What Happened to January???

Somebody please tell me where January went! I cannot believe it is already February and I haven't even done one blog post yet in 2017! I want to tell you that it is not because of my health this time! I have just been extremely busy. Alyssa was home from college for a month at Christmas time, so we spent a lot of time together just hanging out, shopping, talking watching movies together and so on. I am going to be getting my house interior painted, so I have been doing a lot of rearranging, organizing and purging of things I don't use anymore. I have been trying to organize the dolls. I keep most of my dolls in the basement, but I have a lot of dolls in my bedroom too. Here are few photos of the dolls I have in my room:

These are the ones on top of my armoire. I know you can't see them all!

I was trying to organize the dolls I put on Made to Move bodies -- these are all standing on my window ledge!

Here they are in sections so you can see them a little better. 

I also just put together one of those cubicle shelves in my room and I have already loaded it up with dolls. I didn't take any photos of that yet though!

I also got a doll from my girls for Christmas. They gave me the Luciana Barbie! She is really pretty, but there were some things about her that I did not like. 

Here she is out of the box. I don't quite get the white skirt. It almost looks like a doily and would be more suited to a country girl. Just doesn't seem to go with the night club dancer look! I hate to say it, but it looks like some you would use to cover up a roll of toilet paper or Kleenex box!

Here she is without the skirt. Her dancer/entertainer outfit is made of plastic. I was disappointed to see that the corset part of the ensemble was glued to her body. I saw photos on Flickr of someone who had tried to remove her outfit and it was quite a mess. I don't know if she ever got ever got it all off or not. I know it was basically destroyed in the process though! I did not attempt it! 

Here is a close up of her face. She is stunning!

Not to be deterred, I decided to keep her costume on her body and I did a body swap for her to an Orange Top Made to Move doll. She quickly adapted to this body and has been redressed!

Ahhh, that feels better!

She was quick to thank her donor!

So what is next for my blog? I have not forgotten about my annual give-a-way. I have already purchased the items, so that will be coming up soon. I will again be giving away 4 or 5 different items! 

I still want to do stories. I have been working on the continuation of the Carter-Winthrop saga and have stories in my head about the Gordon clan. There are many new residents in Hanaly Corners and some new places too. I appreciate those of you who do write stories regularly as I realize how much work goes into it. 

So stay tuned! The first giveaway item will be posted this weekend!

Long Time, No See!

I know that it has been a long time since I have posted on my blog. I am not going to give you all a long story about why, suffice it to say I had a lot going on.

My youngest daughter is currently in Europe on a school trip to France and Spain. We have talked or texted almost every day. She fell in love with Paris! After 4 days there, they moved on to Barcelona and will be ending the trip in Madrid. I am so happy that she was given this opportunity. It was a chance of a lifetime for her.

Even though I haven't posted, I have been reading your blog posts and have managed to comment on many of the posts. I really have enjoyed reading your posts and seeing your pictures! 

Thanks to the draw of the internet and online shopping, I have not gone on a buying hiatus. I have continued to purchase many dolls! This could be considered a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it! I just could not resist the new dolls from Mattel and I think I have most of the new Fashionista's now plus a few others! 

The first doll I wanted to talk about is the Misty Copeland doll from The Barbie Collection. I ordered her almost on the moment she became available, but she was very quickly placed on backorder. After receiving 2 emails extending her backorder date, I finally decided to order her from Amazon to take advantage of the Prime free shipping and some credits I had from Amazon. After reading Debbie of Black Doll Collecting's issues with orders from Amazon for this doll, I decided to wait to see mine before cancelling my order from The Barbie Collection. She arrived just 2 days after I placed the order, and she and her box were in perfect condition! Here are some photos:

She arrived in perfect condition from Amazon!

Look, no dents!

If you know me at all, you know that I don't leave many of my dolls in their boxes. They always seem to be screaming to me: "Free me from this box please, free me!"  Which I did! I have not removed her costume at this point, but I probably will as I want to compare her body to the Made to Move Bodies. Here are some pictures of her out of the box.

 Her body is identified as the "New Ballet Body". She seems to be able to pose very elegantly. Some things I noticed with her ballet costume still on are that she does not have moveable ankles which means her feet are always in point (similar to Alvin Alley and some of the other collector ballerina dolls). Her calves are larger that other Barbie dolls, which is good because she definitely looks like a Ballet dancer. Her costume is well padded around her breasts making them look larger than they are. She does have a very pretty face. At some point, I will probably undress her even though her costume is sewed on. At the point that I do, I will share more photos of her body.

Next up, I also purchased the Wave II Made to Move dolls from Amazon. They are available at Amazon, but I still have not seen them at any of the Mattel sites. One of them is called "Orange Top" and the other is just Made to Move Barbie Doll.

Made to Move Orange Top

Made to Move Orange Top (very clever name, don't you think?!) She has the Kayla facemold and is very tan. Her skintone is pretty close to a perfect match for Nikki. Did I purchase multiples of her for body swapping? Yup!

Made to Move Barbie Doll.  They didn't give her a unique designation, but I am calling her "Redhead".

MTM Redhead has, well, red hair and freckles. Here faceup is very close to the Western Chic Fashionista. Her skintone is pretty much the same as the MTM Blonde Barbie. 

I have been working on doll houses and other diorama items as well as some stories for the future. Story telling is a lot more work than I originally anticipated, but I still hope to more regularly post  stories in the future.

Thanks for stopping by! I welcome your comments.