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A Coburn Enterprises Blog Community

Better Products

Products that Better Everything bloggers recommend. These products are provided by clients that participate in the Coburn Enterprises “Better Everything” program and have passed our standards and expectations guidelines.

Antique Doll Dresses

If you are considering purchasing a new dress for your antique doll you should consider reproduction antique doll dresses made from the right fabrics by a professional. Putting the wrong style or fabric on your antique doll will do nothing to enhance it’s value. However, putting an antique doll dress reproduction that has been designed by an expert in antique doll restoration can enhance your doll’s value and add “eye candy” to your display!

Ashton Drake Dolls – where to buy

If you are looking to purchase Ashton Drake dolls we strongly recommend Stella’s Treasures. Stella has been an Ashton Drake vendor since the 1990’s. We met Stella while doing doll shows in the northwest and we were particularly impressed with her knowledge of Ashton Drake products (as well as all other collectible dolls).

Of course, the most notorious collectible Ashton Drake was the Gene Marshall collection. Gene and her entourage were exceedingly popular Ashton Drake items during the years we were attending doll shows and Stella hosted several Mel Odom signings during those Ashton Drake years.

Of course, now the Gene Marshall doll is no longer produced (the last Gene produced for the mass market was released in 2010 and called Butterfly Gene – you can still find some of these on Stella’s site).

Ashton Drake has introduced many many new lines over the years, some of which have also become popular collectors items. Some of the recently released doll lines we know of are the Ashton Drake Delilah Noir, Ashton Drake Brides of Dracula and the soon to be released Ashton Drake Dark Hunter dolls.

As usual, at BetterEverything.net we select one website for each category to support and promote. Our choice for Ashton Drake is Stella’s Treasures. We hope you will take the time to visit her website and find out for yourself why we selected Stella’s Treasures as our recommended Ashton Drake website.

Collectible dolls from Stella’s Treasures

Collectible dolls vary in size, age, color and cost as well as age and quality expectations. In fact, dolls that were originally considered “cheap toys” in their day actually became very expensive “collectible dolls” less than 20 years later! Consider the Barbie doll…

There is a great article at Collectors Weekly that talks about this too: Flashback: Dolls Are More Than Toys. The article, which originally appeared in the December 1942 issue of American Collector, discusses the history of dolls, noting their multiple uses (including religion and fashion).

Of course, here at BetterEverything.net we are interested in sharing our selected vendors and supporting our reasons why we chose them. Our selected vendor for the Collectible Dolls category is Stella’s Treasures. We have known Stella, the owner of Stella’s Treasures, since before she ever opened her first physical store. We met Stella when she was selling new and retired collectible dolls at doll shows in the northwest.

Stella had a little doll shop in Beaverton, Oregon for many years but in 2008 decided to move to California. At that time she closed her physical shop (Stella’s Doll House) and opened an online only store which is called Stella’s Treasures.

Due to her many years selling collectible dolls at shows and in her store, as well as being a doll collector in her own right, Stella has a wide variety of collectible dolls to offer via her virtual store.

If you are a doll collector please take a browse at http://www.stellastreasures.com and experience this wonderful lady (and her treasures) for yourself!

In addition to a great variety of older and new collectible dolls, she also continues to offer customer service that makes her virtual visitors feel just like they are in her shop in person.

If you are looking for collectible dolls, we strongly recommend http://www.stellastreasures.com.

Modern collectors, though often enamored with “antique dolls” are more often collecting collectible dolls that take them back to fond childhood memories. In some cases, they are recovering favored dolls that they cherished as children but other times they are seeking to fill a lifelong wish for one special doll that alluded them.

Gifts for Guys

In a world filled with foot, basket and baseball commercials that focus on gifts for guys like beer and barbecues, we would like to take your mind away from the boring main stream of thought on “gifts for guys” and suggest a simple, inexpensive approach…

Doc Allen’s VersaTool is a high quality, yet inexpensive gift idea to put on any list of gifts for guys. This handy multipurpose tool is the “leatherman” or “swiss army” of portable hand tools.

The tool comes with multiple sets of heads to meet the needs almost any emergency repair. Skiers, Divers, Boaters, Hunters, Bicyclists, Handymen, Fishermen, auto mechanics and photographers alike will find this tool very useful.

Although we recommend this tool for our gifts for guys list, it also makes a great gift for college students, girls moving into their first apartment, hikers and other travelers. The light weight and compact multi-function stainless steel tool is used easily in tight places and comes with a 99 year guarantee. The multi-position design makes it easy to use for low, medium or high torque needs.

There is also a 1/4″ hex adapter that can be used as a “finger” driver.

Inexpensive Gift Ideas

It’s late September which means gift giving season is just around the corner. During this time we know many of our readers will be looking for inexpensive gift ideas. As much as “inexpensive gift ideas” sounds great, no one wants be known for giving cheap gifts! That’s why we would like to recommend a very nice handy and versatile tool to add to your list of inexpensive gift ideas.

Doc Allen’s VersaTool should be on the top of any list of inexpensive gift ideas because it is not just inexpensive but it’s also extremely well made and will be one of those gifts that the recipient may never have purchased for themselves but will absolutely love having.

Doc Allen’s VersaTool is a hand held multipurpose tool with several different screwdriver and other heads that all fit in a nice, compact travel pouch. There are even special heads for bicyclists and others that need unique tools for repair on the go.

At a price of just $12.95 we say buy one for everyone on your list!

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