Family....Dolls......Pain....Everything that has kept me off here.

First we start with the family.  Two of our three kids plus two grand kids were here for almost a week.  I sure enjoyed having them here but it was too hot to really do any thing so we pretty much stayed in the home and talked, played on the computers, watched some television and put together a puzzle.  We did do a little shopping and ate a lot.  I didn't cook at all because the kids bought at our meals.  It was great as I really, really don't like to cook.

Then I guess I should talk about the pain.  I am pretty much living on pain killers.  I have been diagnosed with severe arthritis of the spine.  Some days it is hard to get out of bed and other days not so bad.  It is something I just have to learn to live with.  I had a couple of days of pity party but then, I decided it is NOT going to stop me and I decided  try to live a normal life for as long as I can.   I work a little and I sit a little and I walk a little and that is how I get through each day.   No one wants to hear about my aches and pains so that is enough......

 Now for my dolls.  My real joy in life right now.  The hunt for dolls is so much fun and my husband, I think, is having as much fun as I am going to the thrift stores.  There are times when I figure we were at one of the store just a couple of days before and here he is saying lets go check out this store or that.

 It has been a couple of weeks were we didn't find anything that we wanted and then this past week we have found 6 dolls that I can work on.  Some are named dolls and some are not.  Are the vintage dolls, no, but they are nice dolls to work on. 

 Here is one that I have not found anything about.  She is a sweetie with a cute smiley face and freckles.  She is 15 inches tall.  If anyone knows anything about this doll I would sure appreciate knowing.

These are the before and after pictures of her.  She has a little speaker in her tummy but it doesn't work anymore and there is no way to replace it without taking the doll apart.  I didn't want to do that as she was in great shape.  I decided she looked like an Irish lassie with her strawberry blond hair and reddish brown freckles.

I hope to be able to get on here tomorrow or before the week is out to be able to show you the doll I finished up today.  She is my BJD Southern Belle doll.

It has been a while......

Yep, it has been quite a while since I have posted on here.  Where does the time go?  I have been getting more dolls and fixing them up.  I had been buying a few on eBay as the dolls that I put on there sold, I would use the money to buy other dolls.  Now eBay is flat in sales so I have not bought any more on there.  By the time I pay to have them shipped, it raises the cost and then I have to charge more for the dolls when I finish them.  We are still going to the thrift stores every week and finding some good buys.  Have bought quite a bit of furniture too so come fall and the craft shows, I will have the furniture to sell too.  Plus I also have some doll quilts that I have made and there are always the extra doll clothes.

Digging through all the old stock I had on the shelves, I found a few bears that haven't sold so have them on my website at a good price.  Need to get rid of that stock because I need the room.  I have also make some of the "Emma" dolls and have a couple of them on my website too.  I really need to get some more of them made.

Here is the one doll that I worked on this past couple of weeks.  It is a Madame Alexander,  18 inch baby doll.  She was such a sweetheart to work on.

And next we have the Lee Middleton by Reva,  17 inch boy doll.  His face was so sweet, I couldn't pass him up.  I made this outfit in a navy suede cloth. 

















I hope you like these two babies.  They are not listed anywhere yet but if anyone is interested in these dolls, please contact me.

Well we are starting to get a wind storm here so I guess I had better get off the computer.  Thanks for reading my blog and don't forget to leave comments.  

I am in love with a doll.

Yes, it is true.  My hubby and I go looking for dolls and doll furniture every week at all the thrift stores.  These are all old dolls in need of work and clothes and all that you already know.  I love the work I am doing with the dolls.  Last week we found some great doll furniture.  A wicker cradle, a love bunch and a wicker chair and one little doll that I got cleaned up.

Well today was our usual Goodwill day as it is 25% off for seniors.  We were going up and down the toy aisle and looking for dolls and rejected what was there.  We always stop in the porcelain aisle but because I have not had good luck with selling this type of doll and they are always priced higher, we just look at them and pass them by.  I picked up this Indian baby and said isn't she cute, to bad she is porcelain.  I put her back and we walked to the back of the store to see if there was any furniture, trims or fabric we could get.  Nothing there and I saw an oil lamp that looked nice from a distance but when I got up close it was to new to be sold as an antique so past on it.  I was ready to leave and just as we got up to where the dolls were again, John says don't you want this Indian doll.  I loved the look but know she probably wouldn't sell and that is what we do this for, but I decided, oh heck, I can buy something for myself once in a while.  She was a little messy but I got her home, brushed her hair and the fur on her outfit.  Then I found she did have a cute little necklace with bells on it.  She sits in a swing that is just attached at the top of the head.  Right now she is hanging in my kitchen but I am going to be putting her in my sewing room and I will be able to smile at her every day when I am in there.

I guess it is good to find something for myself once in a while.  She is dressed in lavender which is one of my favorite colors.  She has a couple of things I still need to fix.  Some of the feathers need replacing and one eyelash is missing but she is so sweet even if I never get the little things fixed.

By the end of the week, I should have another doll in the mail that I can work on but at this point in time, I really don't have anything new coming out.  I miss working on dolls every day.

Tomorrow I have to get an album together to take to a store so that they can show my dolls there.  I am hoping that one of these days they will carry some of the dolls and not just pictures of the dolls.

I have had lots of fun this week.

I have had lots of fun this week with making christening type dresses for 13 inch Lee Middleton baby dolls.  I did one in blue and one in peach.  Each one is a little different as I only make one of a kind outfits.  They are both listed on my website.  After I finished up these, I was in a lace overload so it was on to something more simple. 

Then it was onto the last of the Lee Middleton dolls that I got.  This one is a 15 inch toddler doll from 2000.  I just did her is a little white with red rose buds, cotton print dress and bloomers.  She is a little cutie with pretty brown eyes that seem to talk to you.

As this is the last of these dolls, I have  3 Alexander dolls from 1965 that I have to see what I can do with.  All have some ills and not sure I will be able to fix them or not.    These are 13 inch dolls and I am going to have to really work on them to be able to do anything with them.  Next week should be good for working on them.......but first I really, really need to clean the sewing room.

Back to designing.

After a pretty good show two weeks ago and then pretty much not really doing much last week, I have started to design long christening like dresses for dolls.  This is my first example of an outfit.  There are a few things I want to change but only minor and I am probably the only one who will notice what differences will be in the dresses and hats.  This dress was designed for this old Eugene doll that I had completely taken about and cleaned and put new stuffing in.  Some of the dolls that I get are in pretty bad shape and sometimes it takes my months to get to the bad ones.  They are always put aside as I work the on easier ones.  Minor cleaning and washing and setting hair is the easy part.  Some times though a doll will sit on the shelf, without any clothes, until I can find just the right fabric and dress design to use.








I just had to show everyone this tricycle I found last week at the thrift shop.  I was out looking for doll furniture as it is so hard to find and this is one of the things I found.  I have wanted one of these for years.   I have now stained it in a walnut so that I will be able to use it in my displays when I am doing shows.

Side note on this trike:  Dolls really don't fit too well on this trike so I actually may have to break down and design and make a bear just for this trike.  Funny idea when I said I wasn't going to do that any more.

So now today I received three Lee Middleton dolls by Reva Schick.  Two little 13 inch baby dolls from 2007, that I have started to make outfits for.  One will be in blue and one in peach.  These will be the long christening type dresses.  The 17 inch doll, by same designer in 2000, that I got, I am not sure what I am going to do with her.  We will just all have to wait and see.

Great show and I am exhausted.

Well my three day show is over.  Sold lots of stuff and made some money.  Yea for me because in 3 shows over the last 6 weeks this is the first one that made money. 

 The first show was an antique and collectible show with lots and lots of people coming through and the sales for most of us were dismal.  The second show no customers showed up.  There just wasn't any advertising and as a first show this was a big mistake.  The show this weekend had good advertising and the sales for almost all the vendors were good.  People were buying.  I sold things I have been carrying around for 2 or 3 years.  I couldn't believe it.  It sure helped me get rid of stuff I just don't make or what to sell anymore. 

I talked to lots of people about dolls and may have a lead on a bunch of old dolls.  I will see if that pans out.  Hope so.  Then people are always asking me what I thought a certain doll is worth.  Some I could tell them my opinion and others I had no idea.  I told these people they would have to research it on the internet and always check Ebay as to what they are selling for on there.  They could even list on Ebay themselves and see if it would sell.  I don't buy dolls from people when they want full retail for them or I would never make any money. 

The price of dolls goes up and down so fast that there is no way of saying what sells at a good price today would sell at that price in two weeks.  It is all what customers or collectors are looking for at the time and there is just no predicting that. 

Now I have to find someone who will make me some more doll furniture cheap.  I am always being asked if I will sell the chairs that I have now.  Doll furniture at a good price is hard to find.  I do sell the chairs I have collected over the last few years and I am getting very low on chairs.  I wish I was able to make them but I just don't do that kind of work or have the work space to do them if I could.

Well I am exhausted tonight and just wanted to tell everyone that there are good shows out there. It took me a while to hit one but it did happen this weekend.  I usually don't do spring shows because my stuff has always sold better in the fall but I will continue to do this show every year. 

Now because I sold all my "Emma" soft dolls I have to make a bunch of them again.  I never thought they would go over as big as they have but they are unique with their four faces and they have been one of my best sellers in any show that I do.

Grrrrrrr Computer Problems

This has been a horrid two weeks of computer problems.  First my computer total stopped and I have to send it in for upgrades and repairs.  Then my husband's had a virus and because it hadn't been connected to the net his needed major updating.  So we thought we had everything taken care of and guess what.  After two days home from repairs, I got hit major time by hackers on my computer and it hit microsoft's operating system which shut it down.  They had added all kinds of junk to the system and it took another hour of special software by the repair guy to fix it.  Well we thought it was all fixed.  Little faith...because it still isn't right and now we wait for the repair guy to call tomorrow and with multi-fingers crossed.... hope he will be able to fix the rest of the problems.

Okay that is enough complaining about computers.  Can't live with them and can't live without them.

Now onto the good part of the week.  We picked up 4 dolls at Goodwill on Wednesday.  Good price on all of them and was not really sure what I had picked up but I am getting really good at spotting sellers.  I ended up with a 23.5 inch Corolle doll.  No picture of her here (will add picture to side bar of her)  because after I cleaned her up and made some new clothes for her, I put her on Ebay and she sold within three hours of the listing and will be traveling to France tomorrow.  Next I got a Ballini baby doll that I made clothing for, plus a Zapf Baby Born, which still has the original clothing and a Precious Moments doll completely dressed with tag still attached.  These are now on Ebay and seeing I didn't put a "buy it now" on them, I have to wait to see if they sell.

 The above is the Ballini baby doll.  She is 18 inch tall, with cloth jointed body and vinyl limbs and head.  She has the most electric blue eyes.

Then we went on to dolls that arrived in the mail, these I had picked up at a good price on Ebay.  The above is a Horsman, 14 inch all vinyl doll.  She had a long dress on but was not in good shape.  I had bought this doll because I had had several people bug me to make a bride doll.  I haven't made bride dresses since I was making them for my daughter's Barbie dolls back in the last 60's.  I really didn't want to make one but I thought just one.  I have a hard time working with white on white and all that bride fabric.  Eyes just don't see as well anymore.....That is another whole story and we WON'T go into that one.

I also got a 12 inch cloth and vinyl baby doll that is a Horsman too.  I did get the clothes done for her today but no pictures yet.  Maybe tomorrow after I have the computer fixed again.  Right now it is hard to get the pictures loaded on my computer.  I have to use a backdoor and them move them around a couple of times to get them where I can crop and fix them.  No fun.

Well that has been my last couple of weeks and I have a 3 day show this next weekend, so don't know when I will get back to post on here again.  I really need to do a better job of keeping up with my blog. 

Everyone enjoy your first week of spring and I hope your weather is warm.