My favorite Agnes Von Weiss...

Through the  W Club's most recent lottery, I had won one of the new ITBE basics- Morning Dove. I actually liked the doll, but really wanted her shoes and dress more than her. That lovely grey brocade with the shoes is just stunning. 
The new backdrop has been getting alot of attention since I started working on new gowns for the dolls. It seems lately like all that has been arriving in the mail is---dolls! One or two days I received two in one day! I also purchased the Barbie wardrobe when theyhad free shipping plus my coupon- this is still unboxed. My birthday is on Thursday, so I just might have a de-box day. 

My favorite Agnes is believe it or not, one I did not buy. I have three Agnes Von Weiss dolls and I love them all. The one that is my favorite I won by a great stroke of luck after first becoming a member in 2007? I think. I fell in love with Fashion Royalty dolls when I first saw someone bring them to the fashion doll club -I had just joined. I had never seen dolls that looked like this with such detailing...I was just getting into collectible Barbie ! The W club hosts monthly contests where they give away a doll after they randomly pick one of the postings in that contest thread. I think it was- where do you think the FR convention should be held and why? I still remember opening my email and seeing the unexpected email that I had won! At that time, I did not know all the characters and was still learning about how to order the dolls, etc. What I won was a convention doll - Agnes Von Weiss in Concerto M. She was the diva that took over my collection and still 'owns' the dollhouse, so to speak. It is only fair she snagged Morning Dove's fashion!

She is still such a beauty, with that lovely red hair and green eyes and her beauty mark in the perfect place, sigh. I am having to watch how I pose her because her body is becoming a little loose with age, no yellowing like I have heard of. She usually reigns supreme in the dollhouse so I keep her away from strong sunlight in the doll room in the dollhouse. I have always thought she would make a wonderful 'young Queen Elizabeth' like  Cate BLanchette from the movie Elizabeth...another project on my todo list!

I hope to be taking some more new photos soon when I have time. My schedule has been up and down these past two weeks!~Lisa

The Guests at the Reception...and new dresses!

I have been in a restless creative mood lately. Leave it to me to have to pack up supplies for preparations in repairs on the house, only to get fidgety. I have been in awe of some of the simply lovely creations I have seen in photos of collectors who are lucky enough to attend the Paris and Italian doll festivals...especially the Paris one. I've also been greatly inspired watching Ninimomo and their fabulous pageant dolls. So I dug out my sewing supplies- I had kept them readily availalble since I am working on Louis XVl's suit- the doll has been sent off to the repaint and reroot artist. I had some old shirts with a wonderful crinkly raised fabric and some chiffon and satin. Here are two of my model muses I did dresses for yesterday.

I want to try my hand at beading, and this white column with the splash of fuschia top just screams to me, palm beach. I was thinking of beading it with designs of flowers and palms on that skirt. Or is it better with maybe a beaded hem?? It looks a little bare so was thinking of creating her jewelry that goes with it. But I feel like it needs something. 
The pink on the blonde is my first try and though there are mistakes on it, I like how it turned out. It looks so very Barbie and soft for her coloring. I left her jewelry on but will probably attempt to make something to match the dress.
Here are some photos of these two at the reception...

The furniture is the Disney Princess furniture with re-ment champagne and wine glasses, the floral arrangement is a 1:12 scale miniature arrangement I won at a miniature show years ago. 
I am working on another fashion for another model muse, I might start digging out the Fashion Royalty dolls and see what I can come up with there for them. 

Fiorella Silkstone Barbie at the Reception....

So Fiorella Silkstone Barbie arrived today...yet another doll! I purchased her on Amazon due to she was $1 cheaper and had free shipping. Great deal and I may shop for more of my dolls on Amazon since she and the blonde 50th anniversary Skipper arrived safely. 

She is so soft and lovely. I did this backdrop in preparation for her arrival- don't ask me how I finished in time! Since having to pack away my craft supplies and books and other items in preparation for the work /repairs on our house, I did this rather quickly over the weekend with the finishing touches on the paneling and last week in spare time. 

So back to Fiorella,...I simply adore the Barbie video and how Robert Best created the storyline for the Italian line- with the dolls attending a wedding in Italy! Each doll has a character, and how her dress fits in. The set created for the video is simply amazing...old world patinas, cobblestone roads, Italian villas, and so on. It really sparked my imagination- what happened at the wedding? Where was the reception held? I thought of an immense Italian palace, elegant paneling, parquet wood floors, wrought iron tables and chairs. I kept the props in color scheme with her outfit as white would clash. The pastels in the floral arrangement pick up her color palette of her outfit. I am hoping to expand on this diorama setup as more of the dolls arrive as I get them. But on to the photo shoot!

I hope you enjoy my photos of this marvelous doll! She has so many re-dress capabilities! Her dress, jewelry and outfit are well made, and her body is protected underneath from staining. I purchased mine on Amazon.com  for $49.99 with free shipping, she is still available. 

Photo Fun....

Today, as evening was coming on, and the light was just right, I decided to have some fun with some dolls that needed photo time, 'just because'....

First up, was Silkstone Boater....

She is such an amazing Silkstone. Back in the 80's, I had a similar looking suit in my 20's though I did not wear black stockings with my spectator pumps. My hat also did not look like this one- Boater's was cuter than mine. Yes, I used to wear hats in the 80's. 

Next up was Plantation Belle. This doll I love, but one of the biggest problem is her skin tone and the color palette of the dress, very pale, so I thought a green, spring background would work with her. Hopefully I will have some more time to photograph her when the sun is a tad brighter.

The 'jewel' or Queen of my collection, Agnes Von Weiss, Concerto in M. I never purchased this doll, I won her in a contest on the W club. She captured my heart with her hair, pale skin tone, and character in her face. Can't explain it, but she 'reigns' in my doll town as well as owns the dollhouse. She is one of my most demanding divas, and usually refuses camera time if things don't suit her...lol. Here, she pauses to admire one of the first blooms of spring. The green background of spring only serves to compliment her dress, purse and that stunning red hair.

Next up are two of my newest vintage dolls, won on Ebay. Buffy & Mrs. Beasley, a vintage grail score for me, and Dramatic Living Skipper. Both have near perfect hair and face ups. I can't say how much I absolutely adore these two dolls. 

I am also playing with putting text in my photos. I have seen too many photos stolen or taken -for whatever reason, by others. Though this isn't fool proof, I know, but I want my work recognized for me. 

Happy Birthday Skipper!

The other two vintage dolls I had won on Ebay arrived today so I was able to get the Skippers and friends together for this little birthday scene. The only one missing is my Malibu Skipper but could not find a suitable party dress or outfit for her. 

Dramatic Living Skipper (on the right in the last photo above) & Buffy and Mrs. Beasley arrived today. I was completely amazed at how perfect their hair was! Buffy is missing one of her original bows and her shoes and Mrs. Beasley is missing her tiny glasses. Dramatic Living skipper- the articulation on this darling doll is amazing. She is so much more realistic than purple-blue-pink haired Skipper you buy today. Her hands move! Not bad for back in 1970! As a child I watched Family Affair alot and always wanted to be Buffy with her perfect curls and clothes. I have a Mrs. Beasley myself, that was one of my favorite dolls. Never got this little doll when I was a kid. When she was out, I may have been too small to play with her. 
The cake set is Re-ment and the little unicorn on the table is from those minion surprise packs at Walmart. The Hello Kitty is from Target- you can get them for about $2 and they make great toys for Skipper and her friends. 

Skipper & Friends....catching up

I have been smitten, and bitten by the Vintage craze as well as the SKipper craze. Skipper was one of my all time favorite dolls to play with as a child. I have my very first Skipper, which was Malibu Skipper from 1971. Then I received, Growing up Skipper. I still have her in her original condition.
This is Skipper's 50th birthday this year. I was so bummed on missing out on ordering her thru Barbie Collector, I gave in and ordered her through Amazon. I have placed a preorder through Doll Genie for the brunette who will arrive in August. Not missing out on these two lovelies.

 In my previous post, I showed my Va. fashion doll club's presentation for Skipper which was their theme for the last meeting- and we were lucky enough to have this Skipper, a vintage one, and the anniversary Porcelain skipper together for viewing. I was not crazy about the porcelain one and don't feel the need to have her in my collection. 
Back to the vintage bug. I have about three dolls arriving so far - the first one to arrive yesterday was a Suki Skediddle Liddle Kiddle. I dug out my childhood dolls and among them were some LIddle Kiddles! Here is a pic of my brown haired vintage Skipper, Tutti, a dolly darling kiddle klone and Suki together. She doesn't have her walking mechanicism, but is adorable.

Also, my blogging may be down a bit for the next few weeks. Hubby and I are making a decision to work on the house interior - redo the floors, take  up carpeting, switch furniture around, get rid of some older furniture, do some repairs, etc. We just have so much stuff-- and not just dolls. This means I may get a bigger doll room! I hope to be moving our bedroom to a smaller room and using what is our bedroom now for all of the dolls and their dollhouses. Plus have a permanent shelf display for dolls. That will take some time before we get there. I have been working on this off and on for the past week or two and feverishly yesterday and the day before. Since having to close my shop in 2011, it has been a struggle since alot of stock was stored in one of the bedrooms with no room to move about at all. I packed up my crafting/clay supplies so that is also put on hold for a while too. I will still be working on the Chateau project and the doll town, but now at a much slower pace. 

Va. Fashion doll club meeting- April's meeting

Yesterday I had set aside for attending my Va. Fashion Doll club meeting- and this one was great fun because we were doing an indepth Skipper presentation- this year is Skipper's 50th birthday! Our meeting was held at the club president's home and the presentation was quite indepth so our vice-president, Janice did a couple of online presentations with photos that we could go through and look at our leisure- since there is so much on Skipper out there. I am fortunate to belong to a club that has so many members who have astonishing vintage/mod collections on Barbie. One of our club members Laurie also did a small presentation on Shirley Temple and the memorabilia of the child star, such as dolls. 
Club members were to bring a Barbie & a Skipper in matching outfits, since we were mainly focusing on when Skipper came on the scene in 1964 and her matching outfits with Barbie. There are some wonderful photos of the different Skippers that were on display for the presentation so please browse through my Flicker albums- link is at the top of the picture slideshow. For now, I will post some photos here! Below are pics of the Barbie/Skipper displaysforthe presentation- a mixof vintage and modern dolls in the various matching outfits. This was a collaborative effort on the part of Debbie, our club president and Janice, our vice-president who worked on the online presentation for 2 months before the meeting as well as with their dolls and Jodie's collection. 

The Shirley Temple presentation was fairly small. One of the dolls is like the one my mother owned.

Our club get togethers last several hours- this one ran longer than 1 pm to 5 pm- I didn't get home until about 7 pm! Of course, it's not all about dolls- we also have food!

The food had a spring luncheon theme- we were all so very tired of winter! I contributed the Madeline cookies and strawberries. Stuffed tuna tomatoes, maccaroni salad, cupcakes, fruit salads, cookies, lavender lemonade, blueberry scones, delicious!

Throughout her home, our club president, Debbie, has an incredible Barbie collection. The silkstones are displayed in two or three cabinets throughout her house and she decorates with the dolls for all of the holidays! This time she had decorated for Easter and some of the displays I did not get to take pictures of- I missed taking pics of her doll room. The pics of the dollhouse, the Kelly bunny easter garden (those are real plants with the dolls having Easter tea!) are all in her office upstairs which is where we put sale items.

Above are some of our displays we brought. Usually there is a prize for the one voted the best, or 2nd best, etc. We were supposed to bring a Barbie and Skipper with matching outfits- we could do whatever we wished- make our own outfits or use those already out there. The displays were fabulous. I put together mine at the last minute- but some members went all out!
Overall it was a fun day- nothing but dolls dolls dolls! I have not yet purchased the blonde 50th anniversary skipper but plan to since prices have gone down. Enjoy the pictures!!