Wichita ? The first thing you notice in Kathy McManis’ house in east Wichita is the smell of cookies baking.

The second is the 30 dolls scattered around her foyer.

And the 100 more in her living room. And the 20 or so in her dining room.

McManis, 70, started collecting dolls in the early 1980s as a way to decorate her home. She was introduced to the hobby by her mother, but didn’t plan on collecting hundreds of dolls when she started.

“It just sort of happened,” she said.

In all, McManis has 1,237 dolls, whose heights range from only an inch to more than 3 feet, tucked in all corners of her house. Many are arranged into scenes. Some participate in tea parties. One is taking a bath, and others are tucked into bed waiting for a visit from Santa Claus.

McManis also makes many of the clothes for her dolls in a workshop in her basement.

The dresses her dolls wear invoke bygone eras, with some dolls wearing outfits from 19th-century cabarets while others are dressed as musketeers from the 1700s.

“I like period pieces,” she said. “If I want to see people in regular street clothes, I can go out on the street and look.”

McManis also likes dolls dressed as brides. She has a room dedicated to her more than 70 bride dolls, and her favorite doll, a 3-foot red-head, is dressed in a wedding gown.