Meet Architectural Historian Barbie!

A new colleague arrived for her first day in the office today and has been assigned the desk next to me. Having been there a couple of hours, she said to me, "I can't help but notice you have a Barbie on your desk".

"Oh, that's Architect Barbie," I responded, and passed her over.

This made me realise that I never got around to introducing her to my readers. So, without further ado, meet Architect Barbie!

Isn't she amazing! She has a hard hat and drawing roll with blueprints. And awesome glasses. I'm not sure how well her high-heeled boots and skirt would go down on a work site though...

I read about her in the architectural press ages ago, when she was released. When I graduated from my Building Conservation course last year, my mum and I thought this would be a highly appropriate gift. I took her into work to show her off and my workmates insisted she stayed. So now she lives at my desk.

We did discuss how we might transform her into Architectural Historian Barbie with a few additional props and some wee changes to her outfit, but haven't got very far yet. She has a mini version of English Heritage's "Conservation Principles" now but she definitely needs more work. I want to get her some tweed, that's for sure. All architectural historians should own some tweed. And we thought we could age some of her drawings to look like they've come out of archives. Rip them up a bit, take them for a dip in some tea to yellow them up. (Did you ever used to do that as a kid? I used to burn the edges to make pirate maps...)

I would ask for your suggestions on how to make her look like more of historian but I think it's a bit of a niche corner of geekery! Well, if she does gain some tweed or a crumbling ruin to reside in, I will keep you posted anyway.

Do you have any quirky things you keep at your desk or workplace? After five years, my desk is littered with bits and bobs. I could almost devote a post to it...

New Year's Barbie Doll

Now, unlike many of my readers, I don't ever tend to shop for clothes online. I think I can recall only one time that I bought an item of clothing online, and that was because I was desperately looking for a green dress suit for my Birds costume last year and I thought my chances of finding something so particular in the real world was very, very slim.

However, I am on the Beyond Retro emailing list and I generally tend to have a quick, idle browse of their online shop whenever an email comes in. You never know. Today, I came across this amazing item:

1960s peachy pink dress at Beyond Retro

Oh. My. Goodness. It's literally like something Barbie would wear. Something classic Barbie would wear. At first I had in my head the chiffon and sparkles of Day-to-Night Barbie's evening outfit:

Day-to-Night Barbie (Image source)

But then, in looking for images of Day-to-Night Barbie, I came across pictures of Peaches 'n' Cream Barbie, another one from my personal childhood collection. With her peachy, fluffy stole, you just need to change her ballgown-length skirt to a mini and that dress is her outfit:

Peaches 'n' Cream Barbie (Image source)

I can't deny that the dress had me very, very tempted... Especially with New Year's Eve but days away. However, even if I'd ordered it today, it wouldn't have made it in time for that. Besides, I think it might be a tad too small for me. And it's not my colour at all...

Still, the temptation of being able to transform into one of my childhood Barbies by slipping on this dress leaves me unable to put it completely from my mind. I'm still toying with the idea of ordering it up, trying it on, and taking advantage of the returns policy if it ends up being completely wrong. Naturally, the Cat thinks I'm completely mad. 'Why would you want to be dressed like Barbie?', he asks. Pfft, what do boys know?

Anyway, let's just pretend for a moment that I do have that dress, it fits perfectly, and I have lots of spare cash to turn it into a complete Barbie doll New Year's Eve outfit:

Diamond necklace by Harry Winston, found here;
Jimmy Choo clutch and peep-toe shoes, found here and here

Perfect! There's my dream New Year's outfit sorted.

Now I just have to think about what I'm actually going to wear in reality... But really, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. It's not like I needed that dress because I was short on items or anything. In fact, I have an overabundance of party-appropriate dresses in my wardrobe vying for a night out on the town.