Skipper Crazy!

Hello Friends!

I have some more Christmas goodies to share with you all. My dad has given me vintage dolls for the last few years. He bought all of these from a person who was liquidating their collection. And naturally, I don't mind. :)

I opened the present to see this lovely case. 

And, of course, you can guess who was inside.

Blonde hair vintage Skipper! And I pretty much screamed when I saw what dress she was wearing. I bought this dress off of eBay to go with my wedding party set. The dress was a little worse for wear (bows were deteriorated) but the headband and the bouquet were intact. This dress is MINT (well except for the bow at the waist but I can fix that.)

Just love the vintage Skipper side eye look. Bangs are perfect.

Hair is shiny and beautiful. Just love her!

So, what I did is brought out my other vintage Skipper to do a quick dress swap.

Much better!

My mom happened to be over at my dad's the day he was gathering some things up to put in the box for Christmas and she helped pick out some awesome outfits to fill Skippers box! 

We first have the vintage!

Shirt and pants from 1965 Land & Sea

Tights and leotard from 1964 Masquerade
 

Dress from 1965 Platter Party
 

Raincoat from 1965 Rain or Shine
 

Dress from 1964 Silk n' Fancy. This is so cute!
 

Dress from 1965 Sunny Pastels. I bought this one last year to put on another vintage Skipper I have. Love this one!
 

Love

1970 Lots of Lace. This is complete as I have the shoes too! (Well, i guess it comes with pantyhose and I don't have those.)

And the robe from 1964 Dreamtime.

There also were some genuine Barbie fashions in the case.  Like these two shirt and skirt combos. Not sure if they are Barbie or Skipper fashions.

This swimsuit. Looks a little small for Barbie so it's most likely a Skipper suit.

This is an adorable homemade PJ set. Probably to go with the robe from Dreamtime.

And lastly we have a fashion that I can't find any ID on! It's not homemade and I can't remember if it had a tag on it or not. Any ideas on this mod Skipper outfit?

And also, we got some accessories for my little Skipper. Love all of these! The black shoes have a little tulle bow on the toes and the dark blue ones have a molded on bow. The pink ones look like Jellies!

And that's all for today! Are any of these vintage fashions some of your favorite to put on Skipper? Let me know in the comments!

Stay tuned for our next Haute Couture calendar post coming on 2/1!

Barbie - A Holiday Tradition

Welcome again!

Today we have a very special doll indeed. We are going to feature this year's Holiday Barbie!

This is a special year as it was the 30th Anniversary of the Holiday Barbie. Here she is!

And her box is friendly for boxed but deboxed photos! Note if you want to display or take her out of the box for photos. I've noticed that it is infinitely easier to take them out from the bottom than from the top. She is very easy to slide out!

And she is beautiful. 

I know it's another red dress (because we seem to be getting red every year) but since this is the 30th anniversary and they modeled this dress after the very first Happy Holiday's Barbie from 1988, they went with red. I don't know if the one sleeve on the shoulder one sleeve off is intentional but it works!

And wow! What a necklace! Her curls are 'Holiday Barbie' hard and probably will need some fixing up if you take her out of the box. I do like the little headband!

Her dress has ruffles, ruffles and more ruffles! And a bow around the waist. 
 

More ruffles!

And I had to check the shoes and they are awesome! Mine seems to be coming off of her foot. I tried to put it back on but it wouldn't budge. 

The back of the box reads: "The holiday season is rich with traditions. For 30 years the HOLIDAY BARBIE doll has created a long lasting legacy of imagination and celebration. May she inspire you to love joyfully, celebrate special moments and create memories you'll treasure for a lifetime."

And as in years past, each skin tone has a different arm position. The photos of the dolls below don't show the one sleeve on shoulder one sleeve off shoulder as in my doll so like I said, I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not.

So, since I do have the original 1988 Happy Holidays Barbie, let's do a side by side comparison!

As is typical with dolls from the 80's, it's all about big and poofy and this doll has it. There is still the bow around the waist and the ruffles are a good take for the modern twist on the original. 

But 2018 and the back of the 1988 box gives a better look. Love the holly in the hair on the 1988!

Check the sleeves

It looks like one sleeve on one sleeve off! Maybe it was intentional this year. 

But Mattel, please PLEASE no more red dresses next year! If you could bring back the Mackie Barbies, that would be great. ;)

Friends, did you get this year's holiday Barbie? Do you like her or not like her? Let me know in the comments! 

Next post coming soon!

Barbie Bargains

Greetings Friends!

First of all, Happy 300! This is my 300th post here on The Barbie Blog. Hooray! And lots more to come! 

I am just getting ready to delve into the task of taking photos of dolly goodness that I got for Christmas. I hope that you all got some of your dolly wishes that were on your Christmas list too!

Before that, I wanted to share one doll that I picked up yesterday. My hubby and I got a rare treat to go to Wal-Mart sans kids! Honestly it was like a vacation (we are SO old.)

Hubby always cringes when I want to take a walk down the clearance aisle. He always reminds me "But we don't NEED anything." Whatever, you can always find something on clearance right?

And I did. 

I've had my eye on this AA beauty for a while now. She is gorgeous! And all the Fashionistas were $4 a piece! I had to pick her up.

She has straight black hair and hoop earrings.

Also I love her rainbow dress! So pretty.

But the back does have a different fabric than the front. I'm not a fan of this but considering the flimsy fabric this stretchy polyester on the back does give the dress some stability.

But not sure what's going on with these shoes! She has a flat foot so maybe that's why there's the cutout in the heel? Super strange!

I also think back to the time when Fashionistas were articulated. *sigh*

There weren't any other Fashionistas from this wave that I had to have. This doll is #90. This was the wave that had two 'man bun' Ken dolls!

I've also been doing some heavy duty Barbie organizing. I put all my loose dolls into one bin. A pink one (naturally.) And then all my misc. clothes in another bin. I am going to organize them by tops, pants, dresses, Barbie, Barbie clone, homemade, etc. Since we had to move out of our first house in a hurry and I had a 5 month old, I never got around to really organizing my doll stash. 

I've also got a ton of those craft/tackle boxes that are awesome for organizing shoes and other small accessories. 

So friends, do you have this doll or any of the other new Fashionistas in your collection? Have any helpful tips for organizing clothes? Let me know in the comments! 

Next time I'll have a super special doll for you. Until then!

Happy New Year! Happy Haute Couture!

Welcome Friends!

I hope the new year will treat all of you well and bring you health and happiness. And I hope that your holiday season went well and you had a lovely time with family or alone whichever you prefer!

For Christmas I got a new Barbie Calendar! 

www.calendars.com

And I can already tell that this is a new calendar of Haute Couture designs by the master of Haute Couture, Robert Best!

A few years ago I got a Haute Couture calendar of Robert Best designs but these are new one. There are a couple that are repeats but all the rest I have not seen before. So every month on the 1st we will have a new beautiful Haute Couture fashion from my calendar and I will also post the corresponding real fashion that I found.

Unfortunately this calendar does not tell me the names of each fashion so I had to do some hunting. I got close to all of them but there are a few that I could not locate. January was one that I could find and boy, it does not disappoint! 

January - A Night To Remember

Pink? Frilly? So much yes.

The design is called "In The Pink"

barbie.mattel.com

 

 Oh my.

 BREATHTAKING! I must have her. 

Her excerpt from the website reads:

"Dressed to attend an elegant ball, Barbie® doll looks stunning in a breathtaking beaded floor-length gown of pink taffeta and organza. Tiny pink and clear Swarovski® crystal beads adorn the gown. This sophisticated creation also comes with a pink tulle petticoat and stole, pale pink pantyhose, evening gloves, faux pearl bracelet and earrings, and a clutch purse. Nostalgic face sculpting is complemented by short brunette hair, upswept at the back."

Her dress is so beautiful. The crystals, the tulle, so Barbie!

Do you have "In The Pink" in your collection? Let me know in the comments!

New Haute Couture coming February 1st!