Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award (tag)

Phyllis of A Day in the Life of My Dolls tagged me with the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award, so let's take a shot at the questions before I'm a month late to the party!

1. Do you collect anything other than dolls?
I started out as a dollhouse miniatures enthusiast, though my next post will be about how more of the miniatures moved out of houses/roomboxes and into the Billy bookcases. Here's a sneak preview of the half-scale tower.

A leopard is always helpful in choosing what art to hang.

The original deal with fashion dolls was that I was going to have two -- Katie and Hayden from the Liv line -- and they would have a house. The purpose of the project was their house, as I'd been jonesing to work in 1:6 for years but never had the guts to tackle it.

2. Why did you start a doll blog?
When my parents sent me the initial Katie and Hayden, I thought the blog would be a way to allow them to see my progress on the house, as well as for me to organize my plans in a format that I could access from anywhere. Here is my first post.

3. What is your grail doll?
Articulated Janet (Stacie's friend) or basically any fully articulated Bratz, but they have to be found at thrift stores or the Park 'n' Swap.

4. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you travel to?
I'd go on a 'round the world junket and see everything. If I had to choose one place I hadn't been, then London would be a good pick, but so would Prague (though Czech is such that I cannot ever set appointments for a Thursday, as I can't pronounce the word).

5. What kind of music do you like?
My tastes are eclectic. I like various segments of pop, rock, hip-hop, and country. One day on the boardwalk at Venice Beach, I bought something like a dozen indie hip-hop CDs from the artists hawking them. I once, on another (now-defunct) blog, cooked a recipe and wrote about an indie band from each of the 50 states, thereby discovering that I have limited tolerance for dream-pop and for anything so conceptual that it doesn't have a melody. (But I also discovered the most important song to come out of Alaska: Pretty Birds That Kills' "I Write Too Many Songs About Cats." [link]) I love Spotify because if I want to listen to country from the 1950s, I can do that; and if I want to see what's in the Top 40 this week, I can as readily do that.

6. How did you get started collecting dolls?
Mom: "There's a Katie and Hayden at Big Lots." (She had Sophie, whom we'd discovered at a thrift store.)
Me: "I should go look at the Big Lots near me."
Mom: "Don't. Dad bought them for you and they'll be in the mail tomorrow."

I'm paraphrasing. I may even be writing historical fiction, but it's close enough in spirit. Anyway, in the process of researching how to clothe Katie and Hayden (who arrived in swim suits), I read a lot of doll blogs. While I was reading, my mom sent me four more fashion dolls: Sophie, Alexis, Draculaura, and Cleo de Nile.

Then I came down with Life in the Dreamhouse Raquelle envy, right at the point when she was clearanced.

Then I got interested in repainting and wanted thrift store dolls to practice on (which hasn't gone anywhere), which means I discovered the thrift store doll section.

Then I couldn't just leave a Bratz Strut It! Meygan to be mangled at Big Lots, and she needed to go on an articulated body. . .

And from there out, things just sort of. . . spiraled.

7. What are your feelings about doll articulation?
I'm strongly in favor of articulation and frequently rebody appealing heads onto Liv or Fashionista bodies. However, there are also a number of members of the support group Arms Straight Out who will never be rebodied -- usually clone dolls that I want to keep intact because I just like clones, but also sometimes dolls who won't fit any articulated body, like Vi and Va.

8. Do you know exactly how many dolls you have in your collection?
No, and I suspect the number would just alarm me. It's small by serious collecting standards, though large enough for mundanes to be startled.

9. What type of dolls do you collect?
Looking over at the shelves, I seem to be attracted to large-headed dolls (but at Liv or Bratz scale, not Candy Pops), clones and oddities, and characters who are "ambiguously brown" (Latina, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, light-skinned Black, werewolf).

If we look at multiples, the doll I have the most variants of is Bratz Yasmin: three "taller" versions, one original, one Bratz Babiez, plus a Bratz clone, the nearest Moxie Girlz character (Sofina), and the nearest Sparkle Girlz equivalent. Yasmin has quite the extended family at this point.

10. Do you set up dioramas for your dolls or do you keep them in display cases?
Both, badly. Katie and Hayden's house is the corner stack of my Billy system (and needs a ton of work for the new room shapes). Everybody else sits or stands on the regular shelves, and the best I can do is provide them with seating.

My nominees are:

• Mrs. Anderson's All-Purpose Blog
• Monkfish's Dolly Ramble
• Christina Articulates
• Tahoma Beadworks
• Growing Up is for Quitters

My questions are:

1. How did you decide to collect whatever you collect (dolls if you do, other if not)?

2. Why did you start blogging?

3. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

4. What toy from your childhood do you wish you could find again?

5. Do you know the size of your biggest collection?

6. What toy now in stores (or now-ish, you don't have to check that it's still in stock) tantalizes you?

7. What music do you like?

8. What crafting or collecting skill do you wish you had?

9. What was your most exciting moment in collecting or crafting?

10. Have you ever given up on collecting something? If so, what, and did you regret it?

Have fun!