a girly girl

my favorite dresses as a young girl were the ones that would twirl out like a fan when i spun around.  i wore skirts on my head when i was very little because i wanted long hair.  i begged for pierced ears, high heels, and home permanents (the only one that wasn't a mistake was the pierced ears).  i loved babies, brides, ballerinas.....and dolls.

a
girly
girl.

while i had many of my own dolls, i was also allowed to play with my mother's childhood dolls.  i have very fond memories of her Ginny dolls, each with her own wooden wardrobe full of clothes.  she also had a number of Storybook dolls, shared with her older sister back in the 1950's.

i will start off with some innocuous views, for those of you weirded out by dolls staring at you.  exit the theatre now if you are at all squeamish about this subject matter.  you are duly warned.

this doll's green-striped dress was always one of my favorites.

hat pile. because you are not well-dressed without a bonnet.

bow-tying practice

 watch out!  here they come.

 these two stare straight at you, with Ava Gardner hair & Clara Bow lips.

i always thought they were the prettiest.

the other series of dolls, probably older than ava gardner and clara bow (not their real names), refuse to look you in the eye.  i am so curious to know why they were made this way, with a downward tilt to their heads so that they look towards the ground (or glare up at you from under their brows).

i wish i knew which characters these dolls represented.  there were so many Nancy Ann dolls made, it is like searching for a needle in a haystack to try and match the dresses&dolls to any particular character name.  there is one little boy doll in the bunch, the only one with painted eyes - but i can't even figure out who he is!  and there weren't too many boy dolls made.  sigh.

not sure that she is little red riding hood,

but i plopped the cape on her head anyway.

 i've always thought of this one as the queen of hearts.

really, who else could she be?

glaring at you that way, especially.

she and little red riding hood are coming to get you.

my grandmother (mom's mom) was an excellent seamstress, sewing my mother's suits and dresses through mom's high school and college days.  so, it is possible some of these extra outfits were made by her - but i need to look into that a bit further.

there are two taller dolls, both now separated from their heads & one with a separated arm.  they resemble marie antoinette in hairstyle & in their queen-like silks.

mom thinks one of them is cinderella.

yes, i am the strange woman who has a doll display in her living room.

just for now.

i promise.

~