lost in Daiso...

...and loving it! While browsing through not martha recently, I clued in to the fact that we have a Daiso store in the Vancouver area. Daiso, for the uninitiated, is a high-end Japanese 100-yen store or dollar store - actually $2 in Canada - stocked with a wide array of Japanese houseware items: anything from screwdrivers, hair gels to my favourite items, very kitschy cute Japanese stationery, party supplies and knick-knacks...As I walked into the store, I was struck by the sight of shelves upon shelves filled to the brim with plastic pastel-colored baskets in all sizes and shapes and loads of sweet little juice glasses, some even decorated with conversation hearts  -- oh! so perfect for Valentine's Day...

                                                                                            So what was in my bags when I finally walked out of Daiso?...Well, for one, the brightly-colored paper lanterns in the photo above and all this wonderful assortment of perky little things that I simply couldn't resist -                               

...and my absolute favourites -

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                  I can walk by rows of cuddly stuffies and prettily-attired dolls with but a casual side glance, but dolls dressed in costumes from around the world will always stop me in my tracks....perhaps it has something to do with the long-lost collection of world dolls that I had and cherished as a little girl...And these mini Daiso dolls (a scant 5" tall) in their costumes decorated with ricrac and woven trims, I find particularly irresistible! Imagine them maybe twenty, thirty years from now, still smiling but slightly faded in a charming sort of vintage way...With that in mind, I've encouraged my daughters to start their own collection of world dolls with these little lovelies as a starting point.  So, since there are 24 dolls in this series, we will certainly be going back to Daiso...soon...

 

 

Comments

[Sarah]

Lucky you!

[Beata]

Hi Sarah,
Yup, for once I'm not pining over the fact that we don't have certain stores in town --- like Target!

[kirsten]

i am freaking out - i want to visit a daiso very badly. enough that i offered to send a friend in seattle money to pick some stuff out for me! (didn't work out).

i LOVE the stationary, and esp. the dolls. as a kid, my dad traveled a lot, and always brought me back a doll - i have an international doll collection, too - those little ones are SOO cute!

[Bee]

I have a collection of International dolls as well, from all sorts of places. I want to display them again! My daughter likes to get them out of the box now and then to look at all the costumes.

[hannah]

wow, what a great shop, wish we had those here!!

[Hwei-Yong]

hi there, have you managed to buy all the 24 of them? would you have any interest to sell them to me? i m living in germany and i m a singaporean. i came back home in 2007 and bought 11 of them coz the rest was not available anymore in that daiso shop i wnet to. please let me know your opinion.
thanks :-D