More Dollhouse Stories

 I told you I wasn't done with my dollhouse stories (although after this post, I'll be done for a bit- until I find another house, I suppose!).  So when I was on vacation and not having any luck finding a vintage house, I got restless and started searching Ebay.  And of course, Ebay never disappoints- I found a Rich Toy Co. house that I liked.  I ended up being the only bidder and got it for a pretty reasonable price (nothing like the $5 Keystone from my last post though!)  Of course, the next day is when I found the Keystone, but hey, I can't complain, since this one is so sweet as well!

I'm just in love with the little benches out in front of the front door!  Other than the broken windows, it is in really nice shape.

 There was wallpaper on several walls and floors, but I was able to remove it with no damage.  These outside walls will have to wait until I want to take the house apart to remove the paper-I don't think I can reach in and get the right angle to remove it at this point. Again, just some miscellaneous furniture in here right now.  The scale of this house is a little smaller, so I'll have to look for some that will fit nicely.

 And as long as we're talking about furnishing dollhouses, this is one I bought last year, that has been without furniture since then.

I adore this house (I'm unable to find any maker's marks on it, so I don't know who made it) because of the beautiful graphics on the inside.

On my trip earlier this month, I found a basket full of miscellaneous plastic dollhouse furniture, enough to come close to furnishing the whole house..., 

as well as my tin Marx one!

 The Marx one sits on a shelf on the other side of my studio that is at a good level for the kids to reach, so I put various "Little People" in there to play with.

Every time I look at it, I think of the above photo, which was from one of my childhood photo albums.  Although I really don't remember this dollhouse very much, apparently I liked playing with them even then!

And here they all are again, with their open sides showing.  I'm finding that dollhouses are very hard to display.  I like the way they look from the front better (like in the photo at the top of this post), but then I can't play with the furniture, etc. without pulling them out and turning them.  

I still have a few more vintage goodies to show you from my trip, as well as some artwork I've done recently.  Yes, I actually took time away from this new dollhouse obsession to do some art!  Even I find that hard to believe- ha ha!!

My Very Own Keystone!

 Well, as I hinted about in my previous post, I now have a "new" dollhouse (there may be more, but this is just the story of one...!).  As I've mentioned, ever since receiving this for my birthday a couple months ago,  I've have really become obsessed with vintage dollhouses and furnishings.  I loved them before, but I REALLY love them now!  

Anyway, I particularly love the ones by Keystone of Boston and by Rich Toy Co., both popular in the 1930s and 1940s.  So when I went on my little vacation in North Carolina earlier this month, I was on a mission to find a cool vintage dollhouse.  I'd already exhausted all the antique stores around here, and there are lots more up there, in addition to Craigslist, so I was hopeful!  But no luck!  I was bummed, because although they're available on Ebay, the prices are always high, especially with shipping added.

So on my last day there, I took a look on Craigslist for a town that was about thirty miles away, and what do you know?  The very first listing said, "Antique Dollhouse- $10".  I looked at the listing, and it was a Keystone dollhouse!!  Amazing!  The very kind I'd been searching and searching for!  I was on that phone in about ten seconds flat, and we were on our way in another five minutes.  We pulled up to this site below:

 A rundown, messy, filthy thrift shop with my dollhouse sitting front and center!  I was squealing in the car!  I told the man I'd take it, then browsed around a bit.  There were other treasures to be had there as well, but I'll show you those in another post...   As I checked out, the guy said, "And what did I have that marked at? $5?"  "Oh, I can't remember, $5 or $10," I mumbled...  "OK, $5 it is then!"   Holy cow!  Can you believe that?  These go for at least $100 on Ebay, and I was able to score one for $5! 

Here is a little better view once we got home.  

 The inside was pretty nasty- cobwebs and bug carcasses and gross astroturf carpet... But it all cleaned up pretty well.  The biggest flaws are that it's missing the staircase, the door, and the chimney.  However, I think I can probably manufacture all of those things myself.  The wallpaper and floors are all in pretty good condition, which is the most important.

Here's a view on the shelf in my studio.  I may repaint the trim pieces so they're not so dingy at some point.

 And here's the inside again. I've put some random extra furniture in here for now, but I'll intentionally decorate it at a later point.  I'm still working on my big house for right now, so I'll have to show you pictures of how that's going as well.

So there's another dollhouse story for you!  Still a couple more to go....as well as some of the other goodies I've found recently. 

Hope you're all having a great summer!  It's gone by fast for us- I can't believe school starts again in less than a month!    Oy!  In some ways I'm glad the summer's almost over, but boy, I am not looking forward to carpool lines and packing lunches again anytime soon!!


P.S.  Oh, and don't forget the auctions for my other dollhouses on Ebay!  They are ending in three days!

Dollhouses For Sale!

 I told you in my last post that I needed to do some rearranging.  Well, part of that includes clearing out some of my dollhouses to make room for new ones!  You can click on the photos to go to the Ebay auctions for these two houses, or here are links as well: Caroline's Home dollhouse, Today's Kids dollhouse.  It really pains me to get rid of the Caroline's Home house above.  If you've followed me for a while, you may remember when I found it!  It's such a beautiful house, but I had to make some tough choices!!  And the Today's Kids one below is a sweetie as well!

But my collections are always changing, and that means that I continually need to edit, edit, edit so that I don't become too much of a hoarder!!  I hope to be selling through some other things within the next few months as well, so I'll keep you all posted!

Just so that this post isn't a complete downer, I'll show you some of the reasons I need the space!  If you're a complete freak like me, you'd go take a look at the past pics of my studio and analyze them to see what's new here, but of course I know none of you are quite so obsessive (wink, wink!!).

In my next post, I'll show you a bit more and tell you the stories of my newest acquisitions.  My family members don't think the stories of my thrifting/antiquing exploits are quite as riveting as I do, but you guys are on my wavelength, and you appreciate my stories a bit more!

It's Been a While...

I know, I've been gone a while!  We were on vacation for a couple weeks, and I'm still getting my bearings after returning home- unpacking, catching up, rearranging.... Yes, rearranging.  I made a few purchases on my trip that require some rearranging!  Above you can see a few- the pink doll armoire, as well as some new Nancy Ann Storybook dolls- they are just the sweetest!   

Most of our vacation was spent with family in North Carolina, but my husband and I took a quick weekend in Niagara Falls (he had a work conference in Toronto) for our ninth anniversary.  Oh my, is that a gorgeous place!  Next time we are bringing the kids with us- it would be a wonderful family vacation- there was so much to do!

I haven't had time to take proper pictures of most of my treasures, but I'll leave you with this little sneak peek of one.  Can you guess what I zeroed in on at this (very trashy, very messy, very disgusting) thrift store??

I'll be back soon!!