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!

Vintage Toy Pots Pans and Utensil Set for 18" Dolls!

Hello again Doll Friends!

My last posting was about the awesome vintage kitchen I was blessed to get from my Mom. Well, in a providential turn of events (because what else could it be?) I found the perfect accessory toys to go with the kitchen not too long after I took the photos for the post about the kitchen. I went to one of my favorite thrift stores and looked around pretty well and didn't find much that day other than a 'boy' doll for 99c. (He will get his own blog post later!) So as I am paying, the girl behind the counter, started talking to me about the doll I was buying, who was I buying it for and what not. Well, she asked, so I started telling her about my blog and how I love dolls and take photos of them etc. Well, sometimes you just have to talk to the right people! Because she reaches behind her on a low shelf in the display case items (the stuff they keep behind so it doesn't get messed up or stolen) and pulls out a huge box of toy kitchen pots and pans and accessories. I almost passed out. I looked at price and my first instinct was "too rich for my blood" cos I don't normally spend a ton on my dolly hobby. The whole point of my dolly hobby is to teach myself and then maybe you how to make neat stuff on the cheap... So when I saw the $24.99 price tag I sighed and said I would probably have to pass on whole box but could I buy the silverware. (Cos I really wanted them!!) When she says "I'll let you have the box for $19.99." And I said "Sold!" Because I am not a fool and I know an amazing steal when I see it. I mean, the $24.99 was a steal too but... I was so blown away when I got the box home and started to dig out all the goodies!! The following are photos of what I got. 

Look at the cool gadgets!! The meat grinder handle actually works and so do the egg beaters!!

My favorite part! I love love love them!! So cute!!

The percolator actually has 'guts' in it. So sweet!

I love the bread box too!! And the matching cookie tin and Flour Sugar Coffee containers and the colander and and and... Oh I love it all.

Look! The bread box even opens!! It has a little shelf!!

Close up of the pans. Love the cookie sheets and the shaped pan with the bird on it and the muffin tins and the frying pans and and and... See? Can't choose a favorite!

All packed away in my little doll hutch.

Here are some photos of the dishes incorporated into the kitchen in a more realistic looking room.

Since I mentioned the new doll...

 I have to show you a photo of the boy doll I found. He was only 99c!! I've wanted a 'brother' doll and was so excited! More on him later!

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time! Same bat time, same bat channel!

The 98c American Girl Doll 'Full Length Mirror' Upcycle Project

Greetings and Salutations!

As you might've read in my prior post, I've allowed myself to begin to look around with 'doll eyes' when I am out thrifting. I live pretty close by to several fantastic thrift stores and so I stop into one a couple times a week usually when I am out on errands. I don't eat fast food and so I reward myself with the amount it would cost to eat a meal deal at drive through, eat PB&J and am healthier for it. Ha! Justification much? Anyway, on with the story... The other day I am in the thrift shop and I don't know if you remember but in the late 80s and early 90s every house had these little wall candle holders with the mirror. I remember, I and them too! So now at thrift stores they are a dime a dozen! Or, well, usually they are about a $1 to $2 each but still, cheap. So I saw them sitting there and I thought "Can I use them for the dolls?" And immediately this little project came to mind. Wasn't sure exactly how I was going to get it to work but I plunked down my 98c (plus tax) on the counter, grabbed my mirror and headed for home and the bottle of wood glue.

First think I did was take the candle holder part off. It appears they stained it after they screwed together when they made it so its got a bit of an ugly but on front. Hmmm... What to do? As you may have read in prior posts, I have been a crafter a long time and have bits and bobs from all manner of craft at my little creation corner! So I dug in my stash of stuff and got out the wood shapes. Found the these cute little ladies in the bag and thought they were perfect! 

Next I had to figure out how to get it to stand up. I knew I wanted to use the candle part of the original item as part of stand at least and my first idea was to turn candle holder upside down and Velcro it on in a bit of a lower case h shape. But it was wibbly. So I scrapped that idea and moved the Velcro down on the mirror to the very bottom then the candle holder bit was a great stand!

When the glue dried I could still see the damaged wood where the candle had been hooked on. I puzzled what to do because now the ladies were stuck on there too. So I dug through my embellishments in my scrapbook supplies and found these two embellishments from some set or other? Use what you find! It's all part of the fun, coming up with your own design. They sell all manner of wood shapes and you could paint them too but I just love the natural wood look. (Also I am too lazy to paint) 

So the back was ugly because they wrote the prices on in China marker which is cool on plates but almost impossible to get off cardboard. What to do? I used a mailing label (blank) larger than the written prices and covered them up. Then I used some large butterfly stickers to embellish the back of mirror. 

The candle holder part comes off really easily. That one screw is all I had to undo.

I try to design all my doll stuff so it's as easy to pack away as possible because you have to store it too! So I am showing how it folds down flat with the 'leg' stored in the mirror when not being played with.

Trying it out with the dolls! It's a tiny bit short but I know that a lot of 'full length' mirrors in the non doll world are not really tall either but they work just fine. So... For 98c (plus tax!) I got a little bedroom assesory for the dolls! 

Here it is next to bed. (which I made from a shoe rack, see prior post) 

Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!