Ten years ago I borrowed a copy of Barbie Bazaar from my good friend Manda and read it cover to cover. In it's pages I discovered the magical world of the travelling kelly doll, tales of camps and parties, outings and photoshoots had me captivated, and the one thing I wanted to do from then on was send a doll to one of these events.
I found and joined some online Kelly groups and discovered a halloween party that was being held in U.S, I was completely unsure as to what to send with the doll, what items would she need? Did I need to send fifteen similar items for all the other attendees? Did she need a full outfit for every day or would one or two do....did it matter that most of my stuff was going to be handmade as even if I could get hold of Mattel clothing I wasn't risking it back in the postal system! Should you write letters about them as tho they were real or would the host think I was nuts....... The list of questions was endless.
Of course the first thing to do would be to get a doll, I duly trawled the local shops and found what is to my mind still the prettiest doll Mattel have ever produced - a Tea Cup Liana (I think) - deboxed her and made her the best set of clothing I could... a nice sparkly set of leggings and a unicorn painted top, and as it was a halloween party she had a nice costume, well the best I could manage anyway ...and sent her off , hoping I'd got away with it and the poor host would think I was a normal doll fan not some raving lunatic who thankfully lived too far away to do actual harm lol! <lots of waving at Rhonda at this point!>
The things I got back were amazing! Yes you could send things for all the other attendees...I was so relieved I'd taken the time to make about fifteen little snarly halloween cats out of pipecleaners even if I did have nightmares until she came home with hers , worrying that the resulting bunch of mixed wires would look suspect in an X ray scan at the airport....and would the customs men throw out the cats...or the doll...and if he did how would I know? (yeah I worry a lot!)
When we were clearing out the house I found the envelope with all the halloween goodies I'd been sent, some of it had of course been removed. Tabitha (my first ever travel doll) had been to several events since and had had to have a replacement for herself once when the postal system lost her..... but the halloween stuff had been carefully stored ...in a safe place. Yeah that kind of safe place! I was overjoyed to find it. The postal mark says 1/12/2004 so that makes it ten years this year that I have been involved with kelly dolls and specifically the ones that get to 'do' things. Ten years!
Tabi is of course still with me, you met her for the first time in the school shot last september - a late appearance as she'd been packed away when I had a break from travel dolls when the original Tye didn't come home. Tabi was also in the morris dancing this may (coughjunecough) but her hair is so lovely although mussed now that I never played with her. Of couse along came Tye anyway when my friend Kathy said she'd give me a doll to be a guest at Camp Cho as it was too late to send Tabi. The rest is history if you're in the right circles..
Anyway here's a quick shot of Tye in one of my first ever handmade Kelly Doll outfits, as demonstrated by Tye as 'it's my site and anyway Tabi is asleep' and a few of the myriad things that came back with her. Behind is my own hearth decorated for Autumn and Samhain/Halloween.
Happy Tenth Birthday to Us lol
Sue and Tye