Toys in the Attic

Monday I spent the day with my mom cleaning out some closets, cabinets and drawers. The impetus of this is her desire to "get her house back." Mom still has many items of my Grandmother's. The items that are causing her the most grief are things such as clothes, books, and papers. Again Monday, I was very glad that ToolMan helped me make some intense passes through her Grandmama's apartment in December, or we'd be dealing with kitchen stuff, even more clothes, etc.

I had been pushing for CRB to have some space when we stay at my parent's, so we ended up trying to make that happen too. In going through some closets and drawers, we came upon many of my old dolls and their clothes. When I was growing up, my parents always had enough money for what we needed, but unlike most only children (CRB included) I was not spoiled by stuff. Maybe in part because of that, I developed a special attachment to each of the dolls. As a child I had plenty to keep me busy, but I did not have the modern excess of stuff. For example, I had a single Barbie, a Skipper, and a Ken. Not exactly third world, but if you knew how much I played with those dolls...

I pushed through, rationalizing that some one else could enjoy these dolls now, or at least use them for something. We did not get to the 3 Barbies thankfully, as I have them stashed in another room in their house. If we had I might have lost it and reclaimed the rest. Many of my doll clothes were actually my baby clothes, so that proved very difficult for mom. The rest of the clothes were all handmade by either my mom, one of my grandmothers or aunts, or even myself... those were the ones I stressed over the most.

We did make a great deal of progress, but I am still quite haunted by the whole thing. Later that week I took CRB to the Salvation Army store where we purchased... cover your eyes... somebody else's naked dolls. We got 2 Barbies, 2 Bratz (one of which who was wearing her original thong underwear!), a GI Joe, and a knockoff American Girl, all for the low, low price of $6.

Why I am I buying these dolls? To make clothes for them of course! This week I found etsy.com. It's an awesome website where people sell handmade items. I don't have a tremendous amount of talents, but I can make some great doll clothes. ToolMan asked what I was up to, was I planning to quit my day job, etc., and I explained that this mommy wants to make doll clothes and I was not sure that CRB was going to be that into it. ToolMan, relived that I was not moving to a $3 per hour job, became super-supportive.

While checking out my competition, I saw Blythe. Blythe is the size of Barbie, with a Skipper body. (That means Blythe has a huge head). Her eyes change colors with the pull of a string. She is AWESOME. There are different models of Blythe (kind of like Barbie I think). If you are interested check out the wikipedia entry for Blythe. After about a week of intense shopping and research, I ordered Rosie Red Encore. To see her, check out this Japanese forum post that features owner shots of my Blythe, one of which I have posted below.

Check back later today for a pack leader, family update.