I Love Dolls

I have a confession to make. I must have never grown up because I love dolls. Especially Barbies. I loved playing with Barbies when I was a kid. Megan and I could play for hours. When I went on a trip I always brought my Barbies with me. I would play with all of my cousins and any little girl I met with an active imagination. When my mom told me to clean my room she would come up 3 hours later and my room would be a disaster while I was still busy organizing my Barbies. I had a doll house and I would take boxes and storage shelves and make more rooms for them. In some ways growing up is sad. As a child I swore that I would always play with Barbies. In some ways I kept that promise because I still love them, but I just can't play with them anymore. That is just something you lose when you grow up. I was around 13 when I just felt silly and couldn't create the stories anymore. Even when I try it just doesn't work.

Around that time I went to my room and gathered bags and bags of Barbies, clothes, and furniture and gave them to my little cousins. I kept only only box with a note to my future daughter. You know, I felt good at the time, but I actually regret doing that. I took excellent care of my dolls, but the girls I gave them to did not. None of them liked dolls half as much as me and nearly everything I gave was lost and ruined. Just a few years ago I tried to track down some of my old things, but there wasn't much left. I rescued a few barbies from my grandma's house where they ended up, and I flat ironed their hair and I have them now. I also went on ebay and found a few of the dolls I used to have, or always wanted as a kid and bought them. I also took that box I sealed when I was 13 and got all of those dolls back. So, here is what I have left. My doll collection. I know Grace likes to look at my doll pictures, so for anyone who does, here is what I have. I have also been digging through old scrapbooks and finding pictures to peice together the stories for my dolls. I am probably the only one who cares, but it's my blog, and i care a great deal so here it is.

This is a picture of my bedroom in December of 1998 or January 1999. I was 12 years old. Behind my sweet dog Sokar who I was making warm after his bath is my Barbie, Littlest Pet Shop, and stuffed animal, and beanie baby collection. You can see how it circles my whole room.
Here is a closeup of the Barbies. You can see the favorites that I kept. Oh, and what is set up wasn't half of my collection. I had bags more.

One of my first memories ever was opening a Barbie by the tree at Christmas time. She was a bride and I specifically remembered the beads on her veil. To the right, is the original dress I got when I was about 3 years old. For my wedding, I found that some bride Barbie online and bought her to set up for my wedding. Here she is.
Aunt Jeanine gave me this picture when I went to Nebraska and it is amazing because you can see me in the white nightgown in the corner. This is actually a picture of me when I was getting this Barbie. I was in the corner about to open her. She is next to the bride porcelain doll you can see. (I was also obsessed with Brides as a kid. I was a Bride for 2 years for Halloween, and had many Bride dolls). Mom, me, Jeff, Josh, and Jace.
Here is another picture from that year. You can see how young I was. Grandpa & Grandma Van, Dad, me, mom
My wedding dolls. I got to marry my own Ken (meant to be) so for my wedding I found a mini Barbie and Ken which were put on a mini cake. It was awesome. I just bought a new Ken groom and set him up with my special bride barbie and put them in our cross stitched stockings. We had a December wedding and I just finished making Ken's stocking in time.
Here is the mini cakeHere are the stockings with the dolls in them.

This is Christmas of 1996. This was the year I got my dollhouse, Phoebus & Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame (I gave them away and only recovered Esmeralda). I also got the two dolls below which I kept.
This is my Lydia doll. Dad gave her to me for Christmas in 1996. She is a Pioneer Barbie, but at the time I was reading The Work & The Glory series and Lydia Steed is one of the main characters so dad bought her for me and said she was my Lydia.
Dad also gave me this beautiful Japanese Barbie that year. December 1996

This is November 1997. Again you can see the doll set up and I am actually on the bed playing Barbies with my cousin Tawney. My cousin Shaylee is on the ground.
Shaylee, Jen, Tawney
Here is a clipping from my scrapbook of when we saw the Anastasia on opening night. November 1997.
Anastasia was one of my favorite movies in 5th grade. I collected the Barbies. She is one I never gave away. I bought this particular one when I went by myself to visit my Aunt Jeanine in Omaha, Nebraska in March of 1998. She came with a tape of "Once Upon a December" which I would play and dance around with baby Kylie in the basement of their house. This doll is from her vision as that song plays and she remembers her family.
Here is Christmas of 1997 where I got the "Together in Paris" Anastasia doll.
I got her for Christmas of 1997. This is the "Together in Paris" Anastasia from the beginning of the movie. The movie came out in November of 1997 and I was obsessed with Anastasia (and the Titanic) in 5th grade. I read the REAL story of Anastasia (pretty brutal) and looked at pictures and got books from the library. My friend Emily loved it too and drew Anastasia pictures for me.
Here is a picture my friend Emily drew of my favorite Anastasia dress
This was my favorite one and I saved up and bought her myself sometime in 1998. This is Anastasia in her Opera dress in Paris.
This one I bought just a few months ago online. It is Anastasia in her Grand Duchess gown.
Her is my complete Anastasia collection. (Though I still don't have all of them)

Here is my 12th Birthday. January 20, 1998. Jeff, Jackson, Emily, Megan, Me, Jace
Crystal, Emily, Josh, Me, Jackson, Jace, Roy, David
David, Angie, Emily, Me, Megan, Roy
So here I am with my presents. Again, you can see the Anastasia craze, but I also include it because I got another special doll that day named Emily. She is the beautiful porcelain doll next to me. I saw her at a craft fair I went to with my mom and my Aunt Anita. Anita's sister Patty made her. She was way to expensive, but she was beautiful and "She spoke to me" as my Aunt Anita would say. I wanted her so much, but I didn't even dare ask for her because she cost too much, and I knew someone else would by her and I would never see her again. When I came downstairs that morning there was Jenny waiting for me on the table. My mom sure does love me. I hugged her and cried.

I love Sabrina the Teenage Witch at this time as well. Here are the Sabrina & Harvey Barbies. I bought Sabrina when I was in Nebraska as well.
These were given to me by my Aunt Jeanine. They were Kylie's, but were usually strewn about the house naked and Jeanine knew I would appreciate them so she let me have them. They are from the movie Barbie Swan Lake (Yes I love the Barbie movies and own most of them). It is Barbie as Odette, Teresa as the Fairy Queen, and Ken as Prince Daniel.

My Disney Collection-
I prefer the older Disney dolls when they were actually Barbies. Now Disney makes them and they just look cheesy to me. So, I searched for older editions from the 90's and even earlier. The ones with sparkles on their clothes are the originals and they are my favorite

This is all that was left of the Esmeralda that I got in 1996. She is missing her main dress, but I found her and this dress at grandma's a few years ago.
I owned a Jasmine Barbie as a kid, but her head came off. I bought this one a few months ago on Ebay.
This is the original Aladdin that I owned. I got Aladdin and Jasmine together for Christmas probably around 1992 when the movie came out. I did give Aladdin away, but this is what I was able to recover from Jeanine's house.
This is Cinderella. I never owned her, but I remember my some friends in Kindergarten (yes I actually remember) who had her and I always wanted her. So, I found her on Ebay a few months ago.
Again, Beauty & the Beast were Barbies that friends had, but I never had them. I recovered this Belle with an older blue dress from grandma's basement although she was not originally mine. However, I recently bought a Belle & Beast so this old Belle is wearing the new dress. The pink dress was also something I found at Grandmas.
This is the set I actually bought.
Here is a Hannah Montana Barbie I bought recently. Mostly because she was on sale for $2.00. I don't particularly like Hannah Montana.
These I got as a kid and kept. (Although I gave away the Dolphin and recovered it from Jeanine's house) Megan and I loved Baywatch. We used to watch it all the time, play "Baywatch" in the pool (She was CJ and I was Summer, her guy was Logan and mine was Matt) and one year we each got the Baywatch Barbies for Christmas and played with them endlessly. She got the white Barbies and to this day I don't know why mom bought me the black ones. It was probably all that was left, but I wound up liking them more because then Megan and I had different ones.
This I got the year it came out. Megan and I also loved to play school. I kept this set.

I bought her one day from the grocery store because I thought she was pretty. I kept her.
This was one of my favorite Barbies to play with though I have no idea what she was originally. I loved this outfit and saved up and bought it at the grocery store. My and the Howas used to walk to Fred Myer by all the time and I was always checking out the Barbies. I kept her and this outfit.
This is a Barbie I took from grandmas or Jeanine's, but the dress is something I had as a child and kept. I think I got it as a trade from a cousin, but Megan and I called it the Maid Marian dress and used to to play Robin Hood.
These are recovered Barbies and clothes. Left to Right. Total Hair Barbie I got in 2nd grade, the next two were from a swimming set. I had the pool and everything at one point. The next two were not originally mine (neither were those 2 dresses), but I recovered them from grandmas, and the last was one of my many. I don't remember what she was, but she was mine.
These 4 Ken dolls and all the clothes accept for the blue outfit were mine that I recovered from Grandma's. The only one I remember is the crazy hair one who was shaving Ken. His beard came off with special cream or something.

Other Old Dolls and Toys

I don't remember her name, but I got her for my 5th Birthday and she STILL smells like chocolate! Pretty awesome. That's why I kept her. These were Josh & Jeff's bears. They each gave them to me to hold when they went on their missions, but told me I could keep them when they came back. The Christmas one was Josh's and the Hey Jude Beatles one was Jeff's.
These were some of my trolls that I kept. The Green haired one has a red jewel in her tummy and Lindsey Hoxar, my best friend in Kindergarten gave her to me when I moved to Arizona.
These are Starr Model Agency Dolls. I did have these 3 when I was little, but I gave them away. All of them that I have now I bought recently. Starr, Misty, Dawn in their fun wear.
Misty, Taylor, Amber, & Toya in evening wear.
Amber & Starr Uptown girls
Here is my whole Barbie collection

This is after I moved the Barbies out, so I set up stuffed animals and trinkets instead. 7th grade.This is a little collage of stuff that was important to me in 7th grade (including my sweet Sokar)


Well that's it. That is my collection so far. I would love to get more, but it isn't very practical so I try to resist. If I had more money than sense I would probably have a huge collection. Well, this has been a fun walk down memory lane, but it is time to be a grown up and clean my apartment and feed my husband. Goodbye.