I've Seen Better Days

I know its a double post day but it wouldn't be right if I just didn't make note of this as it happened today.

Woke up this morning in a pretty chipper mood.  My youngest DD wanted to "talk" with one of my dolls and on this occasion she picked Miss Molly.  Molly is my oldest and dearest doll.  She is looking forward to celebrating her 20th birthday this Christmas. 

Well, as we were playing something shiny caught my eye.  I brought Molly into the light and that's when it hit me....

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASP!!!!!!!

Molly has the starting of silver eye!! A dolly disease nightmare!  I am absolutely devastated.  My most true and loyal dolly friend is not well.

I cant begin to put into words how this distressed me so.  I know that it can be fixed and I normally don't shy away from dolly restorations but this is KILLING ME.  I just can't bear the thought of her wig removed and her eyes gouged out.  I suppose its the small child buried in the adult that just can't  stand the idea her childhood friend could weather such horrors and torments!

I really really hope that this is as bad as they get.  I can live with it if this is what to be expected. Both eyes at the moment are even in their deterioration.  It actually gives her a magical twinkle of a look.  I'm just going to melt if it becomes full blown.

I really don't think I can stomach "surgery" on my first friend.

Its bad enough that could be in my future, I'm putting my foot down on Molly following in my stead.

Z For Zorro

I've been disappointed in the lack of outfits for Josefina. Etsy carries lots of fashions for every other historical except it seems for Josefina and Kaya.

There are a lot of cute things out there and very talents seamstresses, why isn't there a market for her clothes.

I decided to just take it upon myself but I needed inspiration. I remembered as a kid around the midnight hour on Disney Channel they use to run old reruns of Zorro. I guess I didn't fully appreciate the shows back then to their full extent, but thankfully their memory stuck with me. I decided that was a good place to start.

There was one dress that stood out particularly the skirt. It was a navy skirt (this particular old movie was actually in color) and the bottom had a navy fringing that was only noticeable when the actress moved. I was really inspired by this piece.

Finding duplicates material and trimming was pretty impossible. The navy colors I played with never really matched up so I decided to scrap the idea of making an exact likeness. Instead I opted to just put my own spin on it.

Here is the result:

Without the Shawl

Different Uses for the Shawl

Close up of the tassel

The chemise is an AG piece from Josefina's birthday set. The skirt, sash, and shawl are my own work. I did all these the old fashion way; handstiched without a sewing machine. I'm pretty proud of my work considering.

Christmas in July

Last week AG added some more items to their Last Chance up to 70% off sale. I decided to place an order and get a jump start on christmas. I got a few things for my DDs but won't pen them just yet. In case some curious eyes ever do come accross this page.

The sale was decent and I was already placing an order. I couldn't resist getting a few goodies. The Hanukkah set was marked down from $20 to $5. I was interested in this set when it was marked down to $10 so of course I had to snatch this up. The menorah by itself is a nice heavy piece so I'm very very pleased with it. It came with miniature blue candles, a dradle, pretend dradle game money, very nice velveteen draw string bag, cute star of david bracelet, and a pretend gift box. Josefina was right there helping me play with all the goodies and she let me know she'd sure like a rosery of her own if I'm keen on buying other religious jewelry.

Again, I'm just using a camera phone so my pictures aren't very good.

Two weeks ago I purchased Josefina's Feast Day Finary and her Heirloom Accessories. They came in the mail while I was in horrible pain from the second cortisone shot so I wasn't able to make a note of their arrival. I'm still just trying to get by day to day through the pain so thats why my posts are not always so deligant.

The last thing I got in the mail today was a present for Josefina. I will let her show off her goodies and you can get a glimps of her new threads.

"What is this!? A present for me?!"

"I'm so excited what could this possibly be!"

"Oh it can't be! But it is!"

"Its my beloved doll Nina! I can't believe she is here!!"

Nina is a really really pretty doll. Its a primitive style rag doll that is actually kind of weighty. I

love how her rag hair is done in a very sweet twisted do. Her face is done with embroidery thread and is really too cute. She too was a part of the last chance sale and was marked down to 50% of her normal retail price... so $7. At that price she was a real steal.

I'm very pleased with the items I received today. The Christmas gifts not listed are precious and I'm just itching to share them but I suppose that post will just have to wait for the real christmas!

And so it begins... its officially christmas shopping season!

Meet Josefina!

For a while I put up my AG darlings as sat in a kind of slump. I don't know if things are necessarily better in my life but at least there is a place for my favorite past time once again.

It had been 2 years since my last AG purchase for myself. My 26th birthday I finally got to go and pick out my very own doll from an american girl store, the Atlanta AGB&B. That was the way I got my sassy Wryn (#25). She really is my everything kind of doll.

While Wryn and Kaede continued to stay somewhat in the open I just didn't really have the heart to play with them like I use to.

Fast forward to my 28th birthday. I guess things just started to fall into place again. I got a wee bit of money from both my mom and my dad and decided it was time for another doll. At first I thought I might want Kanani the AGoT for this year but then I started to look at Josefina's collection again and well I began to be tempted by her as well. I knew I wanted a doll with a lot of hair. Doing doll hair is a great therapy for me. So the more hair I thought the better! (I'm second guessing that now)

In the end I decided on Josefina. I loved her collection! I hadn't really had a historical to be die hard over since they retired Samantha and Nellie. Don't get me wrong I love all my girls, but I never was really attracted to their collections as a complete whole.

I decided to find a Josefina on eBay in good condition. I got lucky with one who's braid had never been taken down. I ended up paying about $75 with shipping. I was so excited when she arrived!!

While her outfit looked like it had never been taken off there seemed to be some stains on the chemise. Oh well. That should be easily enough to replace.

Even though her hair was all minty I couldn't resist playing with her :3

Since I'm kind of not well and not able to really get out of bed because I'm dealing with this trapped nerve business. Josefina has been a great companion. I'm just sorry these are the only pictures I have at the moment of her. My camera phone sucks and my other camera doesn't have batteries -.-