Monday, July 19, 2010

SUCCESS!!

Item #3... DONE!
(see http://ofpinksandfairytales.blogspot.com/2010/01/and-in-with-new.html)

5 Things you didn't know about Bejeweled

Saw this article on Yahoo this morning:

Five things you didn't know about Bejeweled

I started playing this years ago when it was called Diamond Mine. Now, I think I have Bejeweled 2 on our laptop. I prefer Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook though.

Friday, July 16, 2010

One of a Kind Doll and Doll Outfits

I came upon this site while looking for resources for dolls:


You have to admire the patience with details!

This is my favorite:

Click photo to see dress details and patterns.

Detangling Doll Hair

I'm still on a roll so bear with me for a few more posts about dolls.

Anyway, yesterday, I posted about the hair detangler product from Barbie. I made up my mind to get one but the nearby toy store doesn't carry it and I won't be going to other toy stores soon. Last night, after Andrea went to sleep, I decided to work on one of her other dolls. This is another student doll from Teacher Barbie. This is how she looked like before I started working on her:

I don't know how she looked like originally, I haven't been able to find a photo of Teacher Barbie with a blonde girl student. Anyway, in this photo, I was already able to brush her bangs down. When we got her, I didn't realize she had bangs because they were brushed back and looked like part of her long hair in the pony tail. I only realized they were bangs when I shampooed her hair and saw shorter ones. When I blow dried her hair, I concentrated the heat in the bangs part for a while to get them to flatten down.
Going back to the detangler, since I didn't have Barbie's hair detangler, I tried to use what I had available: Vitress Cuticle Coat. It worked!

The hair was a bit sticky after but that was fine since I planned to wash it again after I get all the curls out. Anyway, here's the tricky part... I read in one website that you can iron doll hair directly... I must have done it wrong because a part of her hair almost melted. So I used a cloth over the hair before applying the hot iron. I didn't get it really, really straight but at least the hair is falling down the back already instead of sticking up. Then I had to trim her hair because the ends were already knotted. The hair was already thinning when we got her, I think it needs to be re-rooted but I have no idea where to get doll hair (if I'm able to get it, it might be the subject of a future blog entry). After trimming, I washed hair again using shampoo and blow dried. The result isn't as nice as I had hoped (maybe because the hair was thin?). But I think this is better than the curly-knotted-sticking up look she was sporting when we got her:


I also made the dress out of an old lace tank top. I would love to share how I did it but thing is... I don't use patterns. She's very small (around 3? 4? inches) so I would just wrap the fabric around her and mark the areas where I should sew. I got the idea from this site though, so you can check here instead. For the headband, I used one of Andrea's pink hair elastics... it's the perfect size. The headband covers some thinning/spots on her head.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Getting to know "Kelly"

I'm still obsessing about Andrea's dolls.

Yesterday, I accidentally* discovered the identities of her 3 "Kelly's". I initially called them all Kelly because I have yet to find out who (in Barbie's World of Pink) they were. Well, they turned out to be all Kelly :)
*I say accidentally because I was looking for something else when I saw their pictures online.

These are the 3 Kelly dolls I initially posted:

The one on the right and the one on the left are both Hearts and Kisses Kelly. Here's what they looked like originally:


The one in the middle is Cloud Princess Kelly (in Pink) from Barbie's The Magic of Pegasus series:


We also have the horse (minus the wings), but I gave it to Helaena (all horses and My Little Pony dolls went to Helaena's stash because she likes horses). Hmmm... maybe I can get it back... hehe. The hair on that horse is pretty tangled up though.

Aside from messy hair and missing footwear, I think the dolls we have are still in pretty good condition. About the hair, I've been frequenting the Barbie section of toy stores lately and I discovered that there is a hair detangler product for Barbie dolls!


There is a review and video of this product from the Toy Guy here. It's a bit expensive though: P899 (around $20) for the set. It might make the job of restoring the hair of our dolls easier though so I just might... (and MG might just kill me if he finds out I "wasted" money again).

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

They don't make dolls like these anymore...

It's been a while (ok... a loooong while) since I played with dolls. And now, in restoring Andrea's dolls, I am getting addicted.

In my previous entry, I mentioned that I have been trying to identify the dolls first by searching online so I can see what they originally looked like. Andrea's stash has 2 more baby dolls wearing white nappies (painted on the doll) with numbers on them. The dolls were marked "Tyco" at the back so this morning, I tried searching for "tyco dolls" on Google. Thanks to this site, http://www.ghostofthedoll.co.uk/Toys_Quints.htm, I found out that the 2 dolls I have were part of a quintuplet set called Quints which were released by Tyco in the early 90's. My 2 dolls came from this set (I think they are numbers 1 and 4):


From my research, these dolls came in different varieties and they had a quite a few accessories. They are cute... and no longer available (except in ebay).

Now that I have a baby girl, I am beginning to regret not collecting dolls. The first time I saw a Barbie collection on exhibit, I started thinking about collecting. But back then I didn't have the money, since Barbie dolls can get very expensive. And now, it is logistically not possible. I have a small house and I will have nowhere to put them.

I am still obsessing about those Quints though... maybe I should go eBay for a while...

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Restoring Barbie's Little Friends

Andrea inherited a stash of small dolls from her cousin Ava. Though in good condition, they were what you would typically expect from a doll after a little girl has played with it for a few years: tangled hair, missing accessories. I thought they were cute and it would be nice if Andrea can play with little girl dolls in a few years instead of the big girl fashion dolls like Barbie.

I wanted to make sure they will be ready for Andrea so I tried to buy stuff for them at the mall. I initially thought they were Kelly dolls. I thought all little girl dolls associated with Barbie were Kelly's... how wrong I was! Anyway, the mall doesn't carry accessories for Kelly dolls according to the sales person I spoke to. I tried online and still... nada!

While searching online, I discovered that my favorite doll of the stash was not a Kelly but a nameless little girl doll who was a student of the Teacher Barbie doll. Our stash has 4 of those student dolls but the one with thick, long brown hair is my favorite.

I found a video of the commercial for Teacher Barbie online and this is what the doll originally looks like.


Since there were no clothes that can be bought for this doll, I tried to make one on my own. The material came from an old t-shirt. I can't hem, so I needed material that won't fray. I didn't use a pattern and this is my first attempt so the fit isn't that great. I also made underpants, though you can't see it from the photo.

To detangle her hair, I washed it first with shampoo and applied conditioner to smoothen. Then I read somewhere that to set the hair, use heat. So I used a blow drier with the heat set to high to flatten her bangs (which were all sticking up every which way when we got her). Then when her hair dried, I reset her pony tails using purple elastic to match her new dress.

This is another doll from the stash. From my research, this baby is the patient that came with Dr. Barbie (a very small baby doll!). She didn't have any clothes when we got her so I tried to make something for her out of the same old purple t-shirt.

It was actually fun restoring these dolls. This site helped me a lot when I was trying to identify my dolls: http://www.kattisdolls.net/. Here are other dolls I have yet to work on:


Until I figure out who they are, I'm calling them all "Kelly" for now.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Weekends are precious

Things I am looking forward to doing this weekend:
  • Watch "Eclipse"
  • Watch "Toy Story 3"
  • Watch "Shrek The Final Chapter" --> pushing it too far I guess, I don't think this movie is still showing but I really do want to watch this :( I've missed so many movies.
  • Visit the Forever 21 store that just opened at Megamall.
  • Not be sick.
I have been sick the past 2 weekends. Nope, not the past 2 weeks... for some reason, it just starts during the weekends X(.

Two weeks ago, I a sore throat started Saturday afternoon which turned unbearable in the evening. Sunday morning greeted me with a splitting headache that won't go away even with the pills and tablets I was popping every hour. I started taking antibiotics Monday and started feeling better during the week. Came Friday and I thought I was fine.

Until I woke up Saturday with a slight cough... which got worse during the day and by evening, I can literally feel the cough and cold taking hold of my body. I was bed ridden Sunday. Monday came and though I was feeling a little off, I decided to go to work anyway. Day by day, and I can feel myself getting better. I still have a slight cough and cold today but nothing that will keep me bed ridden tomorrow (I hope!).

So there, I haven't had a chance to do anything much the past 2 weekends except be sick. I hope I can finally take a break this weekend.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The Quest: Day 8

My body is thinking of all the wonderful things it wants to eat... and I'm giving it bitter green tea and wheat crackers X(

It's been 8 days since D-Day (Diet Day??) and until now, I haven't quite started yet.

The running shoes remain unused (for running at least... I used it to go to work yesterday just so they'd get some use).
My Air Climber is still dusty under a bed in the spare room.

The only thing I've succeeded in doing so far is avoiding junk food during office hours (not even for an entire day... arrrggghh!!) and stopped storing junk food at home (for how long I wonder?). I haven't stepped on a weighing scale yet to see if any of these efforts actually had an effect.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

The Quest: Day 0

Last June 29, I had an epiphany and decided that I am (finally!) going on a diet.

I went hungry that day.

But aside from getting hungry, I also decided that I should start an exercise regime of some sort. Since it's the current popular sport, I chose running.

I sent an instant message to my husband that I was meeting him at the mall after work that day because I wanted to buy running shoes. Supportive guy, he didn't even ask me what I wanted it for :)

I get distracted by a lot of things when I'm at the mall, however, so it took a while before we finally got to the business of getting my running shoes. And I wanted brownies for dessert during dinner (I am... weak) so I was having second thoughts about my epiphany and was starting to lose interest in running shoes. But my husband, probably liking the thought of not having to run alone anymore, was pushing me to get the task over and done with. So with 10 minutes before closing time, I picked a pair, tried it on, and paid for it.

This is what I got:I picked one of the cheaper models of Adidas. I initially wanted to get a pricier one to force me to use it. But since at the time of purchase, I was beginning to lose my resolve, I decided not to risk future "I-told-you-so's" from my husband.