Not Tiny Tuesday

I don't have this week's Tiny Tuesday post ready. My birthday was last Tuesday and I was planning to use one of my presents as this week's Tiny Tuesday. Except I can only really take photos on Thursdays (unless I want all of my pictures to include a screaming two year old trying to steal the dolls) and my present didn't actually arrive until Friday. On the upside next Tuesday should be a big one!

Meanwhile over the last week I have had a horrible can't think, sinuses exploding, coughing until I throw up cold, on top of that a bird flew into my head, the baby threw my birthday cake on the floor, the dog broke my favourite coffee cup and when I went to Big W (like Target or Kmart) thinking I would cheer myself up by spending the gift card I'd gotten for my birthday on a doll - their range was so depressing that I came away empty handed and nearly in tears.

The range of toys available in Australia is never as big as anywhere else. A lot of stuff that's available in Europe never makes it's way here and the American companies tend to only send us their most popular lines. As a child I would always ask my Dad to get me whichever Barbie in each range came with brown hair but up until about 2000 the only ones that were ever sold here were the blonde ones. (With the exception of Barbie and the Rockers in about 1986 and the California Barbie range from about 1988.)

But at the moment the doll selection at our local shop is particularly uninspired. Two feet of Barbies (Barbies that look like 40 year old women that don't know how to have fun), one foot of Monster High (mostly the new ones with blank faces and painted on clothes), roughly half a dozen Ever After High dolls (four new ones with painted on clothes, a Way too Wonderland playset and one single Pied Piper's daughter), three of the Project Mc dolls (I want to like these but I don't), big Lalaloopsies (there were 3 there but they're all the same doll), a few Shibajuku girls, My Little Ponies (give them freaky human bodies if you like but they're still not dolls) and twelveteen million Disney Princesses. They also had fifty gazillion Shopkins but somehow the one Happy Places set I still need wasn't there.

I had thought of buying one of the mini Disney princess dolls. The ones like Polly Pocket or a small Shopkins doll, with the rubbery vinyl clothes. But the current range all have dresses that look like they've been carved from an eraser with a butter knife. Ugh.

I also thought about buying one of each of the new body types in the Barbie Fashionista range. They're only ten dollars each and I'm curious about them. But they're clothes were ugly and none of the ones in stock looked fun at all. They all looked like they made flat lay photographs of organic, colourless clothes with minimalist, wite porcelain ornaments and chunky, birchwood sculptures on an oatmeal background with a sprig of sage for colour. I didn't want to take one home because if it ever came to life it would bore me to death talking about gluten free paleo muffins. I'm not tempting fate like that.

At the end of the day, Australia needs more dolls!

On the upside, I've always had trouble dislaying tiny things. If you just put them on a shelf, they get lost and look messy.

Worst photograph ever!

 For a while I've been using Twosies shadowboxes for display. But I don't have enough of these to display everything and to get enough, I would have to buy a lot more Twosies and I don't really want to. Then I found some bamboo cutlery trays at Kmart for twelve dollars which I think will make an excellent shelf for tiny things!

Better photograph but I had to stand on the couch (and fell off twice) to take it!

 Now if only I could get the time to dig out my box of tiny things and put them on the tiny shelf. . .