Dolls

Since 1996, Natalie Graham had a vision that one day she would make ladies feel like pretty little dolls. When she opened her chic and eclectic boutique, The Doll House, 525 N. Charles St., in September 2004 her vision came to life. Once inside this Mount Royal area storefront, the dollhouse theme is apparent. "Do you want to play dress up?" asks a saleswoman to a patron who just stepped inside the store. This place has an exciting and funky vibe, with creative collages of celebrities and fashion, a collaboration of small unique art, and small contemporary furniture that brings the "dollhouse" theme alive.

John Rzeznik, lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls, should know a thing or two about wedding songs. He wrote the inescapable hit "Iris" in 1998, which plenty of newly married couples have played for their first dance, including, most famously, singer Avril Lavigne in 2006. And yet, for his own upcoming wedding in July, Rzeznik has no clue what song he and his fiance, Melina Gallo, will dance to. "I'm just happy that I'm getting married. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm still a guy," Rzeznik said from his Los Angeles home recently.

LOS ANGELES -- The next big fashion trend is straight out of your preteen fantasies.It's like Barbie's wardrobe. A cool ensemble for every moment of her busy life, with matching mules and cutesy accessories. Remember those plastic diamond rings?If you've forgotten the details of Barbie's fashion stance in the late '60s, it's all detailed for you in "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion," the trendiest fashion flick since "Clueless."In this case of blonde leading the blonde, Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow star in the movie as two live dress-up dolls with "Clueless" tastes on minimum-wage budgets.

You know the Goo Goo Dolls' hits: "Name," "Long Way Down," "Slide," "Black Balloon" and, of course, the once-ubiquitous ballad from the "City of Angels" soundtrack, "Iris. " But what about the less popular album cuts? Like any band with material spanning decades, the Goo Goo Dolls have hidden gems in their catalog. Here are five worth seeking out. "On the Lie" (from 1993's "Superstar Car Wash") It's mainly a strange back-and-forth conversation between a man and woman, but this song highlights Rzeznik's ability to craft unique - and even mysterious - characters.

Live Arts Maryland music director J. Ernest Green opened the 2012-2013 season on a new high last weekend at Maryland Hall with a fabulous production of "Guys and Dolls" in which Annapolis Chorale members and stellar soloists brought sparkle to classic Broadway. With the first notes of the overture, the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra produced a full sound to underscore the importance of music at Green's "Broadway in Concert" performances. Further brightening this production were several surprises by soloists playing the Damon Runyon characters from the 1950 favorite.

Sister Mary Annina Byrne, 84, a teaching nun who collected more than 700 dolls during nearly 60 years, died Friday at St. Joseph Medical Center of a heart condition.Born Eugenia Claire Byrne in 1910, she entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame order in 1931 and professed vows in 1933, the same year she began collecting dolls.At its peak, her collection contained more than 700 dolls from around the world.Her first dolls were two from Czechoslovakia, given to her by her sister, who suggested, "Why not collect dolls?"

Dee Eisler, the new doll curator for the Ann Arrundell County Historical Society, vividly remembers her first doll, which her mother gave away to charity."

Dolls created by a group of third-graders at Bryant Woods Elementary School will go on display this summer at Baltimore's City Life Museums.The 14 dolls show how clothing has changed since 1900, said Leslie Weinberg, who teaches gifted and talented students at Bryant Woods. They were made by 16 students as part of an enrichment research project."The students decided they wanted to learn about the history of clothing in the United States in the 20th century, so they went out and did the research on it," Weinberg said.

With natural talent and self-taught skills, Nancy Coblentz-Nelson transforms clay into award-winning dolls.Only three years into doll-making, she was inducted into the Original Doll Artists Council of America (ODACA) during the United Federation of Doll Clubs conference in Atlanta two weeks ago. To be accepted into ODACA, prospective members must be critiqued and voted on by the membership over a year's time.Last year at the conference, her dolls earned four first-place awards and two second places.

"Looking back on our childhood, we can all remember interacting with dolls," writes curator Sarah Tanguy in her essay accompanying the show "Soul Mates" at the University of Maryland College Park. Well, looking back on my childhood, I don't remember interacting with dolls at all.I bring that up only to make the point that I found this show, which features six artists who use doll-like figures in their works, valid and interesting -- even though I'm totally doll-deprived and have never consciously thought of dolls as "the repository and construction of cultural values," as Tanguy writes.

Editor's note: Freelance writer Diedre A. Ware grew up in Havre de Grace and graduated from Havre de Grace High School. Her recollections of what it was like growing up black in an era when children's dolls were white was published recently in Dolls magazine based in Iola, Wis., http://www.dollsmagazine.com . It is republished here with permission, along with photographs that ran with the Dolls magazine version. As a child, my dolls were by best friends. When I confided in them, I knew they would never tell.

Rockers the Goo Goo Dolls will headline a concert the day before Preakness at Pimlico Race Course, organizers announced Friday. The show is part of the People's Pink Party, a partnership between Pimlico and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and takes place the same day as the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. The infield will open at 2 p.m. May 17, and the music will begin at 4 p.m. Tickets, which cost $25, are on sale March 15, and available by calling 877-206-8042 or at ticketfly.com . Two other performers will be announced shortly, organizers said.

The Atlantic permits someone named Jen Doll to write on language and usage , and Ms. Doll has Views on singular they . Those views are not favorable. Examples of singular they "make me cringe. " Further, "The singular they is ear-hurting, eye-burning, soul-ravaging, mind-numbing syntactic folly. Stop the singular they . Stop it now. " To be fair, Ms. Doll makes a gesture of addressing the arguments for they as the missing epicene pronoun in English.

Live Arts Maryland music director J. Ernest Green opened the 2012-2013 season on a new high last weekend at Maryland Hall with a fabulous production of "Guys and Dolls" in which Annapolis Chorale members and stellar soloists brought sparkle to classic Broadway. With the first notes of the overture, the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra produced a full sound to underscore the importance of music at Green's "Broadway in Concert" performances. Further brightening this production were several surprises by soloists playing the Damon Runyon characters from the 1950 favorite.

A man hangs from a rope connected to the beam of a barn, his feet smashing through a wooden crate so he looks like he's cut off at the knees. His wife explains that when he was angered or annoyed, he would go to that spot, get up on a bucket, put a noose around his neck and threaten suicide. On the fatal day, she placed the bucket elsewhere, so he grabbed the crate. Is this a picture of accidental death, as she contends? Or is it suicide — or murder? This scene doesn't belong to a forensic TV series like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Typically a pedicure entails soaking the feet in a tub of warm water. But the nail technicians at Living Dolls Hair Design Studio in Highland have introduced a soakless pedicure that salon manager Lynn Lazzara calls “cleaner, greener and healthier than regular pedicures and uses almost no water.” During a soakless pedicure, the feet are wrapped in plastic with a hot towel placed over them. “We let everything sit for a few minutes and wipe off the feet,” Lazzara says. “Then we use a foot file to reduce calluses.” If you see some new faces at Living Dolls, it's because the staff of Lazzara's former shop, Biago Hair Salon and Spa, joined forces with Jane Caswell, owner of Living Dolls, last summer for economical reasons.

Some mothers make photo albums. Others record family memories on video. Patricia McEntire of Hickory Ridge village keeps the memories of her two sons close to her in the form of dolls.For Christmas in 1992, Mrs. McEntire decided to make each son a 9-foot-long garland with fabric dolls that would remind them of the things they had done as children and as a family.Now, Mrs. McEntire tells the stories of other people's lives through her dolls.It has turned into a full-time job. Five days a week, the 53-year-old Columbia resident begins working at 5:15 a.m. and sometimes doesn't finish until 8 or 9 p.m. She hand-stitches each 6-inch doll with clothes, paints each face and carefully chooses props to accentuate that doll's personality.

THE HOLIDAY packaging of the hugely successful Bratz dolls, which includes a blind date story line pitched to girls as young as 6, has caused some of us to rethink any issues we had with good old Barbie and all her body image baggage. Jade, Yasmin or Nevra, the multiracial fashion dolls who come dressed like, well, like prostitutes, are packaged this season with one of the Bratz Boyz, whose identity is hidden until your 6- to 10-year-old opens the box. Manufacturer MGA Entertainment says this about the toy: "It's a night you're sure to never forget as you share a first date with the Bratz and the Bratz Boyz as they laugh over a midnight smoothie, slow dance under a full moon, and find themselves getting closer than ever as they walk the fine line between friendship and love."

More than 200 girls and their American Girl dolls hit the runway at Towson Town Center on Saturday, Jan. 28. The walk was short and the line was long, but there were smiles all around. "I got to tell the guy what I liked," said Savannah Shafer, 7, of Lutherville, with her look-alike American Girl doll after walking the runway. "I wasn't nervous," she said, smiling. "I like playing with my American Girl online. " All of the girls participating had a chance of being selected for the American Girl Fashion Show, to be held March 24 and 25 at the Hippodrome Theater.

Natalie Graham's first meeting a year ago with "Modern Family" actress Ariel Winter could have been a disaster. Graham, owner of The Doll House, a Mount Vernon boutique featuring Graham's Ragdolls Clothing Line, didn't recognize the waifish, chestnut-haired tween combing through the racks of Graham's vibrant, funky garments. To make it worse, at first, Graham and Winter's mother didn't see eye to eye on outfits. "Her mother was saying no to garments that were still on the hanger," Graham said with a laugh.