Updated Tour Of The Doll Room

 

Hi Doll Friends!

I've had the photos taken for this blog post for quite a while... I've just found a free hour with nothing in it! So I decided I'd come dash off a few blog posts because I have four or five in my drafts that are just patiently waiting for me to write them. So, as you can see above, my Frann Doll's have a place of prominence in my doll room. When I moved to Alabama in 2020, I left all my dolls behind. I was so sad about it and worried I'd never see them again. So Frann very sweetly sent me her Frann Doll to keep me company. I did end up being able to go back and get most all of my dolls and a the other items that were sentimental to me. So I got 'my' Frann Doll back. So now I have them both. I offered to send Frann's Frann Doll back to her but she very sweetly and generously told me I should keep her to live in the Doll House. She's such a wonderful sister friend!

Above you see the table of my 'premium' dolls displayed together. On the far right are my American Girls. Then to their left, my Maplelea Dolls on top, and Adora Dolls on the bottom. There are also New York Doll Company Dolls and several other brands. I'd list them all here but I only have an hour and I want to get a couple of blog posts done so if you see one you're curious about, just ask me. 

Below that I have my Our Generation Doll collection. Our Generation brand dolls are likely the largest single brand in my collection. They have so many past and current face sculpts in so many different hair and complexion colors that I love them all! I think to myself that I should thin out my collection but I always ask myself "If I didn't have this doll in my collection would I want to buy her?" and if the answer is yes, I generally hang on to them. Having regret about a doll I've gotten rid of has bitten me before and so I am pretty careful to avoid it. Haha. As you see, in front of the Our Gen's are a few other branded dolls dressed in their Fourth of July finery. Sadly, the holiday came and went without me getting the photos done! So I may very well just take them anyway and save them for next year. As fast as time flies, it'll be a blink and it'll be here again, right? 

To the left of the Our Generation Dolls is a large 'bin' of my 'miscellaneous' brand dolls. Meaning dolls I only have a few of... Like my Maru Dolls, my I'm a Girly Dolls etc. Again, if you see one you have a question about, just holler in the comments. 

Here are a few 'close ups' of the dolls I mentioned. 

Then the other side of the doll room has another table full of dolls. I was kind of reticent to show this table to you because, as you can see, the front of the table is a bit of a mess. I end up putting stuff there when I am in the middle of a project or something, a workbench of sorts. So please excuse the mess. If I'd have made the Doll Room as perfect as I'd like to have it, you'd never see it! As you can see below the Journey Girl Dolls, there are 'bins' full of doll clothes, accessories, shoes etc. There are bins like this on the other table (with AG dolls etc) as well, you just can't see them because dolls stand in front of them. Have I mentioned I have a lot of doll stuff! Not bragging! Just the truth! Hahaha.

On the top tier, I have my Journey Girl Dolls. Sadly they've seemingly become less and less popular since Toy's R Us closed down. They still have a 'shop' on Amazon but a good many of the dolls are always sold out. Such a shame because they are such pretty dolls. I digress...

Then to their right I have several My Life As Dolls. I've been meaning to move the My Life Dolls I have in other places in the Doll Room to this same 'bin' but it's just one of many many doll projects I have in my head. Never enough time! 

Then on this part of the table I have some of my 'smaller' dolls like Paola Reina and Wellie Wishers and Battat Little Friends and others. 

Below the tables I have more dolls I only have one or two of and my customized dolls on that top tier 'bin'. In front of them are my 14-inch dolls, Glitter Girls, Melissa and Doug dolls, Citi Pals etc.

Then on the bottom of the other side, all together in a big bin of their own, are all my many boy dolls. Yes, I keep them separate. I don't need any hanky-panky going on in the Doll Room! Hahaha. Many of them are customs I made back when 18-inch boy dolls were not really made. In recent years the boy doll market has exploded so I have lots of the ones they've come out with too. 

To the right of the first table I showed you is a big room divider I use to keep the doll room and the home office (where I work) separate. We also use the home office as a guest room when we have people to stay. A lot of people wouldn't exactly like 300 (??) dolls staring at them while they sleep. Haha. It also keeps my dog out of that part of the room. He's gotten pretty good about knowing that he isn't allowed to play with dolls but there is no need to tempt him to be naughty. 

These are all blankets/throws that I keep laying on top of my dolls so they won't get quite as dusty. It means they aren't as prettily displayed but dust is a pain! I took them all off for the tour though. 

This is the doll closet. I finally got my other hanging racks put up in there so, as you can see, I have four tiers I can hang clothes on. If I didn't have bins and bins and bins of doll clothes, there wouldn't be enough room. But I love having the hanging space.

See, it goes pretty far back into this 'alcove' in the closet...

Then, in the cupboard, I have boxes and boxes of doll accessories as well. Most of the clear ones are food. 

Above I have doll boxes full of... You guessed it, more doll stuff. I need to start selling some of it. Time! I need more!

On the walls I've hung hooks to hold my doll carrying bags and...

Doll chairs and benches. I think they look kind of neat hung up like this.

I have a few doll chairs... What's funny is they aren't nearly all hung up either. Just what I had space on the walls for. 

Then this closet also serves as a place to store the supplies for my other hobby, card making. I like to make cards for the women in my church and friends I have all over the country. 

On the door of the closet is where I store all my baby-sibling dolls. 

On this side of the room divider, I have a couple of my most precious doll dresses hung for display. There are actually more now, I needed to get more hooks. 

There is also a dog bed for my Ozzy. Here he is hanging out with me as I take the photos. He's such a sweet dog. 

When I work in the daytime I often open up this little side of the room divider so I can have my dolls there to cheer me as I do my job. 

Here are the pictures I have hung in the office side... Mostly scriptures, crosses, and, pictures of children with dolls or pets. 

Here is my desk where I work. It is a 'standing' desk that I can sit or stand at. Helps my back to not ache from sitting all the time. The antique suitcases to the left of it are filled with pretty fabric to use when I start sewing for my dolls again.

Well... That's it for now, I'm out of time for today. I have to go change out of my nightgown before my friend gets here for coffee! LOL

XXOO
Heather 

My Life As Doll Gift From My Stepmother Pam Get Make-Overs!

Hi Doll Friends!

I'm sorry I've been so absent recently...

This has been the hardest year of my life.

Even if Covid19 hadn't been a thing? 

Still would be the hardest year of my life.

Nearly every single thing I've ever feared going wrong in my life?

Went wrong. 

It's like the universe had a checklist or something. 

All in one year.

But, I'm still breathing. 

That's about the best I can report right now. 

In a bid to cheer me up, my step-mother Pam, when she saw some My Life As Dolls on Facebook Marketplace, bought them for me. She knows I like to fix up dolls who've been through the wringer. It was such a sweet gesture. They sat for a bit longer than I normally let dolls sit but... One day I pulled them out and got to work. 

They came out lovely. 

The one on the right got a hot water dunk on her hair after I combed her out and shampooed her...

The one on the left? Her hair was such a tangled mess that I cut off her hair and gave her a new wig. 

Even in the worst year of my life?

Sometimes dolls can still make me smile and forget all the bad stuff happening, even if only momentarily. 

Here are the 'before' photos. 

Here are the dolls with another doll I made over recently... I posted about her in this blog post. 

Well... I hope this finds you having a lovely Christmas Season.

I'm trying to focus on Jesus and my kids and the small joys in life, like dolls. 

2020 has been a rough rough year for so many people...

At least it's nearly over. 

XXOO
Heather 

 

Introducing Oliver and Jasmine! New Custom My Life As Dolls in the DollHouse!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

When I first started getting interested in 18inch dolls, I always admired peoples 'fantasy' type custom dolls with fun colored wigs and such. However, to make one, it's pretty expensive. American Girl Dolls cost $115 each and, as far as I ever found, the nice 'fun colored' wigs I found were like $50 each. So as much as I thought it would be fun to own a 'fantasy' type doll, I am much too cheap to spend that much money on a doll really... You know what I mean? Still, I would look at the fancy wigs on eBay and Etsy just because I thought they were so pretty. Then, a week or so ago...

I found an Etsy Shop called LollyLueStephens that had really pretty fantasy wigs for less than I'd seen before! The boy wigs were $9.99 and the fun colored ones were from $19.99 to $21.99!! What?! They were gorgeous too!! As fate would have it, I'd just gotten a bit of a windfall of fun money into my hands at exactly the same moment I found them. So... As you may imagine, I ordered a few! Haha. They arrived yesterday in the mail and I was so excited to open them up!!

As you may have read in this post I actually specifically purchased a My Life As Diving Instructor doll at Walmart to customize. I wanted a doll that looked just like another My Life As Doll I'd recently gotten to celebrate when the blog hit 60K views so I could make them 'fantasy' doll boy girl twins with two of the wigs I bought. So as soon as I got the wigs, I started cutting off their hair and putting on the wigs... I just knew they were going to look amazing!!

And I was so right!!! Aren't they fabulous!?!?! I wasn't sure what to name them and so I decided I would ask my daughter to name them because she loves fantasy type dolls. So, she considered for a few moments and then came up with Jasmine and Oliver. Isn't that perfect? So, meet Jasmine and Oliver!! I am so excited to have them in the doll house! 

The wigs really are great quality and very thick and nice. I think that My Life As Doll heads might be a tiny bit bigger than American Girl Dolls because I first tried Jasmine's wig on an American Girl Doll to see how it fit one so I could tell you and it fit very well... 

The wig cap appears, when you open the package, to be way too small for the doll. (I honestly panicked for a moment!) but it stretches a lot and it actually fits the AG doll so well you might be able to get away with not even glueing it down and it'd still be ok to play with anyway because the tightness of the cap would hold it on rather effectively. You know, perhaps you want a doll that can change her look back and forth. However I wanted my Jasmine to be able to be played with by actual kids at some point and so she needed to be glued down. As I say, I think My Life As Dolls heads might be a smidge bigger because honestly it was a bit of a struggle (and a few moments of panic) to get it on well as I was trying to glue it on. Then again, it makes me pretty anxious to glue on any wig for some reason so that was part of it. After a bit of pulling and stretching and wiping stray glue away, I got it on and loved it! I love love love Jasmine and am sure she'll be a favorite in the Doll House! Interestingly enough, the boy doll wig cap seemed larger and easier to put on. 

As I mentioned I bought a 'few' wigs... Well, in addition to Jasmine and Oliver's wigs, I decided to buy one of the nice brown boy wigs for my Josh Doll. He was one of my very first 'custom' dolls and I was the one who cut his hair. At the time I thought I'd done a pretty good job... But he did have pretty wild hair. Teehee. I loved him though because he was my Josh doll! I actually bought a boy wig as a replacement a while ago but at the time I told the real Josh that I was going to change his dolls hair and he said "Well, I've kind of gotten used to him the way he is" and I was so touched that he liked the way I'd made him that I ended up giving that wig to Kevin Doll. However, when I saw the boy doll wig at LollyLueStephens, I knew it'd be perfect for Josh doll.

Doesn't he look so handsome?!?!? I love love love him!! So excited for future photos shoots with Josh and Heather Dolls now because he really does look just like my husband now! How fun!

I meant to take photos of the wigs off the dolls to show you the wig caps but in my total excitement to get them put together, I totally glued them down before I thought to. I have to report that they are pretty top notch and well made!! Like I said about the girl one, it seemed way too small at first but ended up fitting just right. So, if you're looking to customize a fantasy doll of your own and are looking for a more affordable option for fantasy wigs, check out LollyLueStephens wigs! They also have an eBay Store so you can find them there as well. I am sure I'll get more of their wigs in the future myself. This one is my next favorite but they are all fabulous! 

Better run!

Have a fantastic day!

XXOO
Heather