I'm Still Here! Happy Holidays! :)

Hi everyone!
I know it's been a while since I posted here on the blog and I just wanted to say thank you to a few of you that reached out to me to make sure I was still doing ok. :)  That was so thoughtful of you and I really appreciate it!

I'm definitely still here, I've just been so busy with life lately that it has left little to no time for dolls and miniatures.  I still love them, but other priorities have taken over and this hobby has sort of had to take a seat on the back burner.

That being said, I think the other thing that had taken priority over my blog these past few years was my YouTube channel.  I had been posting on that more often than the blog, but I've decided to let that go.  I'm not going to even bother to get into the new laws that are going to start as of January 1st that will affect all the doll/toy channels because that's a whole story to itself!

I really want to get back into the blog world as I've had so much more fun interacting with all of you and sharing this hobby.  My focus in the past few months has been more on crafting as opposed to buying dolls and I am so happy about that!!

Until next time, here are some photos of all the snow we've gotten so far this winter.
We ended up having a white Christmas, but the snow is melting pretty fast at this point, but more snow/freezing rain in the forecast for tonight!

                                                  Little Button enjoying the snow bank :)

I hope you're all doing well and are having a wonderful Holiday season!
Christmas crept right up on me this year, and now that it's over I feel like I can finally relax and actually enjoy the essence of the holiday that I felt too busy to enjoy before. :)
I personally LOVE Christmas and try to keep enjoying it for as long as I can (without seeming like a crazy person) as it helps me get through this cold and dark part of the year.
I'm hoping to do a quick post of my Christmas doll related goodies, my recent trip to NYC and the American Girl store as well as some goals and plans for the New Year.
I'll see you in the next post!

Best wishes to you all.

xoxo
Farrah

Update Dollroom (aka the Girls Playroom, LOL)

Hey everyone!
About a year ago (YUP), I made an updated "dollroom" video, but never got around to editing it or posting it.  Recently, I was going through my files and found it so decided to post it to my YouTube channel.

Here's the "Before" video if you are interesting in seeing what our "dollroom" used to look like, haha!
(And here is the post I made here on the blog).   You all made such great suggestions on how to better organize this space and I really appreciated that!

The great news is that I deboxed pretty much everything I had!  That was a good thing as it was turning into a little bit of a doll hoarding situation!

But as you will see in the video, we have basically just made it into a playroom for the girls since having a doll room just for me felt like I was selfishly taking up a large space that could be better utilized as a playroom for the girls as they kept getting into my stuff anyway! ;)

Here are a few quick photos of it in a "semi-clean" state.  I will take better photos if I get it cleaned up and organized a little better one of these days. :)
Don't mind the wallpaper in the hallway as we are redoing that this summer!

I have some of my stuff still in the playroom (like a few boxed Barbies and my Limited Edition Disney dolls, but pretty much my entire collection of dolls (American Girl, Disney, Monster High, Ever After High, Barbie and miscellanous) are all safely tucked away in bins so they don't get too trashed from little hands. :)

Since I took this video, Pumpkin Pie (my now 9 year old!) doesn't really play in here anymore, which is sad (she's a tech geek and has told me that she doesn't really like dolls anymore)!  It's still ok, though as Little Button (now 6) loves this room and plays in here almost daily.  I can't believe how quickly the girls are growing up!!
I remember when I couldn't keep her away from my dolls.  She especially loved Monster High back in the day.
Sometimes I will catch older daughter playing Barbies with her sister, and that always makes me so happy.  I deliberately monitor "screen time" with them so it forces them to play like they should!

I know I have complained in the past about how it's hard to collect dolls when you have children that want to play with your collection, but in my heart, I know that my 6 year old will probably grow out of dolls soon as well and then it will feel a little lonely to just have this collection by myself!
Part of the joy in having a collection I guess was actually sharing it with my daughters.  We used to have so much fun going "doll-hunting" and seeing what was new in the toy isle.
Even though I let them play with almost all of my collection and a lot got "very played with",  I definitely am thankful that I did.

I guess time will tell, though when they do grow out of dolls and it might just be a big relief to actually have a space to just have my own collection down the road!  ;)

Have any of you started your doll collections when your children were younger or you had kids in your lives that wanted to play with everything?
Have you always loved dolls all along since childhood or did you take a break when you were teens/younger adults?

I think I have just always loved dolls.  I loved Barbie/Disney into my early teens and although I stopped playing with and collecting them, when I got my first apartment in my early 20s, I discovered eBay and bought a few of my old 80s toys back to keep on my dresser.
Then I had kids in my early 30s and the love of dolls was rekindled and the rest is history!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the video.

See you in the next post! :)
xoxo

Farrah

Thrifty Makeovers! (Monster High and Ever After High)

Ok gang, today it's time for a doll makeover post!

Gosh.  I had this entire review typed up and ready to hit "Publish", but blogger froze and wouldn't let me do anything!  When I refreshed, it all disappeared.  Ahh!  

I'll try to do my best to write what I had, but at this point, I think the photos will pretty much just speak for themselves!

The girls and I finally got lucky at our local thrift store and came across a bag of donated Monster High and Ever After High dolls!  

Pictured from left is Sugar Coated Holly O'Hair (EAH), Picture Day Abbey (MH), Posea Reef (MH), Signature Jane Boolittle (MH), Ghoul's Alive Clawdeen (MH) and Signature Raven (EAH). 

It was really fun to clean everyone up and see how much life 2nd hand dolls still have left in them. 

All of the dolls above were only $1 each. 

First up is Ghoul's Alive Clawdeen.  She wasn't too bad, but she definitely needed some help in the hair department. 

Here she is all cleaned up and she's looking pretty good!
She has this gimmick where you press a button on her back and her eyes close and she looks like she is howling.  The gimmick no longer works, but she's still a cool doll. 

Next is Picture Day Abbey and she was pretty much complete in terms of outfit and accessories!  Whoever had these dolls before took pretty good care of them and beside the messy hair, they didn't look like they were played with too much.

This Abbey had VERY gluey hair though and I had to do 4-5 glue treatments on her to get the stickiness out of her hair!
Overall she came out pretty good, but she's actually a double for us, so she may find herself back at the thrift shop!  At least now she's clean and glue-free! :)

                                                                                                                                   
Raven Queen is also a double for us, but I couldn't pass her up.  She was also "complete" as far as her outfit goes, but her hair was also VERY gluey.  She took several glue treatments to finally have soft, manageable hair again. 

It was cool to find a signature Jane Boolittle doll and she also barely looked played with!  Luckily her hair was glue-free so she just needed a scrub with dish soap\/baking soda as well as a hair wash and condition.  I didn't even take her ponytail out as she was in great shape already!

If we're being honest, this Holly doll is actually one of our dolls from our own collection.  I included her in this review as she needed a makeover anyway.  She's Little Button's Holly doll so she has been played with quite a bit.  She was also an easy clean up and luckily we found her missing hand!
I'm not sure where I put her dress though, so she is borrowing a Dutchess "Fairest on Ice" dress for now.

Posea was the biggest and best transformation of them all.  The other dolls we found together at the thrift store, but this one Pumpkin Pie found at the bottom of a box of dirty toys at the flea market. 

She had the worst hair I've every come across in a MH doll!  I wasn't sure how she would turn out, but she cleaned up beautifully!  She was actually easier to clean that Abbey and Raven!  

It was really satisfying to clean her up. :) 

So here's one more before and after shot of our new thrifted dolls. 

I really hope I can buy more 2nd hand dolls in the future as they're so much cheaper and they're really fun to clean up! 

Whether or not they all stay in our doll collection, I love knowing that if they get redonated, they will be more appealing to a child (or adult collector, haha) now that they are fresh and clean and looking good again.

Do you guys like to shop 2nd hand for any of your dolls?  What's the best find you've had out there in "the wild"? 
I remember finding a Little Mermaid Vanessa doll for $0.75 at our shop once! :)

Hope you're all having a good weekend and see you in the next post! :)

xoxo Farrah

Tall Barbie Made to Move Basketball Player 2018

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another review.  Today it's all about Barbie, and better yet, articulated Barbie. :)
Back in the fall, Mattel released their first Made To Move Tall Barbie doll.
She comes in 1 skin tone so far and there is only 1 version of her (this Basketball Player.)

Here is her bright and colorful packaging.  She's so tall they sort of squished her in there by having her do a slam dunk.

Retailed originally for $15.99 on Amazon (now she's $14.94). 

Out of the box, you can see she comes with her dark hair tied back in a low side ponytail and her expression is sort of "crazed.".   Can you imagine those eyes staring you down the court as you're dribbling the ball towards the basket?

Her face is otherwise cute, and as I type this review (months after I'd taken theses photos, lol) I've bought 3 other dolls as well.  The other ones seem to have better eyes and not such a surprised look on their faces.

Her b-ball outfit is very colorful and pretty.  I love the jersey and her matching shorts.  The clothing seems to be pretty good quality.

She wears hot pink high-tops and comes with her own basketball.  (Stand is not included.)

She can stand on her own. 

The back of her jersey has her # printed on either side of the Velcro, but it's not the neatest thing in the world because it doesn't really line up that well.  

Here are all 3 MTM body types within this tan skin tone range. 

On the left is the Curvy Dancer Barbie, MTM Tall B-Ball Player in the middle and Soccer Player on the right. 

Most of the height comes from her thighs and elongated waist so clothing fits about the same as the regular MTM body type. 

She has the same face mold and features as her soccer player friend.  There are definitely subtle differences such as B-Ball's thicker eyebrows and lack of bottom lashes.  Their eye color is also a little different, but they could definitely pass as sisters.
I'm curious about the significance of the #59 that both of them are wearing, though.
This face scupt has such pretty scupted cheekbones.

It's really clear how crazy-eyed this tall MTM Barbie is compared to the MTM soccer player!

Currently, I only have 3 tall fashionistas that would potentially be a match to this skin tone. 

Up first is Fashionista #67  Cactus Cutie (we call her Callie).  

She's one of those dolls who has a familiar face, like I feel like I know someone (or maybe I'm thinking of a celebrity) that she really looks like!

She's a pretty good match. 

Next up is Tall Fashionista #52 (Plaid on Plaid-we call her Claire) and she is a great match for this body type!  

She's really excited about getting a new body! 

This one is my favorite tall fashionista in this skin tone at the moment.  She is Fashionista #89 XOXO.  Her name is Amoli and I think she has the sweetest face!

Amoli is a bit darker, unfortunately, but I don't know if there will ever be a perfect match for her as she's sort of a unique skin tone.

Ehh,  I'll make it work. 

Just for fun, here's a comparison of the Mattel Wonder Woman body and tall MTM.  She's an ok match if you wanted to have a Wonder Woman doll who is bit taller thank your other dolls.  (She IS an Amazonian, you know :).)

Overall, I'm really happy they added a tall MTM Barbie in the line up and hopefully they will also come out with more of these in the other skin tones. :)

I know only a few of you that read my blog actually collect Barbie, so for those that do, will you be getting her?
If you don't collect Barbie, what are your thoughts on these articulated MTM dolls??

Even though I don't really have time for doll photography anymore, they are really fun to pose and photograph, lol!  It's so nice to have the height variety.
MTM bodies in general are pretty easy to find at the moment so I need to get all my modern Barbies out and see who needs a new body!

I hope you're all finding time for your collections and enjoying all of your dolls and miniatures. 

Thanks for stopping by!
xoxo Farrah