Dana, An Uneeda Grow Hair Doll

Recently, I bought a grab bag of goodies from my local thrift store. Inside, I found this little cutie. Her markings are "U.D. CO. INC. Made in Hong Kong". It took me just a bit of searching to learn she is Dana, a mini grow hair doll made by Uneeda.

Hi! Nice to meet you!

Here's how she works: you pull her ponytail out to make it grow. There is a bead at the base of the ponytail that locks into place around the opening of her head. When you want her hair to retract, you unclip the bead and it should retract automatically. My Dana does not automatically retract anymore, but that's okay, because the hair cord is accessible through the bottom of her foot. Just pull and voila! Her hair is short again.

The bead and the opening where it is locked in place.

Look at my foot!

Dana is not an extremely valuable doll, when doing research I found multiple mint in box examples for under $20. That does not at all detract from how fun and cute she is though! As a lover of grow hair dolls, Dana is a neat example to add to my collection.

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Repairing Elise (A Work In Progress)

If you follow me on Instagram, Flickr, or are friends with me on Facebook, you've probably already figured out I got a great deal on an old Madame Alexander doll from Goodwill. I was so excited I instantly blew up all my social media with her moldy mug.

Eww!!!

She was an almost perfect doll. She has a beautiful purple brocade (I think) dress, underthings, a rhinestone detail on her dress, and matching rhinestone earrings. Her wig is minty, with the original style, ribbon, and hair barrette intact. Her face, however,was a different story. It was awful. At first, I just thought it was some strange dirt. I washed it off but her entire face was tinged brown. I decided to try the old standby, acne cream, to try to lighten her face. After it dried, I had to use a little force to get it off. When I checked the qtip I had been using, I saw it had a slightly brown tinge, so I knew the stuff would come off. What I didn't know is how hard it would be. I had to use quite a bit of pressure on her face with a Magic Eraser. The brown stuff did indeed come off. There is still a little around her nose and eyes as it is very difficult to get in those little spaces. Of course, with the great amount of force I applied, her face paint did come off. Everyone has to make tough decisions in life. When I noticed I had rubbed a tiny bit of her eyebrow off, I had to decide whether or not to keep going. I decided the brown stuff grossed me out so bad and looked so disgusting I would sacrifice her paint. And so I did.

Getting a facial...

So pale!

After all that work, she looked quite ghastly. And not in the beautiful Evangeline way. I headed off to Walmart and procured a few $0.57 bottles of Apple Barrel paint (I know, big spender) and a set of brushes. Brushes specifically for doll making. I'm not joshing, check our your local Walmart, they have paint brushes for people like me. Anyway, I'm not exactly satisfied or dissatisfied with her. It is the first time I've ever repainted a doll...one that I've publicly shared at least. It was most difficult to paint the cheeks. I used a foam brush (not doll specific, boo), and dabbed a little bit on, then "blended" it into her cheek with my finger, just like you'd do with your own blush. It turned out okay. Now I'm working on getting her outfit clean. Stay tuned this week for the finished product!

 

            After repainting her face                                                                 The dress                                              

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Test Post From Mobile Blogger

I'm testing the Blogger App, hopefully it goes well!

This summer I have been on a quest to acquire every American Girl of The Year Doll. My personal rule is that I will not pay more than $60 for any doll. I prefer to buy large lots and sell most of them so I end up with the doll for free. This has been fairly successful this summer, with the exception of Nicki. I got her with quite messy hair.

To fix her hair, I carefully brushed it out in sections, then twisted it into place.

Once all the sections were twisted up, I used my iron on the highest setting and steamed her hair...quite a bit. Never let the iron touch the hair though! After I was done, I took her hair down, and although it doesn't look like it did from the factory, I still think she looks awfully darn cute.

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Tonner's Rose's Dinner With Jack

I am not a Titanic the movie fan...in fact, I rather dislike the movie.  My bitterness no doubt stems from high school, when my best friend and I actually launched an anti-Titanic campaign.  Our reason was that Titanic surpassed Star Wars in ticket sales, and we just could not accept that a movie which was so clearly inferior could beat our beloved Star Wars.  So how did I end up with a Rose doll from the movie that makes me want to retch?  Yard sale, of course.

Here she is, all flaws out in the open.

She was kept in a storage building.  The guy having the yard sale told me that he buys storage buildings (he also claimed to have invented the show Storage Wars, but I have my doubts), and he found some dolls in one.  I also bought a vintage Ginny Walker doll and some Madame Alexanders, purely for resale.    Because of her climate, her wig had come loose, and her arms were hanging at her sides.  I bought some doll string, which by the way, is the best investment I've ever made.  I've repaired about a dozen dolls already that have just been sitting around here waiting for something to be reattached.  I used Loctite to reglue her wig.  Otherwise she was in good condition.

Reassembled, and dressed.

Now, I feel it's important to note that this Rose is different from the Franklin Mint Rose.  The FM Rose is shorter at 16", while this Rose is 18".  FM Rose has an open mouth, and this Rose has a closed mouth.  The dress of this Rose is also higher quality than the same dress that was created for the FM Rose.  

Closed mouth Rose.  That's right, I'm stepping out on Billy Zane.

Back view of dress detail.

As a doll, Rose is quite pretty, but since I cannot separate the doll from the movie, she is on the auction block.  I'm hoping that she sells, because I am in the process of building an entire Hogwarts, and the extra money would help me provide "scholarships" to bring more students.  Let's cross our fingers for a future post about wins that scholarship!

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City Girls

Okay, I'm definitely running out of creative blog titles.  It's so hard to come up with them!  At any rate, I bought an outfit from Lemieux Doll Boutique for my Corinne doll, who is not exactly new to my clan, but is fairly new and was feeling neglected.  I fell in love with this outfit with the cityscape on the skirt. How cute is it??

Corinne in Pink Sky at Night

And yes, it came with those fab boots too, which is good, since Corinne came to me in the buff straight from shopgoodwill.com.  Well, I couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to see if Ellowyne could wear it.  Here are the surprising results:

She looks amazing!  Well, except for all those flyaways that show up so prominently in the light.

So, who wore it better?  Vote in the poll and let me know!

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Ellowyne Wilde's friend Prudence (A Review)

I have had in my mind for awhile now to buy an Ellowyne Wilde doll.  What I didn't realize is that I would fall in love with her friend Prudence, and she would be the first to come home with me.  She has the absolute sweetest face I have ever seen.  There are a lot of things I love about her, but there are a few things that disappoined me.

Tea, Ennui, and Me Prudence

I'll start with the disappointing stuff.  When I opened her box, the very first thing I noticed was that she had three shiny rubs on her forehead, and a brown spot on the side of her temple.  That bothered me, particularly because she is such an expensive doll ($140), I didn't expect her to arrive with rubs or stains of any kind.  If she were not a limited edition that was already sold out, I would probably exchange her because of the flaw.  The other thing about her that really bothered me was the length of the sleeves of her dress.  The sleeves are quite noticeably longer than her arms and come down over her hands and past fingers.  She looks like the dress is too big for her.  I was able to scrunch the sleeves up into her armpits so they look okay on her.  Those are the only negative things I could find about her, although I admit the rubs were pretty bad.

Her positive attributes outweigh her problems by a lot and let me just say that I LOVE her!  Her outfit is really cute and detailed, and I especially love the striped tights she is wearing.  The dress snaps in the back instead of velcro, which is a detail I appreciate.  Her high heels are sparkly and sexy!  I think they are the sexiest doll shoes I own!  Her face paint is soft and beautiful, and it really makes her face so expressive.  My husband keeps saying, "She looks like a real girl!"  I definitely will be buying more dolls from Wilde Imagination, with Ellowyne hopefully being next. 

Who couldn't love this face??

My husband indulged me today by taking lots of photos of Prudence for me, so I'm going to share some of my favorites.  We spent the afternoon at Copperhead Island, which is a free, public park on Lake Wylie.  It was a little chilly, but we both got to enjoy our hobbies.

Prudence by the lake

Can you see the baby geese in the background?

Spring is early this year!

I have a feeling that Ellowyne will be a resident of this house by the end of the week, so stay tuned for a review on her.  

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