Over 10 years in Raleigh and never thought to go to the Kids Exchange, to get gently used toys, I have been going to the Flea Market for years. Right before I was told you have cancer oh by the way its Stage 4, was when the California line had come out, my plan was to use the spare room as my toy room. My mom wasn't too happy about me spending my free money on toys, the only reason I had the spare room because she was tired of sleeping on a blow up in my livining room of my 1 bed room apartment. She was paying part of the rent while she got treatment for cancer, so I hid my fines in the closet hoping to display them at some point. When she was back home I would pull them out and start painting them and adding things.
Funny thing is she is the one that started the whole barbie doll collecting thing so I could buy a barbie as an investment, but I couldn't buy the furniture. It wasn't till I was about 12 the whole barbie collecting thing started, my mom was more into it me I liked playing with them. We barely had any dolls I remember we got the Sindy and Craig doll from the either the Sears or JcPenny catalog. We had little money so really birthday and Christmas was the only time we got toys and not that many. I remember visiting everyone else with the barbie mansion and toys upon toys. Me and my sister didn't get much I think the biggest haul was when I was like 5 or 6 and my sister 12 all our stuff filled the dinning room, bikes, kitchen set, baby dolls, high chair, crib, and the Cindy and Craig doll. I think my mom was hoping for at least one girl girl and not another Tom Boy.
Sadly just like my sister the dresses, purses, went out the door that summer my mom comes home to find her 6 year on the roof hammering shingles. And no I am not talking about a fake hammer imitating daddy, I am talking about my own tool belt with real nails in them and actually putting shingles on the roof. Lets just say that mom wasn't happy, unlike my sister I spent more time with my dad. In the day time mom worked so I was with dad, at night dad worked and I was with mom. I still hung out in the kitchen learning how to cook and learned more then my mom realized. But I did love dolls and deep down my mom did too, so if she couldn't go dress shopping, doing my hair for dances and prom we could have the dolls.
My first doll that I bought with my birthday money was the heart family, I dreamed looking at the flyer in there of all the other items I wanted. I used the cabinet on my dresser as an apartment, when it was raining and we played in doors we didn't have a barbie house. My sister decided we could use the books in the closet particularly the one's of the state's that had desert or beach scenes, perfect wall paper as my sister would say. So we built massive homes that covered the entire floor. My mom continued to buy barbies adding them to my bed room, while I was off to college, it wasn't till after her death, did I see all the dolls, half of them I had never seen. She was redoing are bedrooms and had packed everything up, she knew while she was packing that it wasn't going to be her putting the items back in the room. She wrote on slips of paper and put them on items that had been given as gifts. It would be my sister and I going thru the boxes, discovering and learning family history as we went thru all the boxes, she literally keep everything from birthday/mother day cards to random notes we wrote, both of us still have those slips of paper with her writing on it. We also have all the pictures, when I went thru it I found pictures I took with my first camera, a barbie camera my mom picked up at a yard sale. You see my mom loved to take pictures so naturally I did too. Unlike most kids today I had no problem getting things from yard sales, salvation army etc why buy new when you can get more with less money. I remember in high school, my mom happened to be at the Salvation Army when a shipment of Nike size 9 shoes came in from JcPenny, the displays and shoes that are returned are never resold but donated, my mom got me 20 Nike's that retailed over a hundred for $30. Lets just say I didn't need shoes for several years, I would match my shoes to my outfit, and people at School thought my parents were loaded...nope far from the truth cause at that time the company my dad worked at for 20+ years had closed meaning we had one income. My mother who was now having to work 3 jobs morning and after noon she drove a school bus, in between she was a department manager at Walmart and at night and weekends she worked at a day care.
We got are creativeness from our mom, artistic and hardworking from both our parents and construction from our dad. When I was little I would build boats and houses from wood, I could find random things like my sister and see a use for them. Back to the Barbies, once my mom passed I packed away the dolls, and all my other art, bought a play station 2 and started to work out and spend all my time at work. Then a year later I get nailed with cancer, once again I throw my self into work. Then one day I stumbled across diorama's from a collector in Australia, then photo stories using the dolls from England. It was then I decided to break them out, my new apartment had 3 rooms, why? because my sister moved in after my dx so she got an apartment with a play room for me...lol
I then found several online groups, started my flick r account, got me some shelves to display them, set some "entertainment money" as I call if for dolls, movies or computer games. I know look for cheap furniture at flea markets and re do them or keep them the same. I have found that working with Playscale has allowed me an escape but also to express my creativity. My plan is to make some comic style books for my family, dolls and displays that when the time comes will be given to family and friends which cross the fingers want be till at least 20 years, but time will tale my Cancer is NED at this time meaning its too small to show up on scans, but I also have Sjogren's, Fibromaylgia, Raynard's Phenomon, and Rheumatoid Arthritis, which is why my sister has to help with some of my modeling becasue I am losing my dexterity. I even have my aunt who has assumed more of a mother role looking at yard sales for cheap furniture she is the one that found the talking house I got for my birthday.
Well below is my latest finds, I have wiped everything down, also got a couple dolls I will post them once I have cleaned them up. I am going to have my sister tatoo two of the dolls.
