It's still October..., but Happy New Year!

If you are a member of the Barbie Fan Club on Barbie Collector mark your calendar for October 9th.  The next Holiday Hostess will be available for $75.00.  I'm excited about this doll.  I was able to see the doll in person at the 2013 Barbie Convention and I was able to snap a few pictures.  I love her vintage look and gold dress with blue accents with the crown, makeup and jewelry.  Bill Greening has done it again!

Happy New Year™ Barbie® Doll | Barbie Collector

See More pics on Flickr!

Halloween Haunt Coming This Fall

Here is a doll I am excited about. I like the vintage look with the modern styling. She is much cuter than the upcoming Dracula Mackie doll.  I cannot post pictures but if you are a Barbie Fan Club member you can take a look at the recent sneaks.  This cutie is much more up my ally.  What do you think?  She is a Bill Greening Barbie.

 Halloween Haunt Barbie

I hope her production issue is similar to the prototype shown here.  I think she would look great paired with the vintage Bewitched Barbie.  I missed out on this one but there is always ebay!

Happy Fourth of July!

May you be enjoying your Holiday weekend. Here are Style 'n Shave Ken and Dallas Cowboy Hispanic Cheerleader Barbie dressed in Dressmaker Details to wish you a safe and Happy Fourth of July! I have spent the last several days going through my dolls, de-boxing and taking tons of pictures. I've been uploading a lot of pictures to the gallery and have been posting updates at the Twitter page to let you know about the new pictures!

2008 Holiday Barbie

I received the 2008 Holiday Barbie as a gift so I won't need to wait until she's on sale at the Mattel Toy Store! She is the 20th Anniversary Holiday Barbie for Mattel and is also featured in the first Barbie Christmas DVD, Barbie in a Christmas Carol. She is so beautiful and detailed. I love so many things about her including her dress, side ponytail and the fact that she is Model Muse. I have seen her nude on ebay and am considering buying another one to redress! I do hope you can pick this one up. This Holiday doll was designed by Sharon Zuckerman.

2008 AA Holiday Barbie

I was at Toys R Us and had the opportunity to see the new African American Holiday Barbie. I think she is just striking. I do hope to get her in the future but for now I just snapped a quick picture of her in the store. Last year I bought both Holiday Barbies early on only to find them marked down at the Mattel Toy Store. This year I'll wait for this one.

Gold Label Dolls at TRU

It's so nice to be able to pick out the dolls that you want directly in the store. I was at my local Toys R Us and noticed that they had Hello Kitty Apple Tree and Cha Cha Dance Off from Grease right on the shelf. I already had Hello Kitty and probably would have bought Cha Cha, but I held off. I also saw the Holiday 2008 doll. It's nice to see these collector dolls on the shelf and be able to pick out the best one. Mattel recently announced that a select number of Toys R Us stores in the U.S. will carry Gold Label Barbie dolls. The dolls will be displayed in beautiful in-store cases. There are none in my area but if I take a little drive I can visit one of these stores.

Today's close-up is another one of my favorite Fashion Fever dolls from Wave A. She is Teresa with the hat and white washed jeans. She has the super cute classic Teresa face. I think you can still find this girl on Ebay for a reasonable price.

Organizing Dolls is a Never Ending Task

Again this weekend I spent most of my time clearing out boxes and organizing my collection. This includes de-boxing, repackaging for storage, storing in baggies, etc. I still have to go through my holiday dolls. I keep meaning to go through the Valentine, Easter and Christmas playline dolls I have and thinking hard about whether they should stay or go. I just don't think there is a market on ebay for most of these dolls. Every so often I watch the prices but even for the Kelly themed holiday dolls, the prices have gone way down. At some point, I'll have a big de-boxing party and strip them of their clothes and put them all in a nude lot. Of course, the problem is that I always love to take photographs of each doll before I sell it just to have a record. I set up a pile of dolls to de-box, I do one, take a lot of pictures, put the clothes in a baggie and put the doll itself in a sale box. It works out ok for the first two or three. Then I get side-tracked by the phone, reading e-mail or one of my children. It just never ends and all the dolls I intended to get to in a day just go back in a bigger box, in the closet until the next weekend. I guess I should be grateful I have something to do. I can honestly say I am never bored and wish I had time for all my hobbies like reading, watching movies, etc.


While preparing for some dolls to go to new homes, I took some time to photograph some of my newer items over the past few weeks as well. I was lucky enough to find a nude Indigo Obsession doll a few months ago. She is re-bodied with Milan Best Model's body. I didn't feel I had quite the right outfit until I saw this new Randall Craig outfit Retro Modernism. I think Miss Indigo looks quite happy to be back in blue.

Platinum, Very Desirable

In the world of Barbie, platinum is very desirable. A Platinum Label doll that is. Platinum Label dolls are exclusive, elusive, and very limited. They are dolls are produced in editions of less than 1,000 worldwide, including premium one-of-a-kind dolls available at select events, like Barbie Conventions. There are also Platinum Label dolls of more widely released dolls like the Carolina Herrera Bride FAO version. The next one I am stalking is Japan, Doll of the World for Asia. She will be a Walmart exclusive. She will be available online and in limited stores. Her production numbers haven't been released but they could be less than 1,000. Her price is still a mystery. She is the Platinum version of the Gold Label Asian Market Happy New Year Barbie.

For today's picture, I think Miss Gone Platinum Diva fits in with all that is Platinum! She has received a new body (of course), courtesy of Cynthia Rowley, and her stunning dress from Lone Star Great. All I can say when I see this doll is Foxy Lady! Here she is originally.

Another Doll Week, and Increased Ebay Activity

It's the start of a new week and I'm very proud that the work on the Grand Opening continues. I don't want to say much more but I hope that many new and exciting things are in the future for the Cafe.

I've made some changes to my identity over at Barbie Collector. In the five years I've been there I've only had two avatars. The first was Katiana Jimenez Barbie. I guess I picked her because her designer is Latina and I've always thought that doll was so pretty and I wished I looked like her. LOL. I had that avatar from 03 to 06. In 06 I picked the Monte Carlo avatar in honor of my love for the Model Muse dolls and the darker skin tone. I changed again today to the Opal Birthstone from 2003. The doll is pictured in one of my recent posts. It's such a shame that she was the only doll from that collection with that skin tone. She is just so precious. So, I wonder how long it will be until I change avatars again. I am changing my nick there too. I used my real name when I first signed up. Maybe that's not a good thing so I'll post my new nick soon once the change goes through. It's kind of a process, lol.

As if I have nothing better to do, I've been stalking Ebay a lot more than usual. Lol. I'm always looking for cheap mm bodies for donors. It's really hard to beat the current sale on the birthstone dolls at Barbie Collector but I found a lot of five mm bodies that are great for re-bodying. The one that really caused me to "Buy It Now" was a nude 70s Cher. I've been wanting an extra one for ages. I'll keep my original NRFB so I'm thrilled to have one to re-dress. The four other dolls are Marisa Pretty Young Thing, Marisa Beach Baby, Lily Pulitzer and Jeff Gordon. All the perfect skin tones for girls awaiting their plastic surgery. As a bonus I also got the Stacey doll that comes with Lilly. If anyone wants to buy some heads or even Stacey please leave me a comment and I will contact you.

Now here is another of my recent re-bodies. She is 2005 Sears Holiday Barbie on Aquamarine Birthstone's body. Again, just a quick head pop and she looks beautiful in the Aquamarine outfit. She'll probably stay like that for a while. It takes ages for us to redress our girls. She is currently on display in the doll room (Steph's room).

Have I Gone Too Far?

No news on the Grand Opening Today. Still doing working on the forum and the final touches. I'm hoping the Grand Opening will take place sometime by the weekend! There are always delays in a new undertaking though . . .

Today I won a doll on Ebay I've been wanting for a long time. She is Kate Spade Barbie. I'm always watching for a good price and I'm happy with what I paid. I sold some things recently so I have the Paypal funds to cover her cost! I can't wait to receive her!

I thought long and hard about rebodying Princess of the Nile. I bought her nude on Ebay so it wasn't a matter of de-boxing her and removing her beautiful outfit. When I first got her I wasn't enamored by her. I put her in a box and left her there for a long time. In my big Barbie clean-up starting last President's Day, I found her again. She looked so lonesome without clothes or any friends. She spoke to me this time. I thought I should at least clothe her. Still she sat waiting for the right outfit. I found another box with an extra dressed Monte Carlo Barbie and a little light bulb went off. I could transform this Princess of the Nile into the Queen of the Runway. So here she is with just a direct body switch from Ms. Monte Carlo. I'm still not sure though. Should I keep her this way? I keep thinking, have I gone too far?

Opening A New Cafe Is Hard Work

Work continues for the Grand Opening of the Doll Cafe. To Think that less than two weeks ago I had no idea that I would be opening a new site or moving on from my previous web effort. On that note, I think things are progressing very smoothly. The forum is about 90% complete. The layout and color scheme is finally in place. Editing some of the posts and moving them around continues. There is just one modification that needs some edits. I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist!

I started organizing, re-bodying, and redressing a lot of my dolls around the President's Day Holiday (February 18th). I finally de-boxed Blair from the 12 Dancing Princesses. Stephanie received one as a gift for her Birthday but she already had one so she gave her to me, and she sat in her box for ages. I re-bodied her with the body from the Queen of Hearts since the are both very fair. The little hearts painted on her fingernails are just adorable. Her outfit is from Randall Craig. Her elegant sister is Chinese New Year Barbie available in Asian markets. She is so beautiful but her shorter body really took away from her beauty. She received a new body courtesy of Top Model Summer. Miss Chinese New Year is wearing a Mattel carded fashion from 2005.