Happy New Year, ladies and germs! Another year has passed and another has arrived. I wonder what 2025 will hold? Let's see...no solar eclipse (sad face), no presidential election (HAPPY FACE!!!), no milestone birthday for me, for anyone I love, or for Barbie. Tornado season, tax season (the two coincide), mosquitoes and butterflies, sand burrs, planting season, harvesting season, life in the Bootheel. A little monotonous, but there's comfort in that monotony so I won't complain.
Okay, I'll complain a little. Y'all know that I do like to do that from time to time. To break up the monotony a little, my newest little project, though I'm not sure how or when Imma carry it out. I actually have been planning this since St. Patrick's Day, when I was coming to the sad realization that I'm a super-flyweight when it comes to beer (that lovely little story is told at the beginning of this post). While I was coming to terms with that I browsed eBay for Grecon Little People. I didn't find any that night and I'm STILL looking, but I did find some other items. Betty is similar to a Grecon doll with her wiry limbs and yarn body.
Okay, I'll complain a little. Y'all know that I do like to do that from time to time. To break up the monotony a little, my newest little project, though I'm not sure how or when Imma carry it out. I actually have been planning this since St. Patrick's Day, when I was coming to the sad realization that I'm a super-flyweight when it comes to beer (that lovely little story is told at the beginning of this post). While I was coming to terms with that I browsed eBay for Grecon Little People. I didn't find any that night and I'm STILL looking, but I did find some other items. Betty is similar to a Grecon doll with her wiry limbs and yarn body.
Betty is so noodly that I almost named her "String-Bean." Indeed, that's what she calls herself, LOL. But I went with "Betty" because she reminds me of Betty Spaghetty. Y'all remember Betty Spaghetty??? Betty Spaghetty sets are at a premium on eBay, but I may need to bite the bullet and review her at some point in the future. Anyway, Betty came with a nice add-on, this vintage postcard of the old Mississippi River Bridge. Betty's seller was located in Arizona, so receiving this little piece of local history was a delight.
TANGENT ALERT: Time for a stroll down Memory Lane. This bridge was located at Cape Girardeau and connected Missouri's Route 34 to Illinois's Route 146. The bridge became outdated, dilapidated, and a little dangerous as time went by, so in 2004 it was torn down. The old bridge was supposed to be taken out one span at a time, but the second demolition session went awry and a much larger portion of the bridge collapsed into the river, to the great amusement of one of KFVS's dumber news anchors. No one was hurt in the mishap, but the river was blocked and the construction crew had a mess on its hands due to both the cleanup and the riverboats that were on a tight schedule. The river was thankfully fairly low at the time, the old bridge was moved out without further incident, and a gorgeous new bridge was put in. End tangent.
Back on topic now, Josef is a mischievous little Erna Meyer doll. When it's not too cold he likes to play outside.
Erna Meyer dolls have an interesting story, just as Grecon Little People do. Tam has a few of these dolls in her own dollhouse, and she relates Ms. Meyer's story here.
Josef's best friend is this little girl, Scarlett. She's modelled like your classic Little Red Riding Hood doll and has a few errant splotches of paint on her face.
Scarlett is made of rubber and is a German make like Josef is, but I don't know what brand. Her joints move, but since she IS rubber they're a hair stiff. She can sit a little, but not completely.
Scarlett is a reader, so I need to get her some books. I had some coming last spring...but they never ever got here.
The next doll is this one, Blanche. Blanche is pale all over, so I named her...well, "Blanche"! She's very loosely jointed and can't stand at all.
Hey, colors! "Scarlett" means red and "Blanche" means white.
Blanche has the famous "MADE IN TAIWAN" sticker on her back, but she's modelled like an antique. She has joints at the hips and shoulders as y'all saw above, and she sadly doesn't have a stitch to wear. Not yet, anyway. I don't know if there are dresses this tiny out there or not.
Next...Tam really likes these Caco dolls, so I got one for myself. I went the hurricane route for this one and named him Felix.
Due to his tender age my little Felix prefers to cuddle. He likes to cuddle with Betty, who is soft...
...and with his teddy bear, Penny.
The littlest one, Narcissa needs no introduction, really. She's a little Zapf baby that Treesa sent me last spring.
Narcissa sucks her thumb, just like I like. She's little enuff to be friends with this bunch, and I love her balloon hat! She's a tiny thing, but her face has a lot of personality.
Lastly, I think I'll move Camilla, my Dolly Darling, into the mix.
Lastly, I think I'll move Camilla, my Dolly Darling, into the mix.
Josef: It's...pink.
Yes, Josef, it IS pink, with gold polka dots. The other box I had is even pinker than this. You'll have to deal with it for now. Just for shizzles, here's how they all look when tucked into said box. They've all got leg room, but Josef isn't loving the pink.
Of course I have other small dolls that can live in or visit a dollhouse. Dolls like the Quints, or like Longlocks and Heather, or like Sheerena and Graham. Anyone under a certain size is fair game. LOL, by now y'all have probably figured out that I want to own a dollhouse. I did have one at one point, a little Fisher Price dollhouse that would've suited this bunch nicely, but I gave it away to someone who needed it more. Hobby Lobby offers kits, but they're mondo expensive, WAAAAY too big for my current living space, and my favorite model (the log cabin) apparently got discontinued years ago. I really liked the log cabin. It was the smallest house Hobby Lobby had to offer (and still wasn't cheap), but it had a lot of neat little things that were designed specifically for it. There was an OUTHOUSE, for crying out loud! I don't know why that tickled the soup out of me to see that tiny outhouse, but it did. Hey, pioneer dolls need to go too!
At the library where I work there is a child's book called This Is My Dollhouse. The book deals with a little girl and her very unique family of dollhouse dolls, and how she uses her imagination and ingenuity to create games and items for her dolls. The house itself is a cardboard box with brick-printed paper on the exterior, and DIY rooms fashioned within. The girl loves her dollhouse, but is a little self-conscious about it until her best friend comes over to play. It's a cute book, and one that gives me an idea about fashioning my own dollhouse. Hey, who said a dollhouse had to be Trump Plaza??? Comfort takes priority over luxury in my book. But...I don't really have room for a dollhouse. We're in the process of clearing out the back bedroom at Uncle Man-Child's place, but I'll need room for Shirley's birdcage (Laverne died in November) and my old toybox. No room for a dollhouse there, not right now! But that too could be in the future. I just gotta wait...and waiting is not something I'm good at. I've learned from a very reliable source that patience is for wimps.
Love,
RagingMoon1987
At the library where I work there is a child's book called This Is My Dollhouse. The book deals with a little girl and her very unique family of dollhouse dolls, and how she uses her imagination and ingenuity to create games and items for her dolls. The house itself is a cardboard box with brick-printed paper on the exterior, and DIY rooms fashioned within. The girl loves her dollhouse, but is a little self-conscious about it until her best friend comes over to play. It's a cute book, and one that gives me an idea about fashioning my own dollhouse. Hey, who said a dollhouse had to be Trump Plaza??? Comfort takes priority over luxury in my book. But...I don't really have room for a dollhouse. We're in the process of clearing out the back bedroom at Uncle Man-Child's place, but I'll need room for Shirley's birdcage (Laverne died in November) and my old toybox. No room for a dollhouse there, not right now! But that too could be in the future. I just gotta wait...and waiting is not something I'm good at. I've learned from a very reliable source that patience is for wimps.
Love,
RagingMoon1987
When I was younger, I was obsessed with books about doll houses and the doll families who lived in them, books like When The Dolls Woke by Marjorie Filley Stover and Home Is The Sailor by Rumer Godden. Not to mention, my favorite Beatrix Potter story was The Tale Of Two Bad Mice, which also involved a dollhouse. Needless to say, I had a dollhouse doll family when I was growing up, specifically the Horsman made Victorian Doll House Family. The family also included numerous clothespin dolls, cornhusk dolls, and various doll Christmas ornaments and vintage travel souvenir dolls that were approximately the correct scale.
ReplyDeleteI never had a house for them to live in, although I was once given a dollhouse kit with pre-punched wood sheets as a gift. I never assembled it because, like you, I had nowhere to put the finished house, so it was easier to just store the kit pieces in the box.
I do still have my dollhouse family, but they're no closer to home ownership now than they were then, since space is still an issue for me.
Signed, Treesa
I'd love to see your family if you've got 'em on hand. I love dollhouse collections! And yeah, I love "The Tale of Two Bad Mice"! That story was like something I could picture happening to my dolls, with one doll being kinda freaked out and the other being real chill. I need to give the other two books a read.
DeleteSince you're considering reading the books I mentioned, I need to share some additional information that may be helpful. Home Is The Sailor might be a bit tricky to find, since it's not one of Rumer Godden's more famous books. Her book Miss Happiness And Miss Flower, about a pair of small Japanese dolls and a little girl who wants to build a Japanese doll's house for them, is much more famous and also quite good. My copy even included instructions for recreating the Japanese doll's house. However, Home Is The Sailor is my personal favorite of the author's doll books.
DeleteAlso, regarding When The Dolls Woke, there is another book set before it titled Midnight In The Dollhouse, but I'm unclear if that book was a prequel or if it was written first.
Signed, Treesa
I'll browse eBay and Thriftbooks and see what I can find. I've found some unusual stuff on both sites, so it's worth a shot.
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