To All The Dolls I’ve Loved Before–Baby Go Bye Bye

These little reviews/memories of dolls I had as a kid are a nice little trip down memory lane.  However, this one…well, it kind of makes me mad when I think about it too hard.  You’ll soon understand why.

I don’t think I asked for Baby Go Bye Bye, but I’m not positive.  I wasn’t a huge fan of baby dolls to begin with, I basically only had eyes for Barbie and her crew.  But my mom was a bit of a sucker for any kind of unique dolls, so that may very well be how I ended up with this doll.  It was kind of a cute idea though.

Baby Go Bye Bye wasn’t a very big doll, and she definitely had a bit of a Cindy Brady look to her.  Interestingly enough, Baby Go Bye Bye came out before the Brady Bunch ever aired!  The first dolls were released in 1968, The Brady Bunch didn’t hit TV screens until fall of 1969.  The doll was just an average doll, but with looser than normal limbs.  Her Bumpety Buggy was the real fun part of the toy.  The seat in it was loose so it would vibrate and the doll got one heck of a ride!

   

To start the car, you simply moved the butterfly on the front and that triggered a switch in the mechanism.

 

Finding pics to show was a bit difficult, but I did find a few.  I’m not a fan of using other peoples pics, but in the case of vintage dolls I no longer own, I guess I don’t have much of a choice.  I loved the catalog page.  Baby Go Bye Bye sold for a whopping $9.88!  Converting that to today’s dollars, that would be $73.22, isn’t that crazy?

Okay…so, the part about me being mad.  The key to the Bumpety Buggy was a piece that it fit over top of that actually determined where the car went.  It had these attached strips of plastic with pegs at the end of each, and where you placed them in the bottom was how the car determined where to turn.  It was really pretty genius for 1968 when you think about it.

Even as a kid, I could see the genius in this design.  And I remember distinctly thinking how clever someone would be if they would take this technology and use it for something else, like say a lawn mower or a vacuum cleaner??  Look familiar???????????????????

Yeah, when I first saw a Roomba, I seriously had a major flashback to my childhood.  Just think, if I had been able to convince someone to act on my initial idea, I might be a millionaire by now!!!!!

I actually kept Baby Go Bye Bye for quite a few years, and then finally one day I donated her to a thrift store in one of our clean outs when I was a teen.  For all I know she inspired the person who invented the Roomba.  Oh well.

I did find some videos on YouTube of her in action.  Enjoy!

To All The Dolls I’ve Loved Before–Furga Doll from Italy

Ages ago I started this series–and then never got back to it!  Terrible when you get sidetracked, isn’t it?  I decided now was a good time to revive this idea though.  No time like the present.

I did two prior posts–you can read them at the following links:

https://sayhellotomylittlefriends.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/to-all-the-dolls-ive-loved-before-swingy/

https://sayhellotomylittlefriends.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/to-all-the-dolls-ive-loved-before-crissy-and-velvet/

Today I’m going to talk about a doll that was kind of a strange one for me to own.  I wasn’t a fan of dolls you couldn’t play with.  I was a huge Barbie fan because Barbie LIVED.  She had an active social life.  She did normal stuff.  My Barbie had a bike, rode horses, dune buggied, worked on an airplane, camped–she was one busy doll.  A doll who just sat there and looked pretty…nope.  Not my thing.

I don’t know what possessed my mother to even buy this doll for me.  I think I was about 8 and I received it for Christmas.  It was a very pretty doll.

I apologize in advance for this not so great photo.  It’s the only one I could find on the internet.  Believe me, I’ve looked and looked and looked.  The hat was different on the one I had, but you get the general idea.  This photo was from Ebay a while ago.

A little history on the doll–she was made by a company called Furga, they were in Italy.  They supplied dolls like this to all of the major catalog companies in the US–Sears, JCPenney, Montgomery Wards to name a few.  The dolls were all very nicely dressed and were a regular feature in the annual Christmas catalogs.  (remember those?)  A friend of mine had several of them as well.  If you look on Ebay, you will see tons of them available for sale.

The one thing I remember about this doll was the box, and that’s very well represented in this photo.  She had this huge hoop skirt, and it had a very stiff crinoline petticoat that went on under it which made it stick out way too straight to be practical.  It kind of gave her a “Little Bo Peep” look.  You could easily take it off too.  She also had a faux umbrella/parasol, it didn’t open, was there more as a prop.  It was cute.  Whatever.  She was close in size to an American Girl doll, maybe a little bit smaller, but they made these dolls in a variety of sizes and styles.  Her hair was a nightmare though, the curls had some sort of stiffener in them, so if the hair strayed, getting it to look the same was pretty much impossible.

She sat in my bedroom all through the rest of my childhood and into my teen years.  And then she was gone.  I honestly don’t know what I did with her.  I suspect I may have donated her to charity.  Or, I could have sold her at a flea market, which is a good bet.  If that’s the case, I have a feeling she probably ended up in the doll collection of a woman we knew.  Unfortunately this woman passed away several years ago and I don’t know any of her family, so no way of finding out.  (Insert shrug here.)

Anyone else have one of these dolls growing up?  I know they were somewhat popular and they weren’t exactly cheap.  One thing I do recall my mother telling me about it was when she opened up the box she was in, it was full of dirt from the boat she had been shipped on!  Times certainly have changed.

 

 

Broke Girl Bakery: TA DA!!!!

I bet you guys never thought we’d get to this point–something you can play with! It’s actually been mostly finished for a while now, but I’ve had so many other things going on and stuff I wanted to share, I kind of shoved it to the back burner.

Besides the high price tag, one of the major issues with Grace’s Bakery is the size. I’ll just say that it is VERY large, and would take up a lot of space. I know that I don’t have this kind of space in my house and I’m sure that there are plenty of people that have the same issue. I know that it is at least as big as the top of my sewing machine cabinet. Hmmmmm…

One day while in a craft store, I noticed that they had a lot of presentation boards–in colors!!! Red, blue, yellow and green. After some serious thought, I decided that I was going to go a completely different direction with this and make this project my own. Something that my husband and I have fond memories of from our travels to Ireland are the tea rooms scattered about the country. One in particular stuck out in both of our minds. Inspired by that memory, I decided to go with the green and my Irish tea room and bakery was born! My husband named it for me: Connemara Cakes Bakery and Coffee Shop.

Connemara is a region in the North West area of Ireland, very rugged and very pretty. The photograph is of Kylemore Abbey, taken by me when we were there in 2003. It is one of the most photographed locations in all of Ireland!  Unfortunately my printer is on the fritz, so I wasn’t able to print my signs for in the shop. 😦

Now that I had my inspiration: Off to the craft store! I picked up my green board. Dimensions on the board: 36 inches tall, 22 1/2 inches wide and the flaps are each 13 deep. Only $4.97, not bad. They do make these boards in all white as well, so if you wanted to stick with the original colors, you could easily spray paint it turquoise blue or cover it with paper. I also picked up some scrapbooking paper while I was there that I thought would work well as wallpaper.

After looking at it, I decided it was way too tall, so I cut 12 inches off the top of it so it was 24 inches tall. I set aside the piece I cut off, I had an idea for it as well. Then I started my wallpapering. I ended up using 5 sheets of the scrapbook paper, at 50 cents each, so that only cost me $2.50. I also picked up 2 book lights at Dollar Tree for $1 each. The book lights are held in place with Velcro, making them easily removable for storage.

Here we are with the furnishings:

So, let’s add some baked goods, dolls, and wave the magic wand…

Alya and Rebecca are all ready to wait on customers!

“I think I’ve been baking all morning, I hope we have enough!”

 Look at all of those yummy things Rebecca has been working on, mmm…

I found a great use for that little cabinet I picked up at the Goodwill, perfect for storing dishes and extras.

Abby and Kit were the first customers to arrive.

“This coffee is delicious and will go really well with my peanut butter and jelly sandwich as well as the macaron I got!”

Abby decided to go the “all sugar” route–a peanutbutter kiss cookie and a cupcake.  At least she got plain tea to drink.

Just then, Zara showed up.  “Hey guys, how are you?  Everything looks delicious!”

She ordered a muffin and a chocolate chip frappe. “That will be $5.89.”

“Don’t forget your frappe!”

 “No, don’t want to forget that, it looks wonderful. I need that chocolate boost too!  I’ve been dragging all morning.”

“Looks like business is going to go well today” said Rebecca.

Just then, Marie-Grace and Cassandra walked in.

      

“Oh dear” said Cassandra, “everything looks sooooooo good!  I don’t know how to decide.”

“Try the pumpkin pie” replied Rebecca.  “When I was cutting it I messed a piece up and OF COURSE I had to try it! I can vouch for it, it’s wonderful.”  “You’ve convinced me, pumpkin pie it is!”

Marie-Grace didn’t have any trouble deciding what she wanted, she got one of the giant chocolate cupcakes to go.

Then Shivan came in–carrying a flower arrangement.

“Hi guys!” said Shivan.  “Congratulations on your grand opening!  I brought these flowers for you to celebrate.”

“Awwww, that was so sweet!  Can I get you something to eat?” asked Alya.

“Can I just get a lemonade?  I’m on my power walk, so I don’t want the carbs dragging me down.  But I’ll be back later.”

“One lemonade, coming right up!”

I think the girls have a very busy day ahead of them, what do you think?

A couple of things that I wanted to point out–if you notice, the bump out that I used to make the dining area was that extra piece from the display board that I cut off. I put the white board behind it so you didn’t see the mess in my living room. You could just buy a second board and decorate it as well.

That piece I picked up recently at the Goodwill made such a great storage cabinet. It’s not going to be a piece only used in the bakery, so I’m not going to count it in my final totals along with the baking area piece, I bought that last summer. I’m not going to count Grace’s baking set because I bought that before I even had the idea for this project, as well as the table and chairs I already had. This is one of the things I did like about this project though, I was able to use quite a few things that I already had, just a matter of repurposing some of them.

Amount spent already as of April 20, 2015 $57.86
Display board: $4.97
Scrapbook paper: $2.50
Book lights: $2.00
Bags: $1.00

Total spent as of June 12, 2015: $68.33

Even if I added in some of those items, we would still be well under $500!!! I think this is every bit as cute and functional as the American Girl set, plus a whole lot easier to store when not in use. I’ll just put all of the things that go in the doll house back, fold the boards up and store them behind something and the few odds and ends pieces that are more bakery specific can be stored in a small box. I’d say I accomplished what I set out to do, don’t you agree?