Dollieh Sanctuary

Most of my friends know the price of my dollies (one ~$100, other ~$800) and while they're shocked by it they don't really care so much since it's my money to do with as I wish.

On the other hand, while I have shared with my family my fondness for dollies I have yet to reveal how much I spent on them (dolls and accessories). I live by myself in a foreign country, so hiding how much I spent wasn't so difficult, and really I don't HAVE to tell them if I don't want to, but just imagining my parents' faces if I were to tell them I spent a good $2000 on dolls+accessories in the span of 2.5months I think they might send me to an insane asylum.

So, I was just wondering, for those who don't have my luxury of hiding this hobby's price tags or chose to share the information, how do/did you ease your family members into how much a doll can cost without giving them a heart attack? I mean logically we can use the "It's my hobby, and it happens to be expensive. So are a lot of other hobbies~" reasoning, but usually I find people don't take so easily to dolls costing over a few hundred bucks.

To people who comment (and not just family) I point out that skiing is really big around here. How much do those pursuing THAT hobby spend in one season? Equipment (rented or purchased), lift tickets, clothing, safety equipment (helmets!!!), gas to get to and from the hills, food, etc... At least I still have the doll at the end of the season! ^___^

Kiki-chan has said several times that everyone has their dollfie... in other words, nearly everyone has something that makes them happy. They may not NEED it, but it is their THING. Might be books, DVDs, killer sound systems in their car, etc. Mine happen to be my dolls, anime/manga, and cosplay. Believe me, people DON'T want to know how much I have sunk into some of my costumes, and that with making them myself!!!!!

I happen to live close to my family and some of them are aware I collect the dolls. My mom and two sisters, I think my brother and his wife, and their two daughters. But I don't think they know just how much they cost. I figure they don't care enough about my hobby to wonder about it, and I'm not going to willingly open THAT can of worms if I can avoid it. So it's sort of a they don't ask and I don't tell situation. lol

A few of my friends, on the other hand, know how much the dolls cost, but they never criticize me for spending so much on them. I think, if she had the money to spare, my one friend would be buying them herself. As it is, she always likes to come with me to dollmeets and see everyone else's.

My hubs knows and just asks I keep it reasonable. Which I'm cool with because our bank account isn't overflowing. My most expensive was Hujoo Dana, and while the bigger dolls are pretty, I find myself gravitating more towards 1/6 scale.

Mostly everyone just laughs about me collecting dolls, because i was all about dolls when I was little. lol

Eh... my family has no clue how much I spend on dolls, but I have a ton of them, and my mom didn't even blink when she saw my new MSD boy for the first time...

I do think it's kind of funny that everyone still always assumes I'm broke even though I recently went from working 4 days a month to working 4 days a week... (So, yeah... bringing down roughly 8 times as much money a month than I used to.)

Anyways. Yeah, I will pretty much never tell them how much I spend on doll stuff.

My family knows my dolls are expensive, but they don't know exactly how expensive and I'm definitely not telling them because they will NOT understand.

If/when the topic comes up - I lie. I prefer to simply not discuss it with my folks, but then I don't live with them so it's not hard for me to do.

Our parents really don't mind at all---they like our dolls and know the prices. I guess it's because they've been buying us TONS of dolls (starting with Barbies) since we were 4 (we had then, and have stored them away now---about 400 Barbies) and so the bigger dolls we buy now, are just a natural progression. They actually help us pose them, work on them, and don't blink or bat an eye whenever we buy a new one (actually, we just bought 9 SD sized boys and they didn't mind or become upset at all) They really think the dolls are awesome. I think it's because they see them 'blank' and then when we're done working on them, they 'come alive' to look like their real-life counterpart.

I guess it also helps that we're cosplay seamstresses and doll makers, so to have many dolls all around us continually seems part of our work to them.

Plus, our mom and dad have always liked whatever we like---they join in the fun, too (They like anime, our Japanese anime/game music, our cosplay, etc). I even make my dad plush dolls of his favorite 'mystery!' detectives for birthdays/Christmas/Father's Days, etc.

They often help us choose fabrics for clothing or props for the dolls and our dad helps us make furniture or custom doll parts, choose backgrounds to take photos, etc. The only thing my dad wonders jokingly, is where we find any more room to keep them all! :laughs:

So, we don't hide it at all----actually the opposite.

I guess we're super lucky to have parents who enjoy our hobbies almost as much as we do. ^^

This past Christmas, my husband considered buying me a $900 limited edition doll (my current grail doll), so he is well aware how expensive these dolls can be. The reason he didn't is because my logical side would have been upset with him for spending that much money when we were saving for a house. My mother doesn't understand why an adult would like dolls even though (in better days) she collected Lalique, but she has no idea how expensive my dolls are.

My family was shocked at first with how much I spent on my stuff but since it was mainly my money I earned or recieved as a gift no one minded....

Besides as long as I don't bring anything eight legged that grows to a foot in size they're happy to help me earn Dollieh money.