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November 30, 2006
Everybody: Here is the key to Life
Are you ready? Yes, this is the one true key that will unlock the joys of life for you. And you don't have to buy anything.
Just be nice.
Yes, that's right. Stop being mean, right now. Stop making fun of people who are less fortunate than you. Stop taking advantage of other people.
Whatever religion you choose to believe in, there is probably a directive such as "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." or "An it harm none, do as thou wilt." Don't forget about the harming none part of that last quotation. That's the difficult part.
I take this break from my regularly-scheduled blogging updates on my new toys just to remind you of this. This is important.
I just saw part of a video off of Youtube that shows American troops in Iraq behaving very uncharitably towards Iraqi children. (Specifically, the soldiers were taunting the children with a bottle of water, filming the children running behind a military vehicle in hopes that the soldiers would give them the water.)
Just stop doing things like that, people. Just stop. Not only is whatever god you believe in watching you, but now with the internet and video cameras, so is Santa and everybody else on the planet. And if you're not nice, people will not like you and Santa won't bring you any more toys.
Okay, my rant is now over and I can go back to playing nicely with my toys.
(Stay tuned for more rants as the mood overtakes me.)
Posted by Jessica at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2006
Interior of the Doll's House
Philippa, Clive and their children (Patricia, Priscilla and Janie) will love living in this house!
It has some furniture, but I look forward to adding in some tiny accessories, such as grocery items, china and glassware, cleaning supplies, etc. and I think they need a sofa, too.
I also need a stove/range so that they can do some cooking in the pots and pans I bought while I was in Williamsburg.
Miniatures are so much fun!
Posted by Jessica at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2006
New Dollhouse for my Julip Family
Brian picked it up last week on his way back from his hunting trip. It was on eBay and I was the only bidder.
Brian also brought back a deer (in the form of wrapped meat packages) but the dollhouse is much more fun! It has a lot of furniture and I'll have a fun time adding accessories to it. It still needs a front door, but is otherwise in good shape and ready for me to play with!
Posted by Jessica at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2006
Weird Old Rubber Horse
This weird, old rubber horse is coming to live in my stable. I have no idea what company produced this horse.
According to the seller, it is about 6 inches long and about 5 inches tall. It should fit in with my Julips fairly well. It cost a whopping 99 cents. I was able to afford this extravagent purchase as I missed out on a spiffy vintage Julip that I was bidding on. However, I know that the Julip went to a good home!
Posted by Jessica at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2006
Sindy's boyfriend needs the fashion police!
He's a cute guy, but maybe he should be shopping at Old Navy or the Gap!
Sindy needed a boyfriend, and I found this guy on eBay. I was originally going to pick out a "Paul" doll of the same era as the Sindy, but Mr. "Popstar Paul" looked a bit too much like Johnny Depp for me to pass him by! (I'll just have to do a bit of clothes shopping for him, I guess.)
I guess you can tell by my entries in my blog that life is going pretty well. I have nothing much to complain about (other than lack of sleep sometimes.) I have plenty of food, great friends, a nifty horsie, a cuddly Boo and Brian, too. I feel very blessed!
Last night, Boo woke up around 3 a.m., and I had to bring him into our bed for the rest of the night. He had a stuffy nose, and it was difficult for him to breathe. Fortunately, Doodah bought us a brand-new humidifier, and we're going to use it tonight in Boo's bedroom and see if it helps.
In other news, last weekend my friend Cheryl and I and her daughter went to the Novi Horse Expo. We saw the most amazing demonstration there. A very large woman and her Oldenburg gelding did a fantastic dressage exhibition. The horse even took a bow at the end. It was very impressive! The same horse and rider are putting on a show on December 10, I am hoping to get tickets.
I saw my friends Ryan and Danielle last week! We met at the Outback Steakhouse, a very popular local restaurant. Yummy! Thanks for the company and the tasty birthday dinner!
Don and Amy took us out to the Chinese Buffet the Friday before last. Wow, that place is incredible. (We had attempted to visit a couple of more local restaurants, including Outback, but the wait was enormous so we made the longer drive to the Chinese Buffet. Thanks, guys!
Doodah and Papa bought Brian and I the incredible buffet dinner down in Virginia while we were on vacation. That was awesome, too!
Wow, I'm rambling and I must be hungry because I keep talking about food!
Posted by Jessica at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2006
New Doll Rider for Thunderbolt
My Marx Thunderbolt model never actually had a rider. He's very lonely, and Sindy should cheer him up.
Some of my friends from Julip-land were having a conversation about 1/6 scale model horses and accessories. The topic of Sindy dolls was brought up by Manda and I remembered that she had sent me a photo a few years ago of one of her Sindy dolls riding a Marx Thunderbolt. I think Manda's horse is palomino, but it's the same mould as my horse. (Mine is black.)
Sindy is much cuter than Barbie, and Barbie won't really ride a model horse very well, anyway. But I went off to eBay in search of Sindy.
I was very happy to find that Sindy is very plentiful and inexpensive. Apparently, we in the United States were Sindy-deprived, but in England she was incredibly popular in the 60's and 70's(according to one museum website article, she was much more popular than Barbie in the U.K.)
Eventually, the company that made her went out of business, but the moulds were bought by the Hasbro company. I'm not sure if any are being made now or not (more internet searching is ahead for me!)
I'm very glad that I was able to find a nice, inexpensive doll for my Thunderbolt.
(As a side note, I have been trying to find an inexpensive Pippa doll for years. Pippa was an English Dawn-sized doll that was made in the 70's. I love my Dawn dolls, and wanted to have one Pippa, too. I haven't had any luck finding any so far. There are lots of them on eBay, but always much more expensive than I can pay.)
Pippa was very lucky-she had her own riding outfit and horse! Dawn and friends never went riding at all, in fact, they can't even sit on a model horse because of the way their legs are made. Poor Dawn!
Posted by Jessica at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
November 02, 2006
A Visit to Colonial Times
We recently returned from our vacation in Virginia, visiting the colonial Jamestown Settlement and Williamsburg as well as Yorktown and the nearby battlefield.
We had a very long drive to Williamsburg, it took us two days to get there. We stopped on the way to visit scenic spots in West Virginia (New River Gorge) and spent the night in Charleston. We spent our first evening looking at the beautiful sparkling lights of the city from the balcony of our hotel room. We also walked around the local mall and ate dinner at a locally-known restaurant (the Fifth Quarter.) Yummy steaks!
The next day, we arrived at Williamsburg and found ourselves in a nice, one-bedroom apartment with a washer and dryer and a kitchenette. It was very relaxing.
Our first day, we just wandered around looking at stuff. We found a gigantic Yankee Candle Company store that was incredibly impressive. The interior of the store was set up to look like an open-air street scene, and smaller shops opened off from the "main street." It even had a glockenspiel kind of a thing that opened up and had animatronic animals that came out and sang songs. Very strange, but entertaining in a weird way!
We found the local game store, and Brian and I went in to look around. Brian bought a new commander for one of his armies. There was a sign behind the counter that said that people would be required to sing "I'm a Little Teapot" to retrieve any items left on the battlefield or around the store by customers. I asked the guy if anyone ever had to sing it, and he said, "Yes, indeed!"
By Tuesday, we decided to go to the Yorktown sites, and spent the day visiting the battlefield visitor's center. They had several cannons from the British forces on display. A small Revolutionary War colonial military encampment was set up, with re-enactors. We spent quite awhile talking to one fellow, who was portraying a doctor's aide. He was explaining the limits of medical knowledge in the late 1700's. (Basically, if you ever get a time machine and go back to 1780, don't under any circumstances become ill, and if you do, do NOT seek medical care from a colonial doctor!)
We spent some time that evening going to a movie. Since Boo was staying with Doodah and Papa, we were able to spend an evening watching "The Prestige." This turned out to be an incredibly well-made movie, disturbing in some ways, but the acting was superb, the plot was interesting and the plot twists very strange. Plus, I got to eat a huge tub of popcorn. Yummy! I do recommend this movie. We were still discussing it the next day.
Wednesday was devoted to driving to North Carolina for an NHL hockey game. The Carolina hurricanes were playing...uh, I forget! Anyway, to arrive at the hockey game required several hours worth of driving. The hockey game was very exciting and was won by the Hurricanes in a sudden-death overtime, 5 to 4.
After the hockey game, we ended up driving for hours to get back to Williamsburg. Arrived about 1:30 a.m. or so. Didn't get to sleep until 2 a.m.
The next day, we went to Jamestown Settlement. This was the recreated fort that the colonists originally built in 1607. (The original site has been located, a few miles away, and an archaeological dig is underway. There is nothing actually left of the original site, at least, not aboveground!)
Jamestown Settlement was the best fun we had at an historic site in Virginia. We went through the brand new museum gallery (not even officially open, yet) and then received a guided tour through the Native American Village, the fort, the work areas, and finally, the harbor and the ships. They have four ships, which are recreations of the ones used to bring the colonists. We saw three of them (the fourth was in England at the time we were at Jamestown.) We got to go all through the ships. It was very enjoyable!
The reinactors were extremely knowledgeable, and entertaining. All of them brought humor to their tales. The guy down by the ships was pretty funny, even though he was recounting tales of immense hardships. He described the odds of surviving a year at the Jamestown colony : two-thirds of the people who arrived died within a year. Not good odds! Brian wondered if anyone who arrived ever gave up and went back home to England. The reinactor said, "Sure, they'd take you back to England, if you paid them seven years' labor worth of gold."
Ouch!
On Friday, we went to Williamsburg and wandered around, even though it was rainy. There were school groups there, so many of the areas were crowded, but we enjoyed the visit just the same.
That night, we went to a huge buffet and dinner theater. The cheesy performance ("Get a Clue!")was amusing, and we met a nice older couple from the San Antonio area. Their names were Danny and Anita.
That was my birthday dinner, and it was delicious! I had prime rib, fried chicken, fried clams (the only seafood I will eat) and delicious cornbread and lots of tasty desserts. Yum!
The following day, we had to depart. Once again, it took us a couple of days, so we had to spend one night in Lexington, Kentucky (home of Breyerfest.) We stayed at my favorite hotel, then waved at the Horse Park on the way as we drove towards home (didn't have time to stop, but I've been there about a gazillion times anyway.)
We did stop at some antique malls on the way home. I was very shocked by the prices on stuff in these malls. They are much higher-priced than our local antique malls. I was hoping to find some stuff to bring home with me for my own booth, but it didn't happen. I did find two Breyer horses, one which I intend to keep (a chalky dapple PAM) and one to sell in the booth (Midnight Sun.)
A fun and educational trip. I hope we go back someday.
I would like to thank Doodah and Papa for the time-share trade to get us a nice place to stay!
Posted by Jessica at 03:28 PM | Comments (0)