Welcome to my doll rescue blog!

A little about me

Hi Everyone. I am glad that you have stumbled into my doll rescuing blog. Let me tell you a little about me and what I do.
I have had dolls most of my life. When I was a baby, my first doll was a Strawberry short cake doll that blows strawberry scented kisses. I still have her, as I do most of the dolls I´ve gotten in my life. Some have been lost, or stolen, but only very few of them, and only three that my dad took to donate them at some point in my life, which I am not very happy about, since one of them was a vintage barbie doll which was my mom´s. Now don´t take me wrong. I do believe in donating dolls, but there are different types of dolls for this. Honestly I would rather buy a doll to donate, than donate one that I own, just because most of the ones I had as a kid were gifts, so they have that sentimental value to me. If it is a purchased doll it doesn´t because no-one gave it to me, and I didn´t play with her. It is that intention that changes the whole thing. This is how I see it, because for me, dolls are a work of art. There was once an artist that invested time working on a doll, sometimes they are hand-painted, other times hand-crafted, and other times it is just a one of a kind (OOAK) doll. For me if the doll is a gift, it becomes a OOAK even if there are thousands of the same. To me it will always remind me of the moment I got her, and I will always think of the person who gave it to me. Gifts are very important to me, very valuable and I treasure them very dearly.
My mom saw this, and she always got me beautiful dolls so I could add to my collection. My only worry as I grew older was: "What if I marry to someone who thinks that this is nuts?!"
Well, let me tell you that I was very lucky because my husband, though he doesn´t collect dolls, he loves them. Or better said, he loves that I have such beautiful dolls, because he knows that one day we would have a daughter who would probably enjoy them as much, and hopefully pass them on to her daughter and so on. It is truly like a piece of art that is passed on too.
I believe that dolls have the life energy of those who worked on them to create such details, and beautiful accessories, faces, dresses and so on. And this is not only a hobby for girls of all ages. I have met men that also collect dolls, and that is so very cool.
Most of the dolls I have and collect are Barbie dolls. I guess since it was my mom´s favorite doll, and the dolls I would get every birthday and for christmas, it became the main doll for me. I think her size also makes it easier to be collected. But to be honest, I don´t limit myself to Barbie dolls, because I love porcelain dolls to. I don´t have many, but I do love the ones I have, since they remind me of my grandma, whom would mainly get these types of dolls and give them to us, her grand-daughters.
I collect many other things aside of dolls. My family went through a very tough patch with economy, and my parents got divorced when I was young, making it really hard to buy expensive toys. I started working when I was 15 years old, and every now and then I would collect something like: Stamps, postcards, colors, pens, and things I could use for crafting or illustrating, since that is also another hobby of mine. Little things that would keep me entertained, and that I could afford and still help my mom get through stuff, pay for school and keep on with our lives.
I was lucky that when I was 23 I got a good job, that though didn´t allowed me to finish with college because of the time it required, it did provide me with enough means to help my mom and grandma, who by that time lived in our house for health reasons. I didn´t mind at all having grandma living with us, and us taking care of her. She was like a second mom to me, and I loved her dearly. This new experience taught me a lot about life, and to appreciate things we have when we do. I was able to collect things that I wanted for ages, like: Musical instruments (some that I do play, like the clarinet), books, lots of movies, comic books, trading cards, paintings, and many other things I wanted. It was 5 years of being able to enjoy again of these perks, and even spoiling my mom for a bit. It had been really hard the 10 years prior to that, and it was time for that to change. I was also lucky that I got to travel a bit and visit Ireland. Something I wanted to do since I was 17 years old.
I felt very happy, and lucky. The only thing that then worried me was: "How am I going to take all my collections with me when I marry?" This was a concern, because I was raised not to stay in my hometown in Northern Mexico. Though it is a beautiful town, and people are very friendly, most of the people there are raised to move out, make business, work, work and work, and then retire and come back.
So it did happen. I found my soulmate and married when I was 29. As expected, my husband was not native from my hometown and I did have to move to a different country. It was very sad to leave all my life behind, but I was opened to accept that there is always a reason for things to happen, and I really wasn´t going to wonder "What if?", if I hadn´t taken that leap of faith with my loving husband. Of course my mom wasn´t happy about it, lol, but she got over it.
It is unfortunate that sometimes when foreigners move into another country, finding work is hard, specially if you have different skills and talents that can´t be learned at school, but I am lucky that my husband can provide for me, and that I have everything I need.
I can´t really be greedy nor selfish in this matter, and just be patient. What I have learned is that when you have these special love for things that you enjoy collecting like dolls and so forth, they will come to you at some point, almost like magic.
I can´t really ask my husband for dolls, because they are not something that we need. But I do get special gifts on my birthday, Christmas, Valentine´s day, and sometimes as a surprise. So, since I don´t work, I have managed to keep my hobby up by saving a couple of bucks here and there and the law of attraction.
Since all of my collections were left behind at my hometown, I had to start all over again from scratch. That was not bad at all, it was like a challenge considering limitations. It even sounded like a lot of fun.
So I started hunting for dolls on garage sales, thrieft shops, the newspaper, online and so I found that I may not be able to buy new dolls all the time, but I am able to rescue some dolls once in a while, which may otherwise sometimes have an uncertain future.
I have been doing this for about 3 years, and I am very happy about how my collection has grown. I like that this is something I can share with my brother, because he also collects toys. Though most of the toys he collects are toys from the 80´s from when we were kids, and I used to do that too, he enjoys looking at my doll collection too, as I enjoy his collections.
I guess sometimes it also gets stuck in your genes. It may be true, as my mom collected things too as a little girl, and my grandma did too, and so on.
I do think that collecting things is a healthy hobby. I know some people may go crazy and buy very expensive things, but when you are able to do it, why not? Most of collectibles will become an investment, as most of their prices will inflate in some decades, and in the mean time you can enjoy the beauty of craftmanship that involved the creation of your precious object.

So this blog, is dedicated to all of the people who donate their loved and beloved dolls, because some of those later become part of my treasure. Hopefully one day I can have a small doll museum, and that way I can share some of my dolls, with dolls of all ages. I guess that is my ultimate goal. Rescuing dolls has brought me a lot of satisfaction, since I have learned to fix little details they may have to keep them better. I have learned to re-root doll´s hair, repaint them, and since I know how to sew, I think I can truly keep up with this very beautiful hobby of mine.

So thank you very much for reading my story, I hope you enjoy the dolls that I will share with you in this blog. My idea is to share photos of dolls I find, so that other people that may find the same doll somewhere else can also share, or have an idea of what it is. It also helps me keep track of what I find, and practice my internet research skills while trying to discover the doll´s identity. Hopefully in the future when I visit my hometown I can take some photos of my childhood dolls, and share with you guys.
Until my next find, I will leave you guys with this introduction of myself. And I hope we can all share a great experience.

With much love
I share my blog.

Missha