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 

Oktoberfest Barbie 2006 Dolls of the World and Happy Fall!

This summer, my husband and I discovered a flea market!  We live in such a rural area, that these seem to be so few and far between, but low and behold, there was one within 20 minutes from our house!  Apparently, it's been there for years, LOL.

I was really lucky to stumble upon someone who was selling her daughter's Barbie Dolls of the World collection and she had a bunch of dolls there, but this one in particular caught my eye.

2006 Oktoberfest Barbie! 

She was listed for $10 brand new in-box, so I thought that was a pretty good deal! 
I LOVE the Dolls of the World collection, but unfortunately I only just started re-collecting Barbie again at the end of 2015, so I missed out on pretty much all of the dolls that are already out.  And there are A LOT of them.
I was able to grab a bunch of other DOTW dolls from this seller, mostly out of box, but they were in great condition and I'll make a post soon to show you who else I found. :)

Theses boxes are really nice and give some information about the featured festival as well as some information about the doll and the designer.  There are 2 more dolls featured on the box from that year's "Festivals of the World" line (Kwanzaa Barbie and Diwali Barbie), which I hope to collect eventually!  I think there are 7 in total.

I decided to take mine out of her box as I am not really an "in-box" collector; I just don't have the room.  She comes with a stand, collectors card and a certificate of authenticity, which is nicer quality than the newer Barbie Collector dolls!  Although, I'm sure that's not a shock to most of you, now that we can see that Mattel has made a pretty slow and steady decline into cheaper, crappy overpriced dolls!

She has a very sweet face and I believe this is the closed mouth Mackie mold (one of my favorites) and her hair style is really unique!

She's wearing a traditional German dirndl costume that consists of three separate pieces.  The fabric is thick and durable with some tiny embroidered flowers on the bodice. The skirt has a second lace layer underneath  The arm bands are separate from her outfit and she also wears a black choker necklace.

I love those colorful teeny tiny ribbons that are coming out of her hair! 

Her stockings are textured, thick and very good quality.  Shoes are plain mary-jane pumps, but do the job.  You kind of have to cram the feet down into the shoes and I feel like this "shoes sort of fit" effect is pretty common with dolls that are wearing stockings.  No big deal in my book, though!

Overall, I'm so happy to have found this doll!  She's sitting out on display helping to promote Autumn cheer as we play this game we always do this time of year where we "see how long we can freeze before we turn the heat on."  ;)
The only thing that would make her more perfect, is if she came with a tiny pretzel and a big mug of beer.  And a tiny accordion. :)


Just for fun, here's a little behind the scenes of this photo shoot.  I was excited to get the "fall backdrop" out. :)

Hope you are all having a Happy Fall (or Spring!) where ever you are.

xoxo Farrah 

American Girl Mini Caroline

Back in 2015, I started my American Girl doll collection.  One of the first mini dolls I bought, was this tiny little Caroline.  I've had these photos of her on my computer for ages and a post sitting in draft form for just as long, so here we go.  Getting things done!  Whoo hoo! :)

This Caroline was from the "older style" mini dolls that came with a rounder face and cloth body. 

Caroline has since been retired, but I always really liked her long, curly blonde hair and striking aqua colored eyes. 

These mini dolls stand at about 6 inches tall, making them tiny compared to their 18-inch counterparts. Despite their small size, I really think American Girl did such a great job in replicating their outfits.  (Look at that embroidery on her dress!)

Here's what her body looks like underneath and she's an exact mini-version of the regular doll. I love miniatures of miniatures, so I really appreciate this detail!

Caroline's hair is a little unruly and "Hermoine"ish, but I'm sure it can be fixed.  To be honest, as these dolls still get routinely played with by my 6 year old, it's still pointless to "fix" her hair up. :)

Here's just a few fun photos I took of her when I was out and about on a walk.
Taking photos of dolls always makes me love them even more!

She's cutie and a keeper for sure.
I know a lot of you collect the 18 inch playscale line, but do you also collect any of the mini-dolls?
There are still a few on my list I hope to add some day such as Rebecca and Addy (old versions), and Nanea, Gabriella, Kirsten, and Molly (new ones.)
Their just so cute and easy to store!

Hoping to catch up on all of your posts as well.  Even though I haven't been quite as active on here, I am still very much into dolls and collecting.  I have so much to share, but sometimes struggle with organizing what I want to do first. :)

Otherwise, hope you're all doing well and "see you" in the next post!

xoxo Farrah