June Strawberries and Birthdays

Pumpkin Pie is a HUGE Star Wars fan. :) 

Hi everyone!  It's been a while, I must say...summer is keeping us all busy (as usual), but it's been a great summer so far and filled with HOT sunny days.  I am in hog heaven. :)
This June started out a little on the chilly side, but soon warmed up to my much loved, glorious balmy sunshine.
We celebrated Pumpkin Pie's 7th birthday with a trip to our local indoor trampoline gym, then to Build-A-Bear and then to her favorite restaurant, the Chinese Buffet. :)
It's so hard to believe she's 7 already!

Those blue mountains in the distance are the Catskill Mountains. 

I've been walking a lot this summer (anywhere from 2-4 miles per day) and I feel so lucky to live in a place that has a lot of beautiful scenery to look at.
Here's a look at what I see on one of my daily walks during my lunch break....

So gorgeous!!  I love living here.  I have a hard time at the end of winter, but most of the time it's a great place to be. It's funny to think that that I didn't realize the beauty of this place and the quaintness of this town until I moved back.  I miss the conveniences of a city/suburb, but would rather live in the country any day. :)

June also started the "strawberry picking season" for us and we visited a local fruit farm to pick our delicious berries.  This was the first season that Little Button really got the hang of it.

Flowers are everywhere!  I am not good with flowers and just don't have the time or extra finances (becuase I spend it all on dolls, haha) to make or keep up with a good flower garden so these photos were taken at my aunt's house up the street.

I love the smell of fresh thyme! 

The end of the month marked Little Button's 4th birthday and on her day we went to see "Finding Dory" at the movies and then Chuck-E-Cheese for lunch.  I'm not sure if CEC is just a Northeast thing or not, but that place has changed a lot since I was a kid! (Not as fun, but the girls had a blast.)

She is at such a cute age...so appreciative of everything.
Overall, June was a lovely month.  July is almost halfway over already...it's like SLOW DOWN summer!
I have been pretty quiet with doll blogging as I'm just not finding the time for it at the moment, but hoping to get more posts up soon.  I have been saving for our vacation coming up in a few weeks so not so much on the doll buying front either!
I have seen some of the new Monster High reboots as well as the budget reboot of some EAH dolls and I can say I'm not too interested as of now.  It's not that I mind their faces, it's just that their outfits and accessories aren't really up to the standard of the older ones.
There are many other dolls out there that I have my eyes on anyway! :)
Hope you all have a great week.
xo Farrah

Made to Move Barbies-Wave 2 :)

Hi everyone!
I just wanted to let you know that it looks like next wave of Made to Move Barbies are now showing up on Amazon.  I haven't seen them in stores yet, so I'm not sure if they are physically showing up, but you can definitely find them on Amazon for their normal prices of $14.99.

Here is the link for the redhead.
Here is the link for the blonde.

I ordered one of each, of course. :)
They are so pretty!  I am also overwhelmed with all the new Fashionistas that came out and will slowly be adding a few more of those to my collection.
Hopefully photos to follow soon!
Have a great weekend. xo

Disclaimer: 
I am part of the Amazon Associates program.  If you purchase something through one of my Amazon links, a tiny commission would be generated to help support this blog.  Thank you! :) 

Disney Deluxe 18 inch Feature Ariel Doll (singing and light up feature)

Phew, that title was a mouthful.
First of all, I just want to say...where in the world did Emily from the The Toy Box Philosopher go?  I really miss her toy and doll reviews.  Hopefully she is just taking a break and will be back at some point!

Anyway..sorry, tangent.

This is a review that has been sitting in my drafts for a while, so I thought I'd polish it up and post it before it turns into a "Throwback Thursday", haha.

Back when I reviewed the 16 inch Deluxe Feature Rapunzel doll, I had also purchased this Ariel as well.  It was a total impulse splurge (buying the two of them together) and I thought these dolls were absolutely gorgeous.  At the time, I resisted buying the Ariel/Ursula Disney Limited Edition set, so this was sort of a substitute for that (to make me feel better!).

Here's a look at Ariel in her packaging.  In retrospect, I should've left her in the box as she doesn't come with a stand and is very difficult to display, but my curiosity got the best of me and out she came!
She comes with her friend Flounder who also acts as the trigger for Ariel's light up feature.

Inside the box, there is a tester button to try out her "deluxe feature", with some cut out holes in the back to hear the music better.  Once pressed, Ariel's tail flaps back and forth at the knee joint and she sings a section of "Part of Your World."

Here she is showing her tail when it is lit up. My camera caught both sides of the fins at once, but I think it alternates from one side to the other. 

Ariel stands 18 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation.  She can move at the neck (ball joint), shoulders (ball joint), elbows (one ball joint and one hinge), one wrist (ball joint), hips (hinge), and "knees"(hinge).  The "feature" arm (her right arm) can only hinge back and forth at the elbow.
I will say that the flexible arm is still pretty stiff and there is not a very large range of motion.
The joints at the elbows are not that durable and shortly after this review, Little Button snapped the feature arm off (so now it's hanging by the wires!), but I was able to cram it back in to at least look like it wasn't broken.
This doll is not recommended for 3 year olds, ha!

Despite the lack of quality articulation, Ariel has a beautiful face.  She has side glancing eyes and her makeup is subtle and soft. I really like her inquisitive expression. It's pretty identical to the 12 inch Classic version of her. In the movie version, however, Ariel is always shown with bright red lips.

Her bikini top is nicely detailed and held up by two clear straps and fastened in the back with Velcro.

As you can see, Ariel's tail is completely molded on.  The tail has two points of articulation, one at her hips, one at her "knees" but the base of her tail is fixed in position.  Both pivot points are pretty limited and only move back and forth slightly. Her knee area only moves when the singing feature is enabled.

Her fins feel like there is hard plastic on the inside and then covered with fabric.  Once the light-up feature is engaged, the tail flaps back and forth and lights up in different tiny dots.

As a size comparison, here is the 12 inch Classic (2014) Ariel on the left.  This new one is so much bigger than I had expected!

18 inch Deluxe facial comparison to 12 inch 2014 Classic Ariel

Although her hair looks a little ratty here, it's actually really gorgeous in person! She has long curls and it's very soft.  There is a small amount of gel product in it to keep the curls in place, but it looks really nice.

I guess I forgot to take a photo of Flounder out of the box!
If you're interested, here is my video review of her that I did right before Christmas.  I posted it a while ago on my YouTube channel, but am just now getting to the written review. :)

I'll leave you with a few more photos of her posing in our 1960s aluminum pom-pom tree.
Now you get to see Christmas decorations on the Summer Solstice! :)

Here is the link to the Disney Store if you are interested in purchasing this doll for yourself!
She normally retails for $49.99, but I have seen her go on sale for $29.99 several times. :)

It also looks like some of the new 2016 Classic dolls are out!  I may eventually pick up Rapunzel and Ariel as I like to collect Ariel and I don't yet have a classic Rapunzel since they switched her face mold.

The newest Disney princess is also out!

I hope you enjoyed my review.  I feel like I've taken so many photos and have so many reviews to do, but it really feels so much better now that I have stepped back a little and posted less often.  I love, love, love blogging, but it was taking up so much of my free time that I was started to feel like it was a job that I had to do (a non-paying job, lol) and it was starting to be not as fun! I also was spending less time in the evenings with my husband and that was taking a toll.
I'm feeling much better in this new relaxed mind frame.  It's a hobby and it's supposed to be fun!
I really need to organize my doll room (aka walk in closet) so I can share my updated collection with you all.
Until then, I hope you enjoyed the Summer (or Winter) Solstice as well as this gorgeous Full Moon where ever you are. :)
xo Farrah

May Flowers

Hello, everyone! I hope you're all doing well and enjoying the late spring (or fall!) wherever you are. 

I haven't had much time for dolls lately, but I did take some photos throughout the month to share on the blog.  This is one of the prettiest times of the year and I love how magically green everything becomes! 

Fields of dandelions are absolutely gorgeous to me!  It seems like they only last for so long until they turn into white puff balls.

All of the cows have been moved out of their winter field and into their own pastures.  They look so happy and at peace laying in the sun and grazing on the fresh spring shoots.

One of my favorite things is to watch the new spring bulbs pop up.  It seems like every day there is new growth.

The mornings before work have been filled with sunshine and after we get Pumpkin Pie on the school bus, we're able to have a few moments outside before daycare/work.  The second half of the month was so warm!

We had also been eating our dinner outside on the picnic tables each night and I love how long the sunlight lasts.  It's hard to believe that the longest day of the year is coming up already!

Our little hummingbird friend is back. :) 

Baby birds were everywhere this month.  These guys all seemed to make it out of the nest and on to new adventures.

As for me, I've taken a step back from collecting and photographing dolls for the time being.  I'm not sure what it is, but I haven't been inspired at all.  I've even be slacking on catching up with everyone's doll blogs.  It's been about 2 years since I started this, and I guess it's normal to sort of have the hobby take a bit of a break.
I've kind of gotten overwhelmed by the amount of money I've spent as well as the amount of time I had been putting into this.  I know it doesn't seem like I post THAT much, but taking the photos, editing them, putting together a post and writing the words takes me ages.
I am also sort of getting overwhelmed with the AMOUNT I've collected.  It has been a bit of an addiction for me and I guess I was starting to not like how that felt lately.
I did get a few things this month, which I may share in a video, but mostly we are trying to save for another car and it's both our daughters birthdays in June!

Hopefully the inspiration will come back, but for now, it feels great to take a break!  I think I may try to sell a few of my bigger dolls as well as some of the Monster High and Ever After High I've collected.  It's just getting to be too much!

I still have tons of photos I took last summer of different dolls, so my goal is to post those before I do any more doll photo shoots (unless it's a brand new doll that I'm really excited about)!

I would like to start trying more dioramas and scenes like the crafts from My Froggy Stuff and I'm learning that I don't have to collect every single doll from all of the lines I like.  It's more about quality rather than quantity!
If you guys are interested in a collection video or doll room photo, I would be happy to share my "horde" before I start thinning it, lol. ;)

Thanks to you all for taking the time to visit and read.  I hope you're all having a great week!