tea berry-blue

I went to Toys R Us on Monday to buy a stuffed animal as a gift for a friend, and on my way to the register, I passed the Strawberry Shortcake dolls.

Now, when I was little, Strawberry Shortcake was my life. My mother made me a costume. I probably talked Berry Talk a bunch. I must have had a dozen dolls. We couldn't afford the fancy accessories, so my mother sewed little sleeping bags for all of them and gave me an old makeup case for them to live in.

I still remember that there was one doll I wanted desperately: Orange Blossom.

Orange Blossom was probably my first introduction to the idea of tokenism: the sole black character on the TV show and among the dolls.

She also had hair like mine.

In the early 80s, before the advent of Barbie and the Rockers, it was not particularly common to find a doll with curly hair-- especially any kind of curls that looked like natural curls, as opposed to neatly-coiffed ringlets that looked like they'd been made with curlers. There were other Strawberry Shortcakes dolls with curly hair-- quite a lot of them, in fact-- but Orange Blossom had the same short curls I had when I was four years old.

My father brought her back for me from a trip to Georgia. I still remember that I was riding on his shoulders when he gave her to me, and I called him a softie.

Anyway, in the current SSC reboot, the Orange Blossom doll, along with all the other dolls, has long, straight, silky hair. (Her skin is a lighter shade of brown, too).

I've never really had any interest in buying one of the new Strawberry Shortcake dolls, but then I saw this special edition Orange Blossom:



And now I have a doll.

whee, so i got back yesterday evenin' after an exciting train ride with fire on the tracks. fortunstely the stop was only about a half-hour, and i got a lot of drawing done. unfortunately, i'm now second-guessing all my drawings, i'm not sure if they're the style they should be. maybe i can just go back and shade 'em as they are, or trace them with pen. i really need a light box; i started tracing one of them with paths in photoshop and i think the style is going to be too, i dunno, sterile-looking if i do it that way. the tracing them on a light box might be the best way to go, since they're not really clean enough to do straight scans. hmm, they're expensive, the smallest one is $60 at the cheapest site i can find. gar. the ones that are sizes that are actually useful are $100-$200.

anyone wanna buy me a light box? :D

so, FUN this weekend. we kind of hung out and did a lot of nothing, though saxtonownzyou did attempt to make everyone play poker, which was a spectacular failure since no one else would gamble. i tried, really i did, but i don't like to bet on things unless i'm pretty well convinced i've got a sure thing. she was sort of redeemed, though, because after that her roomie made us play the most infuriating game ever. :D what else did we do? we played clue, which i am actually good at, and it reminded me of this other mystery mansion game i had as a child... i think it might have been called mystery mansion, you build a mansion and there was treasure inside. i was really good at that, too. ahh, yes! here is is! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3129303059&category=2530

ahh DUDE and there's an electronic version http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3022421762&category=3617

i LOVED this game. this, balderdash, guess who, past lives, and masterpiece. oh, and the game of life, but really i just liked having twins.

we also bought LOADS of playmobils and re-arranged the pieces to make them into our dotg characters. liret, somehow i wound up with liret, i thought you had her, so i have to figure out how to get her back to you. when i got home, i bought EVEN MORE so i will have a kit doll and two kids and complete the second-generation seajen clan. plus i bought a bunch more stuff, like a knight and foxies and ALL SORTS OF THINGS. so cool so cool. and a rowboat.

i clomped around boston in pirate clothes, which was fun. we even saw a man wearing an eyepatch, which i can only assume was FOR REAL. the only problem was i think my pants were cutting off my circulation. and i didn't have big clompy pirate boots.

so, all in all, fun weekend.

i have a really stiff neck and shoulder, probably from a combination of sleeping on the floor and on the train, but that's okay. we're supposed to be going bowling tomorrow with work, and i'm not really feeling it, so at least if my shoulder's sore i can beg out. 'course, that might BE why i'm not really feeling it, or something. i can probably go and hang out for a little or something, but i'm not crazy about going bowling right now for some reason.

whee, so i got back yesterday evenin' after an exciting train ride with fire on the tracks. fortunstely the stop was only about a half-hour, and i got a lot of drawing done. unfortunately, i'm now second-guessing all my drawings, i'm not sure if they're the style they should be. maybe i can just go back and shade 'em as they are, or trace them with pen. i really need a light box; i started tracing one of them with paths in photoshop and i think the style is going to be too, i dunno, sterile-looking if i do it that way. the tracing them on a light box might be the best way to go, since they're not really clean enough to do straight scans. hmm, they're expensive, the smallest one is $60 at the cheapest site i can find. gar. the ones that are sizes that are actually useful are $100-$200.

anyone wanna buy me a light box? :D

so, FUN this weekend. we kind of hung out and did a lot of nothing, though saxtonownzyou did attempt to make everyone play poker, which was a spectacular failure since no one else would gamble. i tried, really i did, but i don't like to bet on things unless i'm pretty well convinced i've got a sure thing. she was sort of redeemed, though, because after that her roomie made us play the most infuriating game ever. :D what else did we do? we played clue, which i am actually good at, and it reminded me of this other mystery mansion game i had as a child... i think it might have been called mystery mansion, you build a mansion and there was treasure inside. i was really good at that, too. ahh, yes! here is is! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3129303059&category=2530

ahh DUDE and there's an electronic version http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3022421762&category=3617

i LOVED this game. this, balderdash, guess who, past lives, and masterpiece. oh, and the game of life, but really i just liked having twins.

we also bought LOADS of playmobils and re-arranged the pieces to make them into our dotg characters. liret, somehow i wound up with liret, i thought you had her, so i have to figure out how to get her back to you. when i got home, i bought EVEN MORE so i will have a kit doll and two kids and complete the second-generation seajen clan. plus i bought a bunch more stuff, like a knight and foxies and ALL SORTS OF THINGS. so cool so cool. and a rowboat.

i clomped around boston in pirate clothes, which was fun. we even saw a man wearing an eyepatch, which i can only assume was FOR REAL. the only problem was i think my pants were cutting off my circulation. and i didn't have big clompy pirate boots.

so, all in all, fun weekend.

i have a really stiff neck and shoulder, probably from a combination of sleeping on the floor and on the train, but that's okay. we're supposed to be going bowling tomorrow with work, and i'm not really feeling it, so at least if my shoulder's sore i can beg out. 'course, that might BE why i'm not really feeling it, or something. i can probably go and hang out for a little or something, but i'm not crazy about going bowling right now for some reason.