I have been making more mini books for the dolls lately!
You can see that I am a big Agatha Christie fan. And she was so popular. Kit, Addy, Nanea, Maryellen... they could all read her books.
I am also a huge fan of Jessica Townsend's Nevermoor series. I can't say enough good things about it.
The Paddington book was inspired by a friend, and I have a mini to plush to go with it!
From the minute that I even thought about owning an AG dollhouse, I knew that I wanted to customize it.
I studied art history in college. I still love art and want to integrate that into the dollhouse.
I originally said that I wanted a vibe that would be somewhat Victorian, but also classic for any era.
Well, so far the Victorian is rather winning out.
It took me a while to figure out how to bring the vision to life, and I want to share that with you.
I worked on figuring all of his out BEFORE I started putting the dollhouse together.
First of all, I wanted cloud murals on the ceiling, so I added cloud cling film to the ceiling.
I wanted wood floors without a rug design printed on them, so I got contact paper with a wood floor design to put on the floors.
I wanted bookcases to hold tiny books, so I bought these 16 inch cabinets.
I wanted William Morris wallpaper. I looked at a LOT of ways to potentially do this.
I hope that I made the right decision. *crosses fingers.*
I ended up buying William Morris wrapping paper to use as wallpaper.
For my library, (formerly the kitchen) I wanted the seaweed pattern. It's very dramatic, but I hoped it would be broken up by the bookcases.
For the living room and bedroom, I wanted the Leicester pattern.
For my writing room (formerly the bathroom), I wanted the clover pattern.
Anyone who has known me for more than five minutes knows that I love stained glass and Frank Lloyd Wright.
I had thought of putting some of my own photos in the windows of the dollhouse.
I decided instead to add stained glass windows.
To do this, I again bought cling film, to place on clear plastic and to put in the windows. I was able to find some at the right size with Frank Lloyd Wright designs. They even had two of my favorite designs, the water lily design and the Lake Geneva tulip design.
I also wanted to hang up some tiny vintage-looking keys near the front door for the realism factor. I bought these keys, and was very pleased with them.
I am very, very excited to see all of this come together.
I hope that I am able to finish the dollhouse before too many years pass, haha.
I am definitely making this a more complicated process than it needs to be. However, I am making it into something that I can really enjoy and be proud of. That is worth the time.
I am adding a mural of clouds to the ceiling of the first floor of the AG dollhouse.
This is inspired by the Long Gallery at Harlaxton Manor in Grantham, UK.
Unfortunately, I am not much of an artist.
So instead of painting the clouds by hand, I bought a cling film depicting a blue sky and clouds, and used Mod Podge to attach it to the ceiling, before I put the dollhouse together.
If you do anything like this, I recommend unwinding the cling film from the spool for at least a day before you apply it, to let it flatten itself out a bit.
I used a squeegee to smooth out any wrinkles while gluing.
This makes me very happy, and it cost $6 for the cling film. It's far nicer than anything I could paint!
Here it is in place on the ceiling. I will trim the edges once the glue is dry.
I am planning to totally personalize the American Girl doll Dollhouse.
There's a lot I don't like about the original.
I don't care about sound effects. I'm deaf. It's a waste of money to me. No doubt they were trying to make it more playable, but it doesn't appeal to me.
I like working lights in a dollhouse, yes. I wish the light fixtures were more classic and less trendy.
I don't see any need for a bathroom. Again, this seems to be popular with kids. I just don't care.
I really hate images of furniture and rugs printed on the floor and walls. It makes it look like a cheap Barbie dollhouse made of cardboard that I had as a kid.
I think having a hot tub on the second floor is silly. It makes it less like a real house.
I think they would have made more money by cutting out a lot of the special effects and pricing it lower. That would have made it more achievable for more people. Obviously they were trying to make it "luxury." To me, they just made it silly.
I'm planning to make mine a lot more Victorian and classic and remove a lot of the included features. I want to be able to display both historical and modern dolls and change the interior for both the season and the time period.
I have a lot of ideas about how to do this. I will share soon.
Here are some more pictures from the same photoshoot with autumn leaves.
I took some dolls outside to have pictures in the autumn leaves. I was in a highly visible spot, and I got a bit worried about being out in public with so many dolls. I wasn't very creative with the posing, but the pictures are cute!
Mara
I really should downsize my American Girl doll collection.
I am reluctant right now to sell even the dolls that I am not very bonded with, just because AG keeps making changes like putting an imprinted star on the dolls' foot.
Some dolls, however, I would never part with.
My two childhood dolls are Anne and Felicity. They are so special. They aren't going anywhere.
I am very careful with them and their collections. Each has a dedicated wardrobe that they don't share.
Anne, in particular, as an original Girl of Today #6, is super rare. She sold online recently for a thousand dollars. That makes me even more careful with her!
Fun Fact: Anne is named after Anne of Green Gables.
Samantha is the doll that I wanted as a kid and couldn't get. She's the first one that I bought as a newly minted adult.
Mara Frances is the first custom that I made, and she has such character. She always makes me happy.
I am also very attached to my Create Your Owns. They are all Jess molds. I love the Jess mold and I like to see more variation that AG makes with this mold.
Danielle is the first CYO that I designed (of two.) I love her! She has glasses and hearing aids.
Phryne Valancy is a 1920s CYO that I designed myself.
I really want to do a group photo of my Jess mold CYOs some day!
I am also falling more and more in love with Claudie lately. She has the sweetest face.
These are probably my top dolls, but they are almost all special to me in one way or the other.
Here are some more summer doll photos.
These photo feature the historical dolls! Well, some of them, anyway. I spent hours taking doll pictures and still didn't get all of the dolls changed and photographed.
That's certainly a first-world problem to have. It's not really even a problem- I spend as much time on the dolls as I find enjoyable. There's no point in making it into a chore.
Kit is on the lookout for news stories.
Summer is going by way too fast. I did manage to get some pictures of my dolls enjoying the sunshine while it lasts!
All the other named dolls were sold out by the time that I got there.
I am also proud of the purchasing decisions that I made.
I had a great time meeting people, and I wish that I had gotten to meet more!
After I left, I went to the St. Vincent de Paul Dig and Save thrift store and bought a lot of clothes to make into doll clothes. A whole armful of clothes only cost me $5.21.
I left before the big doll collector get-together, but I got to spend time with my mom and her friend, and that was important to me too. I also got to spend some really nice time talking to the people that I did see, and I think I'd rather meet in small groups and have in-depth conversations anyway.
It was a great day.
I am grateful for all of the MCM sales that I got to attend, 2016-2023. I am sorry that this is the last one.
I would love to take a group picture of all of the dolls that I got at MCM from all of the different years sometime.
One of my grail items for many years has been the dolls "owned" by Samantha and Kit.
I really love the dolls for dolls, and I have the ones for Felicity, Addy, Josefina and Kaya. I didn't have the ones for Samantha and Kit. They were grail items for me.
I always loved the story of Samantha's doll. We can all sympathize with seeing the perfect doll and yearning for her.
A very generous and sweet friend sent me the ones for Samantha and Kit!
I am so awed by her generosity, and so happy!
I have a lot of pictures that I want to take, but these are the ones that I have so far!
I went to a thrift store where they sell clothes by the pound and looked for clothes to cut up and use for doll clothes. I am really excited with what I found there.
I feel like getting the texture right is important in making realistic doll clothes, and using real clothes is one way to do that!
I used the Liberty Jane T-shirt Variations Pattern.
Here is sweater # 1, modelled by #62, Stella:
And here is sweater #2, modelled by Tenney.
I am really happy with both sweaters! My wallet would be in much more danger if AG made more realistic everyday clothes like these.
I love pretty dresses, but sometimes a doll just needs to relax and stay warm.
I found Pleasant Company's trunk for Molly! It was $20 and I found it in a pile of stuff in the garage (!) of my local thrift store. It...
