Recently in Vintage Dolls Category

I've been pining for, like, six years for one of these babies. I missed the original releases, and they're very rare on the aftermarket. BOOYAH! She actually came from Berkeley!

I love this style of "pose doll"... I finally got one last year. Couldn't resist the bright orange hair!

A little peek into my "Pose Dolls of Color" collection ^_^

I love the Island Girls... and the Tanuki's are harder to come by than the Kappa!

I was in the garden this morning pruning flowers and snipped off a few flowers and realized they happened to be blue and red in a white pitcher. Cute! I put them on the mantel above the fireplace and realized that half my dolls/ornaments were red and blue.

So here it is, a collection of my red, white and blue toys from around the house. Mew!!!

Best houseguests EVAR. Junk shopping, Kaiju popping, Okonomiyaki flipping happy goodness. Paul & Melissa.

Sunday was super hot so we had an impromptu Film Fest, with banana shakes and sundry other boozes. Once the sun went down Paul got to work in the kitchen and made a series of Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake-like griddled dish) of ever increasing complexity and awesomeness. The Grande Finale was Octopus & Hamhock— or, HAMHOCKTOPUS—that bloo my mind. For real, it was superb! Whoddathunkit???

Pose Doll by Melissa! She is so dreamy, I will name her and play dress-up for DAYS. More, better pictures to come!

And last but not least, Mr. Kallisti has spent the last few months dissecting vintage Kappa, analyzing how they were made, and recreating the art of Kappa Kraft!

Film Fest for the Aging Hipsters:

Who knew?

So ya'll know I ain't slackin'...

What does one do when one is not well? One drafts a pattern and sews an 18th century bodice by hand while watching 6 hours of The Duchess of Duke Street. And then one makes a pair of hoops (not sewn by hand, but much engineering ensued).

I like progress pictures, so here's mine. I've been meaning to make a set of hoops for... oh, since before I brought Fifi home :p and here they are, finally. With much help from the images on this site, and the rest of the internet. The ultimate in underpinnings. Mr. Kallisti says: "Oh, what, those go under the clothes?!?!?!"

The bodice is made out of the vintage bo peep fabric I got recently. Adapted from a 1770 polonaise. Mmmm. The stomacher is next!

Not our intention to have a big shopping weekend, but it was!

or Christinadoll??? Looks like Oriettacat/Christina is having a reeeeally good month. Blythedoll.com revealed Gina's new doll that she recently hinted at. And 10 to 1 Christina is the collaborative effort behind it. Squeeeeeeee!

Quote from Gina on TIB:

the cat is finally out of the bag! this is the gorgeous new girl that i`m introducing this week. she is indeed a collaboration with christina/jam fancy. i`m previewing the prototypes at an event in tokyo tomorrow and will be able to offer the first girl for sale in *hopefully* a few months. thanks for looking!!

I'm serious. Just sign me up. I'm such the huge JamFancy fangirl. And no one deserves it more than Christina. I'd buy everything she sells except half the time I don't get there in time to put my dibs in!

My bad fairy. Rawr.

Also, we'll be at the Super7 show for Paul Kaiju tonight in the city. BE THERE OR BE... not there.

Here, kitty-kitty!

Hot damn, I'm moving to Reno just avoid California sales tax on these things. OUCH.

And just to demonstrate that I'm not the only nutter in this household:

Soah got beeeyoootiful lashes at the Volks store. I used the dark brown wispy ones on her and they are divine! Loves so much.

And Gramma's Ichimatsu!

Now, to get Soah in the mail back to her eager owner. Everyone else too, if I owe you a package, it is going out today.

Got Zman's stitches out today! She's doing well but she lost some weight :/ a 4lb kitty is scary, when at her pudgiest she was 8lbs! So I've got special food and I have to give her intravenous saline treatments. Scary! But it looked simple enough. My vet is so amazed by her little body. She's alive!

I got home a bit early from the vet. So many dollies, I'm going to spoil you with their loveliness. I need to do another family portrait soon!

Look! I finally found the origin of one of my dolly dresses. Only interesting to me really because I've had it since I was little. I think I bought it at a garage sale with my allowance.

It is a dress from a 14" Madame Alexander "Snow White" from the 60's. Aw! Mine is dingy and the sleeves and snaps have been mended by my little uneven baby hands in blues and pinks.

Just so you know, it fits msd & unoa w/ boobs like a dream! ♥

she is mine.

yay for crappy ebay pix. it was her chubby knees that did it. and yes, I LOOK JUST LIKE THAT.

Spent the weekend in Tahoe with Todd & Ben. It was super fantastic. I miss them so much already, I DIE! Loverly weekend, very relaxing. Only lost about $40 at the penny slots (we're saying nothing of Mr. Kallisti's losses :p ).

Todd & Ben got the rockstar suite. So we got the best-friend-of-rockstar suite. OMG. The bathroom. AGH! And every time a hotel type person came to the door they handed us a fistful of Godiva chocolates.

Very nice.

Unfortunately FATBURGER now joins Krispy Kreme (don't even get me started) on the list of what-should-a-bebastion-of-yumminess-but-is-NOT. Give me In-N-Out Burger or give me death!

We of course decended the mountain Sunday morning to hit our favorite crap emporium in downtown Reno. They did not disappoint. I came out with a Fistful o' Dollies. Not least of all was this tall beauty:

Sorry for the crappy photo, but it still dark out and I am impatient! She's marked Kaysam 1961 (see pic of similar girl stolen from ebay below). She has ice blue hair, cat eyes and ultra tweezed brows! Weirdest of all, it is not a trick of the light, the whites of her eyes really are blue! Her hair at one point was in an elaborate up-do, but it is smashed. However, most of it is in silky smooth condition. Can the experts tell me the best way to clean and smooth her hair!?!?! She's so fabulous, I want to make her look uber glamourous. She's 24" tall and has the serious va-va-voom figure! Her outfit might be original. She needs shoes. She needs a little brightening on her makeup, one cat-eye eyeliner is rubbed off etc.

Um, isn't she FAB?

A Kaysam glamour bride from ebay:

Couple reference lines, from the internet: one and two
More later. Oh boy.

This is going to be the longest post in the world. And it is only the first half!

Spent yesterday running around with a camera. Sorry these are not quite in order. I'm too disorganized for that :/ Please click on thumbnails for nice big peektures.

I've had the same postman for years. One day he caught me leaving the house and we struck up a conversation as he was curious what all these hobby boxes were coming from Japan. I explained, in brief, what I was buying and he said he built model trains and so also had a steady stream of hobby boxes delivered. Over the years we've mentioned them in passing, then finally this last Christmas he left a couple real live snaps in our mailbox. They were awesome and lovely and we put them in our photo box.

Just now Mr. Kallisti was going through the photo box sorting when he ran across them and said "Did you realize? This is the corner of Hope and Despair?"

No. No I hadn't. Surprises from all corners. I give you, ladies and gentlemen, Eric the Postman's model train snap.

Random cool flea market find o' the month! Found this leetle beauty at the Alameda Antique Faire a couple weeks ago. She's a fantastic 1960's doll, about 8" tall, and made of foam rubber. Definately a bratz prototype (:p) if the label image is anything to go by. We've done a bit of restoration on her box, and switched the evil wire holding her in for a ribbon. But other than that, she is as we found her and in perfect condition. She looks rather like Bridget Bardot. Meow, meow!

A little googling and we discovered this doll was made by a very popular French design team of two ladies. And guess what? They're currently big in Japan! *falls over*

Now that I'm feeling better, we've had a whirlwind weekend. Started Friday evening with a trip to El Cerrito's little Japantown at the Jay Vee strip mall. Katana-ya is the most awesome ramen/sushi place in the area. If you go too late on ANY night it is packed beyond belief. We ordered Snow Crab Shabu Shabu to split and a mess o' sushi. We brought the camera in but realized halfway through the meal that we'd forgotten to snap. Oh well, so you get the mess we made. It was, to say the least, amazing. I love food you have to crack and pull apart and pick at to eat. So fun! I call it little Japantown because in the same wee strip mall (that has been here since I was a baby) there is a Japanese food market, where we got cleaning sponges like Volks sells, and Re-ment, and little chocolate burger crackers. And there is also a Japanese dollar store next door where we bought more crap. El Cerrito rocks.

Went to the farmer's market with my brother early Saturday, got lots of fancy meats and veggies and ate like true aging hippies last night with our dandelion greens and crepinettes. Mew!

The weather has been GORGEOUS so we headed out for Martinez since we had some pennies burning holes in our pockets. Mr. Kallisti picked up a beauty. A circa 1940's Diana-F plastic camera bought for a mere pittance. Very cool, mang.

I found a boudoir doll (1920's) that I am thinking on. GORGEOUS as well. Had to research before I dropped the dosh. I can't find anything like her online or in my books. She is smaller, probably under 20"? German made with very petite composition features, hands and legs all in peach silk that looks original. And mohair marcelle waves. I um, have to have her. So I will be emptying my coin jars and maybe selling some other stuff to assuage the guilt. She's not that expensive, honest... but I am spoiled and need to justify my purchases to myself.

On the way back to the car we stopped into a shop we'd been in last winter where we had coveted a petite uranium glass apothecary jar. The woman had just got it in but hadn't priced it yet. It had a chip in the lip so she knew it would be under value but even the ballpark was more than our comfort zone. Well. It was still there! The lady wasn't there, but the owner was. And the price was a under what her previous estimate had been and he knocked off an additional 10%. Pristine, this jar is worth a lot of money. I don't spend that kind of money on collectibles usually, so a lot of the stuff I have has tiny flaws. Which is fine by me. I love the loot for itself not its value really. And this piece is gorgeous.

Mid to late 19th century, hand painted label uranium glass Valerian apothecary jar. It of course glows under black light.

And last but not least, I got Aimee's outfit by Imai. I am so happy to own this! I love the outrageous take on traditional Japanese couture. I'll do a better photo shoot with all the girls in Japanese garb, but Demelza looked so fab, and she was already wearing the neosium zouk eyes too.

Sorry for the wrinkly backdrop. I'm lazy and I suck. And I'm late to go spend the rest of my glorious weekend moving my mother into a new apartment. Eeep!

So. I weeded out five crates of books last night to sell or take to the free book exchange at the El Cerrito recycle center. It got rid of all the books stuffed into crevasses and left a few nice wholes for expansion.

If we can swing it we might box up a bunch and put them in storage in the garage. If I can bear it.

But I found something Mr. Kallisti brought back for me from one of his many trips to the free book exchange! It is an early 70's crochet magazine, I'm assuming it is Japanese. But he brought it home because of the doll on the back cover:

And one of the fab pix inside:

Now, where are my Oshare dolls? They were supposed to be released in November. *sniff*