Another Tolly Tot Joins The Doll House or How Could I Not?

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

So... Recently I've been trying to clear out dolls that I am not utterly enamoured with because, lets be honest, I likely have too many dolls. Then again, who's to say how many is too many afterall? I've watched YouTuber's who have over a 100 American Girl dolls and in my whole collection I only have maybe ten that I've paid that kind of money for. Just as I say that, I am actually not sure how many 'posh priced' dolls I own, I'd have to think about it... The number might even be less than that? No matter, it's an illustrative point regarding the cost of my dolls, right? I just almost get a bigger kick out of getting a 'previously loved' doll and bringing her back from Toy Box Trauma. Teehee. My point is that there are indeed other doll collectors who have over 100 dolls. I actually haven't counted mine in a while but I imagine that is about where my number is? Typing that makes me resolve to count! I'll let you know when I do. I am rambling... I guess my point in all this is I suppose there is no 'correct' number of dolls or anything else. There are other kinds of doll collectors as well, people who collect 'fashion dolls' in the manner of Barbie or Monster High etc... People who collect BJD's and CPK's and Chatty Cathy's and and and... Toys are, afterall, produced to make people happy so is it any surprise that they do? I think not. So, as she always says at the end of her videos on Sew4Dolls, "Enjoy your dolls!" 

So, all that being said, even though I have recently decided to clear out poor dollies in my collection who might be getting dust in thier hair, I am still in the habit of 'looking around' on eBay for specific 'favorites' in my 'saved searches'... You know, just to see what's out there and available. One of the searches I have saved is, naturally, Tolly Tot's 18inch Dolls. I suppose because Rose was my first 18inch doll I have a soft spot in my heart for them. No surprise then, when I saw this beauty on eBay with a starting bid price of only 99cents, I had to just, you know, bid the 99cents just to be sure I wouldn't have to kick myself for not doing it later. Because, sometimes... Not often but sometimes.... You get the item for the starting price. I don't know if it's because of the title of the auction being somewhat 'vague' or what but for whatever reason, this little beauty became mine for only 99cents.

Yes, but how much to ship her you ask? Only $9.99!! Between fee's and shipping I almost feel guilty because I worry the seller might've lost money on the deal? Ah well, such as the nature of eBay. She even sent a sweet note with her that says "I hope you love her as much as I do." which made me smile because I really do love her! 

Perhaps you notice the description says 'Customized'? Well, I love what the prior owner did!! Well, at least most of it. She gave her a french manicure and I absolutely adore it. This doll will live in sandals I can tell you that much because her toenails are so gorgeous and so are her finger nails! 

Sorry for the fuzzy photo. The prior owner also gave her freckles and a mole to the right of her mouth. I didn't mind the mole really other than she somehow made it very '3D' and it stood out quite a bit. So.... I took my Norwex cloth and wiped over it about 30 times and although I couldn't get it totally removed (I actually didn't want to take it off compleatly, it's kind of cute) I made it look a lot less like she has a skin cancer on her cheek. (Not trying to be ugly about it and I should've taken a before photo but trust me when I tell you, it was a large mole!) 

Being as I already have a blonde haired blue eyed Tolly in my collection (although I think this face sculpt is wholly different? I will have to do a side by side comparison and let you tell me what you think...?) I plan to give this little gal different hair. The wigs I am considering are below... I am literally about to start flipping coins because I can't decide. I love them all but am leaning towards the one that isn't curly because I am a bit worried the curly hair will be hard to care for? But on the other hand those wigs are so beautiful? So I don't know... 

Let me know your favorite in the comments!

Gotta run!! Where did that weekend go?

Till Next Time!

XXOO
Heather


**Update October 7, 2017**
I ended up giving her the last wig! You can see a post about it here. I also decided to name this doll Vicky after a life long friend because after she got her new wig, she looked just like her. 

XXOO
Heather

Dollar Tree Tea Set Design Change!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

As many of you know, the Dollar Tree can be a great place to find things for 18inch Dolls. One of the best finds, I think, is the Tea Set they sell. It has four place settings and is perfect for the Doll House. I bought many sets to use in the Sweet Shoppe because, at $1.00 a set, I could afford to. I've also used the cups from the sets to make fancy coffee drinks for the dolls because, again, at less than a quarter each for the cups, I can afford to make several. So the other day I stopped in to the Dollar Tree for something else and, of course, checked out the toy section to see what they might have in. You can also find skate boards that are perfect for the dolls at this store. (You can see Josh and Vito doll riding them here in this post) They also have perfect guitars and so... You never know what they might come up with that is perfect for the dolls. When I walked into the toy aisle, I noticed they had a bunch of the tea sets... I was happy because I wanted to make some more fancy coffee drinks. So, I go to pick them up and..... Hold. The. Phone.

They totally changed the style of them!! The cups are larger, the tea pot is totally different and so are the spoons. The embelishments are all different too, more of a flowery design motif than the hearts that were the style of the older variety. I took a photo of the new sets in their blister packs (I bought six sets... Hahaha. For a reason though! I'll will tell about that in a future post). The older style tea pot, cup, spoon and plate I laid on the middle of the new sets to let you compare. Which style do you like better? Let me know in comments! I guess I like them both for different reasons but think they are both neat. 

Better run!
XXOO
Heather

Doll Tea Party at the Doll House!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

I love tea parties, don't you? I think there is something magical about them and suspect I am not alone in this opinion since little girls have been having tea parties for their dollies since, I suspect, the very first dollies were ever made. Given all that, I've been wanting and meaning to make a Doll Tea Party in the Doll House for ever so long but sadly, until now, it's never made it off my to-do list. 

Here is the Doll House nearly ready for the Doll Tea Party! Notice the smaller table with the small china tea set? That is where the Doll's Dollies will sit. 

Naturally since it is a fancy tea party, the girls who were going to attend wanted to wear pretty dresses to the party. So they all went to the wardrobe to see what dresses they would each wear...

Frann Doll,  Prism Doll and Electra-Jan Doll were three of the attendees to the party... They decided to go ahead and start choosing what they'd wear while they were waiting for Hemalayaa Doll to arrive. 

There are so many pretty dresses to choose from!

Frann said: "Prism this dress was practically made for you!!" Prism has several cats at home and the colors were perfect so Prism agreed!

"There are two dresses I think would look great on you Electra-Jan. You choose which one you like best and I'll wear the other because I like them both equally." Frann said.

"See, aren't they both beautiful?" Frann said. 

Eletra-Jan decided on the apple dress because she liked the blue background in the fabric. Blue is her favorite color!

About that time, Hemalayaa arrived. She said "I'm sorry I am late. I couldn't decide which doll to bring. I know the American Girl Doll's are so popular but... Well... My Cabbage Patch Doll and my Care Bear are actually my favorites so, finally, I decided to bring them." 

"Oh my goodness" said Electra-Jan "I am so glad you did! My favorite doll is also my Cabbage Patch  Kid and now she won't feel like the odd-man-out at the party! Thanks so much!" 

As she said this, she went and got her tote-bag out of the wardrobe.

"See? Here is Hyacinthia Pammy! She is my favorite doll of all time. I kept her name from the company when I adopted her and I'll have her forever!"

Hemalayaa was relieved and happy she'd decided to bring her favorites. Prism and Frann chimed in that of course she should bring her favorite doll and bear! Not everyone has the exact same tastes afterall!

So then they set about finding Hemalayaa a dress for the party.

"This one would be perfect for you!" said Frann. Hemalayaa agreed!!

Here are all the girls with their dress selections....

And all dressed with their dolls, ready for the party.

What a beautiful table and scrumptious looking petite fours and tea sandwiches!! 

All the girls got their dollies settled at the Doll Table...

 See, even the Doll Table has treats!

What a lovely tea party...!

They all picked out the dessert they liked and had some lovely tea to go with it.

After they were all done with the tea and treats, they decided they must take a photo of themselves and their dolls in the Photo Booth.

What a great photo to remember a great party!! If you want to see video of the party, you can find it here on my YouTube channel! I had so much fun taking the photos for it and hope you had fun reading the story.

Have a peaceful and restful Memorial Day. God Bless the soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice so we can be free to play dolls and have tea parties.

Till Next Time!
XXOO
Heather

An Evening Of Chess At The Doll House! Also, Doll Plants DIY Ideas!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

Happy Tuesday! I don't know about your neck of the woods but in mine today is the last day of school! Hallelujah! We made it through another year. Looking forward what will hopefully be a laid back and restful Summer this year! I'll pray you have the same!

There have been so many things I've wanted to tell you about in Doll House happenings that I am sort of doing a multiple purpose post here. Recently I discovered Be Chic Forever YouTube channel and she has so many clever ideas! I just adore her Doll House and her sense of style. It's a bit different than my own, she is very 'minimalist' in her decorating scheme and I am more 'hodgepodge collector', but that's half the fun of making a Doll House is that you get to decorate it to reflect your own tastes. 

One of the crafts she showed how to make was doll sized planters and vases and I absolutely adored the way hers looked! Having 'plants' in her doll house made it look so much more 'real' that I knew I'd have to give it a go and try and 'make' a few of my own! So... In the photos in this post, you'll see what came of my attempts. 

Here is a vase of flowers I put together... The vase, naturally, was thrifted somewhere along the line... The picture of the bird and the two ducks are recent (like in the last week) thrifty finds! The picture of the duck is a OOAK Art Card! Isn't it pretty? It was only 50cents with the frame included! The ducks were 25c each, not a bad deal for $1.00. I think the ducks look like they were made to go with the vase, don't you? See that very faded photo of the girl in the heart frame? That was me when I was younger, on one of my first Military ID cards as a young Army wife. The other side has a photo of my husband from same place... Or maybe these were from when we were teens as AF Brats? I don't recall for sure. But I've had that frame since I was like 19 and a newly wed. So, as you can see, I've always loved miniature things!

This Tea Set was also a thrity find. I thought it was kind of funny that it was 'pre-priced' $2 from whereever it was originally purchased and then Goodwill marked it $1.99. No matter to me though, I thought it was certainly worth $1.99... Cos goodness knows I need more doll dishes. Right? Teehee.

Here it is in the box in case you like it and want to try and search for one yourself.

I love that it says you can use it with food! How funny.

Now, if you take a look at the top of the beautiful glass front bookcase you'll see a couple of 'potted plants'. The planters are wooden napkin rings I got at the Thrift Store!! (see photo on this link) I simply glued a circle tags I already had on hand that were the correct circumference to the bottom of them so they'd hold plants. There was a small hole in the tag but it wasn't like I was using any dirt. I used the leaves off of some flowers that I used to put in a vase for all three of them. The taller of the planters (on the clock) I simply glued two of the napkin rings together to make a taller one. I love how they came out and I have another batch of napkin rings I got at same time that I plan to make more 'planters' out of. How fun!

The adorable chess set that Josh and Frank are playing with? Also a thrifty find, it's meant to be a travel sized game for 'real people' but it makes a perfect doll sized chess set! I love it!

Frann is pulling out a few extra cups now that Spectrum and Oliver have arrived! 

I am going to have to let the rest of the 'story in photos' tell the story because Blogger ate up all my writing time this morning by taking half an hour to upload this post... Bummer.

I made this bouquet and so of course Josh Doll had to present the very first doll bouquet I ever made to Heather Doll. Right?

"I better get these into some water!"

"Thanks Josh!" 💓

I took a lot of these with a YouTube Video in mind... So once I get that to upload, I'll come back and post a linky in case you want to see it!

These are kind of funny photos but I wanted to show you the flowers on top of the hutch and the pink flowers in the vase below... Another couple I put together. I can see this might get addictive, this flower and plant thing because they are so cute and pretty easy to put together. Coupled with my apparent talent at finding little vases and vessels, I think I'll have more in the future. Haha.

Better run!

XXOO
Heather