Halloween Barbies

Hello!  I'm struggling to get this posted before Halloween, so this may be a bit of a "watered down" post, lol.  Nobody has time to read lengthly, detailed reviews, anyway, so here we go!

This Halloween season, I picked up a few of these older Barbie and Kelly sets from eBay.
They were all reasonably priced and I was curious to see how the quality compared to the Halloween dolls that have been released in recent years.

First up is Halloween Fun Barbie and Kelly 1998 (Target Exclusive).  

This Barbie is gorgeous!  For some reason, I didn't get a good full length photo of her, but the most important thing you need to know is that she has gorgeous green eyes!  I'm so used to seeing a "blue-eyed" Barbie, that this was a pleasant surprise for me when I took her out of the package.
Her hair is soft and glue-free.  She has beautiful red lips.
She also has the beautiful closed-mouth Mackie mold that I love.

Her outfit consists of a dress, black tights, black boots and a head band as well as a ring and earrings.   All pieces are very nice quality!

This little Kelly doll is very cute as well.  I like that she came as a redhead, instead of her usual blonde version.  Her outfit is a onesie that velcros in the back and she comes with a cardboard trick-or-treat bag.  The stand is actually from a different doll, so she does not include a stand.

I love them. :) 

Next up is Halloween Party Nikki (friend of Kelly) 2003.  

She is too cute for words.  I love her little blond bob haircut with the bangs.  Her outfit is actually 4 pieces!  The pumpkin costume and sleeves are one-piece and she has little green leggings underneath. She has a pumpkin cap and little orange shoes. She also comes with a tiny stand. :)

Next is Halloween Party Melody (friend of Kelly) 2004

She's so adorable!  Her outfit is just a onesie tiger costume, but she also comes with a stand and trick-or-treat bag.  All of these Kelly's have the same face mold, just different coloring.

Lastly is Halloween Charm Barbie from 2006.

Out of her box, she's quite charming.  I noticed that her face has a slightly green cast to the vinyl.  I hope this was intentional, but if not, it works!  I'm not really sure which face mold she has, but my best guess would be Asha.  (But I really don't know.)

Her outfit is very pretty and the coat is separate and removable. It sparkles in the lighting.  My favorite, thing! :)  Her dress underneath is also quite lovely.  It's made of thick orange satin with a layer of purple tulle on top and it's hemmed all around.  I love the quality of these older Barbies! 

She's also wearing nice, flexible plastic boots.  They are pretty generic, but work well with the outfit. 

Both these Barbies I've shown have the rubbery click knees as opposed to the hollow non-flexible knees that are common today. 

Her hair is also soft and shiny.  no glue!  Her hat is a flexible plastic material, which I must prefer over the hard plastic type we usually get now.

The girls aren't too fond of this creepy guy! 

Well, looks like everyone is all set to go out for a night of Halloween fun!
Overall I had a great time opening and reviewing these lovely dolls.  This is all I have collected for this Halloween season, but I'm pretty sure I'll add a few more next year. :) They are fun to set up as decorations!  Prior to this, I didn't have any Halloween Barbies so this is such a treat for me. :)

For the last couple of photos, I added a blue light bulb to one of my umbrella lights to try to get a darker "moonlit" effect. 

Happiest of Halloween to you all! 

Thanks for stopping by. :)
xoxo Farrah 

Doll Updates, Crafts and Goals (No More Doll Room, but that's OK!)

Hey everyone...woah, 3 posts this month so far...slow down!!  Haha, I don't know why, but I've been "rejuvenated" in terms of the blog, thank goodness.
I've also noticed that the "blogland" has gotten a lot quieter since I started back in 2014.  It seems as though a lot of people have moved on from blogging and I can definitely see why.  Is Instagram is the new "blogiverse"?  I definitely love Instagram (I have 5 different doll accounts...5!!)
Either way, I'm still here and still hoping to share my doll hobby with you all.  I'm glad some of you are still here, too! (Barb, Sharon, X, Flo thank you for always stopping in!) :)

Above is a video I made recently just to say hi and sort of give an update on what I've been doing.

Sadly, the doll room I was working on last year has officially become the girls playroom as it just didn't make sense to use the spare room for all of my dolls when the girls just kept going in there (especially Little Button!) and messing everything up.  I can't say I blame though, it was like a doll paradise in there.
I'll do a separate post on that soon. Hopefully, LOL. I know I shot a video of it a while ago!

In terms of doll crafts, I'm working on finishing my Mermaid Grotto set as well and I have made a few little things from My Froggy Stuff's videos, which I will share once I photograph them.  I still haven't done any sewing!  Someday, ha.

In terms of regular crafts, I'm working on my first granny square crocheted blanket.  It's going to be a gift for my father-in-law who is a Big Bang Theory fan and I'm trying to make a replica of Amy Farrah Fowler's afghan that is often seen on her couch.

I just finished all of my black and white squares so now I can move on to the color!

I'm also doing a little fall cross-stitch piece and hoping I can finish it before Autumn is over.
Crocheting and cross stitching are so relaxing for me.  I think what is boils down to is it's a way to focus on something intently so that your brains "quiets down" a little and I've really been enjoying it for that reason.
Ain't nobody got time to meditate so this is the next best thing for me. ;)

This piece is called "Happy Fall Ya'll" and it's by Country Cottage Needleworks.

Over the summer I finished another one of my 80s cross-stitch patterns from a franchise I grew up with called "The Care Bears".  They were super popular in the 80s so you may recall them. ;)

These are my two "vintage 80s toys" cross-stitch pieces I've already completed.  

It just brings me back to my childhood! :)  I definitely plead guilty to forcing my 80s nostaglia onto my daughters.

My next doll project will be a mass body swap to weed out the Fashionista's I want to keep, use up my MTM bodies and then donate or sell the unarticulated hybrids.  I need to thin the herd and let go of what I don't want anymore.   I'm really trying to only by 1 or 2 Fashionista's from each release as I just don't need them all!

That's about it for now.  I hope you're all doing well and happy in your hobby.
Talk to you soon!

xoxo Farrah

Summer Wrap Up

Oh, you know it...summer wrap up here we come.  Always a little late as is my style. :)   I had attempted to start a personal blog (Sitting By the Creek) last year to write such posts, but it quickly became clear that not only could I NOT keep up with one blog, I definitely couldn't keep up with two blogs!  I've made the decision to stop posting there and just add a personal/seasonal post every so often here on my doll blog just to make life a little easier.

Below are some photos from our summer here in Upstate NY and I hope you enjoy!  

This year we celebrated Pumpkin Pie's 9th birthday!  She was only 5 when I started this blog and very much into dolls and toys.  Now she's a "big kid" and loves art, sports and music.  I can still catch her playing in the doll room once and in a while, but my little pumpkin pie is growing up!

Here's Pumpkin Pie and me on her birthday. :)  

She's such a wonderful, sweet, senstive girl and extremely creative!  

As you can see, after 20 yrs of coloring my hair, I'm letting my natural hair color grow out and it's pretty streaky with silver! 

Next we celebrated Little Button's graduation from Kindergarten.  The kids performed a bunch of cute songs and had a little "diploma ceremony" and it was so sweet.  I was a little emotional about it as she's "the baby" of the family and already all done with Kindergarten!  The time is flying, just like everyone told me it would.

Shortly after we celebrated Little Button's 6th birthday.  So many birthdays, so many celebrations!  So many tears from Mommy!  I'm a mush, it's bad.
Her big gift this year was a Fin Fun mermaid tail, which she adored.  I can't say I blame her as I would LOVED one of those tails when I was little.  Heck I would love one now! :D
This kid is an absolute joy and your typical "second child."  Funny, laid back and completely present in the moment.  I can't believe she's 6 already!!

In mid-summer we took our yearly family vacation to Long Lake, NY, which is a cozy little town in the Adirondacks.  My grandfather was born and raised there so my mom and her siblings have been going there every summer for ages!  I grew up going there and now my kids are growing up here as well.

It's a very special place for us to all get together and see my mom's side of the family that we don't see very often.

This was my nephew's first time joining us!  My brother and his wife shared a cabin with the girls and I (hubby stays home and enjoys a relaxing week to himself, haha) so it was lots of fun spending more time with this adorable child!

We always try to visit the neighboring lake, Lake Eaton as the water is really shallow and the scenery is stunning.

Even though it's always sad to leave the Adirondacks, it's wonderful to back to the farm.  That's one thing I love so much about living here.  It's never hard to come back.

Next up was fair season. 

Before we knew it, summer was over and the girls went back to school.  I'm ALWAYS sad to see summer go as I just don't feel like it's long enough, but we were quite spoiled with a gorgeous, sunny, hot summer this year so I feel like I can't even complain!

Autumn is in full swing now and life has picked up again.  I'm trying to find happiness in the little day-to-day things and relish the little pockets of time I can sneak away to myself.

I hope you all are having a great Autumn and looking forward to all of the cozy holidays up ahead.

xoxo Farrah