Pinkie welcomes you to Winter '16 !

Happy Winter Solstice ! Felt good enough to hit Mal-Wart today – it helped that the high today was 56° ! Bright and sunny under spring-like blue skies. I’m still weak, but the weather really urged me to get out there. Feeling sunlight on your skin (what little skin’s exposed, that is !) is always a delight.

And, as you can see, I got the pink-haired Curvy, without taking back my brunette Asian Curvy. Also bought two ‘Sparkle Girls’ outfits, one for the lacy blouse (paired with ridiculous shorts), the other for its dramatic elegance of black sparkle and roses. Wish they came with shoes instead of the useless purses ! 

The shelled mixed nuts were half price, so I got three pounds, which should take me through Christmas. Seems like someone picked out most of the pecans, but there’s plenty of almonds, walnuts, and Brazil nuts, so I’m happy. On a whim, I bought a gallon of low-fat chocolate milk and some markdown mini-cupcakes, but somehow, the cupcakes didn’t make it to Chez Insanity. Dunno if it never left the register or Dearest Son left them in the cart, but it’s fine. Didn’t really need the calories anyway.

Got a replacement cube of tissues – ugliest box I’ve ever seen. Milk-of-Magnesia pink with burgundy swirly-flowers. I really liked the box I had, with its white stars on a blue backdrop, so I slit open the new box and refilled the old. Since I just popped the side seam, a glue stick put the old box back to rights. The pink one is holding cracked nut shells, so their sharp edges don’t slice the trash bag. It all works out ! 

Got Beloved Hubby another thermal undershirt while they’re on markdown, and Dearest got his choice of lunch and a snack. He’s so close to having the money saved up for a new computer element, he didn’t want to spend his funds, but temptations were everywhere. Since public school is out for Winter Break, M-W’s busy, even at noon on Wednesday.

Dory’s all dressed up for the holidays !

D’ya think she was missing her tag ?

Adventures with a truly frozen Elsa !

Clearing out my camera – I really should go back to a ‘real’ camera, but the one in my phone is much better than the ones I have. Only problem is, it takes forever to download images, so I try to have as few stored on it as possible. 

So I found these, the photos I took of the ‘JC Penney’ toddler Elsa I got from GoodWill for 99¢. Y’see, Elsa dolls seem to find me now ! I’d never bought this one, preferring the ‘real’ Disney Animators doll, because I hate colored legs on dolls. Either put ‘em in hosiery or skip it- those blue legs look like she’s literally frozen ! Poor Anna fared even worse, her legs are an impossible to coordinate with yellow-green. Can always keep ‘em in pants or long dresses, but still. Almost as bad as perma-blouses, in my book. 

I think the reason this one was so inexpensive – normally any second-hand Disney doll goes for at least $4., more if it’s not naked and has shoes – was due to the nefarious Bunchem entangled in her hair. Luckily, it was just the solo orange one. When these first came out, back in 2015, Bunchems were designed as a building toy that clung to itself. Unfortunately, it also snarled the heck out of hair, as shown here. Spin Master didn’t really address the problem, except to say conditioner would help remove the demon balls, and I don’t think they’ve been sold since. Some geniuses go walking in the woods and dream up Velcro ™, other hopefuls end up with a PR disaster like Bunchems.  

I mostly cut this snarl-ball out of JCP Elsa’s hair, which didn’t cost her much of it. Some of the bits are at her feet. Her hair rebraided easily, and now, with the exception of her cold-looking bare blue feet, she looks almost new. Just wish I could find that little girl who wanted her so much again ! 

 

I think that gives me three Elsa toddlers now - four if you count the one I donated last year !

Knock it off already, Decima !

I think you've measured enough lives for a winter storm already.

Today was just crazy. Beloved Hubby was up early to work on his half-finished equipment trailer, then decided to work on another aspect of it, changed his mind and started a third, then it all fell apart, so he figured it wasn’t worth all this expense and effort, we were buying a ‘new’ trailer. So he picked us up and Dearest Son and I went with him to see one in our price range he’d found on Craigslist – in the meantime, he’d already sold the old one ! He’d detailed all he’d done and all he needed to do to it as part of the ‘as is, where is’ bill of sale, the buyer was just happy for the price. 

The ‘new’ one was at a used car lot about 45min away – and it was junk, plain and simple. Unexplained holes in two of the walls, part of the floor was missing, both tires were flat and the door was on one hinge. Pass. Checked out another, an hour away in the opposite direction. This awesome seller knocked off $200., so it was less than the used car one. And was in far better shape than it or our old one. Better built and even insulated, too. We could even return some unopened parts we’d purchased. So, while we were gone all day, we have a much better equipment trailer, and Beloved feels pretty good about it, since we all made the decisions together. He has big plans for tomorrow, unless it’s too cold to mess with his Christmas present in the driveway ! 

By now, everyone was hungry, even though we’d stopped for snacks and sodas on bathroom breaks, so amid new-falling snow, we decided on one of our rare indulgences at a local BBQ restaurant and brought home two pounds of ‘moist’ brisket and several ears of corn on the cob. Delicious, and there’s enough brisket for another whole meal ! Dearest didn’t used to be a fan of meat slabs like this, but he certainly is now. I kind of admit, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s brisket, too. 

Once home, I immediately crashed on the sofa for two hours. Hadn’t gotten much sleep, because while Beloved was up early, I’d had my usual later bedtime and weird dreams about water supplies (turns out I was badly dehydrated), so I was pretty tired and slow to answer his frequent texts. They’re always welcome, but didn’t allow for much catch-up sleep. 

It went from 65° yesterday to 9° today, so the house was a bit chillier than before. Luckily I’d already washed the old quilts and bedspreads we used last year to cover the windows and patio doors. I gathered those in a pile while Beloved and Dearest taped the seams shut. True, it does make Chez Insanity somewhat cave-like, but it’s better than cold and drafty ! And it’s not like the ILs didn’t leave enough lamps and end tables behind to light up the joint ! Only problem is, they took all the light bulbs !

Sleepwalking in the Shopping Center

Of course, now that |I've taken her photo 20+ times, I've grown to like her. . .

Hadda go to Mal-Wart today, and if it weren’t for Dearest Son’s prescription, I would have stayed home. The ice storm last night that caused over 100 injury-related accidents and three fatalities was gone, but I still kept my eyes wide open – although they wanted to be shut with sleep in the worst way. Fighting sleepiness is never a good idea, but there’s lotsa times ya just gotta.

Two hard-boiled eggs for breakfast evidently wasn’t a good idea for my system either, poor Dearest had to wait outside the restrooms with our cart twice. But he was amply rewarded with $5. to buy the lunch of his choice, plus some Bubble Tape gum, and all the time he wanted to look at computers, video games, and DVDs. As for me, I claimed a pretty (if large print) cat-themed fat quarter, and he snagged a My Little Pony  one, planning to drape a few ideas before deciding on anything specific. I’m thinking the cat print material will be a skirt paired to a black bodice for either the Disney Princess & Me girls or the Timey Tell size dolls. Maybe both !

Found three new ‘Curvy’ Barbies, and wanted one, especially at just $8. each, but which ? To tell the truth, the blue-haired one I have is far from my favorite, but I wanted a Curvy in case Mattel’s experiment began and ended with the intro dolls. There was a black-haired one with deep brown eyes, an Asian style lovely with brown hair and eyes, and a bubblegum pink-haired one with gorgeous green eyes. I wished the pink haired doll could trade scalps and clothes with the Asian, but I can always reroot. Bought the Asian, but may go back Monday – I’m not going near a M-W this close to Christmas on a weekend, it’s more hazardous than two inch thick ice on the roads ! – and trade for Pinkie. But if I know Beloved at all, he’ll encourage me to buy and keep all three.

Our store had the Barbie for President  – the First All-Female Ticket ! – pair for only $9. Several pairings from which to choose. Not a bad deal at all for two fairly well-dressed dolls, but my eyes are still on the Curvy prize. 

Got what we needed and a few ‘snowed in’ supplies – soda and chips, we already had plenty of milk and bread – for Saturday’s expected storm. While Beloved’s not on the job, he and Dearest are planning on working on a trailer he bought, but we’ll see. ‘Icy Mix’ has kept more than one Diesel home all day !

On our way out, we passed an older gentleman bearing a lushly beautiful potted poinsettia. We smiled, and I said, ‘How gorgeous ! Plant’s not bad either.’ and he beamed at me. By now, I was seeing the ‘impending exhaustion’ warning lights on my personal dashboard, so I let Dearest load and unload for me while I returned the cart and caught my breath for a few seconds. He enjoyed his pizza while I let some last bits of leftover Chinese warm up a bit. Felt good to get out – and have his medicine a couple days early, just in case. 

I hope I don’t sleep tomorrow away, ‘cause I desperately need to sew something !