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I could hardly wait to answer the door. After all, it had been a long time since the last Once-Loved Doll had arrived and I was growing restless. So I reached the door first.

“Toni!” I exclaimed. “Hmm. Well, no matter! ALL are welcome here,” I ushered her inside.

“Why wouldn’t she be welcome?” Hazel asked, coming up behind me.

This is Antonia (ANNE SHIRLEY) as she arrived.

“Well young Hazel, as you know, 99% of the time we work with composition dolls,” I responded, proud that I was an expert on ALL kinds of dolls, not just composition! I kept myself from preening as I continued, “Toni here is a hard plastic from the 1950s.”

Hazel gazed at Toni, a look of confusion on her face. “That’s odd! She looks like an Anne Shirley to me!”

This is an Idea hard plastic TONI doll in a slightly different original outfit. You can see my confusion.

I mentally shook my head and kindly smiled. After all, I remember when I was young and brash and thought I knew everything….

“No, no, Hazel. See? This is a Saran wig…”

Suddenly, it was MY turn to look confused. I confess, for a moment there my mind was blown, uncertain as to what it was seeing. “Anne? Um…Toni…?”

THE SNOW QUEEN That’s a whole lotta white.

Meet O.L.D. No. 76, Antonia and No. 76.5, Rabbit! You can see their adoption page HERE.

Sometime in this composition Anne Shirley’s life, someone gave her all of a hard plastic Ideal Toni’s clothing including her wig!

I decided I kind of liked the platinum curls on her! Plus, I’d been wanting to do a snow queen for a long time. Hmm….

We’ll do a WINTER SOLSTICE QUEEN instead.

Turns out, Antonia’s eyes were green, not the frosty blue that would be ideal for a snow queen. Plus, I don’t happen to have a whole bunch of different white fabrics. Winter Solstice Queen it is!

I started with her gown, finding some nice but odd curtain-style fabric that was a pale celery green. I finally figured out what this fabric reminded me of…

On the left is my fabric. On the right is the Von Trapps!

Making clothes out of curtains has precedent! And “The Sound of Music” is one of my favorite things.

Speaking of favorite things, besides pointy hats, another favorite thing of mine is “something riding something.”

I couldn’t find the image from the magazine, but you get the idea. Cute, right?!

It all started years and years ago with one of my favorite magazines: “Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion.” There’s free paper doll in every issue! What’s not to like? I miss that magazine….Anyway, there was a Christmas edition, and in it were decorating ideas for the holidays. She’d taken a small stuffed polar bear, and there was an elf riding it! It was the CUTEST THING EVER.

Ever since, I’ve wanted to re-create that polar bear for myself. Well, I’m halfway there! I created the polar bear, but he’s going with Antonia. Still, whoever adopts him, it would be awfully fun – with or without a sprig of holly around his neck – to put an elf or a small Santa Clause riding on his back. Antonia wouldn’t mind!

The polar bear’s name is Rabbit. My sweet sister Julie gave me the cutest little jacket from the 1950’s that she thought was rabbit fur. It turned out not to be. But isn’t that sweet that she is so generous? She also gave me the fun fur for the collar of Antonia’s cape. My neighbor Brandi give me the sprigs for Antonia’s crown. Once again, a village helps create these Once-Loved Dolls!

Rabbit was fun to make. He has a wire armature inside and is stuffed with sawdust and cotton balls. Thank goodness our little grocery store had some on hand! It’s amazing how many it takes. I got the pattern to make our dear polar bear HERE. Best site for all kinds of stuffed toy fun.

School has been in session for quite some time now! O.L.D. No. 75 Lucy and her little dog too have I’m sure long since settled in…Colorado! At the very welcoming home of Michelle. Thank you, Michelle!

And with that, I leave you! Happy “Fall is In the Air”! You’re my favorite!

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