Announcing Our 2023 Jonathan Green Kathe Kruse Event

We are excited to invite you to the upcoming UFDC doll convention in August 2023! As one of the premier events in the doll-collecting community, this convention is a must-attend for enthusiasts and collectors alike.

As an event sponsor of the convention, we are especially excited to announce that we will host a special lunch in honor of our dear friend and fellow doll enthusiast, Jonathan Green. We would be honored if you would join us for this special occasion and celebrate the life and legacy of one of our community's most beloved members. Please listen to what I have to say in this new YouTube video.

This lunch will surely be a highlight of the convention, featuring a program by me (Rachel Hoffman) about Kathe Kruse through the lens of Jonathan Green, delicious food, lively conversation, and plenty of dolls to admire and cherish. We are going "all out" for our beloved friend with an extra doll manufactured by our shop (in addition to the event Kathe Kruse doll), custom-created centerpieces, paper dolls, gifts, and a Jonathan Green special exhibit.

It's a fantastic opportunity to connect with other collectors, share stories and tips, and expand your knowledge of the fascinating world of doll collecting. We hope to see you.

So mark your calendars and plan to attend the UFDC doll convention in August 2023. We can't wait to see you there and share this special experience together.

New Shop, New Virtual Event - Join Us!

We have been busy getting ready for the upcoming Virtual Doll Convention! Our doll shop is the Virtual Doll Convention's home office, a sister company to Turn of the Century Antiques.

In the last week, we have hosted multiple experts in dolls and bears, AND Robert Tonner visited our shop. It was a thrill! We hope you will join us for this completely online event, August 26-28, 2022.

All of the videos and content stays up forever, so you do not have to be present to enjoy it down the road.

There will be over 25 programs spanning a variety of subjects, from early antique wooden dolls to vintage to modern.

Part of the 'secret sauce' of the Virtual Doll Convention videos is they are FUN and entertaining! So, if you are not necessarily interested in the dolls in a particular video, you will still enjoy the video, we promise!

Registration is a 'tip jar' with you choosing your contribution level. Select the amount, add it to your cart, and then click the cart to check out on the website. All the money goes to our shop and the people that work with us to help us organize this event. (Our editors especially thank you!!)

One of the programs you will LOVE is an updated shop tour. As you know, we have been working around the clock to give our shop a newly updated look and it looks GREAT. We can’t wait for you to experience it all at the Virtual Doll Convention.

Opening New Doors at the Doll Shop

We noticed subtle things at first.

Mom would pay way too much for dolls that we didn’t need or hang up the phone without saying goodbye or when she forgot Valentine’s Day for the first time.

I’ll never forget the day that I was packing for a doll convention, and instead of her telling me what to do, she came over and asked me if she could help.

Dad and I eventually switched off days with Mom, and she never was alone or afraid. She came to work with me up until just a couple of months before her passing.

She always knew who we were, and even when she couldn’t speak anymore, and she would rub my cheek and squeeze my hand when I did things for her.

If you are living with a broken heart from a loved one having dementia, and it feels so lonely and hard some days - you are not broken.

You are not broken, love. You are never broken.

Caregiving calls us to lean into love that we didn’t know was there, that we didn’t know was possible. And those years prepared me for anything I could ever face now.

I think about my Mom every single day. I thank her for the space she gave us to create, to make a living, and to share joy with the world.

I’m building new doorways in the shop, and this is what you’ll find walking through them: Healing. Reclaimed hope. A new future.

Sometimes the doors we want to stay open shut for a long time. Sometimes they don’t open at all.

And sometimes, we need to find the courage to open a new one.

And sometimes, just when we think we can’t keep hoping, life surprises us.

Transformation is Possible

I have a full-time 8-month-old, 25 more pounds that I’m trying to lose, currently undergoing a second shop renovation, a doll business to run, and just announced a VDC event with over 1,000 dolls on their way to my shop.

Life is wild and absolute magic.

To those of you who ever doubted that transformation was possible, I’m living proof. To those who ever felt stuck or trapped, or confused about what your next step should be, can I share what has worked for me? Honesty. Looking into the mirror, locking eyes with the life I am leading, and asking myself those tough questions that are sometimes terrifying to ask…and then clawing my way to the answers.

And all of those answers lead me right back here to this sweet shop where I grew up and continuing to create and present online content. Content that inspires, entertains and makes my viewers feel seen and loved.

I know I’m good at this, and so, I’m going to keep going.

I can’t wait to share all that we are building and doing and if you’re reading this, know how grateful I am to have you along for the ride.

A special shout out to my brother Paul and our INCREDIBLE carpenter, David, for working with me all weekend.

Restless Love

It has been another season of change both globally and in our cozy doll shop in Colorado. We launched the registration for the Christmas Pageant Virtual Doll Convention event with 100% of the proceeds benefiting charities that Diane Hoffman would love. Diane Hoffman is my mother, and we lost her this year in April. Christmas was her favorite holiday, and not only did she go ‘all-out’ during December, but she also kept Christmas up all year at her home. Growing up for me, Christmas Eve consisted of a real Santa bounding through the front door with presents after just landing on the roof with his reindeer.

We would gather on the stairs, ring antique sleigh bells, and gather around with candles singing carols and holding hands. To me, this all felt normal because it was how it always was—pure Christmas Magic. So after losing Mom, I came to the stunning realization that this won’t happen anymore unless I take the lead. I am the only female left in my immediate family, and the guys don’t do decorating, or come for dinner unless I arrange it. I became the ‘President’ of the family after Mom left. Thus, the idea for the Christmas Pageant was born. I wanted a way to honor my Mom on her favorite holiday and do something that would benefit our community and those most vulnerable through donations to three charities.

Yesterday was a day I didn't know how I was going to feel. My team from the doll shop and I gathered up the Christmas treasures from Mom's and loaded it all in multiple truckloads for the doll shop. We are going to set up the grandest Christmas display the doll shop has ever seen.

We loaded the massive Steiff Reindeer, the teddy bears, dolls, and toys. I know my Dad felt a mix of emotions, but he loves what we are doing even though he still doesn’t understand what I actually do at the Virtual Doll Convention.

The feather tree was one of the most worrying pieces, but my good pal Stan Gregg, who makes the miniature houses, came to the rescue and packed up every antique Dresden ornament. Everyone was helpful, and we ordered pizza for lunch.

I took a moment yesterday to marvel at how beautiful it all looked after bringing our treasures to the shop, even before setting up the exhibit. You should see the life-size gingerbread house on the other side of the room - it is spectacular already.

When my mother originally set this up in 2011, it took her three days. She worked with friends who brought amazing things and collaborated to put on the most spectacular Christmas display. I remember her smiling, knee-deep in tinsel, in her element. She directed traffic in the display room and knew exactly how it was all going to go.

Although I have been President of our company for several years, running this shop and especially doing anything with Christmas without her feels foreign, I am still learning and don’t know how it is all going to go. She had a calm confidence in her when she did anything that I marvel at now when I look back and realize all of the things she did.

So much has changed since November of last year. And sometimes, well, a lot of times, my anxious heart asks me: where do we go from here? Where do I find the space to grieve what was while still hoping for a beautiful outcome?

So right here is where I put in the hard work and the trust. Even though I did not ask for things to change, here is where I can look back and be proud of every beautiful connection we made. Every perfect Holiday celebrated. Every good day in the doll shop. I can sit in my discomfort and have deep gratitude for everything good in my life...even in the places where I had to say "goodbye."

I know many of us have restless love in our hearts for something special. Love SO anxious be put into action. Love SO missing from the object of its affection. All I can hope is that we will get where we need to go and land where we belong. I hope the Christmas Pageant helps soften some of that restless in our hearts into joy, belonging, and peace. In doing so, we will leave some beautiful things behind, but our tender hearts will heal with time. We will be okay. I believe this even without the answers my heart is longing for. We will be okay.

With Great Belief in You,

Rachel

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CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE VIRTUAL DOLL CONVENTION CHRISTMAS PAGEANT