A Doll Show Day Out

  I want to first of all say how nice reader Treesa is. She sent me a really sweet card for no reason except to make me feel good.  It was very thoughtful of her.

  I have cut back on going to doll shows since Ken's strokes. But Ken is doing very well these days. They recently took him off a blood pressure medication because his blood pressure was a bit low, but that might have been causing some extra heart beats. It might have been due to other things, and it was only a few times, but just in case they have changed his medication again. It always takes time to get things exactly right, especially after five strokes. So he's doing well, and feeling good. There was a doll show coming up, and I asked Ken if he would like to go with me, to have a day out and a change of scenery. He wanted to, so, with packed breakfasts and lunches, and Ken's medicines, yesterday we headed to Strongsville for the doll show. Here's some of the best of what we saw. 

  I found this cute Polish doll, which Ken knows as a 'woodentop', because his sister had a few when they were kids.

He wanted me to photograph it and show it to his sister. We actually have one of his sister's dolls, because when they were kids it's hair fell out, an their mom replaced it with some of Ken's! So it has tiny Ken's blonde hair.

  This pretty Toni doll was in her original box.

  The same dealer had these three Kathe Kruse dolls.

  She said this one is one of the very first Kathe Kruse dolls and is from around 1910.

That apron is in amazing condition.

  The middle one is from the 1920's and the one on the right is from the 1950's.

  There was also this girl, which she said is pretty rare.

  This one looks a bit scary.

  This doll, from the 1930's, was beautiful. She still has her original tag and her colours are super bright.

    This little kid is beautiful, and was only $10, but I had found something else for $10 at this dealer's booth that I wanted. Ken bought it for me for my birthday next year. I'll show it to you then!

These three were at another dealer's table. They were really big, as in, pretty much life size children.

  These two German dolls are made of wood. I love little Margie photobombing them!

  This newspaper boy had an interesting face and cute hair. The little German dollhouse man in the top hat reminds me of the drunk that hangs on the lamp post. This dealer usually has some Baps dolls, but she didn't this time.

  I hadn't heard of Nita Gehlhardt before. She's apparently a quite well known German artist. These little bisque figurines are very cute.

  This dealer had a few presidents too, but the Eleanor Roosevelt was great.

  This cute advertising doll was holding cigarettes, but the dealer didn't know what she originally held.

  I think this doll's face was paper mache.

  I've had an obsession with being able to change a doll with multiple wigs since Fashion Queen Barbie, so I love this doll.

  I don't know who this girl is, but she is very cute.

  The old sea captain has a cloth face, and an usual felt mustache. His disapproving companion is a Baitz whistler. You can see my Baitz doll HERE.

  This sleeping beauty was brought in by her owner, who was attempting to sell her. She was very big, with wooden, jointed limbs, and all original.

What was kind of creepy was, she was in a wooden box that looked like a coffin! I don't know if it was made for her, to protect her, or if it was her original shipping crate.

What a hypnotic gaze this doll has! Those eyes are only painted too!

I swear I have a Sunbonnet Babies doll around here somewhere. They were made by Knickerbocker in 1975.

The knitted doll is cute too.

  Loads of polymer clay Alice's. Sorry about the sideways thing. I fixed it once, and I don't have time to fix it again. My battery is on it's way out.

  This doll was pretty and she had very detailed painted eyes. I tried to get them to show up in a picture, but I don't think I was very successful.

  I thought this doll in a red dress looked familiar, and I thought I had found her in an old doll show post, but it wasn't her. Sometimes dolls do stick around for a while. As a former doll dealer I can tell you how frustrating it is to carry the same dolls from show to show to show.

I like the little doll at her feet too.

  Does anybody know who Deanna Durbin was? She was a very popular child actress/singer in the 1930's and continued her career as an adult until retiring in 1949 and moving with her husband to France. She famously costarred with Judy Garland in a 1936 movie called "Every Sunday", which MGM used as a sort of screen test, to see which girl they wanted to keep under contact. It must have been a tough choice, because the two were so different. Deanna had a very cultured soprano voice, while Judy, at the time, was known for her way with a swing tune. Deanna was more traditionally pretty, but Judy was the more talented and charismatic performer. In the end MGM kept Judy and Deanna went on to sign with Universal. 

  One lady there, who was quite old, definitely knew who Deanna Durbin was. She was gushing over the two DD dolls this dealer had. I apparently only photographed this one.

 

 

  Anybody know who these girls are?

  Remember how I was just talking about dolls hanging around for a while at shows? Well back in April of last year I went to a show somewhere else, and saw a group of little dolls that I just loved. It was as I was getting finished looking though, and I had spent enough money already. So I managed to resist buying any of them, but the chenille lady, especially, haunted me ever since. Well, Ken and I were going through the show, when suddenly I realized this was the dealer who had those Eubank dolls!

They all had these paper stands with the name of the maker and the doll on the bottom...except the chenille lady!

  There she was! And the other two winter themed dolls I liked too. I don't think I liked them as much this time though, so I was okay with letting them go. However, I did still regret not buying the tiny porcelain dolls with crocheted clothes that I had passed up on. Unfortunately, (or, fortunately for my finances.), she had sold them. But I got my beautiful chenille lady, and I only paid $10.

  This guy is Timmy Tumbles. He looks just like Tippy Tumbles, but I had forgotten they did a boy version, or an African American version. You might have seen my Tippy Tumbles HERE.

  I was tempted by this Effanbee doll, which I think is Half Pint, for only $5. I was really trying to be good.

And yes. That's talking Baby Beans at her feet.

  I'm not sure who the girl  in the stripes is, but that's Baby Go Bye Bye sunk down in her car like an elderly person. She and her car were only $5 too.

 

  The same dealer had these dolls. The big one, in plaid, (and maybe the one in pink.),  is Betsy McCall. The Drowsy, in her cardboard cradle was only $55!

  Pretty Madame Alexander ladies on a day out.

  I always have to take a picture of the mumpy Terri Lees for Raging Moon. I think this one may be a clone. Next to her is Lisa Littlechap. I saw two Lisa's for $5 each in the doll boxes at the antique doll tables. One was wearing her red nightgown and her hair was silky and still mostly in it's original updo. I thought she was a good deal, but I can't get into the Littlechaps. I have two Libbys, by accident, but what I really wanted a Libby for was to put Libby's winter coat and boots and book bag on!

Doctor Littlechap.hanging out with Pepper, Elly May/Calico Lassie, Tammy, Tammy's dad and brother, and...a Pepper clone?

  This lady had some great attitude about her. Check out her tiny cameo and pearl 'buttons'.

  A cute little bear deserves a cute little dress.

  This lady was so pretty, and in such nice condition. There's a reason for that. According to her tag, her body isn't original, and her eyes have been replaced. Who knows how old the dress is.

  This was the biggest Furga doll I've ever seen. She was over two feet tall.

  Our friendly neighbourhood doll maker, China Cupboard Bears was there again. She lives on the next street. She's made quite a business of her animals. She started the business when our kids were little, and in school together.

A red furry elephant.

This cat was really big, and really cool. His head is jointed, and so are his legs.

  This may be my next 'one that got away'. But maybe not. She's pretty. You know I love my pressed cloth faced dolls. But I was tempted by him. He's a very old, little Lotte Sievers Hahn doll. I have several, (You can click Lotte Sievers Hahn in the side bar.), but none dressed in his colour scheme, and no boys with his colour hair. He was only $10, but I passed him by to see what else I might rather spend my money on. We went to look at him again at the end of our rounds, at Ken's insistence, but even though the dealer offered to come down to $8, I  only had $3 left of what I'd brought in with me. So I had to say no. 

  As we were going out, I happened to think that I had never heard them call any of the door prizes. I asked the lady at the door if they had called any, and she said, yes, they had called two, and were about to call another one. I said I hadn't heard any. She said they had called a couple and nobody had responded, so they called another one. She asked what my name was, and I told her. Then she asked what Ken's name was, and she held up a ticket and said, ""Is this you?" Yes! Ken won a door prize! It was $15 cash. He wanted to go back and buy me the Lotte Sievers Hahn, but I thought he should get something for himself with his winnings.

  My pictures loaded in reverse order, so the next pictures are some of the first things we saw.

  This dealer provided so many pictures for this post, I had to include her card. It wouldn't have been fair otherwise!

  

  

  This beautiful pair were quite big, probably over 2 feet tall, and in great condition. They had stuffed cloth bodies and limbs, and thin plastic or celluloid faces. They were only $50 each!

  When we passed again as we were leaving, the dealer had put out another great doll with them.

  She had this great doll too.

  This dealer had such a lot of really wonderful dolls, that she could have been her own blog post. I mean there were sooo many gorgeous dolls.

  Look at this sweet baby.

  I saw a lot less dollhouse dolls or tiny dolls at this show. This lady had some nice little German dollhouse dolls.

  The clothes!

  Look at these kids!

  Big girls...

...and little girls.

  See how big those girls really are?

Holiday Barbie for scale.

Just wow.

  But if you want to talk big...

  This gorgeous pair were the size of real kids.

  And then you have the smaller kids.

  This girl was just breath taking.

  Three gorgeous Googlies.

  Check out those glasses. And that Shirley! That's Skippy behind, in uniform, and an Effanbee girl in a cute hat.

 

 

Another Shirley down front, and a nurse I might have shown you in a previous doll show post.

  Okay. We are at another dealer's table now.  If I'm not mistaken, the kid on the left has been repainted. I know I've shown you the other little guy before, but I like him.

We're at another dealer's table, but you can see those two life size twins in the background, behind this wonderful Zwergnase doll. I love her!

And I called Terri Lee mumpy.

  I love the little guy trying to peek out from behind the girl in blue!

    

  So that was a good show. Lots of beautiful stuff to look at,  I didn't spend much money, Ken got some of his shopping for me done, and to top it all off, he won a door prize! Since the prize was $15 cash, he can spend it on whatever, wherever he wants. I did buy a couple of other things. I got a $1 doll dress, a little bolero shirt for over a dress, (It was so small and had tiny embroidery on it.), and a free doll, which I forgot to photograph. She's a 7 or 8 inch inexpensive doll that might be Little Red Riding Hood. She's wearing a flowered dress, a red hooded cape, black tights, and...red toe shoes?

  It was a little down hill after we ate lunch though. I got really sick  I don't know if it was dehydration or what, but I felt really sick  I hadn't gotten enough sleep, so that might have been a factor too. But I thought I was going to throw up. I wasn't sure I could do the hour and a half drive home. After a  while I started hiccuping. I must have hiccupped for half an hour. It hurt in my chest when I hiccupped, but I think it made me feel better. I still didn't feel good, but, better. A cold drink helped too. I have no idea why I got so sick.

  Anyway, I'll see you again soon. I'm pretty proud of how fast I got this post up! Yay!

That Ever Present Wish List

    Let's start with the obvious: It's been HOT lately!. Ken and I have been surviving in our house without air conditioning, but we have had to retreat to my sister's house a couple of times to cool off.

Tammy World came along for the ride, and because she gets hot too. She posed with my sister's rock collection, and a very colourful plant I've forgotten the name of.

 It's nice to get out of the heat, and it's nice to hang out with my sister, but it's an hour and a half drive each way, and by the time we spend any amount of time there, we have to drive back in the dark. The time before last we came close to hitting several animals, including a group of three deer, a mother racoon and her two babies, two more deer, and two more large lumps that I think were large raccoons. I hate driving at night these days. I'm tense the whole 90 minutes of the way home.

  I've been working on this post for ages. I don't get on my computer much any more because to charge mine we have to unplug Ken's. Then his dies, and he has nothing to do. My computer doesn't stay charged very long any more, so I can't get much done on a charge. We have minimal electric outlets we can use because of our wiring, so we're limited on outlets. We are a bit paranoid about another fire, so we don't want to leave anything charging in a room we aren't in either. Anyway, I'm sorry I don't post much any more, and sorry some of the posts have been a bit boring.

  As for Ken, he is doing well. He has been taken off medication after medication, and his recent blood work came back with great numbers. He has been released from occupational therapy, (but told to keep up his exercises and work on his muscles.), and will start physical therapy again in November. (Thanks to Medicaid  refusing to pay for more therapy right  now.) He passed his stroke-aversary July 14th. We forgot all about it until I happened to think of it much later.  

  I have taken loads of pictures of dolls I wanted to talk about with you, but I have never gotten around to posting them. I will try to do some of that soon. I'm still scooping up free toys via the Mini Brands displays, or at least I was. Yesterday, for the first time, I was told I couldn't have an empty box from our local Walmart. At least before that happened I managed to FINALLY snag the Lord of the Rings one, Two different Harry Potter boxes, and two different My Mini Baby ones. Walmart, it's not like I like you anyway. You're not doing yourself any favours. If it wasn't for the fact that I like your wet wipes, and you are the store most often selling yellow corn, I wouldn't even darken your door.    

  Reader Treesa sent me some wonderful Christmas gifts that I have yet to show you. I'll get to that when I have more time, but in the meantime, she asked me recently if I had any grail dolls left that were unattainable, for whatever reason. Well, of course I do. Those things are never ending, especially those expensive ones that are never going to be accessible.  So I thought it might make for an interesting post, to see what dolls I have wanted for ages, but will probably never get. 

  I have gotten pretty much all the dolls I wanted as a child, but never got as a child. Those include That Kid, which you're probably sick of hearing me talk about...

This particular boy was ruined in the water damage from the fire. He was amazingly quickly, (and cheaply!) replaced!

If not, I have several posts on That Kid. You can access them in the side bar, under That Kid.

...Mrs. Beasley.

Poor perfect Beasley, with glasses, got smoked in the fire  I have yet to get around to cleaning her.

The same goes for The Bease. I have a few posts on her, but the LONG one about her history is my most viewed post ever, and continues to get record views every day. You can check out the Mrs. Beasley posts by clicking that name in the side bar.

  My dream Beasley, which I got at a yard sale got all smoked up in the fire. I haven't tried to wash her yet. If I had had her at Emma's, with access to a washing machine I could trust, (as opposed to one at the laundry mat.), I would probably have given her a wash. She is sitting upstairs, all sooty. I will probably try to clean her up this summer and see how she does. I have a back up Beasley that was supposed to get sold, and she even has her glasses, so I might end up keeping her. Dream Beasley's glasses were on the vanity in my bedroom during the fire, and they melted a bit. They're still glasses, but they are a bit misshapen, and might not stay, (or even fit), on her head any more. I would never get rid of her though. I run into her original owner every now and then, and I can still tell her that her girl has a good home with me. Not so good that she didn't get smoked like a piece of meat, but still...

  I also got multiple versions of the Drowsy I always wanted, including the original kitty cat PJ version I didn't even know existed when I was a kid.

  You can see those by clicking Drowsy in the sidebar.

  I would still like some other dolls that use the Drowsy head sculpt, like  Baby Colleen, and maybe Teachy Keen.

The red head in the nightgown, top left corner, is Baby Colleen. Teachy Keen is the girl in the pink coat.

  I also had a desire for a talking Baby Beans. 

  I think the reason I never got one as a kid was that I was a little too old for a baby doll. I still wanted one though. I had a really nice Talking Baby Beans as an adult. That was years ago. But she still talked and was super clean and perfect, and she got sold. Now I have a not so clean one that doesn't talk. She'll have to do.

      Over the years I have gotten several dolls on my list that I thought I would never get, dolls like Betsy McCall. I now have multiple Betsys, in varying sizes. You can click on Betsy McCall in the side bar to see them.



I got this one at a doll show 

This girl was cheap at a doll show because she had dirt on her nose that the dealer thought was a nose nick!

This girl was cheap at a doll show for two reasons: The dealer knew nothing about dolls, and I had to fix her eye.

  Another was the Maru and Friends Savannah. She was more than I generally spend on a doll, and I thought I'd never get one. You can see Savannah's post HERE.

   Then I bought a big one and a little one from Emily at The Toybox Philosopher. And you can see little Savannah's post HERE.

 I wanted a Zwergnase doll, but they are so expensive. But Emily also gave me a really good price on one of those, so I ended up with one of those too. 

You can see her post HERE.

  I wanted an Agnes Dreary, and I did manage to get one for only $50 when they were clearanced on the Tonner website years ago.

You can see Agnes' post HERE.

  I love Dianna Effner dolls, and wanted a :Little Darling. Well that was never going to happen, until amazing reader Dorothy SENT ME ONE!

You can see her post HERE.

  I still can't believe she was so generous and thoughtful. Thanks again Dorothy!

I always wanted a Garden Patience, with her red hair and pretty dress, but I have given up and settled for the naked, dark haired Prom Patience I got cheap on Ebay years back. She's rooted, not wigged, so I can't make her into a red head, but the wigs are expensive anyway.

  Now for the dolls I didn't get. Of the dolls I wanted, but never have gotten that are not quite as expensive, there is the Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse Midge that I never got.

  She was the first Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse Midge, I think. She went up quite a bit after her original release, but she seems to have dropped in price lately.

  Of the dolls I still want, but will almost certainly never get, I still yearn for the Mezco Dr. Zaius Planet of the Apes doll.

  (I'm sure there are people who will insist that this is an action figure, not a doll, but let's be honest:  we all know they're the same thing.) He was affordable, (barely), and then his price rose on the secondary market. It looks like he's occasionally more affordable now, but he's still out of my price range these days.

  I still want a red haired Brikette by Vogue, but I'd even settle for a Jinx, by Kaysam or Jolly Toys,  which looks almost exactly like Brikette.

This is a beautiful Brikette I saw at a doll show.

  I still want that red haired Klumpe girl with glasses, and a suitcase. I can't find a stock photo of her, so you'll have to use your imagination...and your Google search. The closest thing I can show you is my red haired Roldan gardener girl, which is neither Klumpe, nor holding a suitcase. But Roldan's are kind of like Klumpes, so...

My Roldan gardener girl, the closest I'll get to the Klumpe suitcase girl.

   Something I always wanted came out when I was 13. Maybe I didn't get him because I thought I was too old for such toys. I don't remember. I did go through that stage, believe it or not. I still want one though. His name is Hugo, Man of a Thousand Faces.

He was made by Kenner. He's a puppet that came with loads of disguise pieces, like scars and wigs and false chins and noses. He even had sunglasses and an eye patch. If you've ever seen the pre-Playhouse 'Pee Wee Herman Show' HBO special, you'll have seen Hugo. He's so expensive these days, that unless I run across one in a thrift store or yard sale, neither of which I frequent very often these days, I'll probably never get one.

  I also still want the Mattel Squishies  witch I saw when I was nine years old. I saw her one time in a J.C. Penney while shopping with my mom, and I still want her. 

  You can see my post on her HERE.

  But the newer dolls that I want that I will undoubtedly NEVER get include Tonner's Wilde Imagination Hamish doll...

He has become REALLY expensive.

...and Sad Sally. I most want the red haired one, but I can't find a stock photo of the red haired Sad Sally dolls. I think there were two, the very first one, and a later one called Sad Little Witch. They both had crazy bushes of red hair. If you aren't familiar with Tonner/Wilde Imagination's Sad Sally line, I can direct you to my post on Sally's friend Bashful Burt.

  Keeping to the red haired dolls, there's also Helen Kish's Creamsicle Lark or Lark of the High Seas...

Lark of the High Seas.

Creamsicle Lark.

...and then there's Kish's Raggedy Riley. 

  These are all from years ago now. Of newer dolls, I wanted a red haired Ruby Red Fashion Friends doll. I have a Siblie,but I wanted the full size version. They do a lot of special edition dolls, and there was one I really loved, but I was willing to settle for Rock Star Stella, even though I don't care for her clothes.

  I'm sure I've forgotten something that I really want, but this has been hanging around in draft form long enough.  So, here it is. At least you know I'm still alive. Also, I do show up in the comments on other people's blogs sometimes. I will try and not leave it so long between posts in the future. See you soon...I hope.