Tuesday Treasures

Sorry it's been a while since I've done one  these. I've had a lot of other things on my mind but I'm trying super hard to get back to a weekly Treasure post.

Another item from my childhood that I consider a treasure because they brought me so much joy are The Sunshine Family Dolls. I actually started a blog about them because I love them so much. Here's the link if you are interested. It's all about the history of the dolls and photos of my massive collection. http://ilovethesunshinefamily.blogspot.com/

I really hate showing photos of myself as a kid and NEVER do, cause my mom cut my hair super short and wouldn't let me grow it, so I always looked like I had a brown bush on my head and was constantly being mistaken for a boy! O.k. mother/daughter drama rant over (yes there are STILL unresolved issues there!)

Here I am on Christmas 1974 (pretend you don't know how old I am) and am holding my Sunshine Family dolls that I just unwrapped. (Wow look at that shag carpet and the Simon and Garfunkel album in the background, lol)

I adore these dolls because you could make furniture and accessories for them. They were a different kind of doll. The original DIY doll. The Sunshine Family consisted of Steve, Stephie and baby Sweets. They came with a little booklet that showed how to make a bed from a tissue box and a crib from a plastic berry basket, etc. Making useful things from readily available household items? I was so into that! I had the best time with just the dolls that later on my mom got me the house that came with furniture for them.

One of the best things about these dolls were that there were Grandparent dolls, which I had and also that they came in an African-American version too, called The Happy Family. I also had them and the Grandparents for that version.

One of my favorite things I had for the Sunshine Family was the portable Craft shop on the back of the Family's Pickup truck. You could make crafts for the Family to sell. You know this is probably why I'm so into handemade things today!

Another reason these dolls were so special to me was that I was the only one of all my friends to have them and everyone wanted to go to my apartment to play with them. I became quite popular, lol!

Unfortunately I don't have my original dolls, my mom did a doll giveaway and just took them all. (more issues there) But as an adult I found some at a yard sale and discovered that people were starting to collect them so I now have more than I ever did before and they STILL make me so HAPPY!

Did any of you have these dolls too?