Since my last blog many things have been happening. I was retiring from the doll repair-Now I am not, not completely anyway. As stated on my pages, I will no longer accept severly damaged composition dolls. But I will continue to restore evertyting else. I know that my pages are extremely outdated and I will begin working on that shortly. Many items have sold, and I now sell much on Ruylane.

     My customers know that I also have a bricks and mortar location in the Yellow Garage Antiques. Things have been very tough the last two years, but I will continue on and branch out to participate in Doll Shows this year to promote Louise's Little Ladies further. I have also attended a meeting with the prestigious Letitia Penn Doll Club in Society Hill of Philadelphia. I hope to become a member of this club in the coming months. This club is one of the oldest and hosts a fabulous December luncheon every year, which includes well known speakers in the Doll World, a competition, and a sales room which I will be part of this year. So there is much work to be done.

     On a more personal note, my repairs have been behind schedule due to an accident two weeks ago. I took a fall and had to have twelve stitches over my right eye, so I have been unable to work much because of the swelling and the vision impairment. But I am happy to say that my stitches are out and I am resuming work. Sorry to my customers who have been beyond patient to begin with!

     I joined Facebook about a year ago. I was nervous but with some trepidation, I joined. I felt that this would be another avenue to spread more information my doll sales and restoration further. I also had many friends who wanted me to join. I am always careful about posting private information and it is fun to see friends and family post pictures of holidays and such. I really am not much of a Chat person on Facebook. I like to post pictures of new dolls clothing and information. Recently I had a friend of mine add me to a Facebook group called Antique Doll Lovers. It is really very nice and I found it very enjoyable, also a bit addicting! I love talking dolls with others and that is what the site is all about. I also was able to put faces to some of my doll customers throughout the United States, so it has been a great experience. But recently I was invited to join a few other doll groups, one in particular called Composition Doll Lovers, which I thought would be perfect for me.  I posted information about myself and my Doll Repair business, and I had a number of very nice posts and welcome messages from other doll lovers. They commented about my website and work, and that it was great to have me as part of the group. Then I had a post from a woman who also repairs dolls. Her posts were very brisk, and basically I found forward and a bit rude. She informed me that she also restores dolls, and I should read her site(which I did, and I told her it was very nice). And I found in a few very short posts that she was basically following my posts and interjecting her opinions in a very rude manner. The whole idea of these groups is to enjoy each others information and photographs and the basic overall love of dolls, whether you are a doll collector, doll hospital, doll expert. I went through the older posts of this group and found a definite pattern of this woman's behavior. She would voice her opinions and if someone had a different one she became rude and people are actually blocking her from the conversations!! Well I have only been a member of this club for a few days and I already turned off my Notification button. This allows you to know whenever someone posts a message on the groups site. I want enjoyment from these groups not confrontation from insecure individuals who think that they have the only "license" to restore dolls and that their methods are the only way to repair dolls. I am friendly with many other doll artists and doll hospitals. I have referred people to other doll hospitals. I did find her site very unfriendly. Her information is basically thrown at you in a very unpleasant manner, basically telling a potential customer if their doll is not restored the way she wants to do it, or they allow someone else to do it, it won't be properly restored. But I will talk about this in my next blog, which will be about Composition Doll Repair, and how many are changing these dolls so drastically, that the dolls are losing the integrity and originality of their former selves. I myself find this so upsetting. People who are new to compostion doll collecting see these overdone dolls on Ebay, pay exuberant prices, and do not realize the wonderful original dolls that they could get for the money they are spending. And sadly they could never resell these dolls for half of what they are paying. More later~~~

     Many things have happened since my last blog. I will be adding many new dolls shortly-I know it has been quite awhile since I have added any new ladies! Many are minty hard plastic dolls of the 50's, and of course my favorite, the compo's.  

     I have tried very hard to be able to continue accepting doll repairs, but regretfully I will no longer be accepting doll repairs until further notice. I hope to be able to start again after the holidays, but if I do it will be only a select number of dolls for the year.

     Simple doll repair is fine, but the severly damaged composition dolls are a tremendous undertaking and I also sell dolls and victorian clothing in Mullica Hill New Jersey at the Yellow Garage Antiques. I also am a wedding cake decorator 5 days a week now. And I take care of my family.  So I need to cut back on something because I am only one person, and sadly it will have to be the doll repair part of my business.

     Maybe some day I will be able to give seminars on doll repair and restoration for the many out their that have asked that of me. Take care Doll lovers!   Louise

     As I mentioned in my previous blog, I will be cutting back my restoration business. This is so I can catch up on prior repairs, take a small break and also work on many of my own dolls that need attention. I still like to keep my business name in the mainstream of the doll and antique world through my writing and articles on dolls and repair.  Recently I spoke to Helen H. Hunt of The New England Antiques Journal concerning a possible Q & A  column on Doll Repair. Ms. Hunt is the writer for the "Care & Repair" column of the Journal.  Ms. Hunt was such a wonderful person. She said that there is sometimes questions concerning dolls but just not enough at this time to begin a section solely on doll repair. She did however view my website and she loved it. She gave me a nice little perk in her "Care & Repair" section of the July 2011 issue. It can be viewed on-line, page 34.  She included some of my Before and After photographs and a very nice review of my website and business. Do check it out. This is a great periodical for the serious antique collectors and dealers.                                                                                         

**Here is the link:

http://www.antiquesjournal.com/flipbooks/newenglandantiquesjournal/index.html

     Many changes have been occurring in my life personally and with my business. I initially considered quitting the doll repair business all together. It is very time consuming, when done properly. And I have a tendency to take on more than I can handle. So I have basically over scheduled myself to the point that I am behind  with my customer repairs. This upsets me terribly because I want my customers to be happy.  So I have decided at this time to restrict my repairs to the more minor work. Hopefully into next year I will be able to take on the severly damaged composition dolls again. I also take care of a family of 6, and I am a cake decorator a few days a week. So I am a very busy person!

      I will continue to work on my freelance writing. My latest work can be viewed in the September issue of Doll Collector Magazine. Look for  Caring For Your Dolls by Louise Sleeter.  The article covers all dolls and gives a basic overview of lighting, storing, displaying and maintenance.  Also I have not updated my site in quite awhile. Many of my dolls have sold, and I will be adding new items shortly. I will also be adding my Victorian items shortly. I sell Victorian clothing and accessories.

                                                       Louise Sleeter

www.dollcollectormagazine.com

 ***Here is the link to doll collector magazine. You can see the cover of the September issue.*****