Collecting, Health, Miniatures, Dioramas and Inherited Dolls

This transcript was generated from the episode captions and lightly edited for readability. Names and product terms may occasionally be imperfect. Quoted dollar amounts retain the wording of the interview; the currency is not always specified.

0:00Hello dolls and accessories. I'm your host, Kelly, and this is Barbie Talk. Barbie Talk with Kelly in Pink. Today I'm joined by Teresa, known as Barbie Blast 59 on Instagram, whose content feels like a miniature Barbie world filled with creativity, storytelling, friendships, love, and everyday moments. What I love about her content is how personal, real, and authentic it feels. From handmade outfits to cozy seasonal scenes to travel photos to dolls that genuinely feel like characters with personalities of their own. Please welcome Teresa. Hi Teresa. Welcome to Barbie Talk. Hi Kelly. It's good to be here. I'm so happy to have you on. Thank you for joining and being here today. I've been looking forward to this for a while. So, I'm pretty excited and excited that we have connected and yeah, it's just it's really fun to connect with a fellow collector who has that same passion. And I won't tell anybody where you're from cuz I'll let you give yourself a little introduction, but we're also both Canadian, which is kind of nice, too.

1:11Mhm. So, I always start the show off with asking people to tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, and how your relationship with Barbie started. Okay. Um I am yes from Canada. I'm from Manitoba, Canada. And uh we live very close to the US border which makes it handy if uh I want to order you know something that I cannot get in Canada. I can just have it shipped over the border there. And so that's a real plus to where we live. But we live pretty remotely. We live like 3 hours from Winnipeg and about an hour from Brandon. So everything's just kind of a far apart. you know, hey, now there's Amazon. So, um, okay. And how did I get started with Barbies? Well, I am 6 months older than Barbie. And so, her and I have been around for a while. So, I played with baby dolls and tea parties and all that kind of stuff. And then, uh, so I I kind of was a little too young for the ponytail Barbie when she first came out um because, uh, I was born in 58. She came in 6 months later in 59. But my mom got me a I think I was six or so. So I have my This is from when I was a child. This is my bubble cut Barbie. And because my mom was so into fashion,

2:34she like my mom wore high heels whenever she left the house. And uh not at home of course, you know, not like in those old, you know, shows that were on TV. But anyway, I think she was very attracted to this whole Barbie thing. And so she cultivated that in me. And I love fashion as well. In fact, I would take the Sears catalog to bed and just page through the clothes because I loved fashion and clothes so much. So, [snorts] but looking back now, I go, I had so little clothes when I was a kid that I was like, I know I constantly change the clothes, but I just go, I guess I was just content with that, but now I'm not content cuz I have lots of clothes. But anyway, okay. So she was my very first unfortunately she got the green ear thing you know which I tried to clean up and you know I had put makeup on her face and then some of her was chipping off and so I had to I did some painting on her which is terrible and so Barbies were my escape. I'm not even going to go what into what was going on in my life but uh that was my escape. I just hid away in my room. Um, my grandfather gave me a trunk for all my dolls so that I could take them traveling.

3:50I shouldn't say traveling. We went out to where I actually live now every weekend. So, Barbie was my first and then I'm not really sure who came next. Ken. Did Ken come next. So, I have my original Ken and I had to fix his little hair up there. So, but anyway, his feet fit those shoes that come in Zuru or something. I don't know. Anyway, they wouldn't fit on any of my other dolls except him. So, that is my Ken. And then I think this was my next one. This is Mitch. That is a beautiful. Now, the funny thing is like when I seriously started collecting years later and then had books and all that kind of stuff, I never knew this, but MIJ was supposed to have freckles. And I never even knew as a child that my doll was a defect. And so I read in this book that at the time if you had a freckleless mid, she was worth a lot of money. [snorts] And uh so I mean I'm not going to sell her, right? No way, no how. Now, it's funny how the value changes in things, right? I mean, she was worth a lot of dollars back in the8s. I mean, now [clears throat] you can take acetone and take off her freckles and say, "Oh, I have, you know, a defect." Anyway, I never knew that. So,

5:11I liked that I could comb her hair a little bit compared to the bubble cut Barbie. And then [snorts] I just want to mention her clothes. I mean, I started sewing clothes. We'll talk about that later. But anyway, my grandmother, who was like perman, this never even hit me until recently actually that my grandmother made this little skimpy outfit with a midrift showing and so we were out at the farm and uh she just had a whole bunch of scraps that my mom had and one day she just made me a bunch of clothes and uh I didn't appreciate it at the time but now because I sew I just totally appreciate the work she And I just like when I looked at this, I went I can't believe that my grandmother made this cuz she was so prim and proper. But it's very trendy, Teresa. Like it is that's something I feel like women would wear today. Oh, I know. I know. But it's like this was back in the '60s. That [laughter] is so sweet. You know what? I'd love to see this mij a little closer to the camera to see freckles. You're right. And I that's something I just learned, too. I didn't know that they had faulty midgetes with no freckles. Yeah. Well, I remember I don't know if I have a book or whatever, but they just had all the different uh dolls that had faults and what to look for and and if you could find a faulty doll, she was worth a lot of money. So, can we can we go back to your bubble cut real quick? Just because I really like that fashion. Tell me

6:33a little bit about what she's wearing. This isn't my original outfit, but I have a niece who she'll be like thrifting and then she finds me packages and she brings them to me. This might have been from her childhood, but and so she gave me all her childhood. The outfit looks very um of the time. I know. Yeah. Very 60s. I know. So that's why she's in it. Very sweet. A lot of my clothes I wash them not realizing you shouldn't wash these things. But anyway, so then my next doll was Skipper. I was beyond beyond having this doll. One, I had curly hair and brown hair. And so here she's blonde and she's got straight hair and I could just comb her hair. You do not comb curly hair.

7:26And so you wouldn't believe how many times I just would comb and comb and comb her hair. Like Marca, like Marcia from the Brady Bun, she would be like constantly combing [laughter] her. But you know, in all fairness, the bubble cut, it's so short, you can't really I know. I know. and the hats didn't fit on her and it was just like yeah, you know, I loved her but you know, I moved on pretty quickly and she eventually became the older sister and then or this became I think her daughter. I think that's what I end up doing. So, look at that cute little festive dress she's wearing, too. How cool. Well, I made that. Yeah, I have a one that my mini me also wears and they match. So, and then I got this twist and turn and again I was beyond the moon. I could comb her hair. She had real eyelashes and she was just so beautiful to me. I just could not get over her. And then I loved all her mod clothing that she had. I didn't get a whole lot. I I think this was getting to the end of my whatever. So, these were the only dolls I had and uh I would just play with them, change clothes till I was 14. And then my brother threatened me and said, "I need to tell all my friends at school that you're still playing with dolls." And I'm like, "Oh, no." So, anyway, that ended my doll playing. And uh then it wasn't until my daughter, my first daughter

8:50came along and uh so anyway, she has all her dolls and I go, "Mine are kind of ancient and they just don't fit in with her dolls and I was like, I need new dolls." So anyway, she would get the blonde dolls and then I would get the other dolls in the set. So, I don't know where my other the uh I never ever bought the blonde dolls, but I always bought the girls with colored hair. So, anyway, these ones didn't come out of their clothes, but the other doll did. And do you think I could find her today? The with the black hair, the black doll. Dee Dee, it's okay. I have her for you. I can show you. Was it this one? Yes, her. So, I loved her so much because I as a child wanted a black doll so badly. There was a doll called Julia. She was on a TV show and she was a nurse and I watched that show and I love I just I think black people are so so beautiful and I wanted a black doll so bad as a child and never got her and so when I got her I was just like [gasps] I don't know she's you know what it is it's first of all African-American pe people have beautiful skin but then the way the colors pop on the skin tone Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And she's the only one I took her clothes off because she was the singer at the Barbie's wedding, you know, cuz

10:13when we my daughter and I back then I was making diaramas and with her and uh you know, we did a whole wedding scene with Pews and everything. And then so that doll sang at her at the wedding. So, but you've got you've got Dana there from the rockers and then you've got Kayla from Dance Club. She's from the dance club. She's from dance club. That's Kayla. Rocker. No, it doesn't. She's got the same 80s look. She's still got the 80s look. Okay. I love that, Kayla. That's a grail of mine. Like I said, when the set came out, like the beach set, the California Yeah, the California Dream. Yep. Yeah. So, I didn't buy the Barbie. My daughter got the Barbie and all the stuff that went with it. And then I got all the other dolls. So then that started me up. And then at that time in the8s, they were coming out with, oh my word, there were so many dolls that were collector dolls. You could go to Toys R Us or Target or even Walmart and they would have these collector dolls. And I went bananas because I just loved all these dolls with the like the not so much the big hair cuz I had big hair and I hated big hair. [laughter] Yeah,

11:35you had curly hair. You had curly hair. 80s was my time to shine with my hair, but I loved that they had different colored hair and I love the big dresses cuz I was into sewing big dresses at the time and I was just like, "Yeah." So I That's a beautiful line. And then I collected the whole Christmas line. You know, I started what was it? 1988 the first one came out. That's correct. So anyway, I'm just going to show you a few of my I The only reason these are down is cuz we had a plumbing issue and I had to take all these Barbies down and I was like, "Oh, I'm not going to put them back until I show you." Yeah. So, again, uh not I just I rarely got blonde ones, but anyway, here is a blonde one. I mean, the blonde ones are beautiful. It's just it was like the blonde army.

12:20the turn. That's what I felt like. I felt like there was just so many blondes. So, the other thing that I was collecting um at the time were the around the world dolls. Yeah. So, that got me being a collector. So, I had Christmas dolls I was collecting. Anything that was in a big dress, I was collecting. Anything that was unusual, I was collecting, I was collecting around the world. So, that's that's what got me being a collector. Um, and that and that oriental doll that you just showed, was that one of the first dolls of the world? It was. She is. And you can tell because of the packaging is that. Yeah, they're nice to pack cuz you can just like the flats, you know, they just they're nice. They're nice to pack. And this is a doll from your collection, your original.

13:07This is not one you recently purchased. This is one you bought back in the Wow. Back in the day. Yeah. Wow. I was trying to get all of the dolls and sometimes I would pay a little good price to get it part of the collection. This is one of my favorites from back then. I just love her dress and so I have my sisters which we'll talk about that later. I'm tempted to take one of them out of the box. Also at that time they were coming out with series things like this is called the classic collection. Yes. And [snorts] so I love the detail on them and just the beautiful Oh, her eyes. They're purple. I mean, who has purple eyes? But she's just so But that's But that's Barbie. Barbie has purple eyes and she looks beautiful and she can rock it. That's the way it goes. Yeah. Yeah.

13:57Yeah. Those dolls are beautiful. Do you have all those classics? Do you miss I have three. I have this one here. Oh, yes. I have that one, too. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And um again, I will probably never take these out of the boxes. These are just, you know, my original collections because back then it was like, you don't take anything out of the box. It was just stressed to us over and over again because if you want to resell it or whatever, you need them to be in the box, you know, cuz your value goes down, etc. blah blah blah blah. So, it was just so ingrained in us to not take stuff out of the box. And so it wasn't until I got involved with the whole International Barbie group, not the club, just the whole thing on Instagram that when people were taking them out of the boxes, I'm just going, "What? What?" [snorts and laughter] We would get anxiety. We would get anxiety cuz we were so I agree. My mother, same thing. Don't take them out. When I did take them out, they'd make me feel bad for taking them out. So I was a predominately a box collector for many, many years. And also, these boxes are beautiful, though. There's no story. I know. Yeah. And then this is another one. I was very partial to red heads because of my sister. I loved her red head.

15:11Her her hair was that color. Oh, it was in my stories, I guess, that I shared recently. The doll that I think matches her so well. So, that's how I actually became a collector. And then it got overwhelming. I was getting so many and they're all in big boxes. And I just like where do I put these dolls? And I just went I can't buy anymore and money was a little tight back then. And so I was like h and what was the point of having a doll if she's tucked away in a box and you can't see her. So I tried to display, you know, as best I could. And then I just quit. And so unfortunately some of my Christmas dolls I'm missing a chunk of ears there. And I got to figure that out. I didn't realize how many I was until I started putting that display together back there and then I went, "Oh my goodness, I'm missing a few." So, I need to figure that out. The Christmas dolls, by the way, you can probably find them online. Some of them are pretty affordable. Yeah. And my daughter-in-law's mom, she's constantly messaging me and saying, "Hey, do you want these? Do you want that?" Cuz she goes to garage sales and stuff and it's like, "Yep, if it's 20 bucks, I'll take it." Cuz we have that exchange rate we have to pay, right? It's like so it's the gripe I always I always mention on the show and I feel like it's like I'm beating a dead horse. I sound like a broken record but it is it is very unfortunate for Yeah. for us that's all. But I know it is a

16:32bummer. Yeah. Yeah. Then the dolls were just kind of put away again. You know, my daughter grew up. I was busy. I was running a store. I was working for autotometrist and I was just Yeah. But I was sewing for them and selling clothes at craft sales. Backtrack. I started sewing doll clothes shortly after we were married and I was sewing doll clothes for my man's and so I bought some patterns and I was sewing them and then I didn't sew again until I was doing these craft sales and I was making clothes and making big dresses and selling them and that sort of thing. And then my daughter was always so upset because I always sold the really pretty ones and she got all the things that I go, "Oh, I don't really like that one." But it's funny cuz my granddaughter ended up loving them. So dolls are put away. Uh 16 years later, I have another daughter. And my Barbies feel dated like the old ones. I definitely didn't bring them out, you know, and we do not touch mommy's dolls.

17:28That's was my rule. Like I have my dolls, you have your dolls. So then I'm like, well, my, you know, rocker dolls are just like dated. So I needed some new dolls. So I just started buying dolls. But these dolls I took out of their boxes and started playing with my daughter. And in fact, we would do a little Halloween party and I actually took some of the dolls of the world out of their thing and they were in a costume at a at a Halloween party. And uh that was my first experience of taking dolls out of the box. I mean, other than the ones that I was playing with, but like, okay, you know what? That's been in the box for a while. I'm just going to take her out. So, then there was the new dolls of the world. Oh, they just so detailed. She is absolutely stunning.

18:17Wow. And look at her skin tone. Like the accuracy. Yeah. So, I mean, she still won't ever come out of her box. And anyway, and then how did it how did it feel taking those first dolls out of the box for the first time? How did it feel? It felt a little weird, but then I just went, you know what? I realized how time goes and how time goes so fast, and I go, I'm just going to enjoy these. And so, there's more of these dolls of the world. And the detail on them was just phenomenal. These were the princesses. This is the princess Imperial Russia. Yeah, those are stunning. Stunning. And so your daughters were into Barbie. They were. They were. They were. And now it's like anybody want My daughter did take some because of my sister's collection. I ended up with doubles of the um Gone with the Wind dolls. And so she wanted those and so I said, "Well, here you take these ones." And yeah, so my youngest daughter, all her Barbies are still out of the farm. I got to figure out what to do with them. Got to move them. I don't know what I'm doing with them. And then my oldest daughter, she had fashion fevers. Oh, yes. That would have been her her time. Yes. Yeah. It wasn't when she was a child. It was when she was a teenager and newly married is when she was collecting them. She still kept some of them. And then her daughter played with some of them and then she gave me

19:38some of them. And I'm just like, what? This sounds like a lot of between you, your sister, your two daughters. It's just like I don't even know where you have the space. [laughter] I don't I don't That's why you got a bunch of box a bunch of dolls. Yes. Okay. So, I just another another red head. Look at that beautiful red head. Yes. And these are the dolls. Legends of Ireland. My family's Irish and I love red heads so much. So, I'm not sure how well you can see her. Beautiful. I actually do have an Irish baby, too. Yeah. Just love this beautiful like the red hair. Yeah. Isn't that I love the red hair. It's just gorgeous. Yes. Oh, you have another one there. Yeah. She's also Legends of Ireland. And the thing is you could get some of these dolls readily, but then all a sudden you couldn't find number three and four or whatever. And then you think, okay, maybe they didn't make anymore. And then years later you find out, no, what? How come I never got those? It was just kind of frustrating. But anyway, okay. So, that's that era of collecting and that sort of thing. And then again, life got busy and stuff like that.

20:48And you know, she's done with dolls, I'm done with dolls, that sort of thing. So, your Instagram and the photos on your Instagram, it feels like snapshots of like your real life. So, tell me a little bit about how you got on Instagram and what inspires you to make your content. So, I was posting travel pictures on my Facebook and my brother-in-law said, "Boring, you need to have people in there." And I went, "Okay." [clears throat] So, I was taking dolls with me on our travels to where our son lives because I played Barbies with my granddaughter and I had some in the vehicle. So, every time I took a shot, I put a doll in the shot. So, I had all these travel photos with Barbies in them. And then so I made an album on Facebook of Barbie Travels, Barbie Barbies Adventures. And so my daughter-in-law said, you know, you need an Instagram account and then just post Barbies. And I go, oh gosh, do I want to do this? And so I started posting, oh my gosh, you don't even want to look at those beginning photos. But anyway, you know, I didn't care if their hair is messy. I still don't always care if their hair is messy, but anyway. So I don't I don't see it. You see it? I don't see it anyway. I have messy hair so I don't really care. Like it's reality. It's reality. Yeah. I just Yeah. My hair's out of place and so my dolls are and I don't really care. But then it evolved and then I started following Grandma

22:13Gets Real who had a mini. I started following her and then all a sudden I got to know more and more accounts who had minis. I thought there is no way ever in the world I am going to find a mini with my big hair, the color of my hair, because I used to have different colored hair. And so I thought there's just no way I'm ever going to find a doll that is me that has big hair, that has brown eyes and has my color of hair. I'm in Canadian Tire one day and there's this doll hanging up there, one of those cheapy dolls, and there she is. And I'm just like, that's my mini me. So here's my mini me. So once I got her, my account changed to this is my life. So everything I did, she did.

23:02Mind you, she did a lot more than I did. She went to parties all over the world. She went to like all these [snorts] different, you know, hashtag occasion things and that. So my account was her attending things but also a reflection of my life. And so once I had her then I wanted minis of my whole family. And so that's what I ended up doing. It's clear that your mini does play an integral role in your content. I see her all the time and and your content does Teresa feel real. like it's storytelling, but it feels like it's authentic and personal and you have a lot of stuff about friendships and you talked a little bit about the doll community as well, which we can touch on, but it seems like you've built a lot of friendships, too. We were recently hanging out with Janice.

23:54You also somehow figured that your granddaughter lives really close to Jessica from Makeup Dolls. Yes. Because we're both part of the International Doll Club. She just mentioned something about the state that she was living in and which is the same state my son is in. So when there was a break in conversation, I just said, "Hey, I have a son in Utah as well." And she just said, "Oh, where?" And I thought, "You're never going to know this place cuz it's just small little place on the other side of the mountain." So I said, she goes, "Get out." She goes, "I live in this town." She goes, "That's right there." In fact, her house is like a block away from my son's church. He's a pastor down there. and and so it's a block away and so we are there. Yeah. What are the chances? I mean, I feel like things are meant to be. Even the way you and I connected, people come into your life for a reason. And how nice to have like a doll friend that when you go see your your son that they're, you know, it's just so sweet. Yeah. Yeah. And then Ella is uh like my granddaughter and so she always does lives with me. So the first time that we went to Jessica um we did a live. if it's on my feed there somewhere. And we did a live together at Jessica's house. And it's so fun to go to Jessica's house because it changes all the time and she does all these redos

25:16and remakes and stuff like that and you just go, "That's what that doll turned out like." You know, she'll just take a doll and she'll just like like new hair, new face, new whatever. Brand spanking new. And if anybody wants to see the episode with Jessica, it's episode 8 and she's so talented. So definitely check that out. Very talented. It's been amazing just meeting other people. I got to meet Crazy Doll Lady in Arizona, too. And just a real sweetheart. So anyway, I'm going to just show you some of the minis of my kids. And you know, my family's so supportive and so are my friends. My friends are all like, "No, I can't talk Barbie talk with my friends, but they'll buy me stuff that's Barbie related." That's just amazing. Okay, so I'm going to start with my oldest daughter.

26:01This is my oldest daughter. Just like Jessica said, you see a face and you go, ah, that's that person. And sometimes you'll hunt forever for a person and then you just like, oh. So anyway, my daughter wears more casual clothes, so she's pretty casual. This is her husband. I want to fix up his hair a little bit more. He's a firefighter and uh I mean he also works for a publishing company, but he does firefighting. And so this is Donnie from some Jordan from New Kids on the Block. Okay, that's who it is. I colored his hair, painted his hair. Wasn't he blonde? Hold on. Show them a little closer. Maybe it was Donnie. Yeah, I think it's Donnie. No, it's Joey. Joey. And he was He came with like a red jacket. I got him nude. Okay. Okay. Okay. I had this Harry Potter doll, so I painted his black hair and he's just perfect. He looks just like my grandson. Just perfect. So, the next family is my son, Phil. Okay, this is Phil. And this is this shave guy. So, Phil sometimes shaves everything off and he doesn't have anything. So, sometimes I just have to wet this and it's all gone. And then we take a picture quickly before it all comes back. And then this is my daughter-in-law, Melissa. And another. And I'm realizing that I need to make more clothes

27:25that these people wear. Melissa would never wear that, but Melissa would wear this. So, I made this this winter. I was so excited because I haven't been able to do anything with my hands for so long. And and so I actually got this made this winter. This is my grandson. Oh, that's a Kevin doll. I think his name is Kevin. He was supposed to be like Skipper's boyfriend or something. And he Yes. and he was in with my sister's stuff and so I was like, "Yes, yes, yes, yes." Now, this is my youngest grandson and I'm struggling with the hair. It's Todd. Todd, I painted it. Yeah, I painted it. I think I forget what color it was, but I painted it and I'm trying. Black or brown, something like that. Yeah. And then this is Ella. She's got brown hair. And uh so this is her before. This was her mini before. And it was funny because when I made her her mini and she was about this age and so this one had bangs, she asked her mom, "Mom, I have to have bangs so I match my mini." Her mom's a hairdresser and so she cut her bangs for her. So anyway, so this is Ella all grown up. And this is my daughter Sydney cuz she has blonde curly hair. It's not always blonde, but it's usually always curly. So that's her. And then this is her husband, Matt, who has brown glasses. I don't know where they are, but they're somewhere. But I bought an outfit

28:49just to get the brown glasses for him. And this is my son, Christopher. He's my youngest. Nice. This is his wife. She also wears glasses, but uh who knows where they are. Yeah, they're metal. And I tried making them because they were a metal aviator kind of shape, and I suck at that. I mean, if they're round, I could do them, but they're aviator. And then I started collecting minis of my real friends. Like, this is my best friend who lives here. She's a blonde doll. I cut off her hair. And uh so anyway, that's my best friend that lives here. This is so perfect. When this doll came out, I went, I [clears throat] know what mini this is supposed to be because my friend is always in beauty pageantss. She does these mature women beauty pageantss. And uh that's perfect. I know. And it looks like her and I was like, "Oh, perfect. Perfect." And then this one I picked up recently because this is going to be my friend Lee. So anyway, I need to find some glasses for her. But I just took a silver paint pen and just painted her hair because she's kind of got silvery hair. Yeah, that's it's kind of like the white out trick. It's kind of It's Yeah. Yes. And so this is another friend from Mesa. Well, they don't live in Mesa, but they're snowbirds just like we are.

30:07And then I have doll friends as well. Like this was from she was the tiny seller and uh I forget what her she's Joe. I mean I know her really good. We've correspond all the time but I'm trying to think what her new thing is. But this doll is no longer the feature of her account. I was like I love Isn't [laughter] she beautiful? So I stuck her on an MTM body as well. She's wearing a dress that I made that was like way back in the 80s. And this is uh the mini for Matild. I don't think she's on as much anymore, but her and I used to correspond a lot. And so I wanted to find her mini. And it took me a while to hunt her down. She was a graduation doll. And this was Barbie and Buddy's mini. And it's also dress that doll. She's from Brazil. And then Mitten State Barbie. Oh yes, Mitten State. Yeah. Somewhere her I had those glasses. Those black glasses just get transferred to everybody. And then this is Samantha. I know there's someone else that has this doll, but this is Samantha from Shelter in Place. This is Janice from Dolls Doll Create. And then this dress I made. This is one of the first things I made back in my early 20s before I had kids for my niece and then she gave it back to me. Oh, I have uh Grandma Gets Real Too. Oh, yes. That's

31:29the happy family grandma. Yes. I got to meet her. We hung out for a couple of days in California. It was really fun. Um, met up with her and also Leah. And I just can't think of Leah's account, but Leah was just a sweetheart. I have pictures of us three uh with our dolls, me and Leah and uh Tanya. So, that's my account. That's where my account kind of features is like these are the people, these are the real people that are in my life, my doll friends and also my real friends and my family. And that's what my count is about. And it's funny. I was at Jessica's one time and she gave me this doll and she goes, "Yeah, I don't know who she is." Blah blah blah. And I said, "Jessica, this is my mini except I think she was a fashionista. They brought her out in a fashionista." And I went, "This will be my younger mini." Not that I ever had straight hair. I tried to have straight hair, but anyway, I'm going to have some stories when I'm younger. You know, the the the Ken Rocker.

32:29Yeah. That is my husband's mini from when we were teenagers and first married cuz he had long blonde hair. So now I'm going to put her with him. So that's that's a great content idea. That's great. That's fun. Do you have any dolls there that are meaningful to you or maybe have a memorable story attached to it? I have so many that I'd have to cut this short to go into it. But anyway, this girl, she's called Stardall. I think I absolutely adore her. So, I got her about when I was playing with my youngest daughter and she never gets her clothes taken off. I get that. Like, I take them out of the box, but it's just this is her. I can't do it. I can't take her clothes off.

33:15So, when we have a party, she's kind of in the background sometimes, but she's just like, look at her boots. So cute. And they even have the buckles painted. And and I love the leopard stockings. Oh, yeah. Aren't they just beautiful? So cute. I know. And she's just I think my granddaughter braided her hair. It's kind of messy up there. You know, I said my daughters could never touch my dolls and my granddaughters could never touch my dolls, but occasionally they did. So, but anyway, now that they're all grown up, they can touch whatever they want to. The fashionistas that came out, like they're just all so different. like, you know, I just love the different hair. And again, I don't I think that's her original outfit cuz I'm like that. She's got to stay in that. Wouldn't it have been nice if those fashionistas came on like a made to move body? I know. Could be the dream.

34:06I know. I know. I know. And I love her purple hair. I remember this one. I love the purple hair. Yeah. She's just adorable. And this is another favorite fashionista of mine. I won this outfit one time at a a contest. It's a beautiful fashion. Mhm. Anyway, I love her bald head and I love putting hats on her and it's just so fun. So fun. And then this is the top model. Okay, so I got this one. And again, I haven't taken them out of their clothes out of the box, but anyway, I love the detail and everything like you know, the socks and the there was just so much detail on them. a cute little purse with a like little chain and I just I just and the faces just gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. I had a always wanted the other ones, but then I inherited my sister's collection and so got these ones. So what I did to her might upset some people, but when I saw her, I went, "Oh, this is my niece." because this doll came with dark hair underneath and that's exactly what my my niece's hair is blonde on top and dark and then she has these dark roots.

35:20So that's what I did. I added her dark bangs and dark roots and again like look at those stockings and look at her boots. My goodness, the fashions alone. The fashion alone. I know. I love I love I love And then there was the other one. And of course like any red head just makes me think of my sister so much. So anyway, those sunglasses, the boot. I know. Like the detail on these dolls was, you know, I was like, why can't we do this all the time? My sister and I started collecting dolls back in the 80s around the same time. We were in a Walmart and we saw this holiday Barbie and we were like, "Okay, oh well maybe we should buy two of them, you know, one to have and one to sell, right?" And my husband comes along and says, "Are you kidding me? It's $34. We're not spending like buying $2 at $34, you know, whatever." And so anyway, I bought one. And then that doll, and this is just the way dolls go. Uh it skyrocketed because it was first in the series. First in the series was always worth more. She ended up being $3,000 at one time. I mean, now you can just find her at a garage sale for 20 bucks, but she was worth $3,000 at one time. This is the 1988 holiday Barbie. The very first one. Yeah. So, my sister collected Barbies and I had

36:45no idea the extent of her collection cuz when I'm going to her little room, she had a few displayed and and [snorts] so anyway, she passed away in 2021 and my nephew called me and he said, "Okay, there's mom's Barbies." He's like, I said, "Well, whatever you do, don't take them to the thrift store because I will check them out. I'll take what I want and then I'll make sure collectors get them or whatever. [gasps] And so anyway, I went to her house. Oh my goodness. I was just like, there were so many Grail dolls there. I had no idea she had no idea. So it was bittersweet because I have these dolls now because she passed away. But I couldn't contain my excitement. I think my brother-in-law was getting quite a kick out of me going.

37:34Anyway, so this doll, she had a Harley-Davidson. She had a Harley-Davidson. She rode a Harley-Davidson bike. My sister did. And my sister's redhead. And so she had this. And so this doll, I would love to take her out of the box cuz I'd like to do a story, but my husband said, "Don't you dare take her out of the box." So anyway, I just love her so much. She's so beautiful. Yeah. You could see the little red bangs. You know what? The box because the motorcycle in the back, it looks like there's a story to it. It's hard to take her out. I I know. And there's like the cactus and you know, and Oh gosh. Hold on a second. Let me rewind a little bit. When you guys were children, you and your sister played together. No. No. She was 8 years older than me and so she was kind of bummed because she was too old for Barbie. Well, if my mom had bought her Barbies like when they came out, she would have been too old cuz she would have been eightish or nine, but she didn't buy her those. And so, and you had no idea that she was collecting like I had no idea she had all these things. And my sister and I both had this book. We talked about this a lot. This is Billy Boy. He's a designer. There were so many fun things. This got me sewing in a different direction. just being more designs and that sort of thing. They created

38:55this doll, this Billy Boy doll. And I remember cuz I loved her black hair and I was just like, "Oh, a Grail item, but she got to be so expensive to buy her and it's like, yeah, you know, I mean, at the time I was just like, just couldn't do it." So anyway, yeah, I'm going through my sister's dolls. Yeah. blew my mind. What? How is it you did not tell me you had this tall? Like, how come she didn't write me and say, "Oh, Tesa, look. Look and look what I found." But I mean, back then, we didn't have texting and we didn't have phones. So, it was like a letter. And where would she have found her? Well, okay. So, back in the day, we didn't have the internet. We didn't have eBay. So, we had magazines. Well, Barbie Bazaar. And in Barbie's Bizaarre magazines, they had people listed who sell and one was Marl's Barbies from, I think, Florida or somewhere. We ordered a lot of dolls from her. So, I do not know where she got her from, but I Did you say Marles? Is it It's not Marlon B. Is it Marlon B? Yeah, it used to be Marl's Barbie, but maybe that's who it is now. I don't know. Okay, I just learned about them. Wow, that jacket, the fur trim. Isn't [laughter] it just Oh my word. And this just got Yeah. sparkly little

40:20shoes. I don't know if you could see them. See them? Oh, look at that pattern. I know. Isn't that beautiful? I mean, I don't know why your sister didn't tell you, but maybe she was waiting to surprise you one day. I don't know. But she was in her box and I remember being on the international. You know how at the end of our club days they say, "Oh, have you got a doll?" or whatever. And so I brought her and I said, "I don't know what to do. I don't know whether to open her or whatever." So, I got mixed responses as to what to do about her. [snorts] One thing I liked about Oh gosh, I can't think of his name, but he was part of our club and he just said, "Sometimes when you take them out of the box, you destroy the magic of the doll." And I went, "Oh, that's true." And so I debated long and hard about the magic of her being in her box. And then I went, "She's coming out."

41:11And she came out because I want to touch her and see her. And I want her in the background of some photo shoots or something. She's so stunning. And then I ended up with so many dolls that I'm just like I I can't even begin to show you them all. I told you before that my daughter-in-law's mom find stuff for me and so she found me this doll and I was just like I love it. I want the whole series. I have Tokyo. I have Rome. Oh wow. Well, I have another one. Teresa, I've never seen San Francisco. Mine is called Summer in Rome. And this is Summer in San Francisco. Oh, really? Yes. I love the detail on them. Right. Love these dolls. Okay. And then back to my sister. Yeah. So, going through her dolls, she had this one. It's Autumn in Paris. Isn't that beautiful? The detail on them is just phenomenal. I love that. I want the hole. The hole. So, you see the autumn and then there's somebody in the back there. Oh, this one here. Yep. forgot what she goes. You have her.

42:14I do. And check this out. Look who else is here. Oh my goodness. Look at that. I love these dolls. I love these dolls. So the one I was mentioning to you about Rome. Yeah. Tokyo. Those are still in the box. Oh yeah. But these it's just especially this one. Like it's so I think she from like what what season? She's on the back of that box. So she must be from that series. Doesn't say. It doesn't say. It doesn't. I forgot what Oh, she's from New York. That's what it winter in New York. Okay. I love New York. It felt like winter in the city. Oh, that's the vibe I get from this one, right? So, I love her. And then autumn is my favorite time of the year, so I had to get this beauty, too. See, that's the fun of having them out of the box cuz then you can play with them, but I just go, "Oh, but I like them in the box." Uh, one thing I missed earlier is uh I had this as a child. That's um sophisticated lady. Sophisticated lady. Didn't you just get this? I just thrifted her. Oh, just thrifted her. Did you like the reproduction of It's a repro. It's repro. Okay. This is original. Oh my gosh. I go played with this so much. Like So, did you have the dollar? It was a fashion. Well, yeah. It was just I put her in my bubble cup Barbie thing. Yeah. When I saw that I know it was a repro, but even the repro is gorgeous. Like, it's just the material is very identical. It's beautiful. I washed this so it became, you know,

43:39more limp. It's okay. I'm glad I didn't wash this because I think it would have wrecked. The color would have ran. I've had that problem before. It's a treasure for me. So, I wanted to share that. Yeah. No, absolutely. And like fashion clearly is your thing, you know, like it's clearly something that you you have an eye for. I love fashion. Like I said, I went to bed every night with a Sears catalog in my hand. Yeah. Now, I'm going to freak you out a little bit. Uh oh. Okay. [laughter] So, I had a Jewel Secrets Whitney doll and um I hated the hair. It was like in my way. I loved her. She was so pretty and everything like that. I had my daughter-in-law cut her hair all off. Okay, hold on. I I was kind of having heart palpitations because and then I repainted her. Oh dear. Okay, so Jules recruits Whitney is obviously a grail of everybody's, but I know her hair still looks it's a nice length. But it's still good. Yeah. But it used to be down to here, right? And so I was just like so frustrated because I was using my dolls as models to to [clears throat] model the clothing I was making and stuff like that. And so I was like And then I had her cut her hair and she was supposed to have these cute little things in the front like that. And then I painted her. I see where you were going with it. Did you get another Jewel Secrets,

44:59Whitney? No. And then I read later how much that jewel sequence is worth and it's like [laughter] and then so I have totally hair. What is she Whitney? This is the brun. No, she's just totally hair Barbie brunette. Okay. So I don't think this is her original outfit. No. No. Cuz she had a tiny little short little blue. It was the blue dress. It was like but blue. I seriously was about to cut her hair all off because I was just like I hate this hair. But you know what's interesting? The hair gets in the way. I get it. When you're trying to do fashion, it's like in the way. But it's interesting cuz when you were a child, you said you loved combing then. I know. Is that crazy? I know. I just love to comb the hair. Maybe because this hair is so thick and Oh, I love that. That's another grail of mine. Another goal. Yeah. And the reason I didn't cut it is because I was part of Barbie Instagram and people were just saying, "Oh my goodness, this is a Grail doll. This is a Grail doll." And they wanted it. as I said, I'm going to check and see how much she's worth. And I looked, I said, "Oh," I said to my husband, I said, "Oh my god, it's Rob. I just about cut her." Oh, don't do it. Oh dear. So, anyway, what era is she from? ' 80s, '90s. I don't know. She's 92. Totally hair Barbie was to this day the bestselling doll of time. Is that funny? Probably guess girls could comb their hair. Anyway, I You could do so much. She came

46:20with like these hair pieces. Yeah. Well, I again I I never bought the Barbie. Oh, look at that. And I had to recrimp her hair. I never got her as a kid. I wanted her and I never got her. So, I actually She was thrifted and I learned how to crimp hair without damaging it, without burning it. Yes. Yes. And I had to find the dress. It was a whole thing. So, yes, this the brunette. There's an African-Amean. I've got the totally hair Ken. He's still in box. Oh, really? He should come out cuz he's getting the sweaty the sweaty face. I actually made a video on my YouTube channel called Barbie in 1992 and it talks a lot about what was going on in pop culture at the time and how this doll came to be. We'll have to check it out. Yes. Yeah. Well, she almost had her hair all chopped off. Well, I'm glad I'm glad you didn't chop off her hair. [laughter] Yeah. I have a thing for red head girls because of my sister. So, when I saw her, I had to have her. I'm working at sewing her little outfit. So, that's why she's like that. My husband, as much as he'll complain about my dolls, he'll so surprise me at Christmas or for my birthday, and he will have looked online and he will have bought me a doll that I necessarily haven't even told him I wanted. And I'm just like, "Oh, wow." So, a couple of Christmases ago, he got me this Stevie Nick doll. Stevie Nicks. Look

47:46at And I told him, I said, "I'm taking her out of the box." He goes, "Don't you dare take it out of the box." He said, "That's my investment." [laughter] And I'm like, "No, no, no. She's gonna make arties." Anyway, so I got her and then he gave me this one this Christmas. The white beautiful. We came from that era, like huge Fleetwood Mac fans and Stevie Nicks fans. And so to have the doll is like, yeah, classic band for sure. And the other thing he bought me, which Oh, it's hard to see, but up there are the Star Wars. I see them. Oh my goodness. He'd like to get me the Chewbacca, but I guess she's like over $1,000. Oh gosh, crazy. So, you do have quite the sewing talent. You've talked about that already a little bit. How did that start? And if you have any pieces there that you would like to show, I'd love to see them.

48:43Yes, I think I did mention earlier that I started sewing Barbie clothes, bought some patterns when I was sewing some clothes for my nieces and then of course I was sewing clothes when my first daughter came along was sewing some clothes. Then I got into craft sales, started sewing clothes then and then after I no longer had my store. I had a fabric store, craft store and I no longer sewed. I did not sew for over 20 years. Crazy. Then I started volunteering at a thrift store and then through that I end up helping at a huge craft sale. So I thought next time I help there I'm going to make some doll fashions. And so I started making doll fashions, buying some more new patterns [snorts] and then realizing that my old patterns doesn't work for these MTM. So I was modifying patterns and all that kind of stuff. And so I started sewing things for that. And then I really wanted to give some money to certain charities. I thought, you know what, because I had a fabric store, I've got a lot of stuff. I have fabric. I have like stuff. And so I started sewing and selling it. And then what I would do would be I had a list of charities and I would say to the buyer, "Okay, you pick the charity." and I will send that money

50:07to that charity. And so that went really well, sort of, except moms and grandmas do not want to pay the price. So I was selling stuff really cheaply and spending a lot of time sewing, but not really getting I could just go work at the grocery store and make more money than what I'm doing here and give that money to charity, but I didn't want to do that. So anyway, I upped my prices and then I opened up a Facebook site. So now I just take pictures and post them and then people say, "Hey, I want this or I want that or whatever." [snorts] So I'm now selling more to collectors and Barbie enthusiasts than moms and grandmas because they don't want to pay the price for that. I try to make things a little bit more detailed. Here's a coat that I made. Beautiful. And I try and line them. This one is lined. And the buttons, my friend Lee, who makes the food for me, made these clay buttons for me. And they're just perfect cuz they're flat. I think that's I think that's great because I think a lot of doll enthusiasts are looking for something more detailed, right? We're looking for better quality, I think. And just so everyone knows, I'll put it on here on the screen as well. It's Teresa's fashion doll clothes on Facebook. So, if you go there, check out what she's got. Whatever you're purchasing, proceeds are going to charity of your choosing.

51:29I can also include the list here on the screen of the I think it's about six or seven charities. Yeah. That you have. And what is it about those six or seven charities? Why did you select those? Um some of them like near and dear to me like there's the woman's shelter in Brandon. And uh so yeah, I wanted to help out women who are trying to get from an abusive relationship, you know, and start a new life and that sort of thing. teen and adult challenge. They help people with addictions and trying to get them on track. So, that was important to me. Then one is the art place here in town where they feature local artists. People are painting, crafting, whatever. They're always featuring a new artist and it's amazing how many artists there are in the area. I also paint and so I have an appreciation for artwork. The other one is the food bank, our local food bank. Another one is the Christian school here. My younger two kids went to the Christian school here and that was uh near and dear to my heart. And also Turtle Mountain Bible Camp was another one. And my kids went there and also were counselors there. And they help a lot of kids in foster homes and that sort of thing. And uh I think I listed them all. Another thing I do is I like to repurpose.

52:46So I do have like a lot of fabric because of I had a fabric store but I also I like buying new fabric as well but I like to repurpose and so my sister-in-law had given me this fabric it's repurposed from I don't know she does a lot of um where she alterations alterations I get like if she's shortening pants or she's cutting off a dress or whatever so she gives me those pieces and so this was from one of those things. So anyway I love that. So, not legal. Nothing nothing's going to waste. Right. Right. And that was another thing that I was kind of passionate about is doing, you know, some repurposing and things like that. People were making clothing out of socks for their dolls. And I went, why can't I do the same thing out of a real sweater? So, I went upstairs. I got a sweater that I went, "Oh, I'm just going to cut this all up and I'm going to make a sweater." So, I made a sweater and I was like, "Oh." And so, at first, I was making them. I sewed all of these things by hand. And that's why they were pretty pricey in the store because everything was sewn by hand because I didn't want them stretching out and that sort of thing. [snorts] And so I started making sweaters out of sweaters. And then I would have all these sweaters that just had a chunk out of them. And now I had to store all these sweaters. So I wanted to find out one time how many items could I get out of one sweater. And so if you page down on my Barbie Blast page,

54:07you will see a picture of a bunch of purple sweaters and purple whatever purple outfits or whatever. So those all came from one sweater. So I did that. It was a challenge for myself. And then Pikes Peak Doll, Heather from Pikes Peak Doll, she saw that and she goes, "Hey, let's do a challenge for everybody where they have to take an outfit and they have to use the whole outfit and create something." And so we did the repurposed clothes for dolls hashtag. Yeah. So there's a lot of people. They're not necessarily doing the whole outfit anymore, but that's how it started. And so it was very cool to see all the amazing things that people came up with. So anyway, I have never done a whole sweater again because I was so sick of purple by the time I was done and I was so sick of trying to think of something else different to create out of it. So now I just have a lot of pieces of old sweaters that I slowly do. So anyway, here's a another little sweater that I've made. Sometimes when I package up stuff, I'll have like a sweater and a skirt in with it.

55:20And uh here's another one here. Oh my gosh, these are so sweet. Yeah. And I love sweaters. I love wearing sweaters. And so I was buying really expensive sweaters from somewhere in Europe. And that's what kind of drove me to make my own sweaters. And then I thought, maybe I can make these cheaper. Well, now I can that I can realize that I can sew part of it with a machine because I was starting to count out my hours and um at the time minimum wage was only $12 and I kind of based all my prices on minimum wage. How long would it take you to make that one sweater? It takes a long time. Really? Okay. How about making it by hand? How about this one? Because this one This is one of the ones you sent me. She doesn't have pants on. I'm going to cover her. Oh yeah. Okay. Look at this hoodie. Yeah, that that's probably one that I made by hand.

56:12What I do love though is that you put the buttons in the back because sometimes these hoodies don't have that and they're just a little bit more hard to get the doll on, but this way makes it so much easier. Yeah. Yeah. They don't always always, but I do try and have openings in the back because of the frustration of dressing them. So, and then here's another one that uh I did a long hoodie and uh I love it's got the hood. It's like a cape almost. Yeah. So, I also have something else here that you sent me. I cannot wait to put this on my dolls. It's this little two-piece. Oh, yeah. How sweet is this? Look at this with these little floral like like it looks like flowers, like leaves from a flower. It's so beautiful. What a beautiful print. I love it. And it's repurposed as well. It came from a little girl's dress. The dress had a stain on it, so they couldn't sell it in the store. So, I said, I'll take it. And then here's another little jacket that I made. It could be worn inside or out because I kind of like the the look of the seams with the seams showing or it can be turned the other way and you know worn this way. Reversible. I like Yeah. Yeah. Well, everyone watching, check out Teresa's Fashion Doll Clothes on Facebook. And I think it's wonderful that you let the buyers select which charity they want to, you know, you give them an option versus like, hey, this is all I'm donating to. You give people an option so

57:35people feel connected to it and feel like they're contributing, right? Which is great. Yeah. And so that some people aren't confused because there are some people that have purchased from me on there before and it used to be called Barbie Blast and then they shut me down because of the name Barbie in there. Yeah. I got a notification and so I was like, "Oh gosh, like I hope I can get it back up and running." And so anyway, I did get it back up and running. So this is another thing I tried doing little quilts and it's quite big. So, I was just going to mention her because I made well I made her pants and I made this and so sometimes I'll have like a pile of clothes that are made and then they're just waiting to be dressed in a doll, take the picture, post it or whatever and then my granddaughter comes along and she takes all these clothes and she dresses all these dolls and so I go, "Oh, I never would have thought to put that shirt with those pants." But anyway, I like that checkered print. Yeah, it's kind of cute. So, I just I have another little item here.

58:34This is from my childhood. This belonged to my sister. So, even though she didn't have Barbies, she had a Barbie comic book. It no longer has the cover. But I tell you, I read that like you would not believe a million times. So, one day I made a miniature copy of this. I just went to my printer and I just put it in there and I made my mini have a mini copy of of that. I love that. I noticed that you do have a lot of miniatures. You even recently did like a thrift miniature. Yeah, that thrift store you had mentioned that I had bought those at the thrift. Actually, those things are things that I had some of them were thrifted but I have collected like I love miniatures. Should I say as much as Barbies? I don't know. My mom loved miniatures and so I love miniatures. So I have a few of my mom's miniatures and a few of my sisters and over the years I'd just go, "Oh, that's perfect for Barbie." And it would go over here. And then this closet end up just having all of this stuff in there. And then once I started doing diaramas, it was like, "Oh, this is so cool to bring these things out and to be able to use them." So, back when we were doing this room before we were actually moved here, this is the first thing we did was this Barbie sewing

59:54room and I had all these different odd things. So, I have everything categorized. This is the food. This is this is cutlery. This is, you know, they're all in these little compartments. But I had all this stuff is like, I don't know where to put this. I don't know. Do I want this in my living room bunch of stuff or where do I want this? I really like it, but I I don't know. So then this idea came to me to do this thrift store and so it's my Barbie thrift store and so now I'm excited to like oh as I come across stuff she's going to be at the thrift store and buying this thing that I came across. So anyway, I just pulled Are you making like a thrift store diarama? Yeah, I just posted it. Yeah, I posted it recently. Anyway, I'm just going to show you the last things I thrifted. I do thrift stuff for for my Barbies. Um I get them from kind of all over the place. So last summer I was with my sister, my other sister and my sister-in-law and there was this box of free stuff. We were in this neighboring town and there's box of free stuff. So we went over there and I was just like what? And this was there. And so I was just like oh I know where this is going. This is going to go in that thing. So, I have this great big huge dollhouse that my son-in-law made for my daughter cuz there's like huge age difference. So,

1:01:14my son-in-law, they're married, right? And so, he made my daughter, who was still a little girl, he made her this huge dollhouse. It's crazy how big this dollhouse is. It's like massive. And so, I didn't want to make it all like this is the kitchen. This is this and this is this. So, I do have a living room. I do have her art room. And then that's where this thrift shop is. And then I have two rooms that I gonna change up. Uh if I want to do a diarama there, I'm just going to do a diarama in. Stuff just kind of got thrown in there. And when my sister came to visit last year, I didn't have use of my hands. And so she put all the sticky tack underneath everything. So if you bump it, it doesn't all fall over. So while she was here, you know, when I put that in there, I just said, "Sharon, you're going to help me with this." And she's like, "Oh, Sharon, I'll do that."

1:02:01And then my most recent thing was I was helping at a craft sale down in Arizona and uh I found this and I went ah that is going to go in my thrift store. Isn't that fun? I've been more intentional when I go into a thrift store now to be and I kind of always did be like oh I like that scale. It's perfect. Like look at this. This is an ornament but it's a stack of books. Yes. Yes. Exactly. I'm just going to take the string off and it's a stack of books in a bookstore or on Barbie's desk or something like a mailbox. It's a little mailbox. I found a mailbox at um Canada Post, but it was just like little tiny. And so I built a stand for it and that's when the strike was happening. So I did a whole diarama with like, oh, she goes to the post office. You can't mail anything because they're striking, right? I even went to the post office and took a picture of their thing. Yeah, the mail blah blah blah. So, I shrunk it down and then put it in this diarama. So, I love that. But this is what I mean. You bring like real life into your content and it's very relatable, which is great. Yeah. It's been really fun. My granddaughter and I were making um these things, the make it minis. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, I don't know where I was, Costco somewhere, and there was a great big set of like four of them. And so, she was here recently and she helped

1:03:21me do it cuz her hands are better. So anyway, so I've been posting some of the things that we're making. So I'm just going to give you a sneak peek. Okay, so here's the kitchen. This is my latest project. This kitchen was a gift to me from Au Homeie, I think that it was called. Um anyway, they gave me this uh really pretty kitchen set. And so I just finally got the box done. And I'm just going to say about my box, you know, like people have the lack of room. I just use boxes and then the whole thing gets folded up and it all gets stored in a box. There's my big house. It's huge. It's huge. Oh my goodness. This is beautiful. Teresa, you're so talented. Anyway, this is a weird shelf thing that I got from Teeu. The thing is with Teeos, sometimes you order stuff and it's one six scale and it comes too small and then sometimes it comes too big.

1:04:21Too big. Yeah. But sometimes it's perfect. Right. So there's my current mini me. I'm doing a post about this recently cuz I fixed her up a little bit. But this is my coffee shop. And uh yeah, so these two are the permanent workers kind of thing. And uh so this is one of the first ones I ever made inspired by my froggy stuff and so I got all these ideas from her and uh yeah and then just kind of added different things into it. Um you know there's some dishes that uh were from my childhood and I just painted them. They were my Barbie stuff and then this painting was my mom's and you know a friend gifted me the the couches and stuff and so yeah so there's a lot of you know different things and then this thing is just a um a roll from a cash register and then it's got tape on it and so that's the coffee perk thing. Look at that. Yeah. It's like the end of a receipt roll, right? Like the end. Yes. Yes. M you can use those for lots of things. And then a while there like you could like at Walmart you could buy all these really cool magnets and uh yeah. So this is

1:05:41uh I had one and then my sister had one. So now the coffee shop has two. I love it. This is like it's funny how you can just take such simple even small little pieces make such a big difference. Something so small makes such a big difference in something like this. And then this is my office which just kind of overflowed. So there's the other doll. I love her so much because she is my sister. Like that's my sister looked like that as a teenager. And I posted those pictures in my story recently. You did beautiful. They were very beautiful. So and I love chairs. So I tend to have a lot of chairs everywhere. And then she's one of my favorite dolls, too. And then this doll is she's from back in the day when I played with my oldest daughter. So, I don't really know who she is, but I She's got hair, right? Yeah, she does. She looks like almost like maybe a I painted her a little bit. Maybe I might have painted her lips or I'm not sure, but piled her hair up. So, she's got character. She's got character. Yeah. So, this is my office. And because I still work, you know, we still own land and stuff like that. So, I still have to do the GST and all that junk. So when I'm in the office and Mini Tea is in the office and so my office is a mess like this all the time, I can clean it up. But there it is. So I made some miniature things, you know, like an employee book

1:07:04and miniature um sales things. Someone recently gifted me this cute little chunk of chocolate. I don't know if you can see that. I see it. It's very small, but I see. But look at the detail with the desk and the keyboard thing that comes out. And he's in the filing cabinet in the corner. Oh my god. A roll of tape. Wow. Yes, I made that roll of tape. This thing here. Well, that one I didn't. But this one I made this. Oh my word. It was just crazy. Oh my goodness. How sweet. So, you make that filing cabinet. I didn't make the filing cabinet. Tanya from Grandma Gets Real. She had one and she had a link to her Amazon thing, so that's where it came from. I actually have some Barbie files in there. Oh my goodness. Look at that. Love this. This is The detail is just wonderful. And again, things that I've collected for years, you know, and all a sudden I'm just like, "Oh, I can put it out." And then you mix it with other stuff that you have. This is a little knife, you know, one that you'd cut your packages with. Yeah. Wow. So, I have one there. Oh, it just went into the drawer. We'll get it later. You know, little tiny stapler and this whole thing because I hate to say this, but I hate pink. I am not a Barbie pink person. So, I struggle with stuff that comes pink and purple. I apologize to those who love it. I don't. So, I repainted this whole

1:08:25thing. It was purple and pink and so I repainted the whole thing and white. I think the white is the natural part of it. I think there's something to be said about it being more realistic, right? I understand. I have both. I do like the pink and Barbie in this fantasy world, but I also like if my Minnie is going to be in something, I want it to be Yeah. real. Realistic. Yeah. And and then, you know, I got some fun things from Teimu, like this little I have that, too. [laughter] Yeah, just it's really fun. [clears throat] And then um we got some Christmas cards from Barbie friends. So, they're on the wall. And then every fall, I didn't do it this fall because I was not well, but I do a hashtag Barbie blast spa days. And then I just love seeing what people come up with. So, this was also inspired by my froggy stuff. So, anyway, they're getting pedicures down there. So, there's a lot of different things like I I made all these. They're out of beads. They're just a bunch of beads that are put together. That sort of thing. This is just a bunch of letters just glued on a piece of popsicle stick or something like that. And then these, I don't know if you can see those very good, but those are just pony beads with little black straws in them. Oh, wow. Yeah, they really look like nail polish. shut. And then this shelf is just like you know when you in the craft store and you can buy all the little wooden shapes and then they come in these little things.

1:09:44So I just took all the wooden shapes out and made a shelf in there. Wow. And then these shelves just came from like the dollar store, Dollar Tree or something like that. I'm curious how you did the water. It's just plastic with this water I like better than that water. I added some blue to it, but I didn't like it. I like this. You just take glue and you just smear it over top of clear plastic and Okay. Yeah. Wow. This is beautiful. And then these are just, you know, lids off of some face cream or something like that. This is like a hot pad that was my mom's from the 1950s and I just repainted it. These are all candlesticks just painted and put the other way. Very talented. I haven't painted that yet. You know, I've talked about my friend Lee who makes different stuff made me this. Oh, and there's little goldfish. Yeah. Oh, you should see the stuff she has made me. I can imagine. It's the little things, too, right? That really Yeah. Yeah. And then the candle is just a glue stick with a thing stuck in the middle of it. Wow. And beautiful. All these little details, they take time. They take time to make.

1:10:53Yeah. Yep. And then a friend from the Philippines. Oh, I ordered purses from her. Selin uh Selin dolls I think it is. I love Selin. I forget how it goes. So anyway, with one of my orders, she sent me these beautiful pictures she had painted. So I love all those little details. Okay. And then my daughter-in-law and my daughter are hairdressers, so I had to have a hairdressing shop. So anyway, that's my hairdressing shop. I don't have near the diaramas that I did before in my other house, but anyway, these are great. These are great. There's the the Star Wars. Star Wars. And then to your husband. Beautiful. And then she is an original doll and she it was in my sister's collection too from 1980. Yes. When the first black doll came out. 1980. Yeah. So she's an original. She's not a repro, so she's beautiful. I have a messy, you know, like messy, so she's got a messy bedroom here, too. So, there's lots of really fun fun things. Like, I have a friend who makes mac stuff.

1:12:03And I just say, "Hey, can you make me a, you know, a little puff? You know, can you make me a macra hanger? Can you, you know, make me a macra purse?" And she makes me a purse. So, that's really cool. So, and then Giannis from Doll Style Create. I'm going to feature this, but anyway, I'll talk about it. She knows I like to journal, so she made me these little journals. I will show them in a post sometime. That is so unreal. And she made me this adorable cute. Look at the piping on it. Even made that cushion just Yeah. So pretty. It's so fun. And then when you create content, it just makes it so much more fun. We'll skip over here. And then this is the house. It's huge. It is huge. My husband was like, "Why are you popping that in there?" Well, it's going to be a diarama. So there's my husband. He's shaking. He's scratching his head because he's just like, "Oh, honey, what are you doing now?" Oh gosh. Anyway, so this is my, you know, I I don't have black and white in my house, but I love black and white, which is so funny. So anyway, yeah, so I repainted this, you know, I think it was pink or something at one time. And then I got Sir

1:13:24Click Emporium. He does 3D stuff and so like I got this uh you know that from there and this is from there and a few things other from there. And my son-in-law also Oh, those candles are from them. except my son-in-law made that one. So, and then down in Arizona, there's a place called Auntie M's Miniatures. I [snorts] try and go there every time I'm there, and there's just so many. It's so hard to choose. But anyway, I love to buy flowers there. They're just beautiful. Beautiful. And so, yeah. So, there's different things I've collected over the years, different things that are new. Can we get a little shot of your portrait of you and your hubby on the wall there? Oh, yeah, sure. Look how sweet that is. And then there's my my gr This is my little grandson who passed away. Oh, so I have him. And then there's my family. Yeah. Oh my goodness. The detail, Teresa. That's my four kids. So, wow. Anyway, yes. And then up here, because I'm also an artist, my mini had to have an art studio. So, I've painted that little thing and I painted this. And then I have paintings from other people as well. Like my daughter's friend painted these two here.

1:14:49You have so much talent. You sew. You make things for diaramas. You paint. The talent is never It's just never ending. It's fun because I can use all the things that I love doing all like photography. Like I used to do photography for years. I did some weddings and all that and now I can do it like this. And then this is going to be I haven't got to this yet, but I'm going to put some little dolls in here and then they're going to be playing. So, I've just kind of been dumping stuff in here. So, this is uh like a little playroom. Yeah. Yeah. And some things I've painted. I think these were all white and then I just painted them. They're wood and so I just painted those. And then this I made years ago. Little tiny thing like that. Um yeah, stuff that I've collected. Is this your thrift store? Yeah, this is a thrift store. And so yeah, these are things that I've collected over time. Some things were my sisters. Uh some things were my aunts. Like uh this this shelf was my aunts. And then some of the stuff in here was my aunts. And uh so anyway, so the next segment I'm going to do is she's going to the store to get some pots and stuff like that. So I've redone this since my last post. So beautiful. Beautiful. Absolutely stunning. And this is the catch

1:16:10all place. So anyway, this is beautiful. when we created this room, I was going through chemo and uh so on my good days, we would come here and I try to do as much as I could. And then nearing the end of my chemo, I got neuropathy really bad. It wasn't wasn't tingling. It wasn't numbness. It was burning where my hands were uh like as if I burnt all the skin off and it was just raw. That's what it felt like. And I couldn't touch anything. And so I was very discouraged cuz I thought here I have this room. I can't I can't play. I can't I can't sew. I can't touch anything cuz everything was like so small and didly I I mean I couldn't even put on an earring. Everything was hard, you know, doing up buttons. It was just so hard and kind of went into a depression. I'd gone through two emergency surgeries the year before and uh you know, gone through most of my chemo without depression. And so I was like, why do I have so much depression? So it's not like I was just like oh you know feeling sorry for myself. So I was like why am I so depressed? And so since then you know and I asked my doctors like you know like is neuropathy cause depression. No no no. But since then I've talked to people in the medical field who said yeah like neuropathy is a like uh you know it's a nerve thing in your brain and yeah so I had colon cancer. Cancer is huge in my

1:17:30family on my mom's side and also my dad's side. And so when I had emergency surgery, they took out some of my bowel and they said they got it and we figured, okay, we're done with that. And then a couple months later, all a sudden, I'm get this call that I have to go see this oncologist and she's just like, oh, you have to have chemo. You have to have chemo right now because your, you know, family history and your your you had stage three cancer. It's aggressive. We've got to, you know, do this, you know. And I had always said there's no way I'm going to do chemo because I saw what it did to my brother. And I didn't want to go through that. I didn't want my family to go through that. So I was just like, I'm not doing chemo. But I was much younger than I was expecting to be. I knew I would get a cancer diagnosis, but I just didn't think it would happen that soon. It was like, okay, you have to do this or it'll come back in 2 years and we may not be able to help you then. So then we phoned our kids cuz they knew how I felt about chemo.

1:18:28So [snorts] that was really hard. And so I think what really helped me to move forward with that is I got a message from my daughter-in-law who was very encouraging. And um I knew how she felt about chemo as well. And and yet she just blessed me with that decision. And then I got a message from my youngest son and he just said, "Mom, I I know how badly you want to see Jesus, but thank you, mom, for going this step and just staying with us a little longer." And uh so anyway, went that way and then chemo just wrecked me so bad. You know, energy, it's been a really hard journey, but you know, hey, you you go one day at a time and we check me over every 4 months. So, I don't know if like I changed my eating habits. I changed a lot of things in what I'm doing. And so, whether that's keeping the cancer at bay, I don't know. But we're living 4 months at a time and and we're just living life anyway. Yeah, that's my cancer journey. And uh yeah, it hasn't been easy. Uh I think the hardest part of it all has been the pain of the neuropathy.

1:19:46Uh for a while I couldn't even walk. I had to walk with a cane. Uh but thankfully, you know, and I can think about where I was a year ago and what I can do now. I am, you know, excited that that part's improving. If I never improve beyond this, I'm thankful because I'm not what I was. And the doll community, like I had posted about my cancer back when it all happened, and it was just amazing. people who messaged me and encouraged me and it was just amazing. I mean, I have my friends here who encourage me as well. Um, I have a a great support group here and my kids are amazing. I really think it's just very strong and brave of you to to share that. And, you know, you take it at a day time like you said and of course everyone who's watching and myself wish you nothing but the best. You talked a little bit about Grails and it sounds like you have another Grail there. So, let's see it. Okay. So, I'm going to just do a backstory to this Grail doll. I don't know where I originally saw this doll, but I just like I would love that doll. And I checked into the cost of her and it was just like way up there and I just thought I am just never going to get that doll. And then I was volunteering at a thrift store. And they also have a section where they sometimes have antiques or they know an item is valuable and be like a Chinese auction kind of

1:21:07thing, you know, where you bid on something and whatever. So they had this doll and I was just like and then I checked the highest bid on it. I was like, "Oh, my husband would just have a bird if I do this." And so I thought, "We can't always have everything." So anyway, when I was going through my sister's dolls and picking out the ones I wanted, there she was. I could not believe it. I had no idea that my sister had her. I love her so much. I love this whole Coca-Cola line. Oh, me too. Like on the back there, like the can, like to buy the can and this whole thing is like the dollars are ridiculous. I have a Coca-Cola Mary, not a what do you call it? She's a cheerleader, but they had a part of a marching band. Yeah, the white hat. With the white hat. Yeah. Right. So, my daughter-in-law's mom found her for me. But I would love to find these things, too. I mean, I am not going to pay $1,000. I'd love to take her out of the box and have her part of a story, but the box just makes it Yes, it does. You know, it does. So, anyway. Yeah. I love that line. Yeah, I got the Barbie. One of my just my favorite things and that my sister had it and had this little treasure that now I'm being blessed with it. Sadly, she's gone and that's why

1:22:29I have it. I also have to thank you because I did a recent unboxing of a massive box that I got from you. And I was super honored to even been given the opportunity because those were your sister's dolls and you trusted me, a complete stranger. Even though the first time we chatted, we did a video call and we were on the phone for a few hours. I feel like I could talk to you for hours and I just warmed my heart. I don't want to get emotional because we've had some emotion on this episode, but [laughter] um it really did. And if we're going to talk about grails, this beauty was in that box. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I could just cry every time I look at her. This is fabulous fur. This was on my gray list for many years. And this was in the box. And she has all her pieces. She does. And so I am forever grateful for that box that you gifted me in return for a donation to one of the charities. So they will be taken care of and they will be loved. So she lives on through the things like that. Yeah. I remember seeing a video of you and Sarah and just going, "Oh, okay." And then you contacted me. Well, I guess you contacted me and then I watched the video and then I was like, "I really would like to see if you want any of these dolls." And that's what I told my nephew. I said, "I don't want her dolls going to a thrift store and being ripped out of the boxes and then clothes are here, there, and everywhere. And then she's just a mess and nobody

1:23:50even knows who she is anymore." And and I did tell you feel free to take them out of the box if you want. That is not an issue for me, but I didn't want them in the head of a child who doesn't know who she is or care about who she is or whatever. So, and I think as collectors, we can sympathize and understand because even though you take a doll out of the box, you can enjoy her as you wish, but there's certain dolls you take out of the box. Like fabulous fur here, she's not going to ever come out of that outfit. I want her to stay, you know? Yeah. Just like some of my dolls here, like they will just stay in that because to me that's their look and I just want them to stay that way. So, that's right. Would you say that Barbie has helped get you through some tough times? As a child, it was my escape place. I just disappeared into the Barbie world. I know a lot of people say that Barbie is their it's their healing place or whatever. Escape. Escape. Their escape. I don't think I'd quite say that. I guess because I have so many interests. For me, it's a fun place to be. It's a place where I can be creative using all the things I love to do. photography, painting, crafting, sewing. So, in a sense, it's a happy place. I'd say that more than I'd say

1:25:10like a stress release place. But maybe that's the same thing. You know, if it's making you happy, you're not stressful. I don't know. I guess so. I guess they the two kind of go hand in hand. If you're happy, you're not stressed. Yeah. Yeah. For a while there when I couldn't be in here, it was really really hard to go I have all of that and I can't do anything with it. It just was like, what am I doing this for? That's right. Let that be a good perspective for people, right? Because we don't know what tomorrow holds. So, just enjoy it. Yep. So, Teresa, I appreciate you being on the show. You shared your creativity, your stories. You got very personal telling us about family and some of the challenges that you've had and just the stories you've shared show your bravery, your courage, and your love for Barbie. I love how you turn everyday moments into warm, relatable stories. And from the moment you and I spoke, I could tell that we were going to be great friends. There was an instant bond that I just can't explain. And I was so moved by your generosity and that moment of kindness that you gave to me. Sorry. Sorry.

1:26:16I tried not to get emotional. Sorry. [laughter] And that moment of kindness that you gave to me will always connect us. So, thank you for your charitable work and your contribution to the doll community. And I wish you years and years of sewing and enjoying Barbie. Thank you so much, Kelly. And like you said, it was really cool how we connected, you know, the segue to how we connected and you just go, "Oh, this is meant to be." Like, what are the chances, you know, that that is going to happen and people connect? And when we did that first video chat, I was just like, "Oh, yeah. I like this girl. [laughter] Yeah, it was so fun to pick through dolls and just hang out through video chatting and so it was great great to get to know you more. I hope we can continue to do that like this. I I'm sorry, but we are stuck with me now. So, [laughter] this friendship does it doesn't it's not ending. It's just the beginning. I would love to be able to meet in person one day one day forever and oh, bring Jessica and for Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful? Wouldn't that be wonderful? [laughter] For sure. Well, thanks again for being on Barbie Talk and until next time. Bye bye. It's amazing how one doll can connect people so deeply [music] that it creates a lasting bond. Make sure to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell if you love all things Barbie. [music] And if you enjoyed this episode, click here to see one of my other episodes. Thanks for watching.