Chicken and Dumplings and Things (Or how my weekend went.)

 

How was your weekend? I hope you all had a great one filled with family and friends and great food and adventures. Mine was a slightly busy one. I went over to my parents house to help sort the garage a bit because some friends were coming into town to buy one of mom's mowers off of us. Yes, I said mowers. My mom had several of them because when one would "stop working" she'd get another one. She took them in from time to time to get fixed by family friends who ran a small engine repair, but she had several in case one stopped working. We secretly believe she had undiagnosed ADHD. I'm like 99.99% sure she did, especially since it seems I have it. It was hard letting the mower go, especially since I believe it was one of my mom's favorites that she used to mow the lawn. It went to good people, and that brings me comfort. We have several more to sell, and that will help clean up the garage some. We have some other things we will need to sell as well, but slow and steady. My sister and I don't want to get rid of things too quickly because it almost feels like we are trying to erase her. Clearly we know that's not the deal, it just feels like that a little. However, we do need to keep a steady pace and cleaning things up because I need to get moved in for several reasons. So, as hard as it is, we have to keep trying to get things out of the house. We'll get there. It's just hard. 

I have a therapy appointment this evening. I've invited my sister to come with me. I think it would be good for her to hear what my therapist has to say. I want to try to encourage my sister to get a therapist. Maybe we can try to get therapy at the same place on the same day and time and have out mental health days "together". For now I will just see how she likes it and I hope she walks away from therapy feeling a bit better today.

On Sunday the husbae and I headed back over so he could finish mowing the front yard, and I could help my sister clean the house a bit and we had dinner. My dad loves making chicken and dumplings in the slow cooker, if you couldn't tell by how beat up the cookbook is. He's done it for years now. The last time he did it, however, he put okra in it. For those of you who don't know, when you cook okra it gets this slime to it. Now in other meals where you can't see the slime I am fine with okra, but in chicken and dumplings you can't avoid it. It just turned my stomach and I couldn't look at it while eating it. I only ate the dumplings and chicken out of it and left the rest. I told my mom I didn't like it and why I wasn't eating it. This thought came back to me yesterday before I went over to the house. That was the last meal I had with my mom. I was staying the night, I believe, and I was having dinner with them. I can't remember if that is the last time I saw her before the stroke. I want to say I saw her one more time after, but with the way my memory is, I honestly can't remember. I was worried I would break down over dinner, but I didn't. I served my husband and dad, sis got her own plate while I took dad's down to him, and then I served myself. I sat down with my husband and sister and we just chatted and ate and things were ok. I was in my mom's kitchen, surrounded by her things, and things were ok. It gave me some hope for the future and made me feel like she was there in spirit and letting us know we will be ok. Funny how a family meal can do that.

So, onto crafty news, remember this guy? Yeah, so I started working on him on Friday. You start with the plain donut part, or the bottom of him. He works up that you make the bottom part, then the top part and then you sew the two pieces together, stuff him, and then close him up, and then bam you have a donut. Well, while I was crocheting the bottom part, I was noticing that it was getting wavy. By the time I finished crocheting the piece it looked almost how a scrunchie looks, really wavy and tight. I knew I had done something wrong. I read and reread the instructions. I was pretty decent at reading crochet instructions back in the day, and I thought I was following it right, but I think I realized my mistake. I think the instructions were explaining to me to do one stitch in one stitch then another stitch in the next stitch, and continue that all the way around. I thought it was telling me to do both stitches in each stitch around, but after doing some Googling, I think I figured out that is wrong. So I am going to attempt him again tonight when I get home from therapy, I'll probably need a nice cool down activity to do, and we'll see if I am right. Also, omg this yarn is DISGUSTING!!! It's so freaking fuzzy and it has this weird "binding" yarn that wraps around the yarn as you crochet. This took me forever to frog. I had to take a needle and gently pry threads apart so the yarn would come loose. I also tried to undo from the beginning of the chain and work that way, which was going good until I got to a point where the yarn was splitting between stitches somehow and I needed to stop. Now that in itself was a mystery because once I finally got it all frogged from the other end, that split yarn was nowhere to be found. The yarn was all back together again. What?!? This little guy is becoming an interesting challenge. I found out on Youtube that the company that makes him also makes these kits for other dollar stores. I saw a content creator on Youtube do a haul for another dollar store and she found other kits. The kits look similar, but I knew for sure it was the same one once I saw the instructions and the yarn. So if you are on the lookout for cheap amigurumi kits to try, try looking at any dollar stores in your area, you may find some there. I will totally grab another one of these kits if I come across one, but I am looking forward to seeing if they are worth it in the end. I will update you all soon on the final results. Oh and for those wondering, yes I am using the hook from the kit, and honestly, so far so good. I know, I'm just as surprised as you are. I'll honestly be delighted if the whole kit works perfectly fine as is. Oh, there is one thing this kit forgot and I am super surprised by it. Stitch markers. They expect you to have one, but they didn't put one in the kit. I had to grab one from another kit I have here. I mean they could have popped two or even just one plastic stitch marker into the kit. Granted you can use a piece of yarn if you don't have a stitch marker, but I never liked doing that. I prefer to have something firmly gripping my stitch just in case, but a piece of yarn will work in a pinch if you find yourself without stitch markers. So if the creators of the kit ever find their way to my post, stitch markers, pop one or two in and your kit will be complete.

Now onto the final topic for this post, I've been on the hunt for doll blogs, and I am happy to say they are still out there. I'm slowly building a folder in my favorites of dolls blogs that I am finding that have been active as of this year. I might also save some that were active in December of last year as that still seems "active" to me. I plan to make a spreadsheet of the blogs, what dolls they talk about, and how active they are. Once I get a good amount of them, I'll be sharing it here with you. Like I said in my previous post, I'm not big on Tumblr blogs, so odds are they won't show up in the list. I prefer blogs that are completely about the blogger and their own original posts. Tumblr is a lot of reblogging from other blogs, and while that is cool, I feel I don't get a feel for the blog author as much. Who knows, maybe this will encourage more blog reading and encourage those blogging to keep going and maybe some who stopped blogging to come back. Hey, a girl can dream. However, to be fair, I will take a look around Tumblr just to make sure I'm not missing out on blogs that the author just posts about themselves and doesn't reblog. I don't want to miss out on gems that could be out there. I shall keep you updated. I'm also going to work on finding doll communities and make some lists for those as well. I miss my people, so may the hunt begin to find them again. 😊

And that's it for this post. Just a quick update about my weekend and what I got up to. I am hoping to get to some cool crafty things this week. I also have to do some adulting, which is never fun, but we must do what we must do. I just hope I get to some fun things too like dolls, crafting, gaming, etc. I of course will update you here on what I get up to. I hope all of you are starting your week off on a great foot and you have oodles of fun stuff ahead of you this week. If you don't have anything fun to look forward to yet this week, take today to plan for something fun, be it some reading time, going out with friends, shopping for a new collection item or hobby, or just going out and having your favorite meal. You'll have to come back and let me know what you decided to do at the end of the week. Sending the vibes out to all of you that we all end the week happy and healthy. For now I will let you go and get back to your life, thank you for taking a moment out of your day to stop by and visit me. I loved having you and look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, as always, I hope you all have magical, wonderful, splendiferous day. Bye guys!!! 

I don't know what I am doing, but I am here.

    Hey there. Long time no see. Well, like the title says, I don't know what I am doing, but I am here. So I've been wanting to come back and blog for literally years now, I've got the drafts to prove it, but for some reason I just could never do it. It seems so many people I used to follow in the blogging world have either moved on from blogging to other social media sites, have changed to Tumblr as their main blog which I am not the biggest fan of reading, or just faded away back into life. There is truly a huge hole in my blog loving heart that misses everyone, but I know times change, people change, interests change, and so goes the world. Even I have changed my focus as well. Usually I would just start a new blog when that happened, but I've decided to dust off this one and invite anyone who is interested to join me on whatever journey I may take here. So it is the first day of my birth month and I am hoping for this month to be one of peace and clarity. So trigger warning, the next part of this paragraph is going to be about the death of a loved one, if you would rather not read that, please skip to the next paragraph. So July was probably one of the hardest months for me. My mom had a stroke, and the doctors felt she wouldn't get better, so they sent her to hospice. In hospice it looked like she was getting better and may graduate from hospice and go to rehab. However that wasn't the case. She was great one day then took a turn the next. We were all still hopeful, but hours after she took a turn she was gone. Such a big presence in my life just gone like the wind. It was and still is something hard for me to come to grips with. We buried her on the 30th of July, then on the 31st I had to go to an appointment that was suppose to be a joint appointment with my mom, and they asked if she was still my emergency contact and I had to tell them she passed and changed my emergency contact to my husband. I know ultimately I should have my husband as my emergency contact, but I felt it would be easier to contact my mom in an emergency and she'd been my contact for decades so I just got lazy and didn't change it. Now over the coming months I will have to slowly change all that. One of the things I've dreaded most in life is the death of my mom, and it has happened and I'm kind of lost right now. I know life has to continue. I know I have to keep moving forward. There were plans that were being put into motion at the exact time she had her stroke. My sister was going to move in with me and my husband. My husband took vacation so we could help her move in. Instead of moving my sis in during his vacation we spent the week seeing my mom and hoping she'd get better to setting up her funeral. Also, now instead of my sis moving in with us, we are moving in with her and my dad. Literally in the blink of an eye my life has changed and for the next couple of months I will be trying to figure out where I go from here. So that was my July. I truly hope all of you reading this had a much better July. I truly mean that from the bottom of my soul. If you didn't, and even worse, if you experienced a similar situation as mine, I am so truly sorry and I encourage you to join me in focusing on making August a refresher and a time of bringing back that special spark into life. We've got this!

  So now we have a fresh new month. I want to look at each month with new eyes. I want to try to see the potential of each month and what awesome things it can bring me. This month will be a mixture of highs and lows, but I want to try to take advantage of every day as best I can. I want to return to hobbies that I have pushed pause on for so long. I want to explore some new hobbies that I tend to learn for the benefit of older hobbies. For example I learned crochet because I wanted to make crochet dolls and toys and be able to crochet clothes for my dolls. I also want to try knitting again. I think I need to refresh myself with crochet first and then attempt knitting.

    I have always loved that with crochet all you ever deal with is one loop. Knitting is a bit overwhelming because of all the loops you have to deal with and they need to be going the right way and etc., but I will attempt it again and soon. So for right now I want to focus on the MANY crochet kits I have bought over the years and create the items from them. I think my first one will be a donut amigurumi kit I bought from Dollar Tree, the little guy you see here. I am going to attempt to use the supplies that come with the kit, though everything seems really flimsy, but I want to know if its possible. Fingers crossed. 

    I'm also attempting to get back into diamond painting. I keep buying diamond paintings that I would love to see all done, but I haven't been actively working on them. I am trying to put a pause on buying, which has been working for the most part but I had a chance to get a deal on some recently so I snagged them, but for the most part I want to work on what I have. I'm ALMOST embarrassed to say I have a plastic tub of diamond paintings I have to do. I say almost because I kind of felt like I wasn't really "in" the hobby because I only owned like three of them at one time. Now that count is probably over 100 and they are all ones I want to do, I just need to sit down and get to work. I was re-inspired to do them back around mother's day to make two for my mom and mom-in-law for Christmas. I thought get them early and work on them for Christmas. I got two of them and needed to finish one more for my mom, and I was like should I give them early. I wish I had now. But because of certain events, it caused me to pause on diamond painting. I still have those and several other that I have to seal and looking at them causes me some guilt. I had no idea what would unfold, so I am trying to push through and past the guilt and try to find a way to enjoy diamond painting again.

    I returned to one that was up on "the slab" for a while now. It honestly should have been a quick one to whip up because it has a TON of color blocking, but depression is a bitch and lumped onto everything else, it just sat there. Yesterday I decided to sit down with it again and it took a while for me to get a flow but now I am excited to finish it again. Its a painting I was so excited to buy and couldn't wait to see it all put together. I am still excited for that.

    I also have some coasters I am working on as well. I won't be actually using them as coasters because the sealant I use is water-based and I kind of want to keep all my diamond paintings in one place that I can pull them out and look at from time to time. I have an under the bed storage thingie that I put them in currently. Its made of fabric, I'd like to get a plastic one some day maybe, but I feel the fabric one allows them to breathe and not get sweaty so maybe I will just kept them in that one laying flat. Yeah, I'll probably do that instead honestly. That is my current diamond painting journey right now. I will do a post soon showing off all the ones I have done so far and maybe talk about about my process, explain what "the slab" is, and talk about future diamond painting plans. 

    Now, a lot of you probably came to my blog once upon a time for dolls. Well I'm happy to tell you the dolls are still here. I have continued to follow dolls I love and every now and again I've bought some dolls to tinker with. I am trying to decide where I want to take my doll hobby. I used to be into photostories, but I think that time has passed for me. I'm not 100% sure but I honestly do think it has passed for me. I still have all the props and whatnot and I will probably be putting those up for sale for other doll hobbyist to enjoy. Keep following this space to find out if or when I do it. I know some stuff has to go, and I will just keep what I truly love. I also have a TON of stuff to unbox that I was going to do for a doll and toy unboxing Youtube channel years ago. Life hit me hard and it never really took off because of that. I still have the stuff I wanted to unbox and still want unbox the items. They are older items so people may not be interested in seeing unboxings of these items, but that is ok. I mostly want to do it for my enjoyment, and I welcome anyone who wants to come join the fun with me. I'm also trying to decide what dolls I want to collect. I realize that I would prefer more of a focus on dolls rather than having a wide variety of dolls in my collection. I'm leaning very heavily towards Blythe dolls, Asian bjds, custom made dolls, and even making my own 3d printed dolls. I will still pick up dolls from other lines that speak to me from time to time, but I really want to focus more on who I get. I feel it makes it easier to dress and share items among dolls, and it allows me to get into a community focused on those dolls. Its hard to find communities that cover a variety of dolls nowadays. I could be wrong, and I am going to do some research and start making lists of communities I find. When I get a decent list going I will share it here for you all to enjoy and use. I am really excited to jump back into the doll world. I have truly missed you guys and your dolls so much. 

    So what else do I have planned for this space? I'd like to share more of me in general. Maybe some recipes I've tried or love to cook. Maybe some news I'm excited about. Maybe keep you up to date on my current attempt to 100% Stardew Valley, yes that is currently in the works. My thoughts on books I've read or movies I've seen. Or maybe I simply want to share a sunset with you all to help you end your day on a high note. I've got so many plans, I've got a sticker business I've started with my sister I want to share with you as well as a business I will be starting that will be a sister business to the one I've started with my sister. Just so much I want to do and share and I'm excited for it. I would love to have you all here along the ride with me. Be sure to bookmark the blog and follow along with me and whatever chaos will come. 

    Thank you for reading my return to blogging post. This was literally a long time coming. I still have so much to update you guys on. Like it just hit me, that last time I posted here I was single, and I mentioned my husband earlier in the post. Yeah, I'm a Mrs. now! We got married on Halloween in 2019. We had a church wedding in jail. What?!? I know, that doesn't make sense. Damn, I should have brought this all up in the next post. This one is a long one already. I hate being that person, but yeah, I will update you on that in the next post. Promise! Until the next post, I want to thank you all again for reading. If you are a returning reader, welcome back! If you are a new reader, welcome to my world! It feels good to be back. I leave you all with a beautiful fluffy cloudy sky to calm your day. I will see you all next time. Until then, as always, I hope you all have a magical, wonderful, splendiferous day! Bye guys!!!

Thoughtful...

Hello my lovelies, I hope the new week is finding you all in a wonderful way. Sunday has just ended for me, and I found myself, all day, in a thoughtful kind of mood. It was like I'd been living in a dark room or shed and someone just came in and threw back the curtains and opened the window to let some light in. I've debated whether or not to talk about things on my blog, but then I decided, heck, it's my blog, isn't that where you talk about things? So here I am, ready to talk. Feel free to stay and have a read, but I fully understand if you pass this one up for more fun related post down the line, I'll see you then. For those of you staying, get comfy, I have a feeling this one is going to be another long one. 😳

So, before I got diagnosed with hypothyroidism, I was in a super bad place. I was always ill, full of anxiety, depressed, and just couldn't explain any of it. I went from a somewhat normal gal to someone I didn't know and didn't like at all. I hated it. After getting diagnosed, at least I could give my condition a name and research it some. Seems a lot of the stuff I was dealing with did come from my disease, but it seemed that unless it was properly treated the symptoms wouldn't go away, or at least that's how the internet painted it for me. My treatment took over 3 years to get it right, but yet I still suffered with the symptoms I had before being diagnosed. I was truly lost, and it caused me to pull away from people because I didn't want anyone seeing me the way I was, so this also left me mostly alone except for my family and one or two people I let get "past the gate". I was able to "fake it" well enough to get by in life, but I became a serious hermit due to panic attacks and never knowing what would trigger them, a new stomach issue that came out of nowhere, and exhaustion. I tried the best that I could to work towards getting back to who I was or at least as close as I could get, but then along the way, a new issue decided to come play with me. Thyroid cancer. All I could think of after my doctor told me, after having a mini panic attack of course, was "Well...damn,".

I never once resorted to the "why me" way of thinking. I actually would think "well, why not me", I wasn't any different than anyone else in the world. However, it did seem quite cruel that the world just kept seeming to throw curve balls my way, while the "mean girls" that tortured me in high school seemed to doing a-ok. I know, childish way to look at things, but I couldn't help but wonder what I'd done in a former life to get dealt all this bs in life. LOL! I must have kicked someone's dog or something. I mean come on, someone who kicks a dog deserves to have hell in their next life, right? Dogs a freaking awesome! Cats too, but I digress, moving on. 🐶🐱

So dealing with the cancer was a whole new and scary situation. First time having cancer, I won't even pretend that there's no chance I won't get hit with the big C again in my life; because I very well could, and I was faced with the fact that I was about to have my very first surgery, which I worried could be my first and last one. No one ever talks about that on the internet. You look for people's experiences with surgery and they cut out the worry or the scary parts and just jump from "I fell asleep" to "I'm all better now", what about the "I was scared out of my mind part"? Maybe it wouldn't be encouraging to others, but for me, it would have been comforting to know that my thoughts are perfectly normal. Being afraid of being put to sleep and wondering if you will wake up again is normal. Wondering if you can continue to live without a very vital organ is normal as well. I wasn't some childish wimp of an adult, I had perfectly understandable fears and worries, and if you are finding yourself in the same position I found myself in 2015, please know that your thoughts are perfectly normal, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You aren't childish to be afraid, you're human. My boyfriend kept reminding me that bravery wasn't the lack of fear, but continuing on in spite of it.  So yes, it's ok to be afraid, but it's what you do after the fear sets in that matters.

One thing I did read, while trying to learn from others, is the story of a woman who found out she had thyroid cancer. She was too scared to have the surgery, so she decided against it. She had several kids and family, but her fear was so strong that she couldn't follow through with the surgery. Now my doctor told me once that thyroid cancer tends to be a cancer you tend to just grow old with, I guess that it tends not to move out of the area, not really sure on that, but I wouldn't want to take the risk. And she wanted me to have the surgery so I could be disease free, so perhaps it's more of a "growing old with disease" in your older years rather than your below 60 years. So I felt bad for this woman. I fully understood where she was coming from in her thoughts, but she had family. She had kids. She should have had the surgery for them. I hope someone convinced her to go through with it. I hope she is disease free and proud of herself for going through with the surgery. I didn't want the surgery either, and sure, I always had the "choice" not to have it, but I knew I truly didn't have a choice. I didn't want to die young, and I had so much more living I needed to do especially after being sick for most of my young adult life. I also have a sister and when our parents are gone, I am her only family. I can't leave her in this world alone. Sure she's an adult and fully capable of living life on her own, but I didn't want to leave her without family. So, numb and afraid, I went through the motions and had the surgery. Fast forward to today, the surgery was a huge success and I've been considered disease free by my doctor. Yay! Except one problem, I still felt ill. Still do actually.

I've read about people who had the surgery and how their lives just took this HUGE turn and they were able to get back to living. They were so happy the thyroid was gone and life couldn't be better. After reading that, I was so hopeful. But almost 2 years out, I'm still waiting for that miracle moment. Instead of happy times I felt worse, tired all the time, hugely depressed, stomach issue still hanging around that keeps me from being active, and my weight is just...bad. Among other things going on, I found myself in a very bad place again and I couldn't understand why I wasn't better. It wasn't until actions that happened last week, that I will talk about at a later time when I am more confident about it, that I realized that I could still have that happy life I want. It's all still within my grasp. It's just going to take some work from me.

When I tell you that I feel horrible, I mean horrible. Sometimes it causes so much anxiety all I want to do is stay in bed all day to try to calm myself, but this is not getting me anywhere. So last week made me realize, I need to deal with this. I need to push through the depression and anxiety. I need to push through feeling ill and try to get back on the other side of all this so I can try to get my life back. I'm still young, and I can still have the life and family I've always wanted, but time is not standing still, so I need to do something now. In a few short months I will be turning 39 years old. Ahhh! That number! It's like, I don't turn 39, my mom turns 39, not me. I still feel like I'm freaking 18 years old, but here I am pushing 40. LOL! And I have a love-hate relationship with this reality. It's like, I wouldn't want to be in my teens and 20s any more really. It was a depressing time of life. I feel slightly more confident in myself now, though I still need to work on that a lot. I like where I am in life, but I still would like to have a family before, as I affectionately call it, the baby-making factory closes it's doors for good...oh...should I have put a TMI before that? Sorry. 😊 I also would like to get married before that, but we know life has a way of throwing curve balls, and it seems life likes to do that too me. So DO NOT be surprised if I announce one day that I am pregnant, but I'd yet to announce that I was married. Life happens people, either grip on tight and go with the flow, or let it consume you. I did to much of that and truly wanted to give up, I refuse to do that any more.

Today is the first day in a long time that I've had real clarity of what I want in life. Don't get me wrong, I'm still sad and depressed and sick, but I now know that I don't want to stay here in that reality. I want to push through the darkness and get to the other side. I want more windows to be opened in my little shed of a room. I want to see the sunlight shine into my life again. Sure I know the darkness will return again from time to time, or as my dad likes to say (I've had to clean up a word here though.), the sun doesn't shine on the same dog's butt all the time, and he's right. It might seem like others have got nothing but the good life going on and you just can't get a break, but remember that the sun will move and shine on you again soon. Until then, just keep your head held high and going through the motions. Even if you have to do it while numb and afraid, keep going, because the sun will come back, it always does and it always will. It will find a way to get back to you. Just hang in there.

So I had to get this all down and out in the universe because I know the darkness will be back, remember I said I'm still sad and depressed. So I'm not going to fake it and act like I am suddenly healed, I'm just going to say that the sun found me today and reminded me that life is good and even though I am going through a rough patch right now, life will be good again for me, and for you too. I've got so many plans in my head right now that I want to do, none of which I will mention here (or anywhere) right now. One of the rules of successful people is not to tell what you are going to do, because then your brain acts like you've already done it and then you don't work hard towards your goal. Keep it to yourself until you've done it, then tell people about it. So that is what I am going to do from here on out, but I will update as things progress, I promise. 😊 For now, just know that I am in a happy place, and I feel like I'm finally able to work towards becoming a better me. I won't be cheesy and say "this is my year", I'd rather just say this is my life, and I'm going to try my hardest to make it a good one. No matter what has happened in the past, leave it there, and just focus on today and the future. I like to think of the saying that goes along the lines of "Don't look back, you're not going that way," and it's so true. So keep looking forward, that's what I plan to do today and every day after that I'm alive. No matter how many bad days you have in life, the good ones will more than make up for them. Cherish the good ones and try to make more of them happen. I've lost a lot of time in life being sick, but I cherish the good days and stay hopeful for more of them to head my way.

Wow this got all motivational, and initially it didn't start out that way. I just wanted to put my thoughts out there and talk about what had been running around in the brain today, but then I realized, someone could come across this post, and I just wanted to let you all know that you aren't alone. No one has a manual to life, we are all just doing the "fake it until you make it" move, some of us make it quicker than others, but that doesn't mean you'll never make it. Also know it's never too late to do what you want in life. I will say that you may have to alter your way of doing it due to things like health, age, financial situations, etc., but you can still achieve your dreams, so keep working towards them no matter if you are 16 or 60. And I guess this is where I am going to leave this post lovelies. Like I said, I just wanted to talk and just think out loud. Maybe some of you can relate to this post, maybe some of you rolled you eyes several paragraphs back and hit that pretty little "X" button, and maybe some of you got a renewed faith in yourself and in your life. Either way, I truly hope this week will be an awesome one for all of you, and if it's not, remember that this week will end and we can start anew next week, so just keep going. I will talk to you all again in my next post, which will hopefully be a little more fun. 😏 Until then, I hope you all have magical, wonderful, splendiferous day. Bye guys! ❤🐭

I Hate My Layout!!!

I hate my blog layout, plain and simple. I don't know what I want for it. I've tinkered with it over the years, but I would like to find or create a layout that I could stick with for years or forever even. Something fun yet simple. I'm tinkering with Blogger's blog templates, but I just don't like them. *sigh* I'll keep at it until I find one. However, this "drama" has caused me to look back on some previous posts, and I found myself remembering things I wanted to try or do or see, and realized I hadn't done any of that. It was nice to be reminded of the person I was and goals I had for myself. I think I just got so sidetracked with my health and life in general that I forgot where I was headed. It's nice to be put back on track. So here's to more interesting posts, returning to previous goals, and moving forward. But first, I've just gotta find a new layout. Ugh! LOL! I'll talk to you guys later. Until then, I hope you all have a magical, wonderful, splendiferous day. Bye guys! 😁😁

I Think I'm Ready To Forgive Toys R Us

So I don't think I posted about here, or maybe I did, but either early last year or the year before, I made several orders to Toys R Us. I ordered some LittleMissMatched dolls and clothes from the site. The toy line had been discontinued, and I'd learned the clothing would fit a ball-joint doll I'd just purchased, so I needed to hunt around the buy the clothing. Toys R Us had a large amount of the clothing packs that other sites didn't, and I decided to splurge to get them all. When my order came I saw that I got two of one item. Thinking I'd just simply ordered 2 of one item by mistake, I ordered the item again. I got my package and it was again the outfit I'd already had 2 of. So, fed up, I went to Ebay, I felt the price of the outfit was to small to contact Toys R Us and try to get it exchanged. I found the right outfit on Ebay for cheaper than it was on Toys R Us, so I ordered it. When I did some research into the seller, however, I learned it was the Ebay account or Toys R Us. So I nervously waited to get my package, and when I got it, I wasn't surprised what I found inside. I now had 4 of the same outfit. Well I was irritated by then, and called up the customer service department of Toys R Us, and let's just say I hope the woman, who helped me that day, got to go home and sit down to her favorite dinner and have it taste bland and salty and not how she remembered it at all.

She was so utterly rude to me and on the sly tried to call me stupid. I hung up on her when I learned we weren't getting anywhere when I tried to explain to her that the picture for the item was right but the text and item number were wrong. She kept cutting me off and trying to read the description to me like I was a child. I was polite and waited for her to finish, and when I tried to explain myself to her again she again tried to, on the sly, call me stupid. I got tired of being explained to how I was stupid, so I hung up on her. I usually don't hang up on people, because I don't like people hanging up on me, but she so deserved it. So there I was, left with 4 of the same outfit, and still missing the one I needed. I think I finally got the right outfit from Ebay and I made sure to ask the seller what it looked like before I purchased. I also gave two of the outfits to my mom and sister, and the extra one I kept was used as separates for dolls. So it all turned out in the end, but you can imagine the experience left me with a nasty taste in my mouth when it came to Toys R Us.

So the following year when they had an exclusive 17 Monster High doll, I was not happy. Why? Because I wanted her so badly. I had all the other 17 inch girls, so I had to have this one. So I sucked it up and ordered her. The order turned out fine. I was relieved and decided that was the only time I would order from them, but then...Christmas came...they had good sales on things I wanted...I made several orders within one month to them. Each order came to me perfectly, but I'll be honest, when the box came to my door I was always nervous to open it. I always expected it to be wrong, but thankfully they were fine. I was shocked by that, especially during the chaos of Christmas shopping time. Well after that I decided, no more. I got lucky, but let me not push my luck. I was fine with that choice, until I was told about another good sale on some items I wanted this past month. Ughhhh!!! I had to order them.

I was fine when I ordered, because of the recent success I'd had with them. I didn't feel nervous ordering at all. I waited for the box to get here, and when it did, that old forgotten fear came back. What if they had messed up my order again. Slowly I opened the package and was happy to see it was all perfect. Then this past week, another good freaking sale caused me to order again. I got the package today, and the nervous feeling was back, but it wasn't as strong as it was the previous times. I think I had more belief in Toys R Us now. Still, I slowly opened the package preparing myself, but in the end I had nothing to fear. The items were all there and I was a happy camper. The boxes were even in good condition, if I wanted to keep them in their boxes I'd be happy about that.

The only complaint I've had recently about them is one of my earlier orders this month had a bad box that was scratch up, a huge sticker residue that I could get off with peanut butter, and black mushy stuff on the box and inside that box that I worry was rodent droppings. I cleaned the box up as best I could, it's not perfect, but I plan to remove the item, so I am ok with a less than perfect box, but I feel more care should have been taken with the box and what the hell was that black mushy stuff? Ugh. But I got my stuff, and that's the important thing. So I think it's time to forgive and move on.

Everyone has a one off, and it was honestly the webmaster's fault, and not Toys R Us, for my order being wrong the first time I ordered. I guess they "technically" got the order right because they sent me the item that the sku number was listed as, but human error caused me to get the wrong package. I'm sure there are more items like that on their website, but their website is huge, so that's also to be expected. So I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the butt later on, but I will no longer say I won't order from the site. My trust has been rebuilt, and I feel I can shop with confidence from them. I hope that since my last customer service experience that they've worked on that some, because that lady was a royal pain in the ass. But who knows, maybe she had a bad day that day, it was near the end of the day too when I called, and she might have just been exhausted. I hope she's being nicer to stressed out customers and has stopped trying to hint that they may just be stupid. That part is what shocked and insulted me the most, especially when I knew what I was talking about and she couldn't catch on to what I was saying because she was so focused on proving me wrong. But, meh, live and let live.

And that's about all I wanted to post about today guys and gals. I guess when I realized I still had that fear of opening a package from this company, I had a mental talk to myself and realized I needed to let it go and move on. I kept saying I wouldn't buy from them any more and yet I did, so I guess I needed to talk it out and put it out into the universe that I forgive and I ready and willing to shop with them. Especially if they have more awesome sales like they have been having. 😀 And on that note, I hope all of you are having a wonderful day, afternoon, or evening. I am hoping to start popping back in here more often soon, but I am still working out what I want to do with this blog and how I want to incorporate it into other stuff I am trying to do. Stay tuned to see how that goes. Until next time guys, I hope you all have a magical, wonderful, splendiferous day. Bye guys! 😁

*Walks In And Dusts Off The Furniture*

Hey all. Wow, it's been a long time since I've been here. I've been going through a process of trying to figure out what I want to do with my online presence as well as where I want to be. I've kept this blog alive because it's my baby and I've always planned on coming back. It never really took off the way I wanted it too, but as I start to get more settled in where I am going in my hobbies and what I want to do in life, I felt I could finally return to the blog and try again to make something of it.

So for those of you who didn't know, I was hanging out over at Tumblr for the longest time, but no matter how much I liked it, it just never sat well with me. It just wasn't what I was accustomed to, which is this kind of blog layout. So, I've decided to use Tumblr as more of a social media and less of an actual blog. I'll x-post over there, have it post to Twitter, and keep the bulk of my stuff here...until I get a website with it's own blog, then I will just have this direct you guys to the new blog, but that won't happen for a while so don't worry.😃

I'm also getting into making Youtube videos. I want my channel to be a hobby and lifestyle channel, so it has a bit of everything there. It's early days, so don't expect much there. I want to do gaming, toys, dolls, arts and crafts, vlogs, etc. there. I am working on a schedule for that. So since my channel is more of a collection of all my hobbies, I kind of want to change the blog into that too. Not just dolls but all about me. I think that's why I kind of pulled away from the blog. I didn't really know how to work more hobbies into the blog without boring readers. Finally I just decided to blog for myself and let others decide what they do and do not want to look at. So yes, there will still be dolls, but you can expect a lot more from me here. :-)

And that's about it guys and gals. I'm going to work on getting organized in the next month so I can really start bringing you interesting stuff here. I've missed blogging here. I hope you are all well and I hope you will come back and visit again real soon. *hugs*🐭

Littlest Pet Shop Being Sued Over A Hamster?!?

So have you guys heard this? It seems an anchor from FOX is suing Hasbro over one of their Littlest Pet Shop toys. Harris Faulkner insists that the company made their hamster, named Harris Faulkner, in her likeness and is doing so as an insult to her, or at least, that's how she is taking it.

So upon looking at pictures of the two Harris Faulkner's next to each other, I can see how she would think the swoosh bangs and hair color would look like her likeness, but that's where the likeness ends for me. The hamster is yellow, had blues eyes, and oh yes, she's a hamster. I just think she might be seeing something that isn't there. I mean don't get me wrong, she could be right, and maybe someone at Hasbro is gunning after her, but a designer may have just come up with that name randomly or even heard the name somewhere and thought it would be a perfect name for their character. If you have toys with a first and last name you are going to be using someone's name out there somewhere.

However, if you do a Google search of Faulkner's name, she's the only person that comes up. So...perhaps Hasbro thought no one was looking and could slip this one by. It will be really interesting to see how this all turns out. If Hasbro really did use her likeness without permission, then she is totally entitled to something. I'm on the fence until more comes out about this. What do you think? Did Hasbro pull a fast one or Faulkner seeing things that aren't there? Let me know in the comments.

And I will talk to you lovelies in the next post. take care until then. Bye for now.

Love always,
Mickey ♥

Redressing Gooliope Jellington

So when I first heard about Gooliope, I knew I had to have her. I love large fashion dolls, and she was just too awesome not to have. I knew I would have issues clothing her, but I felt that was a bridge I'd cross after I got her. Once I had her, I went to the Monster High Arena forums to see what other Goo owners were dressing her up in. It's there I learned that she could fit Barbie clothes, at least the tops, because her upper part was based on Barbie. Awesome!!!

There was one dress that came to mind when I

thought of Goo, the freaking yellow bunny dress. I don't know why, but that dress was the perfect dress for her in my eyes. I tried to hold off on getting it, and even decided I didn't want it because the pattern didn't travel all the way around the back of the piece. However, I kept returning to thoughts of the dress whenever I looked at Goo, but I didn't want to pay some of the prices I was finding it for online, so I gave up on the idea and told myself I would just design some cute bunny fabric that looked similar and sew her a dress out of that. And I thought the need for the dress was over with. Nope, I was so wrong.

With the release of the other girls, and seeing owner pictures of them in cute Barbie clothes, I decided to just look and see what the price of the dress was again. I found one at awesome price and put it in the shopping cart, but then something else caught my eye. I found a deal where I could get the dress I wanted with another cute pink dress, and just for 2 dollars extra. What?!?!? Well, as I'm sure you already know, I was sold. Those babies went right into my shopping cart. When I got them, they looked so tiny, and I wondered if I could get them on Goo, but I was able to with patience and being gentle easing it on. The bunny one goes on a lot easier than the pink one. The pink one will be used for actual Barbie dolls, but the bunny one is Goo's.

I don't know why I felt she needed a bright yellow dress with

bunnies on it. I guess because I felt it would fit the yellow bits in her hair. The dress is stretchy so it fits her nicely. I never planned on it being a dress for her, but more of a long top. I want to make her pants to go under it. I think I will be looking for more Barbie stuff to see what would fit her nicely as a top. The lower parts won't fit, sadly, but uppers are fine. Which makes me sad, because I order some more clothes from that seller that has outfits I wanted for Goo as well, and it has awesome bottoms to it. I knew the jeans and shorts wouldn't fit, but I was hopeful for the skirt because some people have said some Barbie bottoms work. I guess I will find out today if they work. If not, it won't be a waste, I have other dolls it can fit. I'll post about that as soon as I get them.

And that's all for this post. I just wanted to show you guys and gals that the 17 inch dolls do have options. I wonder if the 28 inch dolls have options out there. I really want to get those girls. They look like so much fun. For now I will deal with my 5 ghouls, one I am still debating on if I should take her out of her box and customize or not. I'll introduce my other ghouls to you later. A lot of people were saying they preferred one over the other, and I didn't think I'd be one of them, but I found myself surprised to be saying the same thing as all of them. Can't wait to show you. Until then, I'm off. Take care until the next post everyone. Bye for now.

Love always,
Mickey ♥

Just Cake

No really, it's just cake. I found these pictures on my computer of a cake that my sister and I baked. She loves Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and we had a marble cake in the pantry, and some left over candy and thought, why the heck not. So first I had to decide what shape to make this bad boy in. We decided on a sheet cake for some reason. I'm not really sure why now. I actually think it would have been better a double layer cake now. Hummm.

But as you can see, this looked super delicious straight out of the oven. How sad is it I can't even remember

how we made this. I believe it was a peanut butter cake that you mixed chocolate into. Wait, now that I see the picture, I know why the cake isn't a double layer cake, it was more of a cake bar kind of treat and we made it in a small pan. Ok, mystery solved.

So out of the pan we can see it in all it's glory. There is just something pretty about a cake before it gets frosted and decorated. It's so pretty. I can't explain it. I love the marbled look of this cake When I was making it I was worried I wouldn't get a pretty marbled look. Yes, we are just going to cover it with frosting and eat it, but that's not the point. LOL! I wanted it to look neat straight out of the pan. Nailed it!

Next came some chocolate frosting. I wonder what

this would have been like with peanut butter frosting instead of chocolate. I think we will have to try that next time we try this cake.

And finally came the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. We only had a handful of them, so we cut them up into pieces. It work, and you still tasted it when you ate your cake.

And that, ladies and gents, is my random post about cake. Just cake. LOL! I hope all of you are having an awesome day, filled with cake if possible, and I will talk to you all in my next post. Until then, take care. Bye for now.

Love always,
Mickey ♥

Daiso Needle Felting Bunny Kit

So, once I'd gotten the felting bug, I bought several kits off of Amazon for relatively cheap. Several sets came from Daiso brand. I so wish there was a Daiso where I lived, but yay for those who do live near one and sell those items. Yes, I know, I am probably being ripped off, but...Daiso products!!! :-)

So one of the needle felting kits was the cute pink bunny you see here. I kind of think it's a he, even though he's pink. This little guy's face is just so adorable, and the packaging is super cute too. I just had to have it.

So when you open the package, you get the wool for the project, a felting needling, plastic eyes, and a chain to make this little guy into a key chain or you could just hang him on whatever you want. Right away, I noticed the wool in this set is way better than the wool in the Dimensions set I reviewed earlier. No icky debris to be seen, just nice pink wool. In the set you also get an instruction sheet that is in Japanese, and I want to say it was English on the reverse side. I know I didn't have trouble piecing him together, so there is either English on one side of the sheet or the pictures are very detailed and show you the steps well.

So, after much stabby stabby, this is what I got. Ok, so he's doesn't really look like the picture on the package. Ok, he doesn't look like it at all, besides the fact that he's pink, but I still adore him. Once again, I think the problem was that I used too much wool and tried to rush through this. Needle felting requires time and patience, and while I was taking my time, I so didn't want to stab myself, I still ended up with big ears and a wonky face. The face, I believe, is because I was trying to be precise and that caused me to keep felting and that changed the shape of my bunny. But even though he's kind of wonky, he's unique, and I love him. I would like to try this set again to see what kind of results I get now that I know what shape I am looking for, and I know to build up rather than just take a big hunk of wool and go at it.

Hummm, I think I need to name this guy. Hummm, I think...Fluffer McFluffybutt. Yep, perfect. LOL! I hope you guys like seeing my silly little guy. I have more to share, and this guy isn't even the worst one, if you can believe that. Let's just say, there's this dolphin and well...you'll have to stay tuned to see him. :-)

And on that note, I am off my lovelies. I have many things to do today, like take pictures of my 17inch girls to show you. I meant to take pictures when I got them, but I just haven't been up to it, nor had time, nor had a good place to take pictures. But you will see them soon in this space and I can't wait to share them with you. :-) Take care until my next post. Bye for now. :-)

Love always,
Mickey ♥

Acrylic BJD Eyes On Amazon???

Ok, so in all fairness, these eyes are for dolls in general. Dollmaking to be percise. However, I was curious if these eyes could be used in my bjds, and decided to order some in a size 14mm for my Resinsoul doll. You get 4 random colors in the size you pick. Once I got them, I popped open my girl's head and put the new ones in. I am not sure if it's because I am fairly new to bjd ownership or if it truly was the eyes, but they can be a bit fiddly to put in, but once they are in they look awesome.

Now, please excuse my dry looking hands, the

awesomeness of thyroid issues and no amount of lotion helps (sigh), but these are the four colors I got. The send you four random colors. Mine are, I believe, light blue, blue (but they call it purple but me and my sister both say it's just blue), green, and grey. That light brown/tan one is the default eye that came in my Resinsoul, I just wanted to compare it to these new eyes. Very beautiful colors that just stand out when the light hits it just right. I thought, for a couple of bucks, and a little bit of a wait for it to ship from China, why not try them out. Here they all are so you can kind of see their color.

And here is my girl Mori, who happens to be a Mori Girl (so original, I know), with her new light blue eyes next to her default light brown/tan eyes. Sorry for the wonky eye, I thought it was in straight, but it wasn't. I swear it's an art to get those things looking straight. Big props to those of you who can manage that without issues.

I love the eyes in her, but it takes some work to get the eyes in. I think I'm not using enough eye putty and need to stop being afraid of using too much. Her eyes are currently sitting in her storage box with her, so I need to try getting them back in again...and try to see how to get the yellow off of her, that's another future post in the making.

So last year, when I took advantage of the Black Friday Sale at The Junky Spot, I got my cute and adorable

Hujoo Mouse. I decided to get her in white, and this year I plan to get one in Grey because I have plans for them to be sisters, one dark and one light. But that is a couple of months off, sadly. But that's ok, because I've yet to paint this beauty, but I loved the blue (purple...but really it's blue) eyes in her eyes, and I believe her sister will get either the grey or the light brown/tan default eyes from Mori. Not sure yet. But as you can see, the eyes fit in the Hujoo animal heads very nicely. I love how they fill up the eyes, because she is a mouse, so it's fitting. You may want a smaller iris, so go to a 12mm if these are just too big for your liking. Oh and if anyone one is wondering, my little mouse is wearing the Licca doll blue kimono. I bought it not really knowing who could wear it, and I had it for several years and then when I got my girl I tried it on her on a whim. Perfection. I think the color and the strawberries fits her perfectly. I think I want to stick to the fruit them for her, and maybe go in a sweet lolita and fairy kei fashion for her. So adorbs. I think when it comes to shoes I am not getting her any because she is a mouse, but clothes are ok with her. Don't ask me to explain my odd reasoning, I kind of see her like the mice from The Secret of NIMH movie, they wore clothes but not shoes. Which works for me because would you just look at those feet! Those are not going to be easy to find shoes for. LOL! But I'll be open to trying shoes on her just to see, but only if I find a good pair. So I look forward to making some cutesy fashions for her. Wait! How did this become a post about her fashion sense, especially since I haven't even introduced her to you yet. That's a post to come very soon. :-) For now, witness the awesomeness of the eyes. LOL!

So I have 2 pairs left from the set I got, which I plan to put one pair in my second Hujoo mouse I get, and the other in the second Resinsoul girl I get. Then I will be left with two default pair of eyes from the Bobobie girls, which means...well I'll just have to get two more dolls to use them. I am thinking a Hujoo cat, maybe two. I wish there was a male Hujoo mouse, I'm hoping that is coming down the pipeline soon. Fingers crossed. :-)

And that's about it for this post. I just wanted to share another option for those of you looking for eyes for your dolls. If you are on a budget or just getting into the hobby, you may want to consider checking out Amazon for eyes. You get 4 pairs for a decent price and they come in a variety of sizes on Amazon. I know I will buy again if I get another doll with an eye size I don't have. And of course I'll be sure to share those with you if that happens. :-) And on that note, I will talk to you lovely people later. Be good until next time we meet. Bye for now. :-)

Love always,
Mickey ♥