Doll Show - Strongsville, Ohio - August 15th 2021

I've once again gone through one of those phases where I'm either too busy or don't have the energy to create a new post. However, yesterday I finally got to attend a real, live, in-person doll show after a very long dry spell! I took all of you with me too, at least in spirit. I found reminders of many doll bloggers yesterday; I'll be sharing them with the pictures. Pictures will be in order by time taken. I was attracted to this Snow White doll, and the Lenci doll reminded me of Tam.

So did this Lenci. I think the doll in the blue dress behind her is darling, but my budget did not run to antique dolls that day.

I've seen this Kestner Gibson Girl doll before, but I don't think I've ever seen one in person. She's in a book I have about sewing Victorian doll clothes, which I am proud to own. 

 

I thought of Linda and Serenata when I saw this Sasha doll. There ended up being a lot more Sashas that I didn't get a photo of, as well as some Gregors. The Nancy Ann doll made me think of Tam. A lot of dolls made me think of her, perhaps because she has such a broad collection and doll interests. The little Betsy McCall is also cute.

I needn't have worried about getting that Nancy Ann doll into the picture. There were lots of them as I went on.

I took this picture because I liked the outfits that the two little dolls were wearing, but the Madame Alexander doll in a case is nice also. Madame Alexander dolls will now always bring to mind Dorothy in PA.

Many doll bloggers I know are into the vintage Barbies. You can see some Tammy dolls too. I thought of Teresa because of the many vintage Barbie clothes she has. There was quite an assortment of vintage Barbie, friends and family clothes, shoes, jewelry and accessories at the show. I bought one vintage piece, but that won't get shown until a later post.

While we're on the subject of Barbie dolls, there were some more modern Barbies, but nothing that thrilled me. I saw an unboxed Swan Queen doll that made me think of coffeeanddollspl. 

I have no interest in owning one, but I find the vintage Buffy and Mrs. Beasley doll set cute. I remember one of my sisters or I owned a cloth Mrs. Beasley doll. You can see some loose Mrs. Beasley dolls in the vintage Barbies picture, but here is one in box. I vaguely remember watching the show that this doll was based on.

This Shirley Temple doll complete with pin reminded me of Rachael's collection. There were many Shirley Temple dolls in different sizes and outfits.

I wonder if this little Japanese doll would have gone home with RagingMoon1987 if she had been there with me. The doll would surely receive lots of love from her!

Here's another Shirley Temple with clothes and a case.

 

Here's yet another Shirley Temple, a dark-skinned Patsy that brought to mind Dorothy in PA yet again, and an All-American version of the Schoenhut doll like Serenata's world-famous Peggy Sue (and friends.)

And last but not least, this Cissy bride who stood regally near the front entrance, welcoming us to this dolly wonderland. There were a few modern Cissy dolls too, but the vintage ones have their own quiet majesty. I'm sure Sandi would agree.

Although there weren't a lot of modern dolls, don't worry, MC, you are not being left out. I bought a stack of doll magazines and in one there was an article on Spanish cloth dolls produced in the 1920s-1930s, bringing Spain doll companies into competition with other European countries at the time. 

I think next time will be a review of my doll show haul, because boy, did I bring home a haul. Having all those dolls right in front of me and just being able to pick one up and hand over cash to make it your own was absolutely intoxicating. Well, my purchases were mostly clothes and accessories, because there were lots of those too. I hope you got some enjoyment out of virtually attending a doll show with me.

Madame Alexander Hollywood Cissy, a Modern Doll Rocking Vintage Glamour

Don't tell Cissy, but I thought this doll was a lot older than she actually is! Turns out Hollywood Cissy is only from 1999/2000. I bought this doll second-hand, and there is not a lot of information on the internet about her anymore. I have her original box, and probably her certificate of origin, but that box is buried under some other stuff, and I didn't consider it worth digging out.

Madame Alexander originally produced Cissy dolls in the mid-to-late 1950s. At that time Cissy had a resemblance, in my eyes, to the Miss Revlon or Toni dolls. She was the same height as now, 20-21", with a lady doll figure, and high-heeled feet.

Cissy came back with a makeover and a vengeance in the late 1990s. She was an extreme diva, and her most fervent collectors called themselves "Cissy Swine," as Cissy was a demanding dolly and always needed another outfit or more jewelry. Cissy is still produced, but the changes have turned off many diehard collectors. For one thing, the price has doubled or tripled; Cissy now is around $1000 at retail. New Cissy has bending elbows, but word is the vinyl is not as high quality as the earlier dolls. She also has a different face mold, that can appear "mean" or unhappy. As so often happen with doll lines, Madame Alexander changed the Cissy doll and got rid of lot of the things that drew in previous collectors. Whether this is a good thing or not depends on doll sales in the end, and I don't have those numbers. One more note, Hollywood Cissy also came with an African-American skintone, and black hair in the same style as my doll.

It's amazing what taking photographs can do for your appreciation of a doll. Cissy is on a shelf in my bedroom, so I see her every day, but when I put her in front of the camera, she really came to life.

She came wearing everything that you see in the pictures, and more that you will see below the fold. I think her wig is mohair, judging by the texture. Her eyes are sleep eyes. She has movement at her head, arms at the shoulder, waist, hips and knees, and can strike some nice poses, as you can see above.

Where Does the Time Go?

I'm working on my storyline, but in the meantime, I haven't been very good at coming up with posts lately. I'm frustrated with the projects that I've been working on, I haven't bought any new dolls besides Ever After High, stupid real life keeps getting in the way.

Speaking of projects that I'm not finishing, I picked up some cheap watercolor pencils at Michael's yesterday.

I've had a few plans in the back of my mind for some time for trying out watercolor pencils. I decided cheap pencils were a fine way to start, and if I'm not happy with the results, I can always try moving up to a better quality pencil. Preferably when I have a 40% off coupon at Michael's.

One of the things I want to do is improve Meg's face. She could use darker eyebrows, more color in her lips, maybe even some eyeliner like her design picture shows.

I have had a few ideas for posts, but I'm not sure if there is a lot of interest in what I wanted to post about. One of the posts I wanted to make was about the new LORI pony for the 6" dolls, and compare it to Lottie's pony. I also wanted to do a post about one of my older Cissy dolls; I thought perhaps people might be interested in seeing a doll you don't see much of anymore. I'm going to put a poll up and find out if there is any interest, and go from there. In the meantime, I'll be hard at work on my doll projects (hopefully!)

Where I Keep My Doll Accessories

D7ana encouraged me to share my pictures of where I keep my little doll treasures, after she showed us where she keeps some of her doll bits and bobs. I ended up really enjoying taking these pictures, as I realized how blessed I am with the extras I have for my doll residents. I'll start with the biggest piece of storage furniture, a dresser. When we bought a second-hand bedroom set for Daughter Number 2, the Dancer, we had an "extra" dresser, that now stores my clothes. My personal dresser with the mirror became a place to display and store dolls; sometime I will show the top of the dresser.

Top drawer:

Extra clothes for my 16" doll world, plus accessories

A box with compartments containing important stuff like shoes, purses and jewelry

Middle drawer:

Extra Barbie clothes, extra Cissy clothes, and a few things for my 18" Miss America dolls

 Bottom drawer:

I have more space in this drawer than I remembered. Barbie hats, Stacie size doll stands, We Three Friends

I also have some similar Sterilite boxes stored under the overhang of our platform bed. But that's not very picture-worthy.

One of my oldest places to store things is a small, basic plastic three-drawer unit. It is useful for storage; what is an issue is finding the flat space to keep it.

Barbie size shoes

Baby items and toys for babies in the Barbie universe

Kelly dolls, and Barbie's baby sister Krissy. I didn't want her in the higher drawer all alone. :-(

Last in the Barbie storage category is a large compartmentalized case. Again, this is a great place to store things, but I like to leave it flat, and it's too tall to slide under most furniture, and too big to use up that oh so elusive flat space. It also sticks out too much to put it under the platform bed. I struggle with where to keep it.

If Barbie gets hungry or needs a glass of wine, she knows where to go

For the 16" dolls, I also have a wardrobe case. It was made for the vinyl Josephine doll series produced by the Franklin Mint. I got it straight from the Franklin Mint, and I'm glad I did, as FM wardrobe cases run a lot on the secondary market. It's holding one Josephine doll that's not on display, plus a dress, a couple of hats, and some FM accessories.

Since I like having my dolls displayed in dioramas with furniture and props, I've tried to stock up on doll sized armoires for their display bedrooms, and I want them to actually store clothes and things like hats and shoes. I have almost all the armoires/wardrobes that I need; now I need to invest in hangers. Here's one example: a plastic wardrobe from the 8" Madeline doll line, produced by Eden and based on the children's books by Ludwig Bemelmans. Extra Madeline outfits came with hangers, but I don't have any extra clothes at the moment for these girls! However, I do have their hats and some gloves, socks, and shoes.

For my American Girl Samantha, I have a human-sized (on the small side) cedar chest for her clothes, dishes, extra shoes and stockings, etc. The chest itself is not very elaborately built, and probably cost less originally than Josephine's wardrobe case. But it does give Samantha's things a lovely cedar scent.

If you have the dolly money and a little bit of time, sometimes it's good just to scroll through interesting doll categories on eBay and see what you come up with. It's how I found that dresser for my Mary Englebreit dolls (which does store things like Ann's glasses), and also how I found this last piece, which stores jewelry for my 21" Cissy dolls, and other little items (Coca-Cola Cissy comes with a Coke bottle, for example.) This furniture item stands about 21" tall and has a real glass mirror, and two drawers lined with velvet. It was bought from a seller right here in the greater Cleveland area and the seller allowed Mr. BTEG to pick it up. Not only did it save me a lot on shipping, but it was a relief to the seller not to have to worry about packing it up safely enough for the mail. I vaguely remember it being made for some sort of doll club gathering, and it was made by someone who lived at the time only about 10 miles from my current home, going by the writing on the bottom of the chest. But there's so little information that I haven't been able to track down any other furniture this person might have made. Too bad, as this is beautifully made, like a human sized piece of furniture quality.

The main thing you can see in the mirror is my bookcase, with my dolly Christmas tree on top

My family will tell you that I adore buying all sorts of things to use for storage, from rolling carts to little plastic boxes like what you see above. Someday I'd love to go on a shopping spree in a Container Store. I'm always looking to store the maximum amount in a minimum space. Unless I bought another rolling cart (that I don't have floor space for) and filled it with trays for things like my Barbie shoes, Kelly dolls, etc., I think my storage system is about as good as could be, except I ought to get some of my doll clothes out of the plastic storage. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little tour. Do you have any clever storage tricks?

Tonner Doll Wizard Of Oz Designer Collaboration

Stratos at The Fashion Doll Chronicles posted on a project wherein Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Tonner Doll Company, Inc. worked with famous designers to create new looks for Dorothy, Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West, from the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz. The dolls are being auctioned on ebay and will benefit Habitat for Humanity's "There's No Place Like Home" campaign.

The one I like best is the Reem Acra gingham evening dress with train, but I love that Byron Lars' Dorothy is carrying a water gun. :-)  He also did a unique re-imagining of Dorothy's ruby slippers.

Madame Alexander did something similar in 1999 with its Celebration of Design Collection for the 21" Cissy doll, only those dolls were mass-produced. I can't find any information about that collection online to share with you, however.

Would you buy a OOAK doll created by a famous designer if money was no object?

Happy Easter

I hope that all of you who celebrate Easter had a happy and blessed one. My family and I did.

Just a quick note about the header I threw up. Since I don't really have anything doll/Easter related, I put up pictures of two of my dolls in their best Easter straw hats. On the left is Madame Alexander's 21" Cissy. On the right is Ashton Drake's 16" Gene, whom I no longer own. Her dress and hat were made by me. :)