Dolly Thursday

Dolly Thursday! Today, I was talking about Tasha Tudor's kitchens for her dolls. She had the most fantastic minis for her dolls, but I epecially love her kitchen goodies. This is my little Annabelle in her little kitchen. She is 10 1/2" tall and her minis are pretty much 1:12 scale.

This is a photo of one of Tasha's dollhouse kitchens. Lots to look at!

Back to Annabelle's kitchen. I love the little set of pottery pieces I found for her. They are perfect. I love her crocks too.

The pie safe was a gift from LaVonne last fall. She found it at Hobby Lobby.

This wonderful little cast iron stove was also a gift from LaVonne. Don't I have the best dolly friends? It is a great stove and just the right size for Annabelle and friends.

A few more goodies in her kitchen.....

I do love her quilt quilt rack. I made the quilt awhile back. It's a cheater quilt but looks so cool. Such a great tiny print. I also love her basket full of veggies...a nice harvest.

My next dollhouse adventure is for larger dolls. The scale will be 1:6. It isn't as easy to find things that size, so the hunt is on! I will probably collect things for a bit and have a large dollhouse/bookcase/china holder  built along a wall in my tea room. I have to wait for awhile but it's all fun. 

Doll Show!!!

Last Saturday, it was time for the fall doll show!  You know how I love dolls and I look so forward to this show. I adored the dolls in this booth! I don't know how long I was there admiring them all.

The show is usually at the armory building, but it wasn't available for this show, so they moved to the Red Lion Hotel and it was really a nice location for the event.

Another nice booth with lots to enjoy.

This little lady was quite large. I think she has a nice face.

This set of doll furniture was getting a lot of attention. The booth holder was very kind to let me get a photo of it. It was so well made and beautiful. Any doll I know would have loved having this delivered to her house.

Someone was ready for fall and Halloween!

China heads just call to me. They are so beautiful and I never tire of them. I have several and always want to welcome another one home!  I was quite taken with this little lady.

This little miss didn't seem to mind ironing. She seems to be smiling.

This is the largest china head I have ever seen! She was almost life size and was actually sitting on a Victorian chair. She was in amazing condition. I'm not sure if she was a store display or what but she was really something.

Her hat was quite the show stopper and look at that face!

I did bring home just a few treasures. I was trying to be good! I have been sorting out things all summer and getting rid of things I no longer need, so I am choosing carefully.

A few miniatures for Annabelle...I loved the turkey on the tin roasting pan.

I really have an interest in handmade rag dolls. I just fell in love with her clothes and all the work someone put into this doll.

My first purchase was this dolly. She isn't that old, but I loved her face and her hair is marvelous.
I couldn't resist her.

I met a lady from Boise who made this outfit from a kit for my reproduction French Fashion doll.
She was really fun to chat with and she did a very nice job on this dress with a little hat.

This is Daphne. She was able to travel to New England with us. She is Annabelle's friend. My friend Wilhelmina picked out a name for her. I have had her for about two years and she never had any clothes or even a name. I like the name Daphne. I have given her a middle name...Moon. There was a full moon while we were at the Gathering, so it seemed like a good name for her.

I think she liked her new frock! She seems to be smiling.

Maybe the new hat really pleased her! Doesn't she have a darling face?

Annabelle was happy to loan her dress to the new little one. It was a gift from Kristen and I think she looks pretty cute in it.

There's another doll show September 19th...better save up my pennies again. After that, it's a long wait until the next show in February! 

Miniature Flea Market

A few weeks ago I went to a Miniature Flea Market. It was so much fun...tables of great merchandise, all in the right size for Annabelle and her friends. This is a little bag of goodies that I picked up. I was on the hunt for Valentine minis for Annabelle's friends. She send Valentine cards and gifts too!

The flea market was a new event put on by the miniature group that exhibits in Portland once a year. The show was a great success and I think it will become an annual event. I sure hope so! One of the bargains I got was this great book on Queen Mary's Dolls' House! The lady only charged me $2 for this beautiful book. It was written by Mary Stewart-Wilson. It is filled with lots of pictures and is just beautiful.
A few years ago, I found this set of vintage postcards by Raphael Tuck and Sons of the dollhouse. This is set six and it contains eight different wonderful postcards. I have always loved them, but now that I have the book, these have a lot more meaning.

Queen Mary was quite a collector of miniatures goodies. She loved "tiny craft"~I love that term! Queen Mary was married to King George V. The King's cousin, Princess Marie Louise, decided to ask her architect friend Sir Edwin Lutyens if he would build the queen a dollhouse. After they received the Queen's ok, they asked their friend Sir Hebert Margan (president of the Society of Industrial Arts )to help. He organized a dinner party at the Savoy and the three friends invited mutual friends, authors and artists to attend. These people were invitied to make the minis for the dollhouse.1500 artists and craftsmen agreed to make the amazing miniatures. It was started in 1921 and was finished in 1924. The Queen's doll's house lives n Windsor Castle.

The house is about 5 feet tall  and is made up of 40 rooms divided into three stories. It has two elevators, working plumbing and a complete electrical system.

Of course Annabelle did a wee bit of shopping for her self. She found a great little quilt, a blanket box and a wonderful red tea set! The tea set is wood and it was made in Germany. .

The lady who sold me the book, had these wonderful tiny plates. I just love them. a lucky find.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and a doll show first thing in the morning, I cannot wait. I hope to post again tomorrow.  

Tasha Tudor First Friday Book Review and A Big Tasha Score!

Happy 4th of July! I hope you got to enjoy my Tea Time Thursday post to celebrate the RED WHITE and BLUE! It's also my Tasha Tudor First Friday Book Review day. Jimmy and I went to a sale last weekend and one of the items I got was a copy of THE DOLL'S HOUSE by Rumer Godden and illustrated by Tasha Tudor. I have read it before, but it's a fun read, so I wanted to refresh my memory.
It is a darling book about two sisters who receive a doll house that has been been in the family. The dolls are delighted and you get to follow their story. Tottie is a little wooden Dutch doll and my favorite. The dolls WISH for things to happen and they often do!
The original version of the book was published in 1948 and it was illustrated by Dana Saintbury.
May Massee, who was an editor at Viking Press, was the one responsible for publishing Tasha's very first book~PUMPKIN MOONSHINE. Tasha and May remained friends and even though she had retired, she introduced Rumer and Tasha. They became friends and Rumer visited Tasha at her New Hampshire home. Tasha also visited Rumer in England when she spent a year there.
The book was reprinted in 1962.

The dollhouse family...Mr Plantaganet, Birdie, Apple and Tottie. Pick up the book and enjoy! It is available in paper back form and it's not expensive. If you like HITTY and MISS HICKORY, you will  enjoy this book.

I had so much fun at the sale! The lady was a sewer, a doll person, a miniature collector and she had a dollhouse. The house was loaded and written up as a "digger"...the kind of sales I love! We went back the next day for the half price sale. Lots of goodies to keep and lots to sell.

A few treats for Miss Annabelle! She now has a better sized quilt rack and a wooden ladder! She likes Estate Sales too!

So, you are wondering about the title of this blog post...what was the big score???? The second day when we went back to the sale, I was digging around in one of the rooms and I saw this box. If you are a Tasha Tudor fan, you know that one of her little companies was called THE JENNY WREN PRESS. I was ordering goodies from the company when I was first introduced to Tasha. So, I got excited when I pulled this box out of a pile of things. What was inside?

When I opened the box, it was filled with all kinds of things from the Jenny Wren era. Lots of advertising, envelopes, letters, sticker and fun things for my collection.

There were 6 catalogs to look through. Oh, I wish all of the goodies were still available!

I opened an envelop and squealed with delight! A copy of THE JENNY WREN BOOK OF VALENTINES and the little doll sized Valentines and envelopes. A score for sure! But wait, there's more!

I found the first 6 issues of the TAKE JOY! magazine in the box. These were published from Tasha's next company...Corgi Cottage Industries. They are really fun and filled with all kinds of interesting articles for the Tasha fan. These are from 1997. Two more copies were published in 1998 before that company was ended. Another score! These are very spendy on Ebay!

 This invitiation to afternoon tea is so sweet! It was all tucked into the envelope and had a return envelope with it. All of these items are in really great condition!

Then I found one more treasure. There was a copy of THE LETTER...a little newsletter that was once published by Elaine Hollabaugh. She would have fans send in photos and stories of interest.  I found some very interesting correspondence from Elaine to the lady who's house I was in...Donna Turner.
Donna was living in Klamath Falls, Oregon at the time. She made a miniature room depicting the cover of Tasha's book BUTT'RY SHELF COOKBOOK. Donna wanted to submit it to THE LETTER and Elaine accepted the offer, however, Donna got the information to Elaine too late for publication.
I couldn't find anything to tell me if it was ever published. I was left wondering.

When I was on my trip back east, I wasn't able to go shopping, so I came home with most of my spending money. I decided to order the book THE DIRECTION OF HER DREAMS by WM John and Priscilla Hare who own The Cellar Door Books. It is a very large book, filled with a lot of information on Tasha's books, publications, newsletters, magazines and even articles and advertising flyers. It is spendy, but I have had it on my wish list for quite some time. I was looking through the book for some information on THE LETTER and found that in the Fall 1987 issue, Donna's miniature scene was featured! I looked to see if I could buy a copy, but I could not find one anywhere. I was looking through my Tasha things and what did I find....the copy of THE LETTER that I needed!!!
I only had two copies of it and can you believe, the fall issue was there? I still cannot believe it.

Here's the article and the photo. It was not at the sale when we arrived, so I have no idea what happened to it. I don't know if Donna is still living. It was so amazing that I was in her home and have many of her items now in my collection. It was so neat to find another Oregonian who loved Tasha. We do love her too, even if we don't live in New England.  Yes, another score!

Oh the best part.....the box wasn't priced. When we took it up to the counter, I was sure it was going to be quite a bit, but I was willing to pay the price. The gal who runs the sales looked at it and said,
"How about one dollar?" A dollar! I am still so excited and will keep it all in my Tasha Tudor collection.