Old Friends And New Faces At Little Jo's Doll Party

Last month I posted about Mattie who was our newest member of our doll family at that time.  We had a grand tea party to announce our Mattie to the world and to celebrate her first birthday with us.  This month we have two more new doll friends that will be joining us for a while.  Both of our new girls are thrift store finds.  Little Sophie was found in her original box in her original clothes like she just came home from the store.  Alana did not look as well at first,  she had a pair of jeans as her only clothing and her hair was all tangled into a rubber band.  After she was bathed and dressed up in a lovely yellow Magic Attic outfit she looked beautiful! I really love the Journey Girl doll faces. 

If you see a box that looks like this,

Open it!  You may be surprised with a sweet little doll!

Our new play doll looks like the Alana doll that we already have.  Our Alana came with the Kara Rose doll that were offered as a set by The Toy's"R"Us eBay store.  The dolls were offered at $29.99 (for a limited time) for the set with free pick up at the store.  I bought a set for our granddaughters (Little Jo and Nora) birthdays and an extra set for later maybe for another birthday (like mine).  I am not 100% sure that she is Alana.  Maybe you know which doll she really is.  Here are the dolls.........First is the Thrift store Alana.

Then the TOY'S*R*US New Alana........ Somehow she looks a little younger, maybe a little sweeter in the face to me.

Now a picture of all three dolls........

Did you notice the chair that Kara Rose is sitting on?  I found it last week at the Volunteers of America Thrift Store down the street and around the corner from my house (less than five minutes away).

I find a lot of nice things there.  Instead throwing out all of the little miscellaneous things that are donated they sort the items and create grab bags.  I find lots of wonderful little items at affordable prices like the outfit that Leeza is wearing. Doesn't she look wonderful with her new hairstyle?

This pretty blue dress was in a grab bag that included the Chef's outfit that Becky is wearing,  a long white nightie with a smocked bodice and the red valentine PJ's.

 The shoes were a great buy on an eBay auction.

See Becky in the background - gee I think she looks spiffy!  For under five dollars (for all four outfits) the dolls have some rather nice duds to wear.  The seams are nicely finished, there are no tags, maybe homemade?

I had been looking at doll size musical instruments on eBay for a while - YIKES!!! - an arm and a leg prices!  When I saw this little vintage doll size Cello (violin) music box at a garage sale I snatched it up for a couple of dollars.

This cello is a bit rough, but that is ok.  It will be going to Zoe our freckle faced blond doll beauty.    Zoe has always reminded me of the girl that babysat my son and his cousins when they were little.   Gen was very young maybe twelve or thirteen when she started to watch my first grader for an hour after school.  She continued to watch him after school ( Gen would start dinner too,   gosh I loved her spaghetti) until he started junior high school.  We love her dearly and will always be thinking of her. Gen loved to play her cello.  She had been taking lessons on that cello from the time she was in grade school,  but when she left home to get married her mother would not let her take her beloved cello.   She cried for a long time.   In our doll family Zoe is being renamed to Gen and I promise that I will never take away her cello.  Love ya Gen!

This is Zoe (babysitting Sophie) - henceforth Zoe shall be know as "Gen our Cello Artist".

Make sure to visit JoAnn at Scene Through My Eyes for her Wednesday Wee Ones post  and Diane at Lavender Dreams  for her doll post.  Have fun and take time to play. Get out of the house and shop at a thrift store,  you will be amazed at the things you could find.

Sorry that the pictures were not properly cropped and the glare from the windows just keeps glaring because The Pic Monkey site did not allow me to use their programs today  (seems they get a little fussy when they go to take money out of your account (without warning you!) and it happens to be empty.... Whoops

Hugs,
Candy

PS:  Baby granddaughter Eugenia is up and crawling all over the place,  you can hear her sweet baby talk wherever she roams now.  You may even catch a glimpse of her red hair and baby blue eyes as she scoots past you in the halls.

Little Jo 's Garden Party to Welcome Mattie

Mattie is the newest member of our growing doll family.  She is a beautiful African American doll with beautiful dark skin tones, deep dark brown hair that curls into ringlets, and lovely brown eyes.  I found her  buried under a heap of Barbie dolls in the doll bin at the Volunteers of America a week or so ago. Her hair was snagged into a twisted elastic hair band with a puffy pink faux flower,  it is the last remnant of her original pink ballet costume.  She came home with us and hopped right into the sink to get wiped down with a bit of Dawn Dish Detergent,  a piece of magic eraser,  and light hair wash with wig shampoo.  We sat down with Mattie and went through our patterns and the material we had for summer dresses and Mattie picked  her favorite colors (yellow and red) and watched while her new dress was cut and sewn.  Little Jo insisted on a garden party for Mattie to celebrate her new birthday with her new family.

All of the girls are dressed in their Summer Tea Party dresses. Mattie, Jimmy, Maggie and Callie have new shoes too.  Lady Mary refused to wear her new shoes.  She said she wanted to feel the grass between her toes.  Let's hope she does not step on any bees!

 Everyone was enjoying the birthday cake and glasses of iced tea.  

Each of the girls wanted to model their pretty dresses.

 Rose is wearing the lovely dress made by Angela over at Dotsydoodle.  She has a wonderful post for the Fourth of July about Matilda A Girl For All Time.

Jimmie has a new outfit that he wanted everyone to see.

We do have a few more additions to our doll family that we wanted to celebrate today too.

We have a Bitty Twin baby doll that we found a couple of days ago at the VOA and a six inch American Girl Rebecca doll.

 

That's a nice looking birthday cake candle.  The cupcakes look pretty good too.

 Bitty Twin baby Boy and Rebecca.

Thank you for joining our Garden Party today!

One more picture....... Everyone wanted to help welcome Mattie.  Doesn't Mattie look like she is really enjoying having the "Beauty Shop" treatment.

Make sure to drop by JoAnn's blog and see what her dolls are up to at Wednesday Wee Ones at Scene Through My Eyes.  

Diane is having a slumber party for her dolls over at Lavender Dreams - Wednesday Wee Ones


Have a wonderful week!  Get out there and find a thrifty doll so you can play too. You can dress her up and have a garden party out in the Summer sun!

Hugs,
Candy

Little Jo's Doll Party - Callie and Jimmy help Kyla To Go Home

A couple of weeks ago I was wondering around at our local Volunteers of America Thrift Store and came across a very sad looking doll.  She was lying on a shelf beneath a pile of other outcast dolls.  She had no clothes or shoes on.  Her hair was scrunched up by a rubber band into a tangled mess on top of her hair,  but her face and body were clean and without marks of any kind.  She came home with us that day. Her name is Kyla.  Her tag said that she was a Journey Doll.  Callie and Jimmy Joe watched patiently as our new friend's hair was washed and all of the tangles were combed out a few strands at a time.  Grandma let her wear Meredith's birthday T-shirt and Megan's bright pink slacks. 

Jimmy Joe was immediately smitten by Kyla's lovely face and her long beautiful curling hair. He made sure that he was the first one of the dolls to welcome pretty Kyla and to introduce himself.

Callie was quick to point out to Jimmy Joe that they were barely able to take care of all the dolls that are already living at Grandma's house.

Callie found a USPS Priority *MAIL* box that was perfect to hold Lovely Kyla safely for a long journey to another family.  Jimmy helped Kyla up to the top of the box and Callie helped Kyla to lower herself into the box.

 Jimmy Joe held back a tear as the box was packed and closed securely for a long journey across the country to JoAnn's home in Washington State.  JoAnn has a lovely doll family that will be so happy to welcome Kyla. 

Jimmy Joe will always wonder about what might have been but he is so happy to know Kyla will be loved and cared for.

Make sure that you stop by JoAnn's to visit at her Wednesday Wee Ones Post at Scene Through My Eyes
 

Oh... and before I forget to tell you, Leza caused quite an uproar among the dolls by having her hair all cut off and putting on a new doll wig last week..  She went from a bleached blond.....

  To a pretty girl doll with a lovely new hair style.

She tried on another wig (red hair) but thought she looked to much like Julia Roberts in it.

I agree.

Have a wonderful week!!

Little Jo's New Friend's and Pretty New Dreeses

Life has been very busy lately. We celebrated Easter and Mother's Day then we traveled down to North Carolina to visit my son, DIL and Baby Eugenia on Monday after Mother's Day.  Dear Hubby's  oldest grandson celebrated his twentieth birthday, the youngest grandson made his First Holy Communion.  John's oldest granddaughter Kate graduated from high school. So many wonderful events in a short period of time. In the mean time New dolls wondered into my cart at the thrift stores,  Ebay had a tempting deal or two and several pretty new doll dresses were made.  First of all I want you to meet Rose.   Rose was found at the Volunteers of America Thrift Store a couple of months back It took several weeks of treatments with Benzoyl Peroxide to remove the many stains from her face, legs, and arms.  She has been bathed shampooed and dressed in a nice AG outfit that also came from the VOA.  She is posed here with our little Russian Heart for Heart doll Lillian.  Lillian is wearing her new white nightie. 

I dressed the new AG Doll  in a new dress that I had made for Little Jo's AG doll Grace and took her along with Nora's doll (also named Nora) in a new party outfit to play with at the celebration party after James's First Communion. The girls had fun playing with the dolls and Little Jo named our new rescue AG doll Rose.  Nora got to keep her doll and Jo got to keep the new party dress for Grace.

The other new faces are Magic Attic Dolls Heather in her gray and pink poodle outfit and Allison in her bridesmaid dress.  Both dolls were bought at a Goodwill Store in Cleveland.  Heather is pictured below.

Pictured below are Kara Rose (top/left) Leza (middle/top) and Alana.  Kara Rose and Alana were bought on Toys"R"Us Ebay sight as a Flash Sale on the limited edition gift set each with an extra outfit for $29.99 for both dolls.
Allison (bottom/left) my unnamed TOMY Doll (bottom/middle) and Karito Kid Doll Lara (I think she is the Lara doll) (bottom/right)

The Karito doll pictured below is named Zoe (also an eBay purchase at a very lucky price) she is wearing Callie's lovely dress made by dotsydoodle.

The following dresses were all made from the same Simplicity pattern # 1220 view D(with adjustments for the thinner dolls).  I think it is the same pattern that dotsydoodle used for the dress Zoe is wearing.  Lady Mary looks lovely in a pretty blue morning glory print on a yellow background trimmed with a yellow polka dot pattern and blue rick rack.

Maggie is wearing a teal and aqua floral print trimmed in a lite aqua print and teal rick rack. (The stuffed easy chair was found at the VOA last week.)

Callie and Kate are wearing a variation of the same dress trimmed out slightly differently.

Speaking of Kate I thought you might like to see the lovely granddaughter she is named after.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this post Kate graduated this past week.  Her very proud grandfather made sure to be there as she left for her prom to take this picture. (I think the camera was not set for an indoor picture).

 The picture of Kate with her grandfather came out great.

Have a wonderful week!
Candy

Jimmy's Haircut

This is Jimmy Joe,  you may have met him last week.

 

When Jimmy Joe first came into our doll family he looked like a heathen  (more or less like he had been raised by wolves) as you can see in the following picture.

So we sat Jimmy Joe into a hair salon chair and started to work on improving his appearance.

Soon his hair was shorn,  but he still needed a bit more grooming. 

I had noticed his eyelashes looked a bit long....

So I took my scissors (that I use to cut threads when I am sewing)

and shortened his lashes just a bit.

The next step was to tone down his lip color.

A light coat of  Anita's Latte acrylic craft paint toned down the lip color just enough.

Now Jimmy Joe Looks like a handsome young man.

*******

 We found another doll to join our doll family a couple of weeks ago.

I brought her home from The Volunteers of America and washed her hair and bathed her with a piece of  a magic eraser and some Dawn dish detergent. 

She had blue stains on her legs,  fingers,  arms,  and the side of face.

I think perhaps her clothing may have stained her legs or maybe those cute little tattoo transfers were applied to her vinyl skin.  I applied a liberal coating of benzoyl peroxide to all of the affected areas.  

 She has spent the last week or two out in the sun weather permitting.

I do hope to be able to dress her up to introduce her to the rest of the dolls as soon
as her stains have faded away.

 Make sure you stop over at JoAnn's Wednesday Wee Ones post .

JoAnn has created some lovely Easter outfits for a Easter Parade.

Have a wonderful Easter week!!!