Alien Tea Shoppe

Oh!  This Buzzfeed article that came across my feed this morning is so full of happy!   35 Awesome Toys Every 80s Girl Wanted For Christmas . The childhood my sister and I lived was actually pretty awesome in some ways, one of those ways was toys.  We had one insanely wealthy grandmother and another who was insanely good at purchasing super awesome toys.  So, while there were really bad things and troubling times and all that, one consolation is that we did have awesome toys... and quite a few of them! Girl Talk Date Line board game I had a somewhat mild interest in wanting this game.  The game I really wanted for some reason was Mall Madness. Fashion Plates We had those exact fashion plates.  They were a gift from the second grandmother to my sister... so once the newness had worn off I was allowed to play with them as well.  We loved those fashion plates. Barbie and The Rockers The first grandmother sometimes would buy us a ...

So, in an earlier blog post I talked about my father being a jeweler; and more specifically that he implemented the system of bartering to obtain things we needed like dental visits.  But his bartering also extended to my sister and I having a trousseau, or dowry.  A trousseau is something every bride brought to the marriage in numerous countries.  The wealthier you were, the wealtheir your trousseau.  It contained your wedding dress, as well as things for setting up your new home; blankets, crystal stemware, china, sterling silver pieces, jewelry.  It might also contain various types of livestock, money, servants, art works. While technically it was in order for the bride to have her own things, trousseau's were ultimately incorporated into the man's wealth and more times than not, never belonging to the bride to begin with. It is an odd thing to think about.  Today a trousseau is generally not something a bride has, nor ...