Happy Birthday, Nellie!

Happy Birthday, Nellie Jaclyn O' Malley!

October 15th was Nellie's birthday! :) She had a great day! Samantha, Lydia, and I threw her a small party. And guess what? Since poor Nellie doesn't have ANY clothes except her PJ's, meet dress, and winter coat, Brooke is getting her a dress for her birthday!

Brooke is letting her choose whichever one she wants, but Nellie's having a hard time deciding. We've narrowed down to two dresses from the Dollies' Dressmaker and one from terristouch. Personally, I like the striped one, just because I think it'd look better with Nellie's coloring. But I think any of them would look lovely on her. Which one do you like? Dress #1, the plaid one with the pinafore from terristouch, Dress #2, the floral green one from the Dollies' Dressmaker, or Dress #3, the striped one from the Dollies' Dressmaker? I'm making it into a poll on the sidebar (be sure to vote!). I'm not promising we'll get the one that wins, but I'm interested to see what others think.



And, another thing:
One of the main reasons Brooke founded this blog was to "get to know" me again. Brooke kind of drifted out of AG's for over a year. Then she came back strong! So, she made this blog kind of reconnect with me. She had to think about my personality, my interests, take photos, etc. Now that Brooke is selling some dolls, I think I will begin to share my blog with all the other girls here at Mondale (our school). I think it would be a lot of fun, more interesting, and give them a chance for some attention too.

~Avery~

Let's break down the poll

The couture designers poll is now closed, and let's see the results! There was a total of 34 votes over the course of a few weeks.



-Liberty Jane was the first choice, and 11 of you voted for Cinnamon and the gang! That's 32% of the votes, almost 1/3!

-Melody Valerie was the second option. A whopping 55%, over 1/2, of you voted for Melinda and Melody!

-DolliesDressmaker got 9 votes, which was 26% of the total. That's over 1/4!

-sdls275/Heirloom Doll Designs received only one vote, 2%.

-Keepers Dolly Duds also only received one vote.

-Damsels-in-Dress got 1/5 of the votes with 7 votes and 20%.

-Terristouch was another favorite with 14 votes and 41% of the total. That's over 2/5!

-Other couture designers came in with 6 votes and 17%.

So, according to my readers, here's the rankings, most popular to least.

Melody Valerie, Terristouch, Liberty Jane, Dollies' Dressmaker, Damsels-in-Dress, Other, and sdls275/Heirloom Doll Designs and Keepers Dolly Duds tied in last.

Now that the poll is over, what did you all think? Were the results predictable, or did they surprise you?

What surprised me was Dollies Dressmaker only got 9 votes. Cindy's designs are some of my favorites, and I thought that Dollies Dressmaker would be in the top 3, but it placed in 4th.

Terristouch coming in 3rd also surprised me. I thought that we wouldn't get as many votes as they did.

Melody Valerie winning was no surprise, I was thinking that either MV, Liberty Jane, or Dollies Dressmaker would come in 1st.

Thanks for voting!

~Avery~

Vacation, Couture Plans

By the time you read this, Brooke will be on vacation 3-5 of July. Being the resourceful girl that I am, I've found a way to post, even on the days she's not here! How, you ask? Scheduled posting, that's how!
Go to your post options when posting (at the bottom of the text box), then change the date and time to when desired. That's when you post will publish! Pretty "nifty", huh?
I won't be able to reply to any comments though. When there's no Brooke, there's no Avery. It's sad how much us dolls depend on humans... anyways!

Well, now that I've figured this out, I don't know what to post about :P
Couture is all that's been on my mind lately, and all I can think about posting about. I'm sorry if it's boring you, and getting repetitive! I never thought of myself as so fashion oriented. But now, I'm really getting into all of this!

Well, we've been drooling over so much stuff! But now, we have a plan:
We're focusing on getting the limited edition outfits now, while we can. We recently got Kit's Blue Bell Dress, and just in time before they sold out. We're going to get some modern outfits first, since their limited. We're planning on getting:
1) Melody Valerie Dainty Dots Dress
2) Melody Valerie Pink Party Dress
3) Liberty Jane Spring #7
4) Commissioned Liberty Jane outfit, similar to Summer #2??? (maybe)

Then we'll move on to historical things:
5) Ruthie's orange dress
6) Samantha Learns a Lesson dress
7) Nellie's floral Dress
8) Emily's purple dress

I'd post the pictures, but I just did in a post a few days ago.
We're not sure if this is the order we're getting them in, but for now this is it. We're probably going to order the Melody Valerie things once Brooke gets back from vacation. There's only one left in stock of each, and we don't want them to sell. Brooke says she won't order them until we're back because she doesn't want them to arrive when she's gone. But I know the real reason is she can't decide/justify getting 3 couture pieces so rapidly.

Well, there will be 2 other scheduled posts. One on the 4th and one on the 5th. Keep in mind I'm not actually online, so I can't read blogs, comments, etc.

Talk to you later,

~Avery~

Doll couture-It's addicting! New JLY releases

No joke, doll couture is addicting. Thanks to the wonderful doll couture blogs (The Couture Review, The Doll Wardrobe, Damsels-In-Dress, etc.), Brooke and all of us dolls have officially been sucked up into the couture world! The thing we like is that the hand made doll couture items are really better quality than the outfits from American Girl! American Girl used to be a great company, but now the historical outfits have gone way down hill. Modern, JLY, and GOTY things are still okay, though. But where are all the details in the historic outfits from the Pleasant Company days gone?


We like way too much stuff :P As of right now, we haven't officially ordered anything. But we're looking at quite a large amount of outfits, which include:



Liberty Jane outfits by Cinnamon Miles are amazing. Yes, they're modern, but so adorable! We want to order Spring #7. I know I've already posted these pictures, but just for reference again. THESE PICTURES ARE NOT MINE, they're from Liberty Jane Ebay listings.Summer #2 is sold out, but once Cinnamon gets back from vacation she says that she'd be more than happy to work something out with different fabrics for a similar outfit.

The other modern outfits we like are from Melody Valerie Couture. You can visit their Etsy here.
We really like their Pink Spring Party Dress and Dainty Dots Dress. There is only one left of each, so I don't think we'll get them. They're really pretty though!

There's also a lovely dress for Kit that heritage4 from AGPT is taking commissions for. The blue in the fabric goes perfectly with her lovely blue eyes. THIS IS NOT MY PICTURE, it is from heritage4 and modeled by her Kit.

We're also looking at some Dollies' Dress Maker outfits by Cindy Hernandez. THESE ARE NOT MY PICTURES, they're form the Dollies' Dress Maker website. We're looking at some for our Olivia (PM Samantha):

You can read about this dress at The Couture Review by Sitara's Sonali, here.

Nellie:

Emily:

Poor Emily only has her meet outfit for period clothing! We're looking at this dress, but we're not sure about the color with her ginger hair and blue eyes.

and Ruthie:

Kit and Ruthie want a few other outfits too. I seem to find a lot of clothing from the Sam and Kit's eras that I really like. Here are the extra outfits for Kit and Ruthie. The pink one I believe is Damsels-In-Dress by Jean Marie (the link to her blog is at the beginning of the post), but I'm not positive. The other brown dress I have no idea, but it's beautiful. These ARE NOT MY PICTURES, they are FarmHouseGirl's from AGPT. Her custom Ruthie with brown eyes is modeling.

We're also thinking about giving Ruthie an eye swap so that she has brown eyes instead of grey. I think that if she had brown eyes, she would look a lot better, and be the *real* story illustrations Ruthie. One of my next posts will be about custom dolls.



Here's a dress I like for Samantha. I have no idea who makes it either. THIS IS NOT MY PICTURE, it is FarmHouseGirl's. It is modeled by her Rebecca.

Doll couture is slightly expensive, but in my opinion, it's worth it too pay a little extra for something hand made in the US. That is the beautiful thing about having a job, you have spending money! Being a kid, relying on allowance and odd jobs to make purchases doesn't work out too well. We're definitely not getting all of these outfits, at least not right now. We're not even sure who sells a few! The plan is to try to get a couture item for each doll, mainly the historicals, and build a wardrobe of high quality, hand made items. It could take a while, to say the least! But, yes, we're addicted now. Hey, at least we're not addicted to drugs or something :P Another thing is that AG released some new Just Like You items today! Not exactly couture, but as we're on the subject of clothing, why not!? I'm not sure about the new releases. Here's my opinion on the things, sorry if I sound a little harsh:

Photographer Outfit: Very cute, but it needs a shirt under the blazer! I also don't like the beret. I wish the camera came with it. I really like the blazer, it is adorable.

Flutter Flower Outfit: I like the top and shoes, but the skirt is weird. The gatherings are funny... I do like the colors of this outfit, though.

Honey Puppy PJ's: Adorable! I like the leggings that come with it. They look very comfortable.

Wilderness Outfit: I love the top portion. The shirt and vest look great. But what is up with the pants? I don't know if I like them or not. The print just doesn't look right. The shoes should have been brown, not black.

Petal Hoodie Outfit: I love this one, it's my favorite! I'm pretty sure I'll be getting it. The hoodie and pants don't look too tight, and have mix and match potential. A very decent price, too.

Tap Dance Outfit: This looks basically like Marisol's tap outfit. Marisol will be glad to hear that, since we weren't able to get this for her. Overall, it looks pretty cute.

Jazz Dance Outfit: Again, looks a lot like Marisol's. The thing is, it really isn't a good outfit for practice or preformance. And are those purple jazz shoes? Marisol will most likely be getting this.

Sparkly Angle Costume: Pretty cute, and I like that it can be used for Halloween and Christmas, although they're two totally different holidays. Down side is that the wings don't come off, so the dress can't be used separately.

Bowling Team Set: I like the colors in this outfit, they're bright and fun. I wonder if you can order replacement part bowling pins and balls to make a bowling alley :)

Soccer Star Set: Not 2-1 anymore, but for the same price, which is too bad. I like the green/black combo. It also comes with a trophy and certificate, which I like. What I find interesting is that we ordered the old blue and white soccer outfit a few weeks ago, and instead of the white and blue ball it was supposed to come with, it came with the black and white on in this outfit...hmm!

Sporty Scooter: Kind of weird looking, if you ask me. Brooke just saw an infomercial about a human sized version of this a while ago.

Pet Portrait Studio: Over-priced! They do have a picture of Paris though! The camera should have came with the photographer outfit.

School Lunch Set: Again, over-priced! You get a plastic sandwich, applesauce, a cardboard raisin box, and a lunchbox. You could get a really nice AG or couture outfit for $28 instead of this.

Salon Chair: Basically the same as the old one, only blue instead of pink. You can get the same thing at Target for the Our Generation dolls for like, $20 vs $60.

Salon Station: Pretty expensive, but I think it's cute. I like the little extra things that come with it. I really don't think that the 9-year-old dolls and their target age owners should be this concerned with makeup and appearances though.

School Desk Set: I really like this! I think the price is reasonable, and it comes with extra things. If wish we had somewhere to put it. It's backordered until July 24th already!

Starry Doll Carrier: Pink, starry, it is what it is. Very expensive just to tote your doll around in.

Hair Care Kit: Comes with some good doll hair essentials. Kind of pricey.

Hairstyle Helper: Basically hair ties and clips, which you can get at the dollar store, in a fancy case-thing.


There's also Dress Like Your Doll and Bitty Baby things, but I don't feel the need to review those. I would have actually put the pictures of the outfits in my post, since I find that a lot easier than clicking links, but it I had so many pictures already, and that's 20-or so pictures saved on the computer that we never get around to deleting. Sorry for the excessive linking, I just needed to give credit to the people's photos. Another long post with lots of pictures!



~Avery~

PS: Look at the time! It is 3:46 AM!