A New Camera!

After much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth over the demise of my FujiFilm FinePix camera, which abruptly stopped working, I saw a Kodak EasyShare at work. Eagerly I purchased it (it was half price--only $15), rushed home, tried it, and discovered it Didn't Work. There was a newer model of the EasyShare and I thought I would return the bad one and get it. Meanwhile, I was looking for a foot pedal and controller for a Riccar sewing machine that my HLP had found. Mrs. Smith, who does home health care, wanted to go to Savers too, so she and her dementia lady and I all went to my store on a shopping expedition. Little did I realize what I would find.

The Riccar--from the 1970s, I think, made in Japan

I exchanged the bad camera for the new one, got the foot pedal, and then found, buried beneath the stuffed animals in a bin, a hard plastic dolly!

Her wig was coming loose and at first I thought I didn't really want her because she has teeth and she looks much younger than my other dolls of that era. She was with the toys and should have been in the Collectibles section, so I thought I would take her with me as we traveled through the store and put her in her rightful place. Of course by the time I got there, I wanted her. She was marked $9.99 and I got 30% off. When we got home I had to sneak her inside and hope HLP didn't notice her.

Penny and Joanie helped me hide her.

Then I had to find her different clothes, because I'm sure she was tired of the same outfit she'd had for who knows how long.

This dress fit her quite well.

She is a Baby Barry doll and since my last name is Barry, it was obviously preordained! Here she is at the Doll Reference site (4th one down): Baby Barry

This is a little fuzzy but it shows her teeth.

I don't know if I will get her a new wig or try to comb out her hair. Maybe I just need to glue some of it down.

Then there's another new doll I haven't mentioned yet. I got her a few weeks ago. Again, I saw her at work and knew immediately she was an MGA doll. They have a distinctive Look about them.

She had no clothes when I got her

She is 18 inches tall. I thought she would make a good big sister for Veronica. She is an MGA Best Friends Club doll.

"And I'm going to get a pony or a bike!" Veronica tells her new sister.

That same day I found a composition doll in our Collectibles section. I have three similar dolls and had no intention of getting another one. She looked just like Mamie only she was wearing a Marie Antoinette dress.

She is a Dream World doll, 11 inches tall with stapled-on clothes. Dream World

Mamie and Elnora and Glinda were happy to see her.

The four compo girls, with Peggy and Sydney in the background.

I'm not even going to say I'll never get any more dolls again. There are just too many wonderful ones out there.

A windowful of dolls

If windowful is not a real word, it should be! The ghost lamp on the left is from the Salvation Army. I simply couldn't resist it.

I've Been Off My Dolly

I really have no excuses, other than laziness, and now that I want to blog again, my camera isn't working! But I had already taken some pictures, so here we go.

A while back I had an MGA Best Friends 4Ever doll that I named Jade.

I liked her but when I decided to cut down on my dolls, I got rid of her. Then a couple of months ago realized I missed her and I wanted to do a Goth version of her. I saw another one of her at my store and got her.

She was dressed in this nifty pink outfit, which of course wasn't what I wanted. I made her a black Morticia sock dress to get her started. Her name is Jinx.

"This is more my style (I think)."

I got the idea from Auntie Berman, who turned her Pottery Barn doll into a Goth girl named Jett. Then we both decided they needed brothers and I found a footless Bratz Boy at one of the thrift shops and named him Jax. Then we found a Boy for Auntie Berman and she named him Blaze. Then she misplaced Blaze and when I saw a bag with a Boy and a Girl in it at work (and the Boyz are not as easy to find as the Girlz), I got it. I know I have said I don't like Bratz Girlz, but I felt very sorry for this girl because she had had her eyes worked over.

Before

I thought I would like experimenting with her. I tried using peanut butter, which works quite well for ballpoint pen ink, but it had no effect on what was apparently Magic Marker ink. Then Auntie Berman gave me a Mr. Clean Magic Sponge. It worked like a charm and didn't hurt her eye paint.

After

Fixing her up made me like her, so I decided to keep her. I named her Seraphina. Meanwhile, Auntie Berman found Blaze. He was in her shed and since he had no feet at that time, we think he must have hopped all the way across the yard to get there. (We have since found lots of feet for everyone.)

The rest of this story must wait until I have a working camera. I will just say that I now have four boys and four girls of this size and I don't know quite how it happened.

I also decided I will not refer to them as Goth, because now I find the term embarrassing. Last week three overtly Goth young people came in the store. Two were merely dressed in black (although they were purchasing a white dress) and the third was wearing clunky high-heeded boots, had long hair in a pony tail, and had purplish-red lipstick. After they left, the supervisor turned to me and said "Was that a guy or a girl?" and I had to tell her sadly it was a guy.

My inspiration for these dolls is the Addams Family and Edward Gorey pictures. They have much more class than Goth.

Motor Scooter Samantha

I saw her at work and was intrigued because she was quite a bit different from any other doll I have seen. I found out she is a Motor Scooter Samantha from MGA and she originally came with a motor scooter which could be remotely controlled. I named her Veronica.

Veronica gets acquainted with Sydney and Glinda, while Mamie looks the other way.

I told Veronica she cannot have another scooter but that I will keep my eye out for a pony or a bicycle for her. She is articulated and her hands are in a permanent grip, so I have to get her something to hold onto.

Odd Little Plastic Doll

Our dumpster diving friends Nino and Deena brought me this 11 inch baby doll, made in Hong Kong.

She appears to be a drink & wet doll, until you realize there's no hole in her mouth. However, there is a hole in the back of her head!

We think maybe there was an Accident on the assembly line and her head got turned the wrong way. I'm not fond of baby dolls but she is cute. She is now wearing a little onesie and a jacket that says Beagle Scouts on it. Since I won't have to feed her or change her diapers, she won't be any trouble and the 14" girls can babysit her. I haven't told them yet.