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

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!

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!

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... ^^;