Back from Vacation with Goodies! :)

Hi everyone!  I'm back after 6 wonderful days at the ocean. :)  My family and I had a wonderful time.  I also brought my Maggie doll, and she blogged all about her experiences on "Jane Austen and Unicorns".  You can read her first post about the trip HERE. 

Meanwhile, here are some of my favorite pics from the trip.

It was a wonderful vacation...just what we all needed. :)  There are some great pics of my family too, but per my hubby's request, I'm trying to keep this blog free of pics of the girls, for their security.  Just thought I'd throw that in, in case you thought I liked the pics of my dolls better than the pics of my girls. ;)

Now, you might have noticed a couple of new dolls in the picture.  There's a funny story about that. :) 

A few days before we left, I thought I'd check the Humboldt County Craigslist, just in case they had anything I couldn't live without.  Lo and behold, there was someone selling a lot of two AG dolls with some extra clothes.  I could tell from the picture that it was Jess in Kaya's meet outfit and Julie in a mishmash of AG clothes.  The seller wanted $75 for everything!! 

I emailed her right away, explaining that I would be vacationing in the area and would love to come meet her, and that I was very interested.  Then I sat back on pins and needles, hoping everything would work out.  I called my mom and told her about what I'd found (since she's now my doll buddy and was coming, too). ;)  I had $45 to spend, and I figured if we went in together, we could get everything.  

I finally heard back from the seller the night before we left.  We arranged a day to meet and exchanged phone numbers.  So, that's how I found myself, on the second day of my trip, pooling money together with my mom and purchasing 2 dolls and some clothing for the price of one eBay doll!! :D  Here's a pic of everything we got:

The clothes ended up being a lot of odds and ends. 

Here we have the mesh hoodie from the 2005 JLY "Seaside Wardrobe" set, the AG backpack from the 2006 JLY "Backpack set for dolls", a gray and pink Battat skirt, the blue dress from the JLY "Ballet Recital Outfit" from 2006, and a homemade knit hat.

In this picture, we have the detachable spider legs from the 2004 JLY "Spider Witch Costume" and the white away jersey from the 2006 JLY "2-in-1 Soccer Outfit", plus the backpack and skirt from the first pic.

We also got Julie's meet hat, Jess's meet skirt, and the pink corduroy jacket from the JLY 2006 "Petals and Plaid Outfit".

Here we have a gold Build-a-Bear skirt, the bottoms to the 2005 JLY "Star PJs", a random little mini soccer goal, and a pink pillow, as yet unidentified but tagged AG.

Jess came wearing Kaya's meet dress and moccasins.  We think the seller might have thought that Jess was Kaya, because she talked about this being the outfit she came in, and apologized for cutting her hair. 

Julie came in her meet shirt, a Build-a-Bear skirt that was way too big for her, and the boots from the 2005 JLY "Sightseeing Outfit".

Both dolls required some pretty major cleanup.  Their previous owner had obviously been a budding makeup artist.  Jess had makeup over, around, and in her eyes, and a huge makeup mark on her forehead.

She also had this really nasty white stuff in her mouth...I'm thinking it was some sort of sparkly makeup.

This shows the makeup on her eyes.  Thankfully, it was all dry stuff that came up fairly easily between the Lysol wipes and the magic eraser I used. :)

Unfortunately, when I got Jess undressed, I discovered this huge mark on her chest...

...and this one on her thigh.  I was really worried that they were permanent marker stains, but when I looked closer, I realized they were also makeup stains.

Front view...

...and back view.  Her hair is a bit dry and will greatly benefit from a Downy dunk.

A few marks on her foot...these also came up easily with the Magic Eraser.

Julie, showing off her makeup job.

Another close-up of her face (that was NOT supposed to be sideways...oh, lovely Blogger!).

General gunk and goop on her face.  The only thing that didn't come up was the small blue dot on her chin.  I'm hoping to do an Oxy treatment on that in the coming weeks.

Julie's hair was really not that bad, but I am still planning on doing Downy on her, too.  Partially because both dolls' hair and all of the clothes smelled pretty strongly of patchouli oil...ick.

Despite their minor flaws, both dolls had really tight limbs, as you can see from these two pics.

Sorry Jess's is so blurry, but it's the only one I have.

The girls after their skin clean-up.

Much better!!  The makeup is still on Jess's cloth.  Mom and I are thinking of trying a Tide pen and seeing what that does.

Julie looked incredible after her clean up. :)

Mom and I decided to split things 50/50.  I was tempted to keep Jess, but I already have so many brown- haired, brown-eyed dolls and no blonds, so it made more sense to keep Julie.  I decided to make her modern and change her name to Rachel Jane Benson. :)  She is an initially shy, exuberant girl who loves Marvel heroes, Muppets, and the ocean. 

Rachel with her favorite superhero:  Thor.

My mom is keeping Jess.  We divvied up the clothes and that's that!!  It was such an exciting added bonus to our trip. :D

There were a few other doll-sized goodies I found while on vacation.  I thought you might enjoy seeing those things, too.  Here's a pic of Maggie with all of our souvenirs:

And now, for some close-ups. :)

This is a little plastic unicorn I found for Maggie at a toy store in the mall.

I got a set of 3 of these little white pails at Dollar Tree.

This little Hello Kitty container was at the same toy store where I got the unicorn.  It has two putty erasers that work like modeling clay for the dolls.  The case is a little small to be a lunch box, but looks really cute on Hailey's Hello Kitty shelf. :)  My mom bought me the mini starfish at a shell souvenir shop.

I found these two "Dippin' Dots" ice cream container lip balms at Dollar Tree, too.

These two gift books were at a little gift shop in Old Town Eureka. 

Here's one of the pages of the Strawberry Shortcake book.  I love that it's the Strawberry Shortcake that I grew up with! :)

This mini Raisin Bran box was from part of my continental breakfast served by the hotel my hubby and I stayed at one night.

Here's a pack of 30 cute mini claws, also from Dollar Tree.

This was Maggie's souvenir from the shell shop:  a bottle of Pirate's Gold! ;)

This mini picture frame was another Dollar Tree purchase.

My mom bought me this place mat at Kohl's to use as a rug for my dolls (sorry the pic is sideways).

I found this cute mini tea set in a box at the same store where I found the gift books.

It came with a little mini book on tea...

...the tea set itself...

...and two sheets of stickers to make your own customized tea set.

Here's how my set turned out.  I used this as a souvenir for Tess.  Oh, and the paper doily came with the set, too. :)

Well, that's about it for now.  We had a great time, but we're all glad to be home.  I have some other things to share with you, but I think I'll save those for another post. :)