Too Many Toys

My kid has a lot of toys.  It’s bad.  We’ve essentially given her a whole room (in addition to her bedroom) for toy storage.  I’ve banished her toys from the living room.  I felt like I needed to NOT HAVE TO SEE TOYS once she’s in bed.

Still, this room was out of control, and I wanted to corral it.  I was looking at those toy organizers made from bins, but didn’t really want to spend the money on something that would eventually be worthless.

I snuck me to the Container Store today… and I was in and out of there within 30 minutes.  I am pretty sure that has never happened ever.  I walk in there and start to twitch because I want everything.  I lose my mind.

But I was focused.  I went for the stacking baskets, which were okay, but saw other ones next to them that I likes better…. for only $1 more.  So 6 bins, several hours, and lots of supreme annoyance later, I have results.

Here are the BEFORE PICTURES:

Old Pantyhose Dolls. Ew!

We went to my aunt’s for thanksgiving, and she produced the creepy pantyhose dolls!  They are even worse than I remember.

Behold:

Not the best background choice. I get that.

I'm pretty sure that's a patch of fur fabric used as hair.

It also looks like I used a rubber band to create the nose.  It likely never occurred to me that it would eventually break.  And yes, I just used some blue marker for the eyes.  And stuffed it with cotton balls.

I'm pro with this one.

We’ve moved up to button eyes and yarn hair!  But we’ve lost hands.  Not sure if that’s a wash.

I actually remember this one quite well.  It was a pattern that I cut out, and then cut fabric to match the pattern.  Of course I hadn’t the slightest idea how to sew.  No one I knew did things like that at the time.  In fact, if a coat lost a button….we probably just got new coats.

So anyway, there are the aforementioned dolls.  BTW, I would like to confirm that is indeed a word.

Owl Softie

I like owls.  I like little dolls.  I like creepy things.  Apparently, I used to make little dolls for my aunt out of pantyhose.  It probably wasn’t even clean pantyhose.  But I digress.

I saw a design for an owl and Raccoon softie in an Aimee Ray book, and I took the basic outline and then went my own way with it.  Rules hurt my heart.  I didn’t plan what I was going to do…I kind of made it up as I went along.  I was initially thinking of putting a big bug on the belly, but I ultimately decided that would be too much and that I would save the bugs for another project.  I’ve got lots of ideas for bugs.  Don’t worry.

Blue stitching? Why not?

Ready for stuffing!

I get a big kick out of this photo.

He's a leaner.

In retrospect, I could have added a little panel on the bottom so that he could stand on his own.  As it is, he has to lean against something.  Oh well….live and learn.  Or fall flat on your face for the rest of your life…like this poor little owl.

Cabbage Patch Kid Rescue (Part 3 of 3)

Alllll done!  Don’t they look nice?  I bought the Spanish CPK outfit from eBay… and the purple one from Etsy.  Somehow, they only look right in their original outfits, though.  I also bought a lot of shoes from eBay…so I’ll get them on as soon as they arrive.

Trimming the fuzzies off the hair was a huge pain in the ass, but it REALLY made a difference.  I highly recommend it.  Here’s close-ups of the gals with hair:

Sweet!  So now where am I supposed to put them?

 

Cabbage Patch Kid Rescue (Part 2)

The fan-drying method worked just fine!  The cat was pissed, though.  My only complaint is that the fabric and yarn does not feel as soft as I think it should…almost too dry.  On their faces, I used a combination of Magic Eraser (but I avoided the paint) and Bon Ami with a toothbrush on the painted areas.  I have such an irrational fear of Magic Erasers, because WHAT MAKES THEM SO MAGICAL?  Seriously, those things can remove any stain from ANYTHING.  HOW????  I always wash my hands after I touch them.

Anyway, here are the CPKs all clean and dry.  The preemie is already hanging out upstairs in her preemie outfit.

Clean and dry and nekkid

Here are some face close-ups for comparison with the “Part 1” posts.

Couldn't get out all the stains =(

Next, I’m starting the hair.  I read that I need to trim all the yarn fuzzies with very sharp scissors.  I started with Jessica’s because that looked the hardest.  Check out all this fuzziness.

Yay!  Anyway, the next (and last) post will be with everyone’s hair complete and with everyone dressed.  The old, stained clothing is another problem…it’s so old that you can hear the elastic break when you stretch anything.  Gah.  Hellloooo Etsy and eBay!!!

Cabbage Patch Kid Rescue (Part 1)

So I was at my parents’ house yesterday, and came across a bag filled with my sister’s and my own old cabbage patch kids.  Unfortunately, it seems several generation of mice also made their home in the bag….ruining some of the clothes.  For some reason, they left the dolls alone!  But of course, the dolls are probably ridden with mouse excrement and disease.  GROSS!  I found a couple online articles about cleaning up old CPKs, but I have no idea how successful I will be.

Here are the dolls stripped so we can see how they looked before I did anything.  Only one was my sister’s- the one with the short blond hair.  Notice the difference between her doll and my three relatively clean dolls.  Some may say her doll is just more loved.  Maybe.  I DO remember her doll being tossed at the kitchen ceiling fan, so maybe our brothers had something to do with it, as well.  =)

I apologize in advance for the creepy molesterish-looking photos.

My first doll

My preemie Wilhemenia. Wow, I butchered that.

She owes her extreme cleanliness to a bunny costume.

Jessica, WHY IS IT SO FILTHY

Okay, so we got the “before” shots.  I wish I remembered their names.  =(  I’m not even solid on the preemie’s name.  So step one is to squirt the stains (which was Jessica’s whole doll) with stain remover.  I used Shout because that’s what I had.

All Shout-ed up

The next step is going to be tying each doll in a pillow case and tossing them in the washing machine.  I am going to wash them in a gentle cycle on cold and then on hot.  Why?  I don’t know.  That’s how I washed my cloth diapers.  It just feels okay.  I’m just waiting for Gretchen to wake up because otherwise the big doll heads clanging around in the washer will surely do the trick.  And we should all know that a sleeping baby is one of the world’s greatest joys.

Woot!  The dolls were machine-washed on cold, then hot.  Jessica’s doll had to be shouted again and washed on hot twice.  I think the bodies are much improved, but I still see some black dots.  It was recommended that I wrap each doll in a towel and squeeze the life out of them to help them dry, but I opted for a fan.  Whatever, they’re cleaner than they were.

I wanted a Magic Eraser, but Justin wouldn’t get me one from Target.  Instead, I tried using Bon Ami and a toothbrush to scrub the preemie.  It definitely cleaned, but I managed to get the powder on the body and get the fabric wet.  Meh.  I’ll try the Magic Eraser next.