I had a very busy Wednesday and in the middle of all I had going on, I was invited to a tea party. Carol, who has the Madame Alexander dolls you saw in some pictures a few days ago, texted me and asked if I could come over around 2:00 and have tea and cookies with a couple of other ladies.
Carol is quite the host and I couldn’t resist taking a picture of her (she’s in the middle), her best friend; on the left, and her neighbor on the right. Her table was set with beautiful china and we had the best time visiting and catching up on things. We drank tea from skinny crystal goblets and ate Milano cookies and pumpkin bread.
Most of my horizontal pictures can be enlarged if you click on them…
Her sun porch is absolutely wonderful… I’d love to have a room like that!
Karen had to leave, and when she did, Carol asked excitedly. “Shall we go look at some dolls?”
So we did!!
And my goodness, does she have the dolls!! I have been to her house before but it was probably 6 or 8 years ago, and I really didn’t remember her having SO many dolls.
So I hope you don’t mind, but we are going to look at her collection…what a collection!!! This is what you see when you first walk into the room…
You might see some tags on the dolls…she left the price tags on the dolls and sometimes other information on the bottom of the stands.
I almost didn’t know where to look!
Then more…
The one on the right and the one in the middle are Little Women dolls and are SO SO gorgeous!
This little sweetheart looked shy to me… but she was very pretty!
Here is a closer shot of the wall…
Here is her Toni doll… Cindy and I had one of these when we were younger… she still has 2 of the curlers that came with her…
Here is a Ginny doll that she never got out of the box… with a few outfits and shoes still in the box as well…
She had some cloth dolls that were absolutely adorable…I LOVE the expression on this sweet girls face. She was from Italy.
I can’t remember all the countries she had dolls from, but she had Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland,
Brazil…and many more…
…oops, I have forgotten them now… but I’ll still show you…
There were dolls EVERYWHERE… she said her grand kids don’t like to sleep in there… too many eyes on them I guess!
More dolls in a glass case in the Living Room… and some Nancy Ann dolls…
Carol used to work for Fanny Farmer and has a set of buggies since getting that Fanny May one…
She has some little ceramic dolls all dressed in flowing dresses…
She had a few framed pages from vintage magazines… showing hats and accessories.
I also snapped a picture of her lovely living room! It is divine!!!
She is trying to sell her collection down… and she is selling many of them. Her Madame Alexander dolls are $40.00 plus shipping. Someone has already bought her doll from Equador.
If you have any questions, just ask…
I enjoyed my afternoon at Carol’s house and hope you did too! I told her it was fun to see dolls dressed in pretty clothing, as opposed to my nudies standing on a dolly shelf waiting to be the Next Top Model! :o)
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Carol’s home is just lovely, and what a wonderful and special day you had, “taking tea”with her and her friends, and then seeing the dolls!
Wow! What an amazing collection, and all so beautifully arranged! Do thank Carol for sharing them all with us! SO many Madame Alexanders, and SO many Nancy Ann Storybook dolls (including the one in the polka-dot box, near the newer Ginny and Ginny accessories). I do have one Nancy Ann Storybook doll from my childhood–no box, but she’s still in pretty good shape as I didn’t really play with her. I also have a few of those “newer” Ginny dolls (like you showed, in the pink box) and accessories, plus some M.A. dolls….
What a fun post tonight! Thank you!
Well Jeanne……………………I’m speechless! What an amazing collection, and quite the trip down memory lane for me! Carol has the most wonderful doll collection I have ever seen! She mentions grandchildren, well, do they get part of her collection too?
My little collection pales in comparison to hers, but I do see dolls there that I remember either having or seeing as a child. Did she start her collecting as a child, or was it all after she grew up? I can’t even imagine having all those dolls in one household, plus people too! She does a wonderful job of keeping them looking so nice and her house is lovely! Oh, that sunroom is just wonderful, like you say, and I wish I had on of those too!
Thank you so much for showing the dolls, Jeanne, and thank you to Carol for letting us in to visit with you and see your wonderful collection!
What a special treat! Such a beautiful home as well as so many lovely collections. Have no idea how it is accomplished, but I didn’t see a speck of dust anywhere. The dolls are displayed so nicely, that even other person here might not object. My favorite is the buggy collection. I love them and how they are displayed so nicely. Thank you Carol and Jeanne.
A tea party! What a lovely idea. A big thank you to both you and Carol for making us a part of the tour. What an amazing doll collection. She is truly a collector. On one of the first Christmases I remember as I child my sister and I got Toni dolls. I still remember them so well and their dresses – they were a deep aqua. How I wish we had taken better care of them. Unfortunately they were handed down to younger sisters and wear and tear took their toll. I also had a 1950s era Ginger (Ginny) doll. I don’t have her either but a few years ago I found one just like her, including the dark hair with braids. She is now part of our family. Unfortunately, her hair was suffering badly from dry rot so I bought her a new wig. She now has long, dark flowing locks. Otherwise she is in excellent condition and still walks and turns her head, although I’m a bit timid about letting her do that. I just tried it to see if she still could.
I love Carol’s sun porch. I too would love to have one. Maybe some day. A lady I worked with several years ago retired and moved back to her home in Michigan. We went up to visit her one summer. She lived in the Detroit area but was in northern Michigan at the time visiting with a cousin and his wife so she had us come up there. Her cousin had a home on the lake with a large sunroom. It was summer and it was just wonderful to sit there and look out, but I really would have loved to have been there in the winter. They had pictures taken in the sunroom around Christmas time and you could see all the beautiful decorations and their Christmas tree and best of all, the snow outside. It looked like a Christmas card. Carol does indeed have a lovely home.
We will be leaving tomorrow morning for the coolness of Colorado. Where we are going the temps are in the mid to low 70s during the day and high 40s to 50s at night. I’m so looking forward to that. It’s still in the mid to high 90s here and not much different at night. We’ve had some relief because of Imelda, but it still very humid. Sadly many areas are flooding again and part of I-10 near Beaumont is totally shut down due to high water. Imelda is not doing what they said at first and the rain seems to be training in the same spot time after time. We have not had much here but it looks like our moment is coming starting around noon today. It’s supposed to be moving out later today, but so far nothing they predicted has actually happened. Fortunately we can back the car up to the garage to load up in the morning, but I sure wish it would stop before we leave.
I will have my laptop with me and a lot of downtime since we go mainly to enjoy the weather and scenery, so I will be keeping up with what’s going on with the blog. And I’ve got a new crochet project to take along. I usually get a lot of crocheting done while on vacation.
How interesting. I too had the Ginny doll Ginger, but with blond braids. I won her in a coloring contest at a local store way back in the 1950’s. Still have her. 🙂
Actually Ginny and Ginger were two separate dolls, from two different companies! I had Ginger, also; I don’t remember being aware of either Ginny or Muffy (another similar 8″ doll so popular in the 50s) until I was an adult collector!
I love tea parties! Yours looks like it was really special.
The doll collection your friend has is wonderful! It’s interesting what a variety of dolls we all collect. Mine have been neglected all summer, poor things. They might need some dusting!
Dear Jeanne, what a treat to see Carol’s doll collection! I love the sun porch. It is the perfect place for tea parties.
I forgot to mention yesterday that if Carol is a member of the Madame Alexander Doll Club she can advertise her dolls for sale in the back of the Club’s magazine. It’s called The Review.
I love seeing how people showcase and store their collections. I am always looking for new ideas for what to do with mine.
What an amazing collection of dolls and so complete! It’s a good thing the dolls don’t need to have their clothes changed! Carol has certainly corralled them nicely in her displays. That’s so funny about the grandchildren not wanting to sleep in that room. Best of luck with the sales. That’s a great tip from Dorothy from PA about where to advertise them.
Speaking of rooms, I’ll take that sunroom any day. It’s beautiful but I’ll admit my first thought was sitting there watching snowflakes fall. Second thought was watching it rain. What a wonderful addition to her beautiful home. Thanks to Carol for sharing and to you for posting many pictures. What a treat this blog is!
What a wonderful mix of the dolls in her collection. It was fun to see her doll room. How nice of you and Carol to share her dollie room. What a great collection. So fun!!
I love tea parties as well. What an incredible collection of dolls and so many sizes and types. I also like the tiny mohair bear collection, so cute. Thank you so much, Carol, for sharing them with us. What a fun treat for today.
Hi everyone,
It’s me checking in…my hubby woke up this morning and decided we should go to Paducah, KY again…this time with Rebecca…she was off. It will be late when we get home, so I thought I better let you know where I was…
We had fun today shopping but nothing really to show..
No antiquing…just thrift shops!
We are at Texas Roadhouse having BBQ chicken.
See you tomorrow…
Blessings, Jeanne
Texas Roadhouse is our favorite place to dine and we sometimes meet Sean and his family there for special occasions.