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's a wonderful piece, but Molly is not my girl, so this trunk is going to live with a friend instead.
Mattel probably does not owns the rights, but I would 100% buy a bookmark or a Christmas ornament that looks like the PC logo plate on the trunk.
I found a Molly wearing Addy's prototype dress at the Salvation Army, the one that never has anything good, that looks like the land of lost hopes.
The one in walking distance from my girlfriend's apartment, so I joked that we are going to have to start taking romantic walks to the thrift store to look for AG stuff.
Anyway, it took me a couple of months to take a picture.
I was absolutely thrilled!
I sill need to get a picture of Molly. She is all cleaned up, but she still has loose limbs.
I have had some amazing thrift store finds in my time, but this one is definitely one of my best.
I found this at the thrift store this week!
It's a Disney doll, maybe Cinderella, wearing the A Girl of Today First Day Outfit shirt.
I actually already have this shirt, but for $2, it came home with me!
I think the crown might fit AG dolls, so that's a bonus.
I'll donate the doll back to the local thrift store that benefits the community.
These beautiful tiny old bottles are vintage cologne bottles.
They're so pretty!
I got them from the thrift store.
I plan to use them for vases or receptacles or something for the dollhouse.
I found this Bitty Baby at the thrift store yesterday for $4!
She needs some cleaning up, but she is is pretty good shape.
She is the first of the "newer style" Bitty Babies that I have with eyebrows. I like the eyebrows.
I haven't given her a name yet.
She's my fourth Bitty Baby. I should get them out and take a group photo.
This is not doll related, but it is history related!
I went to the thrift store and found a baptismal certificate for a distant cousin. (Mostly related by marriage.)
And it's in German, which is a language that I speak.
I just think it's a super cool find and had to share!
I decided to indulge my inner child and buy Miss AG Bear.
She was on Marketplace for $20, with all of her original clothes and accessories. Hat, vest, skirt, backpack and watch.
I was really pleased to have her in such good condition, like brand new, with all of her items.
She was in a different city, so naturally I visited the thrift stores while I was there.
And, to my utter surprise, I found Josefina's bed for $5.
It's just the bed frame, so mattress or pillow or blanket.
But I'm so excited! And it's tagged Made in Taiwan for Pleasant Company.
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I haven't fixed it up yet for her. I will take more photos when I do!
Today's thrift store find was a MLA doll wearing this cute AG dress.
This dress really makes me think about how AG quality has changed.
The dress was very dirty, but I have it soaking. Hopefully, it will clean off well!
Ellie wishes everyone a happy Halloween!
I found this outfit new in box at the thrift store a few months ago. I was super excited!
I liked the outfit when it was released, but I thought that it was overpriced. And I got it for $7! So exciting!
(I won't blame you if you hate me for all my thrift store luck, I would be jealous of myself, too.)
Yesterday, I had a doctor's appointment in a town about 30 minutes away from me.
Several hours after the appointment, I had an ASL class in the same town.
I decided to not spend time and gas driving back and forth after my doctor's appointment.
Instead, I visited several of my favorite stores in this town.
Since I had plenty of time, I decided to stop by one thrift store that I never find anything at. I thought maybe I would find some small accessories to use in the doll house.
To my utter surprise, I found Wellie Wishers Emerson for $7 in among the kid's toys. She had her dress and boots and everything.
I was even more surprised when I found Molly in the collector dolls section. Molly was very dirty and had messy hair.
She was marked at $5.
And she was wearing Addy's prototype meet dress.
I knew what it was immediately. I have seen one in person before. One of my friends has it and showed it to me.
I couldn't believe it.
I circled the store several times to make sure that I hadn't missed anything, then I went to check out.
I still can't believe it.
I don't know how I have such good luck at the thrift store. Living in Wisconsin probably helps, since we had the MCM sale for many years.
Wow.
I thought for sure I would wake up and find that this was all a dream.
I had a lucky day at two thrift stores yesterday!
At the first thrift store, I got Honey the golden retriever for $1, and some fabric that is perfect for an upcoming project for $1.
At the second thrift store, I found a grab bag of AG clothes for $3! It included part of Kit's twin sweater set, Julie's white meet blouse, and Julie's pajama top.
I have some planned doll clothes projects that I am very excited about! I want to make a two piece Victorian Halloween dress with a striped skirt. I want to make a doll version of Emily Dickinson's iconic white dress. And I want to make several 1700s dresses from the movie Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Writing these down helps me to remember my ideas, LOL.
Erin is modelling a new hat!
I was thrilled to find a bag of AG hats at the thrift store. Sadly, I did not find any outfits that went with the hats. But it was a great find!
So Erin got to wear this hat. A friend identified it for me as being from the Glitter Jeans Outfit in 2003.
It's made of this fabric that feels like suede. I miss when American Girl used nice fabrics like that. Sigh.
Lanie was at the thrift store a week ago, and my mom gave me a "don't even think about it " look.
I went to the thrift store on Saturday, and I found an amazing haul!
They had the back wall of Samantha's Ice Cream Parlor.
It was marked as $12, but it had been there for thee weeks, and no one bought it, so it was marked down to $6.
$6 for this amazing piece, made of wood, with the gorgeous mirror and fake marbling!
It's my first Big Ticket Item, and it was definitely not something that I was looking for or that I had dreamed of owning.
It is amazing, though, and I am so happy to have it!
The thrift store did not have any other pieces from the set, as far as I could tell. I went around the store three times, looking for any of the pieces.
One drawback is that it is hard to take pictures of it without getting in the shot myself, due to the mirror.
I have been joking that this wouldn't be a problem if I was a vampire.
I didn't have much luck getting Samantha and Nellie to look the same way for a picture, either.
What do you think, is it my best thrift store find yet? It might well be!
I know that finding any of the original pieces that belong to this set will probably be pricey, so that is not high on my list.
I may get the retro Our Generation milkshake maker to go with it for now, since the price is right.
This was inspired by someone on Facebook who posted about adding colored wefts to the existing wig of an American Girl doll to give a more interesting look.
I bought hair clip-ons on Amazon that were attached to barrettes. Most of the colors available were neon and hurt my eyes. I bought the pink because it wasn't neon.
I had found this Just Like You 32 at the thrift store for $35. I decided to use her because I wasn't attached to her at all, and I thought this was a low-risk project.
Honestly, there have been so many blonde haired, blue eyed dolls throughout my childhood, that they are not my favorite anyway. It was rare even to find a brunette doll, and that made me excited because I am brunette.
I took the hair clips and used an embroidery scissors to remove the clip part. This left me with just the wefts of hair.
I did not remove the wig from the doll's head. I just lifted up sections of her hair. There are wefts sewn in rows on the wig. I hand sewed the pink wefts in between the existing wefts of the wig, while it was still on the doll's head. I went all around the doll's head in a row. This took four wefts.
I tried adding wefts to her bangs as well so that they would have some pink, but that just did not go well. The added weft stood out stiffly at an angle and did not incorporate. I was able to remove it again.
The rest of the wig looks good, I think. It's a subtle look, which is what I was going for.
The wefts were longer than the rest of the wig, and I had to trim them. That was scary for me. I do not think of myself as skilled at cutting hair. But I did it, and I think it looks fine!
I think if I had a hair iron, it would help integrate the old and new hair a bit if I flat ironed it all together.
This weekend, I had my best thrift store find yet.
The store has three places where I sometimes find AG: a shelf where more expensive items are displayed, a shelf where porcelain dolls are piled, and a shelf where play dolls like Cabbage Patch and Our Generation are piled.
The porcelain doll shelf was really full, so I was pulling dolls out and looking at them just to be thorough.
On the bottom of the pile was this beautiful Addy, and she was marked as $3.99.
I grabbed her and I ran straight to the checkout. I did not breathe until she was stored safely in my trunk.
I think that the collection of an adult doll collector was donated to the Goodwill. Most of them were porcelain. Addy was on a stand like the porcelain dolls and was priced as though she was one of them.
Addy is a Pleasant Company doll. I think from the way that her wig is made that she is a first edition. I think she has been sitting on a shelf untouched for all these years. The elastic in her pantaloons gave out, but that's normal with age.
A Tale of Two Addys
One of my friends found a Pleasant Company Addy for $25 earlier this year. She lives further south than I do, so when we found out that it was snowing here today, she suggested that we take pictures of our Addys enjoying different weather on the same day.
Here is my Addy:
Here is hers:
I think hers looks like she has sunburn across her nose!
I am really in love with my Addy and so happy. Now I have two Addys, Beforever Addy and Pleasant Company Addy!
I have been having some amazing American Girl luck at the thrift store lately.
I found Girl of the Year Isabelle Palmer for $30.
It was hard to resist a deal like that, when many new AG outfits cost more than that.
My mental conversation went a lot like this:
Me: I don't need more AG, especially blonde classic molds.
Goodwill: Can you resist a $35 GOTY Isabelle?
Me: No.
Goodwill: 1
Beth: 0
She is a bit TLC and was wearing nothing but her meet pants.
I changed her clothes and brushed her hair, and here she is!
I was drawn to Isabelle when she was first announced because I liked her name, and I like ballet.
However, I didn't really feel drawn to her collection, and decided that I did not need another blonde.
Fate had other ideas in mind!
I also found the clothes that she is wearing at the thrift store on a different day, apart from the sandals.
I found Julie's Calico Dress at the thrift store. It was being worn by an Our Generation doll. Doll and dress cost $6.
One of my friends has been wanting an 18 inch doll to use as a sewing model, so I gave her the doll.
I am really pleased with myself to have recognized the dress.
Julie is pleased as well!
It worked out very nicely.
I found Willa and Emerson at the thrift store, and they came home with me.
I have been wanting Willa!
I already had Emerson, but this one had a different outfit on and was so cute with her pierced ears. I couldn't resist!
Willa is missing her boots and needs a spa treatment. She has some orange marks on her face that didn't come off with magic eraser.
Emerson is so cute. I stand by my dubious decision to have two Emerson dolls, haha.
Yeah, I really need to post more! Sorry!
I have been posting on Instagram, if anyone is interested. My handle is @igsbeth.
My most recent thrift store find is Nellie O'Malley!
She was wearing Felicity's Christmas gown.
I had to hurry to get pictures of her. It was starting to rain, and she's very floppy. Thus, these pictures were very hurried.
And here she is changed into a more period-appropriate dress.
I need to do some hospital work. Nellie, Samantha and Rachel all need restringing.
I am going to try to do that soon and to post more as well!
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...
