Bargain Hunting at Target, Wal-Mart, Disney, and More

I love bargain hunting.  Shopping is always fun, but it's so much more fun when you find a great deal.  I thought it was about time for another bargain hunting post so I could tell you about the bargains I've found recently. I'd like to pass along the word about bargain finds to everyone so they can look for them in their local stores.

Disney Animators' Collection Dolls

You can't find a better bargain than free!  That's right, I got two Disney Animator's Collector Dolls from Disney for FREE!  Have you heard of Disney Movie Rewards?  In case you haven't, this information is definitely worth sharing.  Inside every Disney DVD or Blu-Ray movie, you'll find a little slip of paper with a code on it.  Sign up for an account at disneymovierewards.go.com/ and put in the code for each Disney movie you buy.  These codes are in every Disney DVD or Blu-Ray that you buy anywhere.  You can also get points for movie theater tickets, surveys, etc.  Your points will be automatically saved in your account, and when you have enough points, you can order FREE stuff from Disney.  We recently ordered with our rewards points and were able to get both Jasmine and Mulan 16" Animator Dolls.  Disney sends out your rewards totally free, you don't even have to pay for the shipping. Here are our adorable new girls, Mulan and Jasmine.

Disney must have had some leftover Mulan and Jasmine dolls from the old series of the Animators' collection, which they have now put into the movie rewards program. Even though we just received them, they are the older style with their little pets. The newer Animator dolls' outfits are a little different and they no longer come with a pet.

The back of Mulan and Jasmine's boxes.

Disney Princess & Me Merida

We found Merida on clearance at Target.  She was originally $39.99 at Target, but they had her marked down to $19.98.  Half price seemed like a really good deal, too good to pass up. Merida is bigger than Mulan and Jasmine, and she has a more mature look too.  I haven't opened her yet, but from what I read she is an 18" doll, although she appears to be thinner than an American Girl.

She has a cute face.  I love her freckles.

Life in the Dreamhouse Barbie

We found this adorable new "Life in the Dreamhouse" Barbie set at Ross for just $14.99. The set includes both Barbie and Midge.  I think the price at Ross for the two pack is closer to what one single doll sells for elsewhere. The Life in the Dreamhouse Barbie dolls are modeled after the new series of "Life in the Dreamhouse" webisodes that you can watch online at barbie.com/dreamhouse. They look different than the average Barbie and Midge dolls, and they have more posability.

The back of the box shows artwork from the Life in the Dreamhouse webisodes.  

These Barbie and Midge dolls are adorable. They both have rooted eyelashes, which I love! I think this version of Midge is especially cute.

Kawaii Crush

Target also had several of the Kawaii Crush tiny dolls on clearance. The sets that were originally $5.99 were clearance priced at $1.78. We got Chilly Millie Yip Yip.

We also got Sunny Bunny Hop Hop.

We found another Kawaii Crush bargain at Ross for just $6.99. Betty Teddy Zoom Zoom is a cute little set that includes a tiny doll, a car, and some other accessories.

Mini Lalaloopsy

Browsing the toy aisle at Wal-Mart, I spotted two of the cutest Mini Lalaloopsy sets I had ever seen.  Both sets included the most adorable kitchen furniture.  I put both sets in my cart and took them to the scanner, thinking they would be a lot.  I was thrilled when both sets scanned for just $5 each.

Berry's Kitchen

Crumbs' Tea Party

I don't know if these sets are old or new, but I know they are new to this Wal-Mart because I've never seen them there before.  The furniture has lots of details like plates shaped like buttons, a safety pin stove handle, spools of thread for the table leg, and chairs shaped like cookies.

Here is a closeup of the table and chairs that comes with Crumbs' Tea Party.  The chair legs are a little fiddly and sometimes fall out.  I will definitely glue them in as soon as I can find out what kind of glue to use.

Here's a closeup of Berry's Kitchen stove and sink.

Here's a picture of everything together that is included in these two sets.

These kitchen sets can be fun to use for other dolls too.  Twinkle wanted to give it a try.

Hallmark Kitchenette

The local Hallmark store has all their Hallmark ornaments on sale for 75% off. I got the Kitchenette for just $3.75.

The oven and cabinet doors open and close.

This would make a perfect size kitchen for mini dolls.  Here it is with Twinkle for size comparison.

Li'l Woodzeez

Li'l Woodzeez are very similar to Calico Critters.  I'm a fan of Calico Critters, but I've never purchased any of the Li'l Woodzeez.  I've only seen Li'l Woodzeez at Target, so I was very surprised to find two Li'l Woodzeez families at Wal-Mart on the clearance aisle for just $4.00 per set.  That comes out to just $1 per animal, which is a good deal for these cute little animals with clothes.  I didn't know Wal-Mart carried Li'l Woodzeez, since I'd never seen them in the store before.  Oddly enough, Li'l Woodzeez are not even available on Walmart.com.

Bushytails Squirrel Family

Waterwaggles Beaver Family

Target carries Li'l Woodzeez both in the store and online at Target.com.  I was also surprised to see that not only does Target.com sell Li'l Woodzeez, but they also have Calico Critters on their website.  Calico Critters are only available online at Target.com though, not in Target stores.

So check your local Wal-Mart's clearance aisle if you're looking for a bargain on a Li'l Woodzeez set.

Dollhouse Shelf

We found this adorable little house shaped display shelf at Target for just $10.99.  It comes with hangers on the back, so the shelf can be mounted directly on a wall.  It would be so simple and cute to set it up as a little dollhouse room diorama.

Here it is with the mini Lalaloopsy sets.  This would also work well for dolls that are just a little larger. It would be so cute to decorate the walls with scrapbook paper to make it look like a decorated little room.

Hair Accessories

We found the cutest doll sized hair accessories at Wal-Mart in the baby clothes department.  These tiny ribbons, bows and clippies were on clearance for $1 per set.  I think they are a bargain even at the regular price of $2.50 per set for some adorable hair accessories, perfectly sized for dolls.  The tiniest ones are the sets on the round cards (these must be designed for the youngest babies).  Some come with one clip of each color per round card, so you may want to get two sets if you want a matching pair.

We had fun trying all these new hair accessories on our dolls.

Kit

Rosalee

Rapunzel

I hope you are finding lots of great bargains where you live.  I'd love to hear about them. Please leave a comment below to tell us about your latest and greatest finds.

Dr. Who and Dolls

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful blessed holiday season! 

I wonder how many Dr. Who fans there are out there in the doll community?  We are Dr. Who fans here and our dollies are too.  I don't have any actual Dr. Who dolls, although I'd like to, but I do have a few Dr. Who related doll accessories.  I though it might be fun to combine them all into a Dr. Who and Dolls post.

Before all the busyness of the holiday season got into full swing, I was having fun sewing and made a few doll t-shirts.  I had some printer iron on transfers left over from another project, so I was able to print out some designs to transform these homemade t-shirts into Dr. Who shirts.

American Girl Kit's shirt sports Hello Kitty as the Doctor wearing a fez with the caption "Hello Doctor".  Kit likes to dress up and pretend to be Rose Tyler (played by Billie Piper), the traveling companion of the 9th Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston and the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant.

I love the quote from 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith, from the episode titled "The Big Bang".  When River Song asks him what he has on his head, he replies "It's a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool."  Here's a clip from that episode.

Hearts For Hearts Girl, Lauryce, likes to pretend that she is River Song, since she says she has hair just like River's.  Her t-shirt has one of River's famous quotes, "Hello Sweetie!"

 

Ellowyne Wilde likes to dress up as Amy Pond (played by Karen Gillan), the 11th Doctor's traveling companion, when she wears her red wig.  There is a picture of the TARDIS on her shirt.  For anyone not so familiar with Dr. Who yet, TARDIS stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space.  The TARDIS is the Doctors time machine and space ship all rolled into one.  It can transport the Doctor and his companions to any point in time and any place in the universe.  It is disguised as a Police Box on the outside and it is "bigger on the inside".

Mini American Girl Felicity also likes to pretend that she is Amy Pond and that the TARDIS takes them into the future and back to the 1700's, which she is from.

Felicity's TARDIS is actually a cookie jar that I found at Books A Million.

 

Another Dr. Who find from Books A Million was this Mini TARDIS building set.  The blocks and mini figures look like Lego, but the brand is actually Character Building.  Here is the box.

 

The girls couldn't wait to get started building their very own TARDIS, and the 11th Doctor and Amy Pond mini figures.  

 Kit loves the Doctor.

Now on to building the TARDIS.  The set has 53 pieces. 

All done and ready to play!

 

This is an adorable mini set and works great as a doll accessory.

The doors really open and close and the mini figures can fit inside.  The Doctor has a mini Sonic Screwdriver that fits in his hand.

With the doors open here, you can see that the TARDIS is "bigger on the inside".  :)

We found another fun bookstore called 2nd & Charles, that is a subsidiary of Books A Million. 

Inside we found a huge life size 3D TARDIS display.  So cute! 

My girls had fun hugging the Doctor and shaking his hand.

 I found a charm bracelet with a little red telephone booth at Claire's.  It reminded me of a TARDIS, so i decided to make a doll necklace with it.  I painted it with blue craft paint and sprayed it with sealer.  This is what the charm looked like before painting.

Here is Ellowyne modeling the new TARDIS necklace.  A true Whovian!

Lastly, Kit is back to show you her "Trust me, I'm the Doctor" pin with David Tennant as the 10th Doctor.  We found the pin at Hot Topic.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing our Dr. Who fan doll accessories.  It is so much fun to find cool doll accessories and props.  I'd love to hear about your finds too.  What do your dolls collect?

Shopping Finds at Our First Doll Show

We went to our first Doll Show last Saturday in New Orleans.  It was so much fun and so exciting to see everything that was there.  We found a lot of really awesome bargains.  My plan was to take lots of pictures at the show so we could share what we saw, but I was so busy trying to see everything I only got a few pictures.  Here is one of the tables where we had an exciting find.

 

If you look on the left side of the table, you'll see an adorable 18" Gotz doll dressed in a black skirt and suit jacket with a pink vest and necktie.  She is wearing gold glasses and has a calculator in one hand and a briefcase in the other hand.  She was very reasonably priced at $45.  She was adorable, but we decided to spend our money on a different doll that we saw at this same table.  We found a little green eyed American Girl that I had always wanted.  Can you guess who she is?

That's right, the lovely Felicity.  She was priced at $75, which I thought was pretty reasonable since she is a retired American Girl.  It was a bit more than I was able to spend though, so I wasn't going to get her.  I had a really great time talking with the nice lady at the booth about all her dolls that she had brought and the many, many more she had at home.  She was trying to pare down her collection, so she offered to sell Felicity to me for $30.  I was thrilled and happily agreed to give her a good home. More pictures of Felicity later in this post, including some before, during and after spa treatments.

There are a lot more bargains to tell you about, but first I wanted to include this picture of Felicity in the cart with my daughter at Sam's Club, where we went after we left the doll show.

 Back at home, here's a group shot of all our doll show finds.

The curio cabinet in the back was just $8.  It is a cherry wood color with a glass door and mirrored back.

I thought it would be perfect for my mini Blythe dolls.  The entire baker's dozen fits nicely in this little curio cabinet, and I think it looks adorable.  I am thrilled with this awesome little home for my mini Blythe dolls, and I can't believe it was just $8.

 At the same table as the curio cabinet, we found this little wicker suitcase basket for just $3.

The tiny jointed porcelain doll in the blue dress was a freebie with the curio cabinet.  I thought it would be perfect as a doll for Felicity.  The two pillows were freebies with the wicker suitcase.

At another booth, we found this adorable American Girl size wicker chair for $5.  It has a lovely wooden bead detail across the back.  It is very well made, and well, I always get excited about finding doll furniture!  :)  There will be more pictures of the chair with Felicity to show the size later in this post too.

At the same booth as the wicker chair, we found a little wooden wagon, also for $5.  The contents of the wagon were all from other booths at the doll show.

We got 5 little mini Madame Alexander McDonalds dolls for $1 each.  They were all still in their packages.  Rapunzel, Peter Pan, Lady Bug Girl, Bride, and Groom.

At the same booth, we found a doll size china pitcher and bowl set also for $1.

It's a very pretty glass set, perfect for American Girl dolls.

Another booth had Kelly dolls still in their boxes, priced at 3 for $5.   My daughter opened the Lemonade Stand Kelly with dark pigtails in the car on the way home.

I've never had a boy version of the Kelly size doll before.  His name is Tommy, and he is a Target exclusive from Halloween 2000.

Tommy is such a cute little cowboy, with short blond hair, freckles, red gingham shirt, tan pants, denim vest, and a tiny red bandanna actually tied around his neck.  He has the most adorable tiny soft plastic cowboy boots.

The Easter Kelly friend is Miranda, according to the back of the box.  She is wearing a white fuzzy bunny costume that covers her hands and feet and a headband with bunny ears.  Over the bunny costume, she has a aqua ballerina dress.

I love her curly red hair and freckles.  I picked her because her face looked so different from other Kelly dolls that I'd seen in the past.

Here's a group shot of Lemonade Stand Kelly, Cowboy Tommy, and Easter Bunny Ballerina Miranda.

I think that's everything that we found at the doll show.  I wanted to tell you about the TLC that Felicity needed this week before I show you how she looks now.  First, she had marker on the back of her neck.  I have no idea what it was that someone wrote on her neck with a purple marker, but it took several days of treatments to remove it.  I applied Oxy 10% Benzoyl Peroxide Acne Treatment and covered it with saran wrap.

I wrapped a towel around her head to cover her hair, applied the treatment, and covered it with saran wrap. 

I left her under a lamp on my craft table for 12 hours.  Then every 12 hours, I would wipe off the treatment and reapply a fresh treatment.  

Here's what it looked like when we got her.

After a couple treatments, the marker was lightened, but it took several days to remove the rest.  This is what it looked like the second day.

After another day...

And finally...

Now that Felicity's neck was looking better, her hair needed some TLC.  It wasn't tangled when we got her, it was just frizzy.  Here is what it looked like when we got her...

Spraying with braid spray, and brushing through with a wire wig brush helped a lot, but it was still pretty frizzy.

 
We decided to try a Downy dunk.  We soaked her hair in a bowl of full strength Downy Fabric Softener for a full 24 hours.  It is not silky like new doll hair, but it is a lot softer and a lot less frizzy now.  Here is the final result.

The front...

Felicity is marked Pleasant Company on her neck and the tag on her dress says 1993 Pleasant Company.

Felicity with her own doll from the doll show.

Felicity likes pulling all the tiny dolls from the doll show around in the wagon.

It's like a hayride.

Here she is enjoying her wicker chair from the doll show.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our first doll show!

Have a wonderful weekend!