UFDC Convention 2013, Washington DC: Part 4

Day 4

The day started out with the Annual Business Meeting, the reason for the convention. 

I had lunch in the hotel restaurant, the crab cake sandwich, and took a last walk around the salesroom (it is hard to stay away when there are so many beautiful dolls there). I even bought another Ginny. I think I may have become a Ginny collector.

After lunch I attended two programs - The Amazing Artistry of Dorothy Heizer and From Toys to Sailing: An Annapolis Doll. Both were interesting and I found Ms. Heizer's dolls to be amazing. 

Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant/bar. The food was fine, but my order was messed up and the food was pretty bland. Even the salsa. Sigh. The margaritas were good, as was the sopapilla. ;)

This was the evening of the Publisher's preview, so I scanned what was on offer and purchased one pattern book. I then dropped the rest of my helper tickets into helper buckets, bid on the silent auctions, and went to bed early. I was going to need all of the sleep I could get.

Licca's Family is Growing

Today I bought two undressed Licca Castle Licca dolls from the Hard Off for a total of $10.50. Good deal.

So here is an updated photo of my Liccas.

Licca Castle with light pink hair.

Licca Castle with long dark brown hair.

Licca as Hatsune Miku.

The Licca I got with the Baskin and Robbins set at Hard Off.

My first Licca, she came in the purple party dress.

And Miki and Maki, Licca's little sisters.

UFDC Convention 2013, Washington D.C.: Part 3

Day 3

Attended 2 programs: PT Barnum, Jenny Lind and the Dolls of KPM; and Robert Tonner. During the Robert Tonner program, we watched the new documentary film about him. Pretty good.

This was my banquet day. For lunch, I attended the Kansas City - Home of UFDC and Capital of the Doll World event.

The Centerpiece.

Licca trying on the coat that was a table gift.

Some of the ladies at our table.

Our table had a lot of travel dolls. Here they are all together.

The lunch was very tasty and the program was entertaining, but not what I was expecting. I was expecting more info on Kansas City and the UFDC Museum.

 Then I hit the sales room, again. I decided to buy the centerpiece doll so my 5Star doll would have a companion. Here the 2 dolls are, surrounded by the other dolls I bought at the convention, so far...

Next, a program on Flora McFlimsy and the Region 11 meeting. That was a crowded event as we all tried to squeeze into 1 small conference room. And I finally found my doll club buddy! Yay! I then had time to put half my helper tickets into buckets and had a quick break before dinner.

My dinner event was A Royal Affair, starring Evangeline Ghastly. I was excited to be able to sit with my fellow Miss Carroll friend. Our table mates were quite nice and conversation flowed nicely. The centerpiece was Beautiful but Deadly Parnilla. I did not win the drawing for the doll. :(

Or any of the door prizes...

Or the chance for our table to participate in the dress up as Evangeline contest. Oh well.

There was pretty much no program, but there was a game that some tables got to play and then we were showed previews of upcoming releases. Shhhhhhh....

The highlight, of course, was opening up our dolls. A Royal Affair Evangeline.

After the banquet I checked out the special exhibits. It was hard finding time to do everything I wanted to do this convention, but I used my time wisely.

UFDC Convention 2013: Day 2

I started off the next day right, with a Dynamic Doll Dialogue on Effenbee Historic Lady/Costume dolls.

The program: Designing for Barbie. This was quite interesting and focused on the main designers for the Barbie brand, mostly women.

Lunch was at Buco, down the street. The decor was amazing, the food was not. I would not recommend it to anyone.

A nearby view.

 The evening was filled with the Table Hosts Meeting, a light dinner at the hotel bar - Crab soup - yum, and the opening ceremonies - which were long but interesting. 

(Licca watching the opening ceremonies)

Then, bumbum buuuuummmmm.... The Sales Room was open for business and the Tonner American Model Centerpieces were on display.

I calmly headed to the UFDC table first and bought a Souvenir Fan and Lillian, the American Model in the pink/peach dress.

Next stop? The Tonner table where sale items were still being put out. I controlled myself and chose one extremely discounted doll that I had been drooling over for a while, A Case of the Blues Ellowyne.

I walked the rest of the room, purchased a cute Ginny that I will share later, and went to bed, my head filled to the brim with dolly dreams.

UFDC Convention 2013, Washington D.C.: Part 1

This years United Federation of Doll Clubs Convention was in Washington D.C. at the Washington Hilton.

After a busy week of shopping and visiting family, I checked in to my hotel room.

Licca, who traveled with me, approved of the room.

I then picked up my packet at registration and headed to a Doll Dialogue: Asian BJDs. The presenter showed a wide range of ball jointed dolls and talked about the history of ball jointed dolls and the difference between Asian BJDs and other dolls with ball joints.

Licca had her photo taken with a large BJD.

Next up was a tour of the Ann Coleman House (no photos allowed). Licca got a quick pic in front of the Hilton sign before the bus drove us to the house.

The tour was really nice. Not only was it a great house in a lovely area, but the dolls were amazing. It really was just like walking through a museum, signage and everything.

Dinner was had a Banana Leaves, down the street. Yum! Highly recommended.

The official event for the night was the Ice Cream Social/Meet and Greet. I had a nice time meeting some other attendees and even spied Uncle Sam in the room.

After that I called it a night so I would be ready for the full day of activities the next day.

Disney Sea: The Shows!

One of the fun parts of visiting Disney Sea is the chance to take in a show or two. On my first visit I saw "Big Band Beat" in the American Waterfront. 

On my next trip, I took in quite a few shows. First up was a mini-show of Mickey and friends welcoming everyone to their Happiness Year celebration.

Then after lunch, we watched "The Legend of Mythica". The boats were amazing!

In the evening we were entertained by "A Table is Waiting". This was hilarious.

The final show of the night was the grand spectacle of "Fantasmic". It was amazing and wonderful. (No pictures since it was dark out.)

The shows are very Japanese: mostly singing, very little dialogue, and very little plot. This makes them easy to understand and follow along, even if you don't speak Japanese.