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Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Doll Room Update #3: Opening our Ever After High Collection


As most of you know, one of the challenges I was facing (that pretty much all collectors seem to face) is that feeling you get when you realize your collecting has turned a bit into "hoarding".  In some of my previous posts/videos, you would've seen some of that hoarding, lol.

This summer I set out to start un-boxing all of these dolls that I had been saving up to do reviews and photo shoots on because the reality is, I had gotten so far behind that I needed to just let go and open them because the reviews were never going to happen!

Birthday Ball line 

The first large group I decided to tackle was my Ever After High collection.  I'm sure most of you are familiar with this doll line as they were quite popular and I've already reviewed 1 or 2 of my EAH dolls here on the blog.  In reality, I have many more and we really just needed to open them!

First, I thought I would open of a group of dolls from the same line.
The first group I started with were these pastel beauties from the Birthday Ball line.  Two of these (the 2 on the left) were Target exclusives, I believe, and came with the extra bonus of being pleasantly scented.  The smaller three were found at both Target and Amazon (and probably other places as well, but those were the only places I bought mine from.)


Next, I wanted to try opening a bunch of different lines of the same character.  I chose Apple White (naturally) and here are those lovely gals below.  
I decided to keep the signature wave one doll (2nd from the right) in her box as I already had a double of her opened and I wanted to preserve her, at least for now. 


Hat-tastic Tea Party, Mirror Beach, Fairest of them All and Throne-coming.

Gorgeous. 

Courtly Jester, Meeshell Mermaid, Jillian Beanstalk, Farrah Goodfairy, Justine Dancer and Nina Thumbell.

Next I opened some single characters from the more recent releases.  These were some of the last "quality" dolls that were released in my opinion.  These are all fully articulated and nicely detailed, but changes can be noticed, such as the smaller head size and lack of earrings or extra jewelry. 



I also opened the last of my signatures which were Cedar and Ginger. 

One evening, I also felt motivated to put together my white bookshelf that had been leaning against the wall for the past few months and I'm so glad I did.  It was so fun to actually put some dolls on a shelf. :)


As I was moving along towards the earlier releases, it was getting a little harder for me to make myself open them.  I really like the design of the older dolls and their packaging is so pleasing to the eye.  They would look great displayed like books on a shelf, but I knew that I needed to get them open.  No more hoarding!

Beautiful Thronecoming packaging. 

Beautiful Legacy Day packaging. 



Here they are on display.  They're a bit crammed in there so I haven't quite figured out how I want to display them yet. (In reality, if you watch my video, you will see that I can't display them at all at this time because Little Button likes to tear up the doll room!)


Here's more dolls up on the shelves. I think I prefer a "less is more" approach to displays, to be honest.


While I was unboxing, I happened to notice that a few dolls were more rare than others and were selling for a nice price on eBay.  I let go of this Ashlynn Ella (she must've been a Walmart exclusive), but still have this Kitty in her box.  I'm still torn as to whether to sell her or not.  I already had a double of Ashlynn, so I was happy to send her off to a new home, but Kitty (even used) is pretty expensive on eBay!


Here's a look at the signature dolls I decided to keep in their boxes for now.  I know I said I wanted to unbox EVERYTHING, but I just can't do these ones yet.  They look so pretty like this! :)


Here's a look at my freshly un-boxed EAH dolls.
Since these photos were taken, they have found a tidy little home in a lovely turquoise bin, safe from tiny hands.  I kept a few of the less detailed ones for Little Button to play with, but the fancy girls are hiding until LB is a little older. :)


In this video, I talked my way through what I was doing and did a quick updated doll room tour in the end.

After filming this, I also ended up un-boxing my Disney dolls so that will be coming soon!

Overall, I had such a great time opening these dolls!  I was impressed with one after another in respect to the lovely fabrics and details each one had.  These dolls really used to be little works of art.
I have since stopped collecting this line as the newer releases don't interest me anymore.  They seem to be geared more towards kids, which is great, but they don't have an appeal to me like they once did.

I feel very happy with the dolls that I do have and am excited to revisit this particular collection again for one-on-one photo shoots and hair fixes, but for now, they will stay tucked away until the rest of the dolls are opened.  :)

Thanks for visiting, as always and hope you are all enjoying your collections as well!

xoxo Farrah 

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Updates!

I can't believe I didn't post anything for the whole month of October!  That's the first time I skipped a month since I started blogging in 2014. :(
Ah well, it is what it is and I'm back now. :)

I just wanted to pop in and say hi and share a few updates.
As always I have tons of doll stuff to share, but I'm at the point where I'm not sure where to start, so I'm hoping to dive in soon with some new dolls I got.

Also, I started a new blog!  It's called Sitting By the Creek and it's going to be focused more on non-doll related stuff like photos around the farm, the kids, any little travels we do and any non-doll crafts like my crochet and cross stitch projects.
I have one post up about my sister's wedding that I've been meaning to share since last year.  It was an Autumn themed wedding and so gorgeous so I figured it'd be fine to still share it, haha.  We can pretend it was just a few weeks ago!


Additionally, I wanted to share a tiny secret.  My name "in real life" is Abby (short for Abigail), but I go by Farrah in blogland.  When I started blogging, I had all intentions of remaining totally anonymous, but now that I'm further along, I don't mind being "the real me" once in a while.
I will still go by Farrah over there (and here), but if I slip up and you see me leave a comment under the name "Abby" that's me! :)
Also, my instagram account that's focused on nature photography here in the Northeast is under this name @abigailmqc if you're interested in following that as well.


I'm going to keep this blog for all of my doll related stuff so it's better for readers that don't care about the personal side of things and are just here for the dolls!



Lastly, we just returned home from a week at Disney World in Orlando so I will have more posts on my new blog up soon to share those photos from our trip.  (It was so fun!)
I'm definitely focused on growing my Disney collection at the moment so I have a few dolls to share as well as TONS of doll makeovers that I want to try to get done.  The un-boxing project is almost complete, but still struggling with the organization aspect.


I hope you're all doing well.  I need to take a day off from work so I can catch up with all of your blogs and see what you've all been up to!


See you soon,
Farrah (aka Abby, lol) xoxo