I have friends who share my love of doll collecting, friends who share my love of crafting, friends who share my passion for web standards, friends who share my cheese addiction, friends who share my love of a nice wine and excellent food experiences.

Some of these interests overlap, some don’t. What it makes for is fantastic small group of friends, all with eclectic interests, who enrich my life and make me happy.

This post is about my Vintage, Antiquing, Op-Shopping friends, a small group that comprises of my Husband, a man we will call S, a man we shall call M and a lovely lady we shall call L.

Two or so weeks ago, H, S, M and I went all the way to Ballarat for a collectors fair, after arriving in the misty, rainy freezing cold at a tin shed, we were a little dissapointed. Once we paid our $5 to get in however, that all changed for me.

Half way down the main row of tables was this:

Polaroid Leather Case

Hello, thought I – does it actually have a camera in it?

Looking at the price on the ticket, I doubted it. The price was a little high for the minty leather case, but way too low for a camera.

Imagine my girly internal squeeeeee! of delight when I opened the box to see this:

Inside the Box

Trying to hide my anticipation, I took out the camera, still wrapped in it’s plastic bag. A never used, perfectly mint Polaroid Landcamera 1000 with all manuals and warranty cards, a cassette of film AND! an unopened pack of Flashbar.

“Does it work?” I ask the stallholder. “To the best of my knowledge” she replies. I’m skeptical, for $20 Australian, surely this is a mistake. But I buy it anyway, because who can say no to a vintage minty Polaroid? Not me.

My new favourite, slightly pipping my Rocket Camera at the post:

Polaroid Landcamera 1000 with FlashBar

So here it is, The Melbourne Doll Market. A non-profit, for doll collectors, by doll collectors real life in person market!

The Market is for dolls in the retro, modern and fashion categories. This includes Blythe, Barbie, BJDs, Momoko, Fashion Royalty and so many others.

Come along to the Market, and see beautifully crafted fashions and accessories (not nasty pink factory made!) and dolls of all kinds for sale.

The trip to celebrate my 40th birthday has been full of win and awesome.

Blythes added to collection: Mango, Margaret Meets Ladybug and Cherry Berry.

I’ve bought more dolly things than I can possibly carry home, so Box One of Three has already been posted back. The other two I’ll post towards the end of the week.

I’ve been to Osaka, Nikko, Nara, Kyoto and a whole bunch of places filled with incredibly natural beauty, and artifacts and people.

Bringing my niece for her first trip away from her home was probably the best way to rediscover this amazing country through fresh eyes. You can see photos on my Flickr and at our dedicated trip site, okiba75.

On Saturday, it is my birthday (or, it r mah burfdai) and my plan is to sleep in, then be pampered. I have an appointment at Watanabe Salon – recommended by many as the best salon in all of Tokyo, to get my hair and make up done, before heading to the 52nd floor of the Tokyo Park Hyatt for dinner at the famous New York Grill.

Apparantly we should see the who’s who of Tokyo there, but we don’t know who they are, or what they look like as we are nobodies.

The excitement to reaching middle age far out weighs any trepidation about getting older. I don’t feel 40, but I do feel wiser, and more balanced.

I promise to do a massive photo gallery entry on this website when we are back in Melbourne in just over a week’s time.

Due to circumstances of the time, I decided not to make that forum live.

Things change, and two years is a long, long time. Now that I’m about to trip off to Japan and my own collection has expanded, I decided it was the perfect time to launch the Dolly Addiction Forum.

No matter what kind of doll you collect – plastic, plush, resin, vinyl – you are welcome at Dolly Addiction.

Dolly Addiction - a forum for doll collectors around the world.

Thank you to the great friends and supporters who have encouraged me. Your support and continued participation at the Forum will see it grow into a large community.

Spending an entire month away from home in a foreign country is a big task, and although I’ve done it before, I do recall the feeling towards the end of the trip of homesickness mixed with some regret that I had to leave such a fascinating place.

This time, there will be three of us on the trip, and one of my travelling friends hasn’t been out of Australia before, so it will be a huge adventure for all of us.

Will update this while we are in Japan, with lots of photos too.

see you soon