As I mention on YouTube, I'm planning on repainting my room this summer, so I'll be changing my displays and trying to downsize pretty majorly. (I think. Let's see how strong I can be in my resolve.) ;) I have some pictures I'd like to hang up, and at this point, I have almost no wall space left. Plus, after six years of collecting, I'm just flat running out of room. I want to reevaluate my collection, get rid of some of the things that aren't as special to me, and try to be a little more proactive in planning what else I purchase.
Besides feeling the need to downsize, I have several things I'm saving up for, including a possible trip to Arizona this fall to visit my best friend around my birthday. I also need to start saving for Mount Hermon next year and our church's Ladies Retreat. Oh, and I recently found out that one of my story locations in Trinidad, California is actually a rental house 200 feet away from the beach. I thought it would be super fun to save up and stay there some weekend. ;)
There are other things, like windows for our house, paying off some debts, swimming lessons for the girls, and more. And I'll admit it, I'm thinking about saving up for one of the Limited Edition Disney Store dolls that will hopefully be released for the live action version of Beauty and the Beast next year. I've never been able to afford a Disney Store LE doll yet. It would be so great if it worked out this time around. :D Of course, at this point I have no room for a LE doll...yet another reason for downsizing. ;)
If Hubby gets more hours in his new position this summer, that will help tremendously with some of these things, but I'd love to do what I can to help. I have so much. I don't really need it all.
So, here are a few pics from my room as it is currently.
My doll rooms with lights. :)
My toy and book shelves on our dresser.
Zelfs, Lalaloopsies, jewelry, and my favorite picture of me and Hubby.
Plush friends on the bed.
My Beauty and the Beast curio.
My little white shelf with extra books and my live action Cinderella collection.
My Frozen and Tangled shelves.
This picture was taken by accident. (My phone often takes pictures without telling me.) I thought it looked kind of cool, though. My daughters and I decided it looked like a magical portal in my room. Who knew there was one there all along? ;)
So if you'd like more detail on any of these spots, feel free to stop by my YouTube channel and check out my room tour videos. You can see Part One HERE and Part Two HERE.
As I was working on these videos, I was curious about some of my previous displays, so I found some old blog posts with pictures and videos of my doll rooms/displays and how they've changed over the years. If you're interested in sharing my trip down memory lane, you can check out the following links. ;)
My Dolls (August 4th, 2010) ~ This was back at the very beginning of my doll collecting and blogging, in 2010. Here are the original girls from my 18" collection and their displays. This post also has my original "personality profiles" for each doll. ;)
Thrift Store Find and a Rearranged Doll Room (September 23rd, 2010) ~ This was the first of many rearranging projects, about a month after the previous post. ;) It was a fun time to collect. I had almost nothing, so it was easy to find things for my dolls. Everything remotely doll-sized ended up coming home with me. ;) Thrift stores and garage sales were treasure troves and scavenger hunts in which I always found success. I can't even tell you how many things I now pass by that I would have snatched up in a second at this stage of my collecting.
My Updated Doll Rooms (September 1st, 2011) ~ The next post I found was a year later. In that amount of time, my doll accessories and collections had grown enormously. This was also my "computer desk as a doll room" stage. It was a great way to repurpose, especially since the computer desk was a free hand-me-down from a friend. Although at this time my focus was still primarily on my 18 inchers, I was starting to branch out into other doll lines. This was also when Belle's Bulletins was starting to gain momentum.
Rearranging My Doll Rooms (January 9th, 2012) ~ This was the stage when my 18" doll rooms pretty much made up 90% of our room. ;) I had displays on both dressers and one in my newest repurposed doll room: our old entertainment center. You can't see it as much in this post, but it's more visible in the next one.
Hayden and Jenna's New Room (April 21st, 2012) ~ Wow, I didn't realize I'd had the rooms my dad made for this long. Four years? Time definitely flies by. This was the first of the three doll rooms my dad made for me. This original one sat on top of the previously mentioned entertainment center until the other rooms were built later that year. I remember how excited I was to have my first "official" doll room. :)
Just in Case You Thought I Was Being Lazy... (July 17th, 2012) ~ This was one of my typical apologetic posts, explaining why you guys hadn't heard from me in so long. ;) The reason? What else? Rearranging! (Among other things.) ;) Even though things were pretty cluttered at this point, it was one of my favorite periods of collecting. I loved all of my BFC Ink dolls in their fancy dresses, my doll rooms, and everything. I'd forgotten all about my Pleasant Company Samantha I had for a while. I think she was one of the dolls I ended up selling. Shortly after this post, I got really overwhelmed by the amount of big dolls I had and sold several of them. You can also see by the inelegant plastic drawer unit full of stuff that my tiny toy collections were growing as well.
In this post, you also get a bonus look at my daughters' playroom. :)
My New Doll Rooms, Post #1! (September 1st, 2012) ~ This was the first in a series of posts I did right after my dad finished my other two doll rooms. I'm only going to link to this first one, because each of the posts in the series have links leading to the next. I had so much fun filling these new doll rooms. It was great to look back and see how I originally had them arranged. ;) This also was one of the most in-depth looks at my doll displays and accessories. I took pictures of almost every inch of space. ;)
The End of the School Year and a Special Tour (May 24th, 2013) ~ This was the only post with pictures of my room I could find for this stage of collecting, and it also includes a tour of my whole house. (Yet another fun batch of memories. Our house has changed a lot, too!) This was the "white shelves covering the windows but allowing me to have lots more stuff" stage. ;) While it was nice having so much display space, I eventually got tired of not being able to see my window, and I was constantly worried about sunlight damage to the toys and books on those shelves. My room also started to feel very closed and cave-like during this stage, since there were shelves everywhere and almost no wall space at all.
New Doll Room Vids Up on YouTube (April 30th, 2014) ~ This short little post has no pictures, but has links to YouTube videos of my room during 2014. There weren't too many changes overall, aside from a few more white shelves added and more stuff collected. ;) You can see how my interests grew and changed to include even more doll and toy lines.
New Room Tour Video Up and Your Questions Needed (January 28th, 2015) ~ And here is an example of my collecting at its craziest. My philosophy at this stage was "if you have it, display it." I felt it was silly to have things stored away and never enjoy them. While I still hold to this point of view overall, I found that having this much stuff out on display just got too overwhelming, which is why I recently went through things and decided to store some of it. I still only store what I can fit in my room, and I try to rotate things occasionally. As crazy as this stage was, though, it was also a LOT of fun to see all of the bright colors and cheerful faces every time I entered my room.
Thankfully, I have a very patient husband who is not creeped out by dolls. ;)
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There are probably other posts with pictures that I missed, but this gives you a basic rundown of the changes through the past six years. Hope you enjoyed the memories as much as I did. ;)
How have your collections changed through the years? Do you ever look back and regret a doll or toy you no longer have? What direction do you see your collecting going in the future?
