little selfcare things

 I did take a little time this afternoon and made a quick run to Michael's and to the Target. I needed some groceries, and in this heat I've been leaning heavily on fruit and also on frozen things that can quickly be heated up, and Target has a pretty good supply of both. (I was able to find Ranier cherries, which don't commonly show up in the groceries in my town). And I got some potstickers (read the label carefully, nothing I am sensitive to) and a few other staple-type things I need.

And I also needed a new pair of lightweight summer pajamas - I have a set or two but one of them is very nearly worn out, and I thought, well, Target sometimes has cute pajamas. 

Nothing in the more-classic section - there were some sort of Hawaiian print things but I didn't like the shorts with them (very short, and being made of woven fabric, if they don't fit JUST right, they're very uncomfortable as pajamas). So I looked around a bit more, and in the  "trendy" stuff saw some t-shirts and knit shorts. I was almost ready to go with a plain color short and a Care Bears shirt when I saw this

Yeah, the first bit of Bluey merch I've bought. But they're also knit fabric (more comfortable for pajamas) and the shorts (with simple outline Blueys all scattered over) are VERY cute. 

So that's one sort of self care thing; it does kind of delight me to have them, and it's nice to have another good set of lightweight pajamas so you're not scrambling when the ones you were using have to go into the wash.

At the Michael's, I had got myself a previous treat (these kits are kind of expensive, but I had a coupon that took like 20% off)

Yeah, I didn't learn my lesson with that tricky Wednesday Addams kit - this is a VERY similar design (except here, Dolly has her, ah, most PROMINENT features) and I expect it'll be fiddly to do (I might go up a hook size; I know I struggled with the D or E sized hook that was in the Wednesday kit). But the doll is cute and the kind of nice little mascot that's fun to tuck onto a bookshelf. 

And speaking of dolls - one of the doll blogs I read from time to time quoted another blog: "dolls are for that moment when you look over at one and their beautiful little face brings you such joy that everything feels alright"

and yeah. Yeah. That's why I keep a few of them around. Sometimes looking at them, or posing them, or changing their clothes, makes you feel all right for at least a few minutes*

and this is a doll I bought a while back, she's from Disney Store (mail ordered): Maribel Madrigal, my favorite character in Encanto, which is a movie I actually REALLY LIKE. (I know some folks kind of panned it, though I wonder if the stuff that came out "streaming first" during the pandemic took a little popularity hit. Or, if in some cases, there's a weird reflexive dislike some people have of Lin-Manuel Miranda, which sometimes feels to me like the old hipster "ooh, NORMIE people like him") But anyway: it's an interesting story with interesting characters, and the whole deeper themes of gifts and what's expected of you and what happens if you can't "live up" to your gift and also family issues like some stern older relative expecting a lot of you....Anyway, I liked it a lot.

And so, here's Maribel. 

 She's articulated - not just at the shoulders and hips (dolls in this size class - roughly fashion doll size) had that kind of articulation when I was a kid, but sometimes nothing more. So they could kind of sit, in a very splay-legged way sometimes, but not sit PROPER, with knees bent. (A few of them, yeah, had those rubber legs with the click-clack knees inside that sometimes broke and stopped bending). And almost none of them had arm articulation

One thing that I feel like is a big advance in smaller dolls now is lots of articulation. Maribel isn't even as highly articulated as some, but her knees bend (hinge joints) and she can bend her elbows and wrists (so, for example, she can hold the accordion that came as one of her accessories - the others are a candle like the one in the movie, and the little stuffed-toy jaguar, and a toucan, and a capybara, and she also has a cape that "matches" her top and can go over it, I presume for colder weather?)

And I like that. I approve of dolls being able to sit properly or to hold things. And she's a very cute doll - she's chunkier than the typical fashion doll (I'm not going to be weird and take a picture of her with her skirt lifted, but the shape of her legs is more similar to my own shape than your typical Barbie) and she just feels sturdy, which is nice. And she has a cute face. Right now she's sitting on my piano; at some point I'm going to have to go through and readjust where things are so there's less clutter (I need to put up at least a few shelves somewhere for some of my collections)

(*Another thing about "stuff that makes you feel all right" - I think that's also why I keep stuffed animals on my bed; often at night I'll reach out and grab one and push it against my chest; it makes me feel less ALONE somehow, even if I know it's really just basically a differently-shaped pillow; somehow things having a face makes them more relatable and seem more "for real life."