book talk: with Strawberry Shortcake

I am still not feeling that great today, but I dragged myself out of the house, basically so my girls would get out of the house. We went shopping at Target, spent way too much money. I decided to spoil my husband this Valentine's Day and got him quite a bit that I think he will like. We also stumbled upon new 5th Harmony Barbie Dolls! They had exactly one of each of the girls, that was it. I am guessing they just recently put them out and hadn't sold any yet. I didn't even known they were coming out with these dolls in the Barbie line. My girls really like 5th Harmony, our whole family watched them all come together through X Factor. I decided to be a nice momma and let them each pick one out. They were elated! After Target we ate some lunch, then it was off to Toys R Us, mainly because I wanted to browse through the dolls and see what was new. If you couldn't tell, I am kind of in love with dolls, paper dolls, Barbie dolls, anything and all. I usually buy them for myself with the intentions of using them as models to crochet clothes, and then when I feel I wont crochet much more for a specific doll, I pass it onto my daughters. I sort of made an inner resolution this year to hold off on buying so many dolls and to focus on doing crafty things with dolls that I already own.

 I have been pretty good about it, I think. I did buy that Winx Club Icy Doll (that I absolutely love). I knew if I didn't snag her I would never see her again. (Does that sound like too much rationalizing?) Tonight I caved in and purchased a Strawberry Shortcake Styling Doll (one of those larger ones). I have been eyeing her since before Christmas, and truth be told, there is something nostalgic about Strawberry Shortcake, as I grew up with the original versions, and I have just never bought any of the Strawberry Shortcake dolls over these past years since they have made their appearance (though we own many of the DVDs). Anyways, the doll was 25% off, so that seemed to justify the purchase in my mind. I have been looking to get a larger, more childlike doll in appearance, so this one is perfect. It allows me to reminisce in my mind over childhood memories and gives me a new (different body shaped) doll to create for. And I just have to say, I watch and follow a lot of doll collectors online, and I never understand why Strawberry Shortcake is so overlooked! How do you not find her adorable? Plus she smells just like strawberries (yep, just like the originals!).
After leaving Toys R Us we headed to the public library (not our base library unfortunately, which I miss). I had gotten an email the other day, apparently a second notice of an overdue book. What happened to libraries actually sending out the first notice? I know I had never gotten it! I ended up having to search beneath my youngest's bed, amidst everything else that seems to collect there, to find a specific American Girl book. It is now returned, new books collected, and we are back in our warm home! I cannot seem to get the chill out of me though, and am looking forward to staying in the rest of the weekend, relaxing, keeping warm, and getting better. I did snap a few photos at the library to share in this blog post. Since I wanted to start utilizing our library more than a bookstore, I thought some fun photos of books that caught my eye at the library might add a bit of fun to it for me. Most of what will catch my eye is in the kids, as that is where most of our time at the library is spent, but who says kids books can't be fun?

I am kind of out of words with this one. I am not sure if this is a new addition, 3 giant brown teddy bears in a corner, or if I have just never seen these before. I am guessing they are new, I cannot believe that I would have just overlooked this bear pile. Something about stuffed things in public areas for all kids to use grosses me out. I just imagine that they are harboring about a million germs inside them, just waiting to creepy crawl onto my kids. Bleh.

I am always so impressed with the Nancy Drew shelf wherever I go, bookstore or library. I am always so amazed at how many mysteries there are to dive into with Miss Nancy!

I snapped this photo just because I thought the cover of this book was pretty beautiful. I probably should have checked it out to see what it was all about, but by this point in the day I was just really needing to get home and into pajamas, and that was about all I could focus on.

I'm not sure I will get much accomplished the rest of the weekend, I have plans to plop on the couch and forever not move! If I am feeling more up to it, I may write up a review about the Strawberry Shortcake doll, or maybe even figure out what craftiness I want to do with her. Hope you are all staying warm yourself!