Va. Fashion Doll Club March Meeting- Mystical Ireland theme

Yesterday was my Va. Fashion doll club meeting and the theme instead of Barbie's birthday was Mystical Ireland to honor St. Patrick's day. It was something different. Usually the club has a tea or goes to a restuarant and celebrates Barbie's birthday. This year we decided to do something different with a diorama theme/meme. You could pick Irish history, music, dance, literature, foods, legends, and make that your theme with your dolls and create a diorama/vignette with it. Well all of us had alot of fun even though it stretched us. 

Mine was Irish foods with a Full Irish breakfast, Farl, soda bread, corn beef sandwiches.  It was difficult to do since I had to google alot of pics of the different types of foods and how and Irish 'croft' would look.

Our hostess, Scarlett, did Gulliver's travels, (literature) since the author was Irish. She used fabric and paper and some aquarium items to achieve the landscaping affects. The Lilliputians are actually HO figures from Hobby Lobby. The outfit on Silkstone Ken is from a Ben Franklin action figure.

Jodi did Irish in America...and she did alot of work on their outfits and the history behind the Irish coming to America and how they came to America for a better life. The luggage is from the Oz doll and is Allen's outfit. The Barbie is Prairie Barbie and she got another matching outfit and sewed /altered it for Skipper. Todd's outfit was dyed to match. 

Karon chose fairies or legends and used two of her dolls. One is supposedto be a dark fairy and her wings are made out of some stiff gauze stiffened with glue and glitter, and the other (orange) is supposed to represent the sun and light. (or good) The arrangement is a wallhanging in her home and she put in a box and painted the box for this display. The dolls are just twisty tied to the arrangement like fairies hiding in the flowers. Everyone loved this idea of how they could display their dolls in a new way. 

Nita chose Irish folklore/music and the song Molly Malone which as it happens is a statue that was just errected in 1988 and also is a song that is sung in bars and taverns. Nita googled it and if you go to Ireland nearly everyone has their picture taken at this statue. She made the cart out of cardboard with a dowel for the axel and painted it and she had the song in her music book. A friend had visited Ireland and had their picture taken by the statue. 

Debbie also did mystical creatures and I cannot remember the Irish name for these but these were the Irish beings (the Irish word escapes me right now) but they were considered the first kings and queens of Ireland. She replicated the background from a Barbie box and made the dress and found the doll at a doll show.

Marina's was a display on Irish fashion with dolls dressed in dresses or Irish dress.

This was Janice's Riverdance display and it was so lovely. I really liked how she used the Kelly's and the Cheerleader Ken. I never purchased this Irish Barbie and now I wish I had. Sometimes at Doll meetings I see the ways the ladies use dolls I pass on and I really regret not buying the dolls. It makes you see Dolls of the World in a different light. 

Janice had also did a history vignette too on the plantation society of Ireland when the English tried to convert the Irish and gave their lands to the Scots to do away with Catholicism. Many of the Irish were in effect to be 'bred' out or converted to Protestants. It was a complicated society and harsh since the Irish were quite poor. 

Barbara brought her Legends of Ireland Barbie which is quite lovely and she said she purchased in 2008 . This is a very hard to find item right now. 

My vignette won 1st and Nita's Molly Malone won 2nd, it was a great meeting. 

Some pictures of the refreshment table- not all of the goodies were yet on it and the dolls used to decorate it. 

and the dolls that Janice and Debbie brought to decorate the living room-

The very last one was not used to decorate but was a special Show and Tell of one of our members who had a birthday in February! Yes that is a NO. #1 Barbie! and her husband purchased it for her as her birthday gift! Our club president helped her husband find it for her at a good price and she brought it to the meeting for everyone to see it. Janice our vice president did a little touch up on her. She has her original box. I snapped a picture as I held her. What a wonderful gift. 
I have decided as I turn the big 5-0 I might look for the doll that meant alot to me as a kid- Quick Curl Miss America and the Barbie fold up Country House. I am already watching one on Ebay. Isn't funny how we go back to those toys that made us happy as a child? I sit back and think of how many times I played with Sweet Sixteen Barbie and Quick Curl Miss America and cannot count the happy memories of playtime. 
Hope you enjoyed the pictures of our St. Patrick's day meeting! 

Shopping therapy....more dolls!

I believe in my heart of hearts that doll collectors are frustrated fashion divas. I know when I was younger and in better shape I could not go by a pair of shoes without bringing them home...neither could my mother! Victoria's secret and Lerner's (I think it is now called Lerner's New York or something else now) used to be my home away from home as a teenager. I couldn't afford the trendy Casual Corner. Remember this was the 80's before Abercrombie & Bitch, snicker. ) 
Anyways, today I had some errands to run and on that side of town there is a Toys R Us..diorama heaven. I decided to take one of my Momoko dolls for some shopping therapy as I have been feeling squirrely with the snow and also family drama lately. Cookie agreed. 

I had been meaning to treat myself to more MiWorld little packs as well as one of the new Disney dolls Lady Tremaine. Well I picked her up. 

I wanted two, but there was only one anyway. Tons of the Fairy Godmother and Cinderalla. I want them as well. I want two of this one because I want to rebody one on an FR body, she looks so good rebodied. She also looks stunning as is, her gown could pass for a modern ball gown or a sort of 1920's Downtown Abbey type of gown as well. I adore Cate Blanchette. She will look so good with my Agnes. 
Other goodies. The Poppies were upset that Cookie got to go shopping. She also got a tshirt at Walmart...

They are also selling little pizzas like the ones Ken and Johnny are checking out. The girls were upset Cookie got a tshirt and all they got was nailpolish and no clothes. Greedy Poppies.....The guys were pleased they got food. 
Onto the shopping experience in Toys R US. They are bombarding us in the toy aisle...

This is the Maleficent Aurora doll. I thought she was really lovely, but not lovely at 39.99. I couldn't tell if she was on sale, she probably was. They were having sales throughout the store. Barbie stuff was on sale at 25% off. 

There seems to be a variety of items in the pink aisle this year. 

a horse and carriage for instance. This once was tempting until I saw the horse with the pink mane.

a cute playhouse for Chelsea and friends it even comes with chelsea sized furniture

this shower and sink has alot of diorama possibilities so we don't have to go and build one out of foamcore. Just spray paint off the hideous pink

My favorite at Walmart was Malibu Market! I saw this for the first time today. It was totally awesome. I loved the magazine rack. I hate the cart but I know where I can get a realistic shopping cart. I have so wanted to do a grocery store. They also had the bakery. 

Cinderally and the Fairy Godmother up close together.  I don't think you will run out of these two as it seems that Cate Blanchette is the one that they are running scarce on. There are another set of these by Disney and they are currently on sale 15% off at the Mattel website, the Cinderalla in the bridal gown and this Cinderalla are on sale but only this week. I passed because when you add shipping you are paying the same price. Just suck it up and pay the $40 with tax or wait for Walmart's clearance and hope you can grab one.

Toys R Us also had a sale on these. I had already broken my budget so didn't want to come home with more more dolls (Fabulously Floral is on her way as we speak) and though I want the evil queen and suspect she is in articulated evil glory, I will bypass, sob.) She even has an apple. And I have one of the classic snow whites. And yes I want to do a cool scene. More diorama regrets later...

It seems Barbie is getting a shopping mall to go with all the cool shopping furniture. Sigh...so I know diorama artists will be buying this and spray painting the pink horrors away for our Fashion Royalty and Poppy divas. I can picture this paired with our Rement display cases and the MY Scene items. Shopping diorama splendor. Only problem it is pretty pricey. Let's hope Toys R Us has a sale really soon because it takes up alot of shelf space.

When Barbie moved to Malibu near the mall you didn't think she moved down? Well she moved up and wow what a house. Not like that slum she had last year. Look at the square footage! Not like that rat hole over 50 years ago! No way! There isn't even room for the little girl in this picture. By the way, you can use part of her college fund to put a down payment on the mortgage for Barbie's Malibu dreamhouse. Precious won't mind foregoing that college education, lol....

These two looked new to me- Film Director who looks like she has the new 'flat feet and Entreprenuer. I liked both of their outfits, just not the dolls. No articulation. The accessories were cute though. 

I had alot of temptation to overcome with the Ever after dolls. I have never ever liked Monster High dolls. They look too weird, too skinny and just do not appeal to me as a collector. Ever After do look cute and like collector quality. They are very well packaged and thoughtfully executed for playline. I love the spin on fairytales as I love the how they have done this. This line gets more and more tempting each time I go down these aisles. Especially the Mad Hatter series...
Walmart also had some new stuff out. 

Get a load of these little pirate Disney fairies? Are they a boatload of cute or what? I used to have tiny dolls like this I carried around as a kid and played with in my dollhouse. I thought this could be a purse fairy. Ok she is just cute. 

You can't see her clearly but click on the pic to enlarge it- the Kira is adorable. She has a very sweet face. Chelsea is just well, Chelsea but this Kira has something what Kelly used to look like. If I didn't have to buy food today I would have purchased a Kira. Yeah, I had bought a doll today so I had to be good. Lady Tremaine went over the budget, lol.

I usually always check out the Disney stuff no matter where I go because their items always come in handy in some way in a diorama. I am still buying Disney Princess furniture props that I find on sale and spray painting the purple and pink. But here is a piece of Frozen horror I don't want you to miss-

UGH! What mom would buy this for their kid? I can't imagine waking up and wanting to brush the hair on that evil looking thing. Especially if I was the mom and had to wake up in the morning and see this thing without a cup of coffee! LOL...Maybe I'm just that kind of kid and remember the Barbie head that all the little girls had on the block. She was a lot prettier than this thing from frozen snow land. Is it just me or am I the only one ready to let Frozen go?  About the only prop in the Frozen section I have ever seen worth salvaging is the reindeer in the set with Elsa and Anna and I wasn't willing to pay the $35 they were asking, I think it came with a sleigh and Anna and the reindeer. 
So lots of new stuff out there to watch out for. It has been so long since I was able to get to the stores with the new items they have out, I thought I would do a blog on what's out and about and with a funny twist on it. Lisa