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| Mattel Goddess of Spring Barbie |
I missed April Fool's Day. The first week of April is gone. I have yet to submit a "themes of the month" post. Well, here it is. Topics that might be covered in April - my source for these dates is the TimeandDate.com website, holiday tab.
We'll start with the obvious: Spring and Spring Cleaning. Yes, Spring started on March 20th, but we are just beginning to feel it here in Philadelphia. We survived this bitter cold and snow-suffocating Winter; now we are getting a few days of sunshine and warmth. (April showers, too, but hey, it's not slippery ice.)
Mattel's Goddess of Spring Barbie heads this post as my [once] only Spring-themed doll. Mattel has produced many other Spring Barbie dolls. That's a good theme topic: dress dolls and action figures in Spring fashions. Banish the coats and scarves and boots. Bright and airy fashions for all!
While Spring Cleaning is not a holiday, many people observe it by cleaning and clearing out stuff. This year, I intend to celebrate my doll enthusiasm by cleaning my fine figures and forwarding (i.e., selling and/or giving away) others. Perhaps, the Goddess of Spring Barbie was not my only Spring-themed doll. Time to go through my collection to see what I have and what I no longer want so that I can make room for new characters. Collecting is cyclical like the seasons: time now to do weeding and pruning to allow for new growth.
Here are more special April days that are or could be observed in playscale:
15th is the first day of Passover. Does anyone else find the absence of Passover Barbies odd given that Ruth Handler, Barbie's human mother/creator was Jewish? I am not making an argument for a Passover Barbie, just commenting. Dolls do not have to match the race or ethnicity or religion* of the person or people creating and distributing the dolls, right? Then again, just because Mattel has not formally created a Passover Barbie, others have.
20th is Easter Sunday Mattel has produced several Easter Barbies and Easter Kelly / Chelsea dolls. With no disrespect or malice meant towards any, I think of Easter Barbie and family as commercial, not so much religious as event-focused. Easter Bunny, Easter bonnets, egg hunts, chocolate eggs, and marshmallow Peeps aside, Easter is a religious holiday. Isn't it? Or can it be that Easter - like Christmas - has become ... more secular? I wonder.
21st is Patriot's Day. Whew, off the hot button of religion and collecting - don't ask why I open mouth and insert both feet at times - and on to a less volatile subject. I include Patriot's Day here although I drew a blank when I first read about it. It isn't a big Philly holiday - so I probably will not do any tributes here. Still, I mention it in case someone else is seeking an April holiday/observation.
22nd is Earth Day. Recycling holiday. Instead of lamenting the plastic gone into making dolls and action figures, we can make sure that none go to waste. Make something new and fresh with your dolls. One artist created her vision of an Earth Day Barbie that strikes me as bizarre because I think of Barbie as being plastic. And she's fine being plastic - that's the medium she began in and can stay in for my interests. So I'm thinking recycling projects for that day. And recycling links! Yes!
23rd is Administrative Professionals Day. As a former and possibly future administrative professional, I will acknowledge this day. Some of my ex-military action figures can have a new career.
25th is Arbor Day. Okay, tree day ... wooden furniture? Ouch! No! Dolls and action figures encircling trees? Yeah, right. Maybe playscale trees ... now that's better.
Will you be celebrating any days in April with your dolls and/or action figures? Share your links in the comments. Thanks!
*added religion to be more accurate.
19 comments:
Hi D7ana, my comment appeared twice, so I deleted one, and now everything is gone :-)! I'll try again: Spring cleaning is great (also for doll collections), and recycling too! We have a day here called "secretary day", but my bosses (lawyers) have always pretended not knowing anything about that LOL.
April 15 is tax day.
Hi Nymphaea! Spring cleaning can be fun especially when it means checking on dolls and action figures. Recycling can be fun, too. It clears spaces and finds new uses for old items.
"Administrative Professional Day" used to be called "Secretaries Day" here, too. Then they "upgraded" it or expanded it to cover other administrative support positions. Shrug. Bosses in the U.S.A. can pretend to not know about it, but the card/flower/candy companies advertise the holiday so it's a little harder to ignore, lol. However, that does not stop some bosses from saying that our pay days are our days, ;-P
Hi Skippercollector! Ugh, tax day. But true, and it cometh every year ... brrrr ...
I love the Goddess face mold, even though I think the only doll I have with that face is an Indian Barbie.
As far as Passover Barbie, it's my understanding that Passover is mainly about the meal, so anybody with some mini food crafting skills could make that. Plus you'd need yarmulkes for Ken and Todd, and whatever your female dolls would wear.
I think Easter has developed secular sidelines, because it's another chance for stores to sell things. But for the religious Christian, Easter is still the most important holiday in the year.
Hola, sabes, no he podido comentar porque desde mi tableta, no lo puedo hacer, desde que cambiaste tu imagen del blog, que ha sido muy buena, hay algo que no me deja, como que se pegaran las dos ventanas, la del comentario y la de la clave de filtro para publicar el comentario.
He visitado todos tus post, pero creo que solo comentaré hasta que venga a mi computadora, que es sólo cuando publico un post en mis blogs.
Hasta pronto.
Nymphaea and D7ana, I've noticed that after I post a comment, I tend to see all the current comments in duplicate. Perhaps D7ana, you might want to check with the people who wrote your blogging software, to see if it is a known bug.
Thanks for this list, dear. I realized it will also be nice to have themes for my little outfits, especially when I run out of inspiration.. Heading to that website ... :)
Here is a link you might like for your recycling day theme: http://twentytwowords.com/jewelry-made-out-of-disembodied-pieces-of-barbie-dolls-20-pictures/ - some of these are beautiful and some are a bit, um, unusual.
Hi Barb!
Hope you can expand your Goddess face mold dolls - should you choose to do so. Sometimes one doll will suffice for a mold if you really, really like that particular doll ;-)
I love seeing people tailor their fashion dolls - Barbie and others - to suit their needs.
I agree with you about the retailers seeing green at Easter. It's like, what can we sell for this occasion. Facepalm.
¡ Gracias por compartir este problema relacionado con el comentario de mí, Lindaivette montes de oca! No era consciente de que este estilo cause dificultad para responder en ordenadores portátiles. Informaremos Blogger sobre el problema y averiguar qué sugieren que debería hacer. Te agradezco tu ayuda. Sinceramente, Dana
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I thank you for sharing this comment-related problem with me, Lindaivette! I was not aware that this style causes difficulty responding on mobile computers. I will inform Blogger about the problem and find out what they suggest I should do. I appreciate your help here. Sincerely, Dana.
Thanks for visiting, Shasha! You are welcome. Themes help sometimes when I have dry spells - oh, what should I write about. Much joy with that website: you will find other holidays there.
Best wishes for your lovely fashions and your blog ;-)
Hi Carrickters and thanks for that link. I like the idea of recycling Barbies, but jewelry made of Barbie parts always strikes me as odd. A friend sent me a Pinterest pin that showed mannequin hands in a jar. I suppose she may have seen some of my loose doll heads or doll bodies laying about? I thanked her, but I said I did not understand making jewelry with Barbie body parts. Shrug. It is like the jewelry-maker broke down dolls for their "works." My parts hanging around are pending connection to either a new body or a new head or they're extra hands/feet/etc. So I think this when I think of recycling Barbies.
Still, better to use them in some way than to waste them ;-}
Thanks, Barb, for drawing my attention to this occurrence. I think what happens is when I respond to a comment directly - as I am doing in this response - you see my response AND your original comment. So my response brings up and draws out again, the comment I am replying to. At least, I think that that is what is happening. Let me try with a separate response not attached to this one.
Okay, I am submitting this comment unattached to any particular comment in response to this post. Let's see if it duplicates ...
I'm in spring cleaning mode myself. I can only do it in spurts so it feels like it's taking forever. However, I'm going whole hog about it. If I haven't touched it in the last 2 years it's outta here! All to make more room for my dolls, of course. ^__^
Hi Muff! Oh, I like Spring cleaning mode - I just get distracted doing it, lol. Oh, I remember this doll. I don't really love her, but maybe I won't be able to get her in the future .... Or I like the fashion or an accessory, but can I sell the doll without them? For me, it's partly to make room for new dolls AND to allow myself to get new dolls. So my collection supports new collecting, lol.
I'd love to see what you choose to keep and what you donate/sell - I'm thinking one or more posts on that topic would be fun ....
Ah, poop. I already donated the thrift store dolls/toys I didn't want and totally forgot to take a photo. I meant to, but once I started packing up boxes and loading the car, my mind was just on getting it out of here. So far I've only given away about 20 blonde dolls I didn't want, which felt kinda racist of me, lol, but hey, I like what I like.
It was just my first wave of cleaning though. Second wave starts this Friday and then I really get brutal and down to business. No mercy! If any more doll stuff doesn't make the cut, I'll be sure to take photos for a post.
Hey Muff - couldn't resist, lol.
If you bought or accepted 20 blonde dolls, you weren't racist ;-) Tastes change and as another Super Cool Doll Collector/Enthusiast wrote once, "the crazy wants what the crazy wants." Or to reach back into old commercial jingles, "sometime you feel like a blonde; sometimes, you don't."
Maybe replace "feel like" with "want a" ... only it doesn't sound so catchy ... ;-D
Tackling the project piece by piece - section by section - is a good plan to reduce feeling overwhelmed.
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