Thinking of Easter: A Moodboard

Multicolor Birds Mobile - Crochet Pillow Cover - White Silk Blouse - Ruffle Peg Bag 

Even if these pieces were not designed specifically with Easter in mind, they still remind me of this celebration of Love and Peace. That mobile by Cherry Garden Dolls is the cutest thing you can imagine - I would definitely want it for my own baby! The crochet pillow by katrinshine is a very nostalgic thing for me as it reminds me of my great grandmother who was a master of crocheting. The clothespin bag by Duni Studio is full of shabby chic; those roses are irresistible! And, of course, our floral blouse from vintage silk... just a nice blouse, lovely to the touch, that can be dressed up or down. 

The Paper Laptop of Our Poor Girl

I guess our family could face charges of children abuse and neglect. Can you imagine, our 8 years' old daughter has no laptop, no tablet, no iPad, no iPhone, no smartphone, nor even the most basic mobile phone. The poor child has to read paper books, draw on paper, play real toys and go to a real Taekwondo club, where she exercises in real life, instead of making a computer character sweat for her. How cruel!

So, because she is so deprived of electronic toys, she made for herself this laptop, using an empty candy box as a basis. Are my readers crying already? Can I use this for a fund raising petition to get some money and buy her a real laptop? Look at all the painstakingly drawn details, from the floral wallpaper to the keyboard and folders on the desktop.

The folders are as follows: Work, Photos, Films, Internet and Other. I just had to admire this attention to details; she also has not missed a single letter in the alphabet, and she did everything on her own, without even asking advice. This paper gadget was shown to me with great pride and came as a surprise.

And this is the exterior of this unique paper laptop. By the way, very nice souffle sweets, these were. They are traditionally called "Bird's Milk" here. This is to indicate that they are amazingly, unreally delicious, like nothing in the real world. Back in Soviet times, we had souffle cakes under this name.

...But, seriously, I think it that limiting child's screen time is not a bad idea. We are doing that on purpose, because we are seeing too many computer- or phone-obsessed children around. We want Madina to live in the real world and to be able to use the gadgets when she needs, and not the other way round - living in the virtual space and only eating and going to the toilet and doing chores as necessary. She does not seem to suffer without electronic devices, though, and we read a lot and play table games. We have several - Spot it!, Sleeping Queens, Moose in the House, Rat-a-Tat-Cat, Quirkle and Sсrabble and some others, and enjoy them.

What do you think? Do you like her laptop? Would you limit your child's screen time?

Totoros Safe and Comfortable in their Flower Pots

I guess I have difficulties growing up. I still love toys, almost like 30 years ago. Not sure whether it is good or bad - it is just like that. Often, when choosing toys for my daughter, I feel that I actually buy them for myself. I guess that is quite infantile, and just have to laugh.

The set of small Totoro toys was definitely for myself, and they ended up in my flower pots. Yesterday I was cleaning house and watering the plants, so I had to remove the toys. I took this photo of very lonely Totoros and then felt such pity for them that I just had to follow up by making more photos with them comfortable at home.

This is where these Totoros usually live. It is a quiet and shady place with fast growing Oxalis in two colors - green and purple. Oxalis is one of the most sturdy plants that I have, and actually I did not plant or buy it - they grew on themselves, obviously from seeds which somehow were in the soil. My daughter loves this plant, mostly because it folds the leaves in the evening and it looks like magic.

These Totoros live with the small Pteris and Adiantum ferns. I love ferns, they are so modest and undemanding, and at the same time very beautiful, in the healthy wild way. When these grow bigger, they will be a lovely sight.

Totoro with umbrella and  Catbus are in the pot with a Ficus bennendijkii 'alii' which is a beautiful little tree. It deserves to have good photos taken, but this story is about toys, not about plants. I think I will need to give a photo session to plants, too.

The last one lives in the pot with fragrant juniper. The leaves you can see are those of basil which is placed nest to the juniper, It is nice to grow juniper and basil on your windows; when in need, you can always borrow a couple of leaves.

So, as we can see, all Totoros are comfortable in their flower pots. There are several other figures, but my daughter has hidden them in some secret place, I think. Now I will go and do some adult's business, specifically I will finish re-reading "The Masc of Sorcerer" and then will bake cheese cookies. Have a nice weekend! 

Pretty Twins - Antique Replica Mignonette Dolls

This is a pair of the loveliest mignonette dolls I have ever seen. These are not real antique dolls; they are amazingly beautiful and stylish replicas, made with great mastery. A mignonette is a French pocket doll, easy to carry around. As a girl, I always preferred small toys, although of course my Soviet plastic dolls were much simpler than these beauties. And these twins are just stunning! I gasped when I saw them. 

They are all bisque, finely molded and hand painted; they have glass non-sleep eyes and real hair made into intricate hair-does which cannot be undone. These twins are very alike, but there are subtle differences which give so much more interest to them; the faces are very slightly different, and the colour of eyes. I also have a feeling that there are small differences in their bodies but cannot quite identify them. They are just different and that makes them look more alive.

The dolls have the lovelies faces with whimsical expression and the most endearing bodies which are very far from the Barbie perfection. Can you imagine anything more stylish and retro than these softly rounded lines? They have bodies of children, but their faces are much older, and the painted stockings give them a flavour of something... well, not so modest, which contrasts strangely and disturbingly with their innocent eyes. A very decadent couple, these dolls are. 

They have markings on the back of their necks, under the hair: they just say 1978. So, they are real vintage dolls.  I bought them for myself, hoping to do something with them, like making clothes and taking photos, but never got around to doing that. I love to look at them now and then, as I admire them wholeheartedly, but I would rather let them go to someone who would enjoy them more than I do and would pay more attention. They are for sale in our Etsy shop. 

Walking with a Little Fox

Today we went for a walk in the park. The morning was not sunny, but we enjoyed it nonetheless -  it was a beautiful autumn weather. 

My daughter recently became very interested in making her own toys. I understand her - it can be difficult to find exactly what you want. What if you need a tiny fox which easily fits in your pocket and can be hidden in your hand? Where do you find a fox exactly that tiny and with the big beautiful eyes and thick tail? So, we bought some Sculpey clay on Amazon... and Madina made the fox.

It does not really matter that the little creature is somewhat awkward. She sees something in it and gives her own meaning to the tiny sculpture; she polishes and refines it in her mind. Such a primitive toy might be even better, in my opinion, because it leaves something to the imagination of the child. 

So, we baked the fox in the oven early in the morning, to make her durable, and then took her to the park with us and played there. 

We brought a bowl for the fox and fed her with some vegetarian food (had no meat with us). 

...and then we made a cosy home for the fox. You can see that she feels very comfortable there.

So we played and walked for a while, until it started raining, And then we had to go home, because, unfortunately, the fox's house was too small for us. She was inviting us, but we would not fit in.

The next task would be to make a wolf and some other animals to keep company. I share my daughter's happiness and excitement about making her own toys - making something with her own hands!

Looking for Totoro

I have never been good at giving presents. I have always had difficulties with choosing - fretting that I might be buying a wrong thing and it will not be appreciated - and besides, I have never felt that I could handle the process of gift giving graciously. This is despite the fact that I love giving presents. I just do it in a very simple manner, as a rule - just hand the things over, and this is it.

While my somewhat awkward manner might be acceptable for adults, I decided that it must be different with my child: I wanted her to feel that her birthday was a very special day.

We watched the wonderful film, My Neighbor Totoro, shortly before her birthday. I knew she would love it, and secretly ordered the toy well in advance. Of course, Madina loved Totoro and kept saying how much she would like a plush toy like that, to sleep with. It was wise to plan ahead as these toys could not be found in Tashkent.

In the morning on Madina' birthday, while she slept, I made a set of cards with Tororos big and small  and instructions; they were leading from one room to another. I have been drawing very little in the recent years and my hand is not as steady as it used to be, but I did my best.



They lead from her pillow to the sofa in the living room, then to the bathroom, and to the basket with apples in the balcony; to the bedroom, to the cupboard, and, finally - to the big antique bucket!

And there he was, the Big Gray Totoro, sitting patiently inside the bucket and waiting to be found!

 

I cannot tell you how happy and excited my daughter was throughout the whole process of searching, and how fascinated she was with the Totoro who appeared in our home in such a magical fashion.

Since then, she has made several sets of similar instruction cards for me: they usually end in the most touching love letters. She is a very good learner. And I keep learning with her, too.

A Rare Find - a Mary Hoyer Composition Doll!

I always say that buying and researching vintage things is a very exciting thing to do. My cousin Gafa has recently bought this vintage doll with a trunk which we found to be a very old Mary Hoyer doll, dating to the period from 1937 to 1946. She is made from composition, jointed, with a short haircut which was very fashionable then, and with beautiful gray sleep eyes. I like her thoughtful look and retro make up - she is so different from what we see now. Unlike modern dolls with incredible legs and huge eyes, this one looks like a real person, even though of course her proportions are not realistic. And our doll is incredibly stylish! Look at her trunk, full of clothing and accessories. I think some of these were home made, which means that the doll was loved and cared for. I heartily congratulated Gafa with this amazing find.

You can see the marking on her back.

  
This is what Doll Reference says about her: "1937-1946 Mary Hoyer doll, 14" tall, all composition jointed doll, mohair wig (some have molded hair beneath the wig), sleep eyes usually blue but some root beer brown have been found, or painted eyes with painted lashes, real upper lashes, painted lower lashes, closed mouth, many different outfits were made for this doll, as well as patterns were sold, that could be knitted or sewn by the dolls owner.  Mary Hoyer made clothing will have a Mary Hoyer tag.  Doll marked: The Mary Hoyer Doll in raised print".

This composition Mary Hoyer doll is offered for sale at Mulberry Terrace,

Good-Bye, Little Bear...

I know I said many times that I was indifferent to teddy bears. Who wants bears? They are big, clumsy, with silly faces and there is not much you can do with them. Small stuffed dogs and horses are much more interesting. So I did not even look for bears. We have sold two vintage bears at MulberryTerrace and are offering two more at the moment, but I was not touched with then in the least, even though they are quite nice.

This one was made in Germany. He is made from mohair, stuffed with straw and has glass eyes.

He is beautiful, stylish and lovely to the touch. More photos and information can be found here.

The second "high end" bear we are offering now was made in the USSR in 1970s. It is a charming little creature made from mohair, with movable arms and legs.

He is so small, he can travel with his owner everywhere. At the moment he lives at Mulberry Terrace.

I like these bears, and enjoyed taking photos of them, but was not tempted to keep them, and will be glad when they sell. I am not a teddy bear person at all.

And then my mother brought me another one.

She told her friend that I was looking for vintage toys, and Vladimir gave her this sad looking teddy. His son (now adult) used to sleep with this teddy since he was 1 year old and till 12 years old (mostly keeping him under the pillow at night). The boy loved the teddy, took him everywhere, fed him with a spoon - you know what children are like. Then at some point the bear was forgotten and abandoned and spent many years on a shelf in the bedroom (not in the closet as I thought initially).



Mother's friend was uncertain about giving the toy away, but then he said that maybe someone would want it. He doubted that that because this was such an old and worn toy, so simple and awkward, while there were hundreds of beautiful new toys available.

The bear is from perestroyka time - 1980s - when Soviet people lived in very difficult conditions and not many of them could afford expensive toys for their kids. He was quite cheap, and was brought to Tashkent from Leningrad, Russia, as a gift for the little boy.

He looks very touching, with his awkward little paws sticking out in the silly way. And this is the first bear ever that I would like to keep.  He is already sold, and will go to the US together with the pink horse from one of the previous posts, and... well, I am familiar with "buyer's regret", but this is the first time I am having "seller's regret" and was almost thinking of cancelling the sale. Of course I will not do that - it would be too unreasonable, so he will go tomorrow... Good luck to you, little bear; I am sure your maker could never imagine that you would travel that far. I hope your new owners will be kind to you.

...And I still do not understand what is so special about bears. Can anyone explain this? 

Soviet Toy Horse Moves to the US

It is true that you can never know for sure what your child will be thrilled with. You might be buying something being confident she will love it, and then she hates it for some reason obscure to you but absolutely obvious to her. Or vice versa.

The little pink horse came home with me from the flea market; I bought it because it reminded me of toys I had as a child. It is very typical of Soviet toys - very straightforward, simple, primitive. Very cheap - 45 kopecks which was roughly the equivalent of 45 cents 25-30 years ago. I believe some of Soviet toys were produced at the factories under the Ministry of Defense as a by-product. I might be wrong though - there were many toy factories in USSR - but some toys really looked like they could be used as weapons.

Not this plastic pony, though. The pony is kind and nice, and I would like to own one when I was small. I still feel sorry for a yellow horse - my sand toy which got lost somewhere on a beach. I looked for it for so many days after and found many other valuable things (shells, coins, feathers, pieces of cheap costume jewelry, a broken doll), but no horse. And I have a weak spot for horses. I am indifferent to teddy bears, though...

So, about the pink Soviet horse, I would love to have one as a child - this is just the type of dolls I loved. The good thing about these very primitive toys was that they could be whatever you needed them to be. They left a lot to imagination, and such a horse could be a war horse for a knight, a beautiful mare for a princess, a flying horse from an oriental fairy tale, and so much more! Barbie with her horse is much more discretionary - she can only be Barbie, and even when she is dressed as Scarlett O'Hara, she is still Barbie in disguise. Which is not bad, too - not everyone is so recognizable.

When I brought the toy horse home and washed it, my daughter immediately appropriated it, saying she wanted it to stay. 

...Interestingly, she played with it for a couple of days but yesterday told me she did not need it anymore and I could sell it. When I just started thinking about writing this post (the day before yesterday), she still loved the horse and wanted to keep it, and I was going to write a touching story about how my spoiled child preferred the old simple toy to her beautiful new toys from the US, but this is not the case - Madina ruined the story! I listed the pink pony on Mulberry Terrace (our vintage shop) yesterday night and it sold in half an hour - our record time. Now Madina still has a Soviet plastic dog left - see below:

She claims she will not part with the dog but I suppose this is not true. She gets bored with toys quickly and I do not want them to accumulate in the house so most likely the brown doggie will be listed soon, too. And the pink horse will go to the US - hopefully it will be loved there.

Welcome to our vintage shop - Mulberry Terrace!

My dear younger cousin Gafa who lives in Appleton, Wisconsin, has opened his own Etsy shop. It is called Mulberry Terrace to ensure certain continuity and link to our own Mulberry Whisper, and Gafa sells his vintage finds there. So far, he has found three absolutely amazing vintage baskets - see one of them below:

It is a mail basket, roomy and shabby, and we are sure that every home need one. Even if not everyone is aware of it.

There is an equally amazing set of Norman Rockwell glasses with Saturday Evening Post pictures:

...a fantastic bright red vintage French omelet pan by Mirro -

...an etched cake server with lovely tarnish -

...and several vintage dolls; one of them is actually antique, a lovely blond girl by Kley and Hahn:

I urged Gafa very strongly to only buy things he really likes, because if something does not sell we will have to keep it. Looking at what we have now, I think I can keep the antique German doll and one of the baskets, while he is welcome to keep the rest: however I do hope we sell everything! Gafa has sold two beautiful vintage teddy bears to Japan on the second day after opening, which is a very good sign to me; he is quite good at selling and buying. So, dear younger brother, congratulations on your new shop and best of luck with thrifting and selling!

My Favorite Toys: Nails and Clothespins

A while ago, Etsy admin asked the readers to tell about their favorite toys. It was fun to remember; this is what I wrote.

"Wooden clothespins! I pretended them to be a pack of wolves and invented stories about them. I had about 20 wolves in the pack, and each one was different - I could tell one from another by the shade of wood, speckles and stains and such. I remember there was a she-wolf, light beige in color - almost white - she was young and beautiful. And then there was a pack leader who was a veteran of many fights; he was dark brown and covered with scars. And of course there was a romance, and many adventures, and cute wolf cubs later on. I was about 6 then. Thank you for asking, it made me smile".

(the clothespins were just like these, offered by vintiquesprims)

It is true that those clothespins gave me hours of happiness. I used to spend summers with my great grandparents in the Crimea; they did not have many toys at home, and I did not bring my own with me. They had many other interesting objects instead. 

A tabby colored cat Dina (live). 

Two porcelain figurines - a fawn bulldog and a white deer.

A chest full of crocheted doilies, yardage lace, embroidery and samplers; it smelt of camphor balls. I still love the smell. I know everyone hates it, but I love it. 

A cupboard with items like cookie cutters, pottery, silverware (could be played with, too, but great grandmother would not allow me) and a very old and thick book entitled "How to Be a Model Housewife", with pictures of new look style dresses,  recommendations on how to be a good wife and mother and lots of recipes. A bag full of buttons was also stored in the cupboard. 

(and these cookie cutters from vintagewall closely resemble ours. actually I need to buy a vintage set, and this one is very nice, but I will try finding one locally).

...I actually wanted to say something about the clothespins. That is right, we lived in the Soviet Union and were not spoiled with toys. We had some, but not nearly like the choice and quality of toys available to the US kids. However I believe a child does not really need a lot of bright expensive ready-made toys; to a certain extent, they can even be... not harmful, of course, but probably not very useful, because they leave so little to the imagination. A Barbie can only be a Barbie, even if you put a Scarlett O'Hara dress on her. She is too discrete. On the other hand, a very basic doll, with a primitive face (there can be no face at all), can be turned into anything. 

I also had several nails as toys (I was 6 or older so it was safe enough and they were not sharp). They were rather large iron nails; found them in great grandfather's toolbox. I would take a piece or rope, cut and untwist it, and make hair for them. Dresses and coats were made of leaves. I played with them in the garden - it was about half a mile from home and I was asked not to take the clothespins there so that not to lose them.  Of course, the garden was full of amazing things such as Colorado beetles, tiny frogs, worms etc., but sometimes I just wanted to sit and play with something so I found the nails and they were great. There were a princess (blond), a warrior (read haired) and a wizard (gray haired). 

(very nice old nails, even better than mine, by epochco)

Of course there were many more items I played with, which were not intended for play (I am not talking about knives now, although I loved them, too). Clothespins and nails are just very good examples of how a child can play with very simple things which cost nothing. 

I know that now there are wooden dolls available which can more or less serve the same purpose. They have very little details, and a child can turn them into anything: this is what I call a good play! (I only need to explain to my girl that she will have clothespins instead of new Liv dolls from now on. But in fact she has a very good imagination and often invents new uses for things which I like very much).

And what were your favorite toys? Please tell me! 

(basic wooden peg dolls by LaFiabaRussa)