FINE ART FRIDAY
“And if she says no, I WILL NOT LISTEN!”
says my youngest daughter to me about playing Barbies with my oldest daughter.
ICYMI — I have 4 kids, two girls, two boys. It’s busy around here, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Watching them brings back memories of playing Barbies when I was a little girl.
Now, to be clear, they have informed me that I in fact do not know how to play Barbie’s correctly, so they don’t let me play with them.
Apparently I don’t follow the rules…
Are there rules to Barbies I was unaware of? If so, please do tell.
I do enjoy watching them and joining in occasionally when they let me.
And watching them reminded me of playing Barbies with my twin sister years ago.
Which is a funny story.
We played The Bachelor: Barbie Edition LONG before The Bachelor existed.
Why, you may ask?
A few reasons.
We only had 1 (maybe 2) boy Barbies. If we’re being honest, we probably only had one that we really liked.
BUT WE HAD 2539420934 girl Barbies.
And we had EVEN MORE outfits for dressing up our Barbies which was our favorite pasttime whether we used the outfits we had or made our own out of toilet paper, paper towels, or random scraps of fabric and ribbon. Ingenuity at its finest.
Well, we LOVED getting our girl barbies all dressed up and as little girls raised in a Disney era, we were focused on getting married to our prince charming. But as 6 year olds? That wasn’t happening anytime soon, but our BARBIES could definitely get married.
And so began THE CHOOSING.
That is literally what we called this game.
THE CHOOSING.
Ken would go on dates with one or multiple of the dressed up Barbies (seriously, did ABC steal my childhood game and call it reality TV? I should've copyrighted that.)
And every so often, Ken would CHOOSE who could continue on in THE CHOOSING.
I am not even kidding about this.
The similarities to The Bachelor are making me LOL because how in the world did two little girls from OKLAHOMA come up with this idea that later became a MUST WATCH reality TV show?
Raise your hand if you watched Trista and Ryan? (Please respond and tell me I’m not the only one who watched for years, and yes, I know, Trista and Ryan is not the Bachelor, but it IS the spinoff of the Bachelorette, which we couldn’t play because we only had one good looking Ken.)
So what on earth possessed me to tell you this semi-embarassing amazing story about how my sister and I played Barbies as kids?
Because this upcoming collection I created is launching April 2 with The Scouted Studio, and it's all for little Courtney.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BTS of my UPCOMING COLLECTION with THE SCOUTED STUDIO
ART TIP
FLOWER GIRLS
COMING APRIL 2 TO THE SCOUTED STUDIO
“How does this thing work?”
Referring to my sewing machine, I’d asked my mom. Since she didn’t know, she called in reinforcements — my grandmother taught me to sew using my sewing machine.
I remember sitting at the table, unsure and a little worried I’d sew my finger to the fabric, but excited to learn.
Because of this lesson, I spent ages sketching what I wanted to create. I spent years perfecting and making and learning. I sewed my own clothing. I sewed baby clothes. I sewed my girls dresses. I never quite got around to being a famous fashion designer, but I have gotten to use this gift to serve my family.
It’s those little girl sketches (much like my now 8 year old daughter does in her own) that inspired this collection.
This collection is for little Courtney.
The little girl who wanted to be a fashion designer.
Who taped together a dress for her second grade teacher.
Who had notebooks and notebooks and notebooks and MORE random papers and napkins full of dress drawings (specifically wedding dresses). Who doodled all over the page to make it look pretty.
This collection came from years of thinking and practicing, and small moments of just doing. Of split second decisions, of not overthinking. Of sweet memories, and little girl things like loving flowers and bows and colorful dresses. Things I still love.
I hope you love it as much as I do, First name / friend. 💕
SO GLAD YOU'RE HERE!
xoxo
xo, courtney
PS – Did you play Barbies as a kid?! Hit reply and tell me why or why not. I read and respond to every email.
DOG-EARED BY COURTNEY KIBBY
GET MOM WHAT SHE REALLY WANTS…
HOW I WOULD PLAN MY WEDDING AGAIN (PART II)
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