Fashion Dolls 101

A lbion Online Scores High Marks Across the Board Recently I had the opportunity to check out the game Albion Online , an MMORPG. Until recently, you could only play on PC, but now mobile gamers can enjoy this medieval fantasy game.  The game has scored an impressive 4.7 stars at the Apple app store. It's easy to see why. Colorful and immersive, Albion Online allows players to proceed at their own pace. There are exciting quests for every level. Players can roam the land, exploring different biomes and fighting creatures that lurk in the shadows, or they can venture into dungeons looking for treasure. Players can go to the Recruitment Skipper to be sent on a quest, or stand outside a dungeon and wait to be invited to join a party. Even better is the opportunity to join friends in a guild to do planned activities. The guild I recommend is Last Rangers because they are friendly, organized, active and accepting new players.  Fighting a big boss in a dungeon Although the tutorial...

Annabelle the cat and Jack the dog are intrigued by the colorful little rag dolls. Holly Hobbie Dolls--a Quaint Piece of Americana Launched in 1975, the Holly Hobbie doll celebrated her 45th birthday in 2020, but her story is much older than that. She may have been licensed by Knickerbocker in 1974 for a line of rag dolls, but Holly Hobbie's roots dig far deeper into our country's past.  The old-fashioned rag doll caught on with the last of the hippie generation who were wearing peasant skirts and Gunne Sax prairie dresses in the 1970s. See  The Intriguing History of Holly Hobbie Dolls . A variety of Holly Hobby dolls in various locations With her whimsical bonnet, calico patchwork dress and apron, Holly Hobbie harkens back to the pioneer days Lauran Ingalls Wilder wrote about in the "Little House on the Prairie" books. Since I had a trip planned to Oklahoma, I packed Holly and her friends up for a road trip to photograph the dolls on the prairie. Hollie Hobby and fr...

  Holly Hobbie ad, 1970s One of the most successful commercial lines of rag dolls is Holly Hobbie. Born in 1944,  Denise Holly Ulinskas ,   is an American writer and illustrator who  married Douglas Hobbie in 1964. She also sometimes goes by the name of the character she created-- Holly Hobbie. According to Wikipedia, in the late 1960s,  Hobbie sold her signature artwork of a little girl wearing a blue rag dress, usually clutching a cat and dressed in a giant bonnet, to American Greetings. The adorable little ragamuffin in blue immediately caught on and was soon known as "Blue Girl," She would later be named Holly Hobbie. But this is not where the little sunbonnet girl got her start. Under the Window by Kate Greenaway, ( 1879) Kate Greenaway made illustrations with sun bonnet girls and other children at the turn of the century. Her art in books and magazines in the late 1800s made quaint figures of young girls in bonnets popular around the country.   Sun...

  Knickerbocker Sleepy Head Dolls While a number of dolls have been called sleepyhead dolls, Knickerbocker Toy Company made the official Sleepy Head dolls from the 1940s through the 1960s. Made of soft, plush terry cloth, these dolls were an early plush toy descended from  rag dolls  and perhaps somewhat influenced by Steiff stuffed toys. Instead of sewn or drawn faces, the first Sleepy Head dolls featured hard plastic faces that later changed to rubber when it was discovered the plastic faces cracked off and became choking hazards. While it isn't hard to find a Sleepy Head doll with a rubber face, the hard plastic ones are much more difficult to find, because the thin plastic broke so easily.  (The very-much-loved 70-year-old Sleepy Head doll on the left above lost its hard plastic face man yeas ago and is now truly a "rag" doll.!} Some Sleepy Head dolls had pockets in the back. Others had music boxes. Still others had plain backs. Knickerbocker Toy Company Sle...