I'm back!

Hi Friends!

I sincerely apologize for my absenteeism. This first trimester is seriously kicking my butt. I have not had the energy to do anything. I haven't even had the energy to relax with my husband! :)

But tonight I had my little "helper" and I felt the need to get back into all things dolly. So he helped me pick some clothes for these new additions and here they are tonight! (and by helped he really did help for about 2 minutes then he was into the doll shoe bin I also had out) Life with a toddler!

So here are some lovelies that I have no idea where they came from (I'm guessing from my dad at some point) and I brought out some of the latest clothes that I featured and got them all dressed. No bath or laundry time tonight though. Not even a hair brush! Here they are 'as-is!'

First, this beautiful Liv doll.

I have one other Liv doll (Sophie or Sophia, I think?) and I love their realistic glass-like eyes. All of them are wigged and this one has an awesome purple streak in her hair. This one has a double knee joint (score!) but her arms, elbows and waist are very loose so she most definitely will have to be a sitting doll unless I can find a way to support her.

Don't you love this outfit? And I was very pleased that I had some matching shoes that would fit her!

Next we have this doll with a serious hot mess of hair.

Yeah, not even going to touch this hair with a 10 foot pole. At least not yet! 

I dressed her in the simple Barbie sweater dress with some pink open toe sandals. I don't think they are for Barbie because they are a little small but I smooshed her toes in them. One of the hands and legs are chewed so this might be a good candidate body for my DIY mannequin project i'm thinking about. It will be featured so that's coming soon!

Next, this BEAUTIFUL doll. And she truly is a beauty!

Hair is not that bad and boy she does have a pretty face. With stars in her eyes! Know who she is?

Ever since I got these white satin capris, I just had to put them on a doll. Mix with an aqua Barbie logo tank and some white sandal heels, you've got an awesome outfit! And see what I mean about how I didn't have time to get them clean? You can see her garage sale price tag on her tummy. :)

Be still my heart.

Ah, a Barbie from my generation. We love articulation but there is just something about those bent arms. They just bring me back. And love that face.

I originally had this dress on one of the newer body types above. However they didn't have enough up top to fill out the bust. With this one, she has a little TOO much up top for the dress so I think it was made for the newer body type. But it still looks fabulous on her. Matched with a pair of closed toe heels. The only red ones I could find!

Now for a cute trio of beach girls. Not sure who they are so i'm going to need a little help on these as well!

First, this ginger haired cutie.

I just love her! Didn't really have any clothes to fit her. The shorts did okay but this was the closest shirt I could find that didn't fall off and expose her up top!

And as I was looking at these dolls, I noticed they had tan lines! I'm guessing this will make it easy for someone to identify who they are.

Next we have a blonde girl. 

She was wearing this swimsuit and it looks like it fits her rather well. Maybe it's her original clothes?

Her tan lines

And lastly, a brunette.

While the bottoms seem to fit her well, I don't think it's hers as the top is very loose.

Her tan lines were in the same spots as the ginger haired doll. I like these beach dolls but just need an ID!

Also, I did want to mention a craft project I did. It was a quick craft before I did my larger craft. I've got the supplies out, that's a step in the right direction. Now maybe I'll be motivated to do it. But for now, I did a quick beach photo shoot with my homemade beach towel.

Isn't that the cutest? And so easy. To make a beach towel for your dollies, just take strings of yarn at your desired length, lay a few side by side and brush them with mod podge on a piece of tin foil. Continue adding yarn and brushing. When dry, peel off and trim the edges to make them even. I used a fun rainbow colored yarn. So easy! The towel will not be soft like a towel so it's more like a beach 'mat' I guess. But still super cute! I'm going to use this beach mat for my Mirror Beach Apple White doll that is....packed away.....somewhere. I'll unearth her someday!

So that's it for today! Thanks for sticking with me through the blog craziness. You'll also see that I've got some new information on the front page. Someone has been copying my blog and I have reported them to Google. So if you are viewing this on mybarbieblog.blogspot.com, you are at the right place! :)

Do you have any of these cuties in your collection? Inspired to make your own beach mat? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time!

A little more of an update

Hi Friends,

When I first saw my blog and lack of photos, the emotions ranged from anger to shock to distress to outright sad and emotional. So I sat and cried. (I'm not blaming pregnancy hormones for that though.) :)

So I did a little research. I found out that this exact same thing has happened to MILLIONS of blogs and websites, as well as people who post their sales on Etsy and eBay and even Amazon. Some people who have posted motorcycle or car engine rebuilds on forums (with all the photos) have gotten the same stock message on their photos that I have. 

Basically, when you use an HTML link from a photo on a image hosting website, it takes up their bandwith. If you have a site/blog/forum post with a lot of peer views, it takes up more and more bandwith. I'm guessing Photobucket didn't like it so much. 

Needless to say, people are OUTRAGED. We had no warning to go in and edit our photos before this happened and Photobucket has declined any comment to their users. I understand this was a free service but those who actually paid for Photobucket services are still getting the shaft. I was considering paying for the service too so now I'm glad I didn't. They want you to pay $400 a year to get your 3rd party photo sharing back and it's not going over well. I can get my own domain, my own photo sharing for about $100 a year. People are finding this out real quick. Photobucket won't be around much longer. I also think that they are using this $400 tactic to scare people and make that rash decision to pay it and get their photos back on their blogs/forums. I hope people haven't fallen into that trap.

I had been using Photobucket for years and never had problems. I guess the ads on the page were intrusive which turned people away years ago but with my adblocker, I never had an issue so I kept on using it. Also, Google Blogger years ago stopped me from uploading more photos to the blog because my Picasa album was full. I see that they have since changed. I am a huge Google fan and use Google photos to its fullest intent so I am going to start posting photos from that. I get unlimited photos and I can post directly from my phone, to the blog, etc. without the so called "3rd party posting" using up their bandwith. I'm also guessing that Google has enough bandwith to go around as they are a Silicon Valley giant!

So, the state of the blog!

I have put too much time and cultivated too many relationships to let this go. I love all things dolly, it's my hobby and a large part of my life and so are all of you. So the blog is here to stay. 

I am going to work on reposting all the photos starting with the newest blog posts first. This will also give me the chance to fix any broken links or photos that are not longer available like I did with my Barbie Hot Tub/Pool post. My goal is one post each evening. 

I have almost 2000 pictures to repost. And all new posts will have solid photos that will not go away. If Google Blogger decides to go kaput and stop photo hosting, I will move this blog to wordpress and pay for a domain. As I said, I have invested too much time in this blog to just say "sorry!" The whole fun of dollys is the pictures right?

So bear with me, we'll be back up soon. And hopefully Photobucket will enable 3rd party file sharing with a time limit (to allow us more time to change links, etc.) But I'm not holding my breath. 

So thanks friends for sticking with me. I do have a new post in the works and was going to post before I found out I was pregnant and starting feeling the 1st trimester icky-ness. 

Love you all and many dolly hugs

Teresa

Why all my photos are gone....

Hi Friends,

So I logged on for the first time in a while. Been here but feeling under the weather because I found out..



I'm pregnant again. The news is out! I'm 2 months along. :) Happy Happy

But then I see that all my photos are gone. I use photobucket to host my photos. I download them there, then use the HTML code to post the photos. Well apparently, I hit a limit or something? And now all my photos show that weird image. And they want me to pay $400 yearly to do this. Well, saving for a new baby and trying to make ends meet, we don't have that to pay every year. 

So friends. I know some of you are fellow bloggers. What do you do? I know some have a paid domain. Maybe it's time to do that. How much do you pay for that? Let me know in the comments. So as of now, I'm on hiatus! Ack! I love this blog and have many loyal followers and friends. Not sure what to do at this point! 

Help!