Next stop? Thriftshop!

First stop:

Of course I didn't come home with one thing...

:-)

To be continued...

Hello dollies!

Yes, today is the day that we can meet Lori's challenge. My hubby already asked: is there a challenge you cannot participate in, LiLi? Yes there is. In my first blogpost ever I told you that I was going to show my collections and that I collect everything except for baseball cards, cars and militaristic objects. Otherwise...

I'm a doll lover 'pur sang'. Though I never was a little mum. My dolls had to sit in line and listen to me, the teacher. I liked to dress them and sew clothes for them and of course I was their hairdresser and make up artist, but not their mum. I hardly had any baby dolls. Today there are only a two of my play dolls left; one Barbie and one little Furga doll called Lucy.

here is.....Lucy

As I remember I received Lucy at my 7th birthday and I could choose between Lucy and a doll's house. I was in doubt, but eventually I choose Lucy. Most of the dolls of the sixties and early seventies are made from a kind of vinyl that looses its colors or absorbs colors from clothes etc. When my father died and we cleaned up my parents house, I came across my old dolls, but they were all spoiled. They looked so pale and dirty, that isn't how I remembered them and how I wanted to remember them, so I decided not to keep them any longer.

a few of my favorite vintage Barbies in my Barbie fashion shop. Once I bought something and I told the seller; it's already in my Barbie Fashion shop. She replied: Do you have a shop and how do I get there....lol.

When Barbie was introduced in the Netherlands I was only three, but when my neighbour got one I was totally hooked. My mother on the other hand, thought such a grown up girl wasn't suitable for a little girl so I received a Skooter (friend of Barbie's little sister), a blonde one, off course as I was blond too. I still like Barbie and I have a collection of vintage and mod Barbies. Barbie deserves a post of her own one day.

Around 1973-1974 the first nostalgia wave was going through the Netherlands and of course I jumped right into it. My parents were always going to antique fairs and I tried to persuade my mother to buy some of these antique dolls. At that time my mothers interest was mainly copper and china service. Of course I couldn't afford one myself. But when I went to a flea market with my aunt, I met the lady on the right (see photo below). At that time she only had one arm, but I adored her, she would cost me 35 Belgium francs (about one dollar at that time, which was much considering she was severely damaged.) And my aunt gave her to me as a present. This was my first half doll and I absolutely loved her. I took some antique lace from my grandmothers' and made her a dress and glued some of that lace onto an ice umbrella.

On the right my very first half doll which I bought in 1974, now restored. Her arm was made after the arm of my second half doll (summer 1974). A friend of my mothers has done this restoration quite clever.

My second half doll (on the right) also comes from Belgium. When I was 14 we went to the 'zandfeesten' in Brugge, this market is still held 3 times a year and so much fun. Rumour has it that the French go shopping here for the big brocante market in Lille. I bought her for 100 BF, which was about 7 dutch guilders, about 3 euro and about 4,5 dollars. My uncle was talking me out of it. It would be way too expensive; 100 francs for that! Of course I didn't listen. And I'm still happy I didn't. I like those flapper half dolls best, better than the marquises.

The coin is there as a referance. I was looking for an euro, but I'm broke :-(
I must have a dollar somewhere...but where? What I did find is a one pound coin, a little smaller than the euro coin, but I think almost the same size as the dollar.
This coin is featuring in the next pictures too!

Today I have a little collection of half dolls and even a half doll which actually is a whole doll. Does anybody out there know how I should call this whole half doll? This doll is all original though the silk was once blue and now deteriorating, I just like her to keep as original as possible.

Whole doll

Two half dolls make one whole doll, as you can see this is a powder box.

Nowadays I have some antique dolls, inherited from my Mother, she finally listened to me and now I'm enjoying her dolls;

My favorite, a french SFBJ doll which face has been polished too hard by my Mum. I take this lesson very serious ;-)

This doll once belonged to my mother too.

China heads, the one on the left side is japanese.
What I like about dolls is the mini part. I like small, don't know why. That's why I liked Barbie, with all her tiny and handsome accessories back in the sixties. Nowadays I like to buy little play shops and I'm planning to make one into a fashion or bridal shop. Over the years I have collected these china heads to model in those little shops.


Some bisque shop models

Two frozen Charlies or Charlottes, it's hard to tell. I guess the gold shoes make it a Charlotte.


The smaller the better!


Some other mini's. Those white dolls with the colored bands on the first line are japanese. Next to them is a french feve, that was used to hide in the buttercake (galette) at Epiphany. The child that received the part of the cake with the feve in it, would be king or queen for a day. Aah to receive a delicious piece of galette and such a beautiful bisque feve AND be queen for a day, it would be too much for me! Next to the feve are some dollparts that were probably dug up in England (but of German origin). I bought them there. And the second row are unpainted and probably rejected doll heads from Germany.

Two Corolle minidolls, I'm sure these will be collected in the future!

I think I will stay a doll lover until I die. I do love modern dolls too, if they are of certain quality. When my daughter was born she received a French Corolle doll from my cousin. I loved that doll and gave her more; Here are another two Corolle minidolls that are still in her (age 14) room. The other Corolles not to speak of the I guess more than 100 Barbie dolls (She is a Barbie and a flea market lover too) are already in the attic, but will come back, I'm sure, one day.
Goodbye doll lovers! Enjoy yourselves! Thanks Lori, for hosting such a wonderful event!

It will be raining hats and dolls!

Last week we had the button challenge, which was so much fun. I have discovered some amazing blogs and I'm going to swap buttoncards! This week Analise and Cerri have thought of something new. Let's show the world your vintage millinery flowers/hats. If I showed you my millinery flowers we would be finished quite quickly. I have one jar with those little flowers every one in the States has too, but actually they're not so easy to acquire here.
Well millinery hats then? To be honest; I never have seen them here. It's the same as with those buttons; hats are black, grey, brown velvet or straw, not flowery. I guess a flowery hat was too frivolous for the average dutch lady. Even our Queen didn't wear millinery hats, that I can remember. So I thought I would pass this one...

Well, why don't you cheat a little LiLi, and just show them one of your hats with flowers, after all you are a stranger who just pretends to speak English...
Well I know that these flowers are not exactly what you are looking for and this hat started its life as:

Before I revamped it. But I do have some vintage hats, I even have vintage hat stands. Well, come join me in my little 'sans' millinery vintage hat party. First meet our lovely models Eugene and Laurence:

They are showing vintage black hats. Remember Eugene? He and his top hat were involved at the giveaway back in October. The hat that Laurance is wearing is a gift from Mrs. H. The veil has been attached by a vintage rhinestone heart shaped button. In fact mixed collections! Laurence and Eugene are quite a couple and they would like to continue showing you their matching hats:

A little bit more quirky. Laurence is wearing one of my favorites. I bought this hat in Belgium with my cousin while hunting brocante. It was end of October and it started to rain, it was such an ice cold rain and I felt that I was catching a cold. Then I bumped onto this woolen hat, it fitted me like it was made for me. So I bought it for almost nothing. No wet hair anymore, it comforted me immediately, making me warm again. 'You are actually wearing that hat?' A woman at the stand asked me totally surprised. 'Yes of course' I replied, 'what else should you do with a hat?' (you tell me LOL). 'I'm amazed that you dare to do that' the woman said to me, 'but you are so right, because it suits you perfect!' I was getting a little shy. Every time we met that lady again she said something positive of me wearing that hat. So my cousin was suspecting her to stalk us. She even waved us goodbye when we left!

Eugene wears this hat in Summer and one of the black hats during wintertime. At Christmas time he wears the same hat as Santa, when we celebrate birthdays in our family he wears a funny hat too. Laurance on the other hand doesn't wear a seasonal hat, because this summer hat she shows us here is actually my gardening hat. You can fold it down to protect you from the sun. I bought this hat last year, but I it wasn't necessary to protect myself from the sun all summer!

Here are some vintage veils. The right one belonged to my grandmother, though I cannot remember her wearing it. Perhaps it was something she used to wear on funerals.
Before I'm off to see some of your vintage hats, I want to tell you about Lori's challenge; Next Tuesday April 8th, she hosts a doll challenge. Show your favorites, no matter what they look like. Don't forget to pop over to Lori's and join her Give away. She is celebrating her one year blogging. But even when there was nothing special at Lori's you would be so happy to be there. Because she is one of the most talented ladies around blogland AND she is such a sweety too. Well what are you doing here still? Just pop over! Wait, wait wait, there is another challenge this week. Anja is hosting 'Next stop thrift shop'. In her blog you can read all about it.

Buttons!

Hi button lovers of the world!

Through Heather's blog I arrived at Sugar*sugar where the lovely miss Analise asked whether we could show our buttons to the world. Well, being a button addict myself, I couldn't resist of course. One sign of my button addiction: I once went to Amsterdam by train (1.5 hrs) to buy heart shaped mother of pearl buttons. I needed them so bad to finish a pincushion.

It all started at my grandmothers'. When I visited her I loved to play with:

Those shiny black glass buttons. I used to play 'shop' with them.

Since I'm reading and lurking an awfull lot of American blogs, I have noticed that your buttons are far more colourful than ours. When I buy a box of buttons the vast majority of them is grey or brownish. That's also the case with our button cards:

Very to the point huh? No playing children or lovely ladies...I guess that's typical Dutch. Even nowadays there still aren't many people who buy beautiful and expensive buttons. The market is a typical place to buy such supplies.

But I still managed to collect these:

Well ladies for every 100 grey/brown dutch buttons there is one red one. So take your calculators please, to calculate my total amount of buttons...

Ok, I'm not playing a fair game as I buy vintage buttons loose sometimes. For my dutch readers: the Noordermark(e)t in Amsterdam is a great place to buy vintage buttons but the best is 'De Winkel' (Vrouw Juttenland 39) in Delft. I only have to warn you (probably an addict yourself). Don't fall apart when you see what they have done there with all vintage buttons on cards:

They just cut old cards in half or in more pieces AND they write prices on the face of the cards with black markers. I couldn't believe my eyes and of course I couldn't keep my mouth shut either. Someone has to save what's left of the diminishing button-on-card population. So I asked whether it please could be possible to write the price on the back of the card, preferably with pencil. The lady laughed loudly...Why on earth? They were pricing the buttons this way for more than 20 years now and NO ONE she repeated NO ONE did ever mind...I should almost boycot that place, but they have amazing glass buttons:

So lets skip the greys and the browns. I sometimes use them with old fashioned rope to pack something a little bit old fashioned.

If there is 1 red button on 100 grey/brownish oned, pink is even more rare. I guess 1 on every 200.

Mother of pearl, one of my old time favorites, is quite common, except for the heart shaped ones, but you know now that you can find them on the Noordermarket in Amsterdam.

And here some blue buttons. I have added the biggest blue one because its a typical one. My mother who was often sewing clothes used this one on a jacket for herself. In the sixties she used to wear costumes (jacket and skirt) complete with gloves, grace kelly bag and high heels. I can see her image vividly just when I look at that peculiar button. My parents' button box is like a photo album to me!

Like this one: a carved peach stone given to me to my neighbour Mrs. Trense. She was a very sweet old lady, who used to give me all kind of treasures. Like empty Avon bottles and boxes. I cherish her memory.

I remember those green ones, they were typical childrens buttons in the sixties.


Later on these childrens buttons arrived here. Of course I like everything. No limits for LiLi M. again.

Well I'm off to see the worlds most beautiful buttons now. I just wonder is there any blogger out there who buys just as many buttons as necessary, not just one for pleasure only? Have a nice week!

Bling my birdcage

Today it's Karla and Beth's bling your birdhouse day!

So ya wanna see my blinghouse?

You really didn't think that I would live in an ordinary house outside, did you??

It's bad enough that this cage was bought at the Action (a super cheap store here in the Netherlands) for less than 2 euros and revamped by LiLi into this:

Yeah, yeah it's a little of Sandra Evertson and it's a little of LiLi M.
Of course, the legs are LiLi's!!

(In fact I asked Beth if it was allright to bling a cage. Btw In case of not noticing the bling its a brooche on Marie Antoinette's dress. Just click the picture.)

I love bird cages. I have them in and around the house:

Mmmm, those inhabitants outside seemed to have suffered from winter. Aah, let them eat cake! Wait until spring, my little defeathered friends and your cages will be cleaned too (and you will be replaced I'm affraid, but I will allow them this one minute of fame now).

Not too much bling here either. I'm more the kind of girl who likes her birdcage the best just before it falls apart. I'm off now to see some more real blinghouses. You should do too and have fun. Thanks Beth and Karla for hosting this event.

Happy Easter to all bunnies and chickies....

Hi!!
I can't hardly hear myself...
Easter has started here already...
First I had to stand in a corner behind a curtain. Some bunnies and chickies have suddenly disappeared. Every one is very cheery here, all having brown stuff in their mouthes. Wishing each and everyone a happy Easter!

(this was the last message of this funny bunny, never heard of him since)

Spring is in the air!

Hi!!

I'm in Heather's junque in my trunk swap too!! I am soooo excited about it, shopping vintage again, yes! I have spent part of the weekend enjoying my swappartner (I do hope this is not supposed to be a secret, well it isn't anymore now) Carol's blog. What creative talent and she has such a beautiful garden. Be sure to visit her at Boxwood cottage, but don't do that if you haven't got plenty of time!
We did a total make over of our garden last year, if you don't remember you can refresh your memory here. I think my garden has potential but looks still a bit shabby ( no, not that shabby way we all want things to look, but the shabby way no one likes). I realized that having a beautiful garden as Carol has, must have been the result of hard work, so I started today. It was cold but sunny and I worked so hard that the cold didn't bother me at all. Luckily I have a garden facing south. When you're working in the garden you suddenly see things like:

hey, the Camellia has flowers and a lot of buds!!

little forget-me-nots!! I always like that blue!

This is Euphorbia, the first time I have this cultivar.

Helleborus in white and pink still has flowers

and a big surprise!!! I have several pots with this lavender, I wanted to cut it back when I saw I am already too late for that...there are new flowers already!

I had a great time discovering, thanks Carol for inspiration.

Another very lovely lady I want to thank very much is Elly. She gave me an award again and I am very happy to receive that honour. Also I have won one of her atc's!! Be sure to check her blog. You wonder if Elly has found those gnome armies. She is so creative and productive and everything she makes is so nice!! When I'll receive that atc I'll show you of course.
I will let you know another time to who I will give this award....

Have a nice week, btw do you have spring in your garden already? Hugs LiLi