The Toy Box Forums

So as some of you may remember, a while back I created a doll and toy forum. I have no abandoned it, just been thinking about revamping it to get it more attention. Also trying to decide still what exactly will be allowed there, and just several other things. Been visiting other forums to get an idea about what I like and don't like about them and just taking note of it. I will be returning to work on it this weekend. Not sure if I will be changing it's url or not to reflect the possible new name change. Currently working with someone on it. If you are interested in throwing some names in the hat for us to consider, feel free to leave a comment with the name. We want something that mashes dolls, rejects, and Lolita...preferably Gothic. No that's not the theme of the forum, just trying to come up with a catchy name. Toy Box was just to common. Chime in! :-)

Loves ya,
Mouse

*Waves* I'm back!

Hey ladies and gents, I'm feeling a lot better and am back to blogging. If you have left me a comment over the past couple of weeks, thank you so much for them and I have responded to all of them. I just haven't been feeling well and just wanted to comment on other blogs and not touch my blog until I felt better. I've been collecting things I have wanted to comment on while I was not feeling my best, but my tummy is back to manageable so I will slowly start posting those posts.

So first of all, how have you all been?!? Yes, I have checked on your blogs, but I wanted to ask still. :-) I so need to comment on so many of your blogs. I will get there, I promise. That is what sucks about feeling sick, trying to catch up on people's blogs and I am still going through links to collect the blogs I want to read and ditch the ones I haven't looked at. If you are reading this, your blog is not one of the ones I am ditching so no worries. :-)

Ok, so who is ready for something crazy? I have it right here for you. Look at this box I put in our living room just a little while ago.



Any idea what it is? And before any of you ask, no that is not dust on the table. LOL! My mom put wax on the table and it made the table get this weird whiteish look to it. She's tried cleaning it off, but it won't come of for some reason. We don't think it messed with the finish, just coated it. I will have to take a full picture of the table for you one day. Maybe later this week, its pretty cool.



Here's a clue for you.



Why do I feel like I just heard the gasp heard round the blogosphere? Yes ladies and gentlemen, that IS out Christmas tree STILL in the box ELEVEN days away from Christmas. I'm only saving face because some people don't put there's up until Christmas Eve and a lot of my friends haven't put theirs up yet either and don't plan to. We are going to attempt to do it tomorrow. When I get it up, I will upload pictures and try to take a video of it. Since my camera only captures 1 minutes and 30 seconds on film I will have to make it into a montage. For those that have dial-up I will upload all the pictures to Flickr for you to see.

Oh, if you have your tree up, I'd love to see your tree pictures. Let me know if you posted pictures of your tree somewhere. And if you haven't, well what are you waiting for? Take some, post them, and share. :-)

Oh, speaking of Christmas, what is everyone doing Christmas Eve? I was thinking of trying to arrange a doll chat on the forum. For those of you who don't know or haven't signed up, I have created a forum for dolls and toys. I had let it go stale while I dealt with tummy issues. But now I am trying to promote it again. You can see it here. You have to sign up to see several sections of the forums. The first 50 to sign up get special privileges. :-) I need to give some of the people who signed up theirs actually. So please go on over to The Toy Box and sign up. I would love to see you all there, and would love it if you pass on the link to your friends or blog about it on your blog to get the word out. I'd love to form a nice close knit doll family there. So please help me get the word out? I'll be your best friend. :-D

Ok, I think this post is long enough. More to come. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Chelle a.k.a. Mouse

In a thinking mood...and a little doll news.

Hey guys. So this isn't doll, craft, fashion, or anything fun related. But its on my mind so I wanted to post about it.

So I don't know how many of you keep up with the news, but an event that happened here in my town became national news and well its just rubbing me the wrong way. Ok so the quick of it is that this 5 year old girl named Shaynia Davis supposedly left her mom's trailer in the middle of the night...locking the door behind her. The mom wakes up the next morning "hysterical" and calls 911. The first few seconds she was all "My baby is missing!!!" and then she calmed it down the tone of ordering a pizza. So her and this guy who was last seen with Shaynia on a hotel security camera were arrested. It seems mom sold her daughter into prostitution to pay for drugs. Anyway, poor Shaynia was raped and then chocked to death. Just writing that makes me want to cry. :-( Anyway, so the guy is being charged with rape and murder and a load of other stuff, and I hope he gets the death penalty.

Now what's rubbing me the wrong way is the father. Nancy Grace has this man pictured as the perfect father who was doing the "right" thing in letting his daughter try to form a bond with her mother. Now the mother was living with several family members in a one bedroom trailer, which is small, and it was filthy. She was getting evicted because it was so filthy. Any good parent would not leave their child in that. But still they peg this man as a saint. When he's on tv, he does this dry-eyed crying and he stresses to point of being creepy about how his daughter is angel now and he prays God won't give up on him or his baby who is right there with him.

Ok so this guy is white and has 10 children all over the United States and I believe all of them are biracial. None of his kids are living with him. It seems all of them are being raised by other men. So how is it people don't see this as weird and are just pegging him the perfect dad? Seriously? I do not think that man is as innocent as people say his is. Shaynia's mom is not smart. You can see it in her face on tv. She doesn't have the gutter mind to come up with this whole thing of selling her daughter. Someone was behind it and honestly I am wondering if it was the father. I mean he has 10 different kids with 10 different women. What is up with that? I'm sure the police are still investigating, but I'm so sick of everyone pegging him as this perfect father who lost his daughter tragically. If he'd been any kind of parent that little girl would still be here. It kills me that she's gone and in a way that should have never happened.

Ok, I just needed to get that off my chest. Now as I promised, some doll news. I just learned that the Toys R Us website has the Fashionista Ken for sale for $11.99 with free shipping if you spend $49. Now I don't have the need to spend that much and I honestly don't want to pay the 5 dollar shipping so I will wait and see if he shows up in the stores or on Amazon.com for a good price. But thought I'd pass that on for those who are in the market to do some serious toy or doll shopping.

Ok, I am off to work on my NaNo stuff again. I plan to be done by tomorrow. I won't be adding on to my word count after I validate only because I need a break from writing novels and to get back to crafting and fun things. I'll also be back to working on the doll forum too. I have not given up on that I promise! For those who want to sign up and get their name there while I finish up my NaNo stuff you can go to The Toy Box and sign up. ALso if you have any doll friends let them know about the forum. It'd be great if anyone wanted to post about the forum on their blog to help me get the word out. The first 50 people get instant access to Marketplace. After that you'll have to follow some rules to get access. So be sure to mention that and I will be working on the forum over Thanksgiving and will remind you about it again a few days. Its for all kinds of dolls. So bring them all and let's have fun. :-)

Ok guys. I am back to writing before I lay down for an hour or so. I barely slept last night...well this morning. :-) Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

This is the bedroom with the beautiful bed in the Barbie Fold N Fun House, I built. :-D

Ok, so today I COMPLETELY wasted away. I didn't even exercise. I was suppose to be advertising the doll forum in some places as well as getting my dolls and fabric out for the Christmas donation, but I didn't get ANYTHING done besides watch Christmas videos on YouTube, do a little outlining for my novel, and talk to my friend Robin on the phone. Ahhhhhh!!! Alas, tomorrow is another day. I am off to bed now so I can get up refreshed, but just wanted to pop on to say I am still alive and also to show you this blast from that past. I loved the jingle to this commercial.



Oh, and remember to register for The Toy Box doll and toy forum when you get a chance. I will be working on it tomorrow some, would love to get more people signed up. Come and join in what could be the most chaotic fun you could have a on forum...well potentially it could be that way. We'll never know unless you come and register and bring your friends!!! ;-) Night all.

Loves ya,
Mouse

New forum, NaNoWriMo, and dollies...oh my!

I know! I know! I'm such a bad blog owner as of late. The past few days have been filled with friend drama, family drama, personal drama, and its finally settled out some. SOME! Ugh, still a lot to deal with, but I need to get my game face on and get ready for November first. That date is just glowing in my mind like a neon beer sign. Its exciting to learn about more and more people that will be going through the chaos with me. Nat, I will so need to buddy you and Erica on the Nano site. What are your Nano nicks and I'll buddy you. Would love to give and get support, I am attempting two novels and I am still outlining the first one. I got lazy this month. Ahhh!!! But I work better under pressure anyway. Yeah. *Nervously bites fingernails.*

So in other news, I have been working on a forum for dolls and toys and I thought I would open it on Halloween, but decided against that. I decided to open it now to hopefully get some people to help me beta test it. The forum is call The Toy Box - Doll and Toy Forum. The first 50 members will have instant access to the Marketplace since I will need to test it out. I will also need moderators for the forum as well. I just want some people to go on there and try everything out. There is a chatroom on there that refreshes every 5 seconds. Its pretty cool. It keeps the chat of the last people who used it so you can see what was talked about and respond. I also have an adult section for more mature posting or for those adults who would rather have their convo be for mature eyes only. So please feel free to join the forum and pass the link on to your other doll and toy friends.

Well I guess I need to explain a bit about the forum first. Ok, so I have been looking for a place that I can share about any doll I own be it Barbie to Blythe to a ball-joint doll. Most doll forums have strict rules on what you can share on their forums. That's cool, but I just wanted to share more. I also wanted to allow toys on the forum for those that wanted to share their new toy finds. This is all in beta right now and some things may work and some may not. I will adjust things as they level out. But if you are looking for a place to come chat about dolls and toys of any kind...well not the porno kind, then please stop by and register. A lot of the board is visible without registering, but you can't comment unless you do register. There are some off topic boards along with the Marketplace and Adult Lounge that are not visible to guests. I felt those sections needed to be kept private. The Marketplace and Adult Lounge can only be accessed when rights are given. The first 50 people will get instant access to them, but after that, members will have to go by the access gaining rules, which aren't really that hard to do. So yeah, check out The Toy Box and let me know what you think. Send me plenty of pms, I'm mouse1996 on there. Please so not send anything to member Test, as it was just made for me to test for things like what can guests see whatnot.

And finally onto dollies. So I have this big project I want to take on. I want to sew up baggies and outfits for several dolls for Christmas for the Salvation Army. I have decided to keep it simple and just sew a tube and make a dress out of that for all the doll out of stretch fabric using Dorriebelle's concept for making sock clothing. I have tons of it and don't know what to do with it, so I will use it up on this project. Not sure how many I will make, especially since this November is book solid.

I know I will have a few days in December to work on it, but I don't want to get so behind that I don't complete anything. Still need to pull out all my old dolls and give them a wash and brush. Then I need to figure out my quick pattern for a dress and I plan to make cloth boots that will look more like socks. I picked that method since I don't know if these dolls will go to really young children who might swallow regular shoes. You know, I always wondered why when we are young, swallowing odd things didn't bother us. Hummmm... Anyway, yeah, so I need to hit the ole fabric stash and bring out all the dolls that I plan to use. This will help greatly reduce what I own and give someone a smile. I'm rather excited to do this. :-) Oh yeah, I want to make baggies for each doll as well so the kids and carry them around or use the baggies as purses. I also wanted to make little cards to go on the pull ties that say Merry Christmas from Santa, but I don't know if this is only for Christmas. I believe it is, but I think to be safe I should just say Happy Holidays. What do you all think? Hummm...

Well that's about it for today peeps. I may come back a bit later to post about some stuff I have been working on. I want to work on my outline a lot today since the 31st will be here in now time and I told myself I will be done and ready to go by the 31st. I am sleepy now, but I can sleep tomorrow away. I must outline. I am stuck on chapter 1 of novel 1. Getting nervous here. I am worried this year I won't win. But I would hate to not make it to 50,000. Ahhhh!!! Ok, I am off. Later kiddies.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Happy Wednesday and Forum is coming along nicely.

Was thinking of going with a theme for Halloween but decided best to just pick a theme that we will stick with. I found one that I think we will like. I have the chatroom set up, and I am setting up the sections now. I have several already, just trying to think what all I would like to see in a doll forum. If you have any suggestions please feel free to live them in the comments. Oh I decided to make the forum a doll and toy forum. There are two separate sections for both. I don't expect the toy section to be to active but I know people have toys they buy that they'd like to share that don't rank in the doll category and I wanted to make that a small part of our forum.

Gonna work on the market place later. Trying to decide if we should have requirements before you sell on there. I think people should be on the forum a month before sales can be done, but then the marketplace will be empty. Maybe do a thing where the first 20-50 people who register and have good feedback else where can sell to kind of get the part of the forum going and then close it off to other members being able to sell then until they make 50 posts and are on the forums for a month. Choices choices.

But once again I have not slept. I figured out what my problem with that is. Its October. I always have a hard time sleeping in October. Once November hits it should get better. But I think I will try to get some sleep now so I can exercise later. Will keep you up to date on how the forum is going. :-)