Memories: Barbie

 This is a post for the family one day...that posterity's sake kind of thing. 

Read along if you like.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/137711701095722873/.

The Barbie case pictured above was the exact one I had. I completely wore it out. Lindsay had used it and finally I deemed it silly to hold onto anymore. I still use Pinterest to capture the fun things from my younger days.

I also had the Barbie  in the upper left corner with the Auburn hair. She too was completely worn out and finally did not remain. I had 2 other Barbies in my collection: Talking PJ and Malibu Barbie. I had wanted Malibu Barbie so much and when I got her one year for Christmas I remember being so disappointed. Her hair was not straight across. It was at a diagonal. I don't think it was supposed to be like that, but maybe a seconds or one that didn't get caught in inspections. I was so sad, but she got used a ton as well.

I loved Barbies so much. I dressed and redressed and imagined and such. Lindsay never liked Barbies like me. She did like the picking out outfits but that was about all. Her best friend loved them so she played with them when Chelsea came over to visit. Later they switched to American Girl dolls. 

When we moved into our current home, Lindsay was going in 8th grade, so we took 3 of the Barbie outfits and placed them in shadowboxes to hang on her wall. They are still here but moved to the bookcase. The top 2 dresses are dresses from my time along with these....

and these.

In the bottom picture you may recognize the bottom right 2 outfits were PJ outfits. The yellow beach towel and stained blue bathing suit belonged to Malibu Barbie.

All of the other dresses were bought at the Western Auto on the square in Monroeville. I don't know why Western Auto would have had Barbie clothes. I have since decided that these must have been made by someone locally. They were in a wooden bin near the front of the store and I loved going in to check for new additions. Considering how many I have of them, Mama must have deemed that an appropriate expenditure of money. What is amazing about all of them is how well made they are! They have little snaps for closures and such neat finishes. Nothing Lindsay ever got later when she got her Barbie clothes compares. 

I have always kept them separated from the other Barbie stuff. I will let Valerie eventually play with them, but I will wait until she is old enough to realize the difference in the quality of the sewing.

Here I am at age 5 with my new Barbie furniture and the case that I got from Santa that year. 

You might notice the nifty record player. I think those Christmas gifts summed childhood up for me in a nutshell. I always loved records and Barbies.

So what brought on this post? On a rainy morning I finally decided to organize the Barbie bin. I let Valerie look along with me as I decided to organize and see if there was something new for her to play with on that day.

I have captured a few things to add to the post. 

The 1996 Olympics being in Atlanta was a big deal so Lindsay got a Barbie with an Olympic outfit. The bag had some little athletic things in it.

Oh this gem below. I at some time made a purse for a Barbie. It is not sewn, just cut and stitched by hand. It looks very 70ish. I am thinking I might have been bored one summer day and pulled them out to do something like this. Far past my Barbie playing days.

We have all sorts of things like pom moms, camping gear, hats and such to go with Barbie and whole separate bag of shoes and socks.

Here are some newer evening gowns. You can see the quality is nothing like the ones I had as a child.

Here are some of the Barbies left in the bin. Malibu Barbie is on the left. Her hair has darkened with time. It was bleached blonde like the others with her back in the day. PJ is missing a leg but I still have it. Probably time to ditch her too. 

One thing to note about the newer Barbies - they have tons of hair - all of them.

The outfit on the right above and the ones in the below pictures were the most well made of the 90's fashion. That middle jumpsuit came with PJ too.

Nana (Jeff's mom) gave Lindsay these little wicker chairs back in the 90's. I kept them out with some of the Barbies for Valerie to play with now.

We also still have a Barbie locker. 

Valerie playing with her chairs and Barbies I left out for her.

Barbies were countless hours of fun for me. Lindsay too. I think I kept them because they were such fun for me. I will pass them along to Valerie as she gets a little older. I may let Lindsay keep some of the older dresses if she chooses. I have really learned that keeping all the things is too much. Remembering is good and a photograph is good. Now, the older clothes was a good thing to hold on to especially since they all look really good still.

I am sure some of you are remembering your time with Barbie as well. 

Remembering the fun days of childhood,

Sandy

Happy Fall Y'all

 According to the calendar, it is officially fall. It is one of two seasons that I wait for the astrological date to show up before calling it the new season. 

For 2.5 months it has been a sauna down here. We have had more 100-110 heat index days than can be counted. Honestly most of those days have been that. I have learned new things about summer flowers with that kind of heat. It is no wonder I just can't envision fall OR

is it ---that we think of fall and think of a New England fall with glorious color earlier than I would ever see???

Fall here in our area is big hay bales in the fields to the north, cotton blooming, football with cute sundresses as the attire for a college girls. Everyone else wears shorts and a school tee. I knew a trip to Auburn would let me welcome it in -fall as I know it that is.

One of my older pics since I didn't take any this past weekend.

On one note of leaving summer to move into fall is the lack of acorns. Last year gave us a mast year of acorns, so I would venture this year we could call it a scarce season of acorns. What will the squirrels do?

We traveled to Auburn this past weekend and had a nice time. It was hot, but still all the above things were noted and it felt like a southern fall. November is fall here in my area. I am actually looking forward to it now that I have decided it is fall, but I don't like to rush the days either.

Lindsay and her family came with us as well as Paul Allen's dogs. They went to Tennessee for a wedding.

Dansby walked right up in front of them posed for the picture and pretty much said, "I am going to be in this picture!

Katie snapped this one of the Florida kids hoping for cooler weather in the mountains, but not finding it. They did love the bears.

Little Valerie is growing up so quickly. We put her baby (aka, Lindsay's old baby doll) to nap this morning on the couch.

For lunch she got mad at me because I told her she couldn't put anymore chili on a cracker until she ate one. She can make a stink face very well.

I have been decorating since we returned from Auburn as well. I think it just can't happen until I make a September trip to Auburn.

All the same stuff but a few pictures anyway.

Do orangey shells count as fall decor with a Jesus added to the center?

The table has finally gotten its pumpkins. These are my favorite fall decoration. I got them at Joann's about 12 years ago. I saw them the minute I walked in and knew they were coming home with me.

In other things around the house, we added some more of that tinting to the living room like we added to the kitchen last October. OF course, we waited until summer was almost over to do it. Just like when we did it to the kitchen I was slightly worried about how dark it made it. IT is kind of like looking outside through sunshades, but the way it cools things down is absolutely a game changer in a good way.

Tucker and I had used a thermometer to measure the difference in the heat from the kitchen table with the tinting to the area in the living room without tinting. I had Jeff call the next week to have them come out and do it to the windows.

Also around the house...

the boys knocked over a lamp downstairs when they were all over celebrating my birthday midSeptember. Miles came up the stairs to tell us that glass was on the floor and that Palmer had done it, but the truth was like reading the book by the Berenstain Bears called The Blame Game. I had at least 50 of those books which I gave to both children and Paul Allen said later that night he read that one and it was the exact story of what happened downstairs with the lamp. They were playing with a ball which Palmer threw at him, but he kicked it and it hit the lamp.

All was well, but it made me do a switcharoo of lamps so I guess it turned out well. The only thing that broke on the other one was the light bulb. Now, the lamp below may actually need to come upstairs and pull the old one back out which is metal.

Here is what I pulled out from the closet.

The above lamp was a set that my mother-in-law made for me decades ago. One had broken and I ended up letting Mama use this one in a bedroom. When she moved to assisted living I got it and store it thinking one day I would use it. It looks nice there. Oh and the glass in the picture frame broke. 

Boys will be boys.

Around the neighborhood...

A new house has been built 3 doors down on the water. It has kept me entertained for months on end.

They built a new dock and sea wall which the kiddos and I watched out our kitchen window with great interest. It took almost 3 weeks to do all of that.

Count 3 docks and you see the new one. The pine tree in the corner of the yard - well, I now have to watch and see if it lives. They upped the seawall and filled in dirt over the roots of that pine. I don't think that is gonna work. Something to observe.

I took this late yesterday while walking. I have to wait until it is less than a 100 degrees.

You can't see the plants but let's just say they made me happy. I complain about all new builds in our area because the builders do not leave trees which are essential and they plant non native shrubs. It boils my blood. I am not lying.

Anywho, I saw camellias, azaleas, palmettos, and such ----all native to our area. 

First time and since it is so close to me it made me extremely happy. Now, to see who buys it.

I finished the beachy fall stitch. I now have to fully finish it. I just have it folded for the picture.

I think I would like to do more of these, but I am going to get back to my sampler and osprey. It feels so good to want to stitch. 

I am going to discuss reading soon, but I have one more thing to share to this post that happened yesterday afternoon, and this post is already very long.

The doorbell rang and Jeff answered. It was a delivery of a special piece of art from an old friend.

I cried! 

I have a friend who I taught with at 2 schools, one back when I was young and then one when I was close to retirement. She would later come to my church and we have a long story together. 

She has pancreatic cancer and is taking chemo to give her time. She is currently staying in Birmingham with her granddaughter to take the treatments and have someone take care of her. She is an only child like me. Her mother is alive and in her 90's here and just went on Hospice. 

When Chris found out she had cancer, she couldn't talk to anyone, but I kept texting and checking in with here. I told her she didn't have to answer but that she had a lot of people who cared.

Two days after Gus died she finally called me. She ended up comforting me, but we had an hour long conversation and covered a lot of ground.

She got one of the ladies from her Bible Study group here that knows our family well to ask the kids to send her pictures of Gus and had someone locally that I also know to do a sketch of Gus. I will treasure it forever. 

You know all the people we come in contact along the way weave our stories into the most amazing tapestry when we look back.

I will close for now....

Blogger is driving me nuts again. My feed of blogs is not refreshing. Arghhh.

I have to share with you what I learned about full sun and 110 degree heat with flowers AND oh, I planted a mum. 

More coming soon.

I hope to catch up with everyone soon.

Sandy