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Monday, November 29, 2021

Restoration Abound!!

 The past few weeks, I have been working mostly on restorations that were commissioned. And it has been a labor of love, honestly! I feel so honored, that these fellow collectors, want little old me, to bring life back into their beloved plushies, and for that, I thank you so very much for choosing me to do them!!

Now, onto the restorations...

First, this well loved and much soiled Rushton Happy Bear! Believe it or not, he was pink and white before, and as my customer said, you could see it from his tail. His face was oily and grubby, there was practically nothing left of his fur. So, I knew my work was cut out for me for sure!! I began with a good wash. I removed his stuffing as you can see on the before shot, washed him and laid him out to dry. After a few days, I had to wait for the fur in the post to replace him with came in. When it did, I began work on him. After, replacing his fur with bubble gum pink and white. I began working on his face.



I used the Mr. Clean eraser and carefully cleaned his face. I tried to remove as much of the caked on dirt as I could. But his face was still tan, at least not grubby as before. I touched up his face paint, trimmed his fur and added a blue satin bow. He turned out amazing and now has many more years of enjoyment to come! I have already sent him home to his Mommy! He was definitely a challenge, but I am so happy with how he turned out!! Very much worth the effort. Thank you dear Britecoolvintage for thinking of me to restore him for you!!



A pic of him beside my original Happy Bear!! He is nice an fluffy again! Yippee!! My next restoration project was this lovely My Toy Co. side laying Bunny Thumper. The owner wanted me to use another vintage bunny's ears as replacement. First, I washed both bunnies, took out stuffing and added more. I did the transplant of the ears, which by the way still had great wiring inside, Yay! Last, touched up her face paint and added a blue satin bow. Now, she is gorgeous! I love how she turned out!! She is ready to go to her Mommy in today's mail!! Yippee! I love My Toy bunnies, they are just as adorable as Rushton buns are! So far, I've seen pink, blue and now this peach version! Sara says, the contrast of the ears color makes her more cute and unique! I agree with her!




Next, I was able to snag this cutie, and decided to see if I could fix him as well! This lovely Rushton boy bunny is similar to my other costumed bunny in a pink dress, as shown in the ad later in this post. He got the full day spa treatment, and I also created his little hat and appliques myself, based on the Rushton ad. I think he turned out lovely as well. I may replace the felt on his feet, but I need to order the same or similar color. I will do that later. Now, to decide if I should sell or not?! LOL






It has been a labor of love to restore these babies!! Now, let's see what December has to offer!! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Stateside. Now on to Christmas!!

Thank you for reading! ~ ggsdolls

Thursday, November 18, 2021

"You Never Forget Kids..."

 "...Like Emily, or Andy, but they forget you." - Jessie, Toy Story.

Speaking of forgetting, it has been a busy month. I almost forgot I still have another surgery needed. But, because they have stopped any surgeries on island due to Covid. I guess, that is a good thing for now. 

I was playing with baby bun and decided to take a photo of her on one of the blankets I had made recently. A fellow collector shared with me a site, that I could design some cute things from somewhat similar to Society6. But, this one give me free rain to create and I can do it via their site! Yippee! So, I made this lovely baby blanket. I also made a Pouf Cube, which is like a foot stool. But, it took almost forever to get to me!! Ugh. The first blanket is this lovely vtg kitsch animals and blue plaid. This one turned out lovely. I will keep this one. When the foot stool showed up finally after a month, I used my Rushtons to create an ABC cube. You can see it further down the post. Then, about a week and a half ago, I made 2 more blankets. I have already added the ottoman to my shop on Etsy and I will add the yellow kitsch animals blanket soon!




The cube foot stool above, is large. Though in the description on the website, it is called, "a small cube". But, to me, it is not small. Still, I love how it turned out!! Below, some finds via Yahoo Japan. I received this lovely set of Kogei Bito ceramic pink Bunny couple figurines. I listed them in my shop this morning and they sold almost immediately! Yay! I also received the New Charmy Chan animals collection of miniature dolls from a Japan hobby shop site. I preordered them back in July. They are slightly larger then the set that was released last year. I already listed some in my shop. I also found another "Lucky Baby Bunting." Book. This time not by Saafield. The book is in English and is larger than my other set. I just love this book so much!! It's definitely a keeper for sure!


Above, this lovely Fable Toys plush Pajama doll bag was just too cute to not get. She is almost mint and I think her face is just the sweetest too! Ugh, now to decide to keep or sell... Haha! Next, I cleaned and restored another Rushton plush named, "Maisy" the small purple cow. I won her via an auction and she needed a bit of restoring. Now, she looks so cute along with my other Daisies. Both Daisy in purple and Maisy are on their way to their new Momma in Phoenix, AZ. I know they will be loved!! I was also able to adopt a fellow collector and friend's creation, Shevie Bear in aqua! I have been wanting Shevie's wear bear brooches for ages since learning she made them! So, this was my year, I was able to snag one!! He is truly too cute for words and small enough to take with you!! Yippee!



Then, I adopted three adorable handmade clown plushies from a fellow seller via IG. She uses vintage rubber faces and makes their bodies. Each one above is quite unique. I may sell one or two... LOL Next, this Ganz, rubber face plush raccoon. I have only seen KQ's plush just like this one. It is made in Canada and I love its coloring. I just added a bow to her. I also restored this adorable weird looking baby boy duckling by Gund. He came wearing a jumper with huge bells on the straps. I removed them and added some vintage blue buttons instead. Then, also got him a bonnet in blue with dots. He will live with me for a bit.


I also wanted to share that I didn't own any Lina dolls for a few years until this past year. LOL I found a loose Lina in my last post here. Then, found a prototype Lina? Not sure. A fellow collector shared his with me a few months back, but then in one of my usual searches I found one listed for sale. So odd, because I have never seen this type before even when I first started to collect Lina dolls. So, I honestly think either she is a prototype or a clone of sorts. As you can see above, their faces are quite different, even their hand gestures are different, and their feet. Body shape and stance are the same. Hopefully one day I will figure this one out. So far, only two have surfaced.


Last, two lovely Look and See Books by Wonder Book. I bought them as a lot. I have about 2 others in this series. They are similar to Froebel Kan books, in that they use vintage dolls and toys in their pages to tell a story. In this case, it is about, "My Dolls" and "My Toys". In the doll book, you will see many adorable Japan made and Italian made dolls from the 60s and 70s. In the toys book, there are Christmas ornaments, we often see made of felt from Japan!! That is what caught my attention and made me want to buy these books! A lovely addition to the series I do have.

I hope you all have a great rest of your week!

Thank you for stopping by! ~ ggsdolls

Thursday, November 4, 2021

Here's Johnny!

 ... a quote from the movie, "The Shining". I recently watched it with Sara last week Thursday. We've had many conversations about horror films and I've told her how my parents always enjoyed a good scary movie. I used to love Horror films, but since having Taby and Sara, I've pretty much steered clear of them. Only to find out later, Sara enjoys them as much as I did as a teen! LOL

Halloween has come and gone, so here's some adorable finds that came in...

I found a vintage doll dress that could somewhat fit my Alice doll. Here she is wearing the dress. I think it looks great on her, a bit snug, but now, she looks more like Alice, then the red dress she had on. I was also given these lovely ceramic bunny hangers from my sister in-law. She had them in her car and wasn't sure who left them while she was moving to her new place. So, she let me have them. They are ceramic bunny hangers or wall hooks. I believe they are 80s, and listed them in my shop. They sold in just a few hours too!



I finally, got these Country Cow sounders, made as joke gifts via my sister in WA. I bought them, but of course, they wouldn't ship to Guam, so I had my sister receive them and she mailed them out to me. I needed them to see if they would work out for my pink Daisy cow. When it arrived, I worked on her over the weekend and was able to replace her foam stuffing into synthetic stuffing and just put this Moo voice box inside. Now, she is just like my purple Daisy and makes the same or similar sounds! Yay! I'll upload a video with her completed and the sound from the voice box. I also adopted this lovely vintage rubber face, handmade by Fleamarque on IG. I love this type of clown face. Just too cute!



From Japan, I found this box of Kanebo pink yarn, still in its box with booklet. I have already added it to my shop. Lovely quality yarn too. Kanebo's mascot is the lovely posedoll you see on the front of the box. Love her, and I hope to find that doll too!! Next, I also got in the mail these lovely Rune Naito retro bag miniatures by Ken Elephant. They are only sold in Japan and haven't been offered outside of Japan as yet. I was able to snag a few and they are seriously too cute. Just like the anime girl bags of the 1960s, these bags, have a tiny mirror and handle. You can definitely use them as props with your favorite doll, like Licca, or Blythe! There are six styles to choose from!



Than, I found a lot of vintage baby bonnets, that I am hoping to use on a cutie I am awaiting to arrive. So more on them later. Next, this lovely Rushton reproduced and aged look advertisement. I added a satin bow to hang it up on my wall. I love it and hope that I can get more. I found this lovely sofubi or soft vinyl tan gal wearing a sailor fashion via Yahoo Japan. I have already listed her in my shop, so she is available too. Love her unique face and fashion!  A Ginny type party dress made by Shillman and mint in package. I added snaps to it and hope to put it on Betsy soon!



A cutie all the way from Australia! I was worried, because sadly, the US is not shipping to Australia, well at least USPS isn't ugh. But it's weird because they can't receive our mail, but yet, we are able to receive mail coming out of Australia. I do hope it changes and soon, I have many collector friends via Australia and I know a few who are waiting to get goods from us here in the US. Ugh. This adorable plush is also a squeak toy. I pressed his tummy and he squeaked. Which I didn't know, and it didn't say in the listing?! Haha, but that's okay, I love him and he's pink!!

Last, this lovely vintage plastic pastel telephone. I have been on the search for this for some time and to find one via an IG sale, was so cool and well awesome!! Generally, when I do see them they sell fast and I must admit I did a little happy dance when I found it was still available. It came with a red and yellow one, but Sara claimed it. Which was fine because I wanted this one mostly! Haha!

Well, I do hope your Halloween and All Souls Day was pleasant? Be safe and take care!

Thank you for reading! ~ ggsdolls