Summer Wrap Up

Oh, you know it...summer wrap up here we come.  Always a little late as is my style. :)   I had attempted to start a personal blog (Sitting By the Creek) last year to write such posts, but it quickly became clear that not only could I NOT keep up with one blog, I definitely couldn't keep up with two blogs!  I've made the decision to stop posting there and just add a personal/seasonal post every so often here on my doll blog just to make life a little easier.

Below are some photos from our summer here in Upstate NY and I hope you enjoy!  

This year we celebrated Pumpkin Pie's 9th birthday!  She was only 5 when I started this blog and very much into dolls and toys.  Now she's a "big kid" and loves art, sports and music.  I can still catch her playing in the doll room once and in a while, but my little pumpkin pie is growing up!

Here's Pumpkin Pie and me on her birthday. :)  

She's such a wonderful, sweet, senstive girl and extremely creative!  

As you can see, after 20 yrs of coloring my hair, I'm letting my natural hair color grow out and it's pretty streaky with silver! 

Next we celebrated Little Button's graduation from Kindergarten.  The kids performed a bunch of cute songs and had a little "diploma ceremony" and it was so sweet.  I was a little emotional about it as she's "the baby" of the family and already all done with Kindergarten!  The time is flying, just like everyone told me it would.

Shortly after we celebrated Little Button's 6th birthday.  So many birthdays, so many celebrations!  So many tears from Mommy!  I'm a mush, it's bad.
Her big gift this year was a Fin Fun mermaid tail, which she adored.  I can't say I blame her as I would LOVED one of those tails when I was little.  Heck I would love one now! :D
This kid is an absolute joy and your typical "second child."  Funny, laid back and completely present in the moment.  I can't believe she's 6 already!!

In mid-summer we took our yearly family vacation to Long Lake, NY, which is a cozy little town in the Adirondacks.  My grandfather was born and raised there so my mom and her siblings have been going there every summer for ages!  I grew up going there and now my kids are growing up here as well.

It's a very special place for us to all get together and see my mom's side of the family that we don't see very often.

This was my nephew's first time joining us!  My brother and his wife shared a cabin with the girls and I (hubby stays home and enjoys a relaxing week to himself, haha) so it was lots of fun spending more time with this adorable child!

We always try to visit the neighboring lake, Lake Eaton as the water is really shallow and the scenery is stunning.

Even though it's always sad to leave the Adirondacks, it's wonderful to back to the farm.  That's one thing I love so much about living here.  It's never hard to come back.

Next up was fair season. 

Before we knew it, summer was over and the girls went back to school.  I'm ALWAYS sad to see summer go as I just don't feel like it's long enough, but we were quite spoiled with a gorgeous, sunny, hot summer this year so I feel like I can't even complain!

Autumn is in full swing now and life has picked up again.  I'm trying to find happiness in the little day-to-day things and relish the little pockets of time I can sneak away to myself.

I hope you all are having a great Autumn and looking forward to all of the cozy holidays up ahead.

xoxo Farrah 

June Birthdays and Collection Updates

Hi everyone!
I hope you all had a fantastic 4th of July if you celebrate and are enjoying this summer season so far. :)

I haven't done a "personal post" in so long it seems.  I used to really enjoy writing them, but of course, life is moving at a faster pace now that the girls are getting older and our days are filled to the brim with all sorts of activity!  Life's crazy busy, but everything is great, so no complaints, ha!

This month both of the girls had birthdays.  Pumpkin Pie turned 8 and Little Button turned 5 and it felt like Christmas all over again, hehe, but at least I have another 6 months to save for the next round, lol.

Pumpkin Pie age 8

Little Button age 5

They are such good girls and so much fun at this age!!

Summer is definitely in full swing and this month we've been very busy it seems! They days are flying by.
Pumpkin Pie finished up 2nd grade and Little button is all done with Pre-K!
When I started this blog, the girls were only 5 and 2 and I can't believe how the time has flown.

Last day of school :) 

I'm coming up on my 3rd "blogiversary" this month and it's been so much fun getting to know you all. Some of you have been with me since that first year!  I feel like blogging, in general, has slowed down a bit since I started, especially in terms of the amount of people that read or follow blogs (Instagram seems to be taking over), but I still really love this space and hope to continue for a while.

In these 3 years, my most popular post was one I did very early on and it was a review for the Sparkle Girlz.  It is BY FAR, my most viewed post and I never in a million years would've expected that one to be it!

Sparkle Girlz Dolls

As for my collecting, I am happy to report that I have slowed down with the volume of dolls I have been bringing in. Now that I am motivated to clean up and de-clutter my doll room, I've come across some dolls/toys that I finally feel ready to part with.  I'm realizing that there is definitely an "emotional component" to doll collecting and the buying part triggers a feeling in me that is really satisfying, but sometimes, once the doll is around for a while, I don't really care about it anymore, but I still don't want to get rid of it yet.
Sometimes the thrill is more in the buying than it is of the having.  I had been getting attached to these dolls, but not really doing anything with them so I need to learn to let go!

I'm making an effort now to "thin" the herd (for real this time!) and to focus and decide on the types of dolls I want to collect.  I love a lot of different things, but having a focus will be really helpful for me

I still really love American Girl, Disney and Barbie/Liv.
Since AG stuff is so pricey, I just get a little at a time and it's really enjoyable when I do make an American Girl purchase as it's not very often. :)

American Girl Truly Me #59 (Greta)

I don't collect a TON of Disney stuff, but what I do have, I love.  Every once in a while I will add something new like a Classic Doll, mug, piece of art, etc.  I love the Limited Edition dolls, but I can pretty much only pick 1 or 2  per year as they are pricey as well.  I've also started collecting the Enesco Couture Figures, which are gorgeous.  

Disney Vinyl Tsum Tsums

Ever After High is pretty much over for me and I have all that I want in terms of that line.  I have many still in box, so I need to go through those and donate/sell what I really don't need.

Monster High is also fading out as far as the new stuff.  Every once in a while, they seem to come out with a nice articulated doll, but their focus now seems to be geared towards a younger population and those unarticulated, minimally dressed dolls don't interest me..  Every once in a while, I'll buy an older one from eBay, though as I still love them and there are a few of the reboots and older ones that I still would like to collect.

Monster High Isi Dawndancer 

Barbie is still going strong for me because I love their Fashionista line and they are beautiful and affordable! I can't wait to start seeing the new dolls in store so I can start getting them. They are my treat after grocery shopping! ;)

Barbie Fashionista Terrific Teal (Erin) 

Even though some doll lines are coming to an end for me, there is still so much to enjoy and collect. :) 

Overall, the doll room is coming along and I'll do an update soon! It's amazing how much a coat of paint can help brighten up a space.

How about you guys?  How long have you been blogging?
Was there something you used to collect that you lost interest in and moved on from?
If you are a Barbie collector, do you have any predictions on which Fashionistas are going to be harder to find this season?
Is there anything from the new American Girl release that you are going to get?

Well, it's been nice catching up.  I skipped my exercise workout to finish this blog post, whoops. so I better be off to bed (and I better skip the snack, lol.)
See you next time!

xoxo Farrah

Christmas Day (and Happy New Year!)

Today is the first day of the New Year!  Happy 2017, everyone!  I always have mixed feelings on New Year's Day..a little sad to say goodbye to 2016, but also excited for what the new year may bring.  In reality, it's just "the next day" so it's kind of funny how we make it more than what it really is.

Before I do my doll collecting goals post for the new year, I wanted to share a few photos of our Christmas Eve and day.

Little Button was Mary in her preschool Christmas pageant and it was the sweetest, cutest thing I have seen in ages!  All the little kids were so adorable in their costumes!

 Like mother like daughter

The girls each got camera's as their traditional Christmas Eve gift and were happily snapping photos of everyone that came over that night. Those mini Polaroid camera's are really cool!

We had a small crowd gathered at our house on Christmas Eve and we sat around the table eating many different snacks and drinking mulled wine, cider. and Baileys.  It was such a nice and relaxing evening.

I am always the last person awake on Christmas Eve and above is my traditional "house is quiet after Santa came" photo.  My sister and brother-in-law spent the night so all of their gifts and our family gifts were under the tree as well.

One of our traditions each year is that Santa puts Baby Jesus in the manger to signify his birth so we wake up on Christmas morning to find him there.  We had 2 mangers this year...this cute little Playmobil one for the kids to play with and then my other one that's been in my family since I was little.  :-) 

The girls both got Hatchimals this year, and luckily they have a "doll and toy savvy mom" (haha) that knew about these prior to "the craze!"  I bought mine the day they came out and I was so shocked to see what limited quantities they ended up having and how much people had to spend on eBay.  They definitely were NOT worth the crazy prices!  Neither of ours hatched correctly so they both had to have emergency C-sections (lol) to be released from their eggs.  Luckily, they like them MORE now that they are out of the eggs since the hatching phase was a big old FAIL!

Later that day we went to my Mom and step-dad's house for Christmas dinner. She always has the prettiest decorations and their log cabin is so very, very cozy at Christmastime!

So Christmas has come and gone.  It was a wonderful time, but I'm not going to lie..I usually like the day after Christmas so much more because we can sit home and relax and still enjoy the season.
I'll post a quick post of some of the dolls I got this year as well as a some collector goals for the future very soon!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years Eve last night and a great celebration today of the new year to come.

Happy 2017!
xo Farrah