#simply fresh

[smallerplaces]

Unboxing: Simply Fresh "Kylie"

Paying no attention to dolls from late 2018 to essentially now means that I missed a lot, including the most completely in-my-lane doll release that I've ever encountered: the Family Dollar exclusive "Simply Fresh" dolls.

I found this on FD's site and was kicking myself for not noticing until it was out of stock.

Simply Fresh was a bargain line for The Fresh Dolls, a Black-owned, woman-owned doll company that makes an articulated fashion doll range and the incredibly cool male Fresh Squad, which is priced for modest collectors (if I do any splurging this year, it's going to be on a Fresh Squad guy -- go look at them).

Doing a dollar-store line with natural hair options is brilliantly on-target for the goal of offering children fashion dolls who look like them and show that their looks can be beautiful. At the dollar-store level, when you see a Black doll at all (other than an occasional overstock Barbie), she always has straight hair because she's just a dark version of the Caucasian doll. There are plenty of towns around here where Family Dollar is the biggest and most exciting store, so this kind of toy gives options to kids who don't have much to choose from.

Anyway, I was poised between hope and despair on whether I'd be able to find a Simply Fresh, as they were sold out online, and my two usual Family Dollar stores had none. Then I went to the one downtown and... there was one Simply Fresh doll left. Which one?

Given a choice, I would have gone for one of the dolls with natural hair, but Kylie was the only Simply Fresh doll on the shelf. (And I've gone to multiple FDs since without finding more.) As an adult collector, if it's important to me to have a natural-haired doll, I have multiple options at many price points, so having all the available natural-haired dolls go to kids is... awesome, really.

I brought Kylie home because she's a neat idea and I like her face-up.

She has a face where I want to hear what she's about to say.

Kylie is heavy, and her plastic doesn't feel cheap. Her range of movement is limited -- unsurprising in a $5 doll.

Her corset can be either a top or lingerie. While I generally haven't liked the move to permanently painted bodices on fashion dolls, it's a legit cost-saving for a small company that doesn't have Mattel's economies of scale, and it's a really nice corset.

When I tried to dress her in Sparkle Girlz fashions -- which are a decade old now, yikes! -- I discovered that she's bigger in both booty and bosom than dolls of that era. She can wear a colorful loose Barbie coat, but I need to sew her a dress to go under it.

At this point, I was bothered by stiff glue flecks in her hair. I tried combing them out and just made Kylie look like she had dandruff.

The instructions for these dolls say not to brush or wash their hair, which is excellent advice in dealing with super-curly doll hair. If I had one of the other two gals, I would be going nowhere near the bathroom sink or the comb. However, Kylie has straight hair.

Reader, I boil-washed her. As you'll see in the rest of her dress-up pics, it did no harm at all. Her hair dried soft, straight, and realistically shiny.

Once her hair was dry, I thought maybe Curvy Barbie clothing might fit Kylie. It does, but the effect is so frumpy that when I tried to transfer the pic from phone to laptop, I got a CATASTROPHIC FAILURE message.

I'm not putting Kylie in that dress again. Mattel did Curvy Barbie dirty on fashions.

Kylie also can't hang out in just her undies, and whatever incredibly safe, obvious place I put her red skirt... well, I can't find it. She needs to wear something.

While I ultimately want to dress Kylie in a very elegant, Vogue-fashion way, I don't have space or energy to haul out the sewing machine right now. So I pulled out an old T-shirt that I hadn't gotten around to recycling and made her a no-sew circle skirt.

Kyle's expression suggests that she'd hoped for more at TJ Maxx, but she's decently covered for socializing with the rest of the crew.

Next to Emma (Family Dollar "Career Doll") and Ruby (Sparkle Girlz Mini from 2018), Kylie is clearly higher-quality: nicer plastic, more detailed and expressive face-up, less synthetic-looking hair. This was a great $5 doll and I wish the Simply Fresh project had a longer run.

That said, a look through my clothing bins revealed that Petite Barbie and Stacie each have way more clothing than I realized, so the doll who's first in line when I crack out the sewing machine should be Kylie. I'm excited about this -- she has a great figure for dressing and a great expression to carry off powerful and avant-garde clothing.

[moonchild-in-blue]

If you choose to look at Sleep as an allegory for depression/mental illness, the romantic and co-dependent nature of Vessel's lyrics hurt that much more.

"I hate you and you're bad for me" "I don't know who I am without you" "Please set me free" "Please don't leave me" "You're an intrinsic part of me" "I must become someone new".

Ya feel me?

[nostalgicfun]

[maybe-boys-do-love]

A Tale of a Thousand Stars answers the age-old question: What if Hallmark movies were good?

[strawberrystepmom]

in the tags - tell me what love tastes, smells, and feels like to you

[theaceace]

Though Roderick and his followers didn't realise it at the time, the magic in the circle and the glass orb meant that the only people who could see Dream were the ones that were there when he was summoned, so as far as the guards are concerned they're guarding an empty glass sphere that a delusional old man thinks holds something. And then of course, Hob gets hired as a guard and it's dealer's choice if Dream has realised by then that no one but Burgess and his Order can see him.

But then because Hob is sort of aware that magic and esoteric things do exist, he sees Burgess (sr or jr) talking to the globe and is like, huh. Maybe there is something in there. But maybe it's a demon like the rumours say and I shouldn't let it out. But Hob starts talking to Dream anyway while the other guard takes longer and longer smoke breaks.

Whichever Burgess is around at the time realises that there must be something about this guard, because the next time he comes down to yell/bargain/threaten, Dream has moved. He's hidden his face, there are handprints against the glass, and the dreamlord's shoulders are shaking.

It doesn't take him long to figure out the pattern - that this only happens around Robert, for whatever reason, and the man himself has no notion of what's in the circle - and eventually he sends the guards out so that he can tell Dream exactly what he'll do to this Robert if Dream doesn't comply. That he may not understand what it is about this one man that compels one of the Endless so, when he has been so unaffected by everything else but the death of his familiar, but that doesn't matter. He will find out, and he will leverage it, however he needs to.

He turns and leaves, and basically I want Hob to wander back in none the wiser and settle into his chair and his usual routine of talking all moony eyed about his stranger, while Dream is roaring his fear and fury and beating his fists bloody against the glass

[streetlightgoblin]

Well

After a series of misreading sand madness (thank you @wr-n)

I have created this abomination

He’s horrible and I hate him /aff

Kissing his terrible little head

[popsicle-stick]

having a thought about eiffel where, like, despite being desperately alone and seemingly in charge of himself for most of it, his whole life just seems to have been guided by a series of choices-that-are-not-choices in any real sense of the word. be stuck where you are or join the air force out of high school. rot in prison or go to space and help your daughter. allow everyone and everything you love be destroyed by the very people you worked for or sacrifice your memories of everything you’re trying to save. even in plot, things are often just…..happening to him! pushed from one thing to another, no real agency. i think this is why i like the open choice he’s given at the end*: if his emotional ties are gone, if he really wanted, he could be someone else. live a different life. no pain. few regrets. but the hard thing to do is to go and be douglas f. eiffel. and is hard: his life was, well. an awful mess. it’s significant that he doesn’t have to do that, per se, but that it’s an active choice for him to make, should he choose it.

*it’s also interesting to note that on a meta level, that agency is also passed to us, as the audience, at the end. we’ve been through this whole journey with eiffel, and now he’s released from the grip of the narrative, so are we - we’re free to make our choices about what happens now. which ties it all in nicely, i think

[just-blahh]

Oh Richard Grayson your comedic timing never fails

[androdragynous]

there are so few soft not-sweet snacks in the world that also aren't cheese. my teeth are suffering but I Love Salt

[dekarios]

i’m getting sick to death of this

[ilykirara]

In light of Lunar New Year, I hc that Liu Kang does the most BEAUTIFUL dragon/lion dance (MK11 ver. definitely paired up with MK11 ver. Kung Lao whenever it was Lunar New Year)

MK1 ver definitely makes his fire dragons do the dance in the air at night <<3

If have time I definitely wanna draw Liu Kang with his dragons (but like... my schedule is so bad rn so if anyone does it TAG MEEE!!) / Raiden, Kung Lao, Cage, Takahashi, and Liu Kang doing the dragon dance PLEASE

[sexynetra]

SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY

All I’ve been doing these past few weeks is homework, choir, watching drph with friends, and working on my Mintysex fic <3

~~~~~~

“Min,” Marina’s voice was softer now, almost pleading. Minty dared to glance back at her. “Can you quit this stupid emotionless act? I know you. I know you aren’t like this.”

“I’m exactly like this.” Minty flipped her hair over her shoulder, keeping her face as neutral as she could manage.

Marina shook her head. “No. That’s not the Minty I fell in love with.”

Minty felt like she had been slapped. “No,” she started slowly. “But it is the Minty you broke up with.”

[fictionadventurer]

🌠

[welcometogrouchland]

Stephanie Brown and Dick Grayson: I Am Going To Be A Good Parent To Pass On The Good Parts Of My Tumultuous Childhood/Give Someone Else What I Didn't Have Growing Up

Vs

Damian Wayne and Cassandra Cain: You Could Not Pay Me To Be A Parent For Fear I Would Continue The Cycle Of Violence

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

helloooo my dearest darling listeners, i am back on my soapbox to regale you all with the marvelous things i witnessed/experienced on my Whimsical As Fuck™️ three hour drive today. not necessarily in order <3

some cute does with bigass floppy ears / very sweet waitress who called me "hon" and put the most tasty looking crepes on my table / a pair of hawks divebombing a golden eagle / a kite (the bird) / a flock of magpies / some GORGEOUS scenery / a rainbow / lovely rain sprinklings / MORE gorgeous scenery, i mean what the fuck / fields of purple/orange/red tipped bushes / a meadow of buttercup-yellow very tall grass, in which many picturesque trees stood / lots of fluffy, adorable, tasty cows / a large herd of likely-feral horses with a wonderful variety of patterns & colors / the fluffiest husky ever / the juxtaposition of cold wind through an open window + warm sunlight / the most stunning snow-coated mountain of whites and blues in the sun, wreathed in clouds / no seriously some really fucking Gorgeous scenery, i was near tears with some of it