, one from a Hairdorables review...

...and one from a Blume review.

Surprise, surprise, Blume and the Hairdorables aren't around anymore either.  I'm not terribly surprised that Blume failed, but I thought the Hairdorables had staying power.  As for the Shoppies, I liked the little ones; indeed, I had plans to use them in a dollhouse that I had back then, though the idea never got much further than buying two mini Shoppies.  The little Shoppies didn't look as crazed as Peppa Mint and her full-sized sisters do.  My little ones are Coco Cookie and Sunny Meadows, by the way; I picked Coco because she reminded me a little of Mami Tomoe.

Peppa Mint's crazy eyes and molded on clothes didn't impress me much, and I don't guess they did their target audience either, because the Shoppies are no more...or are they?  Ladies and germs, while I was researching Cry Babies and Glitter Babyz, I stumbled across these unusual little poppets, the Kindi Kids.

These two are Rainbow Kate and Marsha Mello.  When I read their names I did a double take and muttered "Those names sound very familiar!"  Then I saw this doll.

That's Peppa Mint!  She's a teensy bit less crazed-looking than her Shoppie self, but she's still very much Peppa Mint.  So even though the Shoppies didn't impress me much I was still pleased to see them be reborn as a new doll.  They've even got accessories that look like the old Shopkins!  Despite my allegiance to Peppa Mint, my favorite Kindis are Rainbow Kate and this doll, Summer Peaches.

I love how Summer's hair looks with her skin/vinyl, but spoilers, her coloration looks highly similar to that of the Glitter Babyz doll I chose.  So if I do go the Kindi Kids route I'll probably choose Rainbow Kate...though her violet hair and freckled face look a bit like ANOTHER doll that I own, Princess Pipp Petals.  I'm hoping that Blossom Apples and Sara Sushi will become Kindi Kids, as they were my favorite Shoppies.  Blossom has unapologetically GREEN HAIR, and y'all know how I love green.  But no Kindi Kid will be coming home with me right now, as I am currently the proud owner of both a Glitter Babyz doll and a Cry Babies doll...and I'm right happy with both of 'em.  Indeed, I haven't put the Cry Baby down since she got here.  Reviews will hopefully be ready by the beginning of June.

Now I'm off to batten down the hatches for ANOTHER round of severe weather.  No, two.  Today is predicted to be violent, and next Wednesday is too.  App is Accuweather, a tremendous help when the meteorological excrement hits the fan.

The headline looks worse than the actual text does, but tornadoes are not out of the question either today or Wednesday. 

I can hear one of our KFVS news anchors trolling our meteorologist.  If he doesn't like a forecast he'll say in a deadpan voice "Boo.  I boo your forecast."  LOL, as was the case two weeks ago, today's system has been in the making for a solid week and the weather folks have really been freaking out.  Plenty of the locals are freaking out too, since we all remember how bad it was two weeks ago!  So y'all keep an eye out for a post from me in the wee hours of the morning, one with Clio Teresa or whoever I can grab sitting on our bathroom counter.

Stormy love,
RagingMoon1987

Springtime for dollies

I've said in the past that seasons begin when they begin and they end when they end, but for me it's not spring until 

A)  I see a butterfly, and 

B)  the television commercials shift their focus from colds to allergies. 

For me, March 18th has to come and go as well.  March 18th is kinda notorious for tornado buffs, so it's an easy date for me to remember.  This year was the centennial of the Tri-State Tornado, and the affected towns held remembrance ceremonies all week, which I thought was nice.  Heckuva coincidence, considering the weather last week.  As for me, I've yet to see a butterfly, but my jonquils have bloomed and faded, the trees have little green buds, the weather is growing warmer and stormier, and thus it's time to start putting my dolls in springtime gear.  Straight outta Etsy (and from my mama) comes another Cabbie outfit, modelled by Allie Kathleen.

West Virginia colors!  When I saw the blue in that skirt I knew it would make Allie's eyes pop, and it does!  I don't know how Mama keeps finding these cute little outfits for Cabbage Patch Kids, by the way...unless she gets stuff that I just glanced at before bouncing on to something else.

I have an outfit for Gillian Ida too!  I actually had another different outfit, but my disorganized rear end misplaced it so poor Gilly was stuck in her Christmas wear until this new dress came in. 

As is often the case with me, I love how nineties this getup is with its loud, clashing colors and layers.

But this isn't a post just for Cabbage Patch Kids, not today.  Whaaaaaat, did y'all think I was gonna leave the Queen of the Dolls out of springtime wear?  These Barbie dresses are simple little dresses that came in two batches from MelsOzarkCreations, and they're perfect for spring...maybe a little later on in spring, but still, spring.  The models are Theta and Iota.  Dress pair one.

Spoilers, all of the dresses from this shop follow the same basic pattern.  Hey, you gotta start somewhere, and the fabrics are nice.  In this case Theta is wearing a dress with spots that compliment her skin, while Iota has a dress that brings out the gray tones in her eyes (her eyes look both blue and gray).

Dress pair two.  I don't know if I picked the right dolls for these two dresses.

Okay, Theta looks fine, or she will after I add some blue accessories to make her lips pop.  Iota, though...I dunno, I like the dark color and the subtle print on that dress, but maybe it's a smidge dark for Iota.  A doll with a gothic or punk edge would probably wear it better.

Now these last dresses are my favorites, largely for their quirky, goofy prints.

Avocados for Theta, fun-size Butterfinger bars for Iota.  Again, I thought the avocado dress was too dark for Iota, but dang, I wanna put that Butterfinger dress on Theta!  The logo matches her lipstick.  While the dresses from MelsOzarkCreations are pretty simple, they're also easy to dress up or dress down.  Those solid and print dresses can be worn with almost any shoes and accessories. 

But I'm not done yet.  I like finding things that are specially designed for curvy Barbies, and this outrageous little number is just that.  Etsy shop is fashondollMX001, and Andra is my model.

I'm a moderately big fan of Andy Warhol's art, so when I saw this...well, y'know.  <elaborate>  By the way, this shop also has a Piet Mondrian-themed dress.  I'm very fond of Piet Mondrian paintings.

For a change of pace, Lagoona Blue also has something new to wear this spring.  Mama thought it was cute, and now one of my dolls has it.  Etsy shop is RabbitinthemoonThai, and I'm only now noticing that Andra and Lagoona are in the same pose.

Lagoona may be sticky and yellow, but she was my first and I'll always love her.  It's been a minute since she got something new, and this matches her stock shoes.

Zooey Electric also has an outfit, one supplied by Mama.

toocuteclub offers clothes for Rainbow High and for Smart Dolls (spoilers, I'm sizing up a Smart Doll).  The clothes are pricey, but I love the pastel outfits that the shop offers.  In this particular case Zooey seemed like the perfect choice for this outfit, but looking at the trim...there's some purple in there so Monique Verbena could've pulled it off too.  Indeed, the only one I have that would clash is Ruby Anderson (she's red).  Sunny Madison would've looked adorable.

Camille, my little Wellie Wisher, has something new to wear too.

New to her, anyway.  I've had this in storage since the end of last summer.

Rounding out the spring wear is River Song, who is uncharacteristically girly.  Y'all have gotten a peep at this getup, but now Riv has her shoes.

Justine-Marie and Zoe are my girly girls, but River Song is the one who got the dress, and she loves getting new things so she didn't make a peep of complaint.

Bright, splashy clothes for a...decidedly dreary beginning to March.  In the first few days after the tornadoes last weekend the weather was beautiful, and then on Tuesday the clouds moved in and the wind picked up a lot.  Normally I'd have taken Camille and River Song outside, but it was too windy and too dusty.  Yeah, it's nothing but sand here in the Bootheel.  I think it's a miracle that our crops grow as well as they do, but so far they do, thank God.

Veronal love,
RagingMoon1987

Devastation

Follow-up to this morning's post.  As y'all can tell, I'm okay and Clio Teresa is okay, ergo the house, the library, and the city of Malden are all okay.  Clio came with me, as a doll inevitably will when I'm feeling a mite depressed.

Malden dodged a bullet once again, thank God, but Kennett (south), Poplar Bluff (northwest), and Piedmont (farther northwest) did not.  Big Mouth Reed Timmer shot a rocket into the tornado at Kennett, though I don't know what for.  It was a big so-and-so, that tornado, but my boss told Mama that most of the damage was around Burger King and some of the business district.  My boss is okay, her sister who lives at Piedmont is okay, and my assistant manager and her family are okay.  The tornado that hit Poplar Bluff took out a trailer park on the western side, and I'm sorry to say that at least three people got killed.  Their library took some damage and will be closed today, and...gosh, I don't know how bad it is at Poplar Bluff, but it's definitely not good.  I don't know much about the situation at Piedmont either, but a couple'a residents died there too.  Piedmont is a little bitty place, so even one death is too many.  Hell, one death is too many, period.

This sweeping change of subject is a mite spur-of-the-moment, but at the last minute this morning I remembered that Treesa asked for a picture of Rowena Skylar and Alice Helene together, but with Alice's hood off.

Alice's hair is brighter than Rowena's, to the point of carrot red.  As to Rowena's kissing mechanism, I haven't tried it yet, but Treesa says she should make a little kissing sound.  Kisses from sweet little dollies sound good right now.

I'll keep y'all updated on the mess here in Missouri.  It got hectic enuff last night that Cape Girardeau's lead meteorologist got dehydrated and dern near passed out.  He speaks for the whole viewing area when he says he hopes this is the event of the year...but I have a sneaking suspicion that we're just getting started.

God bless,
RagingMoon1987

Over the rainbow

The season's first severe day has arrived.  When that happens I drag one or two of my favorite dolls to work with me, rain or no, and today it happens to be these two.

Rita Cheryl Lassiter, my beloved JLY #49, and Candela Laura, my equally loved Jesmar.  It's a tough pick when it comes to Cabbage Patch Kids, but having browsed eBay I concluded that Candela Laura would be the hardest of my Kids to replace.  Rita Cheryl, on the other hand...#49 is a relatively easy American Girl to find, but I love my doll the way I have her and recreating all that would be a pain.  So if I go flying over the rainbow these two are coming with me.

Oklahoma has already had one tornado, and Fayetteville, Arkansas is getting pounded by thunderstorms right now.  Fayetteville is where my sister lives, and she doesn't have a basement, so we all need to keep a sharp lookout today.  The worst of this mess looks to be well south of the Bootheel, but I'm watching anyway.

Love y'all,
RagingMoon1987

The oncoming storm

Despite my rather chirpy entry over on my hair bow blog, I'm regarding today with a fair amount of trepidation.  My resident storm spotter Rita Cheryl is scanning what little of the horizon she can see.  The tree line is a bit of a hindrance.  

Don't let that ordinary gray sky fool you!  The weather folks have been predicting this storm system all week, and they've been saying ever since last Saturday that it's gonna be intense.  Wind advisories were up as early as three o'clock yesterday morning, so we knew we'd have that much.  Indeed, I had a hard time keeping Rita Cheryl balanced in the picture above, and y'all can see her hair whipping around.  Here's what the wind advisory looks like; it extends until early tomorrow morning, and it may get re-issued.

Here's a screenshot of the radar as of 8:30 this morning.  

Not much to see right now, but I'm dreading what it'll look like this afternoon.  Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms are not exclusively an afternoon/evening thing, but afternoon is the best time, when the air is the warmest and the atmosphere is unstable.  When the storms are all in a line like in a squall, that's not great, but when the storms are fewer and spread apart like zits on a high-schooler's cheeks, that's when they can feed on their surroundings and get bad, like they did in December of 2021.  It's hard to tell in the screenshot I got back then, but those storms were spread out over a wide area instead of being in a single line, and as such they didn't have to compete with each other for all that warm air coming in from the south.  This afternoon they're predicting something similar, though nothing is quite set in stone yet.

So Rita Cheryl is clad in her friendship bracelet and her favorite Shinedown shirt, and I have her "go-go bag" packed with her mini doll, her backpack (which has a few trinkets in it; all my dolls like trinkets), and a few items of clothing that y'all haven't seen before.  

All of that is crammed into the zippered compartment on the bottom.  You okay in there, Mini Gabby?

Yeah!  It's cozy!

In that case, Rita Cheryl is all set.  If I'm going over the rainbow I'm taking my favorite doll with me.

I don't know why these doll carriers are advertised as holding two dolls, because when I do put two in there it's a tight squeeze.  I also think it's a pity that they don't come in my size, LOL. 

Of course I also have my purse loaded with necessities.  My identifications, my medicine, my W-2 forms (still haven't done my taxes, LOL), a little dab of money, house keys (if I still have a house to go to at the end of the day), assorted girly stuff, the works.  My mom is packed up too, just in case the sh!t does hit the fan.  Malden has been incredibly blessed over the past few years and I pray that good fortune will hold up.  Even when the last significant tornado came through there were no deaths (not here, anyway).  Property damage?  Yes.  Injuries?  Yes.  But thank God, no one died.  The folks on the south side did have a mess on their hands, though!  

If anything goes down, I'll keep y'all posted.  Be safe out there; these storms are predicted to cover a wide part of the central U.S.

Love,
RagingMoon1987

Yikes...

I said last night that it was the first time I'd seen a tornado warning make reference to power flashes and severe damage.  Well, tonight the jig is up. 

Apparently everyone from a novice storm spotter like myself on up to the National Weather Service got duped by erroneous reports.  There was never a tornado, even though the radar had a nasty hook.  The white mark on the radar returns was a massive hail shaft.  The thunderstorm that tracked through Walnut Ridge did have a nasty-looking wall cloud hanging from it, and radar did detect strong low-level rotation, thus the tornado warning was justified.  Calling an emergency was not.  Oh well, everyone makes mistakes!  

Cheers to all,
RagingMoon1987

Sneak attack

In keeping with my policy of sharing when the weather goes insane, here I am with a crash post.  The weather got off to a rough start this week, but we had almost ten days worth of warning so we were ready.  And then all it did was rain hard where we are.  Other folks got tornadoes last Wednesday though, so I shouldn't brag.  Tonight's event is something completely different, as we got...oh, I'll say about three hours of advance warning.  At three o'clock this storm system was nothing, and by the time I got home from work it had mushroomed into this.

It's never good when the text of the warning says that the tornado is confirmed, but...it gets worse!

Tornado emergency is the highest warning level one can get.  It means there's a verified tornado, it's not going to change direction or dissipate, and you're in the path.  Here's what this mess looked like as it moved into Walnut Ridge.

Here's the radar return without the warning box.

I'm not sure if that white stuff is a debris signature or a hail spike, but either way it's bad.  The text of the tornado emergency keeps getting worse too; it's rare when the text talks about power flashes, but their presence is enuff to confirm the tornado's presence.

Walnut Ridge has apparently taken a direct hit.  Cars got flipped over.

Sirens are sounding in Jonesboro now, and KAIT mentioned Monette and Leachville needing to watch it.  Monette and Leachville both got hit hard in December.  It's a  nasty night on the Arkansouri border, kids!  I'm praying that it's not as bad in Walnut Ridge as I think it is.

Stay safe,

RagingMoon1987 

Flowers for Reagan

Step outside, summertime's in bloom...okay, we're not quite there yet.  Indeed, it's not quite warm enuff yet to turn off the heat at night.  But spring has definitely sprung here in the Bootheel, and during a drive yesterday I noticed that my grandmother's former front yard was full of crocuses.

Crocuses come out so early that I rarely get to see them, and due to this they've become a favorite of mine.  I had a complicated (eventually nonexistent) relationship with my paternal grandmother due to the way she treated Daddy and his siblings, but I will say that she could get anything she wanted to grow.  These crocuses were no doubt planted by her.

I had Reagan with me, clad in a bright new outfit courtesy of my mother.  She had to get up close and personal with one bunch of blossoms.

If I'd had my spade I'd have dug up a couple of these and planted them in my own yard.  But I don't think that would be good for the plant, and I didn't have my spade anyway so I left these be.  Grandma's old house has boards over the windows and doors now, so part of me wonders if someone is planning to demolish it.  I don't like that because I spent many happy times in that house, but it doesn't belong to the family anymore so I have no say in the matter.  Oh well, I have the memories, and no one can take those from me.

Happy St. Patrick's Day,
RagingMoon1987