More Thrifted Finds for the Doll House! Vintage Play Food and a Kitchen Sink!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

As you may have figured out by now, I am a bit of a Thrift Store and Garage Sale enthusiast! I have regular errands that take me by my favorite thrift stores every week and I make it a point to stop in and check for treasures while I am in the area. That is the trick to finding gems at Thrift Stores is to go often! Oftentimes you will only find one or two little things but then there are days like mine recently. 

Here is J.J. modeling for scale the items I got thrifting! The little play food is absolutely perfect! I love love love it!! It's scaled perfectly and there are six of all the 'servings' of everything!

I'd never seen any play food like it before! So cute and perfect for the doll house!

Then, I also got this wood shelf for a couple dollars. I am so glad little wood shelves like this were popular about a decade ago because they are making some mighty fine doll furniture for doll enthusiasts now!

I've mentioned I stop into specific Thrift Stores every week. Well, on Thursdays, I get to go by one of my all time favorites! They have a great selection and their prices are always pretty great too. I've made friends with a fabulous clerk there, her name is Jenny. She and I chat up when I go in and she knows I love dolls and all things doll related and that I write a doll blog. So... She keeps her eyes open for me for doll sized items. She isn't allowed to hold anything but she always points out things that she's seen if she happens to know they are still there. She is the one who pointed out the play food! I would've missed it completely if she hadn't known about it and pointed it out because it was in the display case and I didn't think to look there this day! I was so stoked, I asked if she'd take a photo with me! Here we are:

So, being intrigued about the play food, I decided to research it. On eBay! I am telling you, you can find anything in the universe on eBay if you only know what you're looking for. I put 'Vintage Play Food' into the search engine and up popped this and several others. I stole the photo below to show you what the food looked like originally, at least some of it. It looks like it came in the plastic as a big 'sheet' and you popped the little food items out of the sheet. It's highway robbery what they are asking for them on eBay but that's the nature of vintage and rare items on there I guess. 

So, naturally, I brought the food home and had to throw a dinner party!

Steak, green peas, corn on the cob and a dinner roll! What a feast!

Rose, being the oldest doll in the Doll House, supervised the preparations!

So what did I do with the little wooden shelf, you ask? I made it into a kitchen sink! I think it's perfect with it's little hooks to hold pans and shelves to hold kitchen and pantry items. 

I had the little galvanized box that I'd gleaned from a thrift store a while ago and was saving to find a good 'counter' for. I got the idea to make a 'drain' with a silver button from 'My Froggy Stuff' on YouTube. She is pure genius!

The dolls all agreed the food tasted as good as it looked! 

Here is a group photo of the dolls who were able to make it to the dinner party! 

They thought the meal was so fancy, they ought to pull out the stemware even!

That's it for now Doll Friends! Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

Merida and Lilian Join the Dollhouse!

We have two new members in the dollhouse this weekend!! Both were delightfully unexpected surprises! Meet Lilian and Merida!! As for how they came to live in the doll house...

The first, Lilian, was a gift from my husband for Valentine's Day.

Ok... I dropped hints...

Ok... I texted him from Target when I found her there.

See... She is kind of hard to find, even on the Internet and heavily marked up and so when I saw her just sitting there on the shelf, ready to buy with no shipping or inflated price, I couldn't help myself!! We are not usually the sort to do much for Valentine's Day, my husband and me. That is a whole different blog post but suffice to say we are happy without a lot of hoopla on Valentine's Day because we have a wedding anniversary we make a big deal out of every year. However, my husband usually does a little some thing nice for me... Some of my favorite $18/cheese or some chocolate maybe. So I texted him her photo, in the box and said "I want!!" Since I don't buy a whole lot of new stuff, he said "Go ahead, I'd love you to have her!" So in my cart she stayed! There was another one that was beautiful and I had to walk away from her... As fate would have it, another doll was waiting for me already... But back to Lilian. Here she is in a photo taken by my dear daughter:

Lilian is a HeartForHeart doll. They are dolls that come from many different countries around the world. Lilian is from Belarus and the box includes a little story book about her life there. I love her little details, down to her little earrings. I've wanted her a long time because of her name and another little girl I know named Lilian. So I am so happy to have found her. 

The other doll that come home was also totally unexpected! I went with my family to the Flea Market because that is one of our fun past times, seeing what kind of crazy stuff we can find. I wanted to look for play food because the stuff from AG is crazy expensive and it's hard time come by play food at a thrift store. So, naturally, the first vendor we visit is the kids and my favorite. She sell all toys and her prices are always reasonable. I found my play food in like two mins, a whole bag of them for $5, and the good kind too! Score! So I hovered around waiting for the kids when I look up and see her...  Merida. I haven't even seen the movie (I know the horrors! But I just haven't taken time) but I've heard about her character and my daughter loves her. She is such a pretty doll! So I ask how much she is. I mean, the kids are digging around finding what they want to spend their money on... Then she says "Oh, the princess's are on sale for half off today so she is $10." What?!? She's in great shape, her hair was in good condition, original dress. No shoes and a small stain on her cheek but we have two other Disney Princess and Me Dolls and know they are good quality and so I had to get her. 

Meet Merida:

The other dolls were so excited to have new members in the doll sorority and so they threw a pasta dinner party and slumber party to celebrate!!

Merida felt a bit out of place in her fancy ball gown and was going to change but the girls had a better idea! They all changed into party clothes of their own! 

Just give them a few minutes to change!

The following photos were taken by my dear daughter who is aspiring to write a blog of her own some day! You may see guest posts from her here about Monster High, My Little Pony and all manner of things happening in the world of a ten year old girl. So here is her photography, I think she did great!

I think they are settling in just fine. Already swapping stories and clothes! They'll be the best of friends in no time. 

Thanks for stopping by, see you next time!