Category: Family

The past several months, my daughter has been raving about ball jointed dolls. Besides the obvious poseable appeal because they’re jointed, she likes the exquisite detail that goes into creating many of them. She also likes the anime vibe that several of these dolls have.

Currently my daughters favorite jointed dolls are Dollfie dolls which are made by Volks, a Japanese company. Checking out the pictures she’s shown me I must agree with her that the craftsmanship is amazing.

 

 

Just look at the above (collectible) Super Dollfie doll, it’s miles ahead of the department store dolls and for the price you have to pay to acquire one, they better be! Many of the Dollfie dolls, cost over $1,000, with the cheapest starting around $500+, but I’m not about to pay that as a beginning collectible doll for my daughter regardless of how awesome we both think they are. In my (childless) doll collecting days, I most likely would have purchased a few of these dolls.

Although I won’t be getting her a Dollfie doll, after a lot of research, I’ve found a jointed doll collection that she will enjoy; J-Dolls. I know what my daughter finds appealing. When it comes to dolls, we like the same things.  She’ll be thrilled to receive one of the J-Dolls as a Christmas present.

 

 

Charing Cross Road Fashion Luxury J-doll product description

Designer style combines with an ultra hip street edge in the luxury J-Dolls by Jun Planning. These luxury style fashion dolls are inspired by contemporary street fashions, and include edgy, trendy and special designer details. 11 inch vinyl fully articulated fashion doll with sparkling real glass eyes. Doll stand is included. Recommended age is 15+. Charing Cross Road sports a great coat, frayed grey pants, and lace up boots. She has green glass eyes and honey brown hair.

Take a look at the above J-Doll. She’s the Charing Cross Road Fashion Luxury J-doll By Jun Planning.  Last week, I purchased it for about $80. Of course, I could have kicked myself when, a few hours later, I saw the same doll on Ebay for $60. I do like that the cost of many of the J-Dolls are between $35 – $70. That’s much better than paying several hundred dollars for my budding doll collector, right?

J-Dolls receive their names from locations throughout the world

According to the Toy Box Philosopher, the J Dolls receive their names from stylish places located throughout the world, that symbolize high fashion.

The J-Dolls are named after streets throughout the world that symbolize high fashion. Each doll’s outfit reflects the character of the particular street she’s named after. For example, Sunset Boulevard is near the ocean in Los Angeles and the doll with that name kind-of looks like a mermaid. Some of the associations are lost on me, though. The stunning Via Appia doll is named after an ancient Roman road, but she looks more like a cross between a World War 2 nurse and a pirate.

Oh by the way, Charing Cross is an actual place, and it’s located in London. Interesting indeed…

The above video was taken during London Fashion Week Fashion International which was held at the Charing Cross Hotel.

Based on the reviews, I believe my daughter will be thrilled with this jointed doll and the quality is so much better than her Monster High dolls. Of course, this gives me an excuse to pull out my Brother Sewing machines, and make some high end clothing for this jointed doll J-Doll. 😉 I did the same thing with her Monster High dolls.

I used to collect porcelain dolls and have even passed some of my fine porcelain dolls to my daughter. I only gave them to her since she’s shown me that she can properly take care of them. I must say that I’m thrilled that my daughter is becoming more critical of the dolls available, rather than being swept up into wanting an item based on the popularity amongst her friends, she’s looking for features that in her mind make the doll stand out. Of course, the former doll collector within, has always  done this with the dolls that I’ve purchased for her in the past, but I’ve kept my mouth shut. 😉

Christmas shopping is complete

The majority of this years Christmas shopping, with the exception of a few gifts,was completed by at the beginning of Spring 2013. The J-Doll is a last minute gift for my daughter and I must say I’m really looking forward to seeing her reaction on Christmas morning.

Hopefully she won’t read this post

My daughter occasionally reads my website. I must say I’m taking a big risk writing this post. In fact… my daughter is less than fifteen feet away from me while I’m writing this advanced post. Good thing, she’s doing her own story writing, right? My computer is positioned in such a way where I can see exactly what she’s doing, but she can’t see my computer screen, ha! Hopefully I’ll be safe, this post is scheduled for early Sunday morning and I’ve purposely scheduled a few posts for that day so this article won’t be the first thing that appears on Celebrate Life.

 

 

 

A sure fire way to ensure that I never ever eat in a persons house is to see someones pet sprawled about the kitchen counter-top and they don’t do a darn thing about it.  Eww, gross!

Let’s face it, animals can pad through all sorts of junk. I’m not even going to think about a cat trotting in and out of a litter box and bringing those same filthy paws anywhere in our kitchen.  No matter how awesome I think pets are, I draw the line at having them lounging anywhere in the kitchen or licking my face.

I’m not sure how that topic of pets and cooking came up at work, but it did. Interestingly enough, that’s something that none of us liked.

This afternoon, after work, I’m giving my daughter a class on sausage making.  Yes, I won the Vintage Griwold meat grinder. It arrived on Tuesday, and it appears to be in excellent condition. The only thing left for us to do is start grinding. I’m looking forward to making homemade sausage with my daughter. I have many fond memories of making it with my mother and brother.

The internet is still down at home. A technician will be out tomorrow to fix the issue. They wanted to send someone out today,  but I was not available during the times offered. Somehow my daughter and I are surviving, imagine that! 😉 To be perfectly honest, we are fine without the internet, so we aren’t going through any withdrawals. At home, there’s so much for us to do that often times the internet is something we do in our down time.

Last evening, I finished a knitting a scrunchy for my hair. I meant to wear it to work today, but it’s still sitting on the kitchen table at home. Oh well… maybe tomorrow, right?

Yesterday, my daughter and I were running around in the virtual environment of World of Warcraft, when we lost our internet connection.

This past Friday, I converted her trial account to a regular WoW subscription. Over the weekend, we spent a total of three hours running around in the gaming world.  Because of a Recruit a Friend, it does not take long to level. We’re currently level 15.  We could have gone a lot farther, leveling wise, if we online long. But as I told her, everything in moderation. More on that in another post.

But back to my internet connection, Initially, I thought that the DSL service might be down in our area. It does not happen much. It’s only been out twice in the past six years and that was only a few hours? After chatting with one of the Verizon technicians it looks like it might be our modem. I’ve had the modem for at least ten years. I guess it’s high time I upgrade, right?

The good news is Verizon will upgrade the modem for free. We should receive it tomorrow. And what an upgrade it is. The technician told me that the modem can be connected or wireless.

 

A few weeks ago, my daughter asked me if there was a way that I could occasionally include hot meals in her school lunch. The students, at her Lutheran school, can’t use the microwaves at school.

She likes the homemade lunches that I prepare for her;  salads, homemade dips, the occasional homemade deli sandwich, homemade baked goods, freshly made juices, and fruit/veggie smoothies. It’s quite a list of what might end up in her school lunch bag, but they’re definitely not hot. My daughter receives a lot of delicious home cooked hot meals at the house. I know she’s missing that.

I did some research and I believe I’ve finally found the solution for sending my daughter to school with hot lunches. The Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Steel Lunch Jar. It’s vacuum insulated and made of stainless steel. I love the fact that the food stays hot for up to six hours.

It comes with a bag, but I know my daughter won’t be thrilled by a plain black lunch bag and so I’ll be designing and sewing one for her. I must say, that I’m really pleased with the reviews I’ve read about this product and I am looking forward to sending her to school with hot lunches.

I don’t mind doing extra things for my daughter. She’s worth the time and effort.

Edited to add:

I decided to include a Youtube video of someone preparing a hot school lunch with a Zojirushi Stainless Steel Lunch Jar.

 

Yesterday, when at the mall with my daughter, I learned how much my daughter has grown. She’s now wearing an adult size 7.5 shoe. I discovered this when we were purchasing new saddle shoes for school. It’s part of their uniform. She got her foot properly measured, and the nice lady informed me that my daughter is wearing an adult size, 7.5.  Two days ago, her shoe size was 5.5. Yes, my jaw dropped a few notches but I’m not surprised this girl has been going through a massive growth spurt.

I stopped being surprised at the amazing leaps that children can make in sizes. My daughter, at times, bypasses shoe and sometimes clothing sizes. Thin as a rail and so tall. Earlier today, I chatted with a former high school friend that told me her son’s shoe size leaped almost four sizes within a day! She relayed the humorous story on how he had to use his current shoes as slippers while they went to the store and purchased shoes that fit his feet. Naturally, I believed the story since this has happened to my daughter. Yep, I’ve seen the amazing leaps my daughter has made in shoe size and clothing (in literally a few days) so I don’t doubt her in the slightest.

Did I mention that my daughter is almost my height? I have her beat by a mere 3″,  however I told her even when she is taller than me I will always be her mom. 😉 That’s not saying much since I’m only 5′, but my goodness, at times, it seems like just the other day when I was bringing her home from the Birthing Center.

My goodness has it been a busy few weeks for myself, it has all passed by in a blur! I’m surprised that I have had time to post here on Celebrate Life.

To be honest, while posting, I’ve been multitasking so that’s the only reason there’s been activity on this site.

I can’t believe this coming week will be moving into November.  What happened to October? This weekend is busy, I’m currently helping my daughter with a big school project and later today we’ll be going on an insect hunt. Afterwards, we’re going to make some items with clay today. I’m hoping to squeeze in some sewing time. My daughter has a part in our Church’s Christmas program and so I’ve decided to design/sew her a special gown. It will take some time to complete, so I’m starting early.

While Sunday is considered a day of rest, in our household at least, it’ll be a busy day for myself. Tomorrow afternoon, I have a meeting for three hours. Oh… and Monday evening, I have a Board Meeting to attend.

Here’s hoping (and praying) things slow down soon. This coming weekend, we’ll be out of town.

Regardless of how busy I am, I still make time for my daughter.