It took a serious surgery experience, and forcing my type-A lifestyle to a screeching halt, to bring the passion have for Barbies back into my life! While recuperating, my husband (who was cleaning the garage) brought in two boxes marked DOLLS, and asked if I wanted to get rid of them. Upon closer inspection, I found my childhood collection of Barbies, Dawn dolls, Liddle Kiddles, World of Love Dolls, celebrity dolls (Donny & Marie, Bionic Woman, JJ Walker, Cher, etc), and marveled at how nice they all still were, even after years of being packed away, untouched! The celebrity dolls were still NRFB, and, still are! I haven't been able to part with them.

As a child, I was always careful to pack everything very neatly away when I was done playing, and only my very special and trusted girlfriends could play with me when it came to my dolls! I was very particular about keeping them true, so no hair comb-outs or repaints for me! :-)

Anyway, the boxes were opened and I had dolls laying all over my living room when a college friend popped by to see how I was doing and to give me the week's assignments (yes, I was in college then, too). Upon seeing the dolls, he asked, "Are you going to sell those on Ebay?" I asked, "What is Ebay?"

The rest is history!

I did not sell my dolls, but rather began collecting and I've been ravenous ever since! With the exception of a Japanese Midge and a Japanese Sidepart American Girl, I have at least one of every different doll Mattel manufactured and distributed from 1959 through 1976. In most cases, I have dozens of each model. How many, you ask? Hundreds x 10 and then some, and that's just dolls. I have also collected the structures, houses, cases, wallets, paper dolls, cars/trucks/campers, viewers and reels ... if it's vintage or mod Barbie, I probably have it!

With few exceptions, I own nearly EVERY vintage and mod era fashion ever distributed as well, and have made a huge dent in the Best Buy era.

I am opening a store now because I have so many items to resell and find it tiring and cubmersome to do weekly sales. While it is rare that I would resell a doll (but it could happen!), I am always upgrading ensembles and buying lots .. therefore, I have plenty of duplicates to pass on to the next collector!

I'm not a picky collector, so I do have less than mint (or even near mint) items in my collection. I don't mind it! Every Barbie has a great history and most are well loved, and that's alright by me! Besides, I can always upgrade!

I have a great group of folks in my Barbie circle, and I adore every one of them! I have learned more in the past three years than the entire thirty years prior when I received my very first Barbie -- a brownette Talking model! I recently had her repaired to talk, again, and the words are music to my ears! She sounds just as I remember!

If you have questions, please ask! While I may not be the leading authority on Barbie, I know quite a bit. And, what I don't know, I can ask amongst my circle!

Thanks for dropping by!

Hugs, and happy Barbie'ing !!

Kat