Doll Friends and Doll Fun at National Doll Convention

Technically, the National United Federation of Doll Clubs convention in New Orleans began with early registration this evening, but the entire day was filled with dolls and doll friends from around the country. I started my day with a late walk in the shopping mall attached to the hotel to find the Cafe du Monde for some cafe au lait and beignets. On the way there, I stumbled across an interesting doll exhibit in a closed shop. The dolls seemed to represent Louisiana life, but there was little information available. I'll have to find out more and report back. After my heavenly cafe au lait and beignets overlooking the Superdome, I went to the front desk to sort out some room details since my roomate became ill and couldn't come at the last minute, which was a total bummer. The silver lining to losing my roomate was that upon my arrival yesterday I'd been upgraded to a huge room with one bed because the hotel overbooked the type of room I needed (2 beds) . This HAD been a problem when there were two doll collectors staying in the room...now, other than a smaller doll budget than planned because of unexpectedly loosing my roomate, I have a huge room with lots of seating, a bar and a stereo. Can you say doll collectors' party room?

OK, back to the main part of my convention blog. While standing on line to straighten out the room mess, I run into Chris, a long-time doll collecting friend from North Carolina. We hook up, meet more doll collecting friends, and have a fantastic New Orleans lunch. Then, I find Pat, my long-time doll collecting friend from Baton Rouge. I also see Robyn, a doll artist friend from my doll club that is going to be juried by ODACA (Original Doll Artists Council of America) this week (yes, ODACA has their yearly show here right now, too!) We head out to the Robear doll show that started at 3pm. Chris heads to the Frasher doll auction.

Before I say anything else about the Robear show, I need to get this off my chest: $40 to get into the show on preview day is a huge rip-off. There is NO excuse to charge people $40 for the privilege of spending their money. The huge charge is supposed to be for the chance to see the dolls at the show before anyone else does, and it gives you admission for the whole week, but for many convention goers, Saturday is the ONLY chance to go to the show at all. Chris passed on the show because of the fee, and Pat and I almost did the same.

But, instead we grudgingly paid our money and went to the show. On the plus side, the show was large with many dealers, with dolls from antique to very modern--I saw everything in the show from French and German antiques, to early cloth dolls, to vintage compositions, all the way to Gene, Tyler, and artist dolls. On the negative side, the hotel kept the show room at artic-like temperatures. It was freezing, and we were dressed for New Orleans weather--decidedly NOT freezing. SO, despite our $40 fee, we only could manage to stay 2 hours before we started to turn blue. I DID find some lovely old antique and vintage doll clothes for my doll shop. I also liked some of the dolls, but I find it hard to spend my doll money so early in the week, so I took some notes but didn't buy anything.

Then, we stuck our heads in the Frasher auction, but we were so tired that the auction patter was giving us a headache, so we left to register with UFDC at the main convention hotel, the Hyatt Regency.

UFDC Registration was quick and easy. I won't bore you with details of our pleasant New Orelans dinner. Tomorrow morning, we head out early AM for the Theriault's auction. I'll report back after the auction, but that won't be till about midnight! Also tomorrow, official convention events including the Madame Alexander dinner start.