AGs newest releases!!

I feel like I just got the Sears and Toys-R-Us catalogs in the mail, with AG's new releases. (For viewers who didn't have those... yes, I'm over 25, so I did, lol, you went through catalogs you got, circled all the items you wanted, and let Mom and Dad know/left big notes around).  I used to go through them, and then write letters to Santa (that my parents "proof-read") asking for my top 5 items.  Thanks to American Girl's latest releases... I'd say my list is quite a bit bigger than 5!

Here are my top picks:

Nanea is beautiful, and I need to add her to my collection this year. When she was first previewed, I wanted her, and then for a while, I was on the fence about her.  I like my dolls to look as though they are teens instead of pre-teens or kids, and I felt her mold would be too young. But I fell back in love with her when I started seeing her used to model a lot of the etsy custom made outfits (ended up buying from AMandHDolls because of it too!)  She may need custom eyes though... so I suppose it's a good thing that I have to send out a pair to be repainted today!  Going to have to brainstorm on them, and figure out what color eyes she needs.  Thank goodness for brothers who can eye-swap for you.

And I adore her Holoku dress and pajamas!  So cute, and with purple being one of my favorite colors (as I'm sure you can tell), this definitely caught my eye.

Her pjs are adorable, and they may not be my top 5 need... but they will have to be added to my collection at some point.

Gabriela's Celebration Dress just came out, and I think I could make a crochet model of it.... but somehow, I know I will still want the real thing.  Another of my favorite colors, and the color is perfect on nearly every skin tone, so it will get quite a bit of use by my dolls. (Some of which, once I have a house again and am unpacked, may wish to find a new home, since I can only justify so many dolls in the collection. OR, may just get remade, since sometimes a few of them don't make my heart as happy as others)

Also, I know that it's been out for a bit, but I love Gabriela's Take Flight Performance outfit, and have debated several times whether or not I should get it.  Which means that it should probably get added to the wishlist. :-D

I like Z, but I feel like I may make her myself from an Ivy head that I already have (also in storage).  However, I do want her outfit, including her cute jacket. I can't seem to find where I can just get her whole outfit, so I may have to buy it secondhand... but that's alright, since a lot of my dolls are also secondhand that I have customized.

I am loving the Winter Sightseeing outfit, and I'm not usually a pink girl!  But this is adorable. And can be mixed and matched in several ways!

The Festive Reindeer PJs need to join me for the holiday... I think I have another red based PJ set, which means that at some point, I'll need to do a holiday PJ photoshoot.  Too bad that the older AG Holiday tree sets are no longer sold at AG.  I loved those.

Melody's Birthday outfit... In PURPLE!!  Don't think I need to say more.  (Though I see lots of outfit possibilities here as well!) Not fond of the shoes though... but the rest is so cute, I can overlook them, lol

I'm on the fence about Maryellen's Rockin' Roller Skating outfit.... but it just keeps calling to me! I wish they sold the roller skates separate from the rest of the accessories, as that would be all I would want... again, will likely be buying them secondhand.  Oh well.


What did you see that made you want to make a Holiday wishlist... in August???  I'd love to know!

NovaFirefly626

It's a start!! - NovaFirefly

So, I spent the Wednesday and Thursday (7/26-7/27) working on building a riser for my dolls to display on my dresser.  A riser, you ask?  It's a 2 step thing that one of my adopted brothers described like a stage, so that I can fit more dolls on the dresser (Shh, I may have a doll collecting addiction...), and so that I can see the ones I have.

I think I better explain.  I have 2 biological brothers, A and R, in FL.  (Went on vacation with my biological family in June with R).  I have an "adopted" or "second family" in MD... and this includes S and C.  And then, another adopted little sister, N.  Confused yet?  A & R are related, and S & C are related.  C is pretty good at problem solving... though not conventional.

It was a Wednesday afternoon into Thursday afternoon project.  Started out with my brother C trying to use scrap wood from around the garage, and not understanding what I drew/what I saw in my mind's eye.  He didn't want to build a traditional staircase type thing, and that was what I wanted.... so we spend the better part of 2 hours "discussing" various solutions, and working through a trial and error marathon. I may have mentioned going to Home Depot more than once to just get fresh, unwarped wood.  You know, once or twice.  Maybe three times.  C may have shot me down, saying that he thought the scrap we had around the house would suffice.  It didn't.

Exhibit A: The "mock-up" set of risers... A.K.A. the "butt-ugly" ones. C may or may not have tried to piece 3 or more types of wood of varying thicknesses together...

This was, needless to say, not going to work.  At this point, I was missing my Dad and his need for perfectionism (I got it from somewhere), because all I could figure was that I would use this til I could get to good power tools.  I suppose C figured out how disappointed I was (he was too after he took a break and came back), and he, I, and S piled into the truck to hit up Home Depot, armed with a plan (thanks to Exhibit A), a list of supplies, and measurements.

Then we felt the need to hit Sweet Frog... I forgot to take a pic of the froyo before I devoured it...

I awoke Thursday morning to the sound of a electric saw running, and, after walking Dini and Darcy, went into the garage to investigate. I was rather pleased to see everything being cut properly, and starting to fit together nicely.  I took the role of sander (I attract splinters), and S even came out to help us out (he's good with artistic flair and design, and we'd also bought trim for the Riser).

This is pre-painted, after C was finished:

And post paint:

I plan to try and get a bit lighter paint to try and highlight the trim work, but I've never that before, so it should be an adventure.  For now though, all this needs is some felt to keep it from scratching up the top of my dresser, and voila! A nice way to display!!

Photos!

So, I intended to do a full photo shoot of all the dolls... but there were neighbors next door... and I feel weird sometimes posing dolls when teenage boys are playing in their pool.  So, I got 5 dolls photographed.

I have to say, there is something relaxing about dressing dolls for photoshoots.  I love doing their hair, and picking out the right outfits and locations in the yard for the shoot. It, and Jessica from American Girl Fan, have inspired me to save up for a starter DSLR camera, so that I can start playing with light and flash and the reflectors, and take my doll photography to the next level.

Without further ado, here are our girls from the shoot!!

Delia June felt the need to dress up in one of her favorite country girl outfits

Viviyona was enjoying the lovely greenery and later afternoon breeze

Betty was loving the colors in the trees

Zinnia and Iris

My Country Girls

All together

Waiting to go back upstairs to the dresser.

I'm hoping, with my brother's help, to build what he called a doll stage (a set of risers for the top of the dresser) so that I can display up to twelve dolls, and still be able to see all of them.  These stairs inspired that idea.

NovaFirefly/Leighanne's latest mental explosion

Good evening!  It's been a long week here in MD, and will be an earlier morning tomorrow for a work meeting.  However, I don't blog to talk about work, I do it to have an reprieve from everyday life.

Lots of things on the brain that will hopefully be on the horizon for the next year or so.  I want to contribute to the 18 inch world (as well as the 16" AGFAT and 14" Welliewisher/Hearts 4Hearts), in a unique way that I haven't really seen being done before.  I don't want to go into anymore detail than that, as I have quite a few ideas, but I am looking forward to seeing what my crazy brain can dream up.  I need the creative outlet to feel as though I've accomplished something.  I want to do it in other ways too though.

Jaclyn from Little House of American Girl kinda inspired me, though I'm not sure she'd see it that way, lol.  She thought she was getting away from dolls... and somehow, ended up starting a brand new photostory this week.  I know it's not the same thing... but knowing how much she loves writing, and how much I loved it when I was younger, combined with crafting and the like... I am finally going to start creating the world in my brain around the crafts and ideas I love.

My dolls will be the inspirations for the characters (it will also give me incentive to make new guys?), and the crochet crafts I am starting to work on creating patterns for will be the basis for the town.  But, I want to do so much more than that.

I think Hannah from Never Grow Up Dolls was a big inspiration as well.  She has started writing a fiction novel, and I have delighted in seeing the details she posts about.  I long to create, and while I don't know that I have any new ideas, I'm hoping I can spin a few that are interesting to read and draw others into the world.

I don't think it will be higher than teen/young adult level... but then, I am an adult, so I suppose the story will draw me along, teasing me with its tale.

I think I might be going a little crazy with all of the ideas in my brain... but I'm ripe with ideas, and bursting to start employing them!

Photoshoot!!! (NovaFirefly)

I finally got to do a doll photoshoot on Sunday! Haven't been able to since I moved from PA to MD, been too busy. But Mother's day (a few weeks ago, I know), I was inspired to start getting back into my dolls.  I want to do a review on all the gorgeous outfits I got... but that will happen in a bit.  For now... enjoy the photos!

Mother's day evening was gorgeous, and I couldn't resist using the backyard of the house I'm staying at, since they have a gorgeous rock wall garden area!

First up, we have a lovely dress by Sashali, being modeled by the stunning Eden Illyria!  I love the butterfly print and the lace sleeves!  Eden's wig isn't glued down yet, and her middle name is from a character on the older TV show, Angel (it's a spin off from Buffy, and is definitely not younger viewer friendly).

Iris Westfield saw me unpackage this Gypsy/Berber outfit from a wonderful woman on Facebook, Beth, and claimed it as hers!  Beth sewed this outfit for her Berber girl (a Kaya custom doll), and when she put it up for sale, I knew it had to come live here with us!

Left: Eden Illyria, right: Iris Westfield

My film star, Betty Grable, is looking elegant in her Carpathia dress.  It reminded me of one of the dresses from Titanic, and so Betty, my film noir girl, was the perfect lady for the modeling job.

Mika also fell in love with a Sashali dress and hat, and I must say, she's got the right look to make this look like a breezy, fun dress on a warm spring night.

I didn't have (with me, as most of my stuff is in storage) another dress for my lovely Delia June to model in, though she assured me that she was perfectly content to wear a 1950s type ensemble from Our Generation, sold at Target.  I think she looks so cute!  What do you think?

That's it for the first photoshoot of 2017 for Sci-Fi and Fairytales!

Look forward to hearing from you soon!

- NovaFirefly

NovaFirefly: AG and other dolls to love!

I have so much to love about AG, and so much to dislike. But, that’s alright, since it’s opened my eyes to a whole new (doll) world!

First off, things to love about AG right now…

I bought Tenney at the end of February. She really is adorable, and though mine came with the newer, thinner cloth body, I still think she’s lovely. I sent her head out to have her eye-swapped with a gorgeous pair of galaxy blue eyes that I got from CustomEyesByMichelle this time last year. She will then end up with a new name, and possibly more wefts (since I see what people are talking about… one small section of her wig looks to be missing hair…. But the rest of her was good, so I’m just gonna deal, since she still seems to have better hair than a lot of other dolls I’m seeing.)

Here are some shots of her from when I first deboxed her.

Another thing to love…

Nanea! She looks a bit like a Wellie Wisher… but she is so adorable with the new face mold, that I believe she is going to have to be added to my collection (most of which is sadly in storage right now. Hopefully will be remedying this in the next 6 months or so).

I love quite a bit of Z’s collection (since I got to see it reviewed by AmericanGirlIdeas a few days ago… really behind on reading blogs lately). I am not sure that I will actually get her though, I may, once I’m in a place to have all my dolls again, make her out of parts and a bald Ivy head that I have, since I’m not at all fond of her wig.

Now, my dislikes (and these are just my personal opinions)

Logan: Was disappointed when I saw him in store. I had the intention of bypassing Tenney in favor of him before visiting AG DC, as I needed to get the first AG boy doll! However, upon getting to the store, I discovered that I disliked how skinny I felt Logan was, as well as being unhappy with his hair. I have a few other dislikes, but they may be different per doll, since we all know not every doll is identical. I plan to get some of his clothing (after it’s released), but I think I will continue to make my own boy dolls for the foreseeable future, until the quality goes up.

(See, the left photo isn't bad... but the boxed doll in the right photo... he looks odd to me.  And that was the best looking Logan out of the 6 I found.)

Z doll: from the pictures and reviews I’ve seen… the only complaint I have is wig quality. Before, the wigs were full of hairs to cover wefts when in pigtails… not so with Z.

(From the front' she looks cute... but I've seen her hair from the back from other blogger's reviews... and it isn't to the standard that I think it should be)

Now that the permapanties are no longer an issue... I can honestly say I'm looking forward to working with the brand again though.

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Okay… so, with all that I talked about above, I am starting to look in other directions for dolls now, though I will continue to collect American Girls, and to customize them. (at some point, I redo the doll pages, but for now, that is a work in progress.)

I am finding myself falling in love with some of the dolls from A Girl For All Time. I just purchased Matilda from Ebay (since she is no longer for sale), and am saving up my tip money to get Lydia next. I am not in love with all of the dolls from this line... but it is giving me another type of doll to look for/collect.

A Girl For All Time

(As you can see from the pictures, her eyes stay open, but she has such a sweet expression, I couldn't not help but fall in love with her.  She is likely to remain a display doll for a while, as she is sold out on their website)

Future dolls I’d love to get:

Gotz Little Sister Tessa

Gotz Little Sister Lilly

I’m also starting to look at Tonner dolls (the Tonner Wild Imagination type), Carpathia dolls, and some of the other new brands coming out.

I will be reviewing some of the clothing I've bought from various sellers on Etsy soon, as well as the incomplete Hearts 4 Hearts doll I recently got for a project I'm doing.

Looking forward to blogging more later!