Eye See You

Japan is well known for it's more "interesting" inventions & trends. A style that has caught my eye personally in the last few years is something known as "gurokawa". What is gurokawa, you might ask? If you look at the name in Japanese, it's written as グロかわ. "Guro" being Japanese shorthand for "grotesque", and "kawa" being the first part of かわいい--"kawaii" (Japanese for "cute"). So mashed together, you have a new word that is used as a catch-all for things that can be labeled as "weirdly cute".

It's not entirely clear exactly when this term was coined (or who officially created it); but since it's inception, the label has been used to describe everything from the art of Japanese artist Junko Mizuno to the wildy popular Gloomy Bear toys. But gurokawa isn't just limited to art and toys, of course! The idea of gurokawa has also creeped into fashion. And recently, the biggest trend to come from this theme is without a doubt, eyeballs!

Photos from TokyoFashion.com

That's right! Everywhere you look lately, it seems that eyeballs are one of the hottest accessories to add to outfits. Even outside of Japan, designers seem to be taking notice of this trend--even Etsy is FULL of creative ways to add some eyeballs to fashion, from necklaces to fake nails!

So what brought on this strange new love of eyeballs, one might ask? While eyeballs have been used in pop art and fashion before over the years (they're heavily used in biker and rockabilly styles, for example), some people are attributing this recent trend to none other than Kyary Pamyu Pamyu---the Japanese fashion model/blogger turned recording artist. Her break-out single ("PonPonPon") became an almost overnight sensation, thanks to it's over-the-top music video that went viral...complete with eyeball themes throughout!

Screencaps from the video--see the full official music video HERE.

It could be a coincidence, of course, but the steady rise of eyeball accessories popping up everywhere and Kyary's recent popularity seems too close to ignore.

I for one love this recent trend! Of course, I couldn't pull off anything as crazy over-the-top as Kyary. But a pair of eyeball earrings or a colorful broach can add a fun touch of weird to a normal outfit. (And I for one, can never resist adding a little more weirdness to my life. ;D )

What do you guys think? Too over the top? Or do you find eyeballs in fashion to already be a tired theme? What other unusual things do you like to see in fashions? (Bats? Lips? Platipi? XD)

Until next time!
♥Usamimi

New nails

 

My bunnies from Easter were starting to chip pretty badly, so I decided it was time for some new nails. I've always wanted to try doing zebra stripes (since it seemed pretty easy), so I went full-out "Lisa Frank" (as one of my friends called it, lol!) and tried some RAINBOW zebra stripes! Not too bad for a first attempt. I took this pic with my phone (while I was out thrifting on Thursday, actually), so it's hard to tell, but some of the stripes came out a tad smudgy. But from far away, it still looks pretty cool, so I don't mind too much. I was thinking of trying it with some pastel colors next time. 

What kind of nail art do you guys like? The crazy over the top deco nails, like the ones from Japan? Or more subdued & simple ones? Lately I've been sort of obsessed with nail polish & nail art, so I love hearing about other people's favorite nail polishes & techniques. ^__^

Til next time!

♥Usamimi

TToF: A bundle of cute

It's Friday night! Time for another exciting episode of--!

Dun dun dun DUUUUN! :)

Only 2 finds this week, but they were pretty cute, so I was happy with them! First up:

Six (SIX!) Care Bear pillow plushies! I was digging through the stuffed animals and found the Birthday Bear (the yellow one) first...as I continued to dig, I found the others one by one. These are similar to that Strawberry Shortcake cushion I found a while back--originally, they were sold as fabric that you sewed into the pillows yourself. These are actually from the 80s, and even though they're already sewn together, the going rate seems to be around $10 each on eBay. The Goodwill I got these at sells most of their stuffed animals for 49 cents each, so I got all 6 of these for $2.94 plus tax, which isn't too bad! A couple of them have eyes that look kinda funny, but overall I think they're pretty cute. xD

And second: The Heidi Kenny (of MyPaperCrane) designed strawberry donut plush released by Kidrobot! This really surprised me, considering that originally this plush is kind of on the expensive side (retails for about $25!). I've always liked her work (if you've never checked out her website, do it--SO much cute!), so I recognized it instantly. I guess since it was so cute looking, the Goodwill put it with the stuffed animals instead of the pillows; so it, too was only 49 cents! Definitely not something I thought I'd find second hand. It's practically brand new as well--the fabric is super soft! There's a couple of marks on the back, but I think I'll be able to clean that off gently with some soapy water if it's just marker like I think it is.

Grand total this trip: $3.43 + tax
A fun, cute haul this week! And pretty cheap, too, which is always a bonus. What do you guys think?

Til next time!
♥Usamimi

TToF: The Return

(Oooh, sounds creepy for a post made on Friday the 13th, huh?)

Hey, everyone! Sorry I missed posting the last couple of Fridays...I've been a little busy, so I had to put it on hold. But I promise to try to keep up on it again. ;D Soooo, without further adieu!

Whoo!

So April 2nd was my birthday! And for my birthday, I decided to go thrifting in the morning, to see if my birthday got me any extra luck. My boyfriend and I went to 2 different places, and I actually ended up finding some pretty awesome stuff!

From L-R:
--2 old t-shirts to make into more t-shirt bags: top one is The Beatles, the bottom is a "Marvel Girls Rule!" ladies tee with Storm, Phoenix, and The Invisible Woman
--a G3 Cheerilee MLP
--a vintage '84 Care Bear Cousin plus of Gentle Heart Lamb! I was stupidly excited about this because since I started looking for Care Bears while thrifting, 99% of the ones I find are either the 90s or early 00s. So finding this was pretty cool!
--an old copy of "Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales". I honestly have no idea how old this book is because there's surprisingly no date inside (unless I completely overlooked it), but it looked old and the cover was neat, so I snapped it up
--an old 90s promo CD of "Songs from Disney's Fantasia & Other Disney Classics"
--a cute plastic cereal bowl with a strawberry printed on the bottom
--and the most surprising find: the limited edition version of the Complete .Hack//Sign DVD box set...including the pin set! Although one of the pins is apparently missing, but everything else was there! Zack & I were shocked...there was no price, so when we brought it up to the counter, we asked and the woman shrugged & said, "it's DVDs, right? All DVDs are $2.99."
I only ever saw like 3 episodes of this series, but for 3 bucks? Hell yeah, I'll try it out. XD We figured it would be worth more than that, since it's out of print, so I was amused to see that most people want to sell it for between $50-180. Crazy, right?

Not pictured: a couple more books I picked up (nothing as nice as the fairy tale book, lol) and a glass oil/wax warmer (I've been meaning to buy a new one, since I got rid of my old one when I moved--I would've taken a pic of it with the other things, but I already started to use it.)

All for less than $10! I was pretty excited about that. I guess birthdays do give you a little extra good luck, huh? ;D

Til next time!
♥Usamimi

Happy Easter!

I love bunnies, so Easter designs are some of my favorites. So to celebrate Easter, I did my nails in--what else?--bunnies! :D What do you think? It's my first try at a bunny design, so for a first attempt, I think it came out well.

Have a safe & happy Easter! And for those who don't celebrate it, Happy Sunday/Half-Priced-Chocolate-Bunnies Day Eve! ;D

♥Usamimi

TToF: The 90's edition

Friday night! You know what that means!

AWWWWW YEAH.

I feel old in the respect that some people consider 90's stuff to be "vintage" now. XD But I will admit that there are plenty of 90's stuff that I love and/or remember fondly. And my last few Goodwill finds are prime examples of that.

GIANT CARE BEAR! Haha, I actually have a large Cheer Bear that was a gift from my mother that's about this size. But this one, I've been keeping on my bed, sort of using it as another pillow. XD She's so soft and comfy--and big! (I put a pen next to it so you could get an idea.) I didn't know which Care Bear it was, since it's one of those newer characters they made up more recently...I looked it up and she's apparently Harmony Bear.

This one was $1.99 + tax.

I really couldn't pass this one up--Animaniacs pillow cases! There were two of them, and I knew my boyfriend could use a new one, so I snapped these up. We both used to love the cartoon, so now we're total dorks with Animaniacs pillows on our bed. TOTALLY HIGH CLASS, right? Right. XD

$1.99 for the set of two + tax.

I've been wanting to try out a tutorial I found for making reusable t-shirt tote/grocery bags...and I thought this was a cool print that could work well for something like that. (Once I try it out, I'll be sure to post here about it.) Definitely makes me think of the 90's.

$1.49 (on sale!) + tax.













And last, but not least:

High top sneakers! (Can't get more 90's than that, can you?) Seriously, I was excited to find these, because I usually never find shoes my size in thrift stores (I have big feet, sadly ^^; )...these were like new, and fit me perfectly! I had never heard of the shoe company before ("Pastry"), so I looked them up, and they actually have some pretty cute shoes! And apparently, I got a pretty good deal on them...brand new it looks like the cheapest sneakers they have are around $30. I got these for $3.49. The photos don't do the pink trim justice, either--the metallic trim is a pink with swirls of green and gold, giving it a pearly sort of tint. It looks really neat close up.

This week's total: About $8.96 + tax


Bonus photo! What do you get for the person who has everything? A custom-made, wooden yo-yo holder, of course.

(Someone actually bought this since I took the picture, if you can believe that. XD)

Until next time!
♥Usamimi

IT LIVES!

Sorry for the lack of updates, guys! And I know I missed my thrifting post last week...^^; I'll be doing an extra-large thrifting post tonight to make up for it. Things have just been busy for me (and Allie as well), so the blog's been a little quiet. But I promise...more posts are coming soon!

♥Usamimi

TToF: The Belated Edition

Oops....so, I forgot to update yesterday for "Thrifting Thursdays on Friday". Sorry about that, guys! So without further ado~

I'm beginning to think that there's someone in this town who's slowly getting rid of a Strawberry Shortcake collection, because this is the 3rd time in several weeks I've found vintage Strawberry Shortcake stuff!

I found this old play-clock at one of the locally owned thrift stores earlier this week. It was actually more than what Goodwill charges for their toys (which is usually between .49-.99 cents) at $1.49, but I thought it was in pretty good shape for it's age, so I picked it up, anyway. It's got a few spots where the paint's been worn off, and someone tried to rip off the sticker on the front there, but otherwise it's actually in pretty good shape. I saw people selling them on Etsy for between $7-15, so I think I got an ok deal on it.

The rest of my haul isn't terribly exciting: a stack of DVDs!

I'm a sucker for DVDs (I have a crap ton of them, it's kind of sad xD), so I always make sure to keep an eye out for good ones, or even ones I can trade into Amazon for decent gift card amounts, heh. I just realized this morning that only 1 of these DVDs isn't a cartoon. Oh, how grown up I am. ;p Anyway, I got all of these for about $6, which isn't too shabby considering even used, The Lion King usually goes for around $7. (And the Robotech one is a 5-disc complete season which usually goes for around $19!)

So this week's haul was about $7.50 + tax. Not too bad!

Bonus: Since I was late posting this week, have a picture of a classy find I saw at Goodwill on Thursday--a John Deere "Tiffany" style lamp.

Is that some high style or WHAT? XD And it can be yours for the low, low price of $12.99, apparently! (And a nice dose of green for your St. Paddy's day, heehee.)

Until next time!
♥Usamimi

Geeks & High Fashion

Can we talk about how awesome "Princess Jellyfish" is for a moment?

I don't watch NEARLY as much anime as I used to when I was growing up (there's an understatement, lol)--but when a friend introduced me to "Kuragehime" (aka "Princess Jellyfish"), I gave it a shot. And boy, am I glad I did!

Meet Tsukimi. She loves to draw...and specifically, she likes to draw jellyfish. Make that LOVES to. Why? Because she is a jellyfish otaku (fanatic). If you think that's weird, she lives in a house with roommates that have similar crazy obsessions: one is in love with anything that has to do with "Records of Three Kingdoms" (and turns EVERYthing into a reference to Ancient China and/or war strategy), one is fanatical about any and all trains, one wears nothing but traditional Japanese kimono & has a small army of dolls in her room, and another is an anti-social shut-in who does nothing but draw manga night and day.

And what do they all have in common? 1. They're all scared of "trendy", beautiful people (since they are all far from being social and fashionable), 2. They're all NEETS (not in education, employment, or training--aka, jobless) and 3. They're all afraid of men. In fact, they've gone so far as to call themselves "The Amars", which basically translates into "The Nuns".

All of the Amars are geeky loners, basically, and don't really like having to talk to anyone who might not understand their respective loves & hobbies. In their little group, they feel safe and secure, knowing that they all have each other and don't have to be bothered with things that might upset them; like social gatherings, talking to people, or being forced to doing things they don't like.

But Tsukimi's life (as well as the other Amars) starts changing drastically once she meets Kuranosuke Koibuchi.

Not only is Kuranosuke a fashionable social butterfly with a wardrobe some would kill for...Kuranosuke's also a DUDE.

But when Kuranosuke helps Tsukimi save a jellyfish from an ignorant pet shop worker, little does she know that soon it will lead to haute couture make-overs and designing incredibly detailed, jellyfish-inspired dressed to the very same fashionable women that Tsukimi & the rest of the Amars have spent most of their lives trying to avoid!

While the show is a romantic sit-com sort of series, it also deals with some issues that are surprisingly heavy--dealing with things like social anxiety, for example. The Amars have had their fair share of being called names or being made fun of for their strange hobbies & fanatical behavior, and the only way they can think of dealing with it is to hold onto each other for support while shutting out the rest of the world. While this starts out as a "funny annoyance" for Kuranosuke, as the series progresses, he learns that there's no quick fix to this problem, and the only thing he can really do is to try to help Tsukimi and her friends deal with their problems as best as he can....without actually revealing to the rest of the Amars that he's actually a man, because they'd probably freak the hell out.

Funimation streamed the entire series subtitled on Hulu as well as it's own Youtube Channel. It was so popular that they recently released the entire series in a DVD/Blu-ray combo pack domestically (which I will hopefully be picking up myself whenever I get the extra cash XD)...but if you want to try it out before you buy it, I definitely recommend giving one of the streaming channels a go! Only the first 2 eps seem to be available as dubbed, but the whole thing is free to watch subtitled!

The series does sort of have an open-ending, though--probably because the manga is still ongoing. There have been rumors of a second season once more of the manga is completed, though! (I'm hoping someone will pick up the manga eventually...it's so cute!) Until then, though, this series is a sweet, fun one and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone. ;D

Until next time!
♥Usamimi

TToF: Vintage-y finds of the Cute Kind

Friday night, and I've finally pulled myself away from sewing & Mass Effect 3 long enough for this week's installment of--

Whooo! :D

Anyway, this week I managed to find quite a few "vintage-y" type things, which is always fun. I apologize in advance for some of the pictures...it's been raining like crazy the last 2 days, so the lighting's kinda crap. :/ First up!

A Snoopy bag from the 70's! I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a kid's messenger-style bag, or if it's supposed to be a diaper bag...I've tried looking for a similar design on both Etsy and eBay and came up empty handed. It was only a dollar, so I figured why not? I found out later that sadly, the zipper doesn't work...but it's still so cute (and hard to find?) that I didn't really mind so much. It's made of a vinyl material, so it's pretty sturdy. I might throw it up on Listia if I can't figure out what to do with it, heh.

Second!

An original Strawberry Shortcake "Lemon Meringue" doll from '84! I was surprised to find this...she was buried all the way at the bottom of a box of toys, and she was wearing some kind of glittery Barbie tutu. XD She did have her original socks/stockings, but that's about it. Her hair still faintly smells fruity, though, which also surprised me! I believe when these first came out, I had her along with Strawberry. She was cheaper than the Snoopy bag, but only by a penny.






The third:

I laughed when I picked this up out of the CD rack because the backside of it has a picture of Echo The Dolphin (which is probably one of the cheesiest games ever made, if you've never played it)...but when I opened it up, it was the Arcade Classics and Sonic CD instead! :|a Hmmm! I've tried finding info on this release (it has "NOT FOR RESALE" plastered all over it, so I'm not sure if this is a promo release or if it might've been bundled with something?) but haven't come up with anything yet...If anyone knows about it, I'd be interested to hear! I don't have a Sega CD System, but this set was a whopping .49 cents, so I bought it anyway. (I have a habit of picking up video games from thrift stores if they're cheap, since sometimes you never know what's worth money in that market. They could use a good cleaning, though.)

And last, but not least!

Ok, this one's not as vintage-y, but still pretty cute! This tote was the most expensive thing I bought this trip at $1.49. Not too shabby, considering totes like these are usually around $5 or more! And it's in pretty good condition, too. :D I love how the bow on her ear is shaped like a candy. Cute!


Grand total this trip: about $3.97 + tax

What do you think, guys? Worth it?

Ok, back to video games now! ;D Until next time!
♥Usamimi

A Miracle Romance!

I actually meant to post this yesterday, but I got too busy and didn't get to. But I couldn't resist posting a little something to celebrate Sailor Moon's 20TH anniversary! (Wow, something else to make me feel old, lol.)

Sailor Moon originally aired in Japan on March 7th, 1992. It didn't air on American television until about 4 years later, but it had already made it's way into some fansub distros (back in the day when fansubs were on VHS tapes). I first saw some Sailor Moon in '93 or '94 at a comic convention...I didn't know what it was, but I was drawn to the art style, and when I saw it in English on TV, I knew that it wasn't totally the same but...I was hooked. XD

I had been a fan of anime as a kid (though I didn't really know what it was at first), but Sailor Moon was one of the first series I actually got basically fanatical about. And it was the first time I was sort of into an actual "fandom" (before there was really a term for that sort of thing)--I drew lots of fanart, bought as much of the American merch as I could find (to help support the show, of course!), started actively trading VHS tapes of fansubs, and even chatting with other people online about the series & it's characters online once my family finally signed up with internet service. (Ah, dial-up and Geocities pages...seems like so long ago!)

And because of Sailor Moon, not only did I meet some amazing people through it (some friends I still know to this day!), but I honestly think that it helped me through some rough times. I know that sounds corny, but when I was young, I was painfully shy and it was very hard for me to talk to others and make friends. Sailor Moon not only helped me connect to other people, but for awhile? The Senshi where like friends I never had. And over time, I came out of my shell and DID find those friends...and I'd like to think that fandom was a small part in that.

So, yeah...some might find Sailor Moon to be outdated or corny, but who cares! I still love Sailor Moon, and if I ever have kids, you better believe they're gonna watch it eventually.

月の光は愛のメッセージ!
♥Usamimi

TToF: I'm never going to grow up

It's Friday night! You know what that means!

This week's post is basically more proof that, not matter how old I get, I'm probably never going to act like a mature adult. (As if anyone doubted THAT, right?)

I only really found one good thing at Goodwill this week, but to be fair...it's pretty awesome:

"Kawaii desu~~~!"

Yes. That is a Bobba Fett helmet. (Or should I say ME in a Bobba Fett helmet?) And not just some plastic Halloween mask, either--the full helmet! The antenna's missing, but the voice activation still works, and the batteries weren't dead! Not too shabby for $2, right?

And technically, I didn't get these yesterday...I got them today. But I figured since yesterday I didn't find much, I'd include them in today's post. ;D

OMG, TAMAGOTCHI! I was shocked to find someone selling these for $2 a piece...when I looked them up on Amazon and eBay, people wanted outrageous prices for them! (And most of them were used...these are new in the package!) I used to have at least 4 of the larger Tamagotchi back in the day...these were apparently released in 2005. I'm not sure if I want to open them and see if the batteries work, or possibly try to resell them...either way, I still think it was a pretty awesome find. >D

This week's total: about $6 plus tax

What do you think, guys? Not too shabby, right?

Til next time!
♥Usamimi

My Favorite Etsy Shops

I recently was laid off from the office job I loved very much. It's been tough, trying to find a job that I don't think I would hate, pays well enough to survive off of and preferably is tolerant of my pink hair. I just was hired for a new position at a dessert shop that is opening up near me [hooray!] but during my time off I spent a lot of time... and I don't exaggerate when I say a lot thinking about what I could do that would hopefully fulfill the previously mentioned requirements; I know that there are numerous successful Etsy vendors that can survive off selling their crafts, but I'm not a crafty person.

So I suppose when I say thinking a lot about what I could do to pay the bills, I mean thinking about what I'd want to sell on Etsy. But as I said, I'm not artistic so what I really meant was I spent a lot of time wanting to spend all my money on Etsy.


It's true. There's too much cute stuff available! So here are a few of my favorite shops...

Jihye Lee Art
This girl's nail art is fantastic. Just admire this set of Nightmare Before Christmas nails! She generally has a lot of geek themed nails -- I found her while searching for Tepig related nail art. Video games, Harry Potter and other nerd references make my heart swoon.

When I'm in a better financial situation, I'm totally gonna have to rock a set of these babies! Until that point, you should purchase a set in my stead.

Yume's Pixel Crafts

One of my favorites in the oh-so-popular perler bead category is Yume's -- I like it best because she's got a ton of cute video game related stuff [of course] as well as some anime characters [sweet] but she's also got Winnie the Pooh and Ariel -- I'm a sucker for Disney things so needless to say, Little Mermaid = win. Rather than just offering the stand alone perler beaded pixel-spritey things, she offers a variety of picture frames.

As a warning to any of my friends who may want to get pregnant; be aware I will probably be buying you this picture frame. I can't resist.


Bunny Cartoon Creations

Last but certainly far from least is Bunny Cartoon Creations -- run by Glitter Parfait's very own Usamimi <3 Just take a look at one of her past embroideries, this super adorable Pinkie Pie! One day I'll be rich and be able to commission her to do embroideries of my favorite Pokémon so I can have an ultra nerdy house. 'Til then, I'll just have to admire her work from afar, le sigh...

TToF: They can't ALL be treasures...

Friday has rolled around again! Time for another exciting edition of:

...or maybe not?

This week I actually didn't find anything all that interesting on my thrifting trip (unless you count a couple of books. But that's not exciting to post about!). So while I was looking around, I realized that this was a good opportunity to talk about some other aspects of thrifting. Obviously, you're not ALWAYS going to find something good whenever you go looking. In fact, more often than not you're going to be subjected to something that's most commonly known as "thrift horror". What's thrift horror, you might ask? It's basically the hilariously BAD junk that you see at any thrift store or garage sale...the kind of stuff you couldn't even give away. The kind of junk you see and don't know whether to laugh at or burn so that you never have to be subjected to looking at it again.

So this week, I decided to show you a couple of thrift horrors I found at one of my local Goodwill stores.

First off, we have...a cow, wearing a dress, and holding a teddy bear. At least, I think that's what it's supposed to be?

Speaking of cows...

I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a cow, or an AT-AT Walker in disguise. XD

I've seen my share of ugly clocks in thrift stores, but this one...D: Ugh. Who would voluntarily hang something like this in their home?!

And last, but not least...

We have a sad shelf of lonely, discarded bears. (That poor "artist" bear in the right corner looks so confused.)

If you can believe it, there's way worse (and funnier) thrift horrors out there to be seen. There's the Thrifthorror blog, and even a community where people can post and share their own finds at the Thrifthorror Livejournal community. Be warned--some of these are so hilariously bad, you might spend a good chunk of time looking through a lot of crazy photos. XD

Well, that's all for this week! Maybe I'll find something cool my next trip. ;D

♥Usamimi

I tried to resist, but...

Ok, I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but I'm a fan of horror movies. I also enjoy the old classic monster movies, cheesy as they are. So I guess it shouldn't be a huge surprise that, given my love of toys and dolls...I recently caved and got a few Monster High dolls. XD;;

For those who don't know, "Monster High" is a line of dolls Mattel put out that are basically modern, girly fashion doll versions of the "children" of classic monsters. I first saw one when I worked in Target back in 2010...the only one we had on the shelf for ages was "Draculaura", which is supposed to be the daughter of Dracula (obviously ;p).

I didn't really like her, surprisingly enough. I like pink, I like vampires, but...I thought she looked really weird, and that it was just another thing trying to play on the popularity of stuff like "Twilight". (Yawn.)

But then, a few months later, we finally got some more toys in stock. One of which being "Frankie Stein" (daughter of--shock!--the Frankenstein monster).

Instantly, I liked her. I'm not sure why...I'm not terribly fond of the old Frankenstein movies (though the book was interesting), but there was something about her I found appealing. It could be that she looked sort of "zombie"-chic, with her green skin and painted stitches all over. (I enjoy a good zombie movie!) So, I finally caved and got her (while she was on sale AND I could use my employee discount! Mwahaha~)

A year later, Mattel released a variant line of the dolls called "Dawn of the Dance", which I assume is supposed to be their prom dresses or something like that. And once again, I was drawn to the Frankie Stein doll...this time, I knew exactly why, though: she looked like an extra from "Jem & The Holograms"!

I loved the cute 80's look! And pink! PIIINK~! How could I resist it?! I found it for cheap, too ($9 at a discount place! It's usually around $20-25 retail, I think), though I was a little embarrassed when the clerk tried to strike up a conversation with me by saying her 10 year old daughter loved the dolls, and asked me how old MY daughter was. *hangs head in shame*

It wasn't until recently that I noticed online there is actually quite a large group of people who are older that also collect these dolls, as well as modifying them or making custom versions. Yay! I don't feel so bad about liking them, now that I know I'm not the only one. XD (You can see some of the things people do with their MH dolls in this stream HERE! Some are quite impressive and make me wish I had the time, money, and skill to paint my own!)

I only had the 2 Frankie dolls until recently, when my boyfriend was kind enough to get me one for a Valentine's Day gift--ironically enough, the "Cupid" doll!

These are pics I took when I first got it, still in the box...she's actually quite detailed, I was surprised! Her wings are skeletal, too, which I thought was a neat idea. So now I have 3...hopefully they won't multiply too much more. XD;;

I also think it's kind of cool that little girls have a "weird" fashion doll they can buy that's not Barbie or Bratz dolls and not get flak about it. Even though I think some of the MH dolls are ugly or not my taste, I probably would've eaten this crap up when I was 7 or 8 years old! (I had a soft spot for "Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School", lol XD)

What about you guys? Anyone else have one/two/twenty of these? Or do you think they're weird? I'd love to hear other people's opinions!

♥Usamimi

TToF: Strawberries & Awesome Power!

It's that time again! Another exciting installment of--

[insert fanfare here]

Haha, joking aside, this time around was certainly a prime example of quality over quantity. I only found a couple of things...but they were pretty awesome finds, which completely makes up for it.

First up is this vintage Strawberry Shortcake figurine. I was a little confused by the large number 7 sculpted onto it (at first glance, I almost thought it was a birthday candle!), but since it was only $.49 cents, I figured, "Why not?" and just scooped it up. It's really not every day I find actual vintage Strawberry Shortcake stuff and not just stuff that was remade in the early '00s (or the new, updated look Strawberry Shortcake, which I'm not terribly fond of.) When I came home later, I did some Googling and discovered that this was a line of mini ceramic statues that were made specifically to buy as birthday gifts for little girls--the number representing their age, of course. So I guess when my first thought was birthday candles, I wasn't too off, eh? XD I was surprised to only find 2 similar ones on eBay, which were going for $19-29! Interesting.

Imagine my surprise when not even 5 minutes later, in the same Goodwill, I found a second vintage Strawberry Shortcake item! When I first saw this little pillow/cushion, I wasn't entirely sure that it was a Strawberry Shortcake item because I couldn't find a tag or copyright mark on it (though the previous owner wrote her name in neat little letters on the back of it...which I thought was kind of cute). But it was only $.99, and even if it ended up not being what I thought it was, it was still cute, so I got it anyway. Again, my gut instinct was correct! I found out that this was an official SBSC item...the fabric itself was sold as a "sew-your-own" pillow pattern, which was why I couldn't find any tag or info. (Ah, isn't it cool how much useful info you find on old stuff like this just from using Google?) I was really excited about both of these, because much like I said in my previous posts...I was a child of the 80s, and I miss a lot of the cute junk I had from the cartoons. Strawberry Shortcake was another fave, so it's no exception. Here's a closer look at the cute little lady bug on the pillow:

And the last item, which has absolutely NOTHING to do with Strawberry Shortcake!

MR. SPARKLE! Ok, I will admit to being a fan of The Simpsons...y'know, back when they were actually funny. (Awww.) If you're too young to remember this ep from '97 (or you just don't watch TV), here's a clip. But for someone like me, who has seen this episode probably a million times, this was an awesome find. I actually had a Mr. Sparkle t-shirt, but I'm not sure where it is (probably in the depths of my closet somewhere). If I can't find it, this will be a nice replacement...either that, or I can make a t-shirt bag out of it. Either way, best $1.99 I spent this week, yo.

Grand total this trip: about $3.47 + tax

Another SUPAH LUCKY successful thrifting venture! Any thoughts? Feel free to leave comments!

Until next time!
♥Usamimi