Sailing, sailing, over the Arena mess...

Current Notes : Hope my ghouls have boatshoes...

It occurred to me yesterday, that the Barbie Dream Boat bridge is such a cool piece of plastic, it makes anything beneath it look like a boat ! Well, truth is, I just put it on top of the embroidery machine for a minute to get it out of the way, but it really did make ‘Brody’ look like ‘USS Brody’ for a bit ! Decided to let Joel take him out for a spin on the lake of my messy Arena desk, and got a photo for you. I’m really glad I bought it, I’ve already enjoyed having it around !

Ya gotta hand it to those old 70s ‘vinyl over cardboard’ Barbie playsets. They weren’t expensive, lasted a while unless they fell victim to sibling roughhousing, held awesome graphics and lots of play and fun potential in a small space. Childhood disasters aside, it’s amazing how durable they are – and how many are still usable today. It’s a pretty neat bit of engineering. The bunk beds in the cabin flip up to store the bridge inside, so the whole thing takes up little space in a closet, just a small rectangle. There’s decks to pose on, a wheel to steer, ladders and a galley and a bedroom for pajama parties. According to the packaging, it's four feet long all opened up, which was bigger than most of its owners. There's a lot to play with !

Compare to the current Barbie Cruise Ships. Yeah, Babs don’t mess with anything less than a ship these days ! The previous still-current model was huge, as big as a doll house, all thin hard plastic and tiny props. Surprisingly, it offers about the same activities – sleeping, eating, sunning on the deck. I think the new one has a pool that becomes a buffet table or something. $90. vs. $45. ($10.77 in 1974 money, run through an inflation converter) may not seem like much, but to me, it’d make a difference. Actually, since the Friend Ship airplane was just ten bucks, I’d have gotten that instead of the boat in the first place ! (pricing source : wishbookweb.com)

Sewed a little – first attempt was trashcan fodder, second was usable, but not good. Since I didn’t like how the Dressing Dolls  handled inseams, I converted the jumpsuit to a long, column-like straight dress, to get more practice and refinement on the armholes and neckline. Still a ways to go, but it’s good enough for a donation. You’ll get that photo Tuesday, since I’ve already got Monday’s photo ready to go. And who knows what I’ll have done by then !

But I really have to get back to that sanding…ugh.