Happy Valentines Day!

Here's hoping tomorrow brings you wonderful opportunities to show the people around you that you care!

I surfed the web and shamelessly stole some great vintage valentine card images. Enjoy!

More SSC valentine cards can be found here.

Lots More Fun Stuff! Finds & Trades for January 12, 2011

What a fun day for toys!

I get off work early on Wednesdays so I always try to hit the thrift store on the way home. The first place I drove didn't have anything.  It can get pretty discouraging to scrounge around in old junk and come up empty handed. But, I started to use a philosophy to make myself feel better when I go out of my way to drive to a thrift store and can't seem to find much. I believe each store I step into has something that wants to find me. It wants me to bring it home. When I start to think that way it lessens the feeling of discouragement when I only find one small thing. It kind of makes me feel like I rescued something and it was worth the drive.

I was really thrilled with my finds at the second store. Especially the Fluppy Dogs!

I just made up my mind last Friday to start collecting these, but I didn't want them if they didn't have the bow and collar. So low and behold I find one (first one I have EVER found in eleven years of thrifting) and what do you know, it has all its pieces! Then I got the baby with its bonnet. What fun!

For a girl who hates animatronics, I sure own a lot of Teddy Ruxpins. This one came with a tape. Do you think it works? I doubt it highly. No TR's I find ever have! ;)

Check out the Smooshees haul! That was the funnest find. I was also pretty happy about the Glo Worm. I need to test him to see if he still glows.

Some of these finds will end up on my trades page. Let me know if you are interested in anything.

So, speaking of trades . . .

When I came home I had some packages waiting for me! Nice people on The My Little Pony Trading Post have kindly traded some fun things with me!

If any of my trading friends read this blog THANK YOU!!

There on the bottom of the first picture you will see some Moon Dreamer and Glo Friends DVDs! They contain the complete series of each show. I can't wait to watch them one day. I might even take screenshot stills to share. My girls really like them so far. Now I need to get my hands on all the vintage Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, and Lady Lovely Locks episodes.

So, this big all-at-once haul has really got me thinking. I need to create some sort of "system" of organization. An inbox of some sort. My goal is to have all my toys stored like this:

I have about 50% of my toys stored in baggies with labels on them inside labeled tubs. The rest are in jumbles in tubs and need to be organized. I was thinking that from now on I will put all new toys in some sort of inbox that I would ideally go through on a regular basis--bagging and tagging things as they come in, noting what's missing and all. If anyone has a process you'd like to share, please comment. I certainly need to ditch the old "throw it all in a tub" thing, even if it means I need to hold off toy buying for a month or two while I get it all organised.

Okay so I lied . . . Finds for December 22, 2010

I thought tonight would be booked with something else, but I turned out to have a free night. So I stopped by a thrift store after work and check out this great haul! I was so excited! The cost was around $25. 

Included in this find are:

A few vintage Strawberry Shortcake playsets

Several vintage Care Bears and a giant newer Funshine

LPS puzzle

Rub a Dub doggie

Poochie Puzzle

A few vintage My Little Ponies (will have to clean them up)

A MLP remote-control scooter

Some Russ trolls

A vintage Pound Puppy Christmas ceramic

Flatsy doll

A trapper keeper

Lots of G3 MLPs

Beach Bunnies

Rainbow Brite doll

Smurfette Doll

Peppermint Rose bunny

Thundercats action figure

Several newer SSC items

and more!

Tomorrow is my birthday so I will probably try and squeeze in a thrifting trip during my lunch break. A lot of this stuff will end up on my trades page, which I won't be updating until sometime in the second week of January so keep an eye out!

FInds for December 2nd 2010

It's been probably the most insane week of my life. Between sick kids, job interviews and other minutia I have had zero time for toys.

All work and no toys makes Angel something something . . . .

Anyway, here's my small haul from the thrift store yesterday:

A second Baby Brite, more Ruxpins, a Glo Friend, a couple G1 My Little Ponies, a caboodles case, a Lolly doll, a Yum Yums, a Chubble, Lonely Hearts Horse, a He Man Guy, a Care Bear, etc.

Perhaps my favorite was this bell charms collector's case:

I wonder if all Bell Charms were made by Imperial. Or were there several manufacturers of them like with silly bands and slap bracelets? Not sure, but I do like this cool case. I will post a picture of myself wearing my charm necklace sometime. I also collect vintage dresses from the 40's-80's and I have a great 1970's dress that looks cute with my bell charms.

Speaking of toy hunting, check out this post on the Ghost of the Doll forum. Can you believe she found all that stuff?! Wowzers! I need to move to Texas!

My other awesome find is this cute Yum Yums plush. I am seriously debating collecting these cuties. I was too old for them by the time they came out but my little sister had them and they are super cute:

Kawaii (a Japanese toy company) purchased the licence for Yum Yums and now there are all sorts of new merchandise. Check out this eBay store for a great selection of the new items.

Finds for November 24, 2010

Found some fun things today. Lots of nekked Jem dolls, TMNT action figures, a vintage Barbie, a Chubble, Baby Brite (missing her jumper) the third Bright Heart I've seen this year, Polly Pockets, a dress for my My Child Doll and my favorite: a new Bradley doll!

Isn't she a cutie? I now need to see if the Chubbles works and maybe work on restoring Baby Brite. I missed thrifting. Hopefully I'll feel good enough to go out again next week!~

Also, on eBay today I snagged the rare Fairy Winkles set I have been searching for along with the variant jewelry box. As far as I know both sets are only available in the UK.

Rainbow Brite Custom Restore

You might remember a few weeks ago I went thrifting with my sister and bought this Dress-up Rainbow Brite doll.

 

She was quite dirty. Her hair was covered in something I'd rather not think about. Her dress was spotted and soiled, as were her legs.

If you buy a RB Dress-up doll like this in mint condition it would cost around $30-$40. Some sellers have them priced around $80. I thought I would try to salvage her as best I could.

First, I washed her dress and her body. The thread on the hem of the dress was destroyed and there was no longer a rainbow belt decal. Her shirt and shoes were gone.

I ran over to the craft store and bought some ric-rac in rainbow and a few rainbow-shaped buttons. I sewed those on. Her hair was a chore. I had to do a lint shave and cut off the scraggly ends. Then I went on eBay and found some shoes for $5 shipped.

Here she is, all fixed up:

Isn't she purdy! Are you now resisting saying, "DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY?"

The only thing I'd like to change is the undershirt. I had to make do with a piece I found at an antique store and I'd rather have a red shirt like the original doll. Oh well!

Finds fo October 16th 2010

What do you know! Right after I posted I went to see my grandma with my sister and she wanted to stop at a thrift store. Here's what I found:

Finds for September 16th!

Yesterday I went downtown to take care of some legal business and decided to stop in an antique store that I know carries 80's toys. After spending too much money there ($42) I decided to hit the thrift shops! I had a fairly successful day there. Look at my loot:

Rainbow Brite Color Cottage Playset

Found this at the antique store and it cost me $32, which is a lot (I always want to find things cheap!) But it was in the box and had some other RB pieces in there, so I splurged.

OTHER FINDS
Two G3 Ponies
Three G1 Ponies
Three Monchhichi Figures
MLP Show Stable (no accessories but has lots of puffy stickers all over it and all the doors)
Baby Popple
Baby Tugs Plush
Pound Purry in gray!
Lady Lovely Locks Game
2 1960's Plush Toys
My Pretty Mermaid
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Dino
Fern Gully Fairy
Lady Lovely Locks Doll


The last four items on the list I intend to keep for trades, so let me know what you've got! After finding so many fun things at the thrift shop for dirt cheap I was reminded once again that antique stores are never a good deal, and I don't want to go broke amassing a collection so it is fun to hold out for that deal, even if it takes a while to get it.