A Few More Favorites

Welcome to spring, finally! I have a few daffodils peeping out in my garden; I don't feel so bad about the neighbors across the street who have whole flower beds blooming already. I have a banged up organge chair I like to keep out with flower pots that is already in its appointed place. I decided to plant orange, red and yellow flowers in different shades to accent it. If my house isn't House Beautiful inside, maybe my yard has a chance. My friend next door and I also like to plant gourds and pumpkins. In part, of course, because the doll creating possibilities are endless. We are going to rotate the soil because we had no luck gettting them to reseed last year. Of course, we had a deer invasion, which didn't help.

Today, I thought I would pick up on another set of books that I have found very useful. These are Pat Smith's guides on various types of dolls, including her hardbound set on modern dolls which first came out in the mid-70s. For those in the doll business, I suspect the books were a godsend; the value of modern dolls went up and up, though online auctions have hurt them in the last year or two. I enjoyed seeing many of the dolls in my collection portrayed, and was inspired to label and organize my dolls. I make a quick and useful inventory of my most used doll books by putting a foil star next to the doll in the guide that is like mine. I write in red pencil the date I bought or acquired the doll. I also try to write the name of the person it came from. If the doll is a reproduction, I put an R by the other data that I've written. It isn't an expert way to keep inventory, but it is a start.

Smith also wrote and compiled books about antique dolls, asian dolls, French and German dolls in particular, and price guides. Two other authors have since consecutively picked up writing the price guides. Pat Smith got a little snappy with me one time on the old AOL Hobby Central; I said something nice about Eleanor St. George's books, and Pat disagreed. Well, in the immortal words of Sly Stone, "different strokes for different folks." I forgive her. Her books are great sources of information.

When I got to Independence, MO as a teenager, I saw some of the dolls in her book displayed. They belonged to people who had contributed to the Modern Doll texts. That was a great trip, except that Kimport Dolls was closed for vacation. Shortly thereafter, Mrs. McKim passed away, and they closed the doll business. Kimport is still alive online and is selling sewing patterns, just as they did when they first went into business.

More tomorrow, but it might be fun to start compiling an informal library and inventory of doll books and sources to use. More about this later.

Till we blog again.