TuMani news

One picture is of Mitzi in our new tree --she climbs about half way up the trunk and lays on one of the branches. This year I have only plastic ornaments except I am going to put Sleepy and Eloise on near the top in a couple of weeks. She has found one plastic round ball that looks a lot like a great big peppermint candy and she really likes it. Asuka likes a long diamond shaped one that looks like it is covered in tiny mirrors. She likes to make it go round and round. Don't worry I don't think they will turn it over as I have it secured to the wall by a long cheneille and have another one around the top branch and have it secured to the wood support of the doll apartment- It shakes a little but it is very secure. All the lights this year are the white ones as the only tree left had clear lights and the candle lights are clear also. I decided not to use the bubble lights since they might make Mitzi want to try to catch the bubbles. I told the kids and Gary that I guess bubble lights were actually the first lava lamps :) Queenie and Wolfie had new neighbors move in today---the Peanuts gang. Jaime has several of the Peanuts gang things---the pumpkin patch, the baseball back net and I think all of the kids. I noticed we had two Linus and two Charlie Brown so I only took out one each of them. I found also put out one Woodstock in his tree nest. There are a two dogs from Family Guy---Brian and his cousin (but I can't remember his name) My older dress up doll is also in the scene checking out Snoopy's decorated doll house. It has been quite cool the past couple of days and even though the sun has been out it has never warmed up the house. I finally gave up and lite the kerosene heater today. I hate to use it too much as kerosene is four dollars a gallon but a gallon will warm the house for about twelve hours and the electric furnace doesn't get the house warm and if I don't watch it the thing will run almost non-stop. They say we are going to have some rain either tomorrow or Sunday---I hate cold rainy Sundays but we need the rain so I am not going to complain to much. Now it's time for some more coffee.

Shopping With Jane....

.....makes me soooooooo tired! Hmmm I wonder if taking a bath will....







Get away from that! Jane bought that for us!








Oh-oh I see a dilema here. I wonder who the tub is really for!!! Stay tuned to find out.

the kitten and the Christmas tree

Found the Christmas tree but not the orginal stand and it took a while to find another stand. Put it up in the living room and fastened it to the wall as usual . Look very carefully and you will see a small black kitten well hidden in the tree. What kind of tree is it "a Cat Muss Tree" of course. I started putting the net lights on and the trouble began. Unfortunately Mitzi got her head hung in the net lights and almost choked so the tree lasted about five minutes. We will have to look for another prelit tree or forgo the tree altogether this year.

My back is some better but I am still not doing much as it keeps threatening me again. On another note Sunday afternoon we went to Hazel and Donald's 50th wedding anniversary party. Their 50th anniversary was actually last December 24 and the kids wanted to do it then but for one reason or another Hazel and Donald wouldn't let them so they did it this November ---so I guess since it was not December it would still count as their 50th party . One picture is a close up of the happy couple and the other picture shows a picture of the cake ---it's all real cake made by Trula --one of Hazel's sisters--she does caters cakes as a sideline---and the punch fountain.

Some of Meg's little girl cousins ignored her (as usual) she is the oldest born that particular year and looks the most like a teen girl while one of the others has gotten a little plus sized and outgrown her beauty pageant faze and the other wants people to notice her boobies (fried pigeon egg sized) and her sprayed on jeans with holes in the knees not to mention her little racoon makeup eyes---sorry but she looks like an eight year old tramp. One of my nieces went through the same faze. The boys flirted with Meg and ignored them . Then there was one little girl that was there that goes to church with us and she comes up to Jaime and looks at her had as says---you got a witchcraft symbol on your hat---you witchcraft. Jaime looks at her and says--the pin is from an anime show I watch and it is the Star of David---a Hebrew symbol that is in the Bible and witchcraft is not something you are but something witches do. The kid looked at Jaime and said "really" and this kid 's uncle is our preacher. Don't think she has learned much in church the past three years she has been going except maybe how to sing off key with the karoke machine. But don't let me get started on that---I am so tired of canned music with children that are tone deaf and can't carry a tune.

I did bring Santa and Ana Claus from the playhouse to spend the holidays in the Tu Mani apartment this year.

Sweater Dresses

Here's Marla and Alice in their new sweater dresses that I bought at the toy show. Kinda short don't you think? I think they need skirts or slacks to wear with them. What do you think?

Here's the Loot!

As you can see I didn't buy many dolls! Two Silkstone Kens, a very old Western Ken, which I have the original (doll #16, Ken Brennan), and the Mats Sundin doll, who is the present Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Team (IRL). The rest is clothing, for the Silkies and the Tonner gals and some footwear for various other dolls, who I don't which they will fit yet.

These old wicker chairs are usually expensive but I lucked out on this one. It will go to Lofton for the Venetian cottage. And the little yellow plastic set will also go up there. I really lucked out and got a Superman Ken for $2.00 I guess the seller didn't realize either who he was or how hard it is to get him since he is no longer on the store shelves.

Now it's time to divy out the goodies amongst my residents. As usual I had a good time at the show. It's sad that it's so small now but then I would have had to mortgage the house if it was any larger ha ha ha!

More later as I get the residents dressed.

Oh yeah I forgot the Barbie Buffet and the pet store. LOL Too much to remember it all! LOL

Almost There

With today's purchases Venus is up to 99 in population! So I am almost there to the 100 mark.
These two gals were on sale at MFD today. The Queen of Hearts was the last one in stock. Actually she was the display doll.
The doll sitting is Basic Alice from the Alice in Wonderland Series. I love her curls!
She is wearing plastic sandals which don't seem that cheap. I know MFD sells them in a package of many colours, so now that I have seen (and felt) them I may buy the variety pack so my big girls can have some summer sandals.



As I said above the Queen of Hearts was the last doll in stock. I think maybe the chain to her pendant is missing. Will call Marg to find out. Also her stand elevates and retracts which is kinda neat.
Her see through 'coat' to the dress comes off, to reveal a spaghetti strap gown.













Note: Tomorrow is the big big big big big Toy Show! So I will be gone most of the afternoon. Stay tuned around supper time (tomorrow) to see what goodies I got!

This is a picture of the wreath Jaime's friend Carol made and sent us last Christmas. Because of the mail it arrived late and we weren't really able to enjoy it during the Christmas season but I did let it stay hung up on the back side of the front door---I have a bad habit of putting things up in a good place AND LOSING THEM :) Therefore my novelty light covers stay up all year long so I can find them. I admit I have Easter bunny lights, chili pepper, parrots, flags, jack-o-lanterns, bats, Santas and snowflakes all on the same strand in some places but at least I can find them. Since most of them are hung in the different parts of TuMani the dolls don't seem to mind. This morning I rearranged my artifical candied fruit wreath with help from Mitzi---she kept stealing one of the fake birds. Tunkie used to field dress my artical birds---I had a whole bunch on a tree when she was young and we came home to find a pile of colored feathers and a smile on her face. After than year I put my birds in the rooms where she didn't go. I did swap places with a couple of wreaths I leave out all year and that made them look almost new. I am still having some trouble with my back. I spent almost all of yesterday in bed with the stupid thing. It had been threatening to lock up and finally did it. I took several Percogesic but they didn't help ---I finally found some Tylenol with coedine and that seemed to help more than anything. Today Jaime is out fighting the crowds but I stayed home as I didn't think I wanted to be run over by rude people and it was also a delivery day for the outreach program at church. Tomorrow I will get Jaime to go with me to deliver the herd of cakes we got today. I knew there would be lots of desserts including at least one pumpkin pie and I was right. It has turned down right cold here today. It was pretty cool yesterday and rained some but with the wind today it is almost snow weather---but we luckily didn't get any.

Seen Before?

Nope, although the colours are the same as the previous poncho set I made. This one is two strands of thin wool together to get this varigated effect.





I've posted the old picture of the varigated wool version, which is going to Max.

Jammin' Partner

Boy it didn't take long for this Teresa to find a pal either. Some girls link up right away when they arrive here LOL

This guy came from Sweden a few years back.

Out of their Plastic Prisons

Here's the My Scene gal out of her box with the picture from the back of her package showing the other gals in the series.
As you can see this is the Teresa doll. I've also shown the back of her box with the Barbie and the Raven haired gal on it. She comes with a dress, guitar, lipstick, camera and 2 purses. I'm glad to see that Mattel is including the big hair brushes again too.









And finally the Dancing Princess. She is a poser in the arms (only) as you can see. She was the only doll who's head was stapled to the box. I was concerned that she would be permanently on her tippy toes, but she is not. *whew* Her feet are small though.




Here she is with the Prince of the Shoes LOL

All the shoes are plastic. If you have the Prince that goes with this series, the 12 pair of shoes that come with him, will fit her.

Here's my Gals...

And it looks like someone is going on a cruise! I found this gem at the Winner's store. I have never seen it before. When I checked the price I realized it had to come home with me. They even had the Nascar Barbies (Dale E Jr. only) for $16.50, I should have picked her up too, but I was paying cash for a change wasn't sure if I had enough $$$ on me for everything!

The gal in the peach is a Dancing Princess called "Edeline", not sure if she will keep that name in Dolton or not. If not, it will be her middle name.

At TRU they had B1G1Free so I picked up these two gals, My Scene Icy Bling, Chelsea. There are 4 gals in this series but they didn't have Delancey at this store. I will have to look for her. All 4 gals are gorgeous and come in winter attire. Just in time for the impending weather LOL

The third gal is a Day to Nite, Teresa. She comes with a guitar, a second outfit and has posable wrists. She was the only one there of this kind of doll. The pix on the back of the box show a very nice looking Barbie and a raven haired gal too. It doesn't say what her name is. I think I better hit another TRU to see if she is there. Each gal comes with a dress and a guitar. Their face makeup is very nicely done too.

Now for my piece de resistance! It's called Hawaiian Hotel. But it looks to me more like a cabin on a cruise ship. Under the deck (which is removable) is a pool for Barbie. It has a slatted door to the cabin/room with a number on it. This will be a great Dolton Beach accessory don't you think? Oh and the year it was manufactured was 2005. But I have never seen it before today. It was made for the California Girl Barbie and shows 3 different gals on the back. Has anyone out there seen this before? There were only two of these in the store and I had half a mind to buy them both LOL But the big big big big big toy show is on this weekend so I am trying to save my $$$$ for that. I can always go back to Winners after the toy show if I have any $$$ left LOL Winners also had a sign saying they were getting in new toy stock every day. Oh-oh!

udate from TuMani

My stupid back decided to go out this morning just as I was trying to straighten up the house and get ready for tomorrow. It has been threatening for a couple of weeks. In other news I got Jaime a new kitten for her birthday which was last Monday --November 12 Here is a picture of Mitzi (new kitten) and Meg chillin in Meg's bed. Mitzi is all black except for a white spot about the size of a quarter on her lower tummy. You can't tell from the picture but she has an underbite and her lower canine teeth stick out much like an English bulldogs. She is five months old and weighs about three pounds if that much. And she is a shoulder monkey. She climbs and perches on your shoulder--she keeps getting on my shoulder as I type right now . All the other kitties have accepted her except Pedro is a little jealous and so is Cassie and Piper just wants all cats to leave her alone. I think Piper was mistreated before we got her. She is our invisible child and stays in the laundry room most of the time. Diannah adopted Mitzi as her own the minute she came in the house which surprised us cause Diannah is known to be sort of a bully but she grooms her all the time well so do the black boys and Luna (the momma cat) It's cute how they are all one big litter.

I was able to do a little dusting and gave Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban a house . I know the doll is supposed to be LeAnn Rimes but she looks like Nicole to me. They seem to enjoy hanging out in TuMani away from the Nashville crowds. If you look closely you will see Nicole has the microphone and is thinking about singing although she is shy about singing around Keith.

Jaime is off both Thanksgiving and the day after and was wondering if it would be worth going out early to fight the crowds. I told her it really wasn't worth it. Gary and I did it a couple of years and the only thing I ever got at a good price was the large Barbie house I have on top of the TV. It was about twenty dollars cheaper than normal. I must admit I have enjoyed that house but now I look for my houses at Goodwill. This is a good time of year to find last years model as a lot of parents clean big time just before Christmas to make room for the "new and improved" stuff that is out for this year.

I gave Meg her first sewing lesson on the machine Monday. We needed two new Christmas socks for our new girls so I showed her how to cut a pattern from on of the other socks and then cut out the linings and the outer socks. I marked the material and she was able to sew the linings and one of the outer socks but the other was darker material that I couldn't mark so I finished it and did the top stitching and sewing on the fabric hangers. She still has all her fingers intact. I myself have sewn through my finger two or three times and it doesn't hurt going in but coming out is terrible but I think drilling a finger hurts worse and I have done that twice.

Our weather has been too warm for this time of year but they say we are going to have thunderstorms this afternoon and it is going to turn colder and perhaps we will have a few snow flurries.

I have been thinking about making a blog for TuMani but don't know yet---what do you think?

Here's a few more Pix from the Yard Sale

Genevieve checks out a piece of furniture.

Rummaging through the clothing.

Yvonne at the cash.
This gal found some running shoes in green to match her outfit.


We spent the day in Toronto (getting lost or rather confused) on the subway system LOL The Argos were playing (football), the Raptors were in town (basketball) and the Santa Claus Parade was on all at the time and in the same area! The news media were telling people not to drive as over half a million people were expected in the downtown! So we took the subway but there was a half hour lineup just to pay to get on the trains! Still it was cheaper than the Go Train and a real adventure, believe me! I haven't rode the subway for almost 10 years and I got very confused underground. It was Jack's first time ever to ride the subway.


Our football team lost badly. It was an exciting game nevertheless. Then we went out for supper to end the day.


Yesterday the basement flooded but fortunately I have most of Dolton on bricks and off the floor from past experiences. We had over an inch of water in some places. Although it's been okay since, we are concerned that maybe the old piping is rotting. Jack says it's outside the house but that is still our responsibility, at least to the city property line. I know our neighbour's had to tear up their basement floor last year to replace their pipes. I sure hope we don't as we have more piping than they do as our plumbing in on the opposite side of the house and crosses under our lawn to join with their piping to the street. You pay by the foot and that would be mighty expensive! For the past 3 years the city has been digging up our street replacing old and faulty pipes. They just finished two months ago and only repaved our street a couple of weeks back! But we will have to get ours checked first to be sure it's not our pipes before we go after the city. That's not cheap to do either! I knew we should have moved! LOL


Anyway I hope you all had a good weekend.

Lofton Multi Family Yard Sale

Lots of people came
The road was blocked for cars









Jane eyes the records.

Snooty Silkie sees nothing she likes!


Max wonders if these shoes will fit her Kish dolls!







Note: This will take two or more entries to hold all the pix. There will be more scenes another day when hopefully it is is warmer.

Meanwhile Back at the Venetian Cottage

Jimmy reading his paper.
Elle finds a flyer. I wonder what it says?














Sylvia reads the flyer.
"Oh there's going to be a big yard sale on Saturday! I wonder if there will be anything for us?"



Everyone is excited and decide they must attend this yard sale!





Stay tuned, Saturday is coming (sooner than you think)!

Around the Mall

Let's take a look and see what else is going on at the mall!

Josette and Wryson are here enjoying a day away from the Orphange. I wonder who's looking after the children?
Here's Jane at her Lottery Booth
Nolee and Genevieve get acquainted.
I wonder what they are talking about!






"Here's your paper Mr. Cagney! Special large edition this week!"

Food Court

Of course shopping makes us hungry. Let's see what there is too eat shall we!
Boys helping themselves.
Ordering Pizza.


Eating at McD's
















Meg and DixieLee at McD's.


Father and Son eating lunch.

Grocery Shopping

There is food for every size of resident.




At the checkout counter.

Inside the Mall

Entering the mall.

Don't Push!
Big Sale!












Trying on shoes.







Note: this may take several posts as there are a lot of pictures.