Vintage Barbie Dreamhouse

Yesterday I pulled out my vintage 1960's cardboard Barbie dreamhouse and did some repair work and cleaning, as I wanted to do some holiday prep photos in the dollhouse with the vintage dolls. Alot of repair work was necessary on this older house. 

Here are two photos, after everything had been arranged and Barbie is dressed in a kimono looking at her closet. I wanted to do a Hinamatsuri scene with the vintage dolls in kimonos setting up the Hina Rement set . Before I can do that, the furniture needed stabilizing and repair, the legs had folded under. I used a clear packing tape to wrap the legs to give them stability & strength. Below- the sofa reinforced ...

the lamp I cut a piece of cardboard for the slot, but did not glue it permemantly into the slot. I am going to redo this. 

The bed needed a tape reinforcement on the headboard and on some of the legs.

the stereo also needed reinforcement on its legs as well 

I brought this house inside from the garage to do scenes for the Japanese Doll Festival (March 3rd) Hinamatsuri as it is referred to, and also St. Patrick's day. I am working on doing different scenes with the different dolls- the vintage Barbies, the mod Barbies , the Fashion Royalty/Poppy Parker dolls, as well as my French Fashion reproduction dolls.  It has been fun sorting through the dolls and getting their costumes ready, as well as their props. 

Here is my table getting ready for St. Patrick's day. 

Valentine's day at Barbie's House!

So I pulled out my vintage Fold-up Country house and decided to finally have a photo session of re-dressing my mod dolls (and my modern dolls too!) in time for Valentine's day. It has been a long time since I did any new photos. I have wanted to re-dress the dolls and go through them and I have a whole box of vintage clothing , some Mattel, some clone clothing, that I have wanted to re-dress the dolls in, that I got last year in a huge auction lot. 

These are the kitchen photos. I love using my collection of cats and dogs in my scenes, it makes it more realistic. I pulled out my Liddle Kiddle too, I have begun to re-collect these tiny dolls as they were my favorites as a child. Barbie has invited her mom, Mrs. Roberts and her kid sister Skipper and her friends Fluff and friends over along with her new friend, Poppy Parker and her fiance, Bryan. 
I purchased this house about two years ago off of eBay as a present to myself to replace my own house, which I still have, but is damaged. I wanted one with all the furniture that wasn't damaged and intact. Mine has a cracked bed and broken table and the roof is cracked. 

Sweet 16 Barbie was also a gift to myself for my 54th birthday , I found her on Rubylane.com  with a shop called Forty-Fifty-Sixty and they specialize in dolls, mostly vintage especially Barbie. She came with everything- the tank top, jean shorts, the pink dress, pumps, and the makeup set just like my original childhood doll did. And she was packaged well. All for a reasonable price. Many antique and vintage shops on Ruby Lane and they are on youTube as well with videos as well as Facebook. 

Here are Bryan, Poppy's boyfriend peeping into the kitchen hoping to have a word with Poppy as he has been left to socialize with strange people in the living room while Poppy gossips with Barbie and Mrs. Roberts in the kitchen. Francie and Joe have just arrived to visit with Ken and Becky in the living room, much to the chagrin of the startled cat in front of the fireplace. 
GI Joe is a reproduction Joe I got off the GI Joe site , lucky to have him. He is wearing a vintage Ken top and jeans . Francie is wearing a complete Francie outfit and the doll and outfit and boots came in that entire auction lot! I have this outfit on her because I love it and the only thing wrong with the doll was one of her feet has bite marks on it, missing her toe, but her face is so pretty. I love her. The Ken sitting there also came dressed in this lot too- he is not my childhood Malibu Ken. Becky is wearing a vintage Francie wedding dress from this vintage lot too. 

Next up is the bedroom where Marie Osmond has come by to visit while doing a benefit Valentine's day concert while in town and is staying with Barbie. Fluff has come to the bedroom to retrieve her teddy bear and Marie is resting with her pugdog. 

Hope you enjoy the photos. I am going to try and set up the cardboard dreamhouse and get the vintage dolls in that house for Valentine's day too.