Monster High Twyla (New Scaremester)

A few months ago (like 6!) I purchased my first Monster High Twyla doll.  

She is the 2nd version of Twyla Boogeyman that was released in a line called New Scaremester. 

I bought mine at Target, but she can be found here (on sale for $12!):  Monster High New Scaremester Twyla Doll  (originally $19.99). 

She's really cute and I'm glad to have her in my collection, although she really needs a good boil wash to smooth out her hair. 

If you collect Monster High dolls and are interested in seeing a review of her please check out my video! 

I can't believe today is the last day of August.  It's also hard to believe Pumpkin Pie starts school next week. She's going to be a big 1st grader!
I know most of the world has already started school again, but up here in our area, we never start until after Labor Day and it's really late this year.

I'm trying to enjoy my last week of "slightly" sleeping in before those 530 am wake up calls (in reality, more like 6am, lol.)

I've also been trying to "fall clean" and go through toys and stuff as well as find a new way to organize my doll collection.  Since I am renting a house and it's always open to different family members that often come to visit, I have been trying to keep it cleaner and reduce the clutter.  I don't feel comfortable having my dolls displayed since I don't really have a good space to keep it organized.  I am thinking about just packing them all in boxes and totes so they stay nice and neat and just take the ones out I want to photograph so they aren't all scattered around. Once we have our own home and I can feel more comfortable doing whatever I want, I'd love to have a doll/craft room and be able to organize and display them all!

To be honest, I'm still not totally comfortable with people knowing I collect dolls because I don't really know anyone else in "real life" that does.
I guess I still sort of want to keep this hobby private for now as well and I much more enjoy sharing it with my "blog family", which is all of you!
I love you guys!

Anyway, hopefully I will eventually get over my shyness.  (I guess that is one thing Twyla and I have in common!)
Not caring about what other people think is one of the biggest gifts you can give yourself, in my opinion.

In the meantime, here are a few photos of Twyla I took out and about on the farm.
Hope you have a great week!

How can the Boogey Man be that scary when he has a daughter as cute as this? ;)

Disclaimer:  I recently signed up for the Amazon Affiliates program.  If you would like to support this blog, please consider using my Amazon link on the top left side bar for any happy Amazon shopping you might do (or click directly on the link to the specific product) and a teeny tiny commission would be generated for this blog to be used for doll reviews and upcoming giveaways.  It does not cost anything for you at all.
If you have your own Amazon Affiliates link, let me know and I will go through yours as well!  (I do a lot of shopping on Amazon, lol.)
Thank you so much! :) xoxo

July Doll Haul (so late!)

Hi guys!  Eeeck, it's Sunday night already...where did the weekend go?? :(
We had a great weekend, but unfortunately both girls got a fever/stomach bug yesterday so we didn't do too much (today is mine and hubby's 7th anniversary!) but I'm so thankful the virus was extremely mild and both girls seem to be fine today.  Yay!

Here's a video showing all the dolls I was able to add to my collection last month.  I went WAAAY overboard, but I saw so many sales and there are so many I'm trying to add to my Monster High and Ever After High collections so, well, lets just say I spent my entire "spending money budget" on dolls last month.
It's so fun, though! ;)

I hope you all have a good night and great week.
xoxo Farrah :)

Beforever Samantha-an American Girl

Beforever American Girl Samantha

Hi everyone!

 This past spring, I purchased my first brand-new American Girl doll. 

 I chose this lovely lady because she was one of my favorite AG dolls growing up (tied with Kristen!)

I loved her tomboy personality and used to drool over her gorgeous accessories every time a Pleasant Company catalog arrived in the mail. 

When I pulled Samantha out of her box, I was so pleased with how gorgeous she was!  I don't think the online photos really did justice to what a pretty doll she is in person. 

I know there's been quite a lot of debate over her frilly pink dress and how the Samantha we grew up with wouldn't be caught dead in pink, but if you sort of cast that aside, I think it's very pretty and goes really nicely with her complexion.

She also has on white tights and shiny patent leather Mary Janes.  

Her brown hair is shiny and gorgeous and tied back in a thick red velvety ribbon.  It is so soft and bouncy and a total dream to brush.  I think this is my favorite doll hair texture I've ever seen.

Sam's face is stunning.  I usually prefer the Josefina Mold when it comes to AG dolls, but when I saw her face, I was completely won over.  I still prefer the Classic Mold with brown eyes as opposed to light eyes for some reason, as they just seem cuter to me.
Samantha's eyes are a chocolate brown with a darker ring around the iris and nicely detailed lines extending out from the pupil.  I think it's nice change from just a plain flat brown eye that I've seen on some of the brown-eyed dolls.
She has cute blushing cheeks and pale pink lips.  It's hard to tell, but her eyebrows are feathered as opposed to straight lines.

Such a sweet girl.  From the entire catalog of current AG dolls including BeForevers and Truly Me's, Pumpkin Pie picked out Samantha as her absolute favorite!  I can definitely see why.

Here are some "glam shots" I took back in May when the crab apple tree was in full bloom. :)

I am so happy to have this beautiful doll in my collection.  I hope to find her original meet outfit on Ebay one of these days so I can occasionally transform her into the Samantha I grew up to love.
For now Pumpkin Pie and I have been really enjoying her and have already read a few of her books.

For any of you AG collectors, what do you think of the new BF Samantha?  Do you have her or hope to add her to your collection?

Thanks for stopping by!
Farrah xo

Adora 15 inch Bath Babies

This year, for Christmas, I wanted to get the girls each a baby doll.  Little Button has a larger 15 in baby ("Big Baby") which she has loved since she was very small so I thought she would really enjoy something new to add to her little family .  

I am not quite ready to fork over the heftier price of an American Girl Bitty Baby so I thought I would purchase these ones from Adora.

Adora is a smaller doll company based out of Southern California.  I really like their website, which includes their mission, values and goals. 

They support a charity called the "inCourage foundation", which provides gift bags of toys to children that are admitted to pediatric hospitals in their area. 

Having spent some time as a pediatric RN, this really made me feel great about supporting this particular doll company. 

I wasn't able to find specific information about how much is donated or if their is a percentage donated per doll, but nonetheless, I thought these had the cutest faces out of all the babies I had looked at so that was another selling point for me.

(Have you ever walked down the baby isle in Walmart?  Scary.)

On Adora's website, there are dolls listed specifically for each age range.  They have soft dolls for babies under a year old, all the way up to 18 inch fashion dolls more suited for an older child. 

The particular doll that caught my eye were the BathTime Babies. 

Who can resist the cute animal towels!  Genius. 

Unfortunately, I was not impressed by the lack of diversity.

As you can see, there are only Caucasian babies to choose from.

These babies are advertised as 13 in dolls with vinyl heads, arms and legs.  Their bodies are cloth, but made out of a "Quikdri" material that is said to dry in "no time."  Really?  No time?

Cute face.  

The toes have very nice sculpting detail and the chubby little feet are pretty accurate to the rounded foot of a baby that we all love. 

The right and left hand are posed differently, one being an obvious thumb-sucking hand.

Out of the box, you can see she has an orange terry-cloth robe with a hood meant to look like an owl.  There is a pink robe belt and she also came with her own wash cloth, which I forgot to include in the photo.

Underneath the robe, she has a colorful and patterned "swimsuit" cloth body with a section of cloth shaped like a belly button.
Outie.

There's a large seam the runs up her back and inside her body appear to be little beads, similar to what might be inside of a bean bag chair. 

Her eyes close when you lay her flat, which the girls really liked because they could put their babies to bed.

Her thumb also fits easily into her mouth.  Easy enough for a 2 year old to position and remove. 

This particular doll has rich brown "sleepy" eyes with flecks of amber around the pupil.  I was impressed by the depth and detail of her eyes. She also has plastic eyelashes on the top lid only on top of painted lashes on the upper and bottom lash lines.  Her hair is molded and has the faint coloring to suggest she's a brunette.

Glossy nails. 

Does anyone think of the Bee Gees when they look at this? 

This was the other baby we got.  She has blue eyes and is a blonde.  Dressed in her shark robe.  :)

I like the natural lip color and detailed sculpting of her lips.  Her brows are a bit on the crude side, but I doubt too many kids would notice or care.  Mine didn't!

I was happy to see that she was wearing a different patterned "suit" than the other one. 

Unfortunately this baby had a large gap along the back seam, which we didn't notice until she was in the tub and the beads started leaking out!  Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a needle and thread, though.

No babies were hurt in the making of this post.  

This is just creepy. 

Overall the girls have been having a great time with these dolls.  

Now, about that Quikdri thing....

In my experience, it seemed to take a good 24 hours for the cloth body to dry.  I would suggest making sure the doll is draped over something so it can dry completely otherwise it will develop a musty smell.
Not fun!

When not being drowned by my children, the babies can naturally float. :) 

Although my 3 year old loves her baby (and so does the 6 year old) she is still no match for the "Big Baby."

Overall, these dolls are cute and have sweet faces, but I am not sure they are really worth their price tag of nearly $40.  They are smaller than a Bitty Baby or other 15 inch doll which makes them a little less "realistic".  My sister-in-law still has her childhood Bitty Baby and she let the girls borrow her for a little while and they played with that one a lot more.  

The girls enjoy these dolls primary out of the water at this point.  They are very cute and old clementine boxes make perfect bassinets!

Ok, I guess they are really cute. :) xoxo

What do you guys think...did you have a Bitty Baby or think they were a big hit with any little girls in your life?  Did you have baby dolls growing up?  I don't think I did to be honest.  I can only remember having Barbies and stuffed animals.  

I am still thinking about maybe getting Little Button a Bitty Baby for Christmas (or when I end up getting Pumpkin Pie her first American Girl doll...not sure, though!) 

Anyway, thanks so much for stopping by and hope you're having a good week. 

My cough is getting better!! :)