Current Favorite Fidgets // 90's Throw Back

 Last Christmas (the Christmas we all got the flu and felt like death warmed over) my mom brought me all of my Barbie clothes from my childhood.  In that box was a little teeny tiny doll with long, long hair.  Pretty sure she was my sister's, but I immediately grabbed it for my newly established trinket collection at work.

Quickly that little thing became my favorite fidget...meet the Fabulous Hair Freinds!

These little gals interlock their arms in each other's back packs and become the perfect little hair play toy...or if you're a newly diagnosed ADHD adult suddenly realizing that twirling your hair was always soothing, they are the perfect little fidget toy for your life.

I play with the one I have at work SO MUCH that the hair plug popped out and I had to super glue it back in.  I instantly took to eBay to see if I could find more (because I'm scared I'll lose the only one I currently have!) and ordered 3 of these NIB! I've only opened one pack so far...gotta save some of that dopamine for later.

I love the little hair style ideas and 100% want to clip a set of these gals on my badge at work lol.  I already have a crap ton of doo-dads on there including a giga pet and some hit clips.

My grand idea is having these in various places to fidget with but I don't know how I'd keep their hair from tangling!

If you need me, I'll be twirling their hair....ttyl!

Day in the Life // Clarissa Jade

 A day in the life of Clarissa Jade:

In the fictional town of Brookside, Clarissa is a vet tech/pet rescue volunteer who also picks up shifts at Paws Coffee (see the start of Paws Coffee in this post!)

Today she is running an adoption event so she stopped by the pet store (after grabbing an iced coffee) to pick up some necessities for the day....and some not-so-necessities for her own cat.

She drives a Chevy Spark (one of the only dolls in Brookside to canonically have a car).  After the pet store she heads over to the rescue to load up supplies for the adoption event.

The adoption event is local to Brookside so she stops to shop at the market where she meets a new friend.  No one is ever sure if she's the one seeking out animals or if they are seeking out her....

After the market and her second iced coffee of the day she grabs her one-eyed cat for a nice relaxing evening drive.  She just wanted to listen to music and leave the day behind.  It was a lot of work running the event, so many adoptions happened!

Clarissa Jade is loosely based on my sister who once fostered a cat (it had both eyes though) and drives a yellow Chevy Spark.  Clarissa, like my sister, is kind and caring, has no problem organizing things, regrets saying yes and still pulls it off anyway. Clarissa, unlike my sister, drinks 2-3 coffees a day and still falls asleep as soon as she's in the bed. Clarissa's doll profile is here.

(disclosure: images are AI generated)

What I Made for my American Girl Doll Coffee Shop!

I made a Library for my 18 inch dolls back in July/August & even decorated it for back to school!  Now that its September I had the idea to bring Paw's Coffee (the coffee shop in my fictional doll town - Brookside - that helps support the pet rescue next door!) to life! Talia and Clarissa work there...if you wanted to know.  You can find Clarissa on my Doll Collection Page here.

I used a thrifted desk organizer (I think it was a desk organizer) to make the shelf, some packing paper for the coffee bags, and craft foam, craft foam stickers, and some paint to make the cookies.  I am SO PROUD of the cookies!

I thrifted some craft foam - I've been trying to thrift a lot of my craft supplies honestly - and used some paint to make it 'cookie colored'.  I also heated up the foam with my heat gun and used a stiff bristled brush to make it 'cookie textured'.  The frosting on the cookies is fun foam stickers from the seasonal craft stash.  I used some leftover plastic packaging + some tape to make the little baggies the stapled some packing paper to make a little tag.

The coffee bags are made from recycled packing paper (because I always save it!) with a trimmed popsicle stick on the bottom and some pebbles inside.  I made the labels using chatGPT and printed them on sticker paper.  Washi tape keeps the bags closed!

A bit ago I made some candles with some recycled plastic packaging, washi tape, and tissue paper.  I had some flameless candles left over from ...something.  So, perfect for a craft! This little table I found at the thrift for like .49 cents...there's just ONE thrift store around me that STILL HAS prices like .49 cents!  I think someone made it from Jenga pieces....its pretty neat!

I need to make some cups and other coffee shop things and hope to get the coffee shop set up for fall/Halloween!  I bought some little solo cups from the Dollar Tree that are doll sized and I'm going to cover them with paper (I think) to make to go coffee cups!

If I make anything more I'll be sure to share!