Heart For Hearts Doll Thrift Store Find... A year later...

Greetings Doll Friends!

Just a quick post here... When I posted about my Heart For Hearts Doll Collection recently I searched high and low through my old postings to see if I could find the post about finding this beautiful doll but... Nothing?

So I dug into my phone and low and behold I still had the photos...! From clear back in like April of this year. I guess I meant to post about her after I got her cleaned up and then cleaned her up and went on to other things...

I was so stoked when I found her because she was nearly complete, down to her jewelry. That is a very rare thing. 

She is the doll called Dell and I actually already had another Dell when I found her but... How to resist? I named that one Katniss and this one was eventually named Maurine after an aunt whom she favors a lot. 

Look at that price! $3.99 for a nearly new Heart For Heart's Doll! And people wonder why I can't seem to drive by a thrift store... It's so hard when there is a possible doll treasure in each one! Eh?

That's it for now!

Till next time!
XXOO
Heather

Famosa Nancy

Hello Doll Friends!

As you've probably become keen to, I have a tendency, at least lately, to use whatever 'mad money' I have on dolls or things for dolls. You have probably also caught on to the fact that I 'research' on eBay, a lot. Interestingly enough, I am finding dolls that I've never heard of before. Often, I find them via eBay's oh-so-dangerous "You may like this because you bought that" feature. I am pretty sure that isn't the real name for said feature, but that is what it does. I catalogs your purchases and looks around eBay for similar items and suggests them to you. Clever eBay. Clever. 

Such was the route by which the following beauties made their way home to the Doll House. They were on auction as new dolls but totally nude. As if someone purchased them to get the outfits but didn't want or need the dolls in their collection. Can't imagine who may do such a thing? Oh wait... I sort of did that. So, honestly, it gives me encouragement to think that the dollies that I buy for just their clothing may very well find new owners who are thrilled to own them. Thrilled like I am to own these two pretty dolls. I got them both for $12! (Ok, so shipping was also $12) and I thought that was a bargain just to get to see what they were all about. 

They are called Famousa Nancy Dolls I would give you a detailed review of their history but there is a fabulous history of them and review of them here.

Please excuse the dolls in their birthday suits but I wanted to show what they looked like, body type wise. They have hard plastic legs and torso, reminding me of the dolls you'd get at the drug store back in the 1970's that were three feet tall and could 'walk'. I never had one but my cousin did and I played with her often at my cousins house, so I remember. Much like those dolls, these dolls stand amazingly well on their own!

They are similar in body size and shape to the Heart for Heart dolls but are two inches taller. Their hair is rooted and pretty soft. Their arms and face are of a softer plastic, much like baby doll skin. 

Here they are, all dressed up and hanging out in the doll room with some of the girls. You can see how they compare, size wise, to both the Heart for Hearts dolls and to the Our Generation 18" doll. 

They all posed for a group photo!

Here they are with a couple of our Disney Princess and Me dolls, they are also similar in body size and will be able to share a lot of the same sized clothes. You can see how the 'same' dresses, which I told how to make here and here. 

I think they are going to fit right in! My daughter named the lighter blonde one Taylor and I named the more golden blonde one Oksana. 

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time! 

My Friend Mandy and Jenny meet American Girl Doll

In keeping with my recent vintage toy theme, I am going to post about my dolls from when I was a kid. I was born in 1972 and so when I was the right age for dolls (well, aren't all ages the right age, but I digress) I was lucky to get My Friend Mandy and then soon afterwards, My Friend Jenny dolls. I loved them! I played with them constantly! My mom liked them as well as I did and so I had nearly every outfit they made for them back then. Naturally, being me, I kept them. Doll friends, meet Mandy and Jenny!

Actually, in this photos it would be meet Jenny and Mandy! Jenny has brown hair and Mandy has blonde. Above, I have them standing next to an American Girl Doll (named Panda) and a Heart For Heart doll for size comparison. 

I was kind of appalled at how dirty they were when I pulled them out of storage! I'd previously let my daughter and many other kids play with them and guess I never looked too closely at them. So I washed them up, laundered their clothes and combed out their hair. The dresses they are wearing in photos are the ones they originally came in, tights shoes and all! All in pretty amazing shape considering they are all over thirty years old! Sadly, despite having owned nearly every ensemble made for the My Friend Dolls by Fisher Price in the 1970s and early 1980s, I now only own these original dresses and the clothes my Granny made me from patterns found in the boxes to the pre-made ensembles. Somewhere along the lines in my 20s, I discovered I could "get $10/outfit on eBay!" And I sold them all. Regret!!! Oh well, I kept the important bits, the ones made by Granny and the dolls themselves. Speaking of, my Granny kept the patterns and sent them all to me in my 20s as well! I may have to pull them out and try and sew some new clothes for my old friends! There was also a red haired My Friend made at time named Becky and a boy doll named Mikey who I really wanted at the time but I didn't get them. 

Here are a couple of photos to show the difference in body types between the My Friend dolls and American Girl and then Heart for Hearts.

Sorry these are sideways, I thought I'd edited them to be upright but if I don't post them now, I might not make it back! Sure you busy people understand! Ha! So I may edit photos and come back and change but just in case, here they are.

And another photo from the 'Welcome Party' the dolls threw! Mandy and Jenny are going to be permanent residents now and so you'll see them more in the future. 

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time! 

Heart For Hearts 14inch Doll Collection... So far...!

Hi Doll Friends!

It is such a busy time of the year! So I am a little behind in my recent idea to update my doll collection posts here since my collection has grown quite a lot over the last year. I finally found time to get the Heart For Hearts dolls posed and photographed. 

Here they all are! 

From Left to Right Back Row:

-Lauryce (Name she came with but I loved it)

-Simone 

-Surjan (Name she came)

From Left to Right Front Row:

-Lilian (Name she came with)

-Katniss

-Maurine

-?? Not named yet! Just got her!!

All but one of them have been found second hand because they are sadly retired and extremely expensive on the 2nd hand market unless you happen to find them in a thrift store like I've done with mine... I got my most recent one that I've posted about this year in May. here is the story of Katniss and my other Dell doll and one other I just found this last week at a thrift store I haven't taken the time to post about. 

For a little more information on this manner of dolls here is the Heart For Hearts Dolls Facebook page! They really are cute little dolls. I feel like they are a little bit too fragile for all but a bit older girls who are very careful with their dolls. From what I understand they plan to bring them back out on the market soon and I think that is great. The regular new price point of $40 is pretty good compared to the American Girl Wellie Wishers but they are also not as 'sturdy' as I understand those to be. These dolls also had a bit of an issue with the eyes fading color and turning purple or other odd colors. This has started to happen with my Lauryce... Still, they are really beautiful dolls and a great 'little sister' for American Girl, Our Generation and other 18inch dolls.

Here they all are in my new 'transport basket' being shuttled from where they are stored to the photo spot!

A very handy way to transport and store them if you need to... Laundry baskets!

Here they are all put back in their normal 'homes...

Better run!

Till Next Time!
XXOO
Heather

Consuelo Heart For Hearts Doll Thrift Store Find!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

In my recent post about my Heart For Hearts doll collection I included my most recently found Heart For Hearts 'Consuelo' at the local Thrift Store for only 75cents!!

Here is what she looked like when I found her. Well, other than the shorts... She was wearing just the top but to me it seems almost worse than being entirely naked, just being halfway so! So I slipped on the pair of shorts to give her more dignity. As you can see, she is still wearing her price tag on her top. 

She'd been rather poorly treated!! Poor dear!

But for 75cents, I didn't care a toot! I snatched her up and brought her home immediately. 

As you can see, she was pretty dirty when I got her... She also has an ink mark above her right eyebrow and ink can be pretty hard to remove. I figured if I couldn't get it off entirely perhaps I would paint over it or something, making it a 'scar' because they happen right? 

She also had some ink on her foot... Less of a big deal because if it doesn't come off I can always turn it into a cool tattoo or something. Right?

So to clean her up I pulled out my trusty Norwex cloth and started cleaning her up... As usual, everything cleaned up with just the cloth and water other than that pesky ink stain. I've heard of a trick you can try using Oxy-lotion (think acne products) and dab it on stain and leave in the sunlight. I've never actually tried it because I've never had an ink stain on a doll in such a prominent spot before. So I'll try that... Am a bit worried it'll bleach out her skin in that spot and look just as bad or worse but again, there is always the 'scar' back up plan. 

I also washed her hair and 'hot dipped' her hair... It looked like she might've lost some of her hair due to rough treatment and brushing so it was a little on the thin side...

But she came out lovely!! Again, I need to work on the ink stains but.... Still, she's so pretty! For her name I am thinking of Sonja after a mentor I had in High School who she favors. 

Well, it's Monday morning and time to start getting the famiy moving!

Christmas is less than two weeks away! Where does the time go?

Till next time!
XXOO 

Heather

Just Pretend Dolls Join the Doll House!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

Well... I think I need intervention. Or to remove the eBay app from my phone. Or both. So... Let me explain!! I have been on eBay for many many years, both as a seller and as a buyer. I've learned a few tricks of finding things you want for cheap, even now after everyone else knows about eBay. I'd spill all my tricks here but they'd sound like tech talk and I am not a tech blog by any stretch of the imagination! Suffice to say I know how to tweak the search engines like a pro. I will let you in on a little secret about eBay. Or maybe it's not a secret but not a lot people think about it. As a seller on eBay, one really bad decisions you can make is to put your item up for an auction and have the last day of the auction be on a major holiday. Never do that if you want the maximum bids for your items people! Surprisingly enough, even in today's society, many people don't shop on eBay as much on major holidays like Easter and Christmas. So... As you may imagine, there is less bidding competition for good items on that day. 

I've not really had any major holidays pass by since the doll bug has bit me again and so... Being me, I couldn't help myself to just go peek and see what might be out there with regards to my most desired doll types. What do I find but... A person who is obviously selling off their their entire doll collection. What a collection it was too! They had an American Girl lot, a Heidi Ott lot and several other types but the type she had the most of were "Just Pretend" dolls. I've wanted one ever since I found out they existed on one of my favorite blogs. Here is an amazing review of them, all their varieties here. This blog may be my undoing because there are so many awesome dolls and naturally I wouldn't mind having one (or two...) of all of them in the Doll House! Is that wrong?

So I picked my two favorites and bid on my most favorite one, the one in the red candy striped outfit. Her auction ended before the other one and so I figured I'd bid on her and if I got outbid, I'd just bid on the other one. At the time all these amazing dolls were all bid free and only about 12 hours out from ending! Unheard of, these are rare! Especially for what the beginning bid prices were! So anyway, fast forward about six hours and sure enough, I was outbid. Undaunted, I went for the long haired beauty above. I was high bidder and was so excited that I was going to win her in all likelihood because it was about a half hour out from the end of auction and I was still high bidder. Which could mean nothing but... Then!! I got a notice "You've Won!" on the other auction. WHAT??! I was really feeling selfish and self-indulgent for buying one but went ahead because these beauties usually go for as much as four times my high bid was. I'd 'lost' the auction, I'd let it go! How did that happen!? I was so upset cause I knew I'd probably get both and so I went down and told my husband "I don't know what happened!!? I'd lost the auction!! Now I'll get both and I already felt like I'd spent too much" Then he gets this big sheepish grin on his face and said "Why didn't you think I'd try and get the one you wanted most for you at the last minute?" So he had bid a bit higher than I had and won! As you can tell, I also won the other auction. I feel very spoiled but... I LOVE THEM!

I broke with my recent 'standards' of only photographing dolls 'in the doll house' as much as possible. I was so excited when I got them in the mail I had to photo them immediately!! Aren't they gorgeous!?

I know she was my 'second pick' but I love love love her! Their hair is amazing!! They are very well made, can stand well on their own and are going to be great friends to all the other dolls in the Doll House!

Their hair needed a bit of brushing when they arrived. Their clothing was great, I think the green dress was home-made but she came with white shoes and the little red and white striped dress is adorable and so well made! The red striped one is my first doll with a short hairstyle and I adore it! Such a cute bob!

So here they are, all changed into fresh dresses and with their faces washed and hair combed. They are so lovely!

With some of the gang!

They have similar body types to the Heart For Heart and other 'slim line' dolls. 

Well, that's it for this time Doll Friends! See you soon!

Photo Outtakes! Bloopers! Hahaha!

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