Zazou Dolls, Create Your Own AG girl, updates! (Part 1)

Hey guys, long time, no update, I am so sorry!!  Life has been crazy the last few months!

October, I have no excuse for, except that I spent a lot of time crocheting, working and sleeping, as well as trying to keep the dogs entertained.

November saw me visiting Hilton Head with my best friend's family, rushing around like mad for the Thanksgiving rush (since I'm a dog groomer, everyone wants to get their dog looking pretty for any holiday, and obviously Thanksgiving is a big one.)

I may break this down into two posts, since there's a lot to update.

First off, I saw a lot of posts when the American Girl Create Your Own line came out.  I spent the last few days playing with the options (late to the party, sorry), and while I like all the different options they have, I only have one or two dolls that I'd really like, and certainly not for $200. I can't justify that for one doll.  So, while I'd love a dark skinned Jess mold (pic below this paragraph) and perhaps a light skinned Sonali, that will have to wait for a bit.

There has been another brand of dolls to catch my eye this summer.  Zazou dolls is a new company that I believe will take the doll market by storm.  I'm hoping to sit down and do an interview with the line's creator at some point, but I can tell you that the customability and variety of wigs, eye colors, and so forth make me so excited to get my first 3 dolls in soon.  There will be a full post on them, with plenty of pictures.  I am getting a brunette with deep blue eyes and freckles, a darker skinned girl with bangs, and a mythical appearing one with a lovely multi-colored wig and eyes.  They'll be here either before or after the Christmas holiday, so it will be my own gift to myself.

(One of the 3 dolls... isn't she lovely?)

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I did take the time to redress all the dolls for winter, and to pull 3 more or my dolls out of storage. I need to take better pics, but here are the girls for now.

This is Acacia.  She is wearing part of the Enchanted winter outfit (Delia is wearing the rest of it!  Versatility!!)

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And this lovely little Madame Alexander doll has a new lease on life!  I'm thinking of calling her Nyomi Keishi (no last name yet).  She makes me smile every time I look at her, and other than the fact that I am still picking out glue from her wig (I was impatient, and didn't braid her hair first before trying to glue it down, resulting in a huge disaster - ALWAYS make sure the hair is out of the way before applying glue, ALWAYS!), she reminds me of a Japanese Alice in Wonderland.  I'm figuring that this is going to lend itself to her personality.

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I haven't named her yet (also, I think she may need to get sent out for a face up once I actually glue her wig down), but this is my vision of what Maryellen should've looked like. So, she is a bit more mature, and a new name will be decided on. In any case, she's darling.

Dahlia was excited to come out of storage, and of course, the first thing she did was to snatch up the "prettiest holiday dress" she could find.  Mind you, we still have the one she wore last year, but she informed me that she had to try this one on, and that she loves dressing up.  Somehow, I can see her being my elegant model in the future.

Iris is looking relaxed, comfortable, and as such, stylish.  She posed with Dahlia, as well as on her own.

Alanna loves her new hoodie, and I'm pretty sure she will be wearing that most of this winter. Jack decided to join in for the moment as well.  He adores Alanna.

More Pics and updates tomorrow!  Check back then!

4th of July - a bit late!

Hey there!!  Jaelin here, hoping everyone had a great 4th of July!  Here's some pictures that Momma took of most of us (our Josefina girl is still in the doll hospital, along with Vivienne and another girl or two).  Linnea even got into the pics, though she says she would still like Momma to help with her hair like she is doing with Vivienne, and as she did with Savannah.

We'd all like to wish you a happy 4th of July!!

Back row, L to R: Me!, my sister Michiko (Mika), Savannah, Delia June (DJ), and the look-a-like Marie Grace (who still hasn't told Momma her name.)

Front row: Verena (Vera), Linnea, my BFF Dahlia, Kendalyn, and Alanna

We spent most of the day talking, hanging out, and staring out the window, wishing it wasn't raining.  It let up that evening, so TechGuy was able to make burgers for everyone, but since he's working on Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop's RV for the big beach trip, we didn't get to go see fireworks.  I was bummed, but not as much as my sister Mika, who loves fireworks and Independence Day as much as Momma does. (She even wrote a post on that on her own blog!)

From the Fireworks display July 3rd.

So, last minute change of plans (by TechGuy), and the final two who are going on vacation will be Kendalyn and one of her best friends, my big sister!  [TechGuy seems to think that Delia June is too 'country girl' for the beach... and Momma was so happy we could come along that she said okay.] Kendalyn and DJ have gotten closer too, and Kenna promised to get her something nice for a souvenir.

Mika and Kenna in the RV, waiting to start the drive

Momma says she feels awful, but Delia, in her gentle way, just said that the beach wouldn't be a good place for her cowgirl boots, and that she'd like to go with them next time there isn't sand involved. [I just LOVE her southern drawl...]

So, two things are going to happen this week.  First, since Momma will be taking her laptop, I have agreed that Kenna and Mika can have the blog for a up to date accounting of their vacation (they plan to ask Momma to write for them, as her keyboard is a bit big, and neither of them usually write, though Mika is interested. Second... I'm going to conduct interviews with the girls here, though I won't be able to update them until Momma gets home and edits them.  So, there you have it.  And, to end this post, here are some more pics from our photoshoot yesterday (Momma is making this a very photo-heavy post).

Another shot from our group photo.

Close-ups of DJ, look-a-like MGgirl, Kenna, and Alanna

Our Close-ups!  Love this pic of me and my sister, Dahlia and her sister Savannah, and we finally have a pic of Linnea!!  Maybe she'll do some writing while Momma and the girls are away.

Savannah and Dahlia

Kendalyn and her younger sister Verena (Iris' BFF who goes by Vera)

Mika and me... I love this picture!!  So happy to finally have my sister with me!

Jaelin's Journalings - Updates and furniture!

Hey Hey Hey!!  We have a new blog design!  Linnea sat down with me, Dahlia, Momma, and Iris, and we all found a background and color scheme we all liked!  Dahlia got to contribute with the "Firefly" header (she loooooves the show... so do we, though not like she does) and her butterflies, Linnea got her ocean colors, and I got my steampunk stopwatch.  All in all, I like it.  (I'd have made the background look like a dark steampunk night, but as everyone pointed out, we don't want it to look like a creepy blog).

Another new girl (Momma assures us it's the last one for a while... she says TechGuy hasn't had time to put up another shelf for us, and we're out of room) arrived Tuesday night.  After conferring with her for two days, (the shortest it's ever taken any of us, other than Dahlia), she introduced herself.

Everyone, meet Delia June.

Delia June (she tells me that she is fine being called just Delia, but it reminds me of TechGuy's mom, who has 2 first names as well) has agreed to do an interview with me at some point, and has the sweetest accent.  I think it's from one of the Carolinas.

Alanna got to go out to the barn today with Momma, where the workshop is.  Momma says I need a chair and loveseat if I am to do interviews, and I can hardly disagree with that.

I'm going to hand the laptop over to Alanna now, so that she can tell you all about her afternoon.

Hey guys, it's Alanna.  I had the neatest bonding experience today with Momma.  She hung out with us all this morning after getting back from the local Autism movie day, where she says they watched "Home".  I wish I'd been allowed to go, it wasn't Marvel, but a lot of us love Big Bang Theory, and the guy who plays Sheldon Cooper was the voice of the Alien "O".  I think if I'd have gone though, the kids may have thought I was 'just' a doll (since no one would understand the fact that, while vinyl, we're as alive as you, so long as we receive interaction from Momma regularly).  

Anyways... so, she was looking at her laptop for a while, and the next thing we all know, she took it outside with her, all excited.  A bit later, Momma came back in, asking if anyone was willing to go out to the workshop with her. I had on lounge clothes, so I asked her to help me throw on the jean vest I wanted to wear, and out we went.  I haven't gotten to go anywhere with Momma by myself yet, so this sounded like a good time.  She took me out, let me goof off with her laptop, and explained that she wanted to build a set of livingroom furniture for us to use.  She needed someone to help her with the measurements, and to keep an eye on both her and the laptop, since it was her first time using any of TechGuy's power tools.  She used a table saw after we drafted a pattern (this was something I'd never expected to see).  I see Tony Stark make these awesome inventions, but never the blueprints behind them.  I pretended it was Tony's workshop, and that J.A.R.V.I.S. was there with us, telling us what to do. Actually, it was her boyfriend, but it was amusing to pretend.  

Momma was nervous, since the table saw has one of those huge blades, but she did great.  Then, she got to use the bandsaw, which I think it's become her favorite.  It's got a tiny blade, and when I looked it up, it's used to do 'scrollwork', like what you see on nice wood furniture, the kind with the fancy edges.  I can't wait to work on the furniture with her again, I'm hoping to get to sand or something other than supervise, but apparently vinyl and power sanders don't mix, so we'll see if she lets me sand anything by hand.  We decided to make fancy arm rests for the chair and loveseat, but for now, all we were able to do today was cut out most of the framework.  We've got some work ahead of us, but it's going to be great.  TechGuy says we need a lathe if we want to do the spindly looking decorative poles for beds, and I think Momma may have found her niche, if she keeps doing it.  It didn't look too hard, once she understood all the numbers and how the tools were used.

Oops, long post, here Jaelin, all yours again.  Thanks for letting me blog!

Thanks Alanna.  I'm excited to get furniture like some of the talk show hosts, it feels like I'm going to be a real reporter one day!

I was going to interview Savannah and Dahlia, but we decided to wait until we had a real place to do it.  Also, TechGuy is going to get out his photography stuff for Momma to use (he bought it to photograph his trains... they both really love to photograph their favorite things), so we should have some pretty cool lights and stuff like that to work with.

Type at you later,

 - Jaelin, signing out now!

It's been a loooong week

Jaelin's Journalings

Hey guys, Jaelin here! A whole bunch of stuff has happened since my last very short posting. I was supposed to post last Wednesday, but one of Momma's best friends had an emergency, and Momma didn't take her laptop, so I couldn't email her my Journaling for her to edit. And then with the crazy busy weekend (more on that in a bit) and Momma working on Memorial day, well, here we are at Wednesday again!

First on the list: Alanna and Linnea made it back from the doll hospital! I only got to meet and talk to the girls the morning they were admitted, since I didn't get to Momma's house until the night before. She took me to the friend's house mentioned above, so we talked on the drive down. Alanna's really into her Martial Arts and her superhero stuff, and it was on the drive down that Linnea and I decided we wanted to create a blog. Ahh, memories. Anyways...

Alanna in her Hospital Attire she was sent home in. She is almost ready to introduce herself to you guys... on momma's website.  We may link to that page when it's all done.

Alanna's throat was a bit froggy for the first day or two, but she's doing great now. Linnea had Momma find her glasses (she's near-sighted) and curl her hair, and she says that now all she needs is the right outfit, and she'll be ready for her debut. (Yeah, she actually called it that. And I don't know what she means by that. She's not anywhere near as "fashion conscience" as Vera is. Linnea is... well, she's interesting. Nothing mentally wrong... but she's such a dreamer, that she's absentminded. Shh, don't tell her I said that!)

Second: Not only did Linnea get her hair done Saturday, Momma had 3 new girls to add to the mix. She hasn't introduced us to them yet, but I'm sure she will. I do know that there is a new girl on our shelf (her boyfriend, TechGuy, hasn't had time [read, space either] to build us rooms, he was busy working on the above ground pool installation this weekend, but he did buy us another shelf so that we don't have to be crammed on the one we have now), who is very sweet, but hasn't told us her name either. All we know is that she didn't think the hair color she arrived with suited her, and had Momma work her magic. She's very happy now... so we'll see when she decides to tell us her name. Momma loves helping us become who we were meant to be.

Dahlia, Me (blogging, of course) and the new girl...

Third: Momma may not have been home last Thursday (she stayed the night with her friend), but I logged onto my laptop, and the girls and I all crowded around for the new Truly Me release! I must say, I saw a new cousin, and another new friend on there that seemed really sweet. I'm sure Momma will be saving up funds for the adoption process... if she isn't, I will be encouraging her to do so. After all, I know one of my Tam cousins would love to live here with us.

I'm pretty sure I'm related to the girl on the left... and the girl on the right seems so nice.

I've been enjoying Sherlock Holmes 1 and 2 a lot since TechGuy downloaded the movie onto my laptop... and I think that I got Alanna to start liking it too! She has been watching it with me, with the agreement that I have to start watching the Marvel movies with her and Linnea. I'm hoping that TechGuy will add League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to my laptop next... it's my other favorite movie, and I KNOW Alanna will like it. (From what I understand, Alanna is my best friend Dahlia's cousin. They look a bit alike, with the same face shape, so I can see that. Alanna is a bit older than us, but doesn't seem to mind me geeking around).

Alanna said she was astonded by the ending of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season finale... Momma waited for her to come back from the hospital, that was what they watched the first day after she'd gotten home. And then Momma watched the season finale of Once Upon A Time with a bunch of the girls (over half of us like OUAT. I don't mind it... but give me Grimm or Lost Girl any day of the week. BTW, not good shows for audiences under 15 or so... ask your parent's permission before watching those! Especially Lost Girl!) Hopefully Momma and TechGuy watch the Grimm Season Finale this week with me! I really really want to see where Nick, Juliet, T.Ruble and the rest of the gang end up! Will have to post all about the show when we do. Maybe I'll get to do another post this weekend even!

We know it's early, and we don't have our personality profiles up yet, but Vivienne (Linnea's sister) and Momma are Planners with a capital 'P', and were hoping I'd mention that they'd like to do a gift exchange for the holidays this year with another group of dolls. So there's my advertisement for it, lol.

Type at you later! I get to go help Momma find vacation destinations for her and her guy's 4 year anniversary now. Where would you like to go if you were on the East Coast, in Pennsylvania. (Momma doesn't do well in the car for longer than 3 hours at a time without a break, so she wants us to keep it to about a 500 mile range.) Feel free to leave her suggestions here!

- Jaelin, signing out now