Announcing Heartland Doll House and Store!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

I am excited and pleased to announce that I am opening

Heartland Doll House And Store 

As soon as I can get the appropriate improvements made to the store front it will be located in...

Where is that you ask?

307 5th Street, Syracuse Nebraska 68446

For my readers who've been with me a while, they may recall when I had the idea of having 

Heartland Doll Tea Parties 

a couple of years ago . We had the venue, in Syracuse as well, in the basement of the 

Treasure Trove Antique Store and Tea Room 

 Sadly, it didn't go over as well as we'd hoped. I honestly didn't have enough room, there, to really set up what I envisioned in my head. I always thought:
"If only I could find a venue that I could afford where I could have a little doll store and Doll Venues much like what I described in the

  Heartland Tea Parties blog post. 
Only on a much larger scale!" 
Sadly, I never could seem to find a venue where the rent would be low enough to even break even in all likelihood. So the idea stayed a little dream in my head...

Until...

My husband started his own business a couple of years ago and through circumstances that felt like nothing but providence from God, we bought a building in the town we live in for him to have a workshop and small office in. However, the building also has a fabulous and nifty store front that was, heretofore, for quite some time, an art gallery. So all of the sudden my Doll Store idea was closer to reality than I ever imagined possible! I had hoped to get it up and running by early Summer but due to budget constraints that are the waxing and waning of business, we haven't had a chance to do the necessary improvements to the store front in order to make it appropriate for the ideas I had. 

What ideas?

Well I have so many. 

First and foremost I plan for it to be, well, a Doll Shop. Obviously. I plan to try and sell some of my customized & madeover dolls and some of the Doll Clothes I've been making. I am hoping to find some other local doll clothes artisans or woodworkers who make doll furniture to perhaps put some items in the store so I'll have more variety and also help support local small business. 

My other idea is that, as part of the Doll Shop experience, I'll have several Doll House Venues set up for doll lovers young and old to play in and/or take photos of their dolls in. I'm not sure exactly how I will go about it yet but that's the working idea. Perhaps you'll get a certain amount of time in the Doll Venues if you purchase something from the Doll House and/or can rent time by the hour. I'd really love some feedback from ya'll on what you think would work and be fair. 

Another idea I have will be similar to the Doll Tea Parties only they will more likely be Doll Themed Birthday Parties where a group of about eight girls will come, have cake and do a doll related craft and then play in the Doll Venues with either their own dolls or lender dolls I'll have on hand for them to borrow while they're there. I also plan to have just Craft and Play times scheduled in case you want to do that part but don't want to have an entire party. 

So those, my lovely Doll Friends are my ideas. 

And here is my very first Heartland Doll House and Store window display! 

I need to do a few things to it (like get the tape residue off the window where it stuck when I pulled down the brown craft paper we've had over the windows) but I was reasonably pleased with how it came out! We have the Otoe County Fair in town this weekend and so I made a fair scene to wish all the young Fair Entrants the best of luck! 

Sorry for the weird glare in this photo. 

So I'll keep you updated on the progress at the store as it comes along...! 

Have a fantastic week!

XXOO
Heather

PS As I was setting up the window I had this, ironically enough, doll sized frog very interested in the goings on in what must be his window. How funny!