Under the cabbage leaf: the most valuable Cabbage Patch Kids

In a similar vein to the Barbie list I found a few weeks back, here's a list regarding the most expensive Cabbage Patch Kids found.  Every so often I get bitten by the Cabbage Patch Kid bug, and I trot out my small Patch and hunt for clothes for them.  My bunch hasn't grown any since y'all saw them last.

From left, they are Stella Rae, Valencia "Val" Rose, Poppy Elizabeth, Andrea Doria, and Taniyah Yasmin.  Their posts can be found HERE and HERE, and because I'm doing this post on the fly all pictures here will be reused ones.  Sorry about that.  Anyway, the list had thirteen entries with one tie and one entry consisting of twin dolls.  Some of the dolls pre-date the Cabbage Patch years and are called "Little People" instead, and a few were soft-sculpture Cabbies from before the Coleco years.  To my surprise, none of the dolls were Tri-Ang gaudy yellows or fuzzy reds, two of the ones on my wish list.  There were two popcorns, however, and oh my, do I love a popcorn Cabbie!  My soft doll, Poppy Elizabeth, was advertised as a popcorn, but she's got tight Shirley Temple-style curls, not real popcorn locks.

No hate meant to Poppy, of course!  She's a soft-sculpture Kid, and not everyone has one of those so I won't complain.  Five of the thirteen entries on the list were soft-sculpture kids.

Interestingly, I do have one doll that might be considered a bit more desirable than others.  That one would be Valencia Rose, better known in Casa del Luna as "Val."

Val is a redhead, and according to the list redheads are more desirable than blondes or brunettes.  Indeed, seven of the thirteen entries on the list feature redheads, and maaaaaaaybe Entry #8 is a redhead too.  It's kinda hard to tell in the picture.  Val doesn't have the flaming red hair that the listed examples do, but she IS a redhead.  Taniyah Yasmin might be considered valuable too one day, but right now she's a hair too modern.

Again according to the list, Cabbies with darker skin tend to be more sought-after.  That may mean that in time, after Taniyah has spent a decade or two in the clippings pile, she too might go for a bit more than what I bought her.

And maybe she won't!  None of my Cabbies will go for much because they lack papers, original packaging, and in a few cases their original outfits, and none of them have artist signatures.  But that matters naught to me, as I have no intention of selling them.  As I've said in the past, I buy my dolls to play with, to love, and to admire, not to make a buck on the resale market.  And for the record, none of my dolls have faces covered in crayon! 

Okay, story time, one that does indeed deal with a Cabbie and crayons.  If y'all can believe this, a lady came into the library one time with a bedraggled old Cabbage Patch Kid.  The doll WAS vintage and her body appeared to be in good shape, but her clothes were gone and some little brat had drawn all over her face with red crayon.  I don't mean a few teeny-weeny, easily-scraped-off lines, either.  The whole face had been scribbled on...but the woman still thought her doll had the potential to be worth four thousand bucks.  Yeah, you read me right:  four with three zeros for a doll with a crayoned face and no clothes!  The woman already had a reputation for being extremely dense, and she'd been suckered by one of those clickbait ads that lists ordinary items for ridiculous amounts of money.  After looking up the deceitful ad again she thrust the poor doll at me and practically yelled "DON'T SHE LOOK LIKE THAT ONE IN THE PICTURE???"  The victimized doll DID look like the picture in the ad, but...yeah.  I wish I had a picture of the woman's face when I told her her decrepit old doll wouldn't be worth a plug nickel in the shape she was in.  Of course I was promptly told I didn't know what I was talking about, and then (thank God) the woman never came back.  This woman had a reputation for being rude as well as dense, so we weren't too sorry to see her go.  But seriously, even the priciest entry on the list didn't reach four thousand bucks, and there were TWO dolls in that listing!  The dolly world has its squirrels just like every other hobby does.

Stay cool (seriously, it's HOT outside),
RagingMoon1987

The big box of babies

The Moon Girl's birthday came super-early this year.  I knew my blogging buddy Tam had some things for me, but I wasn't expecting a whole box full!

Several of these popped in and out of Tam's blog, and I'll provide links as I go.

Real Baby.  Tam has an Unsentimental Niece who had a penchant for giving her dolls unflattering nicknames, and Real Baby's was a humdinger!  Mama says that Unsentimental Niece sounds like my sister, and I kinda agree.  Crazy family members aside, Real Baby is a good name for this doll, as she's heavy like a real baby, and because she has huge eyes that stare like a real baby!  I haven't come up with a name for her yet.

Next doll!

I wonder if Unsentimental Niece gave this one a nickname?  This is Baby See 'n' Say, and whispers began about her joining the Moon House back in 2021.  Tam offered her to me and gave me fair warning that she was in rough shape.  Indeed, I'm not sure what I can do about that eye, but I do know I can do some cosmetic things to make her look and feel better.  Regardless of her goofy eye I do love this doll, as she's soft to the touch and has red hair.  I do have a name picked out for this one.

Now we go smaller, and to a doll I was not expecting to receive. 

Ideal Thumbelina, one that does NOT have a "grunt face," again, a term coined by Unsentimental Niece.  I kinda agree with Unsentimental Niece on that one, and so did Mama.  She wanted a Thumbelina doll when she was little, and she freely admitted that she liked some better than others.  This Thumbelina fits comfortably in the palm of my hand, and her small size will make her a fine friend for Bedsie Beans.  She'll need some clothes, of course, but...that's really all she needs!  

This next baby is a bit of an enigma.

He's the smallest of the babies, though not the smallest doll in the whole box.  He's hard plastic and vinyl, and he has a bottle mouth but no pee hole!  I love his side-glancing eyes!  But for all that I have no idea who he might be.  His back is marked "MADE IN HONG KONG," and that tells me absolutely nothing.  Oh well, I'll jerry-rig a diaper and add him to my collection. 

The last little doll is one I was expecting.  She's a little coin purse doll.

I'll call her Penny Coin Purse, LOL!  Miss Penny has a plastic torso and a vinyl head with rooted hair, and her skirt is all one piece with a zipper attached.  I could store some spare money inside her, and I think I'll do just that.  It'll be paper money, because too many coins will wear holes in the fabric and I don't want that.  Penny needs her hair tidied a bit, and she'll be ready to ride with Belle on my purse!

In addition to all that I received some bottles and a plastic binky, which I think may belong to the unmarked plastic baby.

Mama tells me that Grandma utilized one of those sterilization racks for baby bottles.  Since she had twin boys, she probably needed to use it a lot!

Gosh, I knew Real Baby, Baby See 'n' Say, and Penny Coin Purse were all scheduled to come to me, but I was NOT expecting the other two and the bottles.  I send virtual hugs to both Tam and her daughter for sending it all to me (the coin purse was her daughter Emma's idea if I recall correctly).  Thank y'all so much!  I know this year hasn't been easy for y'all, and yet you're thinking of other folks and I'm...really at a loss for words.  If there's anything y'all want me to look for, let me know and I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Much love to all,

RagingMoon1987 

He's here!

Whew, been a busy week at Casa del Luna!  I hit the ground running when Sandy got here, and except for a break on the weekend I haven't looked back.  That said, this post is for you, Tam!  You shared your picture of your Baby Beans doll with me, and now I'm sharing mine with you.  I didn't even know I wanted one of these goofy dolls until I saw that MeTV list, but...well, y'know.  My doll's name is Bedsie Beans, and Ghost of the Doll says he is harder to find than Booful (my personal favorite) and Bitty, the other two Beans in the first wave.  Ghost also implies that Bedsie had a shorter run than the other two, as they weren't able to find packaging for the years 1972 and 1973 (Booful and Bitty did come in this packaging).  I seem to have a knack for finding the harder ones, don't I?  Sandy all but landed in my lap, and now I've got this little guy.  Here's my Bedsie Beans; he came in several colors, with mine being the orange variant.  He's about as different from Sandy McCall as night is from day.

I do have to admit that Bedsie's mouth looks a bit like the grille of an Edsel...and I won't say what people often compare that to!  As Bedsie's name implies, he's sleepy and in mid-yawn, kinda like I tend to be in the morning.  Hey, 9 a.m. is still early for my lazy rear, especially on a Saturday!  Anyway...I presume Bedsie is a boy, but I'm not 100% certain due to that lace around the neck.  Ghost of the Doll calls this one a "she."

These dolls could probably be any gender you like, so I'll call my doll a him because I like boy dolls.  Like all of the Beans Bedsie is a glorified rag doll, with a soft, floppy, plastic pellet-filled body and a hollow vinyl head...my bad, his hands are vinyl too.  Some of these dolls have cloth hands.

The advertisements for these dolls says they can "flip and flop into almost any position," and indeed Bedsie can do just that, though he'd prefer that I just leave him alone.  He can also sit up if I balance him just right, as Bean heads are supported by a peg of some stripe (it feels like plastic).  The My Twinn Cuddly Sisters also relied on a mechanism like this to keep their heads up.  Such a mechanism tends to work the best if the doll is mostly a beanbag; regular old stuffing has too much give.

Bedsie doesn't have a rubber butt, but I was amused to learn that some Beans have vinyl rear ends under trapdoor pajamas like Baby Love 'n' Touch (a.k.a. "Naked Butt Baby") does.  These Beans were called Bare Bottom Beans.  Then of course there were Beans in bonnets and Beans that talked, Beans in cans (I love those), Shoe Beans (I like those too, but WHYYYY???), and even some that represented nursery rhymes.  Tam's lovely green-eyed girl was one of those, representing Little Bo Peep.  As fond as I am of green eyes, I may have to seek Bo out for myself.  I also like the pastel-haired, dimple-cheeked Feijaozinho Colorido dolls and their friend Emilia, but those were Brazilian releases so goodness only knows where I can find one of those.  One can admire though, right?  Besides, those Brazilian dolls don't have quite the character that Bedsie Beans does.

I think Bedsie is about pooped out!  I guess a spin in the washing machine and a spin in the drier will do that to you.  For the record, Booful, Bitty, and Bedsie can be tossed in the washing machine and the drier as long as things aren't too hot; indeed, their original packaging says they're washable.  I tried tying Bedsie up in a pillowcase, the way they say to do if Cabbage Patch Kids need a bath, but the knot came undone, LOL.  Bedsie is no worse for wear except for being sleepy, so I'll leave him to relax while I work.  To Tam, I promise I'll work on a post for Sandy McCall.  You wanted it, you asked for it politely, and you'll get it.  It'll just take a little time, because he's a big boy and I'm not used to handling dolls as big as he is.  He also ended up having more of a backstory than I thought, but I'm workin' on it!

Hugs,

RagingMoon1987

I hate group pictures

Today is the day that that Barbie movie is being released, so...this one's kinda a just-for-the-heckuvit post, but good ol' Barbie will be the main focus.  That said...I hate group pictures.  I try to put my dolls together for group photos all the time, and more often than not one or more of them is looking over me or off to the left or toppling over.  I considered it extremely good luck that this image came out so well, and even here they're not all looking at the camera.  Courtney appears to be fixated on a passing car, and God only knows what Rita Cheryl is looking at.

It seems like the bigger the doll, the more likely one or more of them are going to be staring into space.  For Barbie it doesn't seem to matter so much, presumably since their smaller heads and eyes seem to take the world in.  For example, even though these girls aren't looking directly at the camera, I was able to make it work.  From left, I have a TNT Stacey (thank you Gaston Calloway, for sending her to me!), a reproduction American Girl ("Victorine"), red-haired Cut 'n' Style Barbie ("Marie"), Tressy, and Mary Makeup in a dress that belonged to my mother's old Barbie.

Never in my life did I dream that a Mod doll could look good in a semi-modern outfit, but I threw Stacey in a nineties-era dress and shoes and they fit her like a glove.

I can't help but giggle at this next image, since they're not the prettiest dolls in not the prettiest dresses.  Western Winking Barbie is the one in the glasses (I think I named her "Sue Ellen" after that broad from Dallas), an unidentified Disney doll (I think she was Belle at one time), and Kissing Barbie (I named her "Lola" after the Kinks song).  They're all modelling dresses that I knitted (Sue Ellen and Lola) or crocheted (Belle).

Poor, poor Sue Ellen!  Western Winking Barbie never was a pretty doll, and my doll has not aged well.  I pretend that her green shades both hide her deformity and help her see better.  "She's like that guy on Star Trek:  The Next Generation," was how I explained it at the time, and that's the explanation I'm sticking with.  Belle suffered an unfixable haircut (even a buzz didn't do her), so at the moment she is completely bald and clad in a hat.  I may have her rerooted some day, but for now I kinda like her the way she is.  I made her the little hat for that specific purpose.  As for Lola, I was trying to teach myself fair isle knitting, and...well, y'all see the result.  Not the prettiest little dress, but I was proud of it then and I'm proud of it still.

Like American Girls and the various Doctors, Barbie Fashionistas are numbered...and I have the damnedest time keeping the numbers straight!  It's even harder for me personally since I give them all pet names.  I don't remember why I took this particular picture...yeah I do!  They were all the petite Barbie dolls that I had at the time (the different body sizes were a novelty back then), and I loved how they were a nice diverse trio even though they're the same size.  Natalie (Love That Lace, #23) is a honey blonde with light brown eyes, China (Blue Brocade, #25) has the lovely Mbili head, and Bambi (Pretty in Paisley, #41) has two-toned hair and brown eyes paired with a nice tan.  China and Bambi are both clad in Bambi's extra outfits; for awhile some of the Fashionistas with the new bodies came with extra clothes.

China and Natalie went on to become two of my favorite little models, while poor Bambi kinda fell by the wayside.  Even now I sometimes forget I have her.  I have group pictures of the tall dolls and the curvy ones too somewhere, but goodness only knows where they are.  I don't have very many curvy dolls as it is.  There have been plenty along the line that I've loved, but I only loved Billie Jean and Deb enuff to buy them.  I liked Daisy Pop and To Tie-Dye For (I even mentioned them in my post about curvy dolls), but when I saw them IRL they didn't give me that "Wow, I gotta have that!" feeling.

Moving on, here's the biggest group shot I got.  Everyone I can think of is in this shot.

Not the greatest quality, but y'all get the drift.  Gosh, where do I start?  Okay, back row, from left:  I started out with 2015's IT Girl Elizabeth (#12 on the Barbie wiki) and Rapunzel is next to her.  Then there's Merida and Chandra, Belle, a redressed Barbie LOOK doll that I never named, then Tiana, and Kenzie (#14 on the same wiki).  Up front from left are Aurora and Mulan, Mara (whom I bought during a depressed spell, hence the name), Cassandra, Dreamhouse Midge, and Sherralee.  Sherralee shows what the Fashionistas once were, as they're both jointed all over.  Fashionistas nowadays have five joints, period.  They're still a lot of fun, and they have shoulders that move out as well as back and forth, which is more than a lot of my childhood Barbie dolls had.  Tangent alert now, because this last bit isn't a group picture or anything of that sort.  That said, I'm trying to be very choosy about which Fashionistas I bring home now since I have so many, but the new Down syndrome doll is a must-have!  Her Fashionistas number is #208.

There have been other Down syndrome dolls in the past (Lottie's friend Rosie Boo has it), but this is the first Barbie!  She's even got pink leg braces, which I love.  If you've gotta use leg braces or anything like that, get them in your favorite color!  I'd want mine to be green, of course.  This doll is so stinkin' cute, though!  She's loaded with references to down syndrome; the dress has both the awareness colors and the insignia for Down syndrome, and her necklace has three chromosomes on it, for Trisomy 21.  She also has a specially designed body.

Are any of y'all going to see the Barbie movie today?  If so, let me know if you enjoyed it!  I think it looks cute, but I don't have wheels so I won't be going to see it.  Sooooo...let me know if you saw it and enjoyed it!  Also, do any of y'all have trouble getting group pictures to look decent?  Share your horror stories.  As a final little Barbie bit, check out Miss Emily's post on Barbie's growing inclusivity.  It touches on Fashionistas #91, #121, #135, and #208, plus a few other dolls that I don't own (I like the Chelsea doll with scoliosis the best).  It's a nice diverse bunch, far better than the blonde, blue-eyed group I had as a teenager, AND it opens with an awesome group pic.  I don't know how Emily does it without tearing her hair out.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

Throwback Thursday review: Geoffrey, Inc. Laura Ashley

This will be the last AG knockoff that I do for awhile, I promise!  I know eighteen-inch dolls aren't everyone's thing.  Like Sasha, the name "Laura Ashley" is the name of this doll line as a whole, though unlike Sasha there are no dolls in this line actually named Laura Ashley.  Laura Ashley is the name of a group that sells clothes and home furnishings, while the dolls were Toys 'R' Us exclusives, thus...well, I don't understand the connection!!!  But anyway, these Laura Ashley dolls bore a strong resemblance to Geoffrey's Girls on the Go line (not to be confused with the line Madge is from), and they have cute faces, so y'all know where I'm going with this.  I've got a Laura Ashley doll for today, but as I said above her name is NOT Laura Ashley.  All of the Laura Ashley dolls did have a first and a middle name, with this one being Katherine Alyse (I threw in a last name, as I often do, but that was my doing and not Geoffery's).

Like Shifra, this one needs a change of clothes.  Border collies for the win!

I apologize for the state of my grandmother's carpet; that particular area gets a lot of foot traffic and has been pounded flat over the years, but it's the best place in her house for doll photography.  According to Just Magic (yep, them again!), there were two brunette dolls in this line:  brown-eyed Rebecca Louise and blue-eyed Katherine Alyse.  So when my doll turned up with GREEN eyes I was initially thrown for a loop.

Little Raven Creations notes that Katherine Alyse actually has green eyes rather than blue, and they provide clear pictures so I know they've got it right.  Little Raven Creations also mentions a fifth character, a dark-skinned pet named Alana Michelle.  I love how these girls all have first and middle names, but the name "Katherine" is a little problematic for me since I have a couple of dolls named "Katherine" or some variant thereof.  But it's a nice name and a family name, so I'll stick with it.  Despite having the company name "Geoffrey, Inc." attached, Katherine is apparently a Lotus doll like Shifra (I didn't learn this until I just about had this post complete).  As a result Katherine has a build similar to that of an American Girl doll (my usual girl is shown), but a little on the slimmer side (like Madge and Shifra).  Notice that Rita Cheryl also appears a little taller than Katherine, though that may be because of her thick-soled shoes.

Hair first, as always.  Katherine is a brunette, with maybe the slightest hint of some red?  It doesn't show here, but in other pictures there's another color in there besides brown.  Little Raven calls it auburn.

Unfortunately, even without me monkeying with her hair there's this to be seen.

The rooting was a disappointment but not a surprise, as Little Raven noted that hair thickness could vary widely in this doll line.  Some dolls have thick tresses and some do not, and this phenomenon wasn't specific to characters.  I just happened to get a Katherine Alyse with thin hair. 

Most of this hair is worn loose, except for the very top part (Little Raven recommends that this be left intact).  That part is gathered together in a wrapped ponytail that is still smooth after twenty-some-odd years.

Like Madge and Shifra, Katherine's hair needed a little maintenance after her trip from Selden, New York, and her hair was...between Madge and Shifra in terms of difficulty.  It was much easier to tame than Madge's, but nowhere near as easy as Shifra's.  That said, Katherine's hair is low-maintenance despite its length.  I'm constantly having to brush Shifra's hair to keep it from tangling again, and Madge's hair is just plain hopeless, but Katherine's hair just needs a quick comb and she's ready for her closeup.

Now let's get face to face.  Like my Dream Doll Designer Rebecca, Katherine has a slightly snarky expression, but unlike Rebecca all Laura Ashley dolls look a little like this.  It's the angled eyebrows, mostly, and the bangs that cover parts of the eyebrows.

Ah, green eyes.  I have a thing for eyes in general, but green and gray eyes are my favorites on dolls.  They seem to turn up less often than the various shades of brown and blue.  These irises are a little hazy though, making me wonder if they won't one day change color. 

As I noted in Shifra's review, Katherine's eyes sleep like a lot of doll eyes do.  Note that she has painted eyelashes as well as rooted ones.

The lower part of Katherine's face is a bit more made-up than I'm used to.  

She blushed cheeks, pink lips, and more than the two teeth sported by Chatty Cathy, Shifra, and the American Girls, plus some lips that are a very pretty shape.  With the way the mouth is painted Katherine can look like she's trying to talk...or she can look like she's drunk.

Hmmm, I thought Madge was good at looking drunk, but Katherine may have her beat!  What say y'all?

In addition to looking drunk Katherine and her Laura Ashley friends can at times look too made up for a little girl, kinda like Grace Thomas does.  Keep in mind that Grace only wears lip gloss, not honest-to-God lipstick.  To top it all off Katherine can be very photogenic, but she can have her difficult moments too.  Y'all saw how she looked above, and last Friday night she really had her hands full!

In this case Katherine had been given the unenviable task of keeping Little Honeymoon still.  Little Honeymoon is almost flat, as we'll see in the weeks to come, but that doesn't stop her from being active!  Anyway, like Shifra Katherine has a face that's no gray area, though it's a bit more conventional than Shifra's is.  It's very nicely painted and the vinyl tone is pretty, but the paint is a little heavy, particularly on the lips.  But that's largely my own gripe; I kinda have a hangup about young girls tinting their lips.  You've got all of adulthood to do that, kiddies!

I'm gonna start the body discussion with a rabbit trail, but I guarantee y'all there's a point to it.  Like Madge and unlike Shifra, Katherine came in part of her original outfit, consisting of a purple plaid dress.  She apparently once had white tights, black shoes, and a hat, or somesuch like that.  I was able to replace the tights and shoes with stuff from Etsy, and even though I like it when my dolls wear hats Katherine looks okay without one.  The Etsy tights did leave some bruise-like stains on Katherine's legs, but that's my fault because I should've washed them.

Katherine's stock dress also stained her.  See the rings around her arms?  They're faint, but they're there.

Both Denise and Silver Bird have had to deal with staining in the past, and I've learned that with time the stains just...fade, just like bruises.  You'd never be able to tell now that Silver Bird arrived stained all over.  Her arms are covered here, but her legs are not and it's easy to see that she's free of stains.

Another two of my dolls arrived stained after spending ten-plus years in their boxes.  The cuffs of Lola's jacket caused her stains (left), while Madge's cousin Penny (right) has some stains from her dark blazer.  

Hopefully Katherine's stains will fade like Denise's and Silver Bird's did, but if not I can always try Stain Devils or peroxide in the sun.  But before I do clothes I want to skim this body.  Since Katherine is a Lotus doll I'm predicting that she'll have a body similar to Shifra's, and indeed she does.  A little weebly, but not terribly so.

Unfortunately that means that Katherine has no sideways play in her shoulders and hips.  She's restricted to straight up and straight down in the arm department...

...and front-to-back splits in the leg department.  She also sits very well (better than Madge), but not gracefully.  

Her head turns smoothly.

I forgot to make note of this in their reviews, but both Madge and Shifra use cable ties to keep their heads on.  Katherine does too.

Rita Cheryl has the old-style cotton cords.  I tied hers in a bow so they wouldn't look weird under her blouse.

I do have a few American Girls who don't have the neck strings, but being older and thus able to take off a doll's head with no ill effects, I prefer the strings.  Still, it's good to know that I could get into Katherine's body if I needed to.  I don't know if I could perform an effective body swap between Katherine and an American Girl, though.  Katherine's vinyl is very fair, so obviously a medium-toned American Girl like Rita Cheryl would be a terrible match.  Currently River Song and Arista are my two fairest-toned dolls, and as you can see, neither of them match Katherine's vinyl.  To my considerable surprise, Katherine is a little darker.

Why is this all important, you ask?  Well, it's not really.  I'm just exploring options in case I want Katherine to be a bit more limber.  Arista would NOT be a good candidate for body swapping in that case, as her limbs also only swivel.  But she's paler than Katherine, so no problem!

Moving on, since Katherine is a Lotus doll her hands are a similar shape to River Song's and Rita Cheryl's, but a bit smaller.

Her feet are similar in size but quite different in shape.

Here it's possible to see that Katherine's feet are narrower than Rita Cheryl's, but her calves are thicker.  I wasn't expecting that. 

Here's what the sole of Katherine's foot looks like.  Like Shifra, she's got some details in there.  As I said last week, American Girls have completely flat feet.  Yee-ouchie!

Par for the course, I've stored Katherine's stock dress and forgotten exactly where, so that won't be getting a review.  But I do have some other things that merit a looksie.  This hippie-flavored getup was piecemealed together from Etsy stuff.  The blouse came from TreasuredDollsUSA (a shop that I love), the jeans are from Bellaboo's (I love that shop too), and the shoes came from 

I'm glad that I shoved this on Katherine, because now I can tell y'all how it fits.  The shirt has no opening in the back and subsequently has to go over a doll's head, but it stretches a little so I got it on with no fuss.  The jeans are tight all over, possibly due to Katherine's thicker legs, and possibly because these would be better for My Life As dolls.  I dunno which.  Once in place the jeans look adorable, though they slide off Katherine's butt a lot.  As for the shoes, I was afraid that they'd easily fall off Katherine's smaller feet, but they actually fit her nicely.  I did have to go looking for a shoe at one point, but I think that may have been my own doing.  So Etsy's American Girl clothes are pretty safe for the Laura Ashley crowd, providing one keeps an eye out for tight pieces.  That's true for ALL dolls this size.

Just for the heckuvit, here's what Katherine looks like in a cheerleading outfit.  Mama got this for me.

Katherine is a Buckeye girl, and my lovely mama has an Ohio State uniform on the way, but for now Katherine is content to be a Tiger.  LSU is a family favorite school for various reasons, so it makes sense.  This getup fits Katherine like it was made for her, so I won't complain any.  She also looks amazing in purple, LOL.  Duh, she CAME wearing purple!

I'll end this post with Katherine as she looked in the beginning.  I think I said above that this is a My Life As outfit.

Once upon a time these outfits didn't fit American Girls or similarly sized dolls, but now for the most part they do.  The jeans fit particularly well.  They LOOK tight, but Katherine can sit in them with no problems.  The My Life As Shoes that I bought did not fit around her thick ankles, so beware of shoes that don't fit.

That settles it!

BAD
*Hair is a mixed bag on these dolls.  My Katherine's hair looks good, but the roots aren't great and the fibers feel a little stiff.
*Like Shifra, this face is a little characterized.  I like it and Mama likes it, but some collectors might not.
*Posing isn't great.  Three dolls in three weeks, and none of them have socket joints.
*I had a hard time finding shoes for Katherine.  Etsy shoes work, but the ones at Wal-Mart were too small.
*I'm not sure I trust those eyes!  They look like the type that could shift color as time passes.
*Stains...fairly easily.  Beware of dark clothes on these dolls, and wash any dark Etsy items before use.

GOOD
*I don't trust the eyes, but I do love the color!  Green eyes are always awesome!
*Well-painted, with an expressive face.
*Her hair is a lovely color, and I love the stock style.  As long as I don't monkey with it much it should be okay.
*Can share clothes with...just about all of my eighteen-inch dolls, except for the all-vinyl ones.  Just be wary of tight pants.
*Y'all will have to take my word for it that her stock dress is nice.  It stained her a little, but it's well-made.

Well!  Three weeks, three American Girl alternatives.  I think that of the three of them Katherine is probably the best, unless Shifra's character face won you over.  Shifra also has the best hair, though none of these dolls have AG-caliber hair.  Overall I'm pretty pleased with Lotus's forays into the eighteen-inch world, and I'd recommend both Madge and Shifra as friends for that special American Girl.  Just watch out for staining, and treat all hair with a gentle hand.  And be wary of doll shoes; the shoes I got for Katherine were too small, and the ones Shifra has are too big, so be very careful about picking that special pair of shoes.

Now, a not-so-brief postscript.  Not too long ago Barb the Evil Genius asked me how my other eighteen-inch dolls are taking the newcomers.  The answer is...they're not paying too much attention.  Doremi is mad that she can't push them around, Luciana has had her head too far up her telescope to say much, and Rita Cheryl has had her head in the clouds as well.  Funny, Rita Cheryl has never been much of a dreamer, but here lately she has done it a lot.  Maybe the heat got to her.  But that's okay, because Madge, Shifra, and Katherine became fast friends in their own right.  They all arrived with in a week of each other and thus forged a strong bond...kinda like Arista and River Song did, and Gabby and Danica too for that matter.  In this trio I see Katherine as the gregarious chatterbox, Madge as the practical, level-headed one, and Shifra as the quiet, innocent type.  Since Shifra is a little younger, but Madge and Katherine do everything they can to protect her.  Katherine has also grown thick with Zoe and Justine-Marie, both of whom like to play dress-up, and Shifra has grown close to Denise and Lindsey, with whom she worships.  Madge relates more to the baby dolls and the fourteen-inch battalion.  

Take that back, Rita Cheryl seems to like Katherine quite a bit.  She says that Katherine's gift of gab reminds her a bit of Luciana.  Here's what the two friends did after I wrapped up photography. 

It's been a long, hot week, and it's not over yet.  Weekend daytime temperatures will be dipping into the eighties, so Mama and I may get to go home in a few days, but until then I've been staying under a functioning A/C.  And don't worry about my pets; they...act like they like it, the crazy things!

Cheers and teddy bear hugs, 
RagingMoon1987