Big Hero 6 - Barbie to Honey Lemon

My four year old daughter loves superheroes, and she loves pink and purple.

Quick quiz: Name one superhero that wears pink and purple...

I can think of only one, and my daughter loves her; Honey Lemon, from Big Hero Six.  She is smart, clever, fast, and wears pink and purple ( when she isn't in her yellow lab coat.)

Now, the holidays are coming up, and, like most parents, I'm looking for a few presents I know she will love.  I search Amazon.  No Single honey lemon on sale for less than $50.  I search the internet - No single Honey Lemon doll that is affordable.  Sure, I can get one on ebay for $300!!  Seriously?

So, I do what any mom with lots of extra paint laying around and Barbies that lay naked and lonely at the bottom of a toy box does.  I made my own.

I started with a sad lonely Barbie:

I've seen other blog posts using other kinds of dolls, most of them have a healthier figure size - but I'm working with what I've got.

First thing I did was take acetone I normally remove nail polish with, and, with a soaked Q-tip, rubbed her face away.  Honestly I shouldn't have gotten as much pleasure from it, but I did.  If you do this, make sure you are in a well ventilated room.

Now, I couldn't just paint her because she is wearing a  micro skirt  ( which in the movie flows despite the true lack of material used) and armor. (Though her leotard like thin midriff is fully exposed)  So, I dug through my huge box of material I meant to do something with one day and never did, and found a good square of stiff interfacing.  Not sure what it was meant for, but it will become a skirt and armor.

I started painting her arms and legs.

NOTE - If you decide to do this, I suggest thin coats of acrylic paint. I used what I had ( which was a combination of Basic Acrylics, Apple Barrel, and Bella Acrylics.  Aside from the Basics, the other two are pretty cheap.  Paint three to four thin coats in smooth long strokes in one direction.  I cheated and used my hair dryer between coats.

Then, I added her clothes.  I tried crazy glue for interfacing to Barbie.  It was a sticky (read sealing fingers together and forming a fingerprint free layer ) mess.  Then I used Tacky Glue which worked a lot better.

Since I've never draped a real person, let alone a doll, I had lots of toss away "oops" pieces.  I figured my 4 year old wouldn't mind the folds. I added a belt with covered the upper seams and actually pulled it all together,







Once she was mostly dry, I watered down some paint and painted her clothes with 4 coats and a little on her body.  The interfacing soaked up the paint, which is why I wanted watered down color at first.  I painted the inside of the skirt with leg color since it was in shadow anyway.  Once again I dried it with the hair dryer,

Since I didn't hold her legs apart, the paint stuck together a bit - I just touched it up in the end.

Now it was time for mixing top coats.  I catered to my daughters color needs but still tried to stay close to Honey Lemon's color scheme. Once she was mostly dry, I used the armor color with a bit of extra white and stippled the top to add a look of texture.

By this time, the secret was out, she was seen.  The doll was seen by my daughter, and just like driving a long distance; "Are you done yet? Are you done yet? Are you done yet?? "  Mind you it was only about 2 total hours to this point, but I was tired...it was bedtime.

The next morning required only another hour or so.  She got some stitching details, some shading, some seams, and .... a face.  I suppose if I had the right tools; thinner brushes, patience, and a magnifying glass etc, it would have come out better.  I reminded myself over and over that my daughter is 4. FOUR, and she won't notice.

 I even made a sad excuse of a helmet out of FIMO.   I took some Saran Wrap around her head, used my dried out FIMO the best I could then baked it at 230 for 20 minutes.  It's passable - Barely.

For her bag, I used a clipping from an old plastic bead curtain. Fit it so it would fit from under her arm and over her head.  I tied it, attempted the crazy glue again, then used spray paint primer on the plastic.  Once mostly dry I used the acrylics again.

As a top coat, instead of painting, I used spray clear sealer, 2 coats- likely not the best choice, but I was ready to be done.  I added a little personal touch, and her bag can double as a bracelet.

And the best part?

She loves it.

Please don't mind the marker arms.  At least the decorations on her face washed off - mostly.

The Plight of the Upper Lower Class

I'm not one for labels, though, I'd be lying if I told you I didn't read them whilst in the grocery store.  What is on sale this week that doesn't also contain high fructose corn syrup?  Cheap popcorn!  Oh wait... it's GMO.

I flip through the weekly flyers, but don't obsess with a coupon folder ( anymore.)

I wait until payday, and hope the milk not treated with growth hormones is still on sale - if not, I only buy 2 instead of 3 - certainly can't go without milk. 

When I check out at the cashier and hand her a few roughly ripped coupons, I hope I did alright.  Slyly I leave the Oreo's in the stack of baskets under the conveyor along with the cute travel mug, bag of chocolate bars, the second box of cheese-its, and few miscellaneous things the kids tossed in while I wasn't looking - or, that I tossed in spur of the moment.

The nice old couple behind me, surely with only good intentions, points out my discarded items bring them to my kids's attention - I suppose the battle over the Oreos is really not one I feel like fighting; I get the Oreos.

The total: I'm sure we have it in our account.  I check to be sure. There are few things more embarrassing then a rejected card.  We just paid a month of day-care for two kids, the rent, life insurance, car insurance, health insurance, the phone bill, the power bill, the cable bill, the water bill, the trash bill, a month of Netflix, filled the car with gas, and of course two student loan payments.  It's what everyone pays, right?

Here's where I bring class back into it. 

My husband has an amazing and stressful, yet fulfilling career as a University Professor, and I work two part time jobs and teach one University class.  I'm overeducated and underemployed. 

Surely due to bad money management, thousands of dollars in unexpected medical expenses, and another family move, we're almost breaking even at the end of each month - putting off larger bills and paying them off bit by bit.

We make too much money for any assistance, and not enough money to get ahead. 

We're stuck.

And so are thousands of other working families.

Daycare costs a good deal more than our rent.  Basically, I work to pay daycare costs.  I tried staying home, but I suck at being a stay at home mom.  There is no assistance for families like ours - and really, we're not asking for any help, but it would be nice to get a break every once in a while.

I call this the plight of the Upper lower class.

We give to those who have less than we do, and respect what we do have.  We are a loving family, but fight about a stupid cup of fancy coffee, or a meal out towards the end of the month. 

We're planning a family vacation and cant seem to agree on how to bring it to fruition.  Hourly workers don't get sick leave.  Hourly workers don't get vacation time.  Hourly workers don't get paid when they have to stay home when the kids are sick.

How do we fix it?

Can we pare down our expenses anymore?

Can we get a home loan with very little if any cash down, so our mortgage would be less then the rent we pay? Hell no, no one will loan to us.

Babysitters charge more than I make per hour, but I stay because my boss is flexible, lets me work when I can, and take time off without giving me too hard a time.

We need a second car to allow more freedom to take  more work and allow children transport, but I drive a motorcycle and get 70 mpg and pay $11/ month in insurance.  It's also paid off.  The one car we have gets dozens of miles a day getting everyone where they need to.  We do what we need to do.

What's the solution?  Pay teachers more? Sure.  Have daycare subsidized by the government? It's a dream.  Allow low rate loans for families with good intentions and big dreams?  Unlikely.

We're not alone, and we will all continue to do our best.  We will continue to give back to the community when we can. We will be the best friends and parents we can be, and try not to fight about money too often.

I'm sitting on my couch watching my kids pretend to take a vacation - their school is closed today due to "staff training"; we still paid for the entire week.  I love their imagination, they are arguing what they can take in their carry-on purses, and it seems everything has to be orange.  Not sure why.

Perhaps they know something I don't.  When you're a kid, you have everything you could ever want, ever need, or ever hope for.  There is a song for everything.  A piece of clay has infinite possibilities and a piece of paper an emotional expression.

I envy their existence, and strive to emulate it. 

If only the Barbie credit card were real, The Hi-Ho Cherries were cash, that Matchbox Minivan was fueled and outside, the Lego Jet was at our disposal, and that Little People's 5 bedroom house were ours.

"Stop jumping on the beds!  I know the floor is shark infested lava, but you don't have to jump to avoid it!"

Gotta go...