*Fairy land with RT's Tiny Kitty and Simone

I had the good fortune of winning a Robert Tonner virtual raffle and my prize was an Effanbee Simone Rouge with raven hair. This led me to some bargain Tiny Kittys and this trio of small ten inch dolls became the fairy guides who teach the Kickit pod at Grimm's Fabled Academy.
http://www.effanbeedoll.com/2008srouge.htm

The RT virtual raffle doll I won!

Even Dolls NEED dolls - the day after Christmas

Tulah is the little orphan at Grimm's Fabled Academy for Girls and adored by all the older girls at the school. In view of this, Tulah made quite a haul this Christmas.

"Tulah, put the baby in the carriage. Put the baby doll back in the carriage."

"Good girl! Wait - what is that little piggy doing? NO!

Clothes, carriage, baby doll, and pig/bottle are from Madame Alexander.

http://www.matildadolls.com/storyland_48500.htm

A Jolly Dolly Christmas to doll collectors everywhere!

Did I hear Santa's reindeer?

The dolls were very good this year and are anxiously waiting for Santa!

Re-dressed Circus Tulah by Helen Kish waits for Santa

Dickens Ghosts: l to r - Future, Present, Past by Robert Tonner

Tiny Betsy - All I Want for Christmas DD from Effanbee

*TBs enter the Grimm Pre-school

First pod consisted of the Riley Kish sized dolls (Grimmlets), next came the Kickits (VODs), and the third pod of children held the Tiny Betsys.

http://www.tonnerdoll.com/betsydolls8inch.htm

Thoroughly Tiny Betsy McCall
DRESSED DOLL T6-BCDD-01
LE2000 $59.99
One piece dress underneath with long sleeves topped with black knit decal sweater. Includes tights, shoes and hair ribbons

Thoroughly Tiny Betsy McCall (bottom left) was the first doll I purchased for over the retail price and the only Tiny Betsy I own who remains dressed in her original outfit and doesn't demand fashion additions.

*SOooo - what do dolls EAT? Can they own pets?

When a collector decides to go beyond simply dressing and shelf displaying dolls, human needs seem to appear and a doll owner must nuture these needs.

I wanted minature food stuffs for the girls and began some Google searching madness. (What would I do without that search engine?) The end result turned up a product called Re-Ment Puchi Petites.

The scale is around 1:6 which means these miniatures will work rather well with dolls around 12 inches and under. My favorite style dolls to display with Re-Ments are Momokos - BUT - most teeny thingies from Re-Ment do suit the Dreary/Marley girls.

Momoko Slow Smiles and Dash wearing Re-Ment fashions.

There is so much to learn about this incredible company/product that on your next down day - make a mug of coffee topped with foamed milk/cinnamon and enter the Re-Ment site - head for the product section. OMG - you won't know what to look at first or next.

Most of these items can be found on Ebay or at doll/hobby shops.

http://www.re-ment.us/

"...Puchi Petites are scaled miniatures of everyday items."

http://www.re-mentusa.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=1&Itemid=27

These donuts were my first and favorite Re-Ment miniature.

Happy Family grandmother bakes for the holidays in her Re-Ment kitchen.

Need a cat or dog for your Dreary/Marley doll? Re-Ment has them also!
The dog says ARF as he stares at the ZARF. (My lame attempt at humor)

The pet for this Heather Maciak/Jenny doll is the potty cat we renamed Sylvester!

Never enough SHOES (and tights/socks)

Does a woman ever have enough shoes or socks/tights? If your Marley sized doll (Dreary or not) needs designer tights and great shoes check out these two sites.

Doll Secrets for tights (get to choose your own fabric - also has doll sizes other than Marley)

http://www.dollsecrets.com/tonnertots.html

Juju's Dolly Mall for shoes - silver and gold flats & black canvas shoes are my favs

http://www.jujusdollymall.com/cgi-bin/dept?dpt=H&srch=DW&tier2=33

Little Lady in Pink

Marley's First Dance
DRESSED DOLL T6-MWDD-01/LE1000 $114.99
Summer Blonde hair; green forward-glancing eyes
Metallic chiffon bodice with spaghetti straps over layered crinkle chiffon skirt secured at waist with a bow. Includes necklace, hair trim, hose, shoes and custom stand.

http://www.tonnerdoll.com/marley.htm

Remember your first dance? (Personally thinking late 50s thru early 60s)

The one where the boys were all shorter than the girls and the girls were so pre-teen that they wore pretend bras...which have currently evolved into sports bras.

Music was provided by a 45 RPM record player and tunes would skip when there was too much movement on the dance floor. The movement usually wasn't from dancing but from the guys, who were on one side of the room, goofing off. The girls stayed on the other end and giggled into their hands or the ears of their best girlfriends in reaction to the escapades of the boys.

The Girls at Grimm's Academy will soon have their first proper dance and I wanted a Marley to represent the one girl who always appeared at these dance events in a swirl of pink with bouncing blonde curls. This was the girl that made the boys sigh. The girl the boys would dare to cross the dance floor for while carrying cupfuls of pretend punch.

Marley's First Dance DD (dressed doll) arrived today - a bargain find of around 41 dollars before shipping.

She is melting my heart. The dress is glitter girl in a soft way while the little pink shoes with gold embroidered tops accent it perfectly. Her hair is a mass of soft curls minus the crispy crunch found on the heads of the Marley sized Lyra and Alice Victorian Stripes.

A pearl on a chain was included but the clasp needs repair. The chain seems a tad crude - wonder if it will give her green neck that cheap jewelry tends to do on humans. : )

*Pessimist in Purple

LE 300 - Cherished Friends, Too! Exclusive Pessimist in Purple was the next Agnes Dreary to be introduced to doll collectors. Available only at Cherished Friends, Too!

Pip is greeted by members of PIP Society - Raven Dreary is alpha society sister.

http://www.cherishedfriends.com/AgnesDreary.html

*VODs are added to the pre-school

VODs = Tonner Kickits

with the STARE - who remind me of the vintage Village of the Damned children

When Tonner Kickits went on sale, I decided they would make great playmates for the Grimmlets aka Kish kids.

The eyes are the power weapons of these dolls. Think it will be necessary for me to purchase sunglasses for them to diminish the strengthof their deadly glares.

http://www.roberttonner.com/kickits.htm

*The girls are back in town

The beginning of the school year I decided that the girls from the town would be able to attend classes at Grimm's. The Grimm Townies. Actually I needed a place to display and reason to rename all the Marley sculpts I had finally collected: Marley, Alice, Dorothy, Lyra, and Agnes Dreary.

Renames:

Agnes is still Sweet Sinister Aggie

School Prep Marley is Mary Elizabeth Kennedy aka Zabe

Dorothy is Zoe Greene

Blonde Marley is the exchange student Svenja Nygren

Lyra is Parker Corbett bc she reminds me of Sarah Jessica Parker

Alice is Alice Heart

Some of the great fashions are from Connie at Sweet Creations and Andrea Jacques who won Project Dollway this past year.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6133229

*The TRI

Decided that the Grimm Academy needed to start an ophanage/pre-school after I fell in love with the Helen Kish Riley sized 7 1/2 inch dolls!

My first Helen Kish kid was Fancy Circus Tulah. (LE 750/SRP$140.00 )

http://www.sweetheartsdolls.com/kish/2006/circustulah.htm

Her flame red hair with it's ability to never stay in place brought giggles galore to all who see her - except my BF A. who is frightened of the poor dear. Removed the doll from my computer armoire top so A. could avoid it! : )

When Doll Market had Tulah on sale for a lowest ever price, I decided to form the Tri - Tulah learns that she is not alone although abandoned at birth. She is one of triplets:Tulah, Rhyme, and Ivy.

The pre-school students at Grimm's Fabled Academy for girls are nicknamed "The Grimmlets." The tween to teen students hold the moniker - "The Grimmsters."

Note that Heavenly Handful dolls make the perfect baby siblings for these wee ones.

*Grimm's Fabled Academy for Girls

Collectors wrote storylines centered on Dreary clans and families. The diversity in my bargain Marley doll collection provided a stronger school population than a family unit. The student roster at Grimm's Fabled Academy filled quickly.

Grimm’s Fabled Academy for Girls is located at the edge of a small American town just past Cemetery Hill where the paved road changes into a serpentine, dark earth path entering the woods of the Endless Mountains.
This fabricated institution of learning is renowned for providing a safe haven and proper education for young ladies related to those of a select celebrity status: fictional literary, comic book, collector dolls, and animated characters.

Since the girls can time travel, school uniforms were needed for now and then!

(Tonner/Alice/Boating Party/OUTFIT ONLY/T7-AWOF-02/LE400/Retail $59.99/Sleeveless white/navy dress with white trim and standing collar under navy jacket with white trim; includes hair ribbon, stockings and boots.)

*A doll named Raven

(Raven greets Agnes Dreary)

Members of the Agnes Dreary group waited in anticipation of the arrival of their Agnes dolls during August 2007. Many confessed their "other" dolls were waiting to greet her. Other dolls? I didn't have an "other" doll. I had no clue what doll would even complement Agnes.

Did a Tonner Agnes Dreary search and learned that Agnes had the body of Marley Wentworth. Who? More Google searches and I found a store online - Cherished Friends - who had some of these Marleys in stock. : ) My first doll quest!

Basic ballerina in a pink tutu - okay - would this ballerina doll work with little goth Agnes? Were there dark and dreary outfits I could find for her? I purchased the Marley doll with the dark bob whose name was Raven. (Tonner Dance Class Basic Raven/T7-MWBD-02/Dance Class Basics – LE 500 EACH - Retail $69.99 EACH - Basic dolls include knit body suit, detachable tutu, hair ribbon , slippers and display stand.)

Several months passed before I realized the doll's name was not Raven. Raven was simply the shade of her hair. Embarrassed - red faced embarrassment! But I kept her name as Raven. Suited the dreary theme perfectly. : 0 : )

*So NEW to him - Yet so old to me

I believe Mrs. Havishman mumbled words similar to these to Pip as he stood mesmerized by the (rotting) oddities in her rooms.

This is my first (actually - um - fifth) attempt at composing and maintaining a blog. All others were deleted due to my inexperience in layout and design. So blogs may be old and easy to you, dear reader, BUT I assure you - like Pip - this is all so new to me.

My semi-serious, doll collecting commenced in August of 2007 with the release of Robert Tonner's Agnes Dreary. I joined an online group to learn if others had received their Agnes dolls because I was certain mine was delayed in shipping and collecting dust while forgotten on the top shelf of postal neverland.

My first experience with groups - and to my surprise, the members of this group not only collected BUT displayed their dolls while making assorted fashions for them and composing stories to accompany the doll dioramas. Who knew that collectors did this?
This collecting distraction was WHAT I NEEDED to overpower the chronic pain that greeted me every morning. But that's another post. Possibly another blog.

So out of it all was formed Grimm's Fabled Academy for Girls. The Drearydom for Agnes Dreary and all her friends and family.

This blog will chronicle my adventures in the land of doll collecting. I hope to have plenty of Drearydom Larks with none being dreary...

Dolly hugs,
Carly in Catarrh (who no longer proofs or provides excuses) and everyone at Grimm's.