My love of dolls started early. My mom always bought my sister and I beautiful dolls, and I can remember being allowed to play with her childhood dolls from the 50s when we promised to be careful. Surrounded by beautiful dolls as I was, I didn't grow out of playing with them until I was 12 or 13.
Fast forward to about 1999 or 2000. My mom found a 50s doll at Goodwill and brought it home. We did our research and discovered it was a Cosmopolitan Ginger, an early competitor of Vogue Ginny's.
I was hooked.
We started collecting dolls together, mostly from the 50s. Ginger quickly became a favorite of mine, but we also collected Madame Alexander and others from the era.
We also discovered early on the value of being able to fix vintage dolls. Many of them came to us in well-loved, but often poorly stored condition, so I started learning how to do small repairs such as restringing.
More than 20 years after my first Ginger, my collection has grown and changed, but Ginger has remained a central part of it. I've also come to collect modern dolls such as American Girl, A Life of Faith, Magic Attic, and Gotz. This blog focuses more on vintage dolls and is geared toward helping with DIY doll repair projects, but if you're interested in finding out more about my repair services, please visit my main site, Against Doll Odds.
