My Birthday Goodies

  My birthday was last Saturday.I had a great day. All my kids were here, which is what makes any day for me. Ken took the day off too, so we were all together. I also got some great gifts! I thought I'd share them with you. First of all,Ivy got me some pumpkin spice Jelly Belly candies,(I love pumpkin spice stuff!), and a new purselette:

I have more candy left than this! It's juts an example!

Emma got me one like this a while back, and it desperately needs a wash by now. So now I have a change of purse for when the other is in the wash.( I was going to use the pig one Emma got me for Christmas, but the opening was too small to get my credit card,license,etc. in.) I hate carrying a purse, so these little change purse type purses are great and fit in my pocket.
Fuzzy brought me a sampler box of fruit teas.

 He also brought his friend Braxton,who brought me...You won't believe what he brought me. Braxton's mom works in a funeral home. (Are you scared where I'm going here?) She brings him 'stuff' sometimes. He gave me a clear plastic half circle thing with holes. It's a thing they put in corpses's eyes to give them an eye shape. He also gave me a wire thing they use to pull a corpse's mouth shut! Ug! I'm sure he just had them in his pocket and gave them to me as a joke, but Fuzz suggested I put handles on the eyeball thing and make a dollhouse colander!
Emma got me this Planet of the Apes board game.

You may have gathered from the title of the blog, if not from previous posts, that Planet of the Apes is one of my favourite things,and has been since I was a kid. Ken always loved it too, and loves Monopoly and collects different versions. So for his birthday Emma bought him the Planet of the Apes Monopoly.The theory was that if she gave it to him maybe he could get me to play Monopoly with him. I hate Monopoly,so under normal circumstances I won't do it. I hate things I can never win.
Emma also got me this Planet of the Apes Funko Dorbz figure.

And she gave me this Rugrats Chuckie Pop Vinyl doll.

She also got me these Mr Kiplings Cherry Bakewell Tarts. Mmmm!

She also topped off the cost of my trip to San Antonio,which I'm taking at the end of the month. I debated going because I was saving the money to try to go to England with Ken and Emma. But I have less than half enough, and it looked like I was never going to have enough in time to go with them,since they were supposed to be going at the end of April. My friend Lisa, in San Antonio wanted me to come and see her, and go with her to see John Cleese,who's doing a question and answer at a showing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I debated. Lisa offered to treat me to the Cleese ticket. Lisa is one of my best friends,and I haven't seen her since 1994. There was lots of incentive.I finally figured that there was no way I was going to have the money to go to England in time anyway, and whatever I did I would feel like crap about. (I would torture myself about whether I should go or not. I would feel I missed out on seeing Lisa,and then still not be able to go to England. I'm good at that sort of thing.) So I was still worried about spending so much money,and Emma and Lisa both offered to top up the amount I felt I could spend. Lisa was already providing the Cleese ticket,so there was no way I was going to let her do that. Finally I accepted Emma's offer as part of my birthday. So I am going to see Lisa.
  I said Lisa is one of my best friends. What might be strange to some people is, this will only be the fourth time I have ever seen her! Back in the days waayyy before the internet,people used to have 'pen pals'. Lisa and I both belonged to the Split Enz fan club. The club was based in Australia, so they used to send packages of stamped club newsletters to one person in America,and have them mail them out individually, because the postage was cheaper that way. Since there was nobody around who shared that interest with me, I wrote my name and address on the newsletters I sent out once, hoping I'd get a penpal out of it. Lisa was one of the people whose newsletter I sent out. We started writing and discovered we shared a lot more interests. (A big interest for both of us was Monty Python,which makes it fitting that our reunion started life because of a John Cleese appearance.) Lisa and I shared many phone calls and very long letters over the years. I finally went to see her in 1988. Ken and I went to see Lisa the summer after we got married,in 1990, and again with Emma when she was three. We haven't managed to get all the way to Texas since. So I'm pretty excited to see Lisa again.
  And now the goodies Ken got me. He got me this umbrella.

He got it out of my Ebay watching. It was supposed to be a solid coloured 1/6 scale umbrella. It's not.

He also got me this headless body.

"Where's my head?!"

I had it in my Ebay watching,to go with the really good Sean Connery as Indiana Jones' dad head that was also in my watching.

It has really good articulation.

And it came with three extra hands and a pair of thigh muscles.

The head was sold,so I'll have to find another one. As I did with my Hot Toys Michael Caine head,I can get the doll much cheaper if I buy just the head, and a cheaper posable body.
He got me another box of Russell Stover candy. I love this stuff...too much.

Ken also treated me to a ticket to go see Martin Short and Steve Martin in May. I really wanted to see them. I keep pointing out that I really regret not going to see Harvey Korman and Tim Conway when they came to the theatre here in town,and shortly after that Harvey Korman died. Martin and Martin aren't getting any younger. How many more things like this are they going to do? So, yay! I'm going!
And whoo hoo! I got a new bicycle!

It was another thing in my Ebay watching. It came in this box. I guess there's also a black one, but the red one is prominent to show you that's the one you got. I love realistic miniature bicycles. The really nice one I have,(Which you may have seen HERE.) was damaged when I got it, and it has fallen apart.

'Smoking set'? I didn't even notice this when I opened the box.

'Warning! This is not a toy!' That's just because of small parts, right?

The bike looks like the perfect size for Tammy World.
 

And it's perfect for her,since she's my doppelganger, because when I got my first bike,it was a smallish one,like this is for her,and it was red. I picked it out at a Western Auto store. My dad tried to talk me out of it because he said it would be too small for me almost right away. I insisted that I needed a smaller bicycle because since I didn't know how to ride a bicycle, (even though I was 9 years old.I just hadn't had a bicycle yet, and my sister had gotten rid of hers. My mom had one, but I didn't know how to ride,so...),the thought of riding a big bicycle scared me.

It even has a kick stand,but the light doesn't really work.

Dad was right though. I learned to ride in no time and before the summer was over I was living on Mom's bike. I had to get a bigger bike.

I don't do hand brakes though. I tend to panic when I try to stop, and pedaling backwards doesn't stop me! I'll stick to foot brakes. This bike,like some others I have that look a bit less realistic, has hand brakes. Unlike the others though, it doesn't have real working brake cables.

There is one problem. It looks like it fits Tammy World really well, until she actually sits on it. It looks too small, and her body doesn't conform to the twists and positions it needs to,to fit realistically on the bike.

Awkward. She has to lean over at a strange angle to hold the handlebars. Although, it's realistic for my feet to not be able to touch the ground when sitting on the seat. They still don't on a standard adult bike.

The bike has real moving pedals. It says 'antique bike 1889'. This doesn't look like a bike from 1889.

But it says 1889 on both sides.

It has a satchel,with 'real' buckles. For some reason it says 'Ok'. The buckles really unbuckle and the satchel can be opened..

The satchel is removable and clips loosely onto the rack on the back of the bike.
 

The satchel was confusing us. It has a strange hole in the top and bottom. When you unbuckle it,you find that there is a strange metal thing inside. What is the thing? Remember that weird thing written on the box, 'smoker set'?

The satchel holds a removable lighter!

That was weird. There was nothing said about that in the auction.

"I'm too young to be playing with a lighter!"

So I love this bike. It's a weird size though,as I said. Maybe if Tammy World had a more articulated body she could sit on it more realistically.

"Are you saying there;s something wrong with me?!"

                                                     
She does look good with it though!

  See you again soon with some Goodwill finds!

Doll-A-Day 121: Liv Hayden, and a Really Cool Bike!

  Well, today is the first of May. To follow 'April Showers' month, this month's theme is, of course, 'May Flowers'. This month will be full of dolls dressed in flowers,or with a Spring/flower theme, (as many as I can.). The flowers are blooming or budding, but today is quite chilly here in Ohio.We're probably about to have quite a rainstorm too, from the look of things. But before the rain comes, today's doll went for a ride.She's a Liv Hayden doll,(I think!), and she's riding one of my show purchases from Sunday's big doll show.

I think this is  a Hayden.  I'm pretty sure the outfit came on a Hayden, but she stole the outfit from another Liv doll.I think Hayden has the green eyes and blonde painted hair,but if anybody could tell me for sure I'd appreciate it. This doll has a very pale skin tone and pink blushy cheeks. I think she'd look great as a red head. I just need to find a red wig.

She definitely needs some work done on that wig!

This girl's eyes are actually kind of hazel, much more so than they look in these pictures.

 I have a load of Liv dolls, with various hair and eye colours, and I've found all of them at thrift stores or yard sales.

And of course everybody knows how super poseable Liv dolls are.

But the main thing here is: Don't you just love this bike?!

I have wanted one of these for about 20 years!

I first saw some of these miniature versions of real bicycles about 20 years ago, in an article in Barbie Bazarr.The article wasn't about the bikes, it just used them as props,but the bikes are all I remember!

 I have always loved miniature versions of real things, and I also love bicycles. From the age of about 9 through my early teens I practically lived on a bicycle. I still enjoy riding, but I'm getting a bit old and stiff to be able to jump off at the end of a ride like I used to. (Sitting on the seat my feet never touched the ground, so as I slowed down to stop I always had to jump off the seat. I recently had to get a shorter bike because I'm getting too stiff to do it smoothly now and I was afraid of falling off! For the first time since I first learned to ride a bike, on a kid's bike when I was 9, my feet can touch the ground when I'm sitting on the seat!)

Hayden has no problem getting her feet to touch the ground. Unfortunately for her, it was windy, and quite a bit of her kept touching the ground.

It's a guy's bike, but she doesn't mind.

I was really excited when I found it at Ed and Jackie's table at the show, but not so much when I saw it was $40. That's still pretty cheap for these bikes, but more than I can afford to spend on a frivolity.But then I noticed the spring under the seat needed reattatched and the one pedal was missing. I asked Ed if he would be marking it down since it was broken. He was surprised it was missing the pedal, because it had all been there when he put it out on the table, and the show had only been going a few minutes. He told me I could have it for $20, and then helped me look for the pieces of the pedal. We got the pedal back on, but couldn't find the pin to hold it. Later, when I went back we managed to find the pin. I thought I had all the bits then, but at one point Ed tracked me down and gave me the metal part that goes on the outside of the pedal.That was the last piece, so now it's all together. Still, I kept checking to make sure I hadn't lost anything when I was outside with it!

It's a Schwinn Black Phantom. I think it's made by Xonex, but apparently there is another one too.The pedals turning really make the back wheel turn. The seat is covered in a soft rubbery stuff, and is actually springy.It even has a rack on the back for carrying her stuff!

The headlight doesn't really work, but hey, you can't have everything!

Her hair was combed when she went out, but it was, indeed, very windy!

It even has a kick stand. Fuzz asked me if it has brakes. I actually have a couple of smaller bikes,sized for Skipper sized dolls, and they have real working handbrakes, so it was not impossible. Alas, if Hayden pedalled backward she would just go backward.

See you tomorrow for another doll. Skipper Saturday is just around the corner, with one of my favourite Skipper doll and one of my favourite Skipper outfits.