Bob starts to remember

Bob Flagg loves his family.

His wife, Betty, and his daughter, Patsy, are his whole world. So how did Bob disappear one day without so much as a see you later?

And how did he turn up months later in California on My Realitty's blog?

He was happily reunited with Betty and Patsy as soon as he got to their new house in Toronto.



Bob and Betty's family arrived shortly after to welcome him home.


And then a stranger showed up, a bride, claiming that Bob had left her at the alter. Betty was devastated.

Bob insisted he didn't know the bride. He said he hadn't left his family. He had disappeared because he had amnesia.

The bride's father showed up and cleared Bob's name, but the mystery remains - how did Bob get amnesia? and where was he all the time he was missing?


Something about the bride has triggered a memory.

Bob remembers being on a boat.

A shrimp boat. How did he get on a shrimp boat all alone? Bob doesn't know. He just remembers the boat and how it washed ashore onto a big pile of kelp.

There was nothing for Bob to do but get out and walk. He needed to find civilization.

Bob walked ...

and walked ...



Hmmm .. nice lone cypress ...

and walked. ....

Finally Bob came to a Cantina. He was tired and hungry and thirsty.

In exchange for washing dishes they gave Bob  a meal and a bed.

Bob was tired as he made his way to bed that night.

But he couldn't sleep. He kept trying to figure out how he got on the shrimp boat and where he belonged in the world.



He couldn't remember anything.





The last three pictures are presented courtesy of the collection of My Realitty in California. Thanks CM!

Look who came to live at my house - The Grecon Family!

This elegant Grecon Family has come to live with me.

I am quite embarrassed to say that I have not prepared a place for them to stay.

About a month ago some old and dear friends came to stay with me. To make room for them in the guest room I packed up a lot of my dollhouses and accessories and moved them to the garage




My wonderful daughter and her equally wonderful boyfriend helped me get ready. They worked hard to pack everything up and carry it out to the garage, but as a result I can't find anything. I am not complaining, mind you. I needed to purge the guest room and make my friends comfortable during their visit. I love them all dearly - my friends and my kids (boyfriend included). I am just explaining that in being a good hostess to my friends I have become a very bad hostess to the Grecons. They have to live on a bare shelf for now.

They are English dolls, so they may end up living in my Triang if I can ever find it again. Of course I would redecorate for them.

These dolls are a smaller scale than most dollhouse dolls. They are even smaller than the 3/4 scale Flagg dolls. They are approximately 3.5" high


Here is Granny in her tea gown. She is very elegant with her brooch, lace and eyeglasses. I love her rosy cheeks and her little bow mouth.

This young lady is quite lovely. Is she the daughter of the family, daughter-in-law, or is she a married neighbour? We will have to see.

These dolls have metal feet, embroidered hair and painted features on padded faces. These dolls were produced in England from the 1950's to the 1970's.

Their bodies are flexible wire which is padded and then bound by wool. Their hair is embroidered on with yarn. These dolls were sold for a period of 50 years, making it difficult to date them other than by their clothing and hairstyles.

More information on their history can be found on Small Stuff Miniature's blog. Check it out.

I love the detail on the front of the dress. The scarf is great, but I am a little confused by the vest and beads. It almost looks like a life vest.

The men may look familiar. Their identical brothers came with my Barton Model Home. The gentlemen with this group are in better condition. I don't think any of these four dolls were ever played with.


The wonderful family in the Barton Model Home enjoyed the ownership of two little girls long before they came to me.

Grecon dolls have cloth labels sewn on their backs, so it is easy to tell what they are.

Grandpa has obviously lost his razer, but he is a natty dresser.

These dolls have a lot of charm.


I suppose they could live in my GeeBee house, but where would the other Granny-and-Granddad live?



I am thinking of moving these new (to me) Grecons into an American house. Yes, I am.

I have cleaned up this house. and, if I can find it in the garage, I will redecorate it for them.

We will see.  I haven't made up my mind yet, but I am enjoying the decision making process.


Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,
Susan

I love my followers!!

I am the worst blogger when it comes to welcoming new followers, but I love each and every one of you.

Please click on some of my followers and check out their blogs. They are delightful!!

Welcome from Daphne and Me!!

Come on in and enjoy!!

Nanny's Nest

I forgot to show you the attic of the Schoenhut house when we last visited.

Normally the children's bedroom, or the bathroom, or both are in the attic of the house.

But I decided to use the extra Tootsie Toy furniture and make it the servants' quarters.


Nanny has put the children to bed and is resting her weary bones. Soon Cook will be finished the dishes and will join her and they will have their evening cup of tea and discuss the day.


They have a kitchen and bathroom in their cozy attic, and two armchairs, but they don't seem to have any beds.

Maybe they have to get up so early they don't sleep. Or maybe I just need to find more furniture.

Hugs,

Susan

Come inside! We were waiting for you.

Please come in and have a look at my new house.

Here is the living room. 

Mr. Dahl has just arrived home after a hard day at the office and is enjoying his pre-dinner cocktail. Good old Fido is at his feet, and Mrs. Dahl has more cocktails ready on the coffee table in case he needs a refill.

The kitchen with its pink tin appliances (pink is the new white), is separated from the dining room by a very modern half wall. Don't you just love the space age wallpaper?

You will notice that the kitchen is spotless. Mes. Dahl doesn't like to mess up her new appliances with nasty, splattery food.

Upstairs the bedroom is neat as a pin.

The Dahls had to make room for Baby Dahl in the den, but he didn't disrupt it too much.

He is sleeping now.

They have such a lovely home. It is just right for two, er, I mean three. people.


I guess the bathroom is in a room we can't see. Or maybe because Mrs. Dahl doesn't cook they don't need to go.  But, wait ... what about all those cocktails they imbibe?  Surely they would have to go sometime.


Okay, we'll just say the bathroom is in an area we can't see.

It's hard to believe that just a few days ago this house fit into a flat(ish) box.

What's that? You have to go now. Well, come back and see us soon.


Maybe next time we'll have food, and a room for the baby, and a place to pee.  Why anything can happen in the Dahl's world.









Bye for now.

Hugs,

Susan

Cape Cod houses, candy-coloured Cape Cod houses

Cape Cod houses represent a style that originated in New England in the late 17th century. These small, economical, one-and-a-half story homes were built all across North America during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

So it is not surprising that we find them in dollhouse size for the post-world-war-two children who may have grown up in such a house.

Keystone Manufacturing Company of Boston produced a wonderful Cape Code dollhouse in the early 1950's and used the same plans until at least the late 1960's. Various exterior designs were used. Some had four rooms, and others, like my beautiful field stone model shown here, had an extension for the kitchen and bathroom.



The house shown here was sold at FAO Schwarz during the 1960's. It has an FAO sticker just inside the dining room at the back. I have shown it furnished in this post Decorating Challenge. And in this post Different Strokes for Different Folks.

I love this house so much that when I saw another variety on eBay I just had to have it.

 I bought this house from the original owner. It doesn't have the kitchen extension, but at some point during the life of the house someone has divided the upper floor into three sections so there can be a small bathroom up there.


Unfortunately, someone also redecorated the interior of the house with 1980's-style wallpaper, covering over the lovely late 1950's original decor.




I don't like to mess with original, but out-of-scale disco-era wallpaper holds no such taboo for me. I have taken the interior of the house down to the bare walls and am researching the essence of post war decorating to replace it with. You will get to see the before and after in a future post.

So why did I need a third Keystone Cape Code.

That's easy to answer. Just look at it! It's Yellow and Pink!!



It was love at first sight.

And that's not all. It was packed pristinely in it's original shipping box. The original wallpaper was perfect, and both the upstairs wall and the small divider for the downstairs were there.

This is a picture of the end tab of the box.










Tomorrow our lovely appropriately dressed hostess will take us on a tour of the inside.




Tata for now.


Hugs,
Susan

The Schoenhut family at home

Welcome to the Schoenhut family home.

From out here it looks like the family could use some repairs around the front door.  The frames of the window panes are missing from one of the sidelights and there is a chip out of the bottom of the door frame on the other side. Maybe Father is not very handy with these things. They should hire a handyman.



Let's go inside and see what the family is doing.

It looks like Mother has just arrived home to find two of her little ones unsupervised and playing with the expensive new radio.  They know they aren't suppose to touch it.

Mother is disappointed. Where are the other grownups?


"Where's Nanny?" she asks them. "Where's your father."

"on't know Mamma." says little Cecil. "Gone."

"Radio." says little Myrtle.

In the kitchen Cook is asking Mabel how school went.

One would think that Cook would be more interested in getting dinner ready. The kitchen looks pretty bare. Maybe the food is in the icebox.

Upstairs Father is in the bathtub. He really enjoys having indoor plumbing and he bathes as often as he can.


In fact he is a lot like the father in the big yellow house. He has to stay upstairs because he has no clothes. Apparently he doesn't even have a towel. No wonder the front door is in ill repair. If Father tried to fix it he would be arrested.

At least Father has a Health-o-Meter in the bathroom with him. He will know in advance if he is tending towards ill health.

In the bedroom Nanny is supervising young Ella as she learns to make her own bed.

Nanny feels proper bed making is very important and is so absorbed in the lesson that she has lost track of the other children.

Mother sighs wearily and pulls her shawl more tightly around her shoulders.


She must give tonight's menu to Cook and make sure she gets dinner going.


She must get Nanny to take the children in hand and get them ready for bed.

She must find out where Father has put his clothes and get him out of the bathtub. He is always in the bathtub.


And then she must make sure everyone goes to bed so they can do it all over again tomorrow.

Good night for now.


Hugs,

Susan