Schoenhut Series - The Clowns

The clowns fall very much into the  'love them, or hate them' category for people.  I happen to love them, I think they are right characters, even if perhaps a little fierce looking at times.  I have had fun photographing them this last week and did a black and white series, which probably didn't help promote their personas!  But I like them and that is all that matters.  These clowns come in two sizes, 6 inches and 8 inches and are found wearing a variety of costumes of similar style, but different fabrics and colours.

Colin, Otto and Clyde

Close up of Otto's face - with his angled eyebrows, staring eyes and toothy grin I guess some would see him as a little scary, I just see a fun face.  His ears are made separate and attached, although he has lost one along the way - these toys are over 100 years old so I guess it isn't surprising!

Colin and Clyde - simpler faces, and perhaps more friendly as no teeth showing

Otto enjoyed exploring the garden

Surprise!

Large fungi growing in the garden.

Lastly for a video of these wonderful toys

A girl dreams of her Schoenhut Toys

Rainbow Photo Challenge: Yellow

From left to right:  Hazel, my hand carved (not by me) wooden Bleuette doll, Madeline, Michelle Poppet (a doll made by a friend), Sunshine, my hand dyed Makie, in front of them is a little handmade baby in a pouch that I bought in NZ last year, My Domo family, behind them Mabel, my Roddy walker doll, a Clonette Doll, Molly (Sasha Doll), a little Nancy Ann doll, Little Miss, my perfekta childhood doll, Peggy Sue holding Dougal, a toy from my childhood and of course Hitty Madge, hand carved by me)

A Boy Doll Review -Truly Me Boy Dolls by American Girl.

Today my friend and I took a trip to My Doll Boutique as she wanted to get one of the new boy dolls by American Girl Doll.    There have been four new boys added to the line, plus Logan who was introduced last year.  She let me take a few photos of him so I could do a short review.  

This lad is 'Truly Me Number 77'  He has been given the name Omri.

He comes wearing this trendy outfit of polo shirt, twill jeans (pants), boxer shorts and trainers.

All nicely made, working pockets in the jeans.

The jeans are very nicely made with plenty of attention to detail.

They do up with velcro at the flies. 

A sneak peak at his boxer shorts.

His hair is tight curls, Afro style

He has dark brown eyes and a dark skin tone.  

Unlike the girls he doesn't have any teeth showing, which helps give him a more boyish look.

I don't have any photos of the other boys, as the others were currently out of stock... but have borrowed some stock photos of the boys (hopefully this is okay, if not I will remove them)

Truly Me Number 74 has beautiful blue eyes, blonde hair and a light skin tone.

Truly Me Number 75 has an Asian look with brown hair, brown eyes and a light skin tone

Truly Me number 76 has brown eyes, brown hair and a medium skin tone, his hair is a different style to the other two boys.

Logan was released last year: 

As with most (all?) American Girl Doll products, this doll is very nicely made as is his clothing.  It is good to see more Doll Companies producing boy dolls and I know of at least two other lines by other Doll Companies that will be coming out very soon which is quite exciting! 

Schoenhut Series - Edith

Last year I was going to start a series of posts on my Schoenhut family...it seems I only ever did one!  The first of the 'Schoenhut Series' posts can be found here:  Schoenhut Series - Astrid  I thought it was about time I continued it.  So continuing on from the first.

Edith was one of the first dolls to arrive here after Anne-Marie and Peggy Sue.  She is a Miss Dolly Face Model 16/316  She is probably one of my most 'minty' dolls, although her human hair wig is probably not her original.

One of my favourite photos of her, and also one that actually made Flickr's 'Explore' page much to my delight is this one (shown above) taken in February 2013 when she was out walking her 'baby' with Peggy Sue in the garden.

This photo above, shows the dress and apron she arrived wearing.

Sadly she isn't quite as 'mint' as she was when she arrived as she had a bit of a 'head butt' incident with one of the other members of the Schoenhut family when they were having a group photo taken! 

That is one of the dilemmas with vintage and antique dolls...do you 'play' with them, or do you keep them locked up and simply admired. I do like to 'play' with mine especially as that was their original purpose, but one of the problems with this is you have to be prepared for them to receive a few 'bumps and bruises'.  Now Edith doesn't get played with as much as say Peggy Sue or Lewis, so has less chance of receiving knocks, but it can so easily happen as evidence shows - a simple photo shoot and taking a topple (even though it was on grass), and suddenly she has a bit of a 'boo boo'.  It doesn't seem to have fazed her much, so I guess I shouldn't let it worry me too much either.  

Rainbow Photo Challenge: Orange

Taking part in the Rainbow photo challenge on Flickr, my photo for orange is:

Cora wearing a borrowed orange dress with her orange space hopper and orange shoes.  

A Walk in the Garden with Henry

The sun came out for a while today and although the garden is very wet and boggy pretty uninspiring, Henry went outside to see if he could find any evidence of new growth and the promise of better times to come.  He couldn't convince any one else to join him so off he went on his own.

Goodness the rhododendrons are starting to bud!  This is exciting.  

Daffodils are starting to come up.  

I spy with my little eye, a little purple flower...

With the sun shining you could almost convince yourself it is warmer than it is... almost...but not quite!

~A boy on a mission ~

School Supplies.

Peggy Sue and Lewis have been busy today helping to get things ready for the new Science Room.  Some more posters have been laminated, worksheets printed and magazine folders made. 

Lewis and Peggy Sue worked hard collating the worksheets

They put them into subject order

They started sorting out the magazines.

Plenty of space magazines.

Folders and magazine holders were made.

Each student will have their own folder.

Folders and Magazines stored nicely in the holders ready for use.

Purple!

It's a purple kind of day today apparently, at least according to the lore of Everlee Rose Morgan.

She braved the outdoors, after a very windy night to check that all was well with the garden. 

Fortunately all that blew over was the bird feeder and it wasn't damaged.

The NZ Hebe is flowering and it matched her clothes.

Very soon she comes in and admires the orchids on the window sill.

Careful up there!

Everlee is one of the dolls that I have chosen to focus on this year, so you may see a lot more of her in the weeks and months to come.