Dollieh Sanctuary

The Barbie Basics type Model Shopper Barbies (and outfits) are turning up at Tuesday Morning for $15/10 respectively. My SIL was shopping there earlier and saw lots of them. Unfortunately they did not have the flowery black dress ensemble I've been rather coveting. She phoned me when she was looking and I asked her to check and nope. Darn, I wish. For $10 I'd have so asked her to jump on that. It's not worth $25 but $10, yeah, I think so. I'm going to keep her looking over there for that one the next few weeks. Maybe I will get lucky and it will come in and she can snag it for me. It's a really lovely outfit. She said she saw what looked like a golf outfit and a red dress with an Oscar type award in it? I don't recall those from Target. Also they have a lot of Breaking Dawn Twilight Barbies in including the boys for $10. I'm not a Twilight fan at all, but I have liked a few of the Barbies.

My SIL brought me the vampire Bella which I rather liked but would not in a million years pay $25 for. (She's getting an eye color repaint though...) and the blond Shopper Steffie. Miraculously the Steffie she picked doesn't look like she's stoned out of her mind. That's a first. Most of the ones I've seen at our Target her eyes looked as if she'd been smoking something.Weirdest paint job I've ever seen on a Barbie. She looked like she was portraying Paris Hilton wasted. I kind of wanted her though because I liked her outfit and I don't really have a decent blond Steffie. This one has lashes besides which I tend to like, but $25-40 was just too much IMHO, particularly since a lot of them seem to have major eye paint issues.

I'm stuck babysitting this weekend one night now but I guess it was worth it. Being a good auntie does have it's little rewards, grin...

This collection is the one I mean. I totally covet the blonde in black and the black flowered Tea Party outfit...

http://www.barbiecollector.com/collecti ... collection

There's a Tuesday Morning within walking distance of me. I really need to check it out sometime. lol

We have a couple of in our town but my SIL tends to check it out far more than I do. She likes upscale clothes and likes to shop there for supposedly discounted designer stuff. The one closer to her is better I think. I go in the one near the pet store here and I never find anything I can afford. They seldom have doll stuff except for those very pricey Madame Alexander kid dolls that I don't particularly like.

I still cannot believe they had that Steffie for $15. The Target here $29.99 or maybe $24.99 when they actually do put them on sale. She's pretty much the same Steffie with the curly blond hair as in the Barbie Basics jeans collection. Looks like they recycled the exact same face paint to me only they gave her long straight hair and lashes this time. She still has the same makeup, gray eyes, and mauve lips. The BB one I have her but she has a really wonky paint job. One eye is actually a bit higher than the other and her curly hair is just frizz central so actually it's nice to have this one to replace her. The BB jeans one wasn't doing much for me anyhow. Compared to the other really gorgeous Steffies they did for the BB collections that particular one was just "Meh." This Steffie is much nicer and a better fit for my little Steffie collection. The BB jeans one can give her body to another girl now I think and become a project head in the bag of project heads...

Big Lots still has a ton of those Katniss Barbies and I've seen a few Twilight Barbies there too, but nothing too exciting. It's almost Halloween and I'm not all that impressed with the stores around here in terms of new and interesting dolls. It's probably a good thing. I have a huge home repair project I have to find money for and I cannot afford any new dolls for the rest of the year, but still considering Christmas is only 2 months away I'm really surprised at the lack right now. Usually by now the TRU, Walmart, and Target are getting ramped up and the bargain stores have plenty of new dolls too. Not much to tempt so far.

I've got an SD sized project body I have to finish a lay-a-way on, almost done there, I'm on my last few $$$ on that one, but other than that I've got no major doll plans for the rest of the year. He's going to have to wait to get a head till next year unless I get a gift card for Christmas or something. It's not a big rush. He's got a fading rit tan job now and I've got a lot of soaking and stripping to do with that doll body before I can get it back to NS and use it anyhow. I just got it because it was really cheap. I like that doll body a lot. It's the same one my Kelly is on and I eventually do want another SD boy. I might even have to sand him like I did Alba though. Not sure.

Next year's doll budget is looking pretty bleak though. I've got to repair the tub and so far every contractor I've talked to wants practically more than my house is worth to go there. I'm freaking out every time another one sends me a quote. $4-5K they want, most of them. I could sell off every doll I own and I still would not have enough to go there, sigh, but I'm not going to. I may end up washing my hair in the sink and taking a lot of sponge baths though if they keep on talking like this...

I'm babysitting Sunday all day it looks like. I've got my two nieces plus 2 play dates for 3 hours of it, ugh. My nieces I love, but the kids they love to hang with most? Not so much. One of the little playmates that's coming she has a bad case of sticky fingers when it comes to dolls. Been there, done that, and she nearly made off with several dolls in her backpack, so she will NOT be coming to my house Sunday. We'll have to go out to McDonald's then to the pool or something. Her parents can just pick her up from there.

But 4 kids means I get more dollies, yay! My SIL got me another discounted City Shopper doll, the brunette in the sweater dress. I think that outfit is rather blah, but she looks great in the orange Stardoll dress. Mackie sculpt closed mouth, brunette updo with eye lashes, it works. I also get to choose a couple of Fashionistas tomorrow at Target because they have a buy one get 50% off another one sale going on. Not much there as I recall that I was crazy to get but I can always use more articulated bodies so I might just get a couple of them anyhow. Some of my Basics girls could still use an upgrade and I am out of extra Fashionista and Liv bodies to swap with.

I really wish I could find the Shopper Lara/Drew sculpt blond, the blue brocade cocktail dress and the tea party dress from that collection at Tuesday morning because I'd love to have those but so far no luck. I checked the one nearer to me. Nothing except the red evening gown and the golf outfit plus the same 2 dolls she just got me and I don't want that stuff at all. I'd love to re-root that Lara/Drew red and make a lashed Basics trio out of them. The 4th doll is the AA sculpt I'm so-so on and her outfit sucks besides so I'm not much into her. But I would like that Drew if I can find her on discount. I don't want her as a blond though. I will be rooting her as a redhead, for sure, if I can ever lay my hands on her. I do like Drew/Lara dolls, but very rarely as a blond and in this collection that was one blond too many so far as I am concerned. They're very pretty dolls, love the lashes, and the hair styles but the actual hair color choice and 3/4 outfits were meh. The extra outfits packs 2 of them were great, but the others, meh.

I guess I was bound to have a couple anyhow. I'm such a sucker for Basics dolls. I think I have all but six maybe that they did, and they are just Barbie Basics with lashes. I have a real thing for Barbies with great lashes. I really wish that they'd put just a little more effort into this collection. It's nice but it could have been so much better for $25-30 a pop. No way I'd have ever bought them for that, lashes or not. $10-15 yeah, but not for more. I have to body swap them all the time, the Basics. I wish they'd just put them on the Fashionista bodies and be done with it. That model body is hideous. Most people body swap them from what I have seen and they look so good swapped out...

The only thing with swapping is the average Barbie body is thicker than the model one, if you want to use the model's clothes, so a pivotal would be a better choice. The collector dolls are starting to use those. Otherwise any old body that matches the skin tone will do. I have a Top Model head on a 100 poses Fashionista.

I find most of the time unless it's a particularly stiff outfit the model clothes will fit the regular Fashionista body. I've actually got the one shopper dress on her even though she's on a Fashionista body now and it looks fine. I like the pivotal but so far I only have one, at least I think it's the pivotal, or at least a variant on the pivotal. My new DH Midge came on a body that looks a lot like one from the pics I have seen. I was very surprised to see that. I wish I could afford to get a bunch of those bodies actually. I like them a lot but at $16 and up a doll that's not going to happen anytime soon.

I'll usually buy a couple of Fashionistas when they're on sale or otherwise discounted a lot, usually when the new ones come out and there is a new Kayla (Raquelle) or Teresa or Summer I like, but otherwise I don't buy them as much anymore. I have all the faces in the collection and at $13 they're getting a little too expensive to buy them just for body swaps. Now and again they come out with a new makeup or hair style that I like and I get one but usually I'm getting them for the outfits and the bodies these days. I do have one or two model bodies that I've kept just for displaying the really difficult outfits and cool model shoes that just won't fit the regular Barbies but I really don't like them much. I don't like the side curve or how thin the waist is. They're really a bit freaky undressed. 9 times out of 10 if I find a model bodied doll I like I end up putting them on a Fashionista or a Liv body and the Fashionistas they just go on the older regular bodies I've got or into a box for storage.

I'm trying to weed out any non-essential old style bodies though. I don't like doll bodies that don't at least have bending knees and I really prefer them with bending arms, wrists. Sometimes it's unavoidable. I have an older head that needs an older body for a good color match but overall I tend to go for the more articulated bodies. They don't go all gummy legged like the ones with the old rubber legs used to. I actually gave a local artist a huge storage box of non-bendy type older Barbie bodies earlier this year.

Most of my best heads now have at least semi-articulated bodies now, The rest of my heads, the 2nd tier Barbies they are in bags in storage waiting on them. I do have some Bratzbies, Fashion Fever, and 80's girls on some old style bodies, but not so many now. I have my SIL and the kids routinely scouring the thrifts and the flea market for cheap articulated bodies. Eventually only the Bratzbies, very old, oddly colored dolls, and the couple of models that I need to wear certain stuff will be on the rubber leg bodies. Who knows? I might even get around to putting the Bratzbies and My Scene dolls on Fashionista type bodies someday. Doubt it, it's not a priority, but maybe.

I can't really afford to do them all. I have at least 250 Barbies in my collection and it's always growing, lol, but my upscale model muse dolls, anything that's nicer like the collector's dolls, the Fashion Fever ones with the really great heads, I do want to articulate. It's been an ongoing thing for a long, long time now. I started doing it when they first started doing articulated arms bodies with the FF girls. That's been at least 6-7 years now so it's not like I did 100 plus Barbies all at once. But at this point I'd say at least 3/4 of the regular Barbies are on them unless it's just not possible because of color matching issues. My MS girls are on old style articulated bodies sans the ankles and wrists. Only the Bratzbies and the odd skin tone Barbies are not articulated at all. Most of the rest have the non-rubbery bodies with bending knees at the very least.

I had to put my Clueless girls on 100 poses bods even though they don't match, the TnT bods were driving me nuts. The AA girl ended up on an elbows and wrists click knee Disney Tiana to match, Cher and Amber could head that way if I get some lighter bods. Because of my website I have a couple of TnTs and face mold examples hanging around, otherwise I'd be more actively swapping out and thinning out for just those who mean something. I lucked out with my pivotals, they were on sale, two head molds I didn't have, and matched the Stardolls they swapped with.

If they just put the gymnast/ballerina ball waist with 100 poses limbs they'd have a great doll.