The Next Best Thing

Since my childhood Barbie is long gone, I went looking to see if I could find a reproduction American Girl Barbie to ‘replace’ mine. I found one on eBay from a seller named vintageatstonecottage.

I ordered the doll in early January, and surprisingly she arrived just 10 days later from the U.S. before the original estimated time of arrival. I am absolutely thrilled and delighted with her! The doll is very close to the one I had all those years ago.

She was packaged in what appears to be a custom Kraft box and carefully wrapped in bubble wrap. The box was taped very securely too. Included was a hand written note from the seller.

Of course, this doll will never replace my vintage doll in value or sentiment but she certainly passes as the ‘next best thing’.

It's Taco Time!

My granddaughter and I love tacos. She prefers soft tacos but I prefer the hard shells. We have tacos at least once a month. I generally cook up enough meat for us to get a couple of meals out of it, and maybe a snack or two.

About four years ago, there was a promotion advertised on the packages. Send in X number of UPC codes from specially marked boxes and you could get a free taco scarf. I showed it to my granddaughter.

‘You’re not going to get it, are you?’ she asked. I raised my eyebrows and smiled. I did not hear a question, I heard a challenge. So naturally, I ordered one. When it arrived, I proudly showed it to her.

‘You’re not going to actually wear it, are you?’ she queried. Once again, I did not hear a question, I heard a challenge. I smiled sweetly and all she could do was roll her eyes. She knew that I was going to wear it. And I do wear it every day when the weather is cold, to this very day.

Christmas Decorations

It’s time to put the holiday décor away for another year. Not that I had a lot out to speak of. We have not put up a regular Christmas tree for more years than I can remember. My mother was the one who went all out for the holidays, even going as far as dressing all her ‘play dolls’ in seasonal outfits. It must have taken her a whole day to get them all dressed up around the house. They provided her with a lot of pleasure, you could tell.

For the last couple of years I have been putting out a small ceramic tree that lights up. My mother gave me this one before she passed away. I remember when these were quite the fad in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Back then, the trees were often handmade in ceramics shops (ceramic crafts were very popular at the time), and painted in a variety of colors, styles, and textures. People could learn how to paint their own ceramics at local shops. Once fired in the kiln, the colourful plastic ‘lights’ were added to the trees and the electrical connection for the light bulb inside put in place. As time went on the ceramics industry and the hobby of painting ceramics declined like trends often do.

It seems, however, that ceramic Christmas trees have recently made a comeback as people look to recreate the Christmases of their childhoods. You can find them at Canadian Tire, Walmart and Amazon to name a few. These are all commercially made now though and lack the charm of a handmade tree.

The other special item to be tucked away until next Christmas is a lovely holiday outfit my mother made for Barbie. The top of the dress and the hat were crocheted by her while the skirt is a lovely holiday fabric. The ensemble was embellished with ribbon, lace and artificial flowers. I only recently found this outfit while looking for something else. It was proudly displayed on a shelf this past Christmas and will be every year from now on.

My mother had doll outfits for practically every season or holiday you could think of…Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Halloween/Thanksgiving, spring, summer, autumn and winter. How I sometimes wish that I had all her dolls and outfits now. Unfortunately, after she passed away her husband (not my father) denied me any of her things. It’s a long, ugly story that I won’t get into. I’ve had to learn to accept that I will never see them again.

Let’s Talk About Gift Baskets

Over the holidays, I received two chocolate gift baskets. The first one I won in a draw at our company holiday gathering. The second one was gifted to us by our next door neighbour.

While I admire how beautiful they look and the time it took to put them together, they are absolute torture to deconstruct. Multiple layers of tape and rubber cement make it quite challenging. I’m sure it must be easier to get into Fort Knox than it is to deconstruct these things!

In total it took me about an hour to get the two of them apart. And the funny thing is I’m not a real fan of chocolate. I kept one item out of the first basket and the rest I gave away. I will likely take most of the second one to work to ‘share’ with my co-workers. I'm sure that they will be more than happy to indulge in them. *smile*

Doll Collecting Journey

My doll collecting journey began in the mid 1980’s. It took many twists and turns over the years, from Ashton-Drake porcelain dolls to Ginny, Madame Alexander, Barbie and Leeann dolls. With two boys and two cats, the porcelain dolls did not seem like a good option after a couple of years so I moved on to the others.

I remember prior to one Christmas I saw a doll that I REALLY wanted in a local gift shop. Every time I walked past that store with my boys, I pointed it out and mentioned how much I would love to have it. When the boys were in school one day, I went in and purchased it. I gave it to my mother for the boys to give me as a present. On Christmas morning, they proudly regaled the story of how they had made their grandma go to that store and buy it for me. I smiled, knowing full well that I had picked it up myself. It was so cute how they invented that whole story though. It still makes me smile today.

In the late 1980’s Mattel started to bring out ‘collectible’ Barbie dolls starting with the Christmas series. That is when my focus went back to Barbie, mostly because purchasing dolls from the U.S. with the exchange rate and shipping cost became too much to sustain. Ironically, my mother who was so against such a voluptuous and curvaceous doll in the beginning started collecting Barbie too and ended up having more of them than me. Dolls of the World, special anniversary editions, and ultimately vintage reproduction Barbie dolls all graced the shelves in her ‘doll room’. Yes, she had a doll room.

Sadly, none of those dolls were given to me by her husband (not my father) after she passed away in 2018. They were all in pristine condition, never removed from the boxes. He foolishly believed he had a gold mine and could sell them all and become rich. Little did he know that most of them were not true collectible dolls and were worth only a fraction of their original purchase price. A true collectible has a limited production run and is numbered. These dolls were made in the hundreds of thousands and sold all over the world. I guess the last laugh is on him.

I was delighted when I discovered Leeann dolls. The designer and maker of the dolls is Canadian, Denis Bastien. I sold a number of my ‘collectible’ Barbie dolls to make room for Leeann and friends. This is how I discovered how little I could get on the secondary market for them. I did not liquidate them all though. They are packed in boxes in the storage room for now. As I am clearing out a lot of accumulated stuff around here, I will be bringing them back out.