New Doll and...Blankets??

A couple of items from Breyer's Black Friday sales that I'd bought recently arrived. One purchase was the doll, Kaitlyn Cowgirl.

I was surprised that she was simply in a plastic bag and not a box of some sort, so I popped onto Breyer's site to check if that was how they were all marketed.

As I looked for the doll, I discovered that Breyer had recently added something that I had not seen. And, it wasn't even marked as new - it was just quietly posted. 

Holiday blankets!

I collect Breyer's blankets and so I ordered three. They are shipped randomly, but I would like to have all three and  hope to find someone willing to trade if I get duplicates.

Two other things were in the box with Kaitlyn. Stay 'tooned!

Christmas Card of the Day

My sister was working in the archives of the museum and found this beautiful 113 year old Christmas card  in one of the collections. More below the card. 

This post card with a golden horseshoe was sent in 1908 from Anna Owen who was in Hoopeston, Illinois to her friend Ida Robinson Roadruck in Brookston, Indiana.

What a Doll!

 Yesterday I received a message from Anne Field with some in-progress photos of the circus doll that she was making for me. 

Oh, my goodness! The doll was gorgeous!

I'd sent Anne this photo of a page from an old costume pattern book and asked if she could make something like the ballerina at the top left.

I wanted something elegant and simple with a 50s/60s feel, and Anne was making that happen.

Later in the afternoon I got another message from her telling me that the doll was finished and ready to ship. And, that she would be posting a blog entry today about its creation in her own blog, Field of Dolls Studio; Because Everybody Needs Dolls. 

I can't wait to see how my new doll looks with my RubberNedz Circus Horse. I am hoping to enter Jennifer Buxton's Pandemic Performance Panorama photo show with them if I can get things made/pulled together in time.

Yes, I Made a Doll

In the early 1990s I made a circus performance set-up complete with tack, ring, and doll rider.

 (Anne Field, this is why I asked YOU to make my new doll and didn't do it myself!)

I poked around on Identify Your Breyer trying to figure out which Brenda Breyer I had used. Judging by the shirt, it was an English rider doll. But the hair puzzles me - I don't see any English dolls with short hair.

She is from the early 1990s and can bend her legs, but that is the only articulation she has.

I made a harness for Liberty to wear, painted a huge quilting hoop and affixed gold star stickers to it, added some footing, and showed them in performance classes at live shows.

 Believe it or not, the set-up did well and qualified for the very first NAN in 1995.

It even placed in the Top Ten! (Which is an indication as to how far Performance entries have come since 1995.)

I'm still under post-op lifting restrictions, but I will see if Craig will pull out some tubs for me where I think I have the harness stored as well as a photo of the circus entry from NAN 1995. Stay tuned!

Big Plans

I have big plans for my new RubberNedz Andalusian Circus Horse.

First, I am trying to find a stand for him. I like this round acrylic jewelry display stand.

 And I like this rectangular acrylic jewelry stand, too.

 The original stand is sculpted to look like a tree branch

and has a notch in it where his hoof rests. It's made of a harder plastic and doesn't bend or give under the weight of the horse. Still, I have a hard time not holding my breath when I use it, and Donna did tell me that most people find something else to keep this piece upright.

But there is something else I am working on, and that is the replication in miniature of a childhood dream. My sister and I used to pretend that we were performers in a circus (bareback riders). We would spend time "performing" in the back yard, riding the circus train (i.e. the couch) to the circus's next destination, and we even had little cardboard suitcases (I think borrowed from our Barbies) that we would pack and take with us as the circus traveled. 

We also took ballet lessons - everyone KNOWS that circus riders are really ballerinas, right? At least that's what we thought. (Google Images of Wesley Dennis illustration; all other circus and pattern photos from Google Images.)

With those memories in mind, I decided to explore making a vintage circus scene from the late 1950s/early 1960s. I had the horse, but I needed either a bareback rider

 or a ringmaster (since my RubberNedz is rearing.) And I wanted it to be female

because the doll would represent me. Who better to talk to about my ideas than Anne Field of Field of Dolls Studio?

I researched a lot of old circus photos trying to find a costume that was not the glitzy and glittery Las Vegas style. 

Then I came across this photo from a vintage pattern book. That ballerina dress was just what I was looking for. It's elegant and pretty, definitely circus worthy, but not so over the top that it detracts from the real beauty in the ring - the horse.

Anne helped me decide on fabric and had some ideas for accents to the dress, and then agreed to create the doll for me. 

This is new territory for me but I am super excited.