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Grace and Shamsa are headed to the hospital! Both have some unfixable issues (Shamsa's head is broken and Grace has messed up eyes, a chunk missing from her hair, and puppy-chewed body), so I decided to send them together. At least they will each have a buddy to keep them company.

Since Shamsa's scars are part of her character, I decided to just do a head replacement for her. Grace was in worse shape than I thought when I bought her, so she will come back brand new.

Bon voyage, dollies!

#american girl dolls #american girl #my dolls #grace thomas #shamsa mansour

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It's a late 80s-early 90s party!

Shamsa, Tabitha and Lila, in shorts, are ready for summer, Louisa's fringed jacket look is good for transitional weather; Blaire, LaRae and Annika are ready for cooler days.

I am super bad at taking pano, pictures, here are some closer shots

#american girl dolls #american girl #my dolls #agig #ag

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Captains of the Sparkle Squad, Tabitha and Lila, are showing off their shine for Lookalike week.

#american girl dolls #american girl #my dolls #agig #ag #lila monetti #tabitha crow

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Blaire and Bonny

This week's Spring Has Sprung prompt is pets, so I picked Blaire to pose with my desk puppy. I've got AG pets (somewhere, in a box) but Bonny is the unofficial pet for my dolls.

#springhassprungag2024 #american girl dolls #american girl #my dolls #agig #blaire wilson

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I bought this girl to make into a mini-me, and she cleaned up so well that now I'm hesitant to change her eyes. I'm temporarily calling her Jeannie Gebhart, who is, in fact, from Washington. She was a shopgoodwill purchase, and being a TM 53 was cheap because they are pretty abundant. She was well-loved, to judge from the amount of grime on her clothes and body, and aside from so dryness on the ends, her hair was in good shape. I imagine she spent time wandering through the forest and maybe visited Mt Rainier.

Here's her pic from the goodwill site:

She doesn't look nearly as dirty as she actually was, but you can see a few stains and some frizziness to the hair, and her "painted" fingernails.

I forgot to take a picture before I washed her hair, but this was before I started trying to clean her up:

She actually looked like a medium-toned doll instead of the light-toned vinyl of her original state.

I had to take the straightener to her hair to smooth down the frizzy ends, but didn't touch up her face paint at all. She looks a little (more) like Julie now.

I also buffed out a scratch on her nose, but the marks on her face came off with some magic eraser. I'll probably have to use BP to remove the ink stains from her left hand, though. There's a small spot of missing paint on her upper lip, which I'm trying to decide whether to fix or leave as a scar.

I like this doll so much better than the brand new one (TM 125) I bought. She just feels like a better quality, more true-to-life version than the newer, clearly cost-cut painted ones AG is putting out now. Maybe I'm getting old, but they don't make 'em like they used to. (And also, I love rehabbing dolls.)

#american girl dolls #american girl #my dolls #agig #ag #truly me 53

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calling all authors!!

i have just stumbled upon the most beautiful public document i have ever laid eyes on. this also goes for anyone whose pastimes include any sort of character creation. may i present, the HOLY GRAIL:

https://www.fbiic.gov/public/2008/nov/Naming_practice_guide_UK_2006.pdf

this wonderful 88-page piece has step by step breakdowns of how names work in different cultures! i needed to know how to name a Muslim character it has already helped me SO MUCH and i’ve known about it for all of 15 minutes!! i am thoroughly amazed and i just needed to share with you guys 

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Tabitha's hair was looking really rough the last time I photographed her, so yesterday I spent over an hour with creme brulee scented curl cream (didn't do much), and cocoa scented shea oil (worked much better). Now, not only does her hair look and feel MUCH better, but it smells amazing, too. Someone in my house is definitely going to walk in on me sniffing my doll's head.

#american girl dolls #american girl #my dolls #ag #tabitha crow

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pov: you fell down the vintage strawberry shortcake rabbit hole and now can’t get out

I just love the 80s designs

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Spring Has Sprung: Theater Week!

Tabitha, LaRae, Blaire, Dovie, Ivy and Louisa are putting on a number from:

🎶 Oh, give me a head with hair Long, beautiful hair Shining, gleaming Streaming, flaxen, waxen

Now won't you gimme it down to there? (hair) Shoulder length or longer (hair) Here, baby, there, mama Everywhere, daddy, daddy 🎙🎵

🎶Hair (hair, hair, hair, hair, hair) Grow it, show it Long as I can grow it My hair (hair, hair, hair, hair, hair) Grow it, show it Long as I can grow it My hair (hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair) Hair 🎵

I am nearly always singing this song when I have to style my dolls, so it seemed an appropriate number for them to perform. Ivy even got to show off her gymnastics skills. :)

#springhassprungag2024 #american girl dolls #american girl #my dolls #agig #ag #dolls of color

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Spring Has Sprung: Color Week!

Anyone want to guess Tabitha's favorite color? Anyone? No?

Well, it's green, like her eyes. She sure does look cute in purple though.

#american girl dolls #american girl #my dolls #agig #ag #tabitha crow

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80s haul! I'm working on a kid version of a mini-me, and these are totally things child-me would have worn or done. The school set is nearly perfect, I just have to find different shoes.

#american girl dolls #my dolls #ag

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A week late, and not quite what I wanted, but here's my entry for the Spring Has Sprung: Theater Week challenge.

#american girl dolls #american girl #my dolls #agig #ag #dolls of color #springhassprungag2024 #kavi sharma

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Spring has Sprung photo challenge Week 2: Theater

Rebecca Rubin is a natural on the stage. When her school puts on a performance of Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It, Rebecca plays the part of Rosalind, the brave heroine who flees to the forest after being dismissed from the king's court.

Dear Celia, I show more mirth than I am mistress of; and would you yet I were merrier? Unless you could teach me to forget a banished father, you must not learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure.

Costume made by me.

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Kirsten's bedroom renovation

It's a sunny spring day in Minnesota Territory, and Kirsten is stuck indoors, helping with the spring cleaning. Her first task is to sweep the upstairs bedrooms--she shares one with her three siblings, and so it gets messy very quickly. But Kirsten doesn't complain--she remembers her previous home, a one-room log cabin on her aunt and uncle's farm. That was easier to clean, but it was hard sharing such a small place with six people. After a fire burned that cabin down, the Larsons bought a much larger house, the beautiful home they dreamed they'd have when they left Sweden two years ago.

As for my part in this, I created a bedroom for my Kirsten doll a few years ago, but I recently renovated it to make it look more like the illustrations in Kirsten's sixth book, Changes for Kirsten.

The walls in this illustration look like they've been finished with plaster, which was common in houses at the time. The light color would have come from local sources of limestone.

So most of the changes I made were to the walls and windows. I used printed photographs for the windows, and added the twelve-pane window frames over the images before printing. For the walls, I took down the boring white wood paneling. I imitated that plastered look using tissue paper stuck to the first layer of pale yellow paint, and then I painted another layer over the tissue paper.

The furnishings are basically the same, except for the trunk on the right side of this photo. She used to store her clothes in the top half of Felicity's clothes press, which I mentioned in my recent post about moving the clothes press into the parlor for Caroline to use. After I did that, I knew Kirsten would need a place to store her clothes, and what better piece than a smaller version of her trunk?

Most of the things in the above picture are not from Kirsten's collection. The bed was made by my grandpa when I was eight and first got my Kirsten doll. My mom made the quilt on the bed and the one on the rocking chair, the pillow and mattress on the bed, and the two darker gray cats. The foot stove next to the bed is Pleasant Company, and so are the shoes (including snow shoes) lined up next to the trunk. The rocking chair came from an antique store. I made everything else: both rugs, the cradle, the nightstand, the candle and book and stuffed cat on the nightstand, the cross stitch hanging on the wall, the shelves and everything on them, the painted round boxes at the foot of the bed, baby Britta's dress, and Kirsten's quilt square in the embroidery hoop.

This is a little wooden trunk I found at a craft store. I painted it blue and then painted on the decorative designs using stencils.

That's Kirsten's straw hat hanging on the wall, from her collection. My mom made the two sunbonnets.

I gave it a weathered look by lightly brushing on white and red paint.

The trunk can hold all of Kirsten's clothes. It has room for a few more dresses too. I have almost all of Kirsten's clothes; I'm only missing her baking outfit, skating coat, and promise dress.

I also made the gingham curtains for the windows. There's a lot of blue and white going on in here, so I wanted them to match the color themes.

Next to Britta's cradle are the round boxes I made to hold Kirsten's socks and ribbons, which are all Pleasant Company things. Her lunch box and bucket are from craft stores.

I remade her honey crate and the jars of honey. They now contain clear glue dyed with food coloring. I made her little gnomes too.

The rocking chair was an antique store find. It's perfect for her to sit with her baby sister Britta.

I also painted a little flourish on the end of her bed.

This definitely isn't all of Kirsten's collection--I have a few pieces hidden away underneath her room that won't fit here. That includes her actual big trunk that my grandpa made, her Saint Lucia wreath and tray that I made, her dishes set from her official collection, and some other small things that she doesn't need in her room.

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My top 10 girlies. If I had to get rid of all but these (and I might), these are the ones I couldn't bear to part with.

Shamsa Kabil Nasr Mansour (back left), aka This Poor Girl, broke my heart a little when I first saw the treatment she had received from previous owners. I just want to hug her and tell her everything will be all right, even though she may have to go to the hospital in the future. Her eyes are still messed up and will never sit right, so she wears glasses. She was so damaged, I decided her backstory would include surviving a military attack on her home. She currently lives with her aunt, uncle, and big sister in the US, where she is learning to read and speak English.

Ivy Ling (front left) is practically perfect, and fits in nearly every modern decade. I love her unique eyes.

I wanted a Ruthie (Ruth Ann Smithens, back row) doll for some time, but not AG's Ruthie, because she didn't look like the books. Everything magically fell together (seriously, I wasn't even looking for a face and ran across the head on eBay, and they eyes and wig were the first things to fall out when I opened their respective containers) and Ruthie was born. I think she looks a bit like Liesel Matthews from the 1990s version of A Little Princess, too.

LaRae Bliss Turner (front) was an accidental find. I had been lowkey looking for an Addy mold doll for about a year, and knew I wanted different eyebrows. I kept coming back to the listing, even saving a screenshot and finally decided that she was the right doll for me. I'm still working on her backstory.

Blaire Wilson (middle back): I thought I didn't like Blaire. Blaire was blah. She had hobbies I wasn't interested in, I don't like her name, and the previous dolls I had seen had those weird downcast eyes. Then I was looking for a secondhand version of Rebecca's Hanukkah outfit and found a listing of this girl dressed in the full outfit. The price wasn't bad, and I thought I could always donate the doll if I didn't like her. Well, she's grown on me and now I can't make myself give her up.

Annika Jessalyn Nazarbayev (middle front): Annika was one of my very first dolls, and is the doll I've had the longest. Since she was originally Jess, I tied her story into that. She's Jess's niece (her mom, Heather, is Jess's older sister), and her middle name is a nod to Annika's past and her character relationship to her aunt.

Nellie Brigid O'Malley (back): I gave my Nellie a middle name to distinguish her from AG's version. She's another book-based character doll, and might just be my favorite. Don't tell the others.

Tabitha Danielle Crow (front): I never intended on keeping Tabby. I bought her as a damaged Rebecca to fix up and donate, but now I don't want to let her go. Her last name actually belongs to a friend of mine; the two of them look like they're related.

Dubheasa Ni Mhaoileidigh, aka Dovie, (back right): Dovie is also an ex-Rebecca and since, logically, I do not need 2 Rebecca-based dolls (nor 4 Josefina molds, nor 2 Josefina mold redheads with green eyes), I shouldn't keep her. Emotion trumps logic though, and I keep bringing her out. She has a sweet, timeless look that I wish AG played more into.

Last, but not least, Apolline Renee Kincaid: I bought her as a semi-dupe for Cecile who was retired well before I started collecting. I also have a penchant for creating my own characters and wanted a 1920s girl (I came up with the character about a year before the first mentions of Claudie), so she lives near New Orleans during the end of the Harlem Renaissance movement there. I love that she has the older Sonali face mold. Apparently I prefer the older dolls, as I didn't choose to keep any of the ones I had bought that were recently released.

Face mold totals: 4 Josefina, 2 Sonali, 2 Jess, 1 Marie-Grace, 1 Addy

Who would you have in your collection of 10 or fewer dolls?

#american girl dolls #american girl #my dolls #agig #ag #dolls of color

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Spring fits!

Fashionable? Not really. Cute? Always!

I got some new clothes this month, and my desk residents are showing them off.

I originally had Apolline in Tiana’s stuff, but she looked frumpy, so Ivy donated the outfit she was wearing and tried on a radical new shirt. Ruthie, being closest in time to Apolline and Claudie, is wearing Claudie’s travel dress. The outfit totally works for the 1930s.

On the left is Amicia, newly arrived and not quite ready for her debut. I’m trying to decide whether her walleyed look is endearing or irritating, but I liked how well the coat and hat went with her eyes. I’m a bit disappointed in the hat. It doesn’t hold its shape and it’s more of a bucket hat than Tiana’s cloche.

Shamsa is relatively moderately covered in an 80s sweater and Kira’s animal care outfit.

LaRae’s skirt is meant to be temporary, I want to make her a black pleated one to go over the too-skimpy shirt dress. It may be awhile though, because there’s a giant hole in my house that has to get fixed before I can unpack my other doll stuff including my other dolls. Most of my sewing stuff is packed too.

#american girl dolls #american girl #my dolls #agig #ag #dolls of color

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It's Book Week!

Ruthie is showing off her newest library find

LaRae is caught daydreaming during her reading time

#springhassprungag2024 #ag #agig #my dolls #american girl #american girl dolls #ruthie smithens #larae turner #dolls of color