Under the cabbage leaf: Calgary's Cabbie pageant

If y'all can believe it, I found an old news story, dating back to right before Christmas in 1984, about a beauty pageant for Cabbage Patch Kids.  Yeah, Cabbies.  Dolls that have plenty of cute, but not much beauty.  Idalia Gale's #11 head isn't as butt-ugly as Kids with the #22 head (Mama REALLY hates that head), but it's no prize.  NO Cabbie head is, even my beloved #30.

No offense, Idalia!  She has received a few compliments on her eyes, so I won't pick on her too badly.  But there wouldn't have been a doll remotely like Idalia in the Calgary pageant since the pageant was in 1984, while popcorn hair and the #11 head both appeared in 1986.  Anywho, Deer Valley Market Place in Calgary apparently thought it would be fun to have a beauty pageant for Cabbage Patch Kids, and it actually...was a resounding success.  274 kids entered at least one doll, and since there was a limit of six dolls per child there were 384 dolls.  Black, white, male, female, it didn't matter as long as it was a Cabbie!  I even saw a few with sandy hair like Idalia's.  The judging categories were "Best Dressed," "Most Original Costume," "Most Talented," and an evening wear division.  C'mon, the evening wear part is the best part of a beauty pageant!  Or it was always my favorite part of the Miss America pageant.  Anyway, since it was so close to Christmas Santa Claus was one of the judges.  I love that part!

"Okay," you may be asking, "how did an inanimate object do talent?"  LOL, that part made me giggle, since there were PLENTY of dancers in the bunch.  The talent part was up to the kids; they'd dress up their dolls in the appropriate outfit and then make them dance, probably like some of y'all did with your toys once.  I admit that my Raggedy Ann sometimes moonlighted as a can-can dancer since she was so limber (floppy, LOL).  I liked the idea of one little boy making his doll breakdance, but probably if I were to enter Idalia Gale in such a shenanigan she would be doing a quick Riverdance routine.  Or a can-can routine; gotta keep Raggedy Ann's memory alive.  Idalia herself is convinced that she too can breakdance. 

Of course I can!  Anyone can!

Now I don't know about ANYONE; I sure as heck can't.  But Idalia could dance just about anything, or she could be original and display her ability to hold small objects; in 1984 NO Cabbie could do that.

Idalia is a southpaw, by the way.  It was...I think 1986 that Cabbies with gripping hands were introduced, and like we humans, the majority of 'em were right-handed.  I didn't know when I bought Idalia that she had a grasping hand at all, thus learning that she was left-handed was a delight.  And yeah, that's our dearly departed friend Dandelion that she's holding.  That was one of my favorite crayon colors as a kid, and I miss it now.

Neither the news story nor the article I found (essentially a transcript of the news story) say if the same doll was entered in all divisions of the pageant, or if a kid had to enter one doll for the evening wear division and a different doll for talent.  I also wonder if all of these dolls were Coleco-dressed or if some busy mamas and grandmas made the dolls their clothes?  The doll dressed in blue, seen towards the end of the news story, looks like she was dressed homemade, and if that's the case then I hope that kid won an award.  The chosen shade of blue looked fabulous with the doll's red braids.  But I know that sewing for dolls wasn't out of the question back then (just like it isn't today).  There were even patterns!

I have to admit that the idea of a beauty pageant for Cabbage Patch Kids left me giggling and scratching my head, but I've also gotta admit that it's a cute, innocent idea.  Instead of running amok in the mall or driving their parents nuts at home, these kids were out enjoying some innocent fun.  And they were having fun with dolls they already had, rather than clamoring for something new (like they or their parents probably had done the Christmas before).  The mall also admitted that it was great marketing, and back then marketing was everything for a shopping mall.  Nowadays malls aren't the thing that they were;  indeed, today Deer Valley appears to be a strip mall with several big-box stores and drug/medical joints.  But in 1984 malls and Cabbage Patch Kids were both very, VERY relevant, and Deer Valley was where the 1984 Cabbage Patch Kid beauty pageant was held.  I found no evidence that this event was repeated, but I did find another news story about a similar get-together in Toronto earlier in the year.  That was a mass birthday party for Cabbies, and that story can be found HERE.  Apparently the Cabbies released in 1983 all had a birthday of September 1st listed, so cake, ice cream bars, and soda pop were given out to a huge crowd of Cabbie parents AND parents' parents (LOL).  At least one lucky kid even won a new Kid in a drawing.  The little kid who won the doll was a boy who stated that Cabbies were "girl stuff," a point disproven by the boy in Calgary with the breakdancing Kid.  LOL again.

Treesa, you're my fellow Cabbie fan!  If there were such thing as beauty pageants for Cabbies today, would you enter any of yours???  I know I would!  Idalia Gale says she'd do it in a heartbeat.

Love and laughs,
RagingMoon1987

The battle continues

My entertainment for the evening:  one (1) magazine about Barbie, and one (1) Bratz doll.

Likely a fair amount of y'all remember the Barbie vs Bratz thing, and indeed, I don't think it ever truly went away.  But on this unseasonably sultry evening Felicia won this squabble, because the lighting in Uncle Man-Child's house socks.  I'll read that magazine tomorrow if I get some downtime at work.  For now, I'm going to enjoy Felicia in her box, in all her glory.

For the record, this doll is currently available in stores.  The original Felicia had a very short run and is greatly valued among Bratz collectors.  I admire her for her uber-dark vinyl, just as I do that of Dot Starlight, who also got the shaft from MGA Entertainment.  As such I wanted Felicia for her aesthetic, not because I wanted something really rare.  Therefore, I'll soon be tearing into this package like a hound going for the kill, and I'll have my lovely dark princess to play with and enjoy.  And to those of y'all who don't like Bratz, forgive me, but I will be devoting a post to Felicia sometime in the near future. 

Cheers,

RagingMoon1987 

Betsy McCall...and others

Great Aunt Kathryn died...how long ago has it been now???  <pauses to count>  It's been three years now, and Mama and the other assorted relatives are still slogging through a boatload of legal mumbo-jumbo trying to get her will closed out.  Long story short, Mama ended up talking to the surviving sibling, and while they chatted Aunt Barbara revealed that she'd found some Betsy McCall dolls tucked away in some part of Aunt Kathryn's house.  She sent us pictures, of course.  There appear to be three of them.  My favorite of the Betsy Brigade is this one, a little ginger in red and green.  Typical of dolls owned by Aunt Kathryn, she's been kept beautifully. 

For the record, I also love the tall Alice in Wonderland doll.  Unfortunately all Aunt Barbara had to say about her is "I got her from Amazon."  I won't knock it.  Good dolls come from many places.

The other two members of the Betsy Brigade are palling around with Kewpie and a cute little doll in cream and white.  One of the Kewpie dolls I sent her is also present. 

I wish I had a better picture of the one in polka dots, but if I want one I can always ask Aunt Barbara.  I'm unsure of the future of these dolls, by the way.  Aunt Barbara has a daughter and a granddaughter, but they're not dolly fans.  So I dunno.  

The chatter about Betsy McCall made me think of Sandy and how he materialized on my porch.  Aunt Barbara will love that story!

Love,
RagingMoon1987

eBay/Etsy haul

Usually my hauls are for American Girls, but today I'm going to spoil Idalia Gale and my other Cabbies a bit.  Like my Blythe doll, my Cabbies have some extra outfits, but they're in Storage Hell somewhere...as are Andrea Doria, Valencia Rose, and my other older Cabbies.  As I noted in a Blythe post in the past (I forget which one), I never throw anything away, so those other clothes are around this house somewhere.  Dang, I need to do some organizing!  But right now I've got new duds for the Cabbies to show off, so let's begin!  Y'all have already seen Idalia in her Halloween dress, but I've got some other odds and ends as well.  And no, this isn't ALL for Idalia.  I've got plenty of other Cabbage Patch Kids who will appreciate the new threads as well, and multiple dolls can wear the same stuff.  But Idalia is the one I've got in my arms right now, so she gets to model the clothes for big girls.  First up is this autumn/winter getup.  eBay seller is sweetheart31707.

Indeed, I have plans for red-haired Valencia Rose to wear this...once I grub her out of storage, that is.  The buttonholes need a little TLC, but I love the colors of this outfit.  The blouse is blue with puffed sleeves and a collar, and the slacks are darker blue and made of corduroy.  I love corduroy.

One of my newest Cabbies also has corduroy pants, but it'll be quite awhile before y'all meet him/her.  Anywho, Val is more of a pants/jeans/overalls type, so this will be for her once I grub her up.  The whole outfit looks and feels comfy, and indeed it fits Idalia loosely, thus if she were a real little person she'd be very comfy indeed.  Except maybe for this.

How eighties can a body get!  LOL, I bet y'all a dollar to a doughnut a waistband like that would itch like mad, but it sure does look cute.

This next outfit is...actually Preemie-sized, so Cara Raelean gets to wear it.  The eBay purveyor this time is 2kbanks.

Yellow!  Y'all may or may not remember how I like yellow baby clothes, and y'all probably also remember how I like it when baby dolls wear bonnets.  Cara's green set didn't come with a bonnet, and as a result I feel like she's kinda missing something.  Plus, her little head will get cold this winter!  LOL, I've never met a small baby that liked wearing a hat, but I always put 'em on my baby dolls anyway.  There's even a set of knitted booties!  I love these; Pussycat has a pair, and now Cara does too!

I thought the print on the matinee jacket was cool.  It's a floral print, and with the exception of color it's the exact same print as the flowers on Cara's green dress.

Basically this outfit has everything I could ever want!

Keeping with the yellow theme, here's Cara in a springlike romper.  This is another eBay find, from Cherokee Strip Trading Post.

I guess it could be for fall too, since fall is harvest season.  I love the sunshine yellow shade, and I also love the vegetables on the front.  And yet...the only cabbage visible is in the CPK logo!

It wasn't until I turned Cara over that I noticed the full design of this onesie.  It's meant to look like a pair of farming overalls, complete with "pockets" on the rear.  The left pocket has a seed packet sticking out of it, with my...well, carrots are one of my favorite vegetables.  I'm also quite fond of broccoli.

This onesie is cute, but I feel like something's missing.  Without some sort of ribbon or headgear it's hard to tell whether Cara Raelean is a boy or a girl, and an outfit like this doesn't help much.  Besides, I can't escape the feeling that this onesie would be better for a boy Preemie anyway.  Or a boy Bean Butt; I'm reading that Bean Butts are the same size as the old Preemies like Stella Rae and Cara Raelean are, but I don't know for sure.  If any of y'all DO know for sure, please let me know.  EDIT, 11/30/24:  This romper is an occupation romper!  It's listed as "gardener" and it did not come with any booties or hats or anything.  So It's okay to put Cara or ANY of my Preemies in it!  End edit.

Speaking of eBay, this next outfit is for a boy doll, and it's being modelled by a new face in the Patch.  Well...he's sort of a new face.  Valencia Rose has the #4 head, and so does my new boy.  He's another eBay find, from jewelsanddolls.  He pairs the aforementioned #4 head with loopy auburn hair and brown eyes, his tag is marked "IC3," and his bum mark is a 1985 mark.  All Coleco boys came in cute outfits, but this getup with the cap is my favorite because I used to wear a red ballcap myself when I was little.

The bigger boy arrived on the same day that Sammy Sloth did, so here they are together.  As I noted yesterday, Sammy is a little guy.

IC dolls can develop a grayish tinge to their vinyl, but my boy still has a pretty complexion.  His name is...y'all ready for this???  His name is Shelley Fred.  His birthday, which was a complete surprise until I got him, is October 1st.

With that, my run of luck with Cabbie names comes to an end.  "Cara Raelean" isn't great, but it has a nice flow, and Mama and I downright love "Owen Presley."  On the other hand, Shelley Fred is not a name I'd have picked or even considered, and when Mama heard it her reaction was an emphatic "EWWWWWW!!!"  LOL, I admit that I had to shake my head too, particularly since most of the folks I've known named "Shelley" or some variant thereof are girls.  On the other hand, the name "Shelley" has literary connotations, and it's unique so I guess my new boy will remain Shelley.  If he hadn't come with papers I would've named him "Nigel" or "Lee," since those were the hurricane names everyone was throwing around when I bought him.  That was how my Idalia got her name, after all.  But Shelley came fully dressed and with his papers, so Shelley he shall remain.  I like what he's wearing, but as fall deepens he'll need something covering those legs (or "wegs," as my toddler self would say).  So let's go over Shelley's new outfit, my first Etsy getup in this post.  The shop is mj3260, and they have a LOT of pajamas!  LOL, I love dolly pajamas, but Shelley's fall outfit is...well, NOT pajamas.

Fall is my mama's favorite time of the year, and Halloween is her favorite holiday, so this jack o'lantern was right up her alley.

I'll be putting Shelley back in his original outfit after this because I love it so much, but here's a closeup of the print on his shirt.  This ghost is my favorite.

Mama likes the jack o'lantern the best.

I'll make the clothing segment of this post full circle by bring Idalia back into the picture.  Her dress is from 0823Dolls.

Three-piece outfit, five if one counts each hair bow.  Idalia is wearing a jumper dress, a lacy blouse, and lacy bloomers.  The bloomers and blouse have cobwebs printed on them.

Here's a closer look at the jumper; one of those witches is a pin-up witch!

When I grub Valencia Rose and Andrea Doria out of storage one of them can wear those bows the right way.  Val has pigtails, and Andrea has a fall like Crissy's that can accommodate a bow at the end and a bow at the base of the braid.

My last item isn't a piece of clothing, but rather an accessory.  I like 3-D printed stuff, and when I saw this on Etsy I knew my Kids would love it.  Etsy shop is HeatherRoselliDesign.

A lollipop!  These come in several "flavors," with this dark blue-purple shade being blackberry.  Mmmm, I like blackberries.  Anyway, this lollipop is kinda special because any Cabbie can hold it, but the stem on the top is designed to fit into pacifier mouths, only seen on #4 and #6 heads.  #4 and #6 happen to be my favorite Cabbie heads, by the way, along with #30.

If that isn't clever I don't know what is.  Heather apparently specializes in 3-D printed odds and ends for Cabbage Patch Kids, because the shop is nothing but shoes, pacifiers, and sundries for them.  Not that that's an issue; Idalia needs shoes for winter anyway.  Cara did too, but she doesn't anymore, LOL!  EDIT, 11/1/23:  The Etsy seller warned me (and her other buyers) that these 3-D printed binkies and lollipops can stain the bejesus out of Cabbie vinyl if left in the mouth for any period of time.  So if you do have one of these items, be very, very careful!  Kudos to Heather for the warning!  I hope she can get that problem rectified, because her items are cute.

Since I have a penchant for naming these Cabbage Patch Kids after hurricanes, I'll end the post with a tangent about hurricanes.  This year could've been a very serious one, with both Idalia and Lee making landfall as powerful storms, but because people were well-warned and took the warnings seriously the death tolls for both storms were low.  Idalia killed ten people, seven directly and three directly, and as of writing Lee has been responsible for two fatalities (a third person is missing and they still haven't found him).  Twelve/thirteen is still twelve/thirteen too many, but that's a far cry from the toll inflicted by the Long Island Express, a New England hurricane that followed a track similar to but further west than Lee's.  The Express was poorly warned (hey, it was 1938), and those who DID get warnings didn't take the warnings seriously.  Thus...actually experts aren't sure how many died, but it was at least six hundred dead, not counting the ones that died months later or were never found.  Every summer I pray for the folks on the coasts, and I thank God that we here in Missouri don't usually have to contend with hurricanes.  USUALLY.  Once in a great while a hurricane holds together long enuff to give the Bootheel a little or a lot of trouble; the last one I can name like that was Hurricane Ike, back in 2008.  LOL, I nearly got walloped on the head by a sizeable tree branch in that storm...I think I've told that story before.  No, we here in Southeast Missouri get to worry about tornadoes and earthquakes instead.  Oh Lordy, I am TERRIFIED of the earthquakes!  The fault line has been calm lately and I'm grateful for that, and I pray it'll stay that way.

With that lovely note...say g'bye, kiddies!

Oh, and as a haw-haw, check out this list of some Coleco and Hasbro Cabbie names.  Some of 'em are even worse than Shelley Fred.  Some of 'em double up, like "Gertrude Trudie," and some of 'em RHYME, like "Charlene Darlene!"  There were a handful of dolls named Sarah/Sara (my name is the first variant), including a couple of dolls named "Sarah Jane."  The list had exactly one "Shelly"...and it was a girl named "Shelly Beryl."  Blick, BERYL!!!  I never have cared much for gemstone names.  More than anything, the list made me glad that most of my dolls that came with papers have nice names.  So far, "Owen Presley" is still my favorite combo.

Okay, I'm done!  Pinky-promise I am!

Warm hugs,
RagingMoon1987

Shellbug hunting, part deux

Yes, shellbug season is in full swing here in the Bootheel.  Cicadas start singing in late July around here, but the shells don't start appearing until September or so.  I never outgrew my love for shellbug hunting, and as usual I've got a little buddy to help me with the search.  I'm hoping he'll have more luck than Cara Raelean did.

His name is Sammy Sloth, and he's an interesting combo of stuffed animal and Cabbage Patch Kid.  He's about the size of Owen Presley, my all-vinyl boy, and...and he can suck his thumb!!!  

Sammy hails from Babyland General, per his packaging, though he could at one time also be found at Target with his friends Ruby Fox and Sage Deer, and he can still be found on the Babyland General website.  I like Cabbage Patch Kids and I freaking LOVE sloths, so this was the perfect little guy for me.  He reminds me a little of the Koosas, which were pets for the Cabbies during the Coleco era.  Koosas are weird little goobers, but then again, so are Cabbies.  Indeed, one of these animorph Cabbies is a shark!  I may get him too, because when's the last time any of y'all saw a doll dressed as a shark???

Hey look, Sammy found a shellbug!  At last!

LOL, my grandmother HATED these!  Grandpa would pluck them off the trees and put them on her, and it drove her nuts.  I'll admit that they're a little creepy, especially when their eyes are hollowed out.  Indeed, the full-grown insects look a little like some critter from another planet.

I should probably address terminology here, since I confused the snot out of Xanadu with my last post.  Tam, I think you also said you'd never heard the term "shellbug," and there's a good reason for that.  The nicknames for these insect hulls varys almost as much as the nicknames for the insects that make them, but "shellbug" is a family term that my five-year-old mind cobbled together.  They're shells, they're bugs (or they were), hence the term "shellbug"!  My playground friends called 'em the standard "husks" or "skins," and most of my older friends call them "locust husks" or "dry fly husks."  All of 'em work.

Love and insects,
RagingMoon1987

Sunday randomness: shellbug hunting

September 17th and I haven't seen a single one, even with Cara Raelean helping me.

Nothing in this beat-up little redbud tree, nothing in my unidentified tree with the Eye of Horus, nothing under my eaves.  The trees are full of cicadas; hell, I can hear 'em every night!  But I've yet to find any husks.

And then Cara Raelean fell out of the tree.  It rained last night, so I had to wipe her head clean.  Luckily, Cabbies are built to last, and even more luckily, Cara's dress didn't get dirty.

Idalia Gale and Cara Raelean will be having some fun in the days to come, so stay tuned.

Happy bug hunting, 

RagingMoon1987 

So random

When you're a single thirtysomething with a nine-to-five job and no social life, you find other ways of entertaining yourself.  When I'm not hanging out with my mom, or playing with my animals, I'm usually oot and aboot with a doll or two (or rarely three).  Thus was the case this past summer; inevitably when I put a post together I have two or three outtakes, and if the picture comes out particularly well I just hold onto it, waiting for a rainy day.  

We'll start on January 1st of 2021.  Justine-Marie was the new kid in town, and for reasons unknown, I never showed her in this getup.

Knitted pants are usually ugly as sin, but these aren't so bad.  From a distance they look like corduroy slacks like I like to wear during the winter, but trust me:  they ARE knitted.  Mama was not thrilled when she found out (apparently the Etsy pictures weren't that great), but it was good enuff for Justine-Marie and me.  Oh yeah, I remember know why I took her out of this!  Another knitwear set arrived in the mail, and Justine-Marie looked even cuter in that.

Courtney Moore moved into the Moon House right around the same time that Justine-Marie did.  I showed this outfit in her introductory post, but I didn't take a picture of Courtney wearing it until February third, and I NEVER shared it.

Sort of a combo between the modern and the retro.  Courtney the historical, in a modern dress with a vintage icon on it, and a JoJo Bow to boot.  She needs some bangles to pull it all together; Courtney's accessories came with bangles, and I like to layer 'em on her.  I can remember harping at the time that it was impossible to find anything with Orange Blossom on it, and two years later that holds true, as poor ol' Orange was not included on Courtney's Strawberry Shortcake sleeping bag.

February 10th, 2021.  I don't know why I never shared this particular image, but...well, I never did.

Here Justine-Marie is modelling a Valentine's Day set that my mother got for...well, for whoever I assigned it to.  She looks cute enuff in it, but it didn't really look like her style to me.  Indeed, when I trotted this outfit again, Luciana was the one who wore it.  Justine-Marie wore a full-skirted getup and ended up looking adorable.

The next picture I found was of Barbie's long-lost friend P.J., whom I think is adorable.  This is the younger of my two P.J. dolls, from one of the many Malibu lines, and I presume that the dress is a Best Buy dress.

This picture was an outtake from a fluff post I did in March of 2022, comparing the faces of Barbie's friend P.J. with Maxie's friend Ashley.  The two favor each other a teeny-weeny bit.  Interestingly, the picture itself dates from fall of 2021.

December 9th, 2021, days before the atmosphere exploded.  This is Kailey Hopkins, clad in a dress that I had for an aborted "who wore it best?" post.  

I forget who else has a copy of this outfit, but I've got two of 'em.  Maybe it was Lindsey???  LOL, I genuinely do not know, but either way my mama and I both like this outfit.  I bought it and she bought it simultaneously, and then a year later she tried to buy me a third one!  It's one of those outfits that will look cute on whoever has it, but the retro cut of the skirt would suit Lindsey's flip hair.

December 21st, 2021.  I think it was Share Your Pet Day or something like that on one of Failbook's American Girl groups.  I acquiesced with pictures of Samantha and Jip...

...and Doremi with Moochie and Coconut.

January 4th of 2022 brought some more seasonable temperatures, so I decked Z and Kailey out in their winter garb.  Kailey sparkles and Z...is cozy.

RIP my filthy box fan, by the way.  It died this past summer.  Thank God I had another one crammed into the window.

From January 11th, we get another shot of Princess Doremi, wearing splashes of her favorite color.

Very small splashes, apparently, as only her necklace and her hairbow are pink.  I didn't leave Doremi in this too long because her little knees looked cold, but it's tucked away in her wardrobe, waiting to see daylight again.

May 2nd, 2022, after a long night in the emergency room.  That was the beginning of Mama's woes with her gallbladder, but I didn't know it right then.  The doctor had diagnosed it as a kidney stone and sent us home.  We were both were so glad to be out of that freezing cold E.R. that we took what he said at face value.  Short on sleep and in a devil-may-care mood, I shoved Rita Cheryl into my beloved mystery tree, the one that has the knothole that looks like an eye.

Rita Cheryl likes pandas, both the classic type and the red type.  It explains a lot.  May 2nd was the first day it had been warm enuff for her to go without a jacket, by the way; note that in this post she was wearing a jacket.

Same doll, different day.  May 6th, Mama's pain was back in full force, and...oh, I think someone on Etsy wanted a picture of Rita Cheryl in her Kuromi necklace.  I obliged.

I understood completely on that day why Sasha Morgenthaler hated dolls that smiled.  There was Rita Cheryl in her innocent little dolly bubble, while I was worried sick.  There is a reason why I pose my dolls looking away from the camera when I'm sad, scared, angry, or worried (examples can be found HERE and HERE), and this is so that the neither the viewer nor I can see that goofy smile.  But in this case I had to show her face-on, so that the Etsy seller would know that Rita Cheryl received her necklace.  For the record, it IS a cute necklace.  

September 9th, 2022.  I was anticipating a possible purchase of Claudie Wells (which never happened), and while I waited for her release I bought some cloche style hats.  Here Luciana and Justine-Marie are modelling them.  

Luciana and Justine-Marie are polar opposites, and yet they never pass up an opportunity to spend time together, even if it's just to be silly or cute.  I dunno about y'all, but the hats kinda suit them.  

November 27th, 2022.  Rita Cheryl comes back into the picture, both to show off her favorite dress and her then-new doll.

Rita Cheryl didn't stay in that blue dress long.  We had more of a normal winter last winter, without all the tornadoes, so I put her in something that could be layered.

December 13th, 2022.  Luciana modelled her new Christmas garb, which was Grinch-themed.

Ah yes, once upon a time Luciana could've stayed at the library and showed off her cute little getup to the world, but God forbid that I do that now.  Luciana wore this the whole month, though...including during Christmas Eve, when Mama's water pipe exploded.  We're STILL dealing with the fallout from that mess, by the way.

January 9th, 2023.  With Christmas over and Malden experiencing a warm snap, Luciana traded Dr. Seuss for Doctor Who.

Oh, look!  Rocks!  LOL, Luciana dabbles in geology in addition to her million other hobbies (or at least I pretend she does), and she'd found a pretty pebble to show me.  She still has that pebble in her backpack, by the way.  Like all of my dolls, if Luciana finds a trinket she likes, she keeps it.

January 13th, 2023.  Rita Cheryl popped back in for an Etsy shot, this time to show off her new batiked polka dot shoes.

Rita Cheryl likes polka dots almost as much as I do, and these just happened to match her new shirt.

April 16th.  Speaking of polka dots, I wanted to wait until summer to put Rita Cheryl in this, but the rapidly warming weather dictated otherwise.  Rita Cheryl donned her new peasant blouse and introduced me to her new pet.

A calico, which she knew I'd love because I love calico cats myself.  This one is Ginger, from back in the days when AG sold the pets with names.  Kyle's dog Meatloaf is another example, as is Sugar, whom I'm sizing up as a pet for River Song.  Heck, I just like AG-sized pets; I could collect all of those very easily.

May 12th.  Oh, how I wish the summer had stayed as mild as it was right then!  I took this picture in preparation for this post, in which several of my American Girls modelled some new Etsy duds.  Sunset was not far off, and I loved how the golden light filled the background behind Danica.

Alas, the golden hour was fleeting and my dolls were recalcitrant.  By the time I'd wrestled Rita Cheryl into a standing position, my own legs were aching and the light had shifted.  But I captured Danica back-lit and without a ton of obnoxious shadows on her face, and I'm glad for that.

June 17th, still pleasant outside, but slowly warming up.  Here I had Lady Diana propped against a bookshelf.  She's very pretty in profile. 

Diana is porcelain, and I was terrified that she'd do a mondo faceplant, but she didn't.

June 26th.  It was hot by now, but that didn't stop me from dressing Terri Lee up.

I don't think ANYTHING makes Terri Lee happy!  I guess having puffy, "mumpy" cheeks doesn't help.  I have to admit though that I think blue is my particular Terri Lee's color.  The dress is an Etsy find, by the way.

Fast-forward to August 19th, when we got a taste of fall.  It was a Saturday, and Carol Kasey fancied a romp in the grass.

The grass was covered in dew and felt wonderful on our feet.  Yes, our.  Both Carol and I went barefoot in that grass, and afterwards our legs were covered with grass bits.  It was worth it, though.  I also got a picture of this unfurled morning glory.  I almost never see these open.

September 3rd.  Random picture of Owen Presley, Carol Kasey's friend.  He's got such pretty eyes!

September 4th, shortly before I moved Owen and Suzie home.  No, I've not moved home full-time yet, and I've been shuttling various dolls back and forth between my house and Uncle Man-Child's.  I don't remember why I had Owen and Suzie, but they make a cute pair, and as usual Suzie is enthralled with Owen.

Inevitably there will be more randoms to come, as I almost always have a doll with me and odd or cute situations will crop up.  But for now that's all I've got.  With the passing of a fairly stout cold front, hopefully I'll get to go home for good this week.

Yours truly,
RagingMoon1987