Yesterday was my Va. Fashion doll club meeting and the theme instead of Barbie's birthday was Mystical Ireland to honor St. Patrick's day. It was something different. Usually the club has a tea or goes to a restuarant and celebrates Barbie's birthday. This year we decided to do something different with a diorama theme/meme. You could pick Irish history, music, dance, literature, foods, legends, and make that your theme with your dolls and create a diorama/vignette with it. Well all of us had alot of fun even though it stretched us.
Mine was Irish foods with a Full Irish breakfast, Farl, soda bread, corn beef sandwiches. It was difficult to do since I had to google alot of pics of the different types of foods and how and Irish 'croft' would look.
Our hostess, Scarlett, did Gulliver's travels, (literature) since the author was Irish. She used fabric and paper and some aquarium items to achieve the landscaping affects. The Lilliputians are actually HO figures from Hobby Lobby. The outfit on Silkstone Ken is from a Ben Franklin action figure.
Jodi did Irish in America...and she did alot of work on their outfits and the history behind the Irish coming to America and how they came to America for a better life. The luggage is from the Oz doll and is Allen's outfit. The Barbie is Prairie Barbie and she got another matching outfit and sewed /altered it for Skipper. Todd's outfit was dyed to match.
Karon chose fairies or legends and used two of her dolls. One is supposedto be a dark fairy and her wings are made out of some stiff gauze stiffened with glue and glitter, and the other (orange) is supposed to represent the sun and light. (or good) The arrangement is a wallhanging in her home and she put in a box and painted the box for this display. The dolls are just twisty tied to the arrangement like fairies hiding in the flowers. Everyone loved this idea of how they could display their dolls in a new way.
Nita chose Irish folklore/music and the song Molly Malone which as it happens is a statue that was just errected in 1988 and also is a song that is sung in bars and taverns. Nita googled it and if you go to Ireland nearly everyone has their picture taken at this statue. She made the cart out of cardboard with a dowel for the axel and painted it and she had the song in her music book. A friend had visited Ireland and had their picture taken by the statue.
Debbie also did mystical creatures and I cannot remember the Irish name for these but these were the Irish beings (the Irish word escapes me right now) but they were considered the first kings and queens of Ireland. She replicated the background from a Barbie box and made the dress and found the doll at a doll show.
Marina's was a display on Irish fashion with dolls dressed in dresses or Irish dress.
This was Janice's Riverdance display and it was so lovely. I really liked how she used the Kelly's and the Cheerleader Ken. I never purchased this Irish Barbie and now I wish I had. Sometimes at Doll meetings I see the ways the ladies use dolls I pass on and I really regret not buying the dolls. It makes you see Dolls of the World in a different light.
Janice had also did a history vignette too on the plantation society of Ireland when the English tried to convert the Irish and gave their lands to the Scots to do away with Catholicism. Many of the Irish were in effect to be 'bred' out or converted to Protestants. It was a complicated society and harsh since the Irish were quite poor.
Barbara brought her Legends of Ireland Barbie which is quite lovely and she said she purchased in 2008 . This is a very hard to find item right now.
My vignette won 1st and Nita's Molly Malone won 2nd, it was a great meeting.
Some pictures of the refreshment table- not all of the goodies were yet on it and the dolls used to decorate it.
and the dolls that Janice and Debbie brought to decorate the living room-
The very last one was not used to decorate but was a special Show and Tell of one of our members who had a birthday in February! Yes that is a NO. #1 Barbie! and her husband purchased it for her as her birthday gift! Our club president helped her husband find it for her at a good price and she brought it to the meeting for everyone to see it. Janice our vice president did a little touch up on her. She has her original box. I snapped a picture as I held her. What a wonderful gift.
I have decided as I turn the big 5-0 I might look for the doll that meant alot to me as a kid- Quick Curl Miss America and the Barbie fold up Country House. I am already watching one on Ebay. Isn't funny how we go back to those toys that made us happy as a child? I sit back and think of how many times I played with Sweet Sixteen Barbie and Quick Curl Miss America and cannot count the happy memories of playtime.
Hope you enjoyed the pictures of our St. Patrick's day meeting!
Mine was Irish foods with a Full Irish breakfast, Farl, soda bread, corn beef sandwiches. It was difficult to do since I had to google alot of pics of the different types of foods and how and Irish 'croft' would look.
Nita chose Irish folklore/music and the song Molly Malone which as it happens is a statue that was just errected in 1988 and also is a song that is sung in bars and taverns. Nita googled it and if you go to Ireland nearly everyone has their picture taken at this statue. She made the cart out of cardboard with a dowel for the axel and painted it and she had the song in her music book. A friend had visited Ireland and had their picture taken by the statue.
My vignette won 1st and Nita's Molly Malone won 2nd, it was a great meeting.
and the dolls that Janice and Debbie brought to decorate the living room-
I have decided as I turn the big 5-0 I might look for the doll that meant alot to me as a kid- Quick Curl Miss America and the Barbie fold up Country House. I am already watching one on Ebay. Isn't funny how we go back to those toys that made us happy as a child? I sit back and think of how many times I played with Sweet Sixteen Barbie and Quick Curl Miss America and cannot count the happy memories of playtime.
Hope you enjoyed the pictures of our St. Patrick's day meeting!
4 comments:
Congrats on 1st place! Every one had such detailed dios. Actually Gulliver's was my favorite because I quite enjoyed that tale as a child. May I ask how many people are in your club? There seems to be so much participation.
I think there are about 15-17? maybe in our club. Maybe just 15 people. The club is kept small because we meet in each other's homes and the participation is active; they do a presentation at the meeting which can last up to an hour- such as the diorama thing. You don't have to do it; but it is fun. Each meeting has a theme. Business is usually minimal. Our dues are $20. The fundraiser each year is a huge yardsale we are foregoing because of the work involved and the money from that usually goes towards something special- such as last year we were all able to go see the Christmas lights at the Lewis Ginter Botanical gardens and have dinner(we each paid for our own dinner, not our tickets to getinto the gardens) at the tea house. We also do an angel tree donation for a child in need at Christmas as well. Gulliver's was one of my favorites too! I thought she did a really creative display, I love how the scales were played with in that one.
One of the great things about this club is everyone joins in the fun, you don't have some over here just sitting off by themselves, everyone joins in and participates in some way. We all bring snacks, food with the theme. It is a long meeting, but well worth it. We meet every quarter or every two or three months so it isn't every month so less planning.
Congrats Lisa, you did such a wonderful job. But I'm amazed by all the dioramas. It must have been a great meeting. THanks for sharing!
you're welcome! Our meetings usually last about 5-6 hours, they start at 1 pm and wrap up around 5 pm. But it is alot of intense planning. We have a presentation, food, a prize for the best presentation, a raffle prize where you donate a dollar with your name on it, someone donates the presenation prize and so on, then show and tell which is where you bring your most interesting dolly finds or newest doll and then the business which is usually very short. We also have a newsletter which is put on the facebook group which is private. We all look forward to it since it is a great stress reliever from the everyday of life and we get to be with people who do understand our obsession with dolls! some of these ladies have incredible vintage collections that boggle the mind. My collection is mostly for the prop and diorama dollhouse person, I could care less whether the doll is a no.1 or no. 2 barbie, I want that doll to be able to fit in and look real. But I do appreciate the older vintage dolls, since they were some of the ones I began playing with as a child.
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