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.

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.