In Search of Rosie

*20SM would like to point out she has not lost her marbles before you read this post. 

She never had them in the first place!

I was burgled in 2005. It was during a period of time before I officially moved in with Ed the Elder, and so still had my own little flat just down the road from his in Kent. I used to call it the skanky flat cos it was so small, it was damp, and it basically had all the furniture in it that Ed didn't want in his home. The only thing I liked about it was it was beside the riverside country park so it had nice views from one window only. Oh and my big over stuffed armchair wasn't bad either. 

Apart from one night a week, I had all my day to day clothes and stuff at the other flat. It was just storage until I moved in properly.

When I first moved in (I had the place for about 5 years), the area was nice. It was mainly for old people and families. Slowly though, more and more people were moved in from the other crappy areas  with their ASBOs and the whole area turned into am extension of Beirut. Literally gangs of kids would steal cars from people's driveways and push them across a busy road, onto the field opposite my flat, and into the basketball pitch which was full of burnt out cars and junk. Lovely. 

Hence why I wanted to live at Ed's nice flat!

So, just before I gave up the tenancy, I went over to collect some post, and found that I'd been burgled. 

Such was the horribleness of the neighbourhood and the downstairs neighbour that they'd forced open one of the windows at the front of the house to get in. I was on the first floor, quite a distance up so they must have used a ladder. Yet no one saw anything enough to call the Police.

I knew something was wrong when I got outside, as the front window was wide open and the curtains were flapping in the breeze.

Well, they'd got in and made a right mess, cushions everywhere, make up and bath stuff all over the place, you can imagine it wasn't nice.

They'd not bothered nicking my TV, as it was older than me, in fact they must have been really pissed off! They had nicked my entire CD collection though, and there were loads, my purple Dyson hoover (so how no one noticed that going out!) and  a denim furry coat thing (so they had no taste whatsoever).

Weirdest thing they nicked though?

Rosie.

Rosie was a doll I had had since I was tiny. I don't recall who bought it for me, but she was always there in my room growing up.

It was one of the few things I brought with me when I left home, and I had kept her as I had wanted to pass it on to my child.

It was a soft plastic doll, with no box, no clothes, nothing. She looked just like this:

So I was quite upset when I realised she'd gone.

Cut to now, and I've been looking for dolls online, for Blythe dolls so I can punk them up a bit, and I saw Rosie! Or a doll very much the same. Its a Kewpie doll, they go or about a tenner, which surprised me no end. 

So now I have gone in search of Rosie, much loved dolly from my childhood, and can now happily replace her. 

God bless the power of the 'net!

The Dolls House Project...

I decided, in my infinite wisdom, that it would be a really nice idea to get a Dolls House for Chrissy. She's over the age of two now, and is rapidly growing out of toys that she loved five minutes ago (although luckily, that's just as Littlest Edward is starting to love them instead). She loves dressing up in my (or her Dads weirdly enough) shoes, and constantly nicks my handbags, so much so that I've had to remove all the straps to avoid accidents.


I looked them up on EBay, but was frankly shocked how much they cost. Even chipboard ones like my old one are upwards of a hundred pounds. And I'm not being cheap, but Chrissy is to a dolls house what a tornado is to a real house. I estimate that within five minutes something will have made her frustrated and she'll break it in anger, hey thats two year olds for you.


So you can just imagine my happiness when I spotted one offered on my local Freecycle.


It said that it needed a bit of a paint inside, but was two storeys and wooden. Yay!



So off I went in a taxi (as we still have no car) to get this masterpiece (I imagined it would look something like this)


I was soon to find that maybe masterpiece was a bit kind......


When I got it back, Mr D took one sceptical look and with a "hmm"suggested we throw it in the bin.


Indeed it was two storeys, wooden and requiring a paint. However she did not mention that it was falling to bits (in fact it looked quite like my daughter had got hold of it already).

Me being sentimental, as it looked near on exactly the same as my old beloved dolls house, and as I didn't want to throw the poor thing away, I spent a large proportion of yesterday salvaging bits of the thing.


Firstly, there is two different types of brick paper on it. But no problems, I will strip it off, and paint it white.

"Hmmm" said Mr D again, at the site of me with a hammer and screwdriver, in an even more sceptical manner. "Make me a cup of tea and I'll help".

So I did, and even got him some Jaffa Cakes. Then he sodded off.


I decided it was a better idea to take it apart and start from scratch. I didn't realise one dolls house could contain so many screws, nails and so much glue, which I now have to sand before I can place new wallpaper on it. (perfectionist? Moi?)


I have now decided (after 3 hours of hard graft) that instead of painting it white outside, I'm going to use good old Google images, search for brick walls and hey presto, printer at the ready, stick some new brickwork on, for free.
Also that way I can cheat and not have to fill all the millions of holes left after I removed the aforementioned screws and nails. (See I told you I wasn't a perfectionist).

Leaving me more cash to spend on furniture. Hoorray! Any excuse for vast quantities of EBay related perusal once the kids are in bed.

Wish me luck!