FINALLY A THRIFT STORE SCORE!!!

Since becoming a rabid avid doll collector in about 2002, I have been scouring thrift stores, swap meets, yard sales and anywhere else that I might find vintage treasure. As the years have wound down, I have pretty much given up on yard sales, swap meets etc as I never find anything there. And mornings and I are not terribly compatible nor is tramping out in the rain and coming back empty handed.  I still have a trap line of thrift stores I haunt from time to time. I am a Chatty Cathy addict collector who really should form a 12 step program for fellow addicts....and myself... however I still enjoy it so I still collect it. Lately I have been downsizing. I have a long, long ways to go with that project. Anyways, to get back to the subject, I went out to the bank and library today and with gas being 131.5 cents a liter here in my area, I like to try and combine a lot of trips into one to save gas. So I did my errands and then did my thrift store rounds. At one I found a bunch of vintage dolls in a bin. Most of them I recognized as I owned a few like them when I was young. After carefully looking at them and deciding I do not need any more vintage addictions, I decided to check out the doll clothes they usually have in another section. I spotted a bag of clothes....be still my heart, there was a blue dress in the bag and it looked an awful lot like one I have been trying to obtain for years for Chatty Cathy. I quickly grabbed the bag and started turning it over and over (they are sealed) oh my, I saw a yellow dress and a familiar rosebud pattern...no doubt about it, this bag is coming home with me. I looked over my shoulder and noted a couple of other women in about my age group eyeing up me and my bag which made me cling even tighter to it....I wandered around the store and waited awhile longer to see if they brought out any more toys or dolls but alas, no success there. And now...drum roll please, I will reveal the contents of my treasure bag that I paid for and hurried out to my car and locked the doors and opened....it was even better than I thought....and my very first find of Chatty Cathy stuff in a thrift store.

I couldn't help but wonder who the little girl was who played with this stuff so many years ago is, I have never had quite this same feeling for anything I bought on Ebay but finding stuff by myself that was not in anyone's collection had me wondering what happened to the little girl, why is all her stuff now in a thrift store after so many years ............................one of those things I will never have an answer for I guess. Thanks for viewing my blog, the dolls at the top of the blog are Chatty Cathy dolls and the ones on each side are wearing dresses I made for them and the one in the middle is wearing a lovely ensemble from Build a Bear that I altered a bit so it would fit her!