Goodbye to Marie Grace and Cecile, Ivy, and Ruthie!

Ouch, AG!

And another one four hit the dust!

This is the largest amount of dolls ever retired at one time. Four! Apparently, in this whole whirlwind of "Beforever" (see a previous post for more ranting on this subject...) AG has decided to do away with the whole best friend idea. Whoa there. 

AG posted this on there Facebook earlier today:

"Soon we'll say farewell to Marie-Grace, Cecile, Ruthie and Ivy"

That's pretty sad. Ruthie and Kit. Goodness! Best! Friends! 

Or is it now, NotfriendswithKit!Ruthie? 

(sorry, just had to say that...) 

I am personally going to miss these girls. Ruthie is truly a stunning doll, both in photos and real life. but I suppose she does seem bland to the eye. Those gray eyes, and those curls... truly, she is beautiful. I think Ruthie was the last girl left with gray eyes! Hphm. (please correct me if I'm wrong) (goodness, I hope I'm wrong!)

Marie-Grace, otherwise known as MG has taken all this time for her strange facemold to grow on me. I finally have accepted it, after seeing other people in the AG communtiy post there beautiful pictures of her.  I want her now, but not her as Marie Grace, her as a custom. I hope the reuse her mold on other dolls. Perhaps they'll come out with a MAG that has her face, just like they used Sonali's face mold (which, it too, took a long time to grow on me) on a JLY after she was retired. Several, in fact.

And Cecile? What a diverse looking doll, with quite the interesting background. When they first came out, I was disgusted (as usual) that they had replaced the good old stand by Kirsten with two girls in the same year as her. But now, they are truly a very unique pair. 

Ivy. She has grown on my as well. I see pictures of her, and a doll I once thought just, well, ugh, is now beautiful. I actually had her in my possession for quite a long time, but I was just storing her for a friend. She has such a sweet face, and has quite the interesting hair cut.  I like it. #52 is identical to her, with the exception of longer hair. But there's just something else that is different. Her diversity in the AG line will also be missed, 

In the light of these retirings, another thought has popped into my mind. Will they erase Ruthie and Ivy from the story lines of Kit and Julie? What do you think? I hope not. Ruthie is another girl in the depression, but unlike Kit, she is rich, but still looses everything. I feel that really sets quite a mood, a different view, on the story that would be sadly lost if she was erased. I haven't personally read Julie's books, (or Ivy's, for that matter) (mental note: read those books) but Ivy is Japanese-American, and, yet again, another view on the story, a mood, lost. Not to mention diversity.

I feel the great desire to make a t-shirt saying down with beforever or something along those lines. "BeForever the Historicals!!" For my historical girlies.

sigh.

Those are my jumbled thoughts. What are yours? Dont' forget, when leaving a comment down below, to mark "Notify me" to read responding comments to your own comment. 

Beforever, The New Historicals

Okay, I just have to get this out.

ICK.

There have been many, many whisperings of the renaming "Beforever" written in swirly white letters. Let's just say, it's pretty much been confirmed. On ebay, a seller from China listed Julie's Pajama's with a "Beforever" box. 

I saw this on instagram, posted by the lovely @urbanfalls: 

These are the covers of the new books. Notice something else? Marie Grace and Cecile have been nixed. 

Another one bites the dust! 

(sorry)

Guess they weren't Beforever, were they?! 

(sorry, again.) 

( I can't help myself. )

I do not like change. I've said this, well, I don't even KNOW how many times I've said it. American Girl is going through a time of change, extreme change, apparently. Now that My homegirl, Molly has been retired, I actually have nothing new I even want to purchase from AG besides the dolls. 

I feel like the name 'Beforever' is just, degrading or something. I realize that "The Historical Line" Doesn't have an exciting ring to it, or a swirly lettering, or sparkles, or whatever. There are plenty of kids who think, "History? Boring" because it's often not taught in a very fun way. Lists of facts, and dates are boring. History itself is incredibly interesting! This is quite a clever marketing scheme. AG revamps the Historical's with a new fancy name, and gets more money, because the Historical'ss have a new, wider age appeal then. I must say that they new Illustrations are nice... different, I prefer the older ones, but nice. Goodness, I'm already a stingy old person about this! HA! 

Off track again. 

What's your opinion of the be forever line? Have any other facts (or corrections to the ones I wrote above, I'm open to those as well) you'd like to share? I love to hear from you all! 

Jeneca. 

(P.S. here are a few of the covers up close. If you'd like to seem them all, check that out here)

The dress! The AG community knew it, of course Samantha is going to have a pink frilly dress! Of COURSE.

Weekly Photo Dump (March 16th, 2014)

So it's been a HECTIC week. I released my Etsy "Zellawear Spring Release 2014" A week early this past Saturday, and was scrambling to finish. There are still four items left, but I've got six packages that must be shipped, and only four are wrapped so far. Fun stuff, right?!

 This was the release. Only the Jeggings, two peplums and a skater dress are left if you wanted to check it out. :)

 I also created a Etsy Instagram because I felt like I was bugging my followers to death on my main account (which I reached 1000 FOLLOWERS ON THIS WEEK'GDFHDH AE'GH)

But after the release, I just went outside and shot these of Mia. I'll have more on my IG, but who cares. You can see them here!

I've begun milking a desire of wanting to start up my Youtube again. :/ After watching Aspen Heights (It's an AG series, but I don't advise younger to watch it)  all day yesterday, and the night before, I really want to. But I know I don't have time for that. It's the sad truth. *sigh* Do any of you have youtubes? (for American Girl Dolls)

American Girl Annouces SAMANTHA PARKINGTON'S RETURN!

See for yourself.

Six hours ago (as of Feb. 17, 2014) American Girl announced on their Facebook page that SAMANTHA PARKINGTON IS RETURNING!
I'm kinda at lost at what to think about it. This could be great, I mean, American Girl is returning one of there original dolls to their line! This is great! But, American Girl has already put us through the ringer once... but now shes coming back...

Is it just me, or is anyone else feeling hessitent about this?
I'm sure I'll be excited in the next few minutes, but I just don't like change, even if its a good change. 
It DOES make me feel hopeful about one thing though.
It AG is returning one of their retired dolls,
what's gonna stop them from un retiring the other greats? Felicity? MOLLY? Kirsten?

 What do you think about this?

Thoughts on Isabelle

It's been an exciting day at AG... did anyone notice that the Isabelle mini doll is already sold out? Yeah! It's day one. I guess that $24 for a small version is a whole lot more appealing to $120 for the big one. ;) I'm going to be sharing with you today what I think of Isabelle, since everyone is so eagar to hear my opions... *crickets*

Yes! Let's get on with it. :o) 

First of all, I would like to point something hillarous out to you... I literally laughed out loud at this. 

 Notice what this image says in the lower right hand corner, "Doll hair does not move on its own" Is it just me, or is that funny?! If you would like to see Isabelle's following locks (AG really got into the hair movement this year,  if you look at the stock photo you'll see what I mean

... I like it :D ) 

But let's talk Izzy. Which, by the way, I will call her in this "review" of sorts. She's pretty, I suppose. I like the pink hair, even though I don't like the color pink.  Ombre hair on a doll is neat! Her meet outfits a little... dull. I like the shoes, the tops a bit funky, and the pants are cool. But for a meet outfit its just a little on the blah side. As an outfit though, I do like it. She does look like Lanie whoses bought a hair straightener, and her personality is a reformation of Marisol's interests... hm.

 This is better than some accessories I've seen over the years. Kanani's was the worst. The jacket is cute, though. It kinda reminds me of the LJC Motorcycle jacket! Good job, AG.

 This mini doll? CUTE. I love mini things, and this is adorable. She represents the doll well, all except... her eyelashes. The things are massive! They're longer than mine, and I've got longish eyelashes. It looks like the poor girls been through a few layers of mascara. Other than that, za'lls good. I might buy her. Maybe.

 These things... confuse me. Sure, she's a ballet dancer, but why make her PJ PANTS look like a skirt. The tops cute, but not for PJ's.

 Now this, I like! No, I love this studio! It's adorable. From the poofy chair skirt, (<3!!) the drawers in the wardrobe, the sewing machine, the fact it's a stinking wardrobe to the dress form. I love it! All but the price. $259?? I'm sorry to say, but this could be made one way or another for wayyy cheaper than that. This item will never enter my collection, and I'm just fine with that. What would I do with it when none of my dolls sew? (except maybe Emily.)

 It's interesting. I like the skirt, and the shoes. It seems a bit to accessory heavy, and from what I've seen in real life photos of the shoes, they're blue. It's okay.

The dress? It's growing on me. I thought it looked just plain weird at first, but I like it more now. :)

There are more items to her collection, which you can see and discover for yourself...

But in conclusion? Isabelle will probably not be joining my collection. My tastes lay to deeply in historical AG. Plus her pricing is just annoying.  $110 for a doll was just plain silly, but $120? I had hoped that it was just a Canadian price (I realize that prices in Canada are a wee higher-- I'm not poking fun) but I hope that this isn't the solid price now for GOTY's. Maybe it's just because of the hair clip? 

Oh well. 

There's my opoion; what's yours? Tell me in the comments below what YOU think of Isabelle... I'd love to hear it ;D

-Jeneca

Trip to AGP Columbus opening!

~~~This post contains A LOT of pictures! For those of you running on slower connections, please be weary :) ~~~

It's been an almost a month since I got back from the Columbus AG store! I said I would write up a post about it, but never got around to doing it... Now I am!
I apoligeize ahead of time for the quality of these pictures. We went opening weekend and it was P-A-C-K-E-D! The store is only and hour away from my grandmas, so I expect to be going more often! :D

(no front door pictures, sorry. Mimi and I went in the back door, but at least they were giving out free "Fun with Rebecca" books there!)

Here's Molly and Saige hanging out. This was the first time I'd seen Saige in real life, and she is very pretty! Her eyes are a gorgeous deep blue.

This balloon is so cool! The basket is plastic however, and I have no clue where I would store it. Goodness, it's as tall as my desk!

Saige's new tunic outfit is adorable! The embroidery on it is real too, not printed plastic. :)

I LOVE the picnic set, tamales and guacamole are much more interesting than say, New York picnic foo

Here's an interesting bit: at the AGP Columbus, they had these neat Saige bracelets in the girl's clothing area, for only $5! That's a some pretty cheap Saige memorabilia. Saves me $105 if I were to  get Saige.

Precious Molly birthday scene. I wish AG wouldn't retire her, even if that does bring a new doll.

I set Molly up in Caroline's parlor thingy. It is such a cool set! It gave me (and still is giving me) great ideas for some DIY...

I know, this is random. But it's a cute hoodie!

This was the display showing all the mix and match outfits. I really like the hoodie outfit with the colored jeans. It's name is currently lost to me...

Here's a quick peak at the hair highlights.

The snack cart is so cute! Extremely detailed, and I'm pretty sure that it comes with a lot of cute accessories.

 

Look. At. That. Tiny. Stuff. It has a tiny microwave!

Talent show set. While it is cute, and so is 41#, this outfit didn't really strike a chord with me. It's cute, but not my favorite.

Molly's display case. :(

No words.

I love the new hair highlights! I was going to buy them, but they didn't have any in the store. And yes, this is one of the new MAG's.

Pedicure set?! I thought that I was well learned int he new release, but I guess I didn't see this one!

So, that was my trip to AGP Columbus! Sorry I didn't get it to you sooner, busy as a bee with cat stuff and what not... yeah, loooong story. I'll try to post what I got tomorrow, but don't worry it's nothing suspenseful. I nearly got a new doll, but that's for another time... ;)

Adios!
-Jeneca

Thoughts on American Girl Summer Release!

Yes, it's true. It was true when Doll Diaries posted about it. I was so ANGRY when I saw it! Seriously, it's obvious that they're doing this just for money money money. Molly is the last of the three original dolls, and has been on AG for twenty seven years. I cannot belive that they are removing yet ANOTHER American Girl Icon. I mean, Molly's time period is World War II. Why Retire her? To make room for others. World War II was HUGE. Why not leave such an important time? Money, but that's only my guess, and my hardened opinion. I am a curmudgeon on this subject.
retirement
Okay, I'll hush up on the retirement of my girl. Check the website if you want a look at everything, because here are some on my favorite new things! ( :( )

Striped Hoodie Outfit for Dolls + Charm~ $30

 I love this new outfit, the colored skinny jeans are awesome! The hoodie is okay, I could do with a little less random colored graphics.

 I'm happy that they released this doll, since I know a lot of people go for the look alike thing, and this is a very versatile look... Frankly it looks to me like these girls could be Susan and Linda from Molly's stories!!

This would be Linda, I think. She looks like 49, just with the usual MyAG layered hair.

 

 

Classroom Scene~ $12  

This seems like a pretty reasonable price, and it looks pretty awesome. Same goes for all the scenes, I wish they still had the original scenes and settings for the historical characters.

 

School Back pack Set~ $28

  The back pack sets are always adollable. I love the science book! And the water bottle! And the notebook! And the mechanical pens! But I do not love the price...

Saige's Tunic Outfit~$28

For the AG's crazy prices, I think this is is a bit more reasonable... or maybe I'm getting brainwashed, haha. But anyway, this outfit looks a bit awkward in the picture, but I'm sure it's beautiful in real life! I love the color, and the beads.

New Hair Accessories!

I love all of these! They are pricey, but so so cute. I bought a purple hair clip for Mia a while back at the doll store, but it was very cheap. I love the pony tails, braided head bands, chic bun (kinda) and the colored clips!! So much fun.

So, that's my opionon! I will be going to the AG store this Saturday, so I'll try to get some pictures of all the new releases!!

Jeneca