My thoughts on Peterborough show

Firstly - it was good. And despite the long drive, the lack of sleep, the M25 roadworks and the Pot Noodle dinner, the Simply Reborn demos have helped tremendously. A lot of things which I was confused about before are now clearer.

The day itself.

Having not attended anything like this before I didnt have an opinion about VIP tickets. I still am not really sure - but I guess the main thing for me would be the same gripe I have about NCT sales - queuing for ages to get in. The weather was bad and so there was the option to arrive early and queue in the dry (which we did) or arrive later and stand in the rain. Or arrive later later and just go in but risk not getting what you came for.

Maybe a better way would be to have a 'waiting room' where tickets could be paid for and so those who then had them could show them and walk straight in when the doors open - leaving just the later arrivals to line up for tickets. That would get the line moving more quickly.

The 'new room' was just too small given that many people had prams with them. The middle rows either need to go or there needs to be a pram park outside that room. It wasnt fair on the sellers as you just couldnt get round properly and see everything and you had to jostle between prams and people and more prams. Too narrow an alleyway between the stalls and I missed browsing as people wanting to get past didnt cope well with people who stopped to look!

As a doll collector I would have liked to have seen more dolls and not just reborns and OOAKs. I know that this is the aim of the show if you know about it - but for people that don't realise this the name 'International Doll Show' implies that it will be like IDEX and have all sorts of types of dolls. Maybe calling it the International Reborn & Sculpting doll Show would be more apt?

When I go to a show/sale I want to either find things I cant find elsewhere easily or (for things which I can find easily or elsewhere) prices have to be worth the cost and effort of going. I liked the lower prices on the Simply Reborn stand and so as well as getting things I would have to buy anyway online, I also bought things which I was tempted by purely because of the price.
I dont see the point, though, of going to buy kits at the same price pretty much as you can get them any time of the year.

I realised that much as I love looking at OOAKs, I should not own any until the kids have left home. I realised that I really do like silicone as a medium to collect and that my reborning skills are better than I thought they were.

I adored the crochet outfits and hand made outfits and wish there had been more (I am still after bamboo knit outfits - darn you, Lainey!!) but think that people who made outfits could make a killing if they made more boys rompers and special outfits. Girls pretty outfits and gowns are two a penny - but by the time I realised I needed some boys outfits they had all sold...

I would go again if the next level of reborning tuition was available (maybe have beginners classes and advanced - because I hope to be the latter one day!) but not sure I would go just to get supplies unless I knew more silicones or other types of dolls would be there too

I would LOVE to have this in the south though. We SO need a doll show. They all seem to be east or north or London. The BIC (Bournemouth) is an ideal venue and I know it would attract new people to the hobby (obsession?!)

It was also good to spend some one to one time with Barfie-Babe and to meet up with people I hadnt and had met in person. So very enjoyable overall and definitely a highlight of the year so far!