Undoing Mistakes

In 2004, I bought 3 Tonner Mary Engelbreit dolls:  Queen Ann Estelle, Sunshine Sophie and Basic Sophie.  Four years later, when I was totally wrapped up in ABJD's, I sold them in order to be able to purchase an SD Souldoll Byeol (who ended up being Catherine).   As much as I love Catherine, and as much as Samantha enjoys having her big sis around, I eventually came to regret selling my AE's.  I love the early ones without the bending knees.  I likes how easily I could plunk them down and get them to stand up and not have to be posed carefully to do it.   I loved having a huge assortment of patterns from the web and in books that I could use to sew for her - without having to do a lot of adjustments.  My AE's had fantastic thick wigs, and I didn't have to worry about messing up fragile eyelashes.  Don't get me wrong, I love the beauty of BJD's, but for a perfect travel doll, Ann Estelle just can't be beat - not too big to carry, not too small to get lost in a photo, not to fragile.  Ann was my perfect doll.  I sold her.  I regretted it.  I missed Ann (and my Sohpies, too).  

This month, I finally decided to ignore the glitz of the latest "new and shiny" doll, and fix a mistake I made 4 years ago.  I found another Ann Estelle, and brought her home.  I found a 1999 Classic Sailor Ann Estelle on eBay.  After a few days of trying to decide, I hit the "BIN" button.  The seller was excellent - a 6:30 AM purchase on a Tuesday was here by 2 on Thursday!  All her accessories were unopened, in the box.  Of course, I never leave a doll in a box, so here's Ann Estelle.  I like the box, so I will probably keep it, something I rarely do.

Life is good!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

from the AG Girls:  Josefina, Kirsten, Kaya, Marie-Grace, Felicity,

Julie, Ivy, Lanie, Kanani, Gwynith Linette,

Rebecca, Kit, Ruthie, Emily & Molly

May God Bless Your Celebration of Jesus' Birth this day!

Alley's Ready

Alley was looking for a plate to put Santa's cookies on, but found some snowmen and got a little distracted!

Melissa's Christmas Dress

Melisssa wanted to share a photo of her new Christmas dress that she picked out from her favorite dress shop, Jo's Doll Shoppe.

She wants to wear it to church tomorrow night!

As my DD says:  Today is Christmas Eve Eve!

Hannah's Wall Hanging

Hannah found a little snowman wall quilt to decorate for Christmas!  

It's getting exciting!  Christmas is almost here!

There's Only One Patsy

Maybe some of you have seen the latest Tonner Patsy?  Yes, she's cute, but she'll never be a "real" Patsy. 

Don't you just love the sweet, nostalgic darling that Effanbee created?

The Shortest Day of the Year!

Fiela hopes you found a little sunshine today!

Faith's Patiently Waiting

Well, she's trying to wait patiently, anyway!  She's hoping for a new doll for Christmas.  But a lot of our friends probably are, aren't they?

Mindy loves Snowmen

Mindy is dreaming of a white Christmas.  She would love to build a snowman - but until we get snow, she can play with these!

What to Wear for the Special Day?

Danielle, Louisa, Luke and Heather have been trying to figure out what to wear to the big Christmas party!  Well, the girls were busy trading clothes and trying new clothes on.  Luke was busy playing, but was willing to stop for a while for a photo.

Natterer Girls are Bundled Up

April, Alvina, Talia, Ellie and Lucy are dressed nice and warm.  They are hoping to go visit Santa Claus at the mall, so they can tell him what they'd like for Christmas...

Christmas Polar Bear!

Gwynith Linette just loves her new polar bear sweater!  It reminds her of the Coca-Cola commercials that had a lots of polar bears - haven't seen those yet this year!  

Weren't they fun?

More Old Fashioned Christmas Cheer!

Ailene, Betsy and Christine are looking forward to their first Christmas!

These Izannah Walker inspired inspirations were made by Jen in 2012, following instructions offered by Dixie Redmond!

Christmas tree made in Sunday School by M.  at age 4.

Mini Creches for Mini Dolls

Hey, this one is just our size!

Amy, Wendy and Becky found the miniature creche carved by Christians living in Bethlehem out of olive wood.

Jack and Jill are Waiting

Jill:  Are you sure there's enough room for Santa to put our presents down here?
Jack:  Yeah, if the people don't add too much more, we should be okay.
Jill:  Okay.  What kind of cookies does he like?

Hanging Stockings

Bitty Baby would love to hang her stocking by the chimney with care,

Alas, we have no fireplace. 

We'll make do, somehow.

Old Fashioned Christmas

Emmaline, Meg, April, Johannah, Suzannah,

Kathryn and Louisa

Are dreaming of an old fashioned Christmas!

They love the snow globe's music box music.

Fa la la la la la la la la

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la la la laloopsy!

He he he - we couldn't resist this pun!  Hope you have a great day!

The Last New Doll for 2012

Rebecca is so lovely!  

She isn't book Rebecca, though!

She is from 1914, but her family immigrated from Germany,

and she lives in Baltimore.

Her father is a baker.

She has a lot of brothers and sisters, but lives in a tiny house in the city.

She's looking forward to attending the candelight church service on Christmas Eve -

it will all be spoken and sung in German!

Frohe Weihnachten!

Gabrielle's Glad it's Advent

Gabrielle is really glad that Advent's here!  

She loves the Christmas lights on the tree!

Nicole Patrice's Excitement

Nicole Patrice is so excited about Christmas coming, her eyes are glowing and sparkling -

Just like the lights on the tree!

Melissa Has a Name Now!

Melissa arrived this fall, but hadn't selected a name yet!

She finally settled on Melissa.  Her name means "honey bee."

We aren't seeing too many bees in December around here!

More Candy Canes

Erica likes candy canes, too!

She just wanted to make sure everyone knows!

Maggie's Ready!

Maggie is all bundled up and ready to go!  She's excited about all the candy canes!  We found some that are "Jelly Belly" and "Starburst" flavors! They have some nice bright, happy colors...but I sure hope we can get some of the mint flavored candy canes, too!

Mmmmm....maybe some peppermint candy ice cream would be good, too!

Catherine's Christmas

Catherine loves Christmas!  Do you know why?

Because we celebrate the birth of the Savior!

But you already knew that, didn't you!?!!

Advent's Here!

Today's the first day of Advent!  We're going to try to post more dolly photos on the blog this month.   Sort of like an Advent calendar, but we can't promise a new post for every day - the month is just sooo busy, and daylight is scace at this time of year!

 Do you know what Advent is?

Advent is about HOPE.  Not just wishful thinking, like "Gee, I hope that my Powerball ticket is the winning ticket."  The kind of hope we're talking about is looking forward to something we know will come to pass.  Jesus came to Bethlehem, Jesus comes into our hearts, and Jesus will come again.

Advent is also about LOVE, JOY and PEACE.

Here's a 2 minute video that explains Advent.  We actually saw this at church today, at the end of our Pastor's sermon.  We hope you like it!

We don't usually "do" music (or videos for that matter) on our blog, but this is from The Nutcracker - so if you like that, turn up your volume a little, okay?

- Jen & Samantha, Chief Companion Doll

Simply Mari

She's here!   This little darling has been on the wish list for more than a year, but finally made her way here this week.  She is a Dianna Effner sculpt available only through Jo's Doll Shoppe.  Simply Mari is offered in just her white panties, but she came to my house with an Autumn Leaves dress set.  Mari is 825" tall and has a synthetic mohair brown bob.  I love her beautiful face, little size and "pose-ability."
We are still trying to find the perfect name for her.  I am sure we'll find it soon!

Autumn Joy

Joy searched through the doll clothes to see if she could find something to wear.  She found a romper that I'd made for Susie (my Petite Ai Rapheal elf), and it fit really well - the only thing that wasn't perfect was that the sleeves are just a tad too short!  Then she found some red shoes in the bleuette box that were a nice muted red that matched her top.  She was all set for going outside on a pretty autumn day.  She found some beautiful mums to enjoy.  

My husband and I had purchased the mums at Walmart last year, on the way home from visiting my dad at a rehab hospital.  The flowers didn't last very long, but I decided to wait and see if they'd survive the winter before throwing them out - I'm glad I didn't give up on them!  They look so much better this year!

We wanted to go out and play

But it was raining outside.  We just stood on the porch and hoped for some sunshine and lots more warm days!

When you find yourself wanting cute little baby clothes...

When you find yourself falling in love with adorable little outfits for a baby-type doll, it is really hard to resist.  Especially when you discover your favorites on close-out sales!  These adorable outfits have been making their way into my orders, even when there was "no one" here to where them.  So, in July, I finally gave in and made arrangements to bring home an adorable, cuddly pair of twins.

Meet Jack:

And Jill:

Then, in August, my darling, almost 17 year old daughter, was cleaning out her closet (a huge undertaking - I rarely venture into her room), she brought her Bitty Baby to me and said that I could take care of her for her.  She brought me her suitcase, moses basket, feeding chair, and an assortment of clothes (I know there are more Bitty Baby clothes mixed in with her other AG doll clothes)!  I managed to remove a couple white marks from the bck of Bitty's head, fade an ink mark on her leg, and get her nice and cleaned up.  While DD named her Corolle baby (her first, which she is keeping in her room), Bitty Baby has always been Bitty.  So, here she is in a new outfit:

Bitty is about 15 years old, but still a wonderful, darling baby.

New Hearts for Hearts Girls

More Hearts for Hearts girls have arrived at our house!  Tipi arrived via the Postal Bus on August 27th.  She is from Laos.



Then Tilly followed us home from Target on September 2nd. She is from Brazil. Originally, her name was Zelia, but she insists on being called Tilly.



Here's the entire Hearts for Hearts group at our house.  Tilly, Tipi, Lila, Anita, Lisa and Dory.



Lila acts sweet and innocent, but she could barely stand still for the photo - she wanted to kick off her shoes and run barefoot through the grass.

New Clothes - Denim Day!!!

Some new clothes came in the mail today for some of the girls!  Lila and Lisa were quick to open the boxes, and decided right away to play mix and match with the 2 new outfits.  Lila loves blue - she thinks it shows off her eyes.  I think it looks pretty nice, too.  Since she's a bit of a girly-girl, she wanted to wear the sparkly skirt from the other outfit.



Fun loving Lisa grabbed the green tee-shirt and shorts!



Not to be left out on "denim day,"  Dory dug out a Friends2BMade outfit from the clothes box.  She's feeling very patriotic!



Anita borrowed Dory's capris outfit, so she could be wearing denim, too!  It still feels like summer here, and we're loving it!

Joy Goes Outside

The weather here has been really hot and humid, so we've been staying indoors - a lot!  Joy noticed that a lot of the dolls here have photos on the blog that were taken outdoors, and she wanted to do that, too!

She wanted her photo taken with Maryland's State Flower, the Black Eyed Susan's.  She is glad to be home, after traveling from Germany, to California and then to Maryland!  She is still a little jet-lagged.



Then she discovered that there are sedum in the yard with her name, Autumn Joy - well, at least part of their name is hers.  So she wanted to take her photo there, too.



But Joy was getting a bit bored with looking at flowers and asked if she could climb a tree in the yard.  She isn't tall enough to reach the  lowest branches of the tree, so Jen told her she would help her SIT in the tree, if she promised to hold on and sit VERY STILL.



It did seem a little high to Joy, so she was glad to get down when the picture was taken.  The humidity was starting to make us sticky, and the bugs were beginning to bite (they like to come out in the evening, too, I guess), so we decided to come back indoors.

Welcome Home, Joy!

Welcome Home, Joy!, originally uploaded by JLP2000.

This cute little girl arrived on the postal bus today! She is trying on the name Joy. Jen suggested it to her, because she felt so joyful when Joy arrived. She is the 2012 Plusczokdolls Yahoo! group doll. This year, Heidi allowed members to select a sculpt and a wig from a list of dolls. Joy is the Heidi sculpt in the Lilli wig. She is borrowing one of Nicole Patrice's dresses. Nicole is a Bleuette, and this dress was one of the first that Jen made for her. Nicole also leant Joy a pair of sandals to wear. We have a couple Boneka dresses that Joy can wear, too, but this is the coolest thing we could find for Joy to wear on a day with a heat index exceeding 100F!

Seeing Some History on Vacation

While we were on vacation, we decided to visit some of the local historic sites.  We visited Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson.   We saw the shell of a church called St. Philips.  Brunswick Town was burned by the British during the Revolutionary War.



Not much remains of the town.



We could see what the archeologists had uncovered.



It is hard to imagine people living here, but they did!



The walk lead through the ruins of the town and around the earthen mounds that made up Fort Anderson.



We were glad we visited Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson in the morning, because it was getting very hot when we decided it was time to go!  Then we drove to Southport and had lunch at a pizza and sub restaurant before heading to the NC Martime Museum.  We got a tour by a museum guide, then took a few photos.



This was our favorite exhibit, but we are a bit sad that these girls are left to live out their days, behind glass without the benefit of body, dress and human companionship!



We had a fun day and learned a lot!

Gwynith Linette and Lisa