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!

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.

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!

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.)