Breakfast at Tiffany's

This past Sunday, I attended a Ladies' Luncheon with a friend who I have known since college. It was given by an Irish-American club on the east side of Cleveland, and my friend has attended several events there. The theme was Breakfast at Tiffany's. There were several gift "baskets" given away in a raffle, and I won one! The theme of my basket was Paint and Sip. Does your country have anything like this? Where I live in Ohio, there are one-night art classes hosted by local organizations, as well as small local businesses that offer you the chance to paint a ceramic item, or paint on canvas, or similar creative things. For adult only evenings, you can craft and also partake of alcohol, and these evenings are called Paint and Sips. I just found out there's a local business where you can get refreshments from a charcuterie board to jello shots at your Paint and Sip evening. This gift basket was a bunch of items for you to have your own Paint and Sip time.

Here's a picture of the table centerpiece, and me dressed in my best Breakfast at Tiffany's outfit.

And here are the items that I won. The paint brushes are awful quality, but I can still use them for something, I'm sure. Everything else is pretty nice, even if all the art items are from the $1.25 store.

The Paint, part one

The Paint, part two

The Sip

You might notice in the last picture that there is a gift card to a store called Meijer. It's like a Walmart, a giant store that offers groceries, housewares, clothes, and lot of items in between. Our local Meijer is actually bigger than our Walmart, but the Meijer closest to me is lacking in one distinct feature: the toy department. Still, I wanted to buy something doll related with my gift card, and I picked out a Calico Critters house.

I already have a couple of Critters animals, and my Cu-Poche dolls and mini Pullip will also like this house. The card didn't entirely cover the price of the house, but it paid for most of it.

To really make this doll-related, I'm going to share a couple of pictures of a Breakfast at Tiffany's outfit that I made for a 16" Gene doll, around 15 years ago. 

I sewed the dress, gloves and wrap, and Mr. BTEG helped with the bakery items. I made this for someone online who was looking for someone to sew the costume for her. She saw these photos first, before she officially bought the outfit. I saw many years later that she had it up for sale. I hope she got a lot of enjoyment out of it while she owned it.

I was going to post about my luncheon experience on Instagram, when I realized that Instagram won't let you post vertical photos, and they get cropped to the point where a lot of the stuff you wanted to show is cropped out. Ugh. I'd rather be able to share these pictures with you guys, anyway.

Has anyone else won a raffle? Was it something you wanted? This raffle was the kind where you could put as many tickets as you wanted towards winning a specific basket, so you would only win something that you were interested in. Have you ever attended at themed event?

Lots of Doll Sightings

Since there are several antique stores in Amish Country, I knew that I would see some dolls there on my trip. None of them came home with me, although one piece of furniture almost did. Would you have bought any of these three dressers? I was seriously considering the piece on the far right, but in the end I decided it was a little too banged up.

Amish Country has people who sell new doll clothes and make new doll furniture, but I haven't found anything that isn't for 18" dolls, and most of the furniture is for the little ones who play with 18" dolls. Clothes and accessories are a mix between handmade and factory made, "plain" style and modern everyday. I found the juxtaposition of plain black hats and starched bonnets, with sparkly shoes above, humorous.

There was a glass case filled with true antique dolls, but I didn't get a picture of it. There were some older dolls like Terri Lee, and a xylophone player. I presume at one time the musician used to have something looking more like mallets, on top of the springs she holds in her hands.

There were also a vintage Barbie, Alan and Skipper.

The little blond Ginny Sasson doll in this case caught my eye, but there is quite a variety of dolls inside.

And in the "Wait, how can these dolls be that old?" category are Gene Marshall, and a friend in the Alexandra Fairchild Ford 16" doll line by Madame Alexander.

I found this Knitting for Barbie canister, but since I wasn't planning on buying it, I didn't want to open and root around to see what was inside.

If you grew up playing with Fisher-Price toys, like I did, this section of vintage Fisher-Price might have enchanted you as it did me. Some of these toys pictured are older than me.

And although this large area of craft wood supplies didn't have doll crafting in mind, there were a *lot* of very nice pieces of wood that could be used to make doll items. I'm picturing only one part here

I did pick up a few things for my dolls. Two were for the 18" girls, sunglasses and a pair of faux Crocs.

Then there was this guitar, which I bought in a store that sells Christmas ornaments and decor year round. There were lots of other musical instruments, but I only felt seriously drawn to the guitar.

Last thing, big news! The Dancer is ready to move out and be on her own, so there will be lots going on here. Right now, the living room is crowded because the Dancer is working on repairing bunny chew marks in a couple of stools that she got from friends, along with a matching table. Mr. BTEG and I are of course talking about what we will do with the extra space. Stay tuned!

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

Linda at Darkroom Dolls nominated me for a Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award. She's given me 10 questions to answer, and I need to nominate 5 people for the award.

1. Do you collect anything other than dolls?
As a seamstress and knitter, I kind of collect fabric and yarn. I'm not one of those people who buys what I need for a project, finishes it, then starts another. I'm a person who buys things with an eye for future projects. Or I buy for a project and start something else instead. :)

2. Why did you start a doll blog?
Sometimes a blog is referred to as the blogger's virtual house. Since I enjoy visiting other people's "houses" and looking at their dolls, I decided to invite people to see my dolls too. I wanted to meet people with whom I share some doll interests, and have all kinds of conversations about doll collecting. I've met some great fellow doll collectors in the two years that I've been dolly blogging.

3. Do you have one particular doll that is the favorite in your collection?
I think my favorite would be Calendar Girl Sydney, by Tonner. Her face paint and hair color just seem to all come together for me perfectly. Also, I like that she isn't very made up. She's more versatile that way.

4. Your favorite doll accessory (American Girl or other)?
A croquet set made by Ashton Drake for 16" Gene Marshall. It fitted into one of her stories. I like having it because croquet was all the rage especially during the 1860s, but played in later Victorian and into Edwardian times. Someday I would love to get enough dolls dressed appropriately to photograph them playing a Victorian game of croquet. The set is both great and kind of a pain, because all the pieces are usable and therefore come loose. Thus, I tend to have the stakes and balls and wickets drop on the floor very often.

5. Do you know exactly how many dolls you have in your collection (you don't have to tell the number of course :-) )?
Not off the top of my head, no. Especially since I have some Barbie size dolls put away until I can get more display space. Hopefully less than one hundred, but they do tend to multiply.

6. Do you play any instruments and if so, what?
I took piano lessons in college and for a short while afterwards, to make up for the fact that my parents would never let me take piano when I was a kid. I haven't practiced at all since then, but I could still play one line of notes with one hand.

7. Where is your most favorite place you've ever been?
Cedar Point Amusement Park, Sandusky, Ohio. Known as the roller coaster capital of the world because it has so many of them. A few of them are also among the tallest and fastest in the world as well. I love roller coasters, and amusement park rides in general, plus Cedar Point is on a peninsula jutting into my beloved Lake Erie.

There are five roller coasters alone in this photo.

8. What is your most favorite thing about yourself?
Physically, that I have curly hair. :) Character wise, that I'm a good listener, and people tend to tell me things that they don't tell just everyone.

9. Favorite book or movie?
I don't really have one favorite. When I need some light, fun reading, I tend to go back to one of Agatha Christie's numerous mysteries.

10. If you could design your own doll, what would it look like?
She'd have brown hair and probably blue eyes. She'd wear her hair in a pompadour with a knot on top, and she'd be dressed in an outfit from about 1904. The dress would have lots of tucks, ruching and lace. The main color of the outfit would be blue, and she'd wear high-button shoes. She'd have wrist, elbow and knee articulation, with a twisting waist and moveable head, arms and legs.


I now am supposed to nominate five people. I've picked:

Marta at All4Barbie
Hannah at Never Grow Up 
barbielea at barbiebeauties
Vanessa at Van's Doll Treasures
RagingMoon1987 at Confessions of a Dolly Lover

My 10 questions are:

1. Do you collect anything other than dolls?
2. Why did you start a doll blog?
3. Do you have one particular doll that is the favorite in your collection?
4. Your favorite doll accessory?
5. Do you know exactly how many dolls you have in your collection (you don't have to tell the number of course :-) )?
6. Do you play any instruments and if so, what?
7. Where is your most favorite place you've ever been?
8. Where would you most like to visit, that you have never visited?
9. Is there a retired doll or doll line that you'd like to bring back?
10. If you could design your own doll, what would it look like?

Daisy Chain Award

jSarie of Revenge of the Toy Box gave me a Daisy Chain Award!

She asked me to answer the 8 questions that I wish someone would ask about my doll collection and my doll blog. I hadn't really considered the question much before, but here are the questions that I came up with.

1. Do you have a "grail" doll?
Basically, a grail doll is a doll that is difficult/expensive to obtain. Very often these are limited edition dolls from conventions/comic-cons, which then explode in price when they're offered on the secondary market. You would really love it for your collection, but you have to spend a long time waiting for it and searching for the best price.
Having said that? I'm not sure that I have a grail doll right now. I've longed on and off for a High Seas Daphne Dimples by Tonner, but she comes up on eBay several times a year, and I don't know what I'd do with her dated hairstyle if I did get her. I'd also like some version of Tonner's Cinderella face sculpt, but there are many of those to choose from.

2. Do you have a favorite doll line?  
I'll always have a soft spot for Barbie. I played with her all through my childhood, and still have several prized versions of her in my collection. But I'd have to say that my favorite line is Tonner's 16" dolls. Possibly not a big surprise after reading question number one, hmm?

3. What kind of articulation level do you like in your dolls?
As I said above, I played with straight-arm, three-click leg, Barbies all through my childhood, and my child's imagination rapidly filled in the gaps between what the doll could actually do and what I wanted her to look like she was doing. But as an adult I have really come to appreciate dolls that can actually bend their elbows, much less move their wrists, and bend their knees more than three clicks. Much beyond that (and the general arm/leg/neck rotation), and the joints stand out too much for me. I do have some not-Barbie dolls in my collection that can't bend their arms or knees at all.

4. Any doll lines that you've moved on from?
When I first got into 16" vinyl dolls, I did pick up some dolls from Mel Odom's Gene line, and Madame Alexander's Alex line. All of those eventually went on to new homes, except for one coat and hat.
  
5. Is there anything you would do differently with your collection, if you could go back in time?
I don't regret any of the dolls that I've bought. I've always enjoyed them while I've had them, and I've been able to send them on to new homes at a price that was acceptable to me. I probably would have tried harder to pick up more of 18" Samantha's collection when it was offered by AG. But I discovered Samantha when Mr. BTEG and I were first starting our family, and a lot of other things took priority over the years. I never dreamed that Samantha would be retired, and since she was the first one to go, it was a total surprise. I can tell that the new BeForever line won't be anywhere near the same, but there's always eBay. :)

6. Where do you see your collection going in the next few years?
I think I'm going to be focusing more on furniture and clothes than on dolls. There are some dolls I would like to pick up, but the list is getting shorter and shorter. After thinking I wanted a certain doll, only to lose interest in getting her after several years, I've learned that I can usually live without specific dolls. A good bit of the time what draws me to a doll is her clothes, anyway.

7. Do you have anything that you want to learn do that will enhance your collection?
I used to think about repainting faces and re-rooting hair, but I don't think I have steady enough hands for the first, nor enough patience for the second. I absolutely have to learn how to construct/wallpaper/paint a dollhouse. I've been wanting to do it for years and have been too afraid to tackle it. Mr. BTEG and I are very settled where we are right now, so there is no time like the present. On a similar note, I need more practice repainting plastic furniture.
I also want to keep improving my sewing skills. Again, I've had lots of dreams and have not acted on nearly enough of them.  

8. What did you hope to accomplish when you started this blog?
Sometimes a blog is referred to as the blogger's virtual house. Since I enjoyed visiting other people's "houses" and looking at their dolls, I decided to invite people to my "house" and let them see my dolls. I wanted to meet people with whom I share some doll interests, and to have all kinds of conversations about collecting. I like talking to all of my readers, and visiting the blogs of those who have their own!

I'd like to pass this award on to Ghoulia13 and Ghouliette at Dollsville, USA, sister collectors. Here are the 8 questions I'd like them to answer.

1. Do you currently have a grail doll?

2. What doll in your collection gave you the most satisfaction in acquiring (hard to find/you found a good price/wanted for a long time/just really wanted)?

3. Which doll manufacturer produces the best quality clothes and shoes, in your opinion?

4. How much life (or death, if you prefer) do you think the Monster High line has left?

5. If you could bring one retired doll line back, which one would it be?

6. Pick a doll line and describe what your dream doll from that line would look like/wear.

7. Is there something you'd like to see offered by a doll line, that isn't available now?

8. What first attracts you to a particular doll? Hair, face, clothes?

I hope you two ghouls will participate!