Jewelry House

A lot of Charmkins I ordered on eBay came in today! I was super excited opening up the tissue paper wrapped pieces and discovered some of the new ones were in better condition than the ones I already had. I was lucky enough to add a few more sets to my collection. 

I was so excited to finally have the Charmkins Jewelry House so all my Charmkins could be stored inside. I was a bit disgusted by the state of it however. I should have taken some before pictures because this house was grimy! There was a brown sludge like substance all over the flowers on the awning, a dead spider in the widows walk, and tons of gunk in the shingles. So I set to work with a bottle of cleaning spray, some paper towels, and a huge number of q-tips and began cleaning. 1 hour later I was much happier with the house! Some of the stickers are still discolored, and there is some weird wear around the front steps and side porch, but overall its looking better. The front awning cleaned up nicely. The only part I'm still unhappy with is the shingles. I feel like the makers of Charmkins knew it would be hard to clean someday. But now I finally have a cute house for Charmkins photos!

Outside of Jewelry House

Inside with some Visitors

First Thrift Store Find!

So today after visiting the post office, and picking up a lovely cup of Starbucks blonde roast coffee, I decided to visit the local Salvation army. It seems like the last time I've visited any thrift store all the toys are in clean plastic bags. I remember as a kid getting to dig through bins of vintage toys at our Goodwill. This salvation army had shelves upon shelves on Beanie Babies, which I collected as a kid but I will never feel the need to buy any more of those (I'm sure we have at least 100). There were a few Care Bear Plush animals, but after inspecting the tags they were from 2004.

And then I noticed a little green haired doll sitting all alone among the stuffed toys. I didn't think twice before picking her up. She had $.49 written on her foot, and I figured fifty cents isn't bad for any toy! And once she was purchased and slipped into my purse I checked Ghost of the Doll and sure enough she is a 1981 Strawberry Shortcake doll named Lime Chiffon. She may be missing her parrot, socks (poor girl) and shoes, but her hat is still held on her head with a tag and overall I am so happy I rescued her! Not bad for my first thrift store trip!

Charmkins for Dessert

Lately the Charmkins seem to want to join the fun no matter which toys are getting their pictures taken. Today they decided to play among the Tea Bunnies tasty treats.

Also figured out how to do photo montages on my phone. So here is some of that!

Pony Salon

Tonight was attempt #2 of Pony Hair styling. I managed to acquire most of these ponies from a blind grab bag on the MLP arena. I was pretty happy with who showed up! I still have to figure out everyone's name, but I'm sure they were happy to get a new 'do. I'll post pictures of the results once their hair is dry. Curling worked much better with straws and the butterfly type clips. Attempt #1 consisted of bobby pins, paper towels, safety pins, and frustration.

Huddling around the sink waiting

Ponies decide to take advantage of my space heater

Pony Collection after their Hair Appointment

Overall I am happy with the results! I think I still need to work on my curling technique, but all my ponies look much nicer and they are quite happy indeed!

Childhood Collection: Whats left of the Tea Bunnies...

A few months ago I went on a toy raid around my house. It had been years since I had actively sought out any of my childhood toys. I realized I had a Fairy winkles piece on my dresser, a Mimi and the Googoos wedding cake on my shelf and a stuffed Tea Bunny doll sitting at the top of the stairs. Somehow the plush magically vanished the next time I visited, but the rest were recovered. Luckily I was able to fish what I could find of the Tea Bunnies from a bin of old toys at the top of the stairs. As kids, my sister and I also loved playing with American Girls line of AG Minis, which were amazing. At a certain point in time we rounded up all the miniatures we could find an added them to the AG Mini playsets. At this point the AG Mini "World" took up an entire table and bookshelf of our room. I wish I had a picture of it, since it was truly magnificent in the eyes of a child. No matter! Here are the Tea Bunny pieces I rescued from the AG Mini Bin.

Charmkins

Another package came in the mail today. I found a lot with three of the carrying cases on eBay. They may be missing their Charmkins, but until then mine had a great time checking out the beautiful scenery inside.

Fairy Winkles

Besides Littlest Pet Shop, Kenner also made a line of toys called Fairy Winkles. These appeared to be everyday objects, but they had hidden compartments where fairies could hide. I had a few of these sets as a kid. Mainly the Clock, Swan, Mail away Necklace, Jewelry Box, and Perfume Bottle. This was another toy I spent a bit of time rounding up, but only managed to find the perfume bottle and 3 fairies, one of which is the mail away fairy. It still blows me away that I could convince my mom at age 4 to send away for the locket necklace. But there is evidence she did! I'm sure I wore it as much as I wore my Littlest Pet shop Puppy necklace.

Magic Mirror Swan

Mail away Locket

Cozy Keepsakes

Twinkle Time Nursery Clock

Fabulous Hair Friends

This doll took me awhile to identify. I ended up finding out through a forum that she is a "True Friends" Fabulous Hair Friends. All I remember is owning a few of them and their arms would link together behind their backs and form a chain. This is another toy I would love to own just that one set. The rest don't appeal to me very much. They remind me a bit of Betty Spaghetti.

Polly Pocket

I have a chest in my attic full of Polly Pockets. I don't feel the need to buy any more, maybe ever! But one of my favorite Polly Pockets is a Locket I had when I was a little girl. Inside is still a picture of me at age 3. It still has the polly that goes with it. I loved pink and gemstones, so its no wonder I chose this one.

A friend of mine sent me some extra Polly Pockets for Christmas. Among them was one I knew I had as a girl growing up! It was the lovely lady below riding her horse. You could wear her as a ring too! Its no wonder I ended up going to school for Jewelry, I even loved it as a girl!

Krystal Princess

Krystal Princesses are another toy I stumbled across on eBay. I had a few as a kid but couldn't remember the name, and I honestly have no idea which ones I owned. I found these in a random lot on eBay and couldn't pass up the chance to own a few. They are not complete and it would take me awhile to even figure out which set they belong to. So I'm happy just owning a few.

Littlest Pet Shop

In the 90's Kenner made a line called Littlest Pet Shop. This was one of my favorite toys as a kid! I had the blue 1992 carrying case full of animals. At the time I was 3 so you can imagine I didn't keep my toys together very well. By the time I was 10 I realized that I had no idea where my LPS animals were so I conducted a house wide search to find anything from the Littlest Pet Shop line. All I could find was maybe 10 random pieces. I was pretty sad but put them away in a box and figured I would keep looking. It wasn't until June of this year when I started buying them on eBay. Since then I've become a bit obsessed and have gone beyond my wildest LPS dreams. A few of my favorite sets are below. I was lucky enough to win a lot with the Merpet sets which are quite hard to come by. Even though I didn't own these as a kid, I'm sure I would have loved them!

Mommy Mer Catfish

Kissing Sea Bunny

Swingin' Sea Star Monkey

Ocean Goin' Guppy Puppy

Paw Print Club Bunnies and Kitties

Merbabies

These I didn't have as a kid, but I couldn't resist how cute the meranimals are! These are quite hard to find on eBay but i managed to find one at a reasonable price.

Coral

Starcastle

Starcastle was one toy I almost forgot I owned until I found them again. This was one toy line I was only interested in buying a few of. I knew as a kid I had a set that turned into a Tea Set. I love tea even now so I really wanted to find this one and save it for my future family. I think its very important to be able to show your children what type of toys you loved as a kid. Since my mom had a very interesting method of cleaning (dumping whole drawers of things into the trash), many of my childhood toys are either gone or scattered everywhere. I was very excited to find these two sets on eBay!

Under the Sea Kaleidoscope Locket

Magical Tea Party Playset- Variation 1 

My Little Pony

When I was 6 I had my first slumber party with a friend of mine. We went to the local general store and rented the My Little Pony Movie. All I really remember from it is the Flutter Ponies, and the Bushwoolies. I didn't watch it again for almost 17 years, and although it was a bit funny to watch I did enjoy it. I've begun to collect a few of the G1 ponies, mostly flutter ponies, but I've found a few other ones that I find adorable!

This weekend I had a bit of time to play Pony Salon with my small collecting. Some of my ponies hair was looking quite sad so I set them all up next to the bathroom sink for a new hair do. I must admit they looked adorable looking up at me expectantly, waiting to be pampered. My attempts at pony curls were only partially successful. Since I didn't take a picture I plan on it next time! Until then here is a newly styled Fizzy and Rose Dust, both of who had their hair done.

Twinkle Eyed Fizzy

Rose Dust

Tea Bunnies

These 90's toys were my sisters favorite, but we played with them together. One tea bunny set even came with a platter full of plastic desserts, with miniature versions for your tea bunny to share along in the fun. 

This is Rose Bonnet 

Charmkins

Allure of Vintage Toys: Charmkins

In the last six months I've fallen in love with Vintage 80's and 90's toys. The most recent attraction has been Hasbro's line of Charmkins from the 80's. I'm still waiting for a few more packages from eBay, but until then here are some sneak peaks of my collection.

Back of a Charmkins Card 

The Charmkins decide to visit a few other toys.