On Selling, Shipping, and saying Goodbye

If you are a follower of this blog, you'll know that I  haven't posted in a while. In 2016, I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. I have the second worse kind of Parkinson's (the first being 
lewy body dementia.) In three months, I lost 25 pounds without trying. My form of the disease has progressed fairly  rapidly, and now, two and a half years later, here I am in stage 3-4 . My mobility is severely restricted, I have almost no sense of balance and I fall - a lot.

I have discovered that there are a lot of things I need to curtail. I've given up hope of ever having a clean house This blog and the accompanying adwords is getting to be a chore. I'm battle-fatigued and worm out. So now, I worry about you, my readers, and of course, the dolls. Will they ever be looked.at agan? Do l  think children  will ever imagine ice skating with Sonja Henie or playing with Deanna Durbin and Judy Garland again? Not unless they are the stars of  a new high definition in-tense stereo video game!

OR,...no  -  you who love and appreciate these babies will take up the torch  and pass your appreciation on to other generations. To this end: I am announcing that I am selling off my dolls, with a few exceptions. Unfortunately, I can only ship to U.S. addresses  because I haven't been able to find a shipping company with reasonably priced offshore tracking. If you are outside the United States  and are willing to pay upwards of $200 for  tracking, let me know.  We'll  talk! How it works is this:
1. Send me a Private message and tell me which doll(s)  you are interested in. You MUST have a Paypal account.
2.  Make an offer on the doll (s.)
3.  If  the offer is  accepted, I will send you  an invoice via Paypal. If your offer is too low, or if someone has made a better offer than you, I will let you know and you will have the opportunity to revise your offer. 
4  .All payments must be made in U.S.A. dollars.within a week of you being notified of your win.
5.  Shipments go out on Saturdays.
6.  I'm sorry, I don't do  returns. These dolls are ''One size fits all."

 I invite you to peruse this catalog,of sorts, and make a reasonable offer.

Yours sincerely
Melle O.

The dolls have landed!

After four years in storage, I am keeping my fingers crossed that my girls and boys are still in good shape, but the good news is that they are now in the country and will be arriving home soon! I just have to find a good way to display them. I'm so happy to be getting them back! :)

Another update

At long last, my doll collection is being shipped out to me from Australia! It will be exciting to have my boys and girls with me once again, and I'm going to go through them all to see who still hasn't been written up in this blog. I also think we will be overdue for a new video. :)

They will take a few months to get to me, and then comes the fun part - figuring out where and how I will display these cuties. Please feel free to share your doll displays here. Just email me a photo (see my profile for the address) and I'll put it up with this post.

Thank you for sticking with me during years of transition as I changed countries!

All the best,
Melanie O. 

Another update

I bought a house! And I hope to get all of my dolls sent out from Australia in the coming months. I miss them and I can't wait to write more about the other girls in my collection. I hope to go on the road at some point and exhibit them - they're just so much fun and such a part of history.  Anyone know of any doll shows in their town?

I'm still here and will answer questions as I can, so feel free to write! - Melanie O.

Another Doll Land update

Well, the past couple of years have been quite an adventure!  I moved back from Australia, thinking that I'd land a job right away, get a nice place to live, and send for all of my dolls. Well - time certainly popped that balloon! It took me eight months to land a contractor's job, and over a year after that to finally get a good permanent full time job. So, the next thing on the list will be to find a house and after that, I can send for my dolls!

I miss having my dolls around me. Each once is so unique and has her own story to tell.  As they all come from many different decades, you can almost trace the changes in fashion and technology. Each doll is a snapshot of a moment in time.

If you're reading this blog, I would love to hear about your favorite dolls. What do you like most about them? And what makes your doll a "favorite?" I'd love to read about some of your doll memories.

In the meantime, I'm going through my doll photos and found a few I still need to share with you! Coming soon...

Feel free to comment

The recent blog template upgrade meant that my comment box has disappeared! I am going to dig into my archives to see if I can retrieve all of that information, but in the meantime, if you have questions or comments about any of the dolls, or dolls in general, please comment in any of the posts in my blog. I will be notified and will respond as soon as I can. - Melanie O.

Another Doll Land update:

Well, I am employed! It took eight months, but I did manage to land a good job. It's a contract role, however, so I'm holding my breath that they like me well enough to bring me on full time. Then I'll be able to sponsor my husband and write more about my dolls. I still have quite a few to cover, including my Lenci dolls, a Civil War era China head doll, Native American dolls, Coco Chanel doll, Madame Alexander Jacqueline and many more.

This move has taken a lot longer than I anticipated and I miss having my dolls around me, so, what did I do when my husband came to visit me and we took a trip to Savannah? Of course, I had to purchase a porcelain Southern Belle with fixed glass eyes. She's made by Golden Keepsakes of Ontario, CA.  She's not vintage, but it feels more like home when there's a doll in it.

This doll has a soft stuffed body and porcelain head, forearms and hands, and lower legs and boots. She is constructed on an armature so that she can be posed, and has her own stand.

In my travels, I have always tried to pick up dolls in native dress as souvenirs. Whenever I see them, I am flooded with great memories. Am I the only one who thinks that dolls make great souvenirs?

Happy birthday, Sydney Doll Hospital!

I came across this article and just had to share it. While I lived in the Sydney area for ten years, I never did have to take any of my dolls in for repair, mainly because I was just brave enough to do a lot of things myself - however, there are some things I would never try myself and these are the people to send your doll to when you have just about given up hope for one of your "babies". They must be doing a lot of things right because the Sydney Doll Hospital is celebrating 100 years of doll repair and restoration.

Whether your doll is hard plastic, vinyl, composition, wood, or celluloid, the Sydney Doll Hospital has repaired them all. I was fortunate enough to see a repaired Polish celluloid doll that was someone's childhood treasure. This lady is nearly 80 years old and has held onto her childhood doll for her entire life. By the time she reached 80, you can imagine how faded this doll appeared. She needed a new wig and new clothes. One trip to the doll hospital later, and her doll looked as if  it had just been purchased  yesterday! They did a brilliant job of removing scratches, repainting her, and fixing her wig. She was just stunning! If I could start my own business, I'd have to open my own doll hospital. I bet there are a thousand things I could learn from the Chapman family.

Read more about the Sydney Doll Hospital.