A spring garden party!

Today was spring cleaning in one corner of the bedroom. Ever since last fall the camper had been stored away. Today it was time to get it out again, as Spring is here. And dolls are able to camp in the rain, so I dusted it off and set it up.

Here are my two Heart for Hearts dolls which have never been played with. They took over the camper and love it! I opened the Our Generation garden party set I'd bought last fall. It has butterfly cookies! There was a butterfly flag from last summer, and a few little butterflies.

My husband and I visited the Victoria Butterfly Gardens on April 3 this year, on our 35th anniversary. I absolutely loved that place! Here is one of the beautiful butterflies I saw.

It was fun to set up a doll adventure on a corner of the window seat in our bedroom; I hope to change the display each month.

By Loretta Houben

Making candy for the doll's coffee shop!

It's March, and time for the wearing of the green!

I quickly set up Grace's bistro set, and added 2 small green cups from Dollarama, and 2 coffee cups which I also found there! The little donuts are from the Newberry coffee shop.

The little hats are also from Dollarama. The elastic needs to be shortened.

I got ambitious and I made some dolly candy.

This is my first attempt!

Someone had used Valentine beads recently online, so I tried shamrock beads. They come in a large pack.

The sticks are candy sticks from Michaels which I cut in half for the correct length. Then I put them in a row of 8 on a piece of sticky tape, and carefully layered a 2nd piece on top. Fortunately it worked out well the first try!

I even added a piece of the cardboard from the bead bag.

I think they turned out great!

By Loretta Houben

My new dolls in 2017!

It's only January 21 but so far I've purchased 3 dolls this year. I couldn't help it. Today I was at Sears at Metrotown in Burnaby and I noticed a 60% off sign way in the distance on a group of dolls. Normally I don't go to the 2nd floor at Sears but I was looking for something else, so I'm glad I did go. The above doll named Allie was marked down from $29.99 to only $11.99! Her outfit alone is worth that amount. She is very cute and I love the Newberry quality.

I couldn't decide between these 2 dolls so I bought both. This one came with a soccer net, ball, water bottle, jacket and her outfit plus her soccer shoes for only $19.99, marked down from $49.99! She looks very pretty but I haven't taken her out of the box yet.

I bought this cute doll when I was downtown the other day, at Winner's. She was $16.95 and she is 7 3/4" tall. Apparently these dolls, made by Madame Alexander, are no longer made. I think she is very cute, but it looked like her knees and arms could bend and they can't. Nothing budged when I tried, so that's a disappointment.

I'm still having fun playing with my mini dolls, and thought I'd show the gingerbread houses I made out of paper. If you Google mini food items it's amazing what will pop up! I did this around Christmas time, but didn't take a photo until now.

The little heart cake was bought for $3.99 C at Michael's using a 40% off coupon. It was in the miniature section.

Our snow is nearly all melted, and today it was 10 C so spring feels like it's just around the corner!

By Loretta Houben

Baking cookies!

Quite a few years ago, I used to shop at a really nice antique show in New Westminster BC. Over the past few years, it's mostly "junk" and vintage items; hardly any antiques at all, sad to say. I bought this cute little vintage stove quite a while back. I'd say it was from the 1960's. It came with a matching sink. The brand sticker says "Daiwa Toys, Super Deluxe", made in Japan.

I was cleaning out a closet and found it, and realized it was the perfect size for the mini dolls! 

So mini Emily tried her hand at some Christmas baking.

The tray on the right is from Hallmark 2016 and is the tiny "Season's Treatings" ornament; they issue one each year. I bought this in July in Penticton on our holiday. It's the cutest thing!

I made a little foam board tray covered in tin foil.

I used a variety of mini erasers from the same $ store as the mini Christmas tree. It's called "A Buck or Two". It's a really nice store, stocked with all manner of goodies.

Which cookies to YOU prefer? I think my favourite are the mini snowman cookies. The mini Santa cookies remind me of Pillsbury cookies from the grocery store.

By Loretta Houben

Daiso, a Japanese store in Vancouver BC.

I visited Daiso, a Japanese $ store in Vancouver BC last week. I use my dolly eyes now to spot items for the mini dolls which are my newest craze! I bought 3 packages of erasers in the shape of food which I'd never seen before. Here are my two newest Lori mini dolls with their delicious meal. I should have labeled it "Japanese take out" and not Chinese!

I love the Daiso store. For years I only knew of one in Richmond near YVR airport, and that is a long drive. Recently I discovered one in Chinatown and that's easy for me to get to. I visit it about once every 2 months. There are thousands of items in that store. I love the stationary department as I use the binders for genealogy research. 

Last week I found the food and couldn't resist it. One package had 3 bowls with lids and noodles inside; so cute! And only $2 Cdn.

The other 2 packages had a tray of food, with a small mug and chopsticks. I just had to get them. They were also $2 Cdn each.

By Loretta Houben