More Goodies!

Welcome back friends!

As I was cruising through the web one day, I stumbled across a picture of this doll. 

barbie.mattel.com

Holy wow! She is gorgeous! This is the 1996 Midnight Waltz Barbie. She is from the Ballroom Beauties collection. And judging from the prices on eBay, not going for too much. I have this thing for black and white. I love it so much that hubby allowed me to design a room in our house in the black/white/grey theme (the guest bath.) Black and white is just so crisp and elegant. And as much as I love all the color in Barbie's wardrobe, this one is just simply gorgeous. 

Okay, now for the rest of the goodies from the Christmas box! We've discussed books and dolls, now for some....well, you'll see. :)

Cases!

I have a couple other vintage cases and I love their drawings of vintage fashions on them. The middle ones are "Winter Holiday" and "Busy Morning" (the orange sundress version of "Suburban Shopper.") But don't know the other two. Readers, who are they?

This case also contained the cardboard accessory box holder and had no tears in the vinyl on the inside.

I also got this FABULOUS hatbox case!

I'm not sure what you would store in this one as it's too short to hold a doll. I'm guessing it's a place for CLOTHES!

Included in here are some handmade clothes. Let's take a look!

Black plastic (faux leather) jacket 

Sheer yellow dress with shawl (unfinished top on dress)

Red polka-dot cover-up (short robe)
 

Purple skirt with red trim and vest

  
Sea Foam terry vest and blue velour handbag

Pink gingham dress and bloomers. Cute!

An interesting one sleeve dress that will need to be repaired/finished before wear. I do love the mod print!

Black and blue geometric shirt. Maybe for Ken

Two red coats. They are identical except one has the pockets pinned on, obviously intentions of finishing but never got to it! (We all know how that goes.)

Red short party dress

Mustard yellow sheath dress with shawl/scarf

This I think is a sweater dress with a head scarf?

Sun dress which is in desperate need of some repair.

This is a whole jumble of unfinished shirts, skirts, pants and scraps of fabric. I like the print and maybe can come up with something interesting!

And these little trinkets: a baby in a blanket sack, umbrella, dishes and cups, a fuzzy pillow or stool pad and a terry bag with fabric inside of the same print.

Not bad! I am getting quite the collection of OOAK clothes that have the potential to be really cool. Just need TIME and we never have enough of that right?

Also included is this nice little hatbox with no Barbie markings, just a hatbox...

...filled with ACCESSORIES! Let's take a look!

Hangers! And some miscellaneous brushes and mirrors.

Here is some braided cord, misc beaded necklaces, pearl necklace, three pearl drop earrings and a blue tissue with some goodies wrapped inside.

A three strand pearl necklace (Enchanted Evening?) a pearl wrap bracelet, some single pearl earrings and hoop earrings like the ones that were in my ponytail doll that had green ear.

A yellow baby bottle, two rattles and a Barbie pillow.

I was able to identify where the pillow came from as it said "McD's" on the tag

www.ebid.net

A pink telephone and black record player. I was not able to identify these from any vintage accessories I looked at. Any ideas?

Random baby accessories. Bib, blanket, brush and comb, washcloth.

This is the big pillow that is under the items shown above.

Pack of brushes. Something I have entirely too many of!

Ken! Brown loafers, three black socks and one pair of striped socks. I can't seem to locate these socks anywhere so maybe they are an off brand.

A few pairs of sunglasses (one vintage pair without a lens) and a hair accessory from Totally Hair Barbie

Tennis racquets! Along with some terrycloth towels. 

And lastly, some doll stands which are always appreciated and some vintage 90's books that you get with dolls. 

And that's it for today! I love accessories. I found a box with all my old accessories in it (and got a new box for them) so I'll have to go organize! 

What do you think of the accessories? You are going to LOVE the next post, it's the best one of all! Until then!

Vintage!

So, remember last time I talked about the Barbie books I received for Christmas. That's not all that was in the box. :)

Are you ready? I SURE AM! *squee*

DOLLS! VINTAGE!

Aww, poor Barbie! I trust the collector that said this was a 1961 first issue bubblecut. Beautiful brunette!

Unfortunately the head joint is completely broken off. I really do not want to slit the vinyl head. Would super glue work and then just not move her?

Such a pretty brunette. She is a first issue because she has red lips, the second issue bubblecut dolls have coral lips.

She is in very good condition, her nail polish is still intact.

And her toe nail polish too!

Now for this GORGEOUS beauty!

GORGEOUS! She was listed as a #4 ponytail but I think is actually a #6 or #7 ponytail because of her coral lips. However she has a thinner face and her nails are red. And black hair rather than more brown. So I don't know. Rebody? 

She is perfect except for this:

Major green ear. I was astonished as the green was wet and oozing. I had no choice but to take out the earrings and throw them away. I have a few pairs of other vintage earrings I can put in if I want to. I know the hoops are rare as they came on only one year of the ponytail dolls but they had to go. I was not going to risk them green ear-ing another vintage doll!

Beautiful red nail polish that is un-chipped.

And toenail polish is unchipped too!

And her ponytail needs a little fixing up but not bad at all! I love the black hair. 

It took me a while to recognize where her coral swimsuit comes from. It's this accessory pack! This is accessory pack #923 and it has hoop earrings included. Most likely where these ones came from. Also three pairs of open toe heels, sunglasses, flower bag, two necklaces and a pair of short gloves.

www.pinterest.com (via eBay)

Ready for this one?

Another vintage Ken! SOOOO excited!

Want to know what's even better? He is a first edition with FLOCKED HAIR!

It's going to take some work as the flocking is very badly damaged. Might just be worth it to scrape it off and start fresh.

Now for this next cutie. I can't believe it.

My very first vintage Skipper! This is a 1965-1967 bendable leg Skipper. 

I just love her. Blue eyes and peach/nude lips. She came with this ribbon in her hair but not the metal headband.

Hair is very nice and shiny!

And lastly.

Two vintage Skippers! This one has a twist and turn waist as well as bendable knees. When I saw her on the Fashion Doll Guide, I knew she was the Sun Set Malibu Skipper from 1971-1977.

www.fashion-doll-guide.com

The next Malibu Skipper produced has a darker skin tone and tan lines and her face is not as full as this one. 

She has good and shiny hair too.

I have a Malibu Barbie and her hair feels the same as this one, kind of course. I wonder if it gets that way after age or if it was just the synthetic hair used. 

Now I have to get some clothes for these two pretty girls. I do have some vintage Skipper patterns but most of the pieces are missing so I would be winging it. And we know that I'm not good at winging it when it comes to sewing! But we'll see. They definitely need something cute and I seriously lack Skipper outfits.

I'm currently in the process of cleaning Barbie's green ear. I've read that CLR does a great job so she is in the spa.

A couple Christmas's ago I received some awesome vintage clothing so time to get Barbie dressed! You can read about them here!

Anyone know of any good kits to help with Ken's reflocking? I need to get this guy reflocked so he looks great! Do you have any favorite vintage outfits for Skipper? Let me know in the comments! 

Also, have any favorite vintage outfits that hold a special place in your heart that I could dress these Barbie's in? Let me know too. Might be time to head to eBay!

Until next time!

For Reading Pleasure

Welcome!

My dad always knows what I like :)

Under the tree I saw this huge package.

You know, the kids always get the big presents so I thought it was for my son...until I saw my name on the top.

When it came time to open the gifts, I tried to slide it in front of me and it weighed a TON. It felt like bricks. After I got the wrapping paper off, there was a plastic tub that was filled with BOOKS! 

Not just any books, books about BARBIE! See, he does know what I like. 

I've had so much fun flipping through these. Let's take a look! 

The Barbie Doll Collectors Handbook. It includes awesome information like how to grade the condition of the doll.

Next is the Fashion Doll Price Guide. Not that useful now since it's from 2000 to 2001 but it's still fun to look at the color pictures!

5th Doll Fashion Anthology, price guide. There are some really pretty dolls in here!

Now we have the fabulous hardcover books. Like this one!

Barbie: What a Doll! I have a pocket size version of this book but this larger one is arranged differently. Mine goes by year. This one has a range of years on the pages.

So for the pages shown above, this is from the chapter titled "Party Girl." So these are party dresses. There are also chapters titled "Tailored Chic" and "Career Moves."

Funny when I randomly opened to the page above, I noticed a dress I already had :) There are no formal names on the fashions (for instance the dress on the bottom right of the second page is a Perfume Pretty fashion) and that's the only dislike I have about the book (this is the Barbie's Sweet 16 doll.)

Now is Barbie: Four Decades of Fashion, Fantasy, and Fun.

More full color photos that talk about tags, packaging and more!

The Collectible Barbie Doll. An Illustrated Guide To Her Dreamy World. Love the 40th Anniversary doll on the front.

Dreamy world indeed! Queen of Hearts Mackie Barbie anyone?

Now this is a fun one. Barbie Doll and Her Mod, Mod, Mod, Mod World Of Fashion. 1967 to 1972. Gotta love it! It's a price guide but still color photos! With a mod book I would hope you would have color photos, that's the best part of mod fashion!

The Story Of Barbie. AH, Goddess of the Sun Mackie doll. 

How about this one! Barbie Doll Accessories! I've been looking through this one a bit. We love accessories! And it includes paper dolls! I recognized some of the ones I found in here.

This is a fun one if you are into finding out which stores had exclusive Barbie merchandise. I don't know what years this is from but does go through some of the 90's. It even has dolls that were exclusives in other countries. 

And lastly we have Barbie The First 30 Years 1959 through 1989. Unfortunately I wish this went through the 90's as most of my dolls are from the 90's. But as you can see on front, I do have some dolls in this book! :) (One of my top 5, Superstar Barbie.)

And that's it! I am in love with these and had to keep myself on track when I was photographing them, I was spending too much time flipping through the pages. There is quite a bit to read in them, even the price guides so it will be fun to see what there is to read about! 

So friends, do you have any of the books shown above? Have any other books you recommend? Let me know in the comments!

And that's it for today. Next post will be super exciting so stay tuned for that one!

My Holiday Star

Hello Friends!

Time for the first installment of the 2017 Christmas treasures! 

And, as always, we have the fabulous 2017 Holiday Barbie!

And her box is friendly so we can get some fabulous boxed and deboxed photos!

However, you cannot pull her out of the top, you have to slide her out of the bottom because of these tabs. If you slit the tape at the top the box will NOT stay closed. I had to re-tape it.

After the disappointment of the dolls last year, we are given this glitzy beauty.

I am glad they gave her jewelry this year, not just a bracelet. Her hair is "Holiday Barbie Hard."

She also has a beautiful multi-color blonde do.

Her dress is shiny red (perfect for the holiday) and has a slit up the front. It shows off her gold strappy sandals.

 
Also this Barbie is outfitted with a big star.

Since i'm not fully deboxing her, I'm guessing that the star is held on by these loops in the back of the dress.

She comes with a certificate of authenticity and a doll stand.

The back of the box reads:
"As the year comes to a close, celebrate the occasions that made you smile, the dreams that moved you and wishes that made you hopeful. Every joyful moment in life becomes a sparkling memory in our hearts. Barbie is adorned with a gleaming star to commemorate all those wondrous moments. May your 2017 Holiday Barbie keepsake inspire you to dream bigger, to live boldly and always shine brightly."

As with last years dolls, the different dolls come with different hairstyles and arm positions.

I am pleased with the doll this year. Last year was so lackluster but I'm glad that they brought more glitz and glamour to the holiday dolls. Checking the Amazon reviews, the one star reviews were for damaged boxes so that's a good sign. 

I do want to mention, this is the type of fabric where it will snag SO EASILY with normal play. I foresee a bunch of these dresses, snagged and torn sitting in a thrift store bin in 1 or 2 years. It is very very thin with no lining.

Also, Mattel! this is the FOURTH year in a row where we've had a red dress (not counting the other two colors from last year.) And the 5th year back we had silver and white and then the year before that (2012) the dress was also red. 2011 was green. Let's bring back more green! The green holiday dolls are so sophisticated looking!  

OR....you could give us another MACKIE holiday doll. I'm still holding out hope on this one...

So, was Holiday Barbie under your tree this year? Let me know in the comments!

More goodness coming soon!

The blog is revitalized!

Welcome!

I just finished. That was a job. I wanted to get it all done before the baby came.

All the blog's pictures have been reposted, broken links fixed, and dead internet copied photos restored. We're back up and running! Now any post you click on will have photos back! 

(I also fixed grammatical errors too. Yeah.....) :)

If you happen to find a dead link or photo that doesn't pop up, let me know. Blog comments come directly to my inbox so I see every one that comes through. 

So enjoy! Now I can get to work on the new things I have to show you. Photo shoot begins tomorrow and posts will go up as I get the photos uploaded! 

Cheers!