Blue Monday: Play Time

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.

To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

We've had some gorgeous weather lately, with wonderful blue skies.

But up until the last week or so, it's been really cold. And being the extreme weather wimps that we are, M and I have mostly stayed in and played with our toys.  I've been looking through my doll collection which is mostly packed away in boxes at the moment (waiting for the display shelves I really do intend to construct for them one of these days) and figuring out which dollies I want to hold on to and which ones I want to pass on to new homes. Also broke my promise not to buy any new dolls; just couldn't pass up a lovely new Silkstone Barbie -- I'm a sucker for dolls in Chanel-style outfits.

And she has such lovely blue eyes.

The hubby has been tinkering with his model trains. He hasn't built an actual layout yet -- that's going to have to wait until we get the garage a little more cleared out. But he has created a bit of a display space above his work bench, and even built a backdrop for them (with another lovely blue sky).

And some of the photos he's taken make them look almost like real choo-choos.

Happy Blue Monday, everyone! Hope you have a wonderful (sunny and warm) week.

Blue Monday: New Doll Blues

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

Last weekend the Austin Doll Collectors Society held their annual show and sale, and M and I managed to get ourselves together in time to get there for an hour or so, on Saturday afternoon. October has been an incredibly busy month for us and I thought we might have to give it a miss this year. But somehow we found the time, and I'm really glad we did because I found this little sweetie to bring home with me:

8 inches of cuteness!

She's an 8-inch compo Vogue Doll (an early version of what would later become the Ginny doll), probably from the mid- to late 1940s. A little before my time -- the dolls I remember from my childhood were all hard plastic -- and a very welcome addition to my Ginny collection, as I don't have very many of these earlier dolls.

Here's a shot of her from the back:

Flip side also cute

She seems to be mostly original -- no obvious repainting, and the wig doesn't appear to be a replacement.  Her outfit (which is a lovely blue and white) looks original too, although it's not tagged (it's not uncommon for the clothing from this period to be untagged) and is just beginning to show its age. But it's clean and seems to be holding up pretty well.

The composition is in pretty good shape, too. She has a few minor cracks and a bit of crazing, but only about as much as you usually find in dolls from this era.  Here's a closeup:

She said "Take me home with you."

Isn't she a pretty girl?

Saturday Snapshot: All Dolled Up for Tennis

I know it's a little late in the day for this (almost NOT Saturday anymore), but I've been watching the US Open on TV all day, and thought I'd put up a post about it. But since I'm basically a very lazy person, I decided just to post a couple of photos of one of my Ginny dolls in her vintage tennis outfit. Both doll and outfit date from the mid-1950s and were quite fashionable in their day -- which just shows how much dolls and tennis have changed.


Ginny is about 8 inches tall, and she'd probably have a better chance on the court if she could find some tiny tennies for her footsies instead of those mary janes!

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books, and as she says: "To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online."

Saturday Snapshot: A Day at the Park

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books, and as she says: "To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online."

The Hubby and I are getting ready to spend the Fourth at Shenandoah National Park. Just driving over for a couple of days R&R, and hoping for good weather and not too much heat (those cabins aren't air conditioned). These are a couple of snaps from past visits, showing my little travel doll Kayla enjoying some of the Park's outdoor scenes.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Alphabe-Thursday: "M" is For...

Margarita!

That's my little travel doll, Kayla, waving. But the margarita was for me!

Alphabe-Thursday is hosted by Jenny Matlock at Off On My Tangent.
To see more entries, or to participate yourself, please visit her blog.

Blue Monday: Blue-Eyed Baby

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

When I was little, Christmas time always meant dreams of that new doll Santa would be bringing me. Guess I just never grew up because every Christmas, I still have those dreams of new dolls! But these days Santa isn't very cooperative in that area, so I have to provide my own dollies. Fortunately, my husband has been very indulgent of my doll collecting mania – actually, I think he enjoys it almost as much as I do.

So here are some shots of this year's Christmas doll – our latest acquisition. She's an Armand Marseilles Dream Baby, from the 1920s, with a bisque head, composition hands, and a cloth body. The Christening outfit may or may not be original to this doll, but it's from the period and in great condition for its age. The photos and the dress make her look much larger than she really is: She's actually a very small doll – about ten inches from head to toe. (Click on photos to enlarge.)


This is really a bit of a stretch for a Blue Monday post, I know, but she is reclining against our blue bedspread.

And she has some very pretty blue eyes, too!

Outdoor Wednesday: Mountain Time

Over the weekend, M and I spent some time in Shenandoah National Park. The weather was beautiful, with cool clear nights, and days that started out chilly but warmed up to almost summer-like temperatures in the afternoons. Perfect for being out and about, doing a little light hiking and just enjoying a gorgeous early autumn break. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

The views along Skyline Drive were really wonderful - much less hazy than usual. You could see for miles and miles (literally).


The only clouds were small, white, and puffy. So perfect, it was almost boring!


Even Kayla, my little travel doll, got to enjoy the views.


The park was crowded for the Columbus Day weekend; in fact, there were more people there than I've ever seen on any of our other visits.
And, naturally, they were all busy doing just what I was doing!

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. To see many, many more outdoor photos or to post some of your own, please visit her blog.

ABC Wednesday: "K" Is For...

KAYLA!!!

I've written before about my doll collecting mania, and also about my travel doll. Kayla is a member of the Barbie family and as she's a rather tiny doll (about 3 inches tall), she fits nicely inside a purse or a pocket or a suitcase – so she's perfect for taking along on excursions. She never changes outfits, so she acquires a sort of "Where's Waldo" effect in all her photos. But she's game for just about anything. She's been to the beach and the mountains, and to big cities like New York and Chicago. Since she came to live with me, she's never been out of the USA; although I suspect she originated in China or Japan. Generally, she lives in a display case in our dining room, but she does love an occasional outdoor romp. Here she is at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, enjoying some chips and salsa on a sidewalk table.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

If you'd like to see more ABC Wednesday offerings or participate yourself, please visit the website here:


Cross-posted @ Joy's Doll Talk.

Blue Monday: Blues at the Beach

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

The hubby and I recently spent a few days in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, relaxing and reading and soaking up the sun. And trying to avoid heat stroke in the nearly 100-degree temperatures. We had a great time, and I'm already wishing we could go back and do it all over again (but maybe without the crowded beach this time).

These are a few of the blue-ish sights I found there. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Lots of blue here, even though it wasn't as spectacularly sunny as it's been during past visits.

Blue bicycles on the boardwalk.

Blue dolphins on a rooftop.

Blue water in a wall fountain. Actually pretty icky, isn't it?

Blue fishy banks in a souvenir shop.

And even my travel doll, Kayla, found a spot of blue to recline against. She really needs some beach wear, doesn't she?

Ruby Tuesday

A few vintage Storybook Dolls, with some old storybooks.

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Each doll is about five-and-a-half inches tall. I love collecting tiny dolls, and these are three from my collection. The lass on the right is a Valentine's doll. And I believe the one on the far left (in the short skirt) is a Jill from a Jack-and-Jill pair. Not sure who the girl in the middle is meant to represent; guess I need to do some research.

Ruby Tuesday is hosted by Work of the Poet.

Doll of the Week

Make that Dolls, plural. And these aren't dolls from my personal collection. At least, not yet. But I've really got to have them.


These are the new "Mad Men" Barbies and Kens. From the left, the characters are Joan Holloway, Roger Sterling, Don Draper and Betty Draper. It's interesting (and a little disorienting) that both Joan and Betty have the same measurements. Shouldn't Joan be a little more generously endowed?

The show and Barbie seem like a perfect match. After all, Barbie was introduced in March 1959, and the show's first episode is set in March 1960. And many pundits have pointed out Betty Draper's similarity to the B doll. Apparently, the choice of characters to represent created a bit of controversy, though. The Times article said:

That two dolls [Joan and Roger] represent a relationship outside wedlock, and Don Draper’s propensity for adultery, may be firsts for the Barbie world since the brand’s introduction five decades ago. But for the sake of the Barbie image, her immersion in the “Mad Men” era will go only so far: The dolls come with period accessories like hats, overcoats, pearls and padded undergarments, but no cigarettes, ashtrays, martini glasses or cocktail shakers.

Darn! I would have loved a teensy martini set. But I'm really interested in those padded undergarments, too!

This photo is from the New York Times article about the dolls. As I said, I don't have my own set of the dolls yet. They don't go on sale until June or July, and they're listed at seventy-five bucks each. A little expensive, I guess, but I'm definitely putting them on my wish list.

Blue Monday: More Winter Blues

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

As I think I've said before, I don't have much blue around the house - I'm more of a green and beige person, I guess. But I do have a lot of dolls with blue outfits in my collection. So here, in honor of the opening of the Winter Olympics later this week, are two of them. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

All suited up and ready for the slopes. In a nice cozy pair of blue ski pants (they really are blue - see the last photo for a truer likeness).


Ready to ski, too - but we've only got the one set of skis! So she's going to do a little sledding while waiting her turn at the lifts. And, if you look closely, you'll notice the blue in the flowers trimming her outfit. But I'm not sure those shoes are going to hold up so well in the snow.


Both of these are Ginny dolls, 8 inches tall, and made by the Vogue Doll Company back in the 1950s. The Ginny dolls were my favorite playthings when I was a tiny tot - and although neither of these girls is actually one of my own childhood toys, I still love to play with them.

Vintage Thingies Thursday: A Doll for Christmas

Vintage Thingies Thursday is hosted by Suzanne at Coloradolady, and as she says, "Thursday is the day to showcase your vintage treasures and to share your special things with everyone." Please visit her blog to find out more about VTT or to participate yourself.


Some little girls are doll lovers and some aren't. I was definitely one. As a child, I always received at least one doll every Christmas. I guess that's where my tendency to collect things (dolls among them) got started. Several eons ago (well, sometime in the 1950s), I received my first Ginny Doll for Christmas one year. Designed by dollmaker Jennie Graves, the Ginnys were made by the Vogue Doll Corporation, and were 8-inches of very sturdy hard plastic. They were also adorable.

Ginnys were all the rage just before Barbie hit, and just like the Pink Princess, they had tons of outfits and accessories - all sold separately, of course. They were very addictive - so much so that I had to have another one the next Christmas. Well, I didn't want Ginny No. 1 to be lonely.

Not long after I received that first Ginny, I took her out into the backyard and took some photos of her and my other dolls, with my mother's old Kodak Brownie camera. The blurriness of the pictures probably reflects my photographic ability at about age seven, more than the quality of the equipment. Here are a couple of those original shots (click on photos to enlarge):



And as a testament to the longevity of those Golden Age toys, here's that same doll in the same outfit, some fifty years later, enjoying yet another Christmas. All I can say is I'm a Vintage Thingie myself, and I wish I'd held up this well. And a Merry Christmas to all!





Added 12/25/2009: Just want to say thanks very much to the Holidailies panel of readers for choosing this post as one of the "Best of Holidailies" selections. I've read a lot of the other entries, and I'm not sure I'm really worthy of that company - there's some pretty impressive writing in the bunch. So it's quite a thrill!

Shadow Shot Sunday: Miss B Makes a Call

That should probably be: Miss B and Her Shadow Make a Call. OK, for all you collectors out there, this is the Silkstone Barbie from the Continental Gift Set, wearing a Fashion Avenue outfit called Front Row at the Spring Show (2001; No. 25702-52878). And I'm not sure if this is the cell phone that came with the outfit, or one from a Teen Skipper set. I know for most normal folks, that must sound like gibberish, but real Barbie enthusiasts will be able to decipher it. Doll collectors are a strange lot.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)




Shadow Shot Sunday is a weekly photo meme hosted by Hey Harriet. To see many, many more shadow shots or to contribute some yourself, head on over to her blog.