Redecorating the Dollhouse

As a little girl, one of my dreams was to have a dollhouse. I adored miniatures and even owned one of those four-story Barbie townhouses with the plastic Grecian columns. It was hideous, let me tell you. Later on I bought a plywood dollhouse kit from Michael's, but furnishing it was beyond my 11-year-old budget. It wasn't until I was in my mid-twenties that I finally got a dollhouse I am truly proud to call my own. Of course, now it's a bit embarrassing to admit that I'm a 29-year-old that owns a dollhouse, but there is nothing wrong with being an adult who plays with toys. Besides, dollhouses are hip -- or so says the New York Times.

My dollhouse has changed a bit since I put it together two years ago:

I really want to redecorate the living room to give it a modernist vibe and add a bed and proper 1:6 scale bookshelf to the bedroom/study. While browsing on Etsy, I found the magic of Smidge House:




I really, really love the mixture of oranges and greens in the first photo. I do love complementary hues! I am thinking of using Dr. Edna's office from "Mad Men" for my color palette inspiration:


I'm going to wait a bit before I start the redecorating since I tend to change my mind a bit. For those of you who are wondering if my dolls get any say in what their home is going to look like -- the answer is no! I spent Saturday afternoon carefully dusting every floor of the triplex. The girls spend absolutely no time on housekeeping, which is ridiculous. They do own a 1:6 scale Swiffer and broom, you know. They have no excuse!!!

I Heart La Petite Mu Mu

Photo from the first roll taken with my Rolleicord Vb. For more pictures, check out my other blog.

I discovered La Petite Mu Mu at last July's Taipei Toy Festival and just had to take her home with me. She's one of the most gorgeous toys I've ever seen! I love those colorful raindrops on her blue coat.

Mu Mu is by Hong Kong artist Fion Ko and according to her bio, she's a four-year-old girl who "lives in a featherlike dream." When she isn't hanging out by the window or standing guard in front of my quilt fabric, Mu Mu keeps my husband company on his desk and hides from our crazy cat.

I have a lovely collection of toys I want to photograph. Many of them are from Hong Kong's Crazy Label. Are there any toy collectors reading this blog? What kind of toys do you collect? What do you do with them (photography, display, flipping the lights on really quickly so you can catch them while they are still up and about and before they turn back into toys, etc.)?

The Lovely Doll

I have to admit that the summer has pretty much sucked any interest in dressing up right out of my life! I wear the same thing almost every day -- a black T-shirt and a flowy skirt. My make-up case is sitting lonely in a corner because I hate the feel of anything on my face when it's humid, even lip gloss. Jewelry, unless it is sterling silver or stainless steel, irritates my skin. High heels aggravate my back problems (and they are already aggravated enough!) Over the past couple of months, I've just come to terms with the fact that I'm going to look pretty boring until the weather gets cooler.

On the other hand, I've developed a new obsession -- vintage Japanese pose dolls! I see a few of these decorating boutiques here in Taipei from time to time. They were popular in the 1960s and 1970 in Japan and were grouped into two main styles: mod and Southern Belle. Here are some of my favorite mod dolls that were on eBay last week:

I loved their proportions, their carefully detailed faces and those outfits. Don't the blues ones look like something Trudy Campbell on "Mad Men" would wear?

I was tempted to bid on one, but in between my Blythe dolls, urban vinyl and toy cameras, I don't need to start collecting anything else! If you like the dolls, too, and want to see more eye candy, check out the Lovely Pose Doll from Japan group on Flickr. Try the search terms "Bradley dolls," "Japan pose doll" or "Japanese pose doll" on eBay.

Hope everyone is great and still keeping me around on their RSS readers! Taken by themselves, my different health issues weren't worrisome... but unfortunately they all seemed to happen at the same time and for a while I was feeling very gloomy and unproductive. But everything's coming back together again, the way the different pieces of mimetic polyalloy converge and resculpt T-1000 after he gets shot in 'Terminator 2.' Soon I, too, will be back to molding my arms into razor-sharp kitanas and chasing after John Connor in order to save the future of Sky Net.

Or something like that. Have a great weekend everyone!

Pound Puppies: Anyone remember them?

I've had this annoying theme song stuck in my head for the last twenty-three years or so; today, I finally did a search for "pound puppies" on YouTube. I found a cartoon intro that was disturbingly full of anti-feline rhetoric, but aside from that, it filled me with nostalgia for my early childhood in the early 80s. I don't think a lot of people remember the "Pound Puppies," because they weren't cool in the same way Jem, Rainbow Brite or Strawberry Shortcake were, but they definitely deserve a place in the pantheon of 80s cartoon greats (or at least goods). When I was a little girl, I was given a Pound Puppy radio. It was basically a stuffed animal glued on top of a cheap red radio, but I was riveted. Then Teddy Ruxpin came along, and I moved on. Sorry, Pound Puppies!

A treasure box of plastic dreams

Treasure chest from Toy Connection

Do you remember the little treasure boxes that dentists keep for children to paw through after an appointment? They were always my favorite part of each trip to the dental clinic (that, and getting out of there!). My dentist's treasure box was in a room full of file cabinets in the back. There was a mixture of things in there, ranging from bouncing balls to little tubes of toothpaste. What I loved best, however, were the cheap little plastic toys -- miniature comb and brush sets all molded out of the same pink plastic, little rings with candy-colored "gems," and tiny animals with a little hole in top to use as a pendant (though I never strung them onto anything).

Recently, I went searching on Etsy for toys that reminded me of my treats from the treasure box. A lot of these were made in the 1960s or 1970s, but they are close to the things I found in the late 1980s and early 1990s (after that, I was too old for toys... at least according to the dentist!). Click on each seller's name to go to their Etsy store.

Vintage gumball machine charms from vintagecharmsupplier

Puzzles and bird whistles from HeyYoYo

Plastic Scotties and yellow toys by Blood of Bee (coolest shop name ever!)

Vintage plastic charms from McCharmpants

Vintage skeleton hands by ManyHappyReturns

Plastic animals from Jlovesupreme

Camera-shaped water gun, combs, slot machines and ring from CovetableCuriosities

Sailboats, plastic pen knives and ice cream carton pendants from bolla74

Polaroids: The Toy Box

I took these photos of some of my childhood toys during a trip back home to California last fall (well, my Blythe, Catherine Jr., is actually my adulthood toy, as is the Susie Sad Eyes). Anyone remember Teddy Ruxpin or Rainbow Brite? Teddy used to freak me out when he flicked his eyes from side to side. Ah, memories.

這些都是我小時候的玩具（除非Catherine Jr.跟Susie Sad Eyes以外... ).