Pages

Friday, April 26, 2019

Update Dollroom (aka the Girls Playroom, LOL)


Hey everyone!
About a year ago (YUP), I made an updated "dollroom" video, but never got around to editing it or posting it.  Recently, I was going through my files and found it so decided to post it to my YouTube channel.

Here's the "Before" video if you are interesting in seeing what our "dollroom" used to look like, haha!
(And here is the post I made here on the blog).   You all made such great suggestions on how to better organize this space and I really appreciated that!


The great news is that I deboxed pretty much everything I had!  That was a good thing as it was turning into a little bit of a doll hoarding situation!

But as you will see in the video, we have basically just made it into a playroom for the girls since having a doll room just for me felt like I was selfishly taking up a large space that could be better utilized as a playroom for the girls as they kept getting into my stuff anyway! ;)

Here are a few quick photos of it in a "semi-clean" state.  I will take better photos if I get it cleaned up and organized a little better one of these days. :)
Don't mind the wallpaper in the hallway as we are redoing that this summer!



I have some of my stuff still in the playroom (like a few boxed Barbies and my Limited Edition Disney dolls, but pretty much my entire collection of dolls (American Girl, Disney, Monster High, Ever After High, Barbie and miscellanous) are all safely tucked away in bins so they don't get too trashed from little hands. :)



Since I took this video, Pumpkin Pie (my now 9 year old!) doesn't really play in here anymore, which is sad (she's a tech geek and has told me that she doesn't really like dolls anymore)!  It's still ok, though as Little Button (now 6) loves this room and plays in here almost daily.  I can't believe how quickly the girls are growing up!!
I remember when I couldn't keep her away from my dolls.  She especially loved Monster High back in the day.
Sometimes I will catch older daughter playing Barbies with her sister, and that always makes me so happy.  I deliberately monitor "screen time" with them so it forces them to play like they should!

I know I have complained in the past about how it's hard to collect dolls when you have children that want to play with your collection, but in my heart, I know that my 6 year old will probably grow out of dolls soon as well and then it will feel a little lonely to just have this collection by myself!
Part of the joy in having a collection I guess was actually sharing it with my daughters.  We used to have so much fun going "doll-hunting" and seeing what was new in the toy isle.
Even though I let them play with almost all of my collection and a lot got "very played with",  I definitely am thankful that I did.

I guess time will tell, though when they do grow out of dolls and it might just be a big relief to actually have a space to just have my own collection down the road!  ;)

Have any of you started your doll collections when your children were younger or you had kids in your lives that wanted to play with everything?
Have you always loved dolls all along since childhood or did you take a break when you were teens/younger adults?

I think I have just always loved dolls.  I loved Barbie/Disney into my early teens and although I stopped playing with and collecting them, when I got my first apartment in my early 20s, I discovered eBay and bought a few of my old 80s toys back to keep on my dresser.
Then I had kids in my early 30s and the love of dolls was rekindled and the rest is history!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the video.

See you in the next post! :)
xoxo

Farrah




31 comments:

  1. Hi Farrah,
    The doll/play room looks pretty neat and tidy now. :) Don't feel bad about having the dolls all to yourself when the time comes, they will ease the empty nest feeling when they are both off to college. Just be thankful for the times you did share them with your kids, you'll always have that to look back on.
    I was never a dolly person, and to be honest I never thought I would be, but once I retired things changed and I am so glad they did, because I would never have met so many lovely ladies like yourself on line. Funny how things just happen. That's just life I guess.
    Big hugs,
    X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, that’s so interesting that you developed your interest in dolls later on! It’s so fun when a new hobby emerges though and I’m also thankful to all the. Lovely people I’ve met on here!

      Delete
  2. Thank You for sharing the doll room. The 9 year old may love dolls once again. She might realize she has missed playing and holding them.
    Marion

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you...yes, she still goes back nd forth :)

      Delete
  3. Love the doll room. My sister and I have a few dolls we had when small.
    Marilyn

    ReplyDelete
  4. My girls had plenty of dolls when they were younger, from Bitty Baby and American Girl to Winx Club to Barbies, but neither of them is into dolls anymore. :( My youngest does a lot of Pathfinder Society gaming with her dad, but neither of my daughters share a hobby with me.

    I've always loved dolls too. I've mentioned this before, but Mr. BTEG got me into actual doll collecting when he bought me my first (as an adult) Barbie in my mid-20s. I helped him get into collecting LEGO, so we were both enablers. :)

    I never let my girls play with my dolls, but they did have lots of their own to play with, as I mentioned above. Once the Dancer did get into some of my Barbie shoes, and I never did find them all again....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Barb, sorry for the late reply! I read this back in April and then forgot to respond! That is so fun that you and Mr. BTEG both enjoy collecting. You understand eachother in that respect and it's wonderful! Yes, I've had quite a few things go missing when I let the girls play with my dolls. I try to be "laid back about it", but I've started to just hide my good ones!

      Delete
  5. I really like the magazine holders as doll storage idea. :)

    I feel like the period during which my nieces and nephews have been interested in dolls and figures was much shorter than it was when we were kids. But maybe that's just nostalgia talking?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey JS! Sorry for the delayed response, LOL..life got away from me! No, I totally agree...I feel like I played with dolls/toys well into my tweens, but my 10 year old is already pretty much done with both. She's very techie and into sports and she could care less about dolls! Once in a while she may mention something about American Girl, but the ones she has, she doesn't even touch! Sometimes I wonder if I sort of "ruined it" for them by always having so many of my own in the house, that it was never an exciting thing. The dolls were always just THERE, lol. Who knows!

      Delete
  6. My youngest still likes dolls, but she doesn't really play with them anymore. She is a young lady of 19, which she just turned today! She often says how much she enjoyed her childhood and playing dolls with me. I told her we still can and I promised not to tell her friends. She came to the Integrity Toys Convention with me in 2016 and she does display all of the dolls she got there in her very large closet! Me, well I have a list of dolls that I want buried with me when I go -- gotta have those favorites with you up in Heaven, right?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's so fun that your daughter still enjoys dolls! I'm guessing if she still has interest in them at age 19, she will probably always like them. That is wonderful that you have your list of dolls to take with you to the final phase of life. :)

      Delete
  7. I have always loved dolls. The first dolls I remember having are two Madame Alexander dolls. I also had Barbie. I think she is Number 3. I belong to 4 doll clubs so dolls are very much a part of my life. I am trying to decide how I will celebrate World Doll Day in June.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Dorothy! That is so fun that you are involved in 4 different doll clubs. Amazing! Did you ever find out how to spend World Doll Day?

      Delete
  8. Hola Farrah, it's nice to see you posting :) I can completely relate to that overwhelming feeling of having too many dolls and thinking of all the money that was spent on getting them because I'm exactly the same.
    I wasn't really into dolls all that much as a child and really only got interested in them just before we moved to Spain, so maybe around late 2003, but I do still have some of my childhood dolls. All I was really interested in was Sindy, Paul and Patch, and sometimes the little Daisy by Mary Quant doll that I had. Then of course I never had any girls and my one son wasn't interested in dolls so I've been able to keep what I have, all to myself!
    It's lovely though, that the girls have shared your hobby for some years and who knows, maybe one day they too will become adult collectors :)
    As for your room, you've done a really good job getting it all sorted out, it looks so much better now and with a lot of the stuff in storage boxes etc it doesn't seem so overwhelming. So a big WELL DONE for that!!!
    Big hugs
    Sharon xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sharon! Sorry for the late response, but thank you for your lovely comment! Believe it or not, the room above in those photos has changed AGAIN since I last posted. It's now Pumpkin Pie's room and I am currently setting up an old storage closet that I cleaned out into my new dollroom. LOL, the search for the perfect space never ends! :)

      Delete
  9. Hi again!
    I started collecting as an adult when I was 23 more or less. It was when Monster High had just came out and I was obsessed with them. Mr. Monster encouraged me to buy them, and he also found the concept of Monster High very cool. The last doll I got as a child was when I was 12 or 13, so there was like a 10 year hiatus in which I didn't get any dolls. I think I never really grew out of dolls, just in my teen years I had other priorities. Also, when you are a teenager, you often want to grow up quick, and don't really want to do "childish" things.
    I don't have any kids myself, but my nephew used to love Monster High. I got him a few dolls for Christmas and his birthday. Now he doesn't really care for the dolls anymore, but I think it's mostly because he sees it as a "girls" thing.
    I loved your post, I always like hearing from you. I didn't post in a couple of months because I was busy with college, but now that this semester is about to end I have more free time.
    Take care.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi MC, thank you for your lovely comment as well! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond to everyone, but I'm just getting back into blogging again and really hope I can keep up! I feel like I had a similar timeline of when I stopped collecting, and I agree I think I always had an interested, it was just buried for a while. Monster High is the doll line that also got me into collecting, but I was a little late to the game in around 2014. Such a fun time though! I find myself on eBay these days trying to get older stuff, rather than buying too much new stuff (I still do, though, haha).
      Take care as well and I'm glad I "see" you on IG too as I've bad about blogging! ;)

      Delete
  10. I have always loved dolls. I did take a sort of break for a few years, but my mom collected Barbie, so I enjoyed looking at hers. Then I got Samantha from Pleasant Company, she was it for a while, then I went through a bit of a Barbie stage. And then a few years ago I got back into AG, you know how that story ends!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Flo,
      That's great that you always loved doll as well and fun that your mom had a Barbie collection! Samantha was my first new AG doll that I purchased and she's special to me as well. Yes, I'm glad that you came back to AG! I need to catch up on your blog, also! :)

      Delete
  11. Nice meet admin, my first visit to your blog and really love it.
    By the way, here my pinterest pin reborn dolls thanks

    ReplyDelete
  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Are you ever too old for AG dolls?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NO, you are never too old to enjoy AG dolls! They are for everyone :) xoxo

      Delete
  14. Hi Farrah!
    Long time no see on Blogger ... you retiring? Or has life just got in the way?
    Hope to see you posting again soon. :)
    Big hugs,
    X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey there, thank you so much for checking in!! Nope, I'm still here, we just got so busy this past spring and summer as the girls were both in Little League softball and then lots of activities over the summer. I'm having a little trouble thinking about what to write about first, but I definitely want to keep blogging! I need to catch up on yours as well.
      Thanks so much for saying hi!
      xoxo

      Delete
    2. I also wanted to check out if you were doing OK. I "see" you on IG from time to time, but we miss you here too. Just write about whatever inspires you the most. Or you could just give us a life update post.

      Take care.

      Delete
    3. Thanks so much for writing!! I'm doing great, just very busy with life...I think about this blog all the time and I have plans on coming back. I will definitely try to do an update this weekend. I hope you're doing well! xoxo

      Delete
  15. HOPE YOU HAVE A HAPPY CHRISTMAS FARRAH!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much and Merry Christmas to you, too!! :) xoxo

      Delete