Hey guys!!!

Hey guys, how are you all doing? Me? Doing a lot better than a few weeks ago. I have so much to catch up on in the doll hobby, I’ve missed you guys so much, and I have a few things to share with you all. News about my things keeping me from blogging, family news updates, and a recent shopping spree that I really shouldn’t have done but future events needing past items caused it to happen. Huh? What? Yeah, I know, super cryptic, but all will be revealed soon. I’m going to do a video this weekend for you guys on the shopping spree along with some posts about what’s been going on. Like I said, I miss you guys and I have so many blogs to catch up on. I am working on getting all your links into a blog RSS reader so I can be updated through that. I know, I’m the last one to do it, but I’m a natural late bloomer.   Ok, gotta go, I have a short story to work on and get done by tomorrow at midnight, more on that later.  Bye for now guys, I hope all of you are doing well.  Big  dollie hugs and kisses from me. Take care.

Glad to be back,

Chelle

Happy Birthday To Me

So, the day is almost over for me, but I had to quickly pop on a say hi. Today is my birthday and I am exhausted from taking care of my new present.  Go here if you are curious what it is.  I am so ready for bed now.

In other news, I will be updating you all on some stuff tomorrow, since I am way to tired to do it now. But I wanted to wait to update on my mom until now. So it seems she had two mild strokes on both sides of her brain. Her eye sight seems to be the only thing messed up, so we are lucky and blessed.  She has a pacemaker now as well. She’s not very happy about that, but it will help wake up her heart when it gets to slow.

I really will update more tomorrow. I just wanted to pop on and give you a brief update and say hi. Miss blogging so much, and I will be back to it real soon. For now, take care, be good, and loves ya!

Chelle

She has to get a pacemaker.

I’m scared and forcing myself into numb mode to make it through. I know some of you have commented on my last post and I had planned to comment on them today, but please forgive me for pushing it off a few days. Thank you so much for the comments, I just am to numb to form a coherent response to them. Please, any prayers or good vibes you have please send them my mom’s way. I don’t know how I will make it through the next few days but I have to. Be back in a day or so to update. Please keep us in your prayers. Thank you.

Michelle

I just need to blog.

So I know I haven’t posted here in a while, and that’s simply because I’m still trying to figure out where my blog is headed. When I started to seriously blog I decided to blog about dolls. That has been what I’ve done for a good long time now, and I’ve had tons of fun doing so and getting to know a lot of fun and interesting dolly peeps through my blogging. I still want to blog about dolls, but I have been thinking maybe my blog needs to turn into a lifestyle blog that incorporates all of me, along with my dolls. I still want the main focus to be dolls, but I also want to talk about crafts, writing, and me in general. I think I will go back to dedicated days for the “on the side” stuff, and then just blog about dolls any day I see fit. This way the blog won’t sit here dormant and I can blog.

So what brought me back today of all days?  My mom.  She’s been having some dizzy spells lately, but she put it off as just allergies. That is until the other day where she almost blacked out.  We thought it was the one off until last night. She’d come upstairs from her room and I was standing by the counter looking at two new hamsters she’d recently bought when I felt her grab on to me. It wasn’t anything odd to have her grab on to me, but then her grip got harder. I looked over my shoulder and saw that she was having trouble breathing again. I tried to get her to talk to me and tell me what was wrong, but all she could do was shake her head before she went down to the floor. She didn’t pass out, but it was pretty close. So I told her she had to stop playing around and go to the doctor tomorrow, which is now today. She went to the walk-in clinic and had accidentally pocket dialed me on her phone. I could hear her in the doctor’s office talking to the doctor. I hung up happy she was being seen. Then she called me later on. I picked up and it was my dad. I thought that was weird. Seems they were at the military hospital. I thought maybe the doctor gave her medicine and she was picking it up.  Wrong. She was having tests done. Why? Because they think my mom had a mini stroke.

I am beyond scared and freaked out right now. I know logically we will all sadly have to lose our parents at some point in our lives, but I am far from ready to have it be at this point in my life. I’m so close to my mom and to have her not be here would destroy me. If she did have a stroke, I know it was the diabetes and/or high blood pressure that did it. I have nagged her to get healthy and well I guess I didn’t have a foot to stand on with that because my health is still crap. But either way, it’s now to the point where getting healthy is not AN option, it’s the ONLY option. My mom is ready to give up and let death come get her. I refuse to let her give up without a fight. I am determined to get her healthy. I figure if death is coming he’s coming, but give him the fight of his life first. Now add on to this that my dad is on an inhaler because he smokes like a chimney and my sister is having mystery headaches all the time.

So yeah, that’s where I am at right now. Just waiting to hear from my mom and just trying to figure out what’s next. So much stress and pressure going on in my life right now. I barely sleep, and when I do I usually have nightmares. I’ve been focusing on Squidoo to try to get my mind off things and focused on one thing in general. It’s been helping, but I am ready to get back to my dolls and crafting.

ETA: So they are keeping her overnight. Seems they thing either mini stroke or heart attack. They don’t know what yet. I’m freaking out, but I will try to remain calm. I have to. I have no choice. Thanks for letting me vent. Bye for now.

Michelle

Hey guys, look what I did!

Ok, I’m going to admit it, I’m like a proud mama tonight. I found a kind of blogging article site that you can just write what’s on your mind and have people view it. If you are lucky you will make money from it. I thought it would be a nice outlet for when I just need to talk and don’t really have to place to do some. Some things I wanted to talk about are doll related but I don’t think they really fit in here with the blog for some reason, so I decided to make it into a Squidoo Lens.  I know, crazy, but it was fun.

I had heard about Squidoo while doing searches but never really looked into it until I recently found myself researching how to make money from home.  I decided it couldn’t hurt and I was doing it more to write and get my writing out there, so why not try it. Only problem was I didn’t know what to write about.  I decided to be easy on myself and write something doll related. That when I came up with the idea to help newbies to the doll hobby with tips and tricks on how to find doll clothes and accessories.  I know, this may sound like common sense to some, but there are some places one may not look to find clothing.  Like for example, did I ever tell you about the time I found an either MSD or SD size shirt on a note pad? Kid you not. It was front and back and super cute. I was going to post about it and I don’t think I ever got around to it. I bought two thinking I’d have to slice up the back in order to get it on the doll and wanted to be able to have both sayings on the shirt, but decided to just pop a future doll’s head off instead of ruining the shirts. Guess that means I’ll need twins. 

So if you are interested in some tips on finding doll clothes and accessories or if you are just interested in seeing what I’ve written, I would love for you to head on over to my Squidoo called “How To Start A Doll Clothing And Accessories Collection”.  If you like what you see feel free to like and share with the buttons located on the side of the article page and feel free to leave a comment.  I have several doll lens in the making and I’ll be sure to share them all here with you. But for now I am going to curl under these blankets and rest. It was 105 degrees Fahrenheit today and now I am freezing my butt off, go figure. Ok, talk to you lovely lads and lassies soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Excited to start her new lens,
Michelle

P.S.-
Oh yeah, and speaking of Liv dolls, if you didn’t hear, the official word was given, they have been discontinued. They last wave I believe will come out around Fall. Get them now peeps or forever face the wrath of the secondhand market. Just and FYI, just bought a Liv Spa Alexis for just over 5 dollars on Amazon. Oh yeah, and lens about Liv Dolls coming soon. I will so miss the line. I need to get on more Jake but hoping Toys R Us will give me a chance to get one for $7.50 again. Fingers are crossed tight I’ll get lucky on Sunday. Scary to think I will be starting a comic soon that is Liv Doll based.  What if I break one?!?   Ahhhhh!!!  Ok, now I’m really going.  LOL!  Bye guys.

For Sale: Rare Bild Lilli

So I have been researching some Ebay info for my boyfriend and in doing that research I found a website that shows the top 25 auctions on Ebay and one of the auctions I came across was for Bild Lilli doll.

For those of you who don’t know who Bild Lilli is, she’s basically the momma to Barbie.  If you will, she’s kind of like the original Barbie and original fashion doll.  She started off as a cartoon character from 1950-1964.  In 1953 she was made into a doll, and 130,000 of her was sold until Mattel bought the rights to her, which is when all production of her stopped.  She was created for the adults who enjoyed reading her comics. She was a sort of sex symbol of the time. It’s kind of interesting to think of what might have happened with Lilli if Ruth Handler hadn’t found her on her trip to Europe.  Would we all be in walking down the “Lilli” aisle at the stores now?  Makes you think.

Well this doll in particular seems to be in mint shape. She is an original large (12 inch) gal with her original very hard to find dress…the auction’s words not mine. I love her dress, it has a vintage feel to it, ok so technically it is vintage, but what I mean is a “period” feel to it.  Lilli wore outfits from the time she was created.  Here’s what her Wiki has to say about her wardrobe:

Lilli came as a dressed doll--additional fashions were not sold separately. Her fashions mirror the lifestyle of the 1950s: She had outfits for parties, the beach and tennis, as well as cotton dresses, pajamas and poplin suits. In her last years, her wardrobe consisted mainly of "Dirndl" dresses. Lilli's dresses always have patent fasteners marked "PRYM". PRYM is the leading German button manufacturer; most German dollmakers used, and still use, its products.

Lilli was basically the first fashion doll.  What interested me most about her wardrobe is in the end she wore mostly dirndls.  In my photostory comic I am going to start working on later on this year one of the characters is a service robot that basically wears a dress and apron.  I plan to have her wear dirndls as well.  If I can’t wear one at least she can. LOL!

Even though Lilli was made for an adult audience, she became popular with children.  So much so that German toy companies began to make dollhouses, furniture, etc. in Lilli’s size, which I believe was the smaller version of Lilli which was around 7 inches.  Don’t quote me on that I’m not 100% sure which size items were made for, it could have been both.

I would love to have an original Bild Lilli, but I’m not crazy about having an original Barbie.  Is that weird?  I guess because Lilli is the “original” Barbie as well as she’s from Germany which is where part of my family is from. Also I would love to have a bit of fashion doll history in my hands.  Lilli was, I believe, the first doll with a patent on it, she had three on her.  Also her mechanics is very interesting as well.  Her hair alone interests me.  Here hair was either glued or rooted into a scalp that was screwed into a hidden screw in her body. She was strung together with rubber bands inside.  My mom had old dolls from the times that were held together with rubber bands as well.  So it makes me wonder if this doll for auction had it’s elastic replaced because we all know her elastic would not have lasted this long.  If it has, it won’t be for to much longer.  I wonder if she was kept in a climate controlled place if it would have keep the rubber band pliable?  Yes, I wonder these things. Does that make me weird? Please don’t answer.

Well, as much as I’d love a Lilli of my own, I’ll have to just enjoy seeing pictures of her for now.  Her auction is already at $2,850 dollars and it still has a little over 2 days to go.  So umm yeah, so not going to have this beauty. LOL! Oh well, good luck to the lucky to-be winner.  I hope she goes to a good home where she will be cherished. 

So yeah, just had to share that find with all you lovely peeps.  Be sure to check out the auction, no I don’t know the auction host I just found it interesting and wanted to share.  Talk to you all later.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Drooling over rare dolls,
Chelle

Bald Beauties

Hey all.  I know, I said I was on hiatus, and I still am technically, but I had to blog about this when I saw it. It was mentioned at Toy Fair, but I didn’t find out about it until now and thought maybe others hadn’t either.

So this month Toys R Us released a set of Bratz and Moxie Girlz dolls that have no hair.  The reason for this is to promote giving hope to children with cancer. This just touched my heart when I saw it on the Toys R Us website. I was just “window shopping” and I saw these dolls didn’t have hair.  My first thought was that they looked like they had cancer and when I read the description I was in shock to see the dolls were indeed cancer patients.  This just touched my heart.  Can you imagine being a little girl or boy with cancer and getting a doll that looked just like you and reminded you every day to have hope and to stay strong and be happy?  Just beautiful.  Each doll that is purchased will donate a dollar to City of Hope for cancer research.

And after much prodding from fans, Barbie is going to join in the support. Fans asked Mattel to make a bald Barbie in support of children dealing with cancer and alopecia.  So Barbie will have a friend who will be dealing with cancer and who will have hats, wigs, and scarves to accessorize her bald beauty. However Mattel is not putting Barbie’s friend into stores.  More like they will be making a few dolls to donate as well as donating some money to CureSearch for Children's Cancer and the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.  It’s kind of a bummer they aren’t more global with this doll since they could make money for the cause by offering these dolls for sale, but hey they weren’t going to do anything at all so at least it’s something right?

So yeah, had to share this with you all.  I think it’s pretty amazing for these companies to do this.  Actions like this renew faith in humanity.    And on that note I will take off again.  Dealing with some stressful stuff here as usual. My dad has a surgery coming up, stomach issue is still my bff, and just little stresses tucked in here and there just in case I didn’t have enough to deal with.  Meh.  I’ll deal.  Hope all is well with all of you.   I’ll be back soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now lovelies. 

Smooches and tooches…umm…yeah,
Chelle

Spread To Thin!!!

I seem to recall titling a post like this before.  I guess I didn’t pay attention the first time around.  So, what is this post about? Probably the same thing the original post was about.  Ok, so in my effort to just be out there and explore all the neat things the net has to offer, I have signed up to a ton of social media sites, only to either forget about them or avoid them because I just couldn’t give my attention to them all.  But I needed an outlet still to talk.  Of course I had my blog here, but still, I needed more because I felt no one wanted to hear all about my interests in one place, but I truly think that is where I went wrong.  So he’s the low-down peeps.

I have decided to make some changes here and across the web at the various other places I “hang out” so that I can focus on building my audience as well as connecting with my audience.  I don’t want to go into to much detail just yet because I am still working out what will be going on.  All I know is that I am consolidating myself and bringing it all back home.  I hope the changes I make will make me a better blogger, hobbiest, and friend.

I need about a month to sort things out fully.  I am going to be focusing on doing a super clean of my things to sort out what I don’t want and what I do want and just where I am heading with my hobbies, still inspired by your Andrea.    Also I need to get my areas ready for some workers to come in to work on my bathroom and my light needs working on again, so my areas need to be clean and I need to help clean the rest of the house for plumbing issues.  Then I am still trying to sort out my tummy business and I need to sort it out because I have a mini crisis going on with someone I care very much about and I need to get healthier to help them.  Add on top of that, June is the first month of Camp Nanowrimo, August being the second, and I want to participate in both months plus November.  I told myself I was done with Nano, but after not writing really a lick of anything this year I saw I needed them to at least write something.  Yeah, outline is still being worked on as I type. So I really just need the next month to get sorted. But I will come back with my plan to be the blogger I want to be.

So until I return, I will wish you all a happy June.  I hope you enjoy the last bit of Spring because Summer will be starting soon and bringing all the lovely hot weather, hurricanes, tornados, thunderstorms, bugs, rodents, etc. to a town near you.  Can’t wait.    And to you Southern Hemisphere peeps, you enjoy that cold a little bit longer, but come late September early October I am so coming to take it back!    And on that note I shall take my leave.  Oh, but I can’t dash just like that.  I have to leave you with something upbeat until I get back.  Hummm…oh I know!  How about some Perfume? 

You’re welcome.    Be good until I get back.  Bye for now. &

Feeling a little better,
Michelle

I Don’t Have To Go On “Hoarders: Email Edition”

It took forever to get through all 2000 emails but I did it! I got through them all! I responded to the lovely people who emailed me, and now I just have two emails in my inbox that I need to deal with either tonight or tomorrow. I feel so much better now that that is done. I feel so guilty when I don’t respond right away to people, but oddly enough I found out that I’m not the only one. A lot of people on Facebook today mentioned how they had 60,000 or more emails dating back to 2004 that they just can’t face going through. So I don’t feel so bad.   I just don’t use my email much so I slack off on checking it. I’ll try to at least check it once a week instead of once a quarter.  LOL!  Thanks for being patient with me on returning emails to you. Tomorrow’s challenge?  Comments!!!  I’ve decided to only respond to emails from this year.  I’ll check them all, but I don’t want people getting response to posts I made forever and a day ago. But I do thank you for all the old comments to me and I know I will enjoy reading them. I love getting comments and I’m sorry I haven’t stayed up on them. I will start work on them tonight and finish them tomorrow. I so need more organization in my life or at least a schedule so I can stay up on top of these things. Keep your fingers crossed that I will pencil in making a schedule some time this week.

And I’m off peeps. I am tired from hunching over a computer all day. I’m going to go lay down, stretch out my spine, and catch up on some blogs for a while. I will talk to you lovely people tomorrow. 

Wondering how many comments she has to go through,
Michelle

Hunger Game Katniss Barbie, And A Mini Rant

So while I was offline my  mom sent me a message. She asked later on after she sent it if I’d gotten it.  I said not yet.  She told me there was a beautiful doll I had to see and I believe she mentioned that I would just have to have her.  I thought “Ok, I’m always up for looking at a new doll I simply must have,” so I went to look at the message.

When I checked the message it said I needed to go to Barbie Collector at look at the Katniss doll.  Uh-oh.  Do not get me wrong, I am interested in reading The Hunger Games and even watching the movie, but I am just not into the dolls as likenesses any more. They seldom get it right or its just missing to much detail for me to be satisfied.  But still I gave it chance and looked at Katniss, and yep, I didn’t fall in love.

My mom wants her because she just sees her as a pretty doll and has no idea what series she is from. I am “just not that into her”. Yes she’s pretty and she has the character feel, but there is just something about her face that screams Barbie instead of Katniss.  I know, she IS a Barbie, but I just feel when you make a likeness of someone it should resemble them more and Barbie less.  And we know Mattel has it in them to create good likenesses of people or at least get pretty damn close.  Nope, this just seems like someone taking a doll and dressing her up like Katniss for Halloween or a photostory or diorama. In other words, if you have the skill and/or money, its easy to replicate, so it doesn’t interest me.

So what gives? Why the sudden dislike of old Babs? I used to LOVE Barbie as a child, and when I got back into the hobby Barbie was all I had. But now she really only interests me for clothing and it has got to be spectacular for me to even give it a second glance. And I won’t say its Mattel because their Monster High line is awesome, I’m just not really into it because it’s a serious collecting hobby with trying to get all the new characters and either rebuy old ones for clothing and hands or try to get them secondhand at often inflated prices.

And speaking of inflation, the scalpers, ugh, don’t get me started on how they just put a dark cloud over the whole hobby. Make a few bucks, sure, but to double the price of the item is just wrong and harsh. I don’t care if a scalper is having a hard time, there are others out there having hard times too that saved up their money to buy themselves or their kids the dolls only to find shelves cleaned of them by scalpers and forced to look to scalpers to get the doll. This is where Mattel burns me, they make certain dolls so hard to get knowing that their customers get burned by scalpers. Hey dummies, that’s money that could be going into your pocket if you just make the characters more available. If they aren’t rare then scalpers will lose money more than make money off of them so people will buy from the store. I know, the stores buy from Mattel so Mattel has their money, but if the store isn’t doing good in sales because people stop shopping there due to no dolls being on the shelves well then they should just free that space up for another company.  In the end, not so good for Mattel.  This is just my wild thinking, mind you, and I know there’s a wee bit more to it all, but you get what I mean. But with anything you will have scalpers, and they will be there as long as we have people in the community willing to buy at their prices. Stop buying at their prices people!  Then they won’t have a good leg to stand on and you will have a better chance of buying the doll at retail price.  But that’s just my two copper cents, do with them what you will.

But back to my dislike of Barbie, its been coming for a while now. I don’t know, there is just nothing there to impress me any more. The clothing is meh for me, the characters are usually recycled every few years (i.e. teacher, vet, doctor, babysitter, etc.), and there is just nothing special about Barbie any more. Even her houses, furniture, and cars are boring because they all tend to be Barbie Pink. We get it Babs, you like pink.  Can Mattel really want to stereotype her as the cute bubbly blonde who likes pink, hanging out with her friends and her boyfriend Ken, loves riding her horse her dad no doubt bought her, can’t go a day without shopping, and wants world peace?  Its like Mattel will take two steps forward with Barbie one year then for the next decade take her back to the dark ages. Women are empowered now and little girls want to play characters that make them think of their moms. Its just slightly hard to do that in a bright pink bubble skirt and heels.  No, I am not running a “Down With Barbie” campaign, and yes if I have kids one day and they want a Barbie I will get them one, I just wish there was more to her and I wish her quality was picked up so that she would shine again.  I also wish that when Mattel has a good thing they wouldn’t let a few people who don’t even buy their doll scare them into pulling it from the shelves and stores.  But hey, maybe Mattel is working on something new to surprise us all. I’d honestly love to see something great from them. I know I have some ideas I’d love to see, but I’ll keep them to myself…that’s when companies tend to come out with things I have wanted hehehe.    And now that I’ve talked your ear off let me get off my soapbox. 

And on that note I am off. I had another bad stomach day and I just want to curl into a ball, tell myself to breathe, and just wait it out. This is why I’m not more productive. Its hard to do much of anything when your core is tight and makes breathing a workout. Must get back on my diet change tomorrow no ands, ifs, or buts.  Ok, talk to you guys later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Cannot understand nor accept or respect the concept that grapes made her sick,
Michelle

A Happy Easter Wish And A Toni Ellison Gift

I hope all of you had or are having a wonderful Easter. I had a nice quiet one. I watched two movies while exercising, got some yummy candy…which does not help with the wanting to lose weight lol, and I got a new “friend” that I will be sharing with you later on.    Other than that I haven’t done much since last night. Last night I got as sick as a dog. Horrible. And I so did not feel like sitting up through the stomach pain so I called it a night early and went and relaxed in bed for a few before nodding off. So I am trying to be productive tonight as long as my back and head work with me. Long story on that one, just go with me on it.   But that was my wish, I hope you all had, are having, will have a lovely Easter holiday.  Now for the gift.  

So, if you have not learned already I’m going to educate you. YouTube is your friend…right after Google of course.   But seriously, YouTube is a vast collection of tutorials for just about anything you could want to learn about, many of them doll related.  In searching YouTube last year I came across a channel of a young woman who made food canes from polymer clay. She has since come a long way from making canes to making everything from clay cakes and burgers to making potions from the Harry Potter franchise. She puts up tutorials on how she makes these items on her YouTube channel. Now while these tutorials are mostly for making jewelry out of, you can easily just omit the jewelry finding part of the tutorial and have the items to use in your doll photostories and dioramas. And the extra cool part? These tutorials can be used for dolls of any size, it all depends on you, your supplies, and your patience.

So where to find Toni and her tutorials? I and well she have got you covered.    So first of all you can find her on YouTube where she has several easy to follow video tutorials. She’s currently working through a Harry Potter series by making potions. Her tutorials don’t tell all of what she uses, but never fear, she puts those details on her blog. Her posts are quick and simple and just basically fill in the blanks that her videos may leave. If you have a Tumblr, you can follow her there too. It basically updates you on when she updates YouTube and you can ask her questions there as well. Not into blogs? No worries, she also has a FaceBook, Twitter, and Google+ accounts. Whew, all covered?  Here’s hoping so because that’s all I could find, if you want more than that you are on your own. LOL! So if you have ever wanted to try making some of your own clay items you have a great start with Toni’s videos. So go forward and make some yummy treats for your mini peeps. 

And on that note I am off. I hope you all had a great weekend and I hope you have a wonderful week. Talk to you all soon.  Be good until then. Bye for now.

Giving her chocolate bunny the evil eye ,
Michelle