The ones that live with me already

As I said, I have dolls, many. Some are stored away, some came right out of the moving boxes last year when I moved. The first thing that was hung to a wall in the new house were the Saint's and the doll shelves. The oldest one is my age,a few I bought in Spain about 14 years ago, the latest ones are from 2002. I have to add that besides the shelf they also have chairs, rocking chairs and beds..
Down from the shelf and to their chairs they all came yesterday for a photo session. I didn't do anything to any of them, just took the pictures as is.

Here we go:



This guy is Tachi, he was my first doll ever. My mom knit his overall years ago, he is difficult to dress because his legs are slightly bent as a baby's would be, he has movement in his arms and legs but it is limited. He is made out of rubber instead of vinyl as we know dolls today. His eyes are fixed, they do not move, I think they are some sort of buttons, no real hair. I love him to pieces.



Next up is Carlitos. He was made by Fabrica Nacional de Muñecos, in Colombia. They had all different sizes of the same doll. I did not like him as much as Tachi because he is a bit on the large side. Still love him, we have been together for a long time. My mom made his overall, he had commercial socks but one went missing when we moved from Colombia to Utah, so I knit him a pair of baby booties. He has real men underwear. A big large on him....I suspect they belonged to my brother at one point!
His eyes move, although the right one has limited movement. No hair, movement on arm and legs. He is also rubber but harder than Tachi.



These three guys are from Spain, they make lovely dolls there. The expressions on the faces are amazing. Check the little girl nose and tears. These came to live with me thanks to my sister's brother in law. He had gone to Africa to do some field work on the Colombian Malaria vaccine, and on his way back he would always spend a couple of days in Madrid. We would give him money and he would buy dolls. When we did not ask him to bring dolls back, he would call us making sure we really did not want dolls.
From left to right:
The newspaper boy, his mouth is open announcing the daily press. I love his pullover, it is machine knit, and lovely. His pants are Corduroy.
The one in the middle is a tiny little guy, I love his teeth, he has the most amazing cow eyelashes I have ever seen in a doll.

I will post closeup pictures of their faces.

The one on the right is the sad little girl. I love her face!










This girl is the one I bought in Madrid. The store is a 5 story building full of all kinds of dolls and accessories. I had the hardest time deciding what to buy. I finally got this girl because she had a Winter outfit on and I could buy the Summer one. The Summer dress is made of cotton fabric with a lovely flower print and a scarf for her hair.



She has the most beautiful face, her body is cloth, the limbs and head vinyl. She does not stand on her own, never has. She is 22 inches long.



My forever heroes! Pinocchio, Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny. I bought all three of them at Disneyland in Orlando, 1997 (I was NOT a little girl!). I was there with my dad, and his wife. I found Bugs Bunny and Donald Duck fairly easy. Pinochio was another story. It was getting dark, close to closing time, and I had not found the guy. One of the managers who knew I was looking for him, finally found him at one of the booths..of course is was the one farthest away from where we where. My dad and I walked hand in hand all the way back there and got Pinocchio so he could come live with me. Neither him nor Bugs Bunny are Disney characters, it was a miracle I even found them. I had seen others, but the faces and detail of these is unique. Click on the picture to see Bugs Bunny, blogger is cutting the picture for some reason.

Of course I have move dolls.....Barbies of course, her little brother and sister, no Ken. A couple of my Barbies are early editions,the bodies are not soft like the vinyl they use for them today, it is some kind of paste, one has a fixed head. Also a baby that I bought at age 10 with savings from my allowance, half went for the doll, half went for books. Also at least 3 or 4 modern Barbies, the bare bone ones, I bought them to make the Paradise Collection dresses. Turns out the patterns are made to scale and the dolls are slightly larger than Barbie. The Lady Di gown I showed yesterday is one of those. The nice thing about those dolls is that the arms move at the elbow and at the waist making it a lot easier to dress. You can style their hair too.....I did that on all three of the ones I made. They said to cut the hair for Lady Di, but I did not, just pulled it up and rolled it (with real rollers, hair dryer and the whole 9 yards). All this Paradise Collection doll dressing happened between 2001-2002....not too long ago, I was already married and over 40. I am doing it again. I will never stop loving my dolls, or put them away. I will always have them on display and play with them every so often.

I am eager for my dad to come so we can go to the new American Girl store in Virginia. I have to confess, I am having a hard time waiting for the day to come. In just a couple of days, I have collected knitting and sewing patterns for clothes for them......I have to have a doll to try them on! I might have to get an AG doll before then, that does not mean I will not ask my dad to buy me one. I can always have two right?