FOR SALE

Monday 10 November 2014

A break from my Blighty photos...and some Himstedts instead!


As promised a few days ago, I thought I'd share some old photos of the Annette Himstedt dolls that used to live here.  I do regret selling them sometimes, but they do take up a lot of room!  I think at one time I had six of them and they took up half of my doll room!!!  They are lovely dolls though and very well made with beautiful hand blown glass eyes and human hair wigs.  Anyway, here are some random photos of them, I hope you'll enjoy seeing them!

This is Pauline and she was from 2004, Play Street Kinder collection.  She was 71cm tall and my first Himstedt doll.  I thought she was lovely and decided to try and sew a dress for her!  I suppose the rest is history as she was the first doll I actually sewed for!!!  I had only ever made 9 skirts for myself in the month or sew prior to receiving this doll.....I guess we can say she started me on the slippery slope of dolly sewing!!!!  I can also say that my taste in dolls clothes has changed a lot over the years but I still enjoyed sewing these styles for her at the time!!





I remember making this outfit for her and was so pleased with myself LOL.....bit of a dodgy hat though! ;)  I still have all these lovely shoes saved...just in case!


One of the first fabrics I ever bought, I remember I got it from the US via Ebay.....I still have a small bit somewhere!




I think the next Himstedt who came to live here was Jani, she was also from 2004 but was a bit bigger than Pauline, a 'whopping' 82cm!  She was also more limited as only 377 were produced, compared to 713 Paulines.  I was soooo happy with her, she could wear childrens clothes and she just seemed so lifelike to me.  I had great fun sewing for her, although I see from these photos that the blue smocked dress was a manufactured dress....it looks a bit big on her though!








I can't remember who came next and believe there was a gap of at least a year before I added another Himstedt to my doll collection.  So the next ones are not in any date order.  Here is Oscar who I bought on Ebay.  He was from the 1998 collection and was supposed to represent a 6 year old boy from Ireland.  He was really cute but as with a lot of the older Himstedts, the glass eyes had started to turn pink!  This was a fault with a lot of Oscars and dolls from his release.  I didn't keep him very long so only took a few photos of him.  I don't recall ever sewing for him either.  If I knew then what I know now, I'd have just replaced his eyes with some lovely blue ones and kept him!  Oh well, we live and learn as they say!


Next we have Mava, who was from the Children of Atlantis collection 2006.  In this collection the dolls came with or without the addition of gold paint.  I chose a Mava without as I like my dolls to be like 'real children'.  She was a beautiful doll of 31 and a half inches and had curly hair.  Because the hair was hard to manage, I straightened it using hot water.  Below you'll see her with her default hair and then afterwards.






I also had a boy from this same collection, his name was Kadri and he was the same height as Mava but limited to just 377 pieces.  He also came without the gold paint.  Unfortunately his wig was not great and I eventually had to rewig him but here he is with his original hair.



And here he is playing in the garden with Jani....I got this tricycle for them for just €5 at a secondhand market!!








For a very short period of time I had a little girl called Moni from an older Himstedt collection.  She was a cute little thing and quite small.  I don't have any of my own photos of her, I can only assume that I accidentally deleted them or saved other photos on top...DOH!  Here is a company photo of her just for reference.

 
My final Himstedt to arrive and to leave was an 86cm girl from the World's Children Summit collection in 2005 and was supposed to represent a child from Ecuador.  She was a lovely girl and her name was Pinchinhu.  She was limited to 377 pieces and had the most beautiful brown eyes.





 

I hope you've enjoyed this trip down Memory Lane with me.....it certainly has made me feel a little nostalgic for 'dolls gone by'!!!!


10 comments:

  1. Goodness they are so big and look just like real children! They are gorgeous though. I especially like the first one and also Moni, love her and her red hair and if she was smaller much easier to find a place for.
    It's amazing what we buy then sell then wish we had kept but life evolves and so does our collections and sometime we go back and start again.
    Thanks for sharing Sharon, they looked wonderful but almost like real children in that they'd take over the house!
    hugs Dee xx

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    1. Thanks Dee and yes, you're right they are just like real kids and cost as much to keep ;) Especially in the shoes I was buying for them, Spanish kids shoes, all leather and patent!!!! Crazy really but at least they rarely if ever grew out of them ;)
      Moni was cute indeed but she had the older body which has these strange cloth parts at the top of the arms, I hated those and much preferred the later ones with the full vinyl arms. I liked them to be able to wear short sleeves you see.
      Glad you enjoyed seeing them!
      xxxx

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  2. I had forgotten how beautiful Himmies are! It certainly makes me miss mine! I owned 24 at the height of my Himmie collecting, they moved on from the doll room, gradually took over the upstairs landing and then some moved into the lounge. I had all the 2007 collection, which was my favourite year, some from 2005 and four from the collection from 2008. Many of mine went to Germany...the prices now have hit the roof, so unless I win the lottery I won't be collecting them again!

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    1. I know what you mean Ronny, as soon as I started looking at my photos so it was then looking at other peoples, which was so enjoyable....and then it was looking again on ebay.....I really don't want to go down that route again, but it would be nice to have just the one, wouldn't it ;)
      You sound like you were really overrun with them at one point....I would have loved to have seen all those, I don't suppose you kept any photos????? Plleeeeze!
      I think all mine ended up going to the US when I sold them.....and my goodness the postage was enormous!!!
      xxx

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    2. I wish I had some pictures to show you, they were on my old laptop and when it when wrong we ditched it...(:
      However, I have some great memories of the many dolls I loved and lost...and I agree with you the price of shoes for the Himmies was frightening :)

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  3. Love looking at your Himmie kids Sharon, so beautifully dressed. I love how they look so real, especially the two on the trike. I had planned to Buy more but James nearly had a fit when Tawnie arrived in her massive box, lol. so that was it no more. I think Pinchinhu and Tawnie are very similar Sharon, might even be the same sculpt. Ronny did you have any from Annetts last sculpt from 2008, I loved the two Chinese girls? Xxxxxxxx

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    1. Yep, I had Anna Lu, Tscharle, Bellis and I think it was Malawi. I was lucky to get Ai Lien a chinese girl from 2005...I bought from a doll shop for £385...and sold her for a whopping £1800!!!

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    2. Thanks very much Steve, glad you enjoyed them. I used to love looking in the sales for clothing for them...and still have all of it in a box somewhere, except for a few dresses that I made myself, which funnily enough I put in the jumble sale bag recently! Wonder what happened to them afterwards?
      I do believe that Pinchinhu could be the same sculpt, having just looked on a website that I like to frequent sometimes. Although Tawni is a couple of centimetres taller than Pinchinhu. I can just imagine James's face when the box arrived, I think I saw something similar pass over Brian's face when mine used to arrive :)
      That Anna Lu was gorgeous, wasn't she! Oh and Bellis, there's one on Ebay as we speak! And oh yes, Ailien was lovely!
      I love them all, that's the problem....where does it end!
      I regularly like to look on this website: http://www.himstedt-dolls.com/index_en.htm
      xxx

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  4. Wonderful post of your previously loved Himstedts! I love them too Sharon. I have sold all of the larger ones I owned except for Kim and I have a couple of Kleines and two Tinkes that are mid-sized, red headed and just happy girls. I love seeing how you redressed them and it is wonderful. Thank you for sharing!!! :) xxx

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    1. Thanks very much Ginger! I sort of wish that I'd not been looking through my old photos again....my friend says that she deletes all her photos of old dolls for this very reason, but I like to keep mine. But now I keep wondering if another Himstedt would like to come and live here again? LOL......I knew it was a bad idea!
      I would just LOVE to see your girls if you have any photos of them please!!!!! I am so tempted again, but maybe looking at your girls would make me realise that it's far better to see other people enjoying them than to go back down that Himstedt route again myself :)
      xxxx

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