Meet Elizabeth Gabrielle

My friend RagingMoon is a big Cabbage Patch doll fan. I don't collect them now, but I do have one from when I was a teenager. I told RM and fellow collector Treesa that I'd put pictures up of my doll when I found her, because she got mixed in with my daughters' toys. I finally came across her when organizing boxes, so here she is. Oh, and her name was given to her by me.

Originally, Elizabeth Gabrielle came in a gray tracksuit with green stripes and a cat on it, but I don't think I have that anymore. Her dress is Cabbage Patch brand, but the elastic in the sleeves is shot, and there were baby bloomers that were supposed to be worn with this, but I don't know where they are either. Her shoes and socks might still be around somewhere. I bought her apron at a craft fair back in the day. My daughter put the glittery pipe cleaners in her hair at some point when playing with her as a child. I also have a couple of photos that I took of her in 1986 when I was a senior in high school too. I like to think I was made to be a doll blogger from way back.

 

RagingMoon and Treesa, I'm sure that you know a lot more about my doll than I do, so I'm interested to hear what you have to say! Anyone else like the Cabbage Patch line?

Happy Valentine's Day

From C.A. Cupid

And Lizzie Hearts

And the Valentine's Day cards that I made for my daughters this year with the Cricut. My eldest loves Winnie the Pooh. I found a cute pattern that I think was supposed to be a cut-out, but I didn't want to deal with all of those little tiny pieces of paper. I discovered that you can tell your Cricut to use an ink pen to draw a pattern, instead of cutting the pieces out.

My youngest daughter is into cooking Asian food. She and Mr. BTEG buy pho by the large box from Costco. This pattern did have little pieces, but not as bad as Winnie. This turned out a little odd looking, partially because of my spacing issues and difficult gluing little tiny pieces, partially because the pieces didn't match up as well as they looked in the pattern (which was digital and didn't show an actual paper version.) 

 

I bought the Pooh pattern for $1.99, but I can now reuse it whenever I want. The pho pattern is subscription based, but I think since it's in my saved folders I can reuse it?? And my daughter will say it's pronounced "fu" and not "fo." And I will say, be grateful "fo" your Valentine's Day card. Happy Valentine's Day! :)
 

I Bought American Girl Felicity

but she is backordered until at least September! I don't know if demand exceeded expectations by Mattel, or if they all take this long, although originally, I was told I would get the doll sometime in June. Anyway, I know that the quality will not be as good as the old dolls, but the original Felicity is as expensive as all get out. I want this original style Felicity because of her dress, which is much closer to authentic colonial prints than the purple striped dress that replaced it, or the blue and yellow monstrosity Mattel produced after that. These new "original" American Girl dolls also come with their accessories, which I wish I had for my Samantha.

I would also like original Kirsten and possibly original Josefina, but Felicity is the one that I wanted the most. Since I won't be charged for Felicity until September, at least one more of the other two might make its way into an online shopping cart.

Since I don't like putting posts up without pictures, here is a picture from 2005 of my daughters and I at American Girl Place in Chicago. Mr. BTEG did an eight month consulting gig in Chicago from 2004-2005, and the girls and I went out to stay with him several times. I was homeschooling then, so it was nothing to drive out there for a week or so. The Dancer's Bitty Baby is sitting at the table behind her. She could have spent hours in the Bitty Baby section of AG Place. The Eldest brought her Bitty Baby and her Like Me doll.

Bunny Update, and Tonner Marie/Clara

Some pictures of my Ann Estelle dolls are next on my to-do list, but that will take me at least a couple of days more. In the meantime, I know that some of you were interested in my daughter's two bunnies and if they were going to bond. Well, it's taken about eight months, but they seem to be pretty comfortable around each other now.

Tallahassee is much more comfortable dealing with Kip, but she has been around other bunnies. Kip had a weird past, and it still seems like he just doesn't know all of the ways a bunny "recognizes" another one as a friend. But they can be trusted to be around each other now, even if Tallahassee will always be the more outgoing bunny.

When I was talking about my Tonner 12" dolls, I mentioned my daughter's Nutcracker Marie doll. Said daughter has started making her bedroom more for an adult, instead of the child that she used to be. She's keeping her Wonder Woman and ballerina dolls, but she gave Marie to me.

I'm officially adding her to the My Collection list here.

Total dolls: 45

Happy Halloween

My daughter wore this costume to work today. I made the dress and the headband for her, and as Rachael pointed out, I also made my daughter. :) I made this dress for her all the way back in 2013 for a homecoming dance. The theme was A Night at Gatsby's, and kids don't normally dress to the theme of a high school dance, but she and my elder daughter did, and they probably were more comfortable than the kids who wore fancy dresses. She wore this dress again her senior year when she helped out a friend who was going to film school, and acted in a short film her friend made that was set in the 1920s.

As far as doll stuff, I was sick last week, not terribly, but enough that I really didn't have much motivation. I know it wasn't Covid, because Mr. BTEG had the same thing, and he got tested, as he has some health issues that would make it more dangerous for him. I got an ear infection when I was almost done with the cold, so that didn't help. My last Tonner 16" post is on my plate within the next few days!

A New Resident -- Who Is Not a Doll

Chris at My Barbie's Closet recently put up a post about losing a beloved dog to illness, and welcoming a new one into the family. At the very time I read the post, Mr. BTEG and the Dancer were on their way to pick up a new rabbit to add to our family, which I mentioned to Chris. She said that she wanted to see a picture of our bunnies, so here they are.

The bunny that has been with us since 2018 is named Kip. The Dancer has been thinking for a while that perhaps Kip should have another bunny to play and socialize with. We finally started seriously looking a couple of months ago, and a week ago, less a day, Mr. BTEG and the Dancer drove to a rescue a couple of hours away, and came home with Tallahassee (yes, her siblings were Little Rock and Wichita.)

Here is a so-so photo of Kip from 2018.

Here is a picture of Tallahassee. Hers is a much larger breed than Kip's. Pretty sure Kip is a Dutch rabbit, and Tallahassee is a brown/black Rex.

And a picture of Kip and Tallahassee investigating each other. Until they get their dominance issues sorted out and bond, their pen is split in half, and they get separate time to run around in the Dancer's bedroom.

Having a bigger bunny has been extra work for the Dancer. Talia (her nickname) drinks about twice as much, and pees twice as much, as Kip does. But it seems to be good for Kip to have a fellow rabbit resident, and of course Talia now has a good home. :)

My Last Halloween Project - Not Doll Related

I made this costume for the Dancer when she was 15. She wanted to wear it to a gaming convention called Origins. She's worn it a few times since, and she wanted to wear it to work today. The bodice desperately needed new binding, and I originally made the off-the-shoulder sleeves too large and too loose. So the Dancer and I drove out to a quilt store to pick out new cotton fabric for the binding, then I made some bias strips. The Dancer helped me rip off the old binding, I machine-sewed the new material on, then flipped the binding over the raw edges and hand-sewed it down. I also folded the sleeve material in half, tacked it together, and re-sewed the sleeves back on to the bodice by hand. She freshened up the fabric paint on the front and back of the bodice. I made this back in the original Frozen I heyday, so I was fortunate enough to find pre-printed material for the skirt. It doesn't look exactly like the movie, but I wasn't up for making a paneled skirt, and hand-painting several panels with the movie-accurate pattern. :P I also found her necklace, and the hair comb that Anna wears with this costume, on Etsy. I'm glad the Dancer has gotten as much wear out of this as she has, and of course she's planning on wearing it when she goes to see Frozen II.

I hope you all had a great Halloween. We don't get trick-or-treaters here, which I find sad. Maybe someday I'll have grandchildren to go out with.

Lots of Toy Sales at Target

I stopped really quickly at Target tonight for a few things, but of course I had to breeze through the toy aisles while I was there, right? Shibajuku Girls outfits are now $6.98. I think all of the Ever After High dolls, such as they are, are on sale. Monster High dolls are on sale as well. A few of the Barbie Video Game Hero dolls are marked down. And Twozies packs are marked down as well. I may or may not have brought home a couple of Shibajuku Girls outfits and a few EAH dolls that had faces that I wanted. :)

And yes, I know I need to post a real post soon! I'm working on Chapter Three of my story, I promise! I have some photos ready for that, and also have some photos for another two posts that I'm working on. I need to take *more* photos for all three, and then type them up! I'm going to plead busy; my youngest daughter's high school graduation party is next Sunday, and I'm also starting to work on stuff for my eldest daughter's bridal shower, which is in September. Lots of fun, but lots of work!

Ever After High 2-in-1 Castle Playset Review

This was my big Christmas gift from Mr. BTEG and my daughters. And I do mean big! Fortunately for me, I was able to rearrange doll displays and get this castle onto the top of one of my dressers.

I took a lot of pictures of this, and some of them are not perfect. One of the problems is that I was struggling to find a way to get decent lighting for the pictures. But I'm tired of putting off getting pictures of my great new toy online, so it is what it is. Loads of pictures after the fold!

2016 Tonner Convention Day 2

Today was a lunch event, and a dinner event. There were also a couple of workshops to make things for your doll. I signed up for a workshop tomorrow afternoon. And of course there were the ubiquitous sales rooms, a room featuring some of Tonner's lines over the years, and the competition room. There is also a raffle room which I haven't been into yet.

First of all, the lunch event was based on Comic Con, and the event doll was Agatha Primrose, cosplaying Alice in Wonderland. This doll was available for purchase after the luncheon. She was cute, but I'm only bringing one doll home with me, if that, and she wouldn't be high on the list.

The centerpieces on the tables were large plastic figures such as Batman, Super Mario, and Darth Vader. At our table was a Stormtrooper, which I ended up walking away with after two other women at my table passed because they had flown here, and it wasn't worth it to them to ship the item home. I'm sure Mr. BTEG will find a place to put it. This time, the centerpiece was free, but again, only one person could take it from each table. The table hostess has a card, and at every event, everyone at the table writes down their name next to a number. The individual's number is how the centerpiece prize is drawn, and the individual and table number is how the door prizes are picked. Today, the super-hero themed cloth under the figure also came with it, but the original person who won the Stormtrooper claimed that, which was fine with me.

At every place setting was a box of three DC superhero doll-sized tees.

Here are some other pictures from the lunch, including people dressed for the ComicCon theme costume contest. Sorry about the weird lighting. My camera does have different settings, but I'm not even sure what setting I should use in the conditions.

Fezzes are cool.

Does anyone know who the centerpiece figure is?

A look around the room.

Some people costumed their dolls too.

Meg didn't get a costume, but was proud to show how she could stand by herself.

Supergirl, Catwoman, the Tardis, Harley Quinn.

Black Panther, Queen of Hearts, and a tablemate festooned with Hello Kitties.

The final winner of the cosplay contest, shown above, was a young miss cosplaying as... Agatha Primrose, and holding her doll wearing a matching outfit. She posed with Robert for this picture.

I find Agatha Primrose kind of interesting, because description-wise, she is a lot like my daughter the Dancer. My daughter plays Pathfinder, likes the Hunger Games and Doctor Who, cosplayed as Anna from Frozen, and is going to GenCon with her dad in August. Clothes wise, though, Agatha dresses like no teenager I've ever seen, even the nerdiest of them. Maybe they wear that stuff in upscale Manhattan.

Everyone was assigned a table number at the beginning of the convention, and sits at that table for all the meal events, but the actual table number locations get switched around for every event. This time, my table was at the front of the room, and we were first to get in line for lunch! For some reason, iced tea was provided at every seat, even though I'm sure many people didn't drink it. I don't think anyone at my table did. One of my tablemates requested lemonade, so I got some of that as well. It was very refreshing.

The presentation at lunch was the history of the ComicCon phenomenon.

Dinner event below the fold!

Misty Copeland Doll

When the Misty Copeland doll first came out, there was a huge rush to buy it. The doll sold out on Mattel's website within an hour or so, from what I've heard. Happily, it's now been released to other stores. I preordered mine on Walmart's website, and the doll arrived on Saturday. However, for once, this doll is not for me! My youngest daughter is not a doll collector, but she does have a few dolls that she cherishes, that are related to ballet. This includes a Tonner doll from the Nutcracker ballet, called Marie's Special Gift. When I saw the Misty Copeland doll, I knew I had to get it for my daughter. Not only will it make a perfect gift for her last dance recital, held later in June, but she recently chose to read Misty Copeland's autobiography for her English class, and really identified with Copeland's struggles in the dance world.

Black Doll Collector had some problems with boxes being crushed in transit. Fortunately, mine arrived with a beautiful box, although that left side of the box could have gotten crushed.

Alas, this Misty doll had two of the feathers from her Firebird costume fly off in weird directions, so that they partially obscure her face. My daughter may want to debox her, though, so it might not be an issue. Or maybe the box can be carefully opened and the feathers fixed.

Her legs are in really strange positions, which is another reason I can see my daughter wanting to debox her. One of her legs looks to be completely twisted around to her right side, in what looks like a horribly unnatural way. I do like it that her shoes are realistic. Pointe shoe ribbons generally don't get tied all the way up the calf like you see on some dolls.

And here's a picture of my daughter in her pointe costume for her recital.

I can't wait to see her surprise when she unwraps the doll! If she takes her out of the box, I'll try to take more pictures. If my daughter will let me. :)

Ever After High Stuff

I finally decided to give Chinese website AliExpress a whirl, and my first purchase ended up being two pairs of Ever After High shoes. I picked them up from the post office today, and I'm happy with both pairs. Since they're not "official," they're not painted like many EAH shoes are, which I like, since they don't "go" with any particular doll's outfit or color scheme that way.

The first pair of shoes are from the outfit of Legacy Day Madeline Hatter. They look very pretty as Madeline wears them, with the teacups in different colors. I would also like these if they were all gold; Maddy's shoes are mostly bright gold, and I like the color. I'm not sure how well these shoes would take paint, however, since they are not solid plastic, but a bit more like rubber. In any case, they're beautifully detailed. Since I don't have a Maddy, Holly stepped in to model.

I could try just highlighting some of the details on these shoes with paint. That would be less of a worry than painting the whole shoe and wondering if the color will stain the doll's foot.

The next pair of shoes was designed for Cedar Wood. On Amazon, I saw a picture where the straps are a bright pink, and the leaves and the branches on the platforms made to stand out with some black shading behind them. Again, I might consider doing something with these shoes to bring out the patterns on the platforms. I also don't own a Cedar Wood, but since Ashlynn Ella not only loves nature, but can never turn down a new pair of shoes, she was glad to model for me.

Not only does Ashlynn have new shoes, but a very special furniture piece. I blogged about wanting to repaint this item about a year and a half ago, but I'm glad I never did. It belonged to a Cinderella doll set my youngest daughter had, appropriately enough, a shoe shop.

This bookcase reminds Ashlynn of her beloved mother, Cinderella. It even has a picture of her Dad, Prince Charming.

For now, I'm also going to display books from Legacy Day dolls on top. I only have one book right now, belonging to Briar. I'd like to get Legacy Day Ashlynn and Cerise Hood at some point, if their prices go down. Getting into Ever After High late, I missed getting some of the earliest dolls at good prices.

I have actually started painting some other furniture I have, now that the weather is warm enough (some days) to spray on an initial coat of Krylon before I start the actual painting. That will make up at least one other post, probably more. I'm documenting my work every now and then through the process.

Two more things:
1. I got both of my daughters watching the Ever After High webisodes. That actually made them interested in looking at my dolls! :) My youngest daughter even suggested she should get a Holly doll, and her sister a Poppy doll. My eldest daughter likes dying her hair, and just dyed one side purple, although it's more of a Raven Queen purple.
2. When I got my Legacy Day Briar in the mail, my husband brought the box in and opened it for me. At which point he said, "Briar? Don't you already have two of those?" (I do, First Chapter and Spring Unsprung.) I guess he does pay some attention to my dolls (although in this case I think a lot of that is because I've been buying dolls from our shared Amazon account.) He also watched a couple of EAH short videos with me, although he didn't get sucked in like my daughters' did. :)

Has anyone else gotten any doll items from AliExpress? I know SmallerPlaces has, and also BlackKitty.

Liebster Award 2016

This time around Farrah Lily from Cozy Comforts and Dolls nominated me for the Liebster Award. It's a chance to get to know bloggers with under a 1,000 followers, and also find about new blogs.

As usual, this award involves thanking the person who nominated you, answering their questions, coming up with questions of your own, and nominating people to answer your questions. In case, the number of the questions is eleven, and the number of the nominees is five (six is right out.)

1. Who is your favorite cartoon character?
Snoopy! Back in my day, it was always An Event when the seasonal Peanuts special appeared on television (get off my lawn.) I always loved to watch them, and I still have some of that great jazz music on my playlist. And Snoopy is my favorite. I love when he and Woodstock sit down to eat Thanksgiving dinner after Charlie Brown and his friends have left for Charlie Brown's grandmother's house. I love when (in his imagination) he dances with the bunnies in the Easter special.

Knott's Berry Farm, November, 2001

2. What's your favorite flower (or plant if you're not a flower person)?
The pansy. I love all the different colors and color combinations that a pansy can have. It's why I named my Etsy store Sweet Purple Pansies.

3. What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
In Mr. BTEG's Italian family, Christmas Eve dinner consists of seafood. The first Christmas eve dinner I ate with Mr. BTEG's family, was at his grandmother's house. Among other things being served was calamari. But not just any calamari. It wasn't breaded or anything. It looked like the squid had been boiled and set right out on the plate (they still had their eyes!) Desperate to make a good impression with my possible future in-laws, I tried some. Meh. But it was better than trying the eel.

4. What was the last movie you saw (in home or in theaters)?
Um. Wow. I'm not big on movies. Probably the Hunger Games, a couple of years ago, when it was on Netflix, and my daughter and husband were watching it. Or maybe Cabin in the Woods, when we still had cable.

5. If you could visit any country in the world, where would you go?
Romania, but specifically Siebenbürgen, Transylvania. I'd love to see where my grandfather's parents came from.

6. How did you meet your best friend?
My husband is my best friend, and we met at college in the late 80s. Neither of us can clearly remember the first time we met, though. I guess we didn't think it was momentous as it turned about to be. :)

7. What is your dream job?
A doll clothing designer, of course! (First two patterns created by me.)

Franklin Mint Lily wearing period undergarments

My version of a dress Joan Crawford wore in the film The Women, worn by Ashton Drake's Madra Lord

American Girl high school marching band Color Guard costume I made for daughter's friend. I made a few changes to a pattern from a Joan Hinds book.

Tonner 16" Daphne, wearing two piece costume, pattern by Vince Nowell

8. If you could make a custom doll based on any character or real person, who would you make?
Loki from the Marvel movies. Yes, the character has already been made, but I'm not happy with how any of the faces turned out. If I could create a custom doll, I'd have the face sculpt made to my satisfaction.

9. What's your favorite season?
Autumn. The days are not as hot as summer, but still comfortably warm. The leaves on the trees become vibrant colors. Football season is starting. Major League Baseball is making the run towards the playoffs. Halloween takes place in autumn; it's not my favorite holiday, but it's fun.

LEGO haunted house, based on the places of amusement for visiting that occur every Halloween in the US,  created by Mr. BTEG

10. If you could talk to/understand one species of animal, which would you choose?
Cats. Although I would also like to go back in the past and talk to some of the pet cats we've had over the years who have crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

Why did Callie like to drink from the bathtub faucet?

11. If you could instantly learn any language, which would you choose?
It might be fun to learn an Asian language, so I could go to a doll website like this one, and be able to understand it! But I like Japanese and Chinese dolls, and Atelier 613 appears to be in Korean? So I'd go with German. I learned it long ago, but I've forgotten so much of it from lack of use.

So here are my questions:
1. If you could have one doll outfit made in life-size for you, which one would it be?
2. If you could make a custom doll based on any character or real person, who would you make?
3. Inset eyes. Yes or no?
4. Do any of your dolls have personalities based on people in real life?
5. Do you have any dolls that you would like to be friends with in real life based on their personalities (whether created by the manufacturer or you?)
6. Is there a skill or ability you would like to instantly learn?
7. Do you have a travel doll that you take with you when you're out?
8. Some people write stories using their dolls as character inspirations, or draw pictures of their dolls. Do you do anything like that?
9. Do you like to treat your dolls as canvases for face-painting, new wigs, etc., or do you keep your dolls the way they came?
10. Who was the first doll blogger you followed?
11. What book or movie or television show would you like to see get its own doll line?

Now the hard part, nominations. I'm going to choose: Hannah, Natalia, Smaller Places, Presto, and Lisa. No pressure, guys. Only do this if you want to.