16. backstory: youngji, the littlest ahgase

One of my favorite characterization elements to play with when it comes to my #4, Youngji Park, is the fact that she is a huge fangirl of K-pop boy group GOT7. I figured it's past time to document how that all came about and ways I've worked it into her story over the last year.

15. display: youngji's bedroom

Winifred's bedroom is my favorite display that I have designed so far, but it couldn't stay intact forever: Youngji needed a turn!

Poor Youngji isn't going to get a birthday celebration this year, but I wanted to set up her room, since I had a lot of plans for it and was really excited about it. Unfortunately work and life got hectic, so I ended up switching the rooms over much later than I would have liked (thus, no birthday pictures). 

As you can see, her aesthetic is a little bit different from Winifred's tranquil purple world...

14. display: winifred's bedroom, part 2

No, the blog isn't dead! I had a lot (a lot) of issues with the Blogger app, and then no time to update once I finally got that sorted out, but now I have several entries ready to go! 

As you may recall, my last update was about Winifred's bedroom. Once I set it up, I ended up making several more changes, so I wanted to do a post about them!

13. display and photo story: winifred's bedroom, march 2017 | winifred's birthday, 2017

(The PJs Bree is wearing are available from HilltopRoseCC!)

Last autumn my roommate and I split the cost of a PAX wardrobe from IKEA to use as a dollhouse! We split it into three rooms: each of us use one as a bedroom, switching out whose room it is every month, and the third serves as a common room. 

Neither of us have done too much with it most of the time, since we've both been really busy. But Winifred's birthday was on March 4, and I wanted to do a little photos series on Instagram, so I decided I needed to set up her room reasonably well...

(Bedroom tour + birthday pictures under the cut!)

12. outfit review: plaid to be here by our generation

I didn't spend much of my birthday money on doll things this year, but I did buy one thing with it: Our Generation's Plaid to be Here outfit!

I've wanted this for several months now, since I saw a few people buy it for their Melody dolls. Every Melody I've seen wearing it looked absolutely adorable, so I was sure mine would, too.

I had to order it online, since it's never been in stock at our local Target, and it was delivered to the store in less than a week. This was the first Our Generation outfit I had ever purchased, so I was very curious as to what I would think of it when it arrived...

11. store visit and a new addition: february 18, 2017

Last Thursday my roommate went to the Seattle store to see the new release items, and was so angry upon discovering that Tenney and Logan had taken over half of Gabriela's display that she bought not only a Gabriela of her own, but also a #58.

As you may recall, I had been planning to buy Gabriela. However, now that my roommate has one it felt like having two in the house would be too many (especially since we've begun more or less seeing our collections as one giant overlapping collection) and I was able to compare her more extensively to Melody and realized that having two dolls who so closely resembled each other would be less fun for me than the chance to add a more unique doll to my collection.

It sent me back to the drawing board: I had more tax refund money than anticipated, so I could afford another doll, and while I'm very upset about the fallout from the revelations about American Girl's upcoming permapanties bodies I'm also very upset about this Tenney and Logan nonsense. I'm a believer in voting with my dollars, so if Tenney and Logan dolls are going to be flying off the shelves then by goodness I wanted to be responsible for at least one doll of color finding a home at the same time. But which one?

I've always been incredibly drawn to #62, but that would make a third Sonali mold in my collection and I didn't want to have another modern who seemed too old to fit in with my much-beloved Youngji and Winifred. I've also liked #53 for a long time, but so does my roommate's three-year-old daughter, so we already have plans to get her one a few years down the road, when she is ready to own and take care of a full-sized AG doll. (She's really good when it comes to leaving our dolls alone when she's not supervised, and playing gently with them when she is, but we don't want to have a doll that we know she really, really wants around to tempt her when she isn't ready to have it herself yet. It seems unfair.) 

My third option was #31, who I've always thought was cute in store displays but only recently began to seriously consider buying. Other points in her favor were that she's an Addy mold doll, and I love the Addy mold, and she looked like she would fit in well with Winifred and Youngji. 

So I went to the store last Saturday and considered my options...

10. barbie fashionista review: leather and ruffles

Quick post for this weekend: a review on one of my Christmas doll gifts, 2016 Barbie Fashionista Leather & Ruffles!

9. backstory: how each doll joined my American Girl collection

The story of how each of my current dolls joined my American Girl collection! Featuring lots of pictures, including lots of terrible, low quality pictures taken on my former phone.

8. barbie fashionista review: blue brocade

When the 2016 Fashionistas were unveiled last year, there were three I immediately knew I had to have: Leather and Ruffles, Blue Violet, and Blue Brocade. Blue Brocade was my tax refund indulgence last year, and remained my only Fashionista for months. (In large part because I couldn't locate Fab Fringe anywhere offline but Wal-Mart, yes, but that is a story for another day.) She rapidly became my favorite out of all the Fashionistas, and remains so even now that my collection has expanded so much.  

So I was beyond disappointed when I saw that she was one of the Barbies being offered for clearance this year. As of last week, my local Wal-Mart was offering her for as low as $4. I quickly decided that we were due for a blog review, so that we could explore how amazing she is together!

7. backstory: my ever after high collection

Today's post: my Ever After High collection!

6. barbie fashionista review: polka dot fun

One of the topics this blog will cover is reviews of various Barbie Fashionistas. I really, really love this line for all the variety it provides. The dolls all look so pretty and so distinct and have so much personality. You really can't go wrong! I started out wanting three and currently have seven, and have my eye on several others, as previously discussed. My roommate, restringingorder, has four more, so I will feature hers as well. 

The first Fashionista: Polka Dot Fun! She is part of the Spring 2017 set. I purchased this doll on Aurora's behalf at Kohl's on Black Friday. I have also seen her at Target and Wal-Mart, and she is of course available from Mattel and Amazon if you prefer to shop online. Her typical price is $9.99, though Wal-Mart has her for $7.94.

5. 2017 projects

After the last few months of crafting and collecting, I have a lot of ideas and plans for 2017, including sewing and display projects.

4. sewing in 2016

                                     

I spent years saying that I wanted to learn how to sew, but never got around to it. I took a few seminars as a child, and home ec in middle school, but had not really sewn anything since then. After I moved to the Northwest, my roommate, restringingorder , was kind enough to allow me to use her sewing machine and teach me some things. Thanks to her help, her mother's stash of fabrics, and living close to a Jo Ann Fabric store, I have gone from wishing to one day sew to having a handful of projects under my belt, including several for dolls!

3. wish list

As so many doll collectors know, there always seems to be just one more doll in any given line that piques our interest and seems to require a place in our collection. I've added quite a few dolls to mine in the last couple of months, so I've told myself that unless I find impossible to resist deals my purchasing has to be on hold until at least my birthday. 

That makes March-December fair game, though. Lots of time to add a few dolls to the ensemble. Here are a few I have been considering recently...

(Note: All photos used are ones I found via Google searches.)

2. seattle store visit: january 1, 2017

It's January 1, which in the world of American Girl now means two things: it's both the annual debut date of the new Girl of the Year, and the birthday of Civil Rights era BeForever doll Melody Ellison! Both of these factors played into my visit to the Seattle store: I received a beautiful Melody as a Christmas gift from three dear friends, so I wanted to pay some extra attention to her today, and I've been very interested in the thought of adding 2017 Girl of the Year Gabriela McBride to my collection for the past few months, so I wanted to see her and Melody together to compare them.

So my roommate (@restringingorder on Instagram), her family, her new doll, Melody, and I hopped into the car and spent the afternoon running errands, including a trip to the Seattle store! 

(Thank goodness Melody and #64 have such easy to fix hair, right? I try to never post pictures of the dolls looking so disheveled, but I was charmed by this picture, since something about the road trip hair just seemed so true to life.)

1. introductions and welcome

I have been thinking about creating this blog for a few weeks now, and the first day of the year seemed like the perfect time to do so! I am also on Instagram at onedayrobots.

I thought it would be best to start with a picture of my collection, as it stands at the beginning of 2017. My full collection, in order:

Ever After High, back row: Cerise Hood, Kitty Cheshire, Lizzie Hearts
Ever After High, front row: Ashlynn Ella, Apple White, Madeline Hatter
American Girl, back row: Ivy Ling, Melody Ellison, Addy Walker, Cécile Rey, Josefina Montoya, Samantha Parkington
American Girl, front row: Truly Me #4 (Youngji Park), Emerson (Mei), Truly Me #38 (Winifred Pierce)
Madame Alexander: Avon Exclusive (Aurora)
Madame Alexander: Travel Friends: India and China (Kashmira and Bo Xuan)
Barbie, back row: Leather and Ruffles (Amber), Fab Fringe (Titania), White & Pink Pizzazz (Emily)
Barbie, front row: Blue Violet (Kassidy), Blue Brocade (Estelle), Style So Sweet (Lisa), Barbie Scientist Career Doll With Microscope (Sybil)

I also have some miniature figures, including for Monster High, Sailor Moon, and even my favorite K-pop group, GOT7, that just might put in some appearances from time to time.

You can always feel free to make requests about specific dolls or items in my collection for me to post about. I hope you will enjoy watching the blog unfold!