Yes, it's true!  I love dolls and always have.  When I was little I had a few dolls.  Some were to play with, others were to look at.  I think I have all of the dolls I ever had, which is totally amazing because when my parents got a divorce, a lot of stuff went to the dump.  As a matter of fact, I think THAT is the reason I am a collector (some might say hoarder, but I won't go that far) today.  They say there's a reason why people hang on to things.  I'll just blame my parents!    But that was well over 30 years ago and that's not what the story is about today.  I digress.......

My friend Lorca and I happened to be talking about dolls one day.  I told her about Annabelle.  She said she'd love to meet her and then the idea of a Valentine Doll Tea came to her.  I immediately got excited to know there's another doll person in the area.  We are few and far between, you know!  Maybe it's a good thing that all of my doll-enabling friends live hundreds and even thousands of miles away?!

So, off to the Valentine tea we went.  It was requested that Annabelle bring her gun collection.  Yes, my doll collects guns.  After all, she lives in the West in the late 1800's.  She also lives alone.  What's a girl to do?  Her first purchase before coming West was her rifle.  She needed some protection.

Annabelle's Valentines from all over the US are in the hat box in front of her.

There were lots of other dolls at the tea.  Lorca's family has a collection of over 60 dolls.  They have been collected from all over the world.  Having made Annabelle and having an interest in how dolls are made, it was fun to see her collection.  I got to see some techniques up close that I've only seen in books or on the net. 

There was a pair of Dutch dolls there, a pillow case doll made with vintage trim from a woman's grandmother, a Shirley Temple doll, a beautiful hand-made porcelain doll and an extremely interesting "Totem" doll.  A woman in Livingston, MT makes these dolls.  I wish she had more time to explain her doll because I saw a lot of things in that doll and wondered if that's where her thoughts were when she made her.  I may have been totally off base, but it would've been fun to know.  To me this doll represents illness and then death, a returning to the earth.  She modeled the head from clay using a raven's skull as a model.  The hair is buffalo, the cuffs are beaver, I believe she said.  Her dress is buckskin and her body is all grass.  She is a very spiritual doll.

I find the contrast between these two dolls the most fascinating.  Annabelle would have lived in a time where Native Americans were a threat to her and vice versa.  She was moving west to prove up land that was theirs.  She would not have known the perils she faced as she set out west.  For these two dolls to show up at the same doll tea over 100 years later just fascinates me beyond words.  Both new, handmade dolls from a former era.  There's a story there somewhere.

Annabelle has had more visitors!  Looks who came to see her!

Here's Annabelle's Easter!

Frau Tussie Chickadee is caring for a nest of eggs.  Maddie the Corgi is busy herding baby chicks.  She has a posy in her mouth to keep her mind off having a mouth full of chicks! 

So many lovely, fun goodies from my friend Linda.  Cards, just Annabelle's size, a sewing box, a watering can, gardening tools!  The list is endless!

I hope you can see the Easter lily on the tea table as well as the tiny white chocolate lamb up against the Easter egg basket!  The pink bunny under the tree is metal.  It's from another Annabelle Club member, Jan.  So sweet of her to think of me and Annabelle this Easter! 

Her feather tree is made of fine thread.  It was an ebay find.  I had to cut it down to fit in her house.  The other little chicks and rooster are from the thrift shop, as are most of the tree ornaments!  The trunk is from Linda as well.  We have great fun thrifting for each other's Annabelles.  Our Annabelles are Kindred Spirits of the Doll type.  I made the dolls and Linda made the clothes!

Happy Easter Everyone!

I decided I needed to get a little creative and make something to combat the blues, or maybe I should just call it Spring Fever.  That sounds better!  (Thanks for that tidbit Grandma Rosie!) 

So, I've had Post Mistress Frau Tussi Chickadee in my head since Valentine's Day.  Yesterday I needle felted her from my wool.  She's not perfect.  There are things I'd change about her, but here she is!  Remember, she needed to be life-size in order to deliver the doll's mail!  Also in the photo is my new Valentine cupboard.  It's filled with lovely, hand-made Valentines.  What a lucky doll.

This particular Annabelle Club (and I have since learned there are others) was born of a dream by another Tasha Tudor fan, Kristen Strand-Tibbitts.  Her blog is  http://sweetpeahouse.blogspot.com/.  She loves to make dolls and loves sharing all about making them.  She is a very good teacher as well.  She's the poor soul who broke her knee cap, well SHATTERED her knee cap, while coming to pick Linda and I up at the airport last June.  She worked so hard on the Kindred Spirits Gathering, only to make a brief appearance at the motel that evening.

Recently some of the Kindred Spirits gathered at Suzanne's to work on their Annabelle dolls.  Suzanne wrote about it on her blog http://blueberrycottage.blogspot.com/2007/12/dolly-day.html.  It will be fun to see their Annabelle's come to life.  In the mean time, Linda's Annabelle and my Annabelle have been corresponding.  You really must be a Tasha fan to fully understand it all.  My family just shakes their heads!  Oh well!

So in my last post I showed you Annabelle's Christmas.  After taking that picture a package arrived in the mail from Oregon.  Quite a package it was!  Annabelle of Colantinoville sent many lovlies to Annabelle of Stuckyville, so on Saturday afternoon my daughter came out and helped me decorate Annabelle's tree.  I think it took just as long to do hers as it did to do mine!

Here's Annabelle posing for the camera!  If  you click on the picture in the flickr.com badge to the right,  it will take you there and you can read more details of the picture.

Here's a close up of Annabelle's Tree.  It's much prettier with the decorations on it.  It would be fun to have a lighted tree, but I just wasn't fond of the mini lights available for that purpose.  They were too big and bulky.  There's not much available locally in the line of doll house stuff and since Annabelle is 10 inches tall, she closer to a Barbie size than a typical dollhouse size.

The funny little snowman in the middle was in a box of tiny ornaments that was once my Aunt Marie's.  Same with the red and silver balls on the bottom.  There are several all around the tree.

I was trying for a close up of Annabelle's Nativity, but I guess I was focused on the tree!  Since I have a small collection of Nativities, I thought it only right that Annabelle have one as well.  The Kindred Spirit Annabelles have a little something to look forward to!

Don't forget to click on the flickr badge to read more details!

Merry Christmas Everyone!