Part One: Vintage Holiday Decorating Ideas (A Must Read Guide!) | Ruby Lane Blog

Part One: Vintage Holiday Decorating Ideas (A Must Read Guide!) | Ruby Lane Blog

Μουσείο κουκλών του Δρ Ε στα Ελληνικά : Καλά Χριστούγεννα! Θα ήθελα να ενημερώσω του καθε...

Μουσείο κουκλών του Δρ Ε στα Ελληνικά : Καλά Χριστούγεννα! Θα ήθελα να ενημερώσω του καθε...: Original Καλά Χριστούγεννα σε όλους και σε όλες μια καλή κούκλα!! Θα ήθελα να ενημερώσω του καθενός ότι γράφω αρκετά τακτικά για...

Belated Happy Thanksgiving, Season's Greetings, and Some Announcements!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Doll!!I would like to let everyone know that I am writing fairly regularly for the R. John Wright Design Blog and for Ruby Lane.  I also am doing some small descriptions for the dolls on Ruby Lane, and will soon be doing columns and more articles for our beloved ADC magazines.  My articles for Doll Collecting at About.com, but my vertical was discontinued, so my content will appear on RJW's amazing site or on my blogs, Ruby Lane, and ADC.  You can find me on Flickr,as etquest and Antique Doll Reader magazine, and this blog is being translated through Word and Google into Greek, Spanish, and Japanese. I should have one or two more doll books ready to go to the publisher, as well.

Also, look for me or Antique Doll Collector Magazine on Twitter, Reddit, Delicious, Instagram, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, and Snapchat [As soon as I can figure it out!!]  I have also done a post or to for Michele at Tonner.

I want to thank with all my heart the folks at Antique Doll Collector Magazine, R. John Wright and R. John Wright Dolls, Rachel Hoffman and Turn of the Century Antiques, Ruby Lane, Michele at Tonner, Christie Donnelly my former general manager at About.com, and my wonderful doll friends, Mikki Brantley, Mr. R. Lane Herron, Stephanie Hammonds, Jo Smith, Caroline Johnson, Kirsten  Anderson, and D. Nelson.    Thanks also to all our interviewees, especially Sandy Bullock, and to my doll groups on Facebook, especially The Beauty of Dolls.  Thanks to Merna Throne who helped me to set up these blogs, and to Robin for her inspiration.

Thanks to Bella May Dolls, Dollighted to meet You, United Doll Sellers, Theriault's, and Florence& George and to my wonderful Twitter family.  I love the "likes" and retweets.  Thanks to our good friends at Terror at Skellington Manor, to the National Museum of Play, to Morphy Auctions and Doll Castle News.

Thanks and God Bless to our wonderful followers on our blogs, over 200.000, and to the over 4 million folks who have viewed our work on Google+!  Love to my LinkedIn Friends, to my Goodreads fellow writers and bibliophiles, to my Pinterest and Etsy family, to my Flickr fans, and to all who read my work.  You humble me, and I love you

Dedicated to all I have loved, who have departed this life, and especially to my mother, Mrs. Clara A. Tsagaris, and to Mary Hillier and Violet Page.  Love to my muses, Nan, Erzebet, Anne Rice, and J. Pagter Johl. Love to all good writers who struggle with their craft, and love to my husband, Dino Milani, who has helped me on this writers' journey, and to Dr. T and Margaret, to Rosemary, Pam, Laurie,  Lori, Sarah, and to all my friends, to Ms. Yoko Ono, who reminds us each day on Twitter that life is beautiful! Also, to Nikki and Jordan, who read my blogs :) And to Penny Plum!!

If I've left anyone out, I apologize, but you live in my heart. Dolls are a huge part of our lives, and are among the most important of cultural artifacts!  If the world could share dolls, and through them, our cultures, hopes, and dreams, we would all live in a more peaceful world!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Peace in 2017!! Let's make it the Year of the Doll!!

Theriautl's Rendezvous November 30, 2016

MIkki's Mysteries!

Look for more soon on unusual German character babies, which are becoming a great love of mine, but here are two unusual examples that belong to my friend Mikki.  We are putting out an APB, or ADB [All Dolls' Bulletin] out on them!  All photos are courtesy of Mikki:

I'm pretty sure the boy and girl are from the same company.
On the girl, Germany is underneath the B and numbers.
The boy is very unique! I also had to make him arms, he had none when I bought him.
I would love to know about them, even the museum had spent time trying to identify him, with no luck

Haunted Beauty™ Zombie Bride™ Barbie® Doll

Haunted Beauty™ Zombie Bride™ Barbie® Doll

Doll Museum: Doll Collecting, Small Business, and the Future of...

Doll Museum: Doll Collecting, Small Business, and the Future of...: Today I caught an AOL headline that made me pause; the "heartbreaking" news was that Duck Dynasty was entering its last TV season....

Prof is Doll Collector

Below are excerpts from a very kind, and flattering article my school had written about me.  I am an administrator and teacher in legal studies, criminal justice, and English when I'm not "Playing Dolls."  She writes very well, and once wrote for Newsweek.  I was terribly honored by this, and touched, so I reproduced some of it for everyone to enjoy, and it is sort of an early Christmas card from  me. Seasons Greetings to all, and Peace in 2017!



With Love from Tin Lizzie

Prof is Doll Collector, Academic Renaissance Woman

 

When Dr. Ellen Tsagaris was a toddler in her native Greece, her mother presented her with a rubber yellow bunny doll that squeaked.  “I liked it very much,” she recalled.

Two Greek dolls dressed in national costumes followed that present. “By then, I was hooked. I remember as a child saying, ‘I’m going to collect dolls.’”

And collect she did.

Today, some 50 years later, Ellen . . .  is not only the chair of multiple academic departments for KU. . . , but also one of the nation’s foremost collectors of and authorities on antique dolls.

“When I was young, I loved portrait painting and I was interested in photography, costumes, and textiles, too. I found that doll collecting encompassed all those interests.  I’ve always loved having dolls, collecting dolls and reading about dolls,” she said.

Wooden dolls, porcelain dolls, dolls made of china and wax, Ellen has them all. And this year, she authored the first definitive book on dolls made from tin.

Entitled With Love from Tin Lizzie, A History of Metal Heads, Metal Dolls, Mechanical Dolls, and Automatons,” the book addresses the way dolls reflect cultures and civilizations, and how they have given rise to an international “doll economy.”  

Reviewers have described the book as an “academic text, a photo album, and book of memories all in one.” 

Ellen’s dolls hail from 50 U.S. states and most of the countries in Europe, Asia and South America.

Her Greek family, world travelers, have continued to bring Ellen antique dolls, folk dolls, costume dolls and souvenir dolls from all parts of the globe.

One of her favorites is her ‘Vogue Baby Dear,” the type of doll that Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev took back to his grandchildren in Russia after his iconic “shoe-banging” speech to the United Nations in 1960.

She received a Japanese Ningyo doll made of papier mache and covered in white oyster shell when her Uncle Tom visited Japan. At Knott’s Berry Farm in California, her father presented her with a strawberry blonde doll designed by celebrated ballet dancer and artist Suzanne Gibson.

When she’s not collecting dolls, Ellen is something of an academic renaissance woman. She holds a law degree, a doctorate in Modern British Literature, a Master’s Degree in English, and a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Spanish. She is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa.



******

Her interest in dolls has dovetailed seamlessly with her academic interests.  she has researched and written about dolls in literature and about Anne Rice, who was an avid doll collector.



Ellen's next frontier:  When she retires, she hopes to establish a nonprofit doll museum similar to the one Rice established at the former St.. Elizabeth's orphanage in New Orleans.  The museum will tell the story of human history though dolls, doll houses, and related objects.



******

 

Holocaust Education Committee

PROGRAMS OFFERED

BY

THE HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMITTEE

OF THE GREATER QUAD CITY AREA

SPEAKERS AND PRESENTERS

Authors, exhibits, Holocaust specialists and dramatic presentations are provided to schools, libraries, churches and other community venues through grants and collaboration with community groups.

INSTITUTES AND WORKSHOPS

Since 1993, Holocaust institutes and workshops have been offered to Quad City educators, students and community members.  Institutes are scheduled in the fall of odd-numbered years.

TRUNKS AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

The Jeff Leibovitz Special Collection, housed at the Western Illinois University Quad City Campus in Moline, provides access to over a thousand resources, including sets of traveling curriculum cases focused on Making a Difference, Rescuers and Resisters, and Diaries and Memoirs. 

ESSAY AND ART CONTESTS

The Ida Kramer Children and the Holocaust Essay Contest and the Meyer and Frances Shnurman Holocaust Visual Arts Contest are open to students in grades 7-12.  Submissions are due annually on February 1.

TEACHER SCHOLARSHIPS

Applications for the Rauch Foundation Teacher Scholarship, from $200 to $2,000, are due annually on April 1 or October 1 to support professional development.  The scholarship covers expenses for travel, housing, and/or registration for conferences, workshops or tours.

A BOOK BY ME

Youth, 18 years old or younger, interview, research, write and illustrate a 10-page book about a Holocaust survivor, liberator or rescuer.  

           

Promoting a higher awareness of the Holocaust as a unique historical event with universal implications for today

WEBSITE: www.hecqc.org

This is just Amazing; Rarities in the Sunday Marquis Auction by Theriault's!

Celebrating Shirley Temple: Dolls, Life, & Legacy | Ruby Lane Blog

Celebrating Shirley Temple: Dolls, Life, & Legacy | Ruby Lane Blog

Antique Doll Collector Magazine: November Interview with Caroline Johnson

Antique Doll Collector Magazine: November Interview with Caroline Johnson: I'm very privileged to have as our November interviewee, my good friend Caroline Johnson, who has lived as a citizen of the world,...

Antique Doll Collector Magazine: Rendezvous Celebrity Dolls, November 9th

Antique Doll Collector Magazine: Rendezvous Celebrity Dolls, November 9th: Our friends at Theriault's never disappoint.  Here is another wonderful Rendezvous Auction coming up Novemberr 9th, this one on celebr...