Frann Doll Visits Build-A-Bear At Oakview Mall

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

For a while now I've wanted to do some doll photos at the mall... I finally realized it wasn't likely to happen unless I just scheduled it in instead of thinking it was just going to happen by some magic or something. So the other day, I made plans to go by the mall on my way home from work. I was happy that when the planned day arrived, it was sunny and pretty outside so there'd be good light even. Hip-hip-hooray!

So here is Frann Doll ready to get out of the Jeep and go into the pretty Oakview Mall. If you read my last post you may notice she is wearing same outfit here that she did in that posting. I pulled out a change of clothes for her to bring with me that morning before I left for work but apparently forgot to put them in my bag. Oy! So Franny had to wear the same outfit twice. Rats. Oh well... She didn't seem to mind all that much. She was just excited to see the mall and get a bite to eat!

Frann went to the food court and looked around... She decided that Burger King was the best place to have lunch. 

Frann got a burger and fries from Burger King. Then she noticed the Smoothie Shoppe and decided to get one of those instead of a regular soda from BK. YummO!

Frann took her time eating lunch... She loves 'people watching' and the mall is a great place for that! So many different people all going about their shopping. Real people are so much more interesting that TV, right? 

French Fries from BK are so delish!! 

What a nice place for lunch.

When she was done eating, it was time to go shopping...

First she needed to find a kiosk with a map so she could find the store she wanted to go to in this huge labyrinth of a mall! 

Such a pretty place and what great light coming in the enormous sun light!

Before she found a kiosk, Frann happened upon an art display! What great luck! She stood and admired the beautiful original art for a few minutes before going on.

"I really like this blue etching piece with the white frame"

Did I mention the mall is huge? After walking a while and realizing she'd taken a wrong turn and gone down the wrong hallway, Frann decided to take a moment to rest on a bench in front of Sears.

Finally, Frann found the shoppe she had come to the mall for! Build-A-Bear Workshop!! 

As I've mentioned in prior postings  about them, Build-A-Bear clothes are some of the few you can walk into a store and have a huge selection of clothes that fit 18inch dolls. Mind you, only the t-shirts work just as they come and those have to be 'large oversized t-shirts' but it's still fun to be able to go in and pick out a t-shirt or two right off the rack out of the huge selection they carry. As I mentioned in the prior posts, with just a small alteration here or there the clothes can fit just right but not everyone likes to sew. 

Frann was amazed by the selection.... She only took photos by a few of the 'walls of clothes' but there was so many cute things!!

Just about every motif you can imagine or super hero you admire or sports team you are a fan of had a t-shirt or other clothes item to represent it. How to choose just a couple?!

When Frann saw the Star Wars clothes she knew she'd have to come back another time to buy a gift for Vito Doll because he absolutely loves Star Wars and has done since he was knee-high-to-a-grasshopper. Yes... Christmas shopping must happen here. 

Naturally there was a huge display of Disney Princess themed clothes... They seemed to think of everything! Frann picked out two tshirts after much thought as to which two she liked best.

On her way out of the mall, she decided to stop and 'people watch' again... It might be a while before she makes it back and so she wanted to squeeze every drop of enjoyment out of it while she was there!

All too soon it was time to go home for dinner..! Here she is waving goodbye to Oakview! 

As we were leaving the mall, Frann noticed the Applebee's... She said "I have heard of that place, I will have to visit there sometime too..." Sounds reasonable to me! 

As we headed out we noticed that we'd need to gas up the car... So we filled up the gas tank and headed home! 

What a fun day at the mall!!
Hope this finds you having a fantastic day too!
Better run!
Till next time.
XXOO
Heather

Months And Months Of Thrift Finds For The Doll House!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

So... As I've indicated with my last several posts, 2019 has been a rough year... The last six months especially. I've been doing my best at treading the waters of the storms that keep rocking my ocean, if you will, but with only marginal success more often than not. My poor little doll blog has suffered dreadfully from it. I am slowly beginning to see things turn and can see a light at the end of a very long dark tunnel though and am hopeful that 2020 will be much much better. To be honest, I've been sunk into a depression, really, for months and months. It's only as I start to come out of the fog of it that I can realize exactly how dense the fog had become. Yikes. But it's nice to be coming out of it and slowly becoming myself again. 

During my dark months of depression, one thing I that brought a small measure of light was to stop into thrift stores and hunt for doll sized treasures. I'd buy them, bring them home, and add them to the pile of things that I would get posted 'someday'. It was honestly telling that I had hope enough to buy them, like deep in my soul somewhere I knew it would be temporary even if I couldn't feel it at the time. 

So... I finally pulled out the rather alarming amount of bags I'd accumulated in my thrift-purchases-to-show-my-sweet-doll-friend's-pile the day after Christmas. It was fun to dig into all of it, like a second Christmas really... So, I might have inadvertently included something here that I've shown you before....? I think this is all stuff you haven't seen but just in case I am wrong, sorry for the repetition. 

I love love love small books! I have so many! But I can't resist them when I see them anyway. I love books in 'real life' size too so how can my dollies not have a proper library?! All the little Christmas books you see here were 25cents each this summer at a garage sale. I love love love the Nancy Drew one!

I have several of these small tea sets... They are actually the right size for the dolls dolls. I need to pull them all out and see what all I have in total because several of the sets have a broken item or two. One thing at a time. 

So much stuff!

These are all ceramic and doll sized... I plan to put them in a doll room on a shelf as a 'collection' of one of the dolls. Aren't they cute?! For only 50cents, how could I not? 

These little quilt 'wall hangings' will make fabulous quilts for the doll house. I love quilts!

All these shoes for only $1.00!! I love my little towns thrift store!

Poor baby on the right is pretty much done-for... Not sure if I'll even try and do anything with the poor dear... I might just exchange the head with the one on the left... Especially if the 50c written on the forehead won't come off. Brown eyed Circo babies are more rare than the blue eyed ones and so... 

A whole bunch of plates... I bought them because they were priced as sets and so cheap. Sometimes they'll price by the 'eaches' and I generally leave those type at the thrift shop. 

These clock ones would make fabulous ones for a New Years Eve party at the Doll House. I'll have to see if I can pull of a small one so I can use them. 

Sushi Plates!! How could I not when I have doll sized sushi? I also have the My Life As Doll Sushi set but perhaps I didn't make a post about it? Golly... So many balls dropped over the last year. Yikes. 

These square plates are neat, eh?

Couldn't turn down that Build-A-Bear Christmas shirt... They are not a perfect fit for the dolls but the shirts work pretty well as is and other can be altered. 

This made my day the day I found it... It was one of the last things I found at that store and, after finding it, you can bet I went back thru the entire store to make sure I hadn't missed any others!

Here is what was inside!

I've researched and I think that the outfit is actually a Bitty Baby one but the shoes and headband are for the 18inch dolls and the clothes will work for them too. I'll have to take a photo of a dolly in the outfit for you. I love the shoes!

The charm was even in it! Still sealed shut!

I've been on a bit of a doll sized bear spree apparently. So many people seem to be dumping their entire Boyd Bear collections and their Ty Bears too. When I find them for a dollar or less (or sometimes a bit more if I really like the Boyd Bear) I can't help but buy them. I love Teddy Bears and so should Heather Doll, right? Haha! If you look close though you'll see I also found an American Girl Doll Bitty Baby Bear too! Score! I think he was only 10cents!

This Boyds Bear Mohair Bear is probably my favorite of all of them! It's like the old school bears back in the olden days. He's not 'soft, but rather has a sort of hard body and I love him! 

And this mini Boyds is pretty fantastic too! I'm sure if when I get my store open, I'll be selling bears for the dolls there too(and in the Etsy Shoppe that will be part of my business...) so I'll keep buying them when I see them! 

This cute little table was $3.00! The little sculptures were too cute to pass up. I think they'll make great decor when I have asian themed parties for the dolls!

Well, I'm out of time. If you have questions about any of the stuff I posted here, please do ask, I am happy to share! I just sometimes forget to mention details or don't have as much time as I'd like but I don't ever want to leave you with questions either! 

XXOO
Heather