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!

Teddy Bear Connection At Westroads Mall Has 18Inch Doll Clothes!!

Hello Doll Friends!!

Happy Saturday!! 

The other day Frann Doll and Heather Doll visited the Mall to see the Love Can Store, grab a snack and perhaps do a bit of people watching. Heather Doll also wanted to check out the Teddy Bear Connection  to see what cute t-shirts they might have. Much like Build-A-Bear it's a store that you go pick a plush friend to 'stuff' and then dress in outfits. Oftentimes those clothes will fit 18inch dolls if you modify them a little bit. 

As we approached the store Heather Doll noticed something very exciting... There were 18inch Doll in the window!!! Oh my goodness!!

At first we thought they were just capitalizing on the fact that bear clothes sometimes fit dolls... But on closer look, not at all, they were actual doll clothes! Also, look closely at the photo above. The blonde doll in the green Tinker Bell costume is Heather Doll's twin! Awesomeness!

It was like finding a hidden treasure! It's not a common thing to see a store front with 18inch dolls! I was so stoked! Heather Doll was so stoked!

Beautifully dressed 18inch Dolls were all over the store and it turns out that they sell dolls as well...!! How exciting!

They have a whole section of the cutest doll clothes and accessories!! They also happened to be 25% off right now too! Great news for most people but for me, oh the pain! I have already blown my entire Doll budget (plus a few dollars!!) and so buying anything at all wasn't something I could do. Ouch! However just knowing they are there is fun and can always go back next month when I get a re-fill on my Doll Allowance. Right?

So. Many. Cute. Things! Just look at that swimsuit! 

Oh my goodness, they have cow print tall boots. I want!!

I am pretty sure the first thing I'll be back for is that Harry Potter costume! It's got a velcro adhered 'house emblem' and so you can make it for any house in Howarts you want your doll to be in! How cool is that! They also had a Princess Leia costume and so many others as you can see... Heather Doll just walked around in awe of the vast selection of items just her size! 

It was so much fun to see the Fashionista dolls! I don't have one.... Yet...!

Look at the ginormous bear stuffing machine!! So much fluff!

This doll sweet face just made me smile... I meant to ask the brand of doll and then forgot. Isn't she pretty!? Love the cap and gown!

As you can see, they even have dolls on the counter behind the register. So totally cool.

**So after going around and admiring everything I finally decided to take some photos of Heather Doll in the store. I was sort of silly... I had Frann Doll with me too but at first I was just thinking "Oh, I will just take a photo or two since I just spent so much time taking photos at the Love Can Store" because my friend Beth was with me and I didn't want to make her wait again. However she and the sweet employee at the store encouraged me to go for it! So then I thought I'd just take a few and just of Heather Doll because the more dolls you have in a scene the longer it takes because you have to get them both to stand up and pose etc.

But the more I saw the more I wanted to photograph...

Just look at all those cute dresses!

Check out the bear stuffing machine that is more Doll Sized!

Heather Doll was having so much fun that she finally insisted I take Frann Doll out and let her look around too!

Here they are by what I think might be the biggest teddy bear in the entire world! Look how huge he is!!

So stay tuned in the future when I go back next month to buy a thing or two from this fabulous store! They are super friendly and so you should stop in sometime soon too and get a treat for your Dolly!!

Better run!

Till Next Time!

XXOO

Heather

Thrift Thrift Thrift... What I Bought (a Robin Woods Doll) and What I Left Behind...

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

Golly time flies... Where have the last few weeks gone? 

I have been busy working and taking care of the kids and going to church and meetings and and and...

However, in between all that, I have gone to thrift stores. 

Teehee.

Cos, you know, priorities! 

So here is a post about what I've seen and what I've brought home...

What I've brought home is pretty simple cos it's just one the last few weeks. 

This darling doll above... I have tried to swear off buying too many 'new' dolls but she was just too pretty and unique to leave her at the store! She was priced $3.99 and given that she was in, I think, her 'meet outfit' that was a great price! She is a Robin Woods 14 inch doll but she's the first one I'd seen with glass eyes... I've only ever seen the kind that have painted on eyes before. So, I had to have her! 

Now, for what I've seen but left behind for other doll loving people to find...

This black horse with silver mane and tail, above, is the first thing.

I really do love these horses but they take up so much space so I have to just admire them in the store nowadays and leave them for other peoples dolls to ride. 

Teehee.

This fabulous curio cabinet was very tempting... I moved during the last year and had to leave some things behind at donation places and one of the things I regret leaving was one of my favorite doll hutch that you can see in this post. Oh well, only so much space to store stuff in my new place and it was pretty ginormous so I'll just have to be happy to have it in photos. I'm sure some other person has it now and is taking very good care of it.

This little metal chair and table were intriguing and would've made great props for an outdoor scene but again, only so much room and I have lots of doll furniture already. 

Speaking of furniture... You might notice this bag of furniture is in my shopping buggy... I carried it around for much of my time at the store that day but ulitmately decided that I'd leave it there. The little white table was what really tempted me because it's the table that comes with the Beach House from Our Generation and I kept thinking it'd be nice to have two the next time I set up the Beach House for doll photos. Then I remembered how seldom that happens anymore, especially the last few months that I've been working a lot of overtime at work and... Decided I'd just make do with the one I already have when the time comes again that I have more time to do doll photos. 

There were three 'new in package' outfits from Springfield Dolls. I have so so so many doll clothes so I left them for some other doll loving person to find and add to their doll wardrobe. 

This doll was very tempting to me... I just thought she was so pretty and she was a premium Our Generation meaning that she had the type of arms you can pose by bending her elbow...

But I left her there. 

This was a pretty Kingstate Doll... She really needed help with her hair. 

Did I mention I'm trying to not add too many new dolls to my collection nowadays? 

So, she stayed there. 

It made me smile to see this Tak May Doll... I've found them in the past and given them body transplants because their bodies don't lend themselves to standing up or sitting well... 

It occurs to me I don't recall seeing either one of them lately... I wonder if they were not a couple of the dolls I've sent along to new homes in doll purges when I'd start to feel guilty about having so many dolls. Cos, yeah, I've felt that before, many times. In fact, at some point, when I find the time, I am planning on thinning out my collection quite a lot. I have gotten to where I have so many dolls that none of them get the proper attention or photo time they should and so if I had fewer dolls that wouldn't be as much of a problem, right? 

The day I saw the Tak May doll there were several more there as well... 

This little doll bed made me smile. I used to have one like it but I ended up gifting it to a little girl I met once who really liked dolls but didn't have very many. I hope she's had lots of fun with it and the other doll items I gave her. Kids grow up so fast!

A salon chair... 

A tent...

A doll desk...

Another doll bed...

Cute doll shopping buggy's... I used to have a couple of these too but I think that I got rid of them...? I really need to go through my doll stuff and get a better grasp on what I still have. Hahaha.

This doll bed was pretty neat...

And only $3.99 but it was huge!

I thought this little item would've made a pretty cool doll table for a living room or something but... I didn't pick it up. Isn't it neat though?

This day that I went there were so so so many dolls! Whats funny is this was a while later and the poor little Tak May doll was still lingering on the shelf. Poor dear. 

Lots of My Life As Doll and our Generation Dolls...

Those two brands are the ones I find the most often. 

As you can see, there is a Madame Alexander here with one shoe and if I'd have been in the height of my doll buying days I might've bought the doll next to her just for her dress because it's an actual American Girl Doll dress... But... I left her there. 

More My Life As Doll and Our Gen's...

This little lady was tempting enough that she sat in my buggy a minute...

As did this green eyed beauty!!

That Madame Alexander? She was a "Heather Doll"... With dread locks. Hahaha

This little lady sat in my buggy for a minute or two as well... She is the more 'rare' face sculpt from My Life As Doll. They only have this sculpt on a very few premium dolls. However, I have three of them in my collection so I ulitmately left her at the store. 

I let the little green eyed Our Generation beauty model a chair I saw that day... 

Isn't it cute! It's an upholstered chair and if I had endless amounts of space, I would've been very very tempted to bring it home... 

It was made by Kids Kraft and I'd never seen one like it before. 

I'm sure some doll loving girl has it in her doll house and her dolls are enjoying sitting on it and reading a good book. 

Teehee.

As you can see, these two rode around in my shopping buggy my whole time at the the thrift that day but... I made myself put them back on the shelf. 

This little Circo Baby was tempting too... But I have, like 10 or more of them that I've bought at one time or other when I was gearing up to have a Doll Store that didn't quite make it into reality. As with the other excess doll stuff I own, I'll eventually clear them out some. They don't make this style anymore and they make perfect baby siblings for the dolls! 

Lastly I saw these little bags of doll clothes... I see a few Our Generation doll clothes in each of them but... Did I metion I have way too many doll clothes already. Since most dolls at the thrift are as naked as a jaybird, I also think it's nice to leave them there in hopes that some little girl will buy some outfits when she buys one of them. Haha!

Well, that's it for now Doll Friends!

As with every post I've posted for.... months? I am here to say that I eventually hope to get back to posting more often and I have been dreadful at getting out to take doll photos lately. I just need to add it to my endless to do list so it'll make it a priority in black and white. In the meantime, until I get back to posting more often, please know I really super appreciate all of you, my Dear Doll Friends and Readers! It always makes me smile to come and look at the 'numbers' and know that you're out there reading my humble little doll blog. It makes me feel like part of a very real community and that's a precious thing.

XXOO
Heather