Nightfall's Pinky:St (and more!) Page

Hello Kitty at FAO Schwarz

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:55:00 +0000

One thing about Toys R Us buying FAO Schwarz is that there's now a lot more Hello Kitty stuff there. This would be exciting except for the fact that it's all stuff you can also get elsewhere. But even still, here's the goods! ;]

They had (oddly enough, in the candy section!) a big display of loungefly stuff. I love lougefly's items, but they are always so expensive... >.<

Even tho I didn't get the best picture of it, I liked the pirate kitty coin purse...

Then, since it *was* the candy section of the store, we have Hello Kitty candy:

The candy display included the Hello Kitty Jelly Belly jellybeans I had read about. There's nothing particularly exciting about these, they are just regular Jelly Bellys, except with a Hello Kitty face on them. And for that they were like twice as expensive as normal! <.< The bigger boxes were $8!! I ended up buying one anyway because a. I'm a sucker and b. I figured I was in NY, I may as well splurge a bit (and I haven't seen them for sale here in Boston).

I haven't opened them yet so no pix of the inside or reports on the taste! XD

There were also, I think, some plushies upstairs, but nothing I haven't seen elsewhere. And, I'm afraid, I don't remember which ones they were! I was too busy being disappointed they didn't have any sirotans this year... They did have these pillows tho, which was something a bit different:

And with that, we've reached the end of my trip to NY pix. But not to worry, I've still got more Hello Kitty pictures to upload! XD

New Clothing Sets

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:59:00 +0000

Ok, as promised my next post (as in, this one you are looking at! :P) is about new Barbie clothes that I spotted as I was doing my Christmas shopping. Stores did add quite a bit of new stuff just before Christmas, tho I've been disappointed not to find any of the big "off label" type clothing sets I've found in the past. I looked at Wal-Mart, K-Mart (all the marts. haha), and Target. I did glance in Kohl's too, but I don't pin them as the type of place where they do anything other then get overstock from the other places I just mentioned. So I am not sure if that leaves anywhere else. It's not just the big 'store label' doll clothes packs that are missing. In previous years, I have seen all kinds of toys packaged that way. This year I really only saw a couple! I don't know if this is something about the recession (but I would've thought that stuff would sell even better in a recession) or just that whoever made that stuff before isn't making it now.

For an example of what I mean, here's a picture of one of my beloved Kerri Mitchell/Designer's Choice sets from Target:

Ah well, no sense crying over what's not there. Let's move on to the things I DID see.

First up, some things that are not strictly clothes. A couple of those "100+ pose" dolls that just came out. I hadn't seen these before, for whatever reason:

Target had them on sale for $7.99 (down from $9.99) this week (last week?) so I bought one. I like the funky purse, but I'm actually undecided if buying her was wise...

So far that's been one of my few good holiday deals though. I was in CT for thanksgiving, so prior to my trip into NYC I decided to make an early morning trip to the mall. I've never done this, so it was in the spirit of adventure and all. In preparation, I dutifully read all the circulars, but even then, didn't see anything too intriguing. Walmart promised it had some really cheap Candy Glam dolls, so I went in search of those. Here's the Barbie aisle at Walmart:

There were several new outfits I hadn't seen before. I though maybe they were walmart exclusives, but later trips to Target showed they were just new. More on those later. One thing I saw that really intrigued me was this cute Moxie dollhouse:

Another thing I saw that I hadn't seen before was this cute "bird-watching" Barbie:

After quite a bit of searching, I finally found the Candy Glam dolls that were on sale.

These were not the nice ones that I had seen earlier at Target! Boo!!
(I didn't get a good picture of the nicer version, so check this one by Impossible Princess on flickr if you don't know what I mean)

Moving on (finally! XD) to the outfit sets, I was also disappointed to note that the outfit sets had been reduced from 4 outfits to only 3 (and not any cheaper!).

There were also quite a few new single outfit sets. Unfortunately I feel like the price went up a bit on those too (They are $6.59 at Target). On the plus side, there are a bunch of new boys outfits...

The purple dress on the right side is pretty funny because there's basically a sheriff's star pinned to the shoulder strap! XD

This set has some really interesting shoes!

My favorite of the new outfits is that flight attendant outfit, but I haven't been able to talk myself into buying it yet.

I also just recently found these smaller outfit sets (no shoes). Kind of cute, but still $3.

Not a Barbie, but had to show off this latest Hannah Montana doll too - Christmas theme!

Barbies R Us

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:21:00 +0000

Trying to make my way through the rest of my "Black Friday" photos from NYC. (for those keeping score at home, I'm almost done posting them all either here or on flickr. It only took 3 weeks! >.<) Today's posting is about all the various Barbie products I had not seen before. These were all taken at either Toys R Us or at FAO Schwarz - which, starting from this year, is basically all the same place, because Toys R Us bought FAO Schwarz. I hear that FAO Schwarz used to be a great place to get collector dolls, such as Tonner. I didn't really experience the heydey of that, I think. Even last year, it seemed like there were fewer collector dolls than the year before. And even though Toys R Us said things wouldn't change so much with their takeover (I used to have an article about this, I can't find it), I found even fewer this year. Although admittedly memory is getting fuzzy with so much time passing, I didn't recall seeing anything that was not Barbie*! (boo) And I definitely didn't see any new version of this cute little FAO Schwarz holiday doll:

Now I really do regret not buying her last year! (there's a few things from last year I regret not buying. It's so hard to know what you are going to wish you'd bought and what's going to hang out in your house as another item of clutter...)

*There's still 3 Tonner dolls listed on the FAO website, but it's Miss Piggy and the Twilight dolls! I wish I could remember for sure that the Tonners were not there any longer, I think so, but... Madame Alexander was still there tho, don't mean to forget that!

Of course, if dolls aren't your thing, they did still have a new Holiday Bear (even if he was not as cute as last year's). And although they didn't have anything as unique as the Sirotan plushies from last year, they do still have all the Stieff animals. I didn't get any good pictures of those, however, since I was getting tired of taking pictures by the time I got to FAO.

Anyway, let's get back on topic here! First up, let's take a quick look at some Barbies I saw at the regular Toys R Us. The Times Square store often has a few things that I either don't see at other stores, or else don't see until later. So here's a couple of those.

I didn't recognize this girl, but she's seems to be a hair styling Barbie?

These intrigued me because they remind me of the concept of the "Wake Up" Momokos. Not getting an interesting outfit makes a bit more sense to me for a Momoko though than it does for a Barbie. I mean, for $25-$40, I could get a really nice Barbie with a really nice outfit!

However, it appears you can get a pretty wide selection of different skin tones and facial features, which is pretty cool:

When I saw these, I was wondering if they really were selling ALL of the dolls pictured on the box (the store only had maybe 2 or 3), but a bit of internet sleuthing says that yes they are. They didn't have any of those accessory packs at the store or I most certainly would've bought one!

Aside from some new fashion fever type outfits (which I will include in the next post I do), the Barbie Basics were the only new things I really saw at Toys R Us. I didn't linger tho, it was a zoo there! However, before I split, I couldn't resist snapping a picture of this:

Reminds me of how I treated my own Barbies as a kid! (I was not a fan at that point... XD)

Moving on to FAO Schwarz, the Barbie section still greeted me with the same layout. There was the big center display:

And the Barbie runway. And the glass cases along the back wall. Although I've got some nice pictures of the Barbies in the display cases in the past, this time I didn't bother because a. my camera was really acting up (I think it's dying... :( ) and b. I didn't really see anything new. I did spot this Barbie off by herself that seemed new:

My friend identified her, but I'm afraid I already forgot who she is... ^^; (the secret here is that I'm not really a Barbie collector at all, I just like to peek at them in the toy stores!) I liked her retro outfits, at any rate. Looking at the FAO Schwarz web page, I think she might be (the surprisingly expensive!! ouch!) Becky. (tho the outfits are not quite the same)

And speaking of outfits, there was a glass display case of those that I think was new:

There was also a table full of these dolls in pink boxes that I believe were marked as being store exclusives. I don't seem to see any info online about them tho, does anyone recognize them?

Lastly, we had a few more collector's dolls.

This one is the Philipp Plein Barbie Collector Doll Platinum Label.

And this one is the Barbie Collector Gold Label "Stunning in the Spotlight" Barbie Doll. She was indeed stunning!

I think we have here Barbie Collector Gold Label "Sparkling Pink 1964" Barbie Doll in both her outfits? It's too bad she's so expensive, I'd love to steal those clothes for my other dolls! >.>

I did not see the Amazonia Barbie while I was there, but having just spotted her now on the FAO website, I wish I had!!

More Skelanimals

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:53:00 +0000

This has definitely been the year of Skelanimals. They were all over, of course, at Halloween, thanks to their stuff being on sale at Target. However, once Halloween merchandise faded away, Skelanimals only expanded their territory! They've popped up with new stuff at Target (tho not very much), Toys R Us, and Borders.

Here's some photos of some of the Skelanimals stuff I spotted in Toys R Us. I was in the NYC flagship store, so of course there has to be some "I Love NY" merch! XD

All makers of "I love NY" merchandise agree: NY = taxi.

(sorry for the bad photos. It was the day after Thanksgiving and it was a total madhouse in there. Not the best time or place to take pictures!! ^^;

I think these are also available at Borders.

I think this idea is rather strange. Dead skeleton animals wearing animal 'skins'? And not even the animal they used to be, I think. It's not that it's not kind of cute in the execution, but if I think about the idea of it, it's rather unattractive! XD

More Skelanimals pix to come, as soon as I locate them on my hard drive again..

Aha, here's one, I forgot to post the (blurry) picture of the display!

I also was reminded, while looking thru last year's Christmas photos, that there was some Skelanimals to be found at Christmas even then...

Ah yes, and here's the rest. These were spotted early in the Christmas season at Target. I'm not sure if I have seen them there lately, which is a shame because they are pretty cute!

I like the penguin and the reindeer best, but the plaid on the dog is pretty cute too!

A Thanksgiving Story

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:42:00 +0000

I'm posting this quite a bit after Thanksgiving, and it's pretty much exactly what's already up on flickr, but I feel like I really ought to post it here anyway - these are the first Pinky photos I've taken in ages, and this WAS supposed to be a blog about Pinkys! They'd've been more on time, but the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is just too darn busy! >.<

I decided to use the 'triplets' to tell a story, just to see how it worked. I did it in a hurry, so the lighting is a bit off and there's a few other things I could've done better, but oh well!

"Phew! Home from school at last! I better change and start cooking!"

(I don't know why she had to go to school on Thanksgiving. Tough school. I don't know why she's doing all the cooking by herself either. Poor Pinky. ;)

"I'll start by making the salad"

"Looks like the bird is almost done..."

(Yeah, I put the turkey in the oven upside down. And it probably takes a lot longer to cook a turkey than my little story is allowing for. But what do I know? I've never cooked a turkey. I don't even eat them! XD)

"Oh no! I forgot the cranberry sauce!! I have to go back out!"

"Well, at least that wasn't too bad! I have the cranberries and it wasn't too crazy..."

"Well, at least the fruit salad is already done. I'm only a little behind schedule..."

"The food's done! Can you help me set the table please?"

Well, like it or not, Christmas is coming...

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:54:00 +0000

Yes, we all know it's earlier and earlier every year, and probably earlier this year than usual even. But I can't summon up much "Bah, humbug!" because I'm too excited to check out all the new toys and decorations!

Decorations-wise, Target has been in full gear since immediately after Halloween. They snuck a bit of Christmas merchandise in among the Halloween decorations even before that, but I'm talking full-on ceiling decorations:

It took them a bit longer (at least around here) to get all the merchandise out tho. I was excited to check in recently, however, and discover some of the Hello Kitty stuff was already rolled out. I can usually count on Target for some Kitty goodness, and they certainly didn't disappoint!

First up, we have some bath and body products:

I don't really like strong scents, so I am assuming I won't be too excited about any of this stuff, but how can you not love that case?! I am waiting for some sale action and then I'll probably scoop that up!

You may not be able to see it well, but the star of this package is that item at the top - it's a shower cap!

This one I will probably leave to the kids - it's a collection of various games:

And then if you are just in the market for stocking stuffers, I guess there's always this:

I think those were little lip glosses?

Of course, to me, the real payoff is in the Christmas ornaments. I love Christmas ornaments! If I'm not careful I'm going to have to upgrade to a bigger tree soon... ^^;

There are the usual selection (so far) of little plush Kittys, and mini ornament Kittys. The plush Kittys are not fuzzy, instead they seem to be made out of some sort of jersey/nylon material? They don't feel bad, but they seemed a little strange to me somehow. Not really a complaint tho, just an observation! ;)

The Santa one is my favorite...

...I wasn't that fond of the SnowKittys tho - they were kind of oddly proportioned... :/

I left the plushie ornaments in the store for now, but decided to buy the minis immediately, without waiting for a sale. The minis are the ones I really want for my tree, so I decided I could "splurge" and spend the $7...

Here they are, all in their box:

Let's get a closer look now! (click on the images here to make them bigger! These are uploaded directly to blogger, the ones above are linked back to my flickr acct, so they don't get bigger...)

The cook Kitty might be my favorite, she's so cute! And the glitter makes it look like she's been sampling her cooking... ;)

Kitty with pie is pretty darn cute too tho!

And look, Kitty is giving us a present! And isn't her coat great?

And finally, here's Kitty relaxing with some hot chocolate. :)

This was a pretty nice set of ornaments! I am pleased! hehe. I wonder if there might be another set of designs out there? I will keep my eyes open!

I checked Urban Outfitters for more Sanrio ornaments too, but either they aren't getting them, or they don't have them *yet*. I will keep checking!

I really have plenty of Christmas decorations, but there's always so many cute ones. Looking at the Sanrio webpage, I saw these cute decorations...

I'm hoping the Sanrio store near me might have the red bow and red wreath - otherwise I might have to hit up some mail order... o.O The Kitty Christmas tree does some sort of folding things where she turns into a Christmas tree with her Kitty face invisible. But it's really expensive. The advent calendar is cute, but I can probably live without.

While I was looking at the Sanrio website I found some other stuff I wanted (shocking, I know). I love winter themes!

Finally, before I close, one more item - this one from Toys R Us. I will be doing another post soon about Toys R Us and new Hello Kitty items, but this was the only Christmas theme one (so far?):

Now see? Early Christmas is not so bad... XD

Finally have Mir!

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:12:00 +0000

The other really great thing about our Pullip meet (aside from meeting all the great folks in the area!) was the fact that new dolls arrived to the store in time for the meet - including Mir!!! I've been waiting for Mir forever, I saw her as a prototype ages ago, but wasn't able to get her until now. I'm so happy to finally have!

Aside from having a beautiful face-up, her outfit is gorgeous! The dress is beautiful (tho all those little streamers at the bottom are actually loops of fabric, so it does a pretty good job as a feather duster. My lovely girl went home with more leaves than just the one she's holding in her pictures... XD

Her fairy tale is that of the celestial maiden/selkie who had her robes stolen so that she can't return home. You may be familiar with this tale from Ayashi no Ceres? I had been thinking of her in my head all this time as being named "Ceres", but now that she's here, I'm tempted to name her Ayame. It seems to be stickier. Hm. Well, I will ponder! XD

She comes with a lot of accessories too:

That pretzel thing is a barrette that goes in her hair - that's what makes her elaborate hair style. The concentric hoops on the other side of the picture is basically a hoop skirt! I as surprised by that! XD And then she comes with various bangles and hair clips and a little head dress as well. Also, tho I don't have a photo of them specifically, the boots are great!

One thing is for sure tho, she really is the palest of the pale. She's tricky to photograph! But I will do my best, of course, you can check my efforts here at her set... ;)

Also tricky is going to be convincing myself to change her outfit... I love her stock!

Pullip Meet at AniMadness!

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Last weekend we had a pullip meetup at AniMadness. I've been to a lot of area meetups, and this is the biggest one ever! Pullip collectors came out of the woodwork, it was great!

Here's a picture of all our dolls hanging out on one of the dvd shelves.

I am not sure why we had such good attendance - maybe more people are collecting dolls, maybe people felt more comfortable coming to a store (we usually meetup in a park) or... oh yeah, maybe it was the prospect of buying a new doll for 10% off plus a free box of re-ment for anyone who brought a doll to the store! ;) It was really nice of the folks who own the store to let us have our meet there, and we're looking forward to having another one soon (maybe January?) - stay tuned to the dollymarket forum for details!

I'm not going to post any photos of the meetup here because I assume most of my blog readers are people that follow my flickr stream, but if you'd like to see them, check their set here!

While I was there, I could help but note all the new Sanrio goodies!

Look how incredibly adorable these My Melody plushies are! Esp. the one that's crying. Awwww... don't cry sweetie! And they were really reasonably priced - only like $25! Amazingly, I didn't buy one. But I'm still so tempted! If I don't spend a frightful amount of money at the Sanrio store in CT this weekend (more on that later), I will definitely have to go back for one. ...unless of course someone else has already scooped them up, which I think is highly likely!

They also had these cute little plushies - I like the red one best!

They are $12, not bad not bad! XD

Then there were the Kittys. These remind me of the Halloween skeleton (the only one I didn't buy!) but I don't think they are related. They have the same tag as these pirate Kittys:

I am guessing it is one of those Hello Kitty x Someone crossover lines, probably for Japan-only? I must say, AniMadness gets a lot of Hello Kitty stuff I've never seen before! Which is great, because if it weren't for them, Target, Tokai and Curious George Goes to Wordsworth in Harvard Square, selection is pretty sad here. Boston does not love Hello Kitty! I just realized that the kiosk in the Galleria Mall that just opened is gone. Boo to that! (it just opened! It was only back in June that it was "coming soon") This follows the demise of the kiosk in the Prudential Mall (later replaced by another kiosk? But the new one is not as good...) and, way earlier, of Kitty World on Newbury Street. Sigh.

Good thing AniMadness opened to keep me tempted, tho it's sometimes hard to pay too much attention to Kitty when there's Pullips around... ^^;

New Hello Kitty in the Dollar Aisle!

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:45:00 +0000

Target has added new stuff to their Dollar Aisle stuff now that Halloween is basically over. Aside from an alarming amount of Christmas stuff (already!) they have some new Hello Kitty items! These are not Christmas-themed, so maybe there will even be still more closer to Christmas? Exciting!

Aside from the usual cheap jewelry and hair elastics, the stamps from last year have returned (at least at my store):

I didn't buy one b/c I am pretty sure I bought one last year. I need to finish looking back through my collection tho (I'm trying to find things to get rid of... ^^;)

The lipgloss, however, was something I had never seen before, and it was super-adorable! <3

I didn't buy any of that either though because I don't think I'd use it, and I hate to have lipgloss hanging around unused. I may break down tho and get it because even if I just clean out the lipgloss without touching it, that would be a pretty cute little container, and that might be worth $1...

Something else that was different were these cute whiteboards:

I am not sure what I could do with a whiteboard now that I'm not in college, but it IS definitely adorable!

Then, of course, there were more kids socks. I didn't take a photo of those. I am always tempted to buy those, even tho I can't wear them (too small!) because I feel like I ought to be able to make doll sweaters out of them. I have not managed to work out a good pattern for that yet though...

I did buy the stickers - they may not be the most exciting stickers ever, but they were still worth a dollar I think!

The pen-type things next to them are crayons of some sort, I think you can swap around the colors inside.

I also had to pick up the lenticular notebooks - anything lenticular is a must!

And yes, lenticular is a weird word I only learned recently because I love this kind of thing so much. It's what you call that stuff that is sort of 3D and where the picture "blinks" between one thing and another. You can also recognize it from something like a hologram because when you scratch your fingernail across it, there's a texture and it makes a zipping sort of sound.

The pink one blinks, and the words change colors. The blue one is more elaborate and therefore harder to photograph. The pink one kind of "works" better, but the blue design is so much cuter!

The last thing I went home with was some ribbon and a deck of cards.

I thought about giving the cards away to a friend, but I didn't... ^^; I'm still trying to decide if I should, or if I should open them. I want to see the design so I probably will! (I am suspecting they are boring tho and look just like the package). There are two designs of cards. The other one is pink, but I did not photo it. There's only the two ribbon designs, and I got both of those. (yay ribbon! XD)

The last thing I noted over in the Dollar Aisle were these "fashion journals":

They have stickers that come with them:

(the pink stickers are exactly the same, just pink)

I was curious if there was anything inside that made them specifically "fashion" oriented, so I bought one, but apparently not

Sorry for the relatively terrible photos of the stuff I bought. It's been raining and I was in a hurry, so the lighting was awful... >.<

Target also snuck some new stuff into the toy aisle, namely these mysterious items:

I am very intrigued by these, and may have to buy some to check them out! You can read a bit more about how they are supposed to work on the back of the box.

There was also this cute little playset:

If you want to see more pictures of it out of the packaging, check out tomo.moko's excellent photos on flickr!

Down on the bottom shelf, this cute box caught my eye...

I have seen versions of these decorator Kitties (and Chococat and My Melody) floating around on flickr, so I guess this is Target's version.

Even the top of the box is cute! (of course! XD)

And then, finally, just one unrelated item - as I was walking out of the store, I saw these cute kids' PJs!

Scary Kitty is adorable! XD

Halloween Hello Kitty at Hot Topic

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:16:00 +0000

Before my Sanrio obsession got kind of out of hand in recent years, I really pretty much never set foot in Hot Topic. I don't look like I belong in Hot Topic. I'm sure they are happy to take my money nonetheless, but I feel foolish shopping there. ^^; Still, for goodies like these, how can I resist?

I went there specifically to get the ears because I saw them on someone else's flickr photostream. They didn't have any out, but I asked and she brought them out from the back for me. Lucky!

I wore the ears to a Halloween/doggie birthday party last weekend (early Halloween! XD). While I do not have any photos of myself wearing the ears (and probably wouldn't be willing to share them even if I did ;P) I can show you a photo of my friend's dog wearing them!

It's a touch blurry, but poor doggie wasn't that excited to wear them, as you might imagine. Still he was a good sport about it! My friend's dog is named "Captain Awesome" and I think he was awesome here indeed! ^__^

While I was buying the ears, I was looking at the other Sanrio Halloween products. They had the same (or close to the same) adorable "Kitty Frankenstein" and "Kitty as a Mummy" (2 versions - maybe one is new?) that they had last year. (I don't see the Frankenstein on their webpage, so maybe that is only available if your store has leftover stock? Or maybe it was never there and I'm just remembering from last year... ^^;) I'm not really a big fan of the Kitty t-shirts they sell at Hot Topic because they tend to be made from very thin fabric (not durable!) and to be a bit too long to look right on someone my height. Still, I love the Halloween Kitty stuff and really wanted a shirt last year anyway. So when I saw some Mummy Kitty jewelry and barrettes, I couldn't pass up buying *something*, right?

They were $8, which is a lot for barrettes, but I thought they would be just perfect because I could wear them myself for Halloween if I wanted, or I could just put them on my dolls. Plus they were not as likely to wear out after one use as the shirts were! (I don't see this on their website either, tho I do see a necklace. I have not spent much time on the Hot Topic website - is there a close correspondance between merchandise available there vs. the store?)

And, while I was there, I spotted some small items from the "Loves Nerds" theme. I saw this stuff originally at Sanrio Luxe in NY, but it was all so expensive... ^^; I think it was mostly all Loungefly stuff, and for some reason their bags are very expensive. (tho if you want one desperately, be sure to check online. I've seen it go on sale!) I don't want to spend $70 on a bag, but $2 on a pin is ok, right?

And how could I pass up this cute little keychain? I wear glasses! Hello Kitty is wearing glasses! It's like a requirement to get it, no?

And that was only another $5. Really, what's $5?

And oh, while I'm in line, what are those cute long socks I see?

They look good for the winter, no? And unlike the socks at H&M, the pattern is all over and not just on the toe. That's so much better! And socks are always useful, right? Esp. in the winter. $8 for socks isn't so bad...

And that, kids, is how you spend $30+ dollars at Hot Topic on stuff you didn't really need. >.<

I regretfully put away all the adorable Alice in Wonderland stuff I saw too, or it would've been more! One obsession at a time, I think... (I was eyeing some stuff with this cute mirror design - they had pins and keychains and suchlike - but if I'd seen this cute totebag, I might not have been able to pass it up! Still I have soooooo many totes! ^^;)

p.s. it looks like Hot Topic has the Hello Kitty Jelly Belly jelly beans I was reading about on hellokittyjunkie, so I may be going back for those soon...

As I was walking out of the store, I was telling my friend that she really needed to stage an intervention for me and keep me from spending so much money on Sanrio stuff I don't really need. Of course, no sooner had the words left my mouth than I saw this cute t-shirt at Journeys:

I had to have that too. I mean, come on! I was a (radio) DJ for years! How could I pass that up?! (they have this cute totebag too, but see above about too many totes... I see a very similar - but more expensive - tote on loungefly too, so if you were thinking of that, maybe this is a good cheap alternative!)

I think the idea that I will ever be able to resist much is only wishful thinking... *sigh* Still, how can I really regret buying such cute stuff?

AniMadness

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:57:00 +0000

AniMadness is a new store in Waltham, MA (one of the close suburbs of Boston if you aren't familiar with the area). It's an anime store, but they also carry pullips and Re-Ment. Hooray! I feel really lucky to have this store nearby! :)

(psst: you can clicky on all these photos to make them bigger... ;)

They also have a good selection of Sanrio stuff. Ok, it's not the overwhelming Kittyness of going to the Sanrio store (I'm getting spoiled!), but they good stuff - like UFO Catcher prizes:

They also have a bunch of Hello Kitty x Rody stuff:

You can see a cute Panda Kitty in the corner of that first photo, here is a better shot of the panda twins. They've been at the store for a while now, and they have batteries/motors so that their head shakes. Can you believe no one has bought them yet? (Can you believe I haven't?! XD)

Then there are these other Panda Kitty pillow/plushies. They are amusing!

And just some cute big plushies:

It's hard to believe, but here it is, already time for Christmas decorations to make their sneaky appearance...

Still, when it's domo-kun plushies, you can't mind too much, right? ;)

My favorite of the lot is the 'failed attempt at gift-wrapping' one:

But this one is pretty cute too:

Finally, the store also had these guys - not Christmas related, but cute!

These are current photos of some of their new stuff, but you can see older photos (or if you are reading in the future, new photos! XD) here at my flickr set.

More New Hello Kitty...

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:42:00 +0000

...at both Toys R Us and Target. Kitty's 35th Anniversary is apparently spawning a Hello Kitty bonanza! Tho it could be that there's not more HK stuff than there ever was and I'm just noticing it more because of my accelerating Sanrio addiction. Or it could be that they are just making a bigger push to sell things in the US market again - it's hard to say! In the end tho, the important thing is: more Kitty! XD

First up, these adorable new mini plushies at Toys R Us!

My favorite is that edamame one! (I think there were actually 4 designs, but I need to go back tonight and look at my original files. I am not sure if I uploaded the wrong file last night, or if I was mistaken at the store...) Of course the "cat in food" genre has been well-covered already by San-X's Nyan Nyan Nyanko line, so there's nothing new or different here. You might even think Sanrio is being (dare we say?) a copycat (ha! Cat! Get it? ;P) but I think there's more than enough room in the world for many cats in food. Tho they were adorable, I didn't buy any. I am not sure what I would do with them (I'd hate to take them out of their package!) and I have sooooo much Kitty stuff - plenty from this weekend alone! ^^;

Toys R Us also had some Kitty items in their candy aisle. Many types I had seen before (Hello Kitty face tins, for instance) or these marshamallow lollipops:

I actually got the pink one for my birthday from a friend a few months back, but I haven't been able to bring myself to eat it... Poor Kitty! ^^;

However, I was not able to resist these cute hard candy packages:

The little Kitty figures were so adorable that I had to get one of each! I did try to put one back, but in the end I couldn't find one "less cute" than the others. At $1.50 for candy I probably won't like, this wasn't the best use of my money, but... Alas, the addiction is hard to resist...

I almost missed the new Kitty stuff in Target - I checked out the Toy Aisles and the Halloween stuff and we were leaving the store when we ran into a clerk who had these cute pink earphones. She said they were Hello Kitty and there was a new selection of Hello Kitty stuff over in electronics! So of course the electronics section had to be checked out!

Impressive, isn't it? In case it is hard to see, moving from left to right/top to bottom, we have walkie talkies starting us out in the top left corner, then digital cameras in the top right corner. Next row brings us a USB drive, the headphones, and iPod/iPhone skins. The next row has an optical mouse/mouse pad combo and an analog phone. Down on the bottom is a CD player and two styles of alarm clocks. I do need a new alarm clock, which makes those tempting, but I kind of wanted one with a cd player. Hm...

Way, way down at the bottom, cut off by the photo (I couldn't back up any further because of the camera display in back of me... XD) is a Karaoke system:

Kind of an amusing product!

Of course I went home with the headphones I'd gone there to buy, so here's a closer look at those:

This was very well-timed for me since my last headphones just broke! I haven't had a chance to open the package and try them out yet, so I am not sure how good the sound quality is. If it's decent, I might be tempted to buy a second pair - in case the first pair wears out! (I hate to admit it, but my headphones do tend to eventually bite the dust...)

I also felt like I couldn't leave the store without the USB drive...

I just bought a USB drive a few months ago and it has been very handy! But... I am not at all sure I need TWO of them. Still, the included software seemed intriguing. I am not sure, I am still teetering. I may return it!

One thing about this USB drive tho is that it is not terribly expensive. It cost $15 for 2GB. I bought a relatively 'cheap' 4 GB USB drive (in the sense that I could've paid more. But it seems like the one I have is just fine!) for $20. So making it a Hello Kitty product does not seem to have added much to the price. This is a little bit different than Hello Kitty electronics I have seen in the past. Very often it has seemed like Hello Kitty electronics items were much more expensive than their equivalent non-Hello Kitty products. This has been particularly noticeable with the cameras - which makes that camera in the upper right of the display interesting! I didn't notice until I was peering at my picture (I was in a bit of a hurry when I visited the store) but that camera is only $15! I wonder how many megapixels it has? My camera phone has 2 MP, and it takes terrible photos, so my guess is that it would not be worth buying the "Kittycam", but I will have to go back and take a closer look...

New Barbies at Toys R Us and Target

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:55:00 +0000

Well, as Christmas creeps closer, it looks like new toys are getting rolled out. Barbie has had several new dolls introduced to stores - here's some photos I took at Target and Toys R Us over the weekend.
There were some of the 'Candy Glams' on sale at Target, but I wasn't fast enough to get the ones I liked. I'll continue hitting up the discount stores (Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, TJ Maxx, Marshall's) and hope I get lucky. So far my quick ventures to those stores have mostly been strike-outs.
But on to the new things!

First up are the Barbies on the new bodies. They say "100+ poses". I didn't buy one to try it out, but they do look much nicer then the old bodies. Cute clothes too!

(You can't see so well here, but there's a bit of metallic in the dress. It's more nice than tacky for once. The boots are kinda lame tho. So maybe if this goes on sale)

This one is the big winner in terms of cute clothes:

I may get her even *before* she goes on sale! But I have been a bit bad this week (too much Hello Kitty) so she'll have to wait on that.

Then there is the new "So in Style Sis" line. That also has some cute clothes!

I really like the skirt on the one on the right. I don't think I'll ever be getting her tho. The amount of extra stuff that comes with her pretty much guarantees she will never be cheap...

I guess this is the "sis"? I think this is a new 'little kid' body type for Barbie? She looks 'older' than Kelly, if I figure 'skinnier and taller' to mean older. I don't know that Barbie needs to be making their little kid dolls skinnier and taller (isn't that why everyone hated Barbie in the first place?) but these do look cute. I am wondering if the little clothes will fit anyone's tiny dolls? I only have the pinkys, so I can't be sure.

This one was my favorite - check out the cute kitty shirt! The art supplies aren't too bad either. She is definitely going on my list of things to buy sooner or later.

And then for some reason, this little ballerina caught my eye:

She's for the very young 'uns. That bodice is part of her costume. So nothing I would ever buy. Maybe I just like the package?

Toys R Us had two dress set exclusives as well:

I prefer the clothes of the one on the bottom. Probably too much pink for me to worry about buying tho...

Meanwhile, Disney has been pumping out Princess dolls like there's no tomorrow. I am not interested in Princess clothes, so I don't much care, but I kind of like their display at Target:

You can spin that thing over on the right to select a Princess and then push a button to hear her song. Fancy! They must've paid a pretty penny for that shelf space.

Target also had some new Project Runway toys that seemed pretty cool. There's nothing I would buy for myself, but if I actually were buying toys for a kid, I'd give these some serious consideration:

Skelanimals at Target

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:53:00 +0000

This Halloween, Target is featuring Skelanimals for Halloween. I am not the biggest fan of Skelanimals stuff, but it's cute in its weird little way for Halloween. And as always, Target has some fun stuff, and some fun decorations. Just like the did last year with Domo-kun, they are definitely making the Skelanimals stuff very prominent in the stores, it decorates all of the aisles where the Halloween merchandise is, and is the first thing you see walking into the store:

Here's the hanging decorations up near the registers:

I really love that cat, I wish they had more merchandise featuring that character - I am not sure I've even seen any...

Here's another hanging sign:

I like the giant lollipops!

This is the main display in the Halloween section. It's in the big open area with no aisles where the seasonal merchandise goes. It contains most, tho not nearly all, of the Skelanimals stuff. You can find more over by the candy. It is surrounded by the aisles of costumes and candy.

Oliver is the owl, I am not sure which one Timmy is? Maybe he is the spider, he seems to be featured the most in the decorations...

You can get a Sekelanimals costume, tho I personally think they are a bit boring...

...I'd much rather get this hoodie, because it is super-cute! (even if it wouldn't make a Halloween costume). In fact, I really should see if they have it in my size, tho I don't need any more hoodies... ;)

This section was still a bit understocked when I took this picture, but it later had some kids-size t-shirts in addition to what is pictured here.

Here's a better view of the little bag, which is cute. There were a few different styles available, with different characters.

This is a reusable canvas shopping bag type thing that you can get for $1.99 with purchase. It's cute, it's too bad it's the spider, as he is my least favorite...

I'm not quite sure if these were stickers or temporary tattoos, but I think it is pretty funny they are calling them "Child Accessories"

Halloween basket. Cute!

On the left is not the baskets, but actually some sort of pillow? I'm not sure I saw them again after this picture! On the right is some pumpkins you can plug in to light up for decoration. I don't think those would actually be all that exciting. They seem like they might not be very interesting in the dark...

Much cuter and more fun, I think, is the variety of stuffed animals they have. Plus, with stuffed animals, you don't have to put them away after Halloween if you don't want to! (well, I suppose you don't have to put any of your Halloween decorations awy if you don't want to, depending on what sort of decor you are going for! XD But the stuffed animals probably blend in a little better...). These big ones come in a coffin case, which is pretty cool and very in keeping with the theme, tho maybe not quite to my taste.

Or you can get them dressed up as trick-or-treaters, which is much cuter in my opinion! (Tho, truthfully, maybe more likely to need to wind up in storage until next Halloween...)

I don't recall if there were 3 or 4 designs. If there were 4 I missed getting a picture of one. Hm. I got the devil a number of times tho - he must like to be photographed! XD

The Frankenstein one is my favorite of this series by far!

Then there are the slightly smaller trick-or-treat plushies, which are even cuter!

I may have to break down on my plushie ban to buy the owl skeleton pirate! ^^;

That's most of the stuff over in the main section. Except for the really adorable vinyl figurines! I can't believe I didn't get any photos of those! I will have to go back and get some photos and I will add them here.

Moving away from the big Halloween display section, here's what they have over by the candy aisle:

There are fruit-colored gummy skelanimals (hard to photograph), some more 'realistic' gummy skelanimals, spiral lollipops with skelanimals printed on the packaging, some candy necklaces and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.

You can also buy candy in a variety of cute packages, such as this mug:

(front)

(back)

Or these cute pouches:

They'd be great for pencils or cosmetics. I use a lot of these little bags to keep things sorted in my handbag or backpack. They are very handy! I almost bought one, but... well, truthfully, I have a million already. Maybe if they end up in the clearance bin.

Last, but not least, we have these lunchboxes full of lollipops. I did buy one of these, tho I haven't the slightest idea what I will do with it! ^^; But they are the same price as the pencil case and I think the lunchbox seems like a better deal. Also, the lollipops sounded like a better candy option than the candy necklace type stuff you can get in the pouch.

Here's the lunchbox I bought:

This is the candy inside:

Kind of blah, actually, but you do get a bunch of them and I can give them out on Halloween. The loose candy in the pouch wouldn't be suitable for that.

I also couldn't resist buying a few other things - a mini tin:

The candy for this one is actually really cute! Experience with previous mini tin candy tells me it won't be tasty, but cute is important too... ;P

And then finally, I bought this keychain:

Oh! I just realized as I was posting this - the back of the package names all the characters. So Timmy IS the spider!

I am using it to decorate my bag to stay in the Halloween spirit this month.

Can you tell who my favorite character is? XD

Oh, and I almost forgot - there are also tissue boxes featuring Skelanimals! That's kind of different, no?

Some of the designs are of the other (unnamed?) monster characters Target is featuring. I actually really like those boxes too. I should probably buy some, but we don't need any tissues right now, and I know from experience I won't want to throw them out, and then what? I have empty tissue boxes sitting around. *sigh*
Still, some of the boxes are lenticular (aka 3D/motion), which is really cool, and maybe I can just save that panel? Hm...

So, last year was domo-kun, and this year was skelanimals. Who do you suppose Target will feature next year for Halloween? I am not sure I can think of who else would be suitable in a similar way... Dunny? A newly designed character, like the sorta-Toki doki stuff they just did for back-to-school? Hello Kitty?!!! (Ok, I can wish, right? XD) I guess I have a long time to wait to find out...

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:01:00 +0000

This month, 7-11 is doing a promotion using domo-kun. You can get slurpee cups or coffee cups with domo-kun's picture on them. The domo-kun slurpee cups are enough fun that I may break my current effort at eating healthy enough to buy a slurpee (or two or three? It looks like there are 3 different cups total. That's more slurpees then I've had in the past 3 years tho, so we'll see!). I did stop by a 7-11 the first day of October to try to find one, but they didn't seem to have the slurpee cups in stock at that store... You can read more about the promotion here (and on a sidenote: people still use the word 'Japanime'? Seriously?). And you might want to check the website for domo-kun they mention. (Although I think the domonation/obey the domo joke is kinda lame...) I thought some of the little commercials/animated clips were funny!

Here's some pictures I snapped quickly on my trip to the 7-11:

The coffee cups aren't actually all that exciting, they're just cardboard...

That's not the best photo, I was trying to be stealthy, but I love this sign. It's on the donuts, so somehow it seems appropriate he looks so stressed out! XD

This is the Slurpee machine, seen through the door...

Domo-kun also shows up at Target again this Halloween where you can get some really cute plushies in costumes... The domonation website has a really fun Target commercial that shows domo-kun trying to get in the holiday spirit.

I grabbed this screenshot because it reminded me of the domo-kun figure I got at Target last year.

My picture of DJ Domo

Here's some pictures of the plushies at Target, you can see how they match up with the commercial:

Of course, this is nothing compared to last year's Domo-kun bonanza at Target...

(my personal favorite store display - of all time! XD)

Toys 'R' Us Pop Up Stores

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:58:00 +0000

According to the Wall Street Journal (Which I won't bother linking too, since their website is only available to paid subscribers) Toys R Us is going to have "pop up" stores in vacant storefronts in malls (and in their own Babies R Us - which I kept, disappointingly, thinking was BARBIES R Us... If only! XD - stores, since those are going to go out of business in January) for Christmas. So this means lots more places to buy toys this Christmas - and hopefully lots more selection? If we are *really* lucky, it will also lead to lots of good post-Christmas sales too, as these stores look to get rid of their unsold inventory before closing these temporary locations. (well, maybe that wouldn't be so good for Toys R Us, but I always love clearance prices!) Toys R Us recently bought FAO Schwarz, and I haven't been back to NY to see what sort of impact that has had on FAO Schwarz, but it could be good news in combination with these pop up stores if you don't live anywhere near NYC or FAO's other locations (there aren't many, but I forget where the other(s) are...) FAO always has interesting stuff during Christmas, so I am really hoping to see some of that stuff at these popups - that would be really great!

The article also mentions that Sears had been hoping to capitalize on the disappearance of KB Toys to expand their toy sales over the holidays, and this will be a blow to Sears. So don't forget to check Sears during the Christmas holidays - they may be forced to have some good sales too, but even if not, maybe they will have some interesting toys!

Some additional info here and here (since those articles are free to all)

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:43:00 +0000

I haven't posted anything in a really long time here, so I thought I would break my silence by posting my new Master Dollie Spreadsheet of Doom. Admittedly, I have too many dolls, and I'm still trying to work out fairy tales for them all, and what things I still need to buy for them. So this is my attempt to bring it all into some sort of order. Some details are not 100% set - for instance, I'm not positive about Kei and Greta being related - and some are not set at all (Arion still doesn't have a name!) but this is pretty much how I see everyone...

Yuiko Takes a Bike Ride

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:31:00 +0000

Yuiko Takes a Bike Ride, originally uploaded by esmereldes.

I think I'm not cut out to be a blogger. Esp. since, as I think I've said before, I spend so much time on flickr. So I still don't really have anything too much to say, I just thought I'd just share a sunny photo - mostly because I wish we had more sunny evenings like this! It's so nice to come home from work on a lovely sunny day and take a bike ride, maybe snap a few pictures...
Alas, more often than not these days it's raining, or it seems like it might rain, or I have errands, or I am too tired...
So this photo represents me getting to do something I wish I could do more often! ^^

Restart?

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:30:00 +0000

I haven't been doing a great job of updating my blogs lately. I think it is not so much that my life is busier than usual. Rather it is because my computer has become a mess. It's so full of pictures, I have nearly no memory left! I bought an external hard drive ages ago, and I finally have it all formatted (typically for me, that was a process...) and am copying pictures onto it. But me being me, I'm having trouble with the concept of actually *deleting* things. So where other people would go Step 1: Copy files to external drive. Step 2: Erase files from computer. Step 3: Enjoy all your new space! For me, it is a much more labored process. So my computer time is actually tending to be devoted to dealing with that, or to keeping my flickr account organized. Because, as much as I have clearly flooded my computer with photos, I can't. stop. taking. them. ARRGHH!!!
I also realize that I tend to treat flickr as a blog already, so it is hard to know exactly how to make the content here unique. I'm still working on figuring out an answer to that dilemma... In the meantime, here's some slightly repetitive content. ;)

I've been going slightly crazy with taking photos in stores. It's my method of saving money! XD If I photo it, I don't *have* to buy it. So here's my little report on Barbie furniture and clothing at Toys R Us. I did it comics style to make up for the fact that the photos are kind of lousy. Some of the photos are of pages in this little catalog of Barbie items that I grabbed at the store...

(click to make the photo bigger - you'll be brought over to my flickr account...)

This last one is not in comics form because I started editing it in Photoshop before I realized that Comiclife would make more sense to do what I wanted. I ran out of time and energy, however, before I could redo it. But I just wanted to show a (unfortunately bad) picture of Holiday Barbie because I really like her. I am worried I'm going to accidentally become a Barbie collector at this rate. I want to buy her for the dress, but it's like the Sanrio Barbies - the Barbie herself is kind of cool, and I really like the package! For the Sanrio ones, I like the package so much I still haven't ever taken them out of the box to use the clothes... ^^;

I never got around to showing a picture, but I was able to get My Melody Barbie for a really good price. (Now if I could just get the My Melody Pullip too, I'd feel all set...) It's so tempting to leave her in the box, but the clothes are just too adorable to *never* use. The shoes are esp. cute!

July 4 Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:42:00 +0000

Space, the final frontier..., originally uploaded by esmereldes.

If you live in the US, I hope you had a lovely 4th of July! If you live outside the US, I know that a lot of countries had independence celebrations recently, so I hope those were enjoyable too!

We had a 3-day weekend, and I was really looking forward to using it to catch up on things. I was particularly in need of some down time to try to organize all of my various collections. One problem with all this toy collecting is that storing or displaying everything is quite a challenge. It takes up a lot of space, and as I am constantly buying - and trading, if not selling (wish I did more selling.... <.<) - my collection is always in flux. And I'm always disarranging my storage as I move things around to take photos. So it really tends to always leave things messy and disorganized. Add that to a room that doesn't always get the attention that it needs from a busy person, and well, a 3 day weekend to sort it out seems like a real blessing... Unfortunately, I think I needed more like a week! >.< But I got my Hello Kitty stuff largely squared back away, and I threw out some old papers I didn't need, etc. etc. I have a bunch more to do for my long-term display goals, but I guess it's always good to have projects.... Uh, or so I'm telling myself.... ^^;

Anyway, I am afraid I also did some Hello Kitty shopping too! I can't seem to stop lately! It is pure evil that they are selling Hello Kitty stuff at all the craft stores, and also at Target. Those are my most frequent shopping areas! And now I can't buy anything practical without the temptation of seeing Kitty things! Wah! Not to mention the weekly 40% off coupons at A.C. Moore make me feel it is almost criminal if I don't use them to buy *something* Hello Kitty. So I ended up buying a small plushie, a weekly planner, some tiny notebooks (for gifts!), and a dish set. And possibly something else. I've already forgotten... *wince*
(I also bought a Barbie on clearance to steal her clothes. Spoiled rotten pullips!)

This is not part of the dish set that I bought, I bought this two weeks ago:

I love this design! There are other things I've seen with this cooking design, but not many.

Here's the side view:

There's a really cute tray in this design that I just saw on Friday while my friend and I were doing some shopping after our July 4 picnic. I was really tempted by it, but I don't really need a Hello Kitty serving tray. I can sort of get away with saying I "need" a dish, but not really... I ended up leaving it at my dad's apartment. I think I won't be eating with it, I just thought I'd leave it on the bureau as a place to keep earrings and hairclips. I find having a designated "home" for these things really helps keep them from getting lost.

So, overall, I'm feeling a bit guilty and wondering if I should return the dish set I just bought. That also has a plastic bowl, but comes with a matching plate and glass. Plus a spoon and fork. It's made of the same plastic tho, which I know is not that durable. I think I probably can't justify the purchase by saying I 'need' it for anything, but I am really reluctant to return it - it's so cute! I'll take a picture of it soon. And see if my guilty conscience wins, or my Hello Kitty hoarding problem...

UPDATE
Here's a shot of the aforementioned Hello Kitty plates:

I think I plan to return them now. They are awfully cute, but they are clearly for kids and probably not too useful for me overall. And I've been spending money like there's no tomorrow on Kitty things. That has to slow down a bit!

In Search Of...

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:33:00 +0000

My Melody Bag, originally uploaded by esmereldes.

Thanks to the influence of Flickr (I won't say good or bad... <.<) I seem to get sent off on shopping 'quests' these days. I'll see something is popular with folks on Flickr, and I'll get curious to see if I can find it locally. Most recently, it has been macarons. But often it is a looser sort of thing. I won't necessarily be going out of my way to find something, but I'll end up wanting to photograph something I see in a store because I know people have been talking about it. For instance, anything with an owl on it. Sanrio items tend to be a little of both. I always want to photograph them (or buy them... ^^;) when I see them, but I will also sometimes go out looking for a specific pattern or character if I read about them.

So, recently, I saw on someone's blog (and I'm sorry, I lost the link. I'll look for it again...) that there was a bunch of My Melody stuff at Wal-Mart. We don't really have those here, but I decided to look in CT where they do (I live too near the city, and I think Wal-Mart hasn't been able to get any property in the city. Makes sense - a big store like that would be really expensive!). I guess I am not lucky tho, because I found nearly nothing. Just this and some little kids' clothes. Ah well.

I used to be one of those wal-mart haters on principle, back when everyone hated wal-mart and starbucks. But I mellowed or something as I got older and decided that was stupid, and I should give it a chance. I gotta admit tho - I never seem to buy anything there! I think I bought some candy once. Meanwhile I may as well just surrender my wallet at the door when I go into Target. I guess I can see whose marketing is aimed most correctly at my demographic. For better or for worse...

I haven't done any side-by-side comparisons of prices, but I think that wal-mart is not any cheaper than Target for the most part. At least not for the things I personally buy - like cereal and contact lens solution - so it's really all a matter of the 'vibe' when you shop there I guess. Wal-mart is deliberately very warehouse-like and I find that depressing. I don't like to shop in the costcos and sam's clubs of the world either, tho in that case, the problem is more that I cannot find a use for 37 pounds of cereal at one time, even if it is cheaper that way. Buying in bulk doesn't do it for me. The stores seem dark and a little dirty to me somehow. Target meanwhile is very bright and has carpeting and reminds me of the caldor's and bradlee's of my youth. I actually work (sort of) in marketing, so I have read about Target's marketing strategies, and I can understand why they work on me, but it doesn't change the fact that I always seem to impulse buy in Target and never in Wal-Mart.

Accidental Blogging Holiday

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:21:00 +0000

Falada, originally uploaded by esmereldes.

"Nightfall apologizes for disappearing off the face of the earth recently (at least as far as concerns blogging) and will try to catch up soon. She has to! I'm new here and I want lots of pictures!"

Talk Radio

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:07:00 +0000

365 Toy Project: Talk Radio, originally uploaded by esmereldes.

Jun imitating Rush Limbaugh or someone like that... XD

I really loved this idea. I think Jun is hysterical, I am always so excited whenever I come up with a picture idea for him/her. ~.^

I took this at an actual radio station. I used to DJ at a community/college station, and tho I quit a while back because I felt like I didn't have time for it anymore, some of my friends still DJ. I stopped by on monday (dragged myself out of my room because I was temporarily feeling a bit better) to visit a friend's show. Usually he's on while I am at work, so I wanted to take advantage of the holiday to visit (it was a long weekend for memorial day). First time I got to use Jun's angry/drunk/assertive face... XD

365 Toy Project: Sick as a Dog

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:39:00 +0000

365 Toy Project: Sick as a Dog, originally uploaded by esmereldes.

Yes, I know. It's been a year and a day since I last posted anything. I've been sick for almost two weeks now, and I just haven't had the energy to have anything to say. I'm starting to maybe feel on the mend again tho, so I will see if I can get back into the blogging habit before I get to used to never posting. ^^;
In the meantime, please enjoy the double cuteness of Pucchi and a puppy dog! ^^

(My good friend always says people are "sick as a dog" when they get really sick. I don't know that I've heard anyone but her say this, so I don't know how common the expression is, but I find it kind of amusing. Esp. when you can illustrate it with cute pictures of puppies... ~.^)

Wall Display

noreply@blogger.com (Nightfall) — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:47:00 +0000

365 Toy Project: Lazy Day, originally uploaded by esmereldes.

Strictly in terms of the photography, this is a pretty bad photo. The lighting is off. But I am posting it anyway, just to show off how I have some of my (too many) toys displayed. I decided to set up a little scene with some of my re-ment (actually, I think this set is megahouse...) and one of my Pinkys. I quite like it, and I think I want to set up at least one more. The only downside of a display like this (not counting the fact that I don't have a ton of wallspace...) is that it makes it harder to use these pieces in other photos. If I want to use any of these pieces I have to pull the whole display apart. It's not the end of the world, but the other problem is actually that I tend to forget I *could* use these pieces. So I will have to be careful not to use any pieces that I would want to use frequently in other scenes...