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 

Messy Doll Room (needs a makeover!)

Hello everyone!

Tonight I wanted to share a tour of my messy and unorganized doll room.  I am putting this out there because I need to get this done, and by posting this, it will give me more motivation! 

:)

So.....

I started "officially" collecting dolls in the summer of 2014, right before we moved to the farm and in those (almost) 3 years of collecting, I have accumulated quite a mass of dolls!

I have gone through some periods of feeling overwhelmed and really questioned why I am spending so much money on dolls when I don't even have time to enjoy them. 

Part of the reason I started collecting so many different dolls is because I get really inspired by other people's collections and photos that I feel like I want the same.

To date, the biggest collections I have are Barbie, Monster High, Ever After High, Disney, Hearts for Hearts and American Girl.  I also have some odds and ends like Shoppies, Care Bears and vintage 80s toys.

In the 3 years of collecting, I have to admit that although a lot of dolls are coming in the door, not a lot have left the house and I feel like if I don't do some major organizing, I'm going to go crazy.

In a perfect world, I would love to have all of my dolls organized in beautiful shelves or doll rooms.
I would love to have a big American Girl "dollhouse" to keep my larger scale dolls in, similar to the AG doll rooms from Hannah's blog Never Grow Up.  I love the idea of displaying a collection to show off other miniatures.  Double bonus!

I would love to have my MH and EAH displayed in crafted room boxes organized by each character, similar to one of my favorite You Tubers Superbuddies Forever. 

I would love to build dioramas for my Barbies and have the collectors ones displayed nicely on a shelf.

Before I do that, though, I really need to get down to the basics.
I have NEVER really been good at organizing and I don't have a good "spacial eye" to create a vision of how I want something to look. It's just not my strongest skill. :(

Despite that, I need to spend some time really organizing and storing things in a better way.
My goal is to open all of the un-opened dolls that are hanging out in closets and take some time to think about what I want to keep and what I want to give away.
I also want to get everyone cleaned up and in proper outfits again.
I want to have an easy access storage system for clothes, shoes and accessories.
I want to create an inventory so I can remember what I have while it's still fresh in my mind as to where I got certain dolls and how much I paid for it. (I've already been sort of doing this, luckily!)

My biggest challenge that I perceive with all of this is that my girls love to play with my dolls.  Plain and simple.  They love my Barbies, they love the MH/EAH, they love the AG, etc.  They have their own dolls, but mine appeal to them more because they think they are "special" and off limits.
This is part of the reason I have so many that are still in their boxes (because I don't want them to get ruined!)
The really special ones, I will keep in boxes and high up on the shelves, but the majority of my collection are play-line dolls and are meant to be played with so I struggle with the "Mommy guilt."
I know it's ok to say no, but some days I enjoy breaking them out and all of us playing together.
Other days I'm like "don't touch my dolls!" Haha.

I guess I need to figure out which dolls they can play with and which dolls are a no-no and maybe store the "play" dolls in bins for now (because what's the point of making them all fancy again when they are just going to get messy again, lol).

I want to feel good about my collection when I walk into this room. :)

So without further ado, here is my messy doll room as it really is and I hope you will have some good tips for me!

Since I shot this video a few weeks ago, we have gotten rid of the couch that is in there, so there is a lot more room now.  I have decided I want to paint the room to brighten it up, so I'm thinking either a white, off white or light blue at the moment.

I also think I want to get rid of that large crafting table (I can take it apart and store it elsewhere for the time being).

As I go through and clean up each group of dolls, I was thinking I'd make a quick "collection" video so you can see what I have so far!

What about you guys?  How do you store your dolls?  Do you have them in bins or out on display?  Do any of you struggle with having little ones that want to play with everything?

I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)

Until next time...happy hoarding!  (I mean collecting!) ;)
xoxo Farrah