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!

My Friend Mandy and Jenny meet American Girl Doll

In keeping with my recent vintage toy theme, I am going to post about my dolls from when I was a kid. I was born in 1972 and so when I was the right age for dolls (well, aren't all ages the right age, but I digress) I was lucky to get My Friend Mandy and then soon afterwards, My Friend Jenny dolls. I loved them! I played with them constantly! My mom liked them as well as I did and so I had nearly every outfit they made for them back then. Naturally, being me, I kept them. Doll friends, meet Mandy and Jenny!

Actually, in this photos it would be meet Jenny and Mandy! Jenny has brown hair and Mandy has blonde. Above, I have them standing next to an American Girl Doll (named Panda) and a Heart For Heart doll for size comparison. 

I was kind of appalled at how dirty they were when I pulled them out of storage! I'd previously let my daughter and many other kids play with them and guess I never looked too closely at them. So I washed them up, laundered their clothes and combed out their hair. The dresses they are wearing in photos are the ones they originally came in, tights shoes and all! All in pretty amazing shape considering they are all over thirty years old! Sadly, despite having owned nearly every ensemble made for the My Friend Dolls by Fisher Price in the 1970s and early 1980s, I now only own these original dresses and the clothes my Granny made me from patterns found in the boxes to the pre-made ensembles. Somewhere along the lines in my 20s, I discovered I could "get $10/outfit on eBay!" And I sold them all. Regret!!! Oh well, I kept the important bits, the ones made by Granny and the dolls themselves. Speaking of, my Granny kept the patterns and sent them all to me in my 20s as well! I may have to pull them out and try and sew some new clothes for my old friends! There was also a red haired My Friend made at time named Becky and a boy doll named Mikey who I really wanted at the time but I didn't get them. 

Here are a couple of photos to show the difference in body types between the My Friend dolls and American Girl and then Heart for Hearts.

Sorry these are sideways, I thought I'd edited them to be upright but if I don't post them now, I might not make it back! Sure you busy people understand! Ha! So I may edit photos and come back and change but just in case, here they are.

And another photo from the 'Welcome Party' the dolls threw! Mandy and Jenny are going to be permanent residents now and so you'll see them more in the future. 

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!