May Day!

 

Happy Birthday to me!

My birthday has been great. My birthday present to myself was to get my 'temporary' doll room set up. We had painted and restored the small front guest room, in the midst of major repairs on our home. We are currently now working on the kitchen and utility room, and will eventually get to the other two bedrooms with painting them. One of them will be my 'permenant' doll room. We will be re-decorating, etc. adding curtains, shades painting the walls and so on. But in the mean time, my dolls have been packed up for about going on two years since my husband became ill in 2019. Since his illness, we knew we needed to do repairs to the house so I had to pack up a great deal of my dolls and miniatures which have been stored in boxes. 

I decided to take them out and now display most of them in this small room that I use as an office and photo room. I started on Friday afternoon and have been working on it all weekend and it has been fun. Still not finished and I will continue until I get to a point I am satisfied with it. I am basically right now using what temporary shelving I have on hand that can be moved quickly if I need to pack them  up again.

I moved the Scarlett O'Hara Barbies and Victorian and Angel Barbies down to the bottom shelf, so the Mod Barbie foldout dollhouse could be put up at the top. I began to realize I did not have enough stands for all the dolls and one was was to sit them in chairs, props etc Poppy Parker and some Fashion Royalty dolls are on the second shelf, Vintage / Current Ken and Barbie are on the third shelf. These are the previous Crayola shelving I had. It has worked out really well and holds alot of dolls. 

On top of the dollhouse, I moved the previous collection of 'haunted dolls' and moved them into the closet shelving and moved my patio props, my homemade hot tub, grills, patio furniture to create a rooftop terrace and have seating for more dolls. I still have a ton of malibus to dress to put up here.

The Scarlett O'Hara dolls on top in their previous shelving placement

Modern and Vintage  Barbie and Kens 

Poppy Parkers 

The Tammy Family not all of them are there-

Poppy Parker Shelving 

The Fashion Royalty shelving 

And so I still have way more organizing to go. I will have more photos to show you soon. This sounds awful but I did not know what I had until I started putting the dolls on their stands and organizing them together! lol. I enjoy seeing all of them in their original outfits and with their props, it is such a joy. This was more fun than buying myself another doll because I discovered dolls I had forgot about and would have purchased again. So I highly recommend going through your collection and and if you store in bins/boxes, to shake them up a bit, relax for a weekend, shut off the internet and spend some time with them. You will be glad you did. 

Richmond VA Doll and Bear Show

On April 23rd 2022 Saturday I attended the Richmond Va Doll and Bear show with my friends Karon and Marina, Clifford and Marina brought along her friend and co-worker Marilyn. We all had fun. Oh and Karon brought along my honorary nephew and travel buddy, Mike, her son, ( he has traveled to Integrity doll conventions with us!) and we all gathered at Stevie B's for lunch afterwards to mull over the goodies we purchased and the dolly news. 

There were not many sellers , even less than last year. Our doll club, The Va Fashion Doll Club, of course was not selling because our club President , Debbie, and others were attending the GAW convention and were also gearing up for next weekend at Bradley Justice's weekend event in North Carolina. A few of our club members did attend the doll show to pick up some deals. 

I looked at this event as my 'early' birthday present to myself- a splurge. Buying dolls and getting together with friends  who have the same hobby is a rare treat from the workday grind as well as the daily care of my husband and the household. It relieves our stress and releases creative juices. Plus it is just plain fun. 

This weekend I was able to acquire a blonde Tyler Wentworth in a black skirt with a short sleeved sweater and black tights. She had no shoes but they threw in a pair for me and her cost was $50. I have been wanting a Tonner doll for sooooooo long now. I still have my eye on quite a few on ebay and mercari. 

I was also able to acquire TWO Integrity Gene Marshall dolls. Their bodies are slightly yellowed but their hair was wonderful Vixen Gene Marshall and Boudoir Gene Marshall. As well as they came with their stands. They were $45 each. I was also able to purchase four pairs of shoes for $10 

So here are the photos enjoy!

Happy Easter! & Happy Birthday Gene Marshall!

Happy Easter- and Happy Birthday (April 17th) to our wonderful doll Gene Marshall!

I am late in my greetings as I had a busy Easter Resurrection weekend like most. No time to do my usual postings and photos. Here are some of my Easter Photos I was able to do ahead of the game.

Let's not forget Gene's birthday! April 17th!

I created a new birthday photo for her with Trent and Ivy wishing her a Happy Birthday different from last year's. 

This year I had a wonderful thrift store find- the Our Generation Girls' diner for only $25!! I am calling it 'Mel's Diner' in honor of Mel Odom, the creator of Gene and plan to add some tiles around the diner with tables and chairs and alot of food, and dolls as waitresses and customers. I want to mix it up- with Tonners, Gene dolls, even Franklin Mint dolls. The storyline will be this is the IT DINER to be after the movie premieres or the place the stars hang out. 

I have already done one of the photos in a noire technique in black/white and it looks kind of cool. 

Enjoy!

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 Happy St. Patrick's Day! I am two days late - I had been meaning to post these photos on Wednesday- but it was a VERY hectic day that day! 

And since we are still celebrating the wearin' of the green, why not? My dolls are! I love dolly holidays. It is so much work setting up for the photos, I hate to take it down. 

Enjoy!