Day to Day Duties

Hello again,

Well, we've just completed the November newsletter and set up for the new monthly drawing. The prize this month is one of my personal favorite items we carry in the store. The L.V. look-alike purses. They are just adorable and of such high quality.

Friends,

So sorry. It just seems fairly difficult for me to stay on this blog thing. I never was any good at diaries or journals and I seem to have the same problem with this.

We went to another craft show last Saturday at the Hardin County Fairgrounds in Kenton, Ohio. It wasn't too bad.

We have a few ideas for our next show which is to be the Saturday after Thanksgiving again in Kenton, except at the courthouse this time. Hope things will be hopping. Christmas shopping you know.

Something new we are trying are these specialized dolls for Medical Examiners investigating SIDS. The states are currently starting special investigations which require a doll to be placed in the same place/position the child was found. Since the dolls are cloth dolls and have no face, they are believed to be less traumatic to the grieving family. Hope this is something that can develop for us.

Craft Show Archive

Hello all,

It's been a real busy time for us lately. After a death in the family, we immediately had to participate in a craft show previously planned. It turned out well, the weather was perfect and there were quite a few people attended. If your in the area sometime while it's going on, you should stop in. Someone asked my grandmother how many years she's been doing that show and it had never been figured up but it must be about 15 years at least.

We done fairly well in sales and passed out quite a number of business cards for Suzanne's Doll Hospital and The Doll Cupboard. Hope we see some results from all the hard work.

We are planning to setup the last weekend in October at the Fisher's Flea Market in Lakeview Ohio, then at a craft show in Kenton, Ohio at the Fairgrounds, and finally the Christmas Craft Show on the Kenton, Ohio courthouse square towards the end of November.

Going to be in the vicinity? Hope to see you there. It's so much better to see the merchandise in person and meet Suzanne, the woman who does all the doll repair work. Need something done? Bring your doll and let Suzanne give you an estimate for the job.

Labor Day Weekend 2007

Labor Day Weekend has come sooooo quickly. Seems like it was just Memorial Day. Just when I should be out enjoy the holiday - what am I doing? WORKING.... it never ends :>

I was filling an order and just looking at all the wonderfully adorable doll accessories there are. I would have loved to have these things when I was a young girl. The purses look just like the real thing only smaller and I've always loved miniature items no matter what they were.

We recently attended a birthday for a little girl turning 5 years old and we gave her one of the purses along with a hairbrush set for her to use on her doll. She loved it.

I have a hard time keeping my three girls out of my store inventory as it is.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and just relax!

Dolls for Altzheimers Patients

Hello All,

We've been sooooo busy at the Dollcupboard. On Wednesday we took to the kitchen and put up about 20+ quarts of corn (cut off the cob). We started at 10am and wasn't out of the kitchen until 10pm! Temperatures seem to be finally cooling off but you know that doesn't mean anything - it could be awful hot tomorrow.

Recently we ran out of softener salt and couldn't use the dishwasher. Now we do have 4 children but how in the world does anyone wash dishes by hand and do anything besides wash dishes and do laundry???? I just can't seem to catch up. Just goes to show you time does cost money. That dishwasher sure saves time.

On the lighter side of things. Dolls. Are you shopping for Christmas yet? You know it saves time and headache to start early and many people already are. I came across the idea of using the life-like vinyl Apple Valley dolls as gifts for people with Altzheimer's. They love them. It's only their's and they treat them like real children. Something for them to love on. So if you have this kind of situation, keep it in mind for your loved one. Want to see what they look like? Go to http://www.dollcupboard.com/store-categories-Apple-Valley-Pat-Secrist-Dolls_3179342.html for our present inventory.

Miniature Accessory Ideas

Hello,

Here are a few more mini tips for you to "chew on"

Flower Bouquets

• Use bouquets of tiny silk flowers from your local craft store. After clipping off the number of sprays you want, wrap the stems with green floral tape.

Mini Game Boxes

• Cut pictures of games from catalogs or magazines. You may also find graphics of these on the internet. Wrap an appropriate sized piece of wood with paper to simulate a box then glue the picture of the game on the top.

PILLOWS

• Your local upholstery store often discards out of date/style samples. These are the perfect precut size of fabric for miniature pillows.

Inexpensive Doll Accessories

Hello,

The dolls have spent more time thinking of ways to make more accessories. Here are some of the ideas they came up with.

Cotton Candy

• Using colored Q-tips, cut the Q-tip in half. You can use a pin to fluff up the cotton somewhat. To make it a larger Cotton Candy, tear apart a cotton ball making it fuzzy. Dab some glue on the Q-tip end and adhere the cotton ball to it. For color you can spray lightly with spray paint.

Movie Popcorn

• Using a plastic bottle cap, paint like a popcorn bucket (stripes possibly). Then using styrofoam...break it into small pieces. To make it look buttered, LIGHTLY dab some thinned yellow paint on the styrofoam before crumbling it.

Icicles

• With a syringe, you can obtain these from a pharmacy, pipe Elmer's glue onto wax paper. Start with a large dab and moving toward yourself, gradually thin the icicle down. Let dray. Once it is dry, you can remove it from the wax paper and adhere to wherever you like.

Mini Credit Cards

• Watch in the newspaper for tiny "coupon" images such as credit card pictures then laminate them.

VCR Tapes

• Watch for "movie club" flyers in the mail. Paint a wooden block sized 1/2"x 7/8"x 3/32" black. After cutting the mini cover out, adhere to the top of the block and the title to the spine.

DVDs

• Once again "movie club" flyers are the source. Only this time adhere them to a thin square piece of painted wood.

The dolls leave you with these ideas and hope your weather has grown a little cooler as ours has.

Barbie Doll / Miniature Accessories

Well, it finally has coooled down some so we are stifling here. The dolls have been thinking and here are a few ideas they have come up with.

Mini Trees

• Cut a piece of new growth that has "mini limbs" on it from a tree or bush. Be sure when you cut it the "trunk" has enough length. Paint the "tree limbs" with glue then add the foliage whether you use parsley leaves or a crafting product called "Foliage" made by Woodland Scenes. For variety you can use more than one color of "leaves".

Dinner Plates

• You need large buttons with a "lip" around the outside. If there are holes in the button, use wood filler to fill in and then paint your plates the desired color. For design you can add fingernail decal sticker in the center of the "plate"

Mini Scrapbook

• Take pictures of your dolls (digital is easiest to work with). Print the pictures as thumbnail pictures or index pictures. Crop the pictures to the size you like. Cut a cereal box or card stock into the appropriate size for an accordian stand up scrapbook. Using adhesive, place the pictures however you like. For accents, use fingernail decal stickers, confetti or press your own tiny flowers to be adhered.
• For pressing flowers. Place each flower or group of flowers spaced out on a napkin/tissue. Cover with another napkin/tissue. If you want to press a bunch of flowers, just keep layering as desired. Set a heavy object on top and leave for about a week. At the end of the week, your flowers should be ready to be placed in your scrapbook.

Campfire

• Using small pebbles, make a fire ring. Then cut s twig into doll sized logs and build up the campfire. If you want to keep it in one piece to easily move around, just glue the pieces together using a glue gun and then glue a piece of cardboard to the bottom. To camoflage the bottom of the fire pit, spread Elmer's glue on the cardboard and sprinkle sand on it. Once dry, add your fire logs and glue as you build the fire. For special effects: leave a hole in the very center and a space in the center of the logs to insert a tiny light that can be turned on and off. This will give the effect of a "lit" fire.

Cattails

• Using green silk flower wire or a piece of a silf flower stem, put a glob of glue on the end and role in coffee grounds.

Lily Pads

• Cut shape freehand from silk flower petals.

Log Cabin

• Build it using Lincoln Logs. Just glue with a glue gun as you build. It's the perfect scale for Barbie.

Check back soon to see what other ideas come up - if you have any of your own, please post a comment!

Hello all,

Today it is terrible hot, even the pool is almost too warm. The weather, you could say, is stifling.

In the doll cupboard we have a few neat ideas for Barbie Accessories. How would you like to have the accessories without the expense? Check out these nifty ideas.

Wallpaper

• You can use the sticky drawer liner available in stores like Target or Wal-Mart for wallpaper in your doll house.

Lattice

• Cut apart plastic strawberry boxes, paint in your chosen color and reassemble however you like.

Wall Pictures

• Cut out pictures in catalogs or magazines then frame with small pieces of scrap wood for frames.

Round/Oval Picture Frames

• Use buttons with unusual borders or buttons that you can put your fabric in. Just replace the fabric with a tiny picture of sorts and glue.

Matching Plate Set

• Use tiny fingernail decal stickers on dishes to make them special.

Clock

• Use a metal pop bottle lid, paint it, add numbers ( stickers, or paint on tiny or not) and poke a hole in the center. Insert a paper push pin through from the back, spread the pins legs and "voila"- you have the hands of a clock on the front.

Fabric

• Use "fat quarters" for mini sewing projects. Many times mini prints are available for a small price.

Christmas Gifts

• Cut small blocks of wood or styrofoam and wrap with gift wrap. For an added accent you may find tiny gift bows in the scrapbooking section of your craft store.

Watch for more nifty and thrifty ideas for your collection!

The Dolls Say Hello

Hello to all,

As this is a new venture there isn't much to read yet ;>

Our Tolly Tots just love looking in their closet. There's just too much to choose from in the dollcupboard. Today I believe we'll go casual since it's just soooo hot! Summer is the best but man can it get hot.

The kids are spending the afternoon in the pool - I'm sure they aren't the only ones. Meanwhile Mom is working at her desk. What a tradeoff.

Oh, the list never ends. There's always something to do. The yard, flower beds need weeded, house could use a good cleaning, web site needs more work, laundry needs done, I sure could use a few sets of extra hands. :)