Barbie The Movie and The Album

Aahh! Barbie The Movie came out and i saw it at the cinema on the first day of showing!

Barbie The Movie poster

I brought my Barbie bag, and my Barbie journal, which is not in the photo because it was inside the bag, lol.

I brought my Barbie Spy Squad Cat Burglar doll, too.

Cat Burglar posing in front of the Barbie The Movie poster

I enjoyed the movie very much so!

I also went to the Barbie The Album official listening party here, which was actually a dance party!

Saw this on the stairway

Buffet food

Cocktail called “Barbie” but I didn’t get mine because I had to drive back home afterwards.

Desserts

Lots of dancing

And I won a movie poster and notepad!

Pretty cool!!!

Life Update

Hello!

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting in a long while. I’ve made a lot of changes in my life and that includes my hobby here which is doll collecting. I’ve sold many of the dolls I’ve rescued and collected because I want to minimize my collection. I haven’t made doll dioramas in years, so I figured I should let go of most of the doll props and furniture I’ve collected and stored in plastic bins and also boxes under my bed. It’s kinda sad because I used to be passionate about it, but there’s still a part of me that knows that if I ever want to come back and make doll dioramas again, I’m always welcome to do so.

About my health, I’m doing better. I’ll never know if I caught COVID or not because I didn’t get severely sick over the past couple of years. I had a flu once but that’s about it. I’m grateful that I’ve also lost some weight. I try my best to take a lot of steps every day because each of it adds up. I might not see the results I want now, but I remain hopeful that someday I will.

Also I dropped my Hungarian studies because I lost interest to continue studying it. I’m still thankful that I once knew how to read basic Hungarian, and if the opportunity arises that I become interested again, I have my workbook that I can go back to. I tried going back to studying Thai but it’s really difficult, maybe more difficult than Hungarian because of the tones and the characters, and also I lost the interest. I’m taking up Korean now and so far, so good. I love learning about its sentence patterns, and it just seems much easier to handle and accessible for me. I got started on the Duolingo app but felt it’s not enough so I went and got a physical workbook too. The language has similar sounding words to Japanese (which I studied in the past) so I get thrilled whenever I encounter such words such as:

Newspaper (JP: shimbun, KR: shinmun)

Library (JP: toshokan, KR: doseogwan, let’s add Mandarin because why not: tushuguan)

Bag (JP: kaban, KR: kabang)

Mountain (JP: it’s yama but they also use -san as suffix eg. Mt. Fuji/Fuji-san, KR: san)

It’s really fun.

Back to my dolls… I still have a strong attachment to some of my dolls. I’m definitely keeping my Lotties to name a few. Basically most of them are gifts or prizes I won back then, so I’m emotionally invested. I just want to declutter most of my possessions before I start playing again (oh you know, taking pictures of them and stuff).

That’s about it. Peace out!

P.S. I can’t seem to sign in to my Blogger profile so that I can reply to comments! I don’t know what’s going on or how to fix it right now. I’m sorry I can’t reply to comments I received here. 

Jamie’s Toy Blog Facebook Page

Hello! I just set up a new Facebook page for my blog and Instagram account. Hope you can give it a follow or like. I’m slowly building it so that it will get easier each time to update it every now and then. 

https://facebook.com/jamiestoyblog

See you there!

/Oh my, I’m cleaning up my comment section because I haven’t noticed in a long while that I’ve gotten a lot of spam comments. Sorry if you’ve ever encountered such message. Don’t click on any suspicious links for your safety!

Lottie’s World: Horse Grooming

Here’s my current collection of doll horses.

I didn’t intend to build a small collection like this. I just started with one horse, the Barbie horse (far right), because it was the only one I could find at the moment, then I found the Battat horse (far left), and thought, hey I don’t have a bigger horse oh this must be nice. Then I forgot about it. Then recently I found two horses from the Spirit Riding Free line and suddenly remembered the movie. It was so good! I haven’t seen the series yet and I only know of Spirit, the one with the dark mane, but the other one, I had to look up. Its name is Chica Linda, but I digress. 

So I thought of taking pictures of the horses with Muddy Puddles!

With the Battat Horse

Not the best shots because I was using natural light and I feel that the size of the horse blocked the light on Muddy Puddles’ face. Oh well.

With the Barbie horse

There’s nothing much to say here, lol.

With Chica Linda

At first I was doubtful if I could take decent photos of Chica Linda when she’s looking down like that, but her pose somehow shows a story here, like komaybe she’s asking for pets, haha. I totally forgot to add to place the body brush on Muddy Puddles, oops.

With Spirit

I actually got Spirit with a missing tail, and it’s an easy fix with yarn, but I haven’t replaced it because I ran out of brown yarn. So for these photos, I made sure to position Spirit and Muddy Puddles this way so that we don’t see his lack of tail.

As for my life updates, I’m back in the city. I don’t know if I’ve written about it before, yes I’m back, but I’m living on my own. Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it’s not, but I can deal with it. I just got my booster shot the other day and experienced some side effects like my vaccine site swelling, a slight fever and tiredness but I read that’s just normal. While I was sick, I slept most of the day to recover and drank lots of fluids. I don’t have fever anymore and feel much better, but have lost my appetite. I’m just eating my meals because I have to but I’m not enjoying it. It will get better, I just know it. Hope this finds you in good health. Stay safe!

Lottie’s World: Squid Game Doll Dress

I finally got the energy to sew something for Lottie.

I bought a pack of felt from Mr. DIY and downloaded this dress pattern for Lottie and modified it so that I could make a dress similar to the one worn by the doll from the Netflix show called Squid Game. I made this last month:

The colors are off. I can explain. There were two kinda of orange felt from the pack I bought, but I didn’t want to mess with the darker orange felt before I got the modification correctly, so I used the lighter orange.

I also didn’t want to copy the dress the exact same way. I took some artistic liberty to make the sleeves of the orange overall dress a bit capped and the neckline much higher. 

The sleeves of the yellow top is also shorter because the material is stiff and I don’t want the thickness of it to affect Lottie’s articulation.

The darker orange looks a bit too bright though for the costume, yes?

I used an Instagram filter to make the dress look darker and match the Squid Game doll dress, haha. 

I don’t know if I want this for Lottie’s Halloween costume or I’m gonna make another one. I’ll think about it.

I styled the dress differently afterwards. Lottie is wearing a Paddington Bear hat, a Licca watch and Muddy Puddles’ rain boots. 

Now she reminds me of Madeline and it gives me ideas, hahaha.

Lottie’s World: A Photo Dump

Dear Readers,

I haven’t written a blog in months. As per a previous blog entry, I mentioned that I wanted to focus on my health. It’s been a journey and it’s taking a long while to achieve my health goals but I’m getting there. I’m doing fine, I feel fine. You don’t have to worry about me. ✊

Anyway I just want to post some photos I took of my Lotties a little while back.

They’re playing with My Mini MixieQ’s, the ones I received as gift from Melissa. Thank you! So grateful.

These two girls are playing this fishing game. It’s a tiny one I found at Toys R Us and I thought the fishing rods are a good size for Lottie dolls.

I took photos of Branksea Festival Lottie by herself because I rarely photograph her on her own. She is so cute!

I shall try taking photos again soon. Hope some inspiration comes by. 

Stay safe!

Doll Collecting During The Pandemic

Honestly, struggling to keep a hobby during this pandemic should be the least of my worries, because people are getting sick and dying all over the world and it can come off as insensitive, but for the rest of us who have managed to be covid-free (So thankful!!) and choose to stay at home to self-isolate, I think it can be a big deal. It’s challenging during these times to keep the mind healthy.

My doll collecting has been affected mainly because I had to move out of the city to live with my dad in his rural hometown. If I remember correctly, even before the pandemic happened, I have decided to stop doll blogging indefinitely, but it didn’t mean I stopped collecting dolls. I still enjoyed it.

The community quarantine here is still not lifted, so mobility is not as easy and carefree as it was before, but it has laxed a bit so I could go to the mall sometimes to get a few things I need. Sometimes I would also drop by the toy section at the department store quickly to check toys and if there are price drops and all, take pictures of things I like, then leave immediately. That’s how I’ve managed to update my Instagram account with photos of dolls and miniature toys, because of those quick trips to toy aisles, and also because I spend some of my time online, looking at doll listings on Facebook, and would take screen shots of doll photos over there.

Here are two that I found:

Oh my, it’s Zombie Belle from the Once Upon A Zombie line! I rarely see this on Facebook but here we are and I choose not to buy it even if I want to. I mean, my Zombie Alice could use some company.

And there’s a Lottie doll too. I would have bought this in a heartbeat, under normal circumstances.

But I couldn’t.

First, shipping is an issue for me because I am living in a rural area. It takes more effort and money for stuff to be shipped where I am right now. If I were back home in the city, it might be easier, but...

Things do add up and when I think more and more about it, it makes me uncomfortable. P200 for Lottie, P350 for Zombie Belle. Plus 2 separate shipping fees because these do not come from the same seller. I feel awful just thinking of the money I would spend for collecting stuff when I could use that money first for food and other necessities. It feels unwise to give in. So to compensate, I just saved these listings on Facebook and posted pics here for posterity. 

Maybe it’s just a phase. Maybe it’s the selfish consumer part of me wanting to buy the dolls, when I have lots already. Maybe I just miss the thrill of buying dolls online.

I’ve been reading and watching materials about minimalism lately, and felt the need reevalute my life and how it revolved around possessions. It’s not an easy assessment. I HAVE SO MANY DOLLS. Why do I keep wanting more??? I have no clear answer to this question but I understand that this is a journey. The answer might just unfold in front of me if I pay more attention or live with more intent, I guess. Or I don’t know. I’m confused. 

I still enjoy doll collecting, but right now it’s not the best time for me to pursue it, sad to say.

Wooden Alphabet Puzzle

I gave my niece this alphabet puzzle and she has familiarized herself with it in a week. The puzzle had to be put away afterwards because she got bored, haha. She just turned two last month.

Video below:

I Am Alive and Safe

Hello.

It’s been a long time since I wrote on this blog. I just came back to post a few life updates.

During this coronavirus pandemic, I’ve managed to stay ~healthy, meaning I’m infection free. My family seems fine, too. We moved out of our city to my dad’s hometown for the duration of this long-standing community quarantine, and it took some adjustments on everyone’s part to make this shelter we have feel a bit like home. During the lockdown, my weight has see-sawed and my emotional state has been rocky. There are times I feel gloom, uncertainty, and despair, while the other I feel like I’m just taking a vacation. A never-ending vacation that makes me want to go back to work already.

I didn’t bring any doll because I thought this community quarantine wouldn’t last that long, so most of my dolls are in storage back home, or left unattended on their shelf. When I come back, I will have lots of washing and scrubbing to do because my dolls would probably be dusty by now. I also left behind some of my plants, like my cactus collection, and other stuff that I use for my hobbies such as my guitar and yoga mat. 

I cannot find the motivation to study Hungarian further right now, and I think that’s OK. Sometimes it may feel like there’s competition among people to be productive during this time, but I tell myself that I am fine without learning a new language or being active for days. Hungarian can wait.

I tried long distance walking. Being in this town surrounded by nature has made it easy for me to go outside and walk, but lately I haven’t done it because of the rainy season, or because I’m demotivated. Again I keep telling myself that it’s OK that I have not been consistent. I just know in my heart that I can do this some other time. I mean, I was able to manage walking around 10,000 steps a day. That’s already an achievement for myself because I never did walking as an exercise!

I cannot format this blog post at this moment. I am typing this on my phone. I don’t have wi-fi here so I haven’t opened my laptop in months.

There are so many things I have yet to write about, but maybe that’s for another blog post.

I know this is supposed to be a toy blog, but I barely go outside and find toys at the store. I don’t even have my toys with me, lol. There’s practically nothing I can do that’s related to toys out here, except for me looking up toy photos on Facebook and Instagram (IG eats up my phone data like crazy so I don’t spend so much time on it than I would like) or reading doll posts on Reddit (Don’t use their app if you have limited data! I had to uninstall it!).

Hope everyone reading my blog is safe and infection free. Can’t wait for this thing to be over so we can start anew.

Jamie

P.S.

I can’t reply to blog comments yet for some reason. Will get back to you all soon. Thank you for your patience.

On Hiatus

Gongxi! Happy Chinese New Year!

Today I am making a decision again to set aside blogging here... so that I could focus on my health. I want to be healthy and fit, perhaps become a disciplined athlete, and I have realised once again that there are things I have to let go or sacrifice so I could achieve something I really want. It is indeed a feat to multi-task and I know I can do that, but in my case, whenever I do it, my output is somehow unsatisfactory to me, like I could do better or more.

It really hit me that I can't write regularly anymore, obviously by looking at how my toy blog is doing, but more so, when I tried to keep a journal recently and I was only able to fill in a few pages for a week. I couldn't keep going, and keeping a record of how my days went feel quite ridiculous or awkward now, unlike when I was still in school. I have accepted the fact that I am not the most consistent person ever and there will be setbacks when when I am working on something, but for this particular task of documenting the things in my life I was grateful for each day, I just resigned after a few days without any regret.

There are days when the task of blogging again looms in my head, but when I blog, I don't want to do it anymore out of guilt just because I slacked off. So right here, I'm putting my foot down, that if I can't blog regularly and out of joy or inspiration then I'd rather not waste time wishing I could, or beating myself for not doing it.

I still like writing. In fact, I wouldn't use my time writing this at all if I have completely given up, but as I have mentioned earlier, there are just some stuff I have to give up if I am working on something that I really want to achieve. I want to feel better about myself. I accept myself for who I am, but I know I can change physically and improve how I feel. It is never too late!

I still like dolls, don't get me wrong! I do, but right now I'm choosing to cut back on things I think that do not relate as much to my current goal, and one of these things is toy blogging. I still maintain my Instagram account for toys though because for some reason, posting a photo with short caption is so easy and doable for me. I could post about something on there, add a few hashtags and boom, I'm done, my account is updated, and people signed on there still know I'm alive, haha.

I still need to finish some personal doll-related projects, but writing about the whole process is not my priority anymore, not right now. And when I do finish, I can go full-force on what I want to work on, and that is myself! I am excited. This decision makes me feel liberated, like I am starting with a clean slate. This may or may not have something to do with the Konmari method of tidying things, lol. Sorry, I love that method and it did change my life, and I guess I've become braver to face what I need and want to do head-on. I mean, I've also started learning a new language, too. It isn't directly related to getting physically fit, but I feel good learning something new and that's good for my brain. I am fluent in two languages (Filipino and English), and I've learned the basics of two more when I was in school (Japanese and Mandarin Chinese). Now I'm learning Magyar! It's Hungarian, of all languages!!! 

This hiatus is indefinite. I don't know when I can come back to write often, but I'm still on Instagram every now and then and that's good enough for me, at least for now.

More Fun Finds

I found this pack of pencil topper erasers made to look like popcorn! Pretty cool! I thought this would be cute for big dolls.

My magnet display on the fridge, which has been updated to this:

I combined the previous ones I collected and the lot of secondhand magnets I won in a Facebook group to which I belong.

I had to separate my Philippine travel magnets and this doll magnet from the Bahamas, because my fridge door is already crowded.

I found a Bratzillaz Midnight Beach Cloetta Spelletta, and she does glow in the dark!

It's freaky that her eyes don't glow, so her eyes look hollow in the dark.

I found this wooden doll house at the mall. It's expensive, and too small for Lottie, but it won't hurt to keep looking at it, right? Haha.

I'm not a big fan of doll houses when it comes to doll photography though, because of the shadows cast by the ceiling and the pillars. These just get in the way of the lighting for the dolls, and I find them limiting, too, specially when I want to take photos from different angles.

I found this balance wall game at a different mall. I particularly like the trowel it comes with.

So tiny!!!