In the Beginning

In the beginning there was a boy.  A boy who was given every toy imaginable....as long as they were boy toys.  Star Wars, Lego, Thundercats, GI Joe, baseballs, basketballs, bikes, endless varieties of action figures and soldiers, enough toys, really, for 10 kids to play with and never get bored.  But this boy was different.  While other boys played outside in the dirt, ruining their action figures and spaceships, this boy was inside watching re-runs of The Addams Family and Bewitched, wishing he had a doll that looked like Morticia Addams.

I had a great childhood with loving and supportive parents and a large extended family.  I really had everything a boy needed....except a doll.  I always wanted a doll. Cabbage Patch or Barbie, I didn't care, I just wanted one.  But I never got one.  I am now making up for lost time :)

I feverishly collected Silkstone Barbies during their heyday but they aren't really meant to be played with and they took a turn for the weird.  Who needs a line of expensive Russian-themed Barbie dolls, or Silkstones dressed like Blanche from The Golden Girls?  Then, about a year ago, I discovered Tonner's website.  Ohhhhh, I loved his dolls!  As I wandered through his website I found a link to Wilde Imagination and discovered Evangeline Ghastly.  When I first saw the "Gone But Not Forgotten" section, I let out an audible gasp.  OMG, I had found my doll, the doll I had wanted my whole life.  And so began the chase.  Evangeline does not come cheap.  My entire Silkstone collection was sold, my action figures, Lego sets, Grandma's hummels (did I just admit that?), they all went on E-bay to raise funds, and room, for my growing Evangeline collection.   It has taken me a year of OCD behavior but I have found them all, tracked them all down, one by one, like King Haggrid in The Last Unicorn.

And now they need a home.  IKEA glass front cabinets are fine but I need something more appropriate for Evangeline.  I have decided to build her an "Attic of Barkley Manor" playset.  There are two parts to this project: first, building the actual attic, and second, stocking it with fabulous crap.  That's where this blog comes in.  I hope you will follow along as I troll yard sales, consignment stores, and antique shops for the perfect scale items needed to stock Evangeline's attic and I hope to inspire as I visit Home Improvement centers and lumber yards to build the perfect castle for my queen.