Return of the clove of seasons

Yep, it's that time again.  Spring and summer seamlessly meld into one another, as do fall and winter.  But the transitions from the extremes, from winter to spring and from summer to fall, tend to be more in fits and starts.  This summer was not anywhere near as bad as the last one; we did have a few stretches of extremely hot days, but they either were short stretches or were accompanied by low humidity and/or a nice breeze.  Mama and I could take our lunch in the graveyard without risking death by mosquito or by heatstroke.  But just the same, the transition from summer to fall has begun.  We still need the A/C by day, the cicadas still keen in the trees, and the errant mosquito buzzes in my ear, but nights are cooler and a few rogue trees have already begun to shed their leaves.  Last Saturday Mama and I even saw a monarch butterfly; those don't usually start hanging around here until late September.  So yeah, it's the clove of seasons again.  I've referred to this twice in the past, once in September of 2014 and once in March of 2020.

As y'all may remember, there is a field behind the library where I work.  Last year it was left fallow, and the year before that there was cotton in that field.  This year the crop of choice is soybeans, and ever-curious Beryl June wanted to get a closer look.  She held her branch a bit too close to the camera, but y'all get what she's getting at.

This is what soybeans look like during the clove of seasons.  There's still a lot of green in the foliage, but some of the leaves are beginning to darken, as are the bean pods themselves.

I love soybeans!  They're not as visually striking when ripe as cotton or milo, but they have their own beauty.  When they're ready to be picked they turn a sandy brown, not terribly unlike Idalia Gale's hair.

While traipsing back to the library I caught this yellow flower, a member of the "damned yellow composite" category.

Damned yellow composite might be a pain in the posterior for botanists, but I love it.  They're all the same...but they're just different enuff that you're never looking at the same thing twice.  This flower was growing all by its lonesome, by the way.  Contrary to what the Brave Little Toaster might tell you, flowers don't die of loneliness...as far as I know.

Oh yes, the sticker burrs are also growing rank in the grass.  I had to be very careful where I stepped and where I set Beryl June.  I hate those danged things!  Luckily I was able to avoid 'em completely.  There have been times where I spent half an hour pulling those satanic little thorns out of my jeans and shoes.  But all is well today!  Now to wait for the rain.  Like the veronal clove of seasons, the autumnal clove is usually accompanied by storms.  Don't wait up!

Love,
RagingMoon1987

So random, part five

Back again, you lucky people!  I've been doing a lot with the Cabbage Patch lately, so these first few pictures will be of them.  My friend from Newfoundland (and probably the other admins of that Cabbie group) introduced themes for the days of the week, so a lot of my pictures this time will be from those.  That said, this first doll is definitely NOT a Cabbage Patch Kid.  August 5th.

Little Maya got a new raincoat and boots with frogs on them.  There was no rain in the forecast at the time, but I threw the outfit on her anyway to see how it looked.  It fits over her sewn clothes pretty well, and she looks adorable...if you like Baby Alive dolls with their flat heads, LOL.

August 6th.  I DIDN'T share this one on the Cabbie group, but it's how I imagine Beryl June would look if she were taking a selfie.

Beryl June became extremely popular in the Cabbie group for reasons I've yet to establish.  My friend from Newfoundland has already said that if we meet I may not get Beryl back!  I offered to trade her...for Newfoundland's favorite Cabbie, a violet-eyed brunette named after Sarah Jane Smith.  Of course that offer was a hard NO, LOL.  We all have our special Cabbies; Beryl June is mine, and Sarah Jane is hers.  More on that at eleven.

August 8th.  Toybox Thursdays are for Cabbies and their toys.  I don't have much in the way of toys for my Kids, but Valencia Rose does have Titania Rosalind.

Treesa, if you're out there, I've gotten more mileage out of that little Playmate, and I thank you kindly.  She's not a dead ringer for Val (their eyes are different), but most folks don't car about that.  I notice hair before I notice eyes, and Titania's eyes are a lovely shade of blue.

Also on August 8th, I got this random picture of Matthew Tommie, Lucey Dena, and Ginger.

I got in the mood to change Lucey's clothes that evening, but y'all will get a better look at that in a bit.  Usually Lucey wears her blue and pink dress, but she and I were both in the mood for a change.  When it gets closer to fall I'll put Matt in something new too.  Mama got a cute plaid hoodie set, and the colors will look nice on him.

August 11th, Failbook memory from 2021.  After foolishly not buying her the first time she was available, I bought Dot Starlight.  Here she is in her box...

...and out.

I'm bitterly disappointed that the Lalaloopsy revival didn't last long, but it did allow me to grab Dot without having to pay a ridiculous price on eBay.  Dot's garish yellow hair doesn't geehaw well with the rest of her coloring, and that was why I initially eschewed her.  I still don't love it...yeah, actually, now I do.  Dot stands out in a crowd. 

Also August 11th.  This is an outtake from Kiara's review. 

Carrie can do what Kiara can't:  flop around adorably.  But Kiara can sit up if braced from the back, so it's all good. 

August 12th.  Bae Day Monday was for lemon-haired Cabbies.  I have two, Alexandra Claire and Poppy Elizabeth. 

Poppy is a reroot, if I recall correctly, but that doesn't bother me.  Reroots are embraced in that group.  As for Alexandra Claire...maybe she's more lemoncello than lemon, but that didn't matter to my friends.  In the future though, I may class her as golden-haired and pair her with Candela Laura.

August 13th.  Take-Me-Home Tuesdays are for Cabbies that one obtained locally, which for me is easy since I only have one.

Found Andrea Doria at Dexter about seven years ago.  Someone took pretty good care of her since she has her original outfit, ponytail holder and all.  But as I've said before her hair was pretty tortured, and she looked like she'd literally been plucked from a lifeboat.  So I gave her a hug, asked "How much for this one?", was told...maybe it was two bucks.  I know I got one doll for free from that shop, but now that I think about it I think Penny Brite was the one I got for free.  Andrea Doria cost me two bucks.  Two.  There was another Cabbie there, a little boy with a sweet face, but he had pox pretty bad so I didn't take him.  Poor thing, maybe I should've.  Pox can't be fixed, but it can be concealed or lightened.  Besides, it's not like Andrea doesn't have flaws of her own.  See?

Andrea fell victim to someone with a pen, just like Idalia Gale did.  I don't know why some little kids think it's alright to mark on their toys with a stinkin' pen!  It wasn't like Cabbies were cheap back in the day, and even if they WERE cheap toys aren't for marking on!

August 14th.  Wednesday Wearables, or Cabbies modelling a new or cute outfit.  Three of my girls are wearing new threads.

LOL, three of my blue-eyed blondes!  Allie Kathleen's favorite color is yellow, and I got her a new dress in that color scheme since the Velcro gave out on her old one.  The Etsy shop is one of my favorite go-tos for Cabbie clothes, pac44.  Poppy Elizabeth is a big doll and can wear baby clothes, so her stuff is Garanimals in size 0-3 months.  Frankly, I think even that is a bit big, especially in the shirt.  As for Lucey Dena, her little outfit is...more for fall, but fall isn't that far off.  It's a tagged Cabbage Patch getup, and Mama got it for me.  

August 17th.  I had my Rainbow High and Shadow High dolls out in preparation for another post, and Mama took a liking to Natasha Zima and Shanelle Onyx.

Mama says she likes the Shadow High bunch enuff to put them on display in the front room.  She likes my Monster High bunch too.  I think putting them up front sounds like a plan!

August 19th was another Bae Day Monday, this time for brunettes.  At the time I had five of them on hand and two tinies back at Casa del Luna. 

The big ones are Julie Emmalee, Beryl June, and Lesley Emily.  The small ones are Carol Kasey and Skye Kitty.  Skye was hanging out behind Little Honeymoon in my last post, and sharp-eyed Treesa saw her.

I love the jewel-toned eyes on these Mattel Kids!  Carol Kasey's eyes are a lovely shade of green, while Lucey Dena and Skye Kitty have blue eyes.  

Brown Mattel eyes look like chocolate milk.  Mmmmm, I love chocolate milk.  Recently Treesa has been showing me some of her childhood Cabbies, and that's only cemented my fondness for Mattel Kids.  Hers are freaking adorable (one of 'em has chocolate milk eyes), and it's a tremendous treat to see them.  

August 20th, memory from last year.

The doll on the left is a Sekiguchi La Cheri doll that I named Olivia, and the doll on the right is my beloved Sasha.  I had planned on reviewing Olivia and was running down the similarities that she has with Sasha, but I realized that Olivia is very similar in function and in body type to my Munecas Geli, Renata.  Both are lapsitter types with soft bodies and vinyl limbs, and there's just not a lot to say about them.  Olivia is sweet, though.  She has brown eyes and blonde hair, a combo my mama loves.

August 22nd.  Another Failbook memory from last year. 

Crissy, Look Around Velvet, Sasha, and Aimee.  My ham-handed attempts to rid Crissy and Velvet of mold ended up wrecking their eyes, so it'll be a long time before they appear in the blog again.  The Talky Velvet that Tam sent me remains healthy, and for some weird reason, so does Aimee.  Even though she's from the same era as Crissy and Velvet, she doesn't get mold.  Or at least mine hasn't.  As for Sasha, I think it would take a nuke to kill her.  She's tough as nails.

And now for the eleven o'clock news.  August 24th.  Meet Elisabeth Clara, another brunette.

When I saw this girl on eBay she reminded me of the aforementioned Sarah Jane.  Indeed, the two dolls are almost exactly the same except for head molds.  As I said above, Newfoundland named Sarah Jane after the one and only Sarah Jane Smith, so I named Elisabeth after Sarah Jane's actress, Elisabeth Clara Sladen.  Neither doll looks much like Ms. Sladen (she had dark eyes and and reddish brown hair, and I thought she was quite pretty), but...oh well.  Elisabeth hails from Taiwan's UT2 factory and has the uber-rosy cheeks that UT factories are known for.  She's also a little yellowed (again a hallmark of a UT doll), but Valencia Rose is yellowed too.  See?  Some Cabbies just age like that.

Actually, they don't look too bad after all!  They're certainly not as bad off as my drooled-on pillow, LOL.  Elisabeth is just a sweet little doll.  It tickled the snot out of my friend to see a Sarah Jane lookalike.  Elisabeth is only my second violet-eyed Cabbie, by the way; Andrea Doria was the first.

August 26th.  Bae Day Monday's theme that week was wheat and champagne hair.  I have three of those.  From left, Idalia Gale, Kitrick Randolph Fergus, and Allie Kathleen.  This picture was taken before Allie got her new dress.

I guess Randolph would count as a subcategory of wheat (his hair is a rusty shade).  As I noted in Randolph's introduction, the foreign factories tended to march to the beat of their own drums, and a lot of unusual hair colors came from Spain, from Japan, from Mexico and South Africa.  Not ugly colors, mind y'all, just kinda different.  

Later that same evening I caught Morgan and Elisabeth Clara getting to know each other. 

I think Elisabeth envies Morgan's bows.  She'll have her own soon enuff.

I apologize for the glut of cabbage, y'all.  I don't want good pictures to go to waste, so...here they are!  Maybe I should call these posts "Cabbage Clippings!"

Love,

RagingMoon1987 

About Bitty Baby

Another fluff post...sorta.  I don't usually make my fluff posts into full reviews, but that's how this post ended up.  When I rooted my Bitty Baby out of storage last summer (it was July 6th, but that doesn't matter) it occurred to me that I briefly discussed her here on the blog, but I never took a closer look or shared my opinions.  I don't think my sister ever considered owning a Bitty Baby when we were receiving those catalogs, but for a brief spell I considered asking for one instead of an American Girl. She didn't have hair to get tangled, she came with an adorable teddy bear (Bitty Bear), and her clothes were bright and colorful. So for better or worse, here's my Bitty Baby, Kiara.

Bitty Baby has been around in some way, shape, or form since 1990.  In the beginning the line was called Our New Baby, and the doll in question could be a boy or a girl.  Then in 1995 the line was rebranded Bitty Baby, the dolls were all designated as girls, and that was that.  Bitty Baby relies on a number system like Just Like You does, and a quick perusal of Kiara's debut post revealed that this is Bitty Baby #2, with fair skin, dark hair, and dark eyes.

*#1 is the little black doll.  She made her debut in 1990 as Our New Baby.  She has textured black hair and brown eyes.
*#2 is my doll, a brown-eyed brunette.  This doll was NOT part of the Our New Baby line, but made her debut in 1995.  In 2013 she got revamped.
*#3 is blonde and blue-eyed.  She was released in 2011 and is very similar to one of the older dolls (see below a few lines).
*#4 is Asian-American and has a slightly different paint job from her Bitty sisters.  Her hairline has a fuzzy look, kinda like a buzz cut.  #4 was my favorite as a child, kinda like JLY #4 was.  She dates back to 1990.
*#5 has dark eyes, dark hair, and medium skin.  She could easily be Hispanic, biracial or Native American.  This doll was released in 1995 and got a revamp in 2013.
#6 has red hair and hazel eyes, and was a 2015 release.

Apparently the numbering system is a newish thing, because the sole retired doll from the Our New Baby era is not numbered.  She's blonde and gray-eyed and looks very similar to Bitty Baby #3.  

So!  Kiara is fifteen inches from head to toe.  She's similar in size to some of the other babies I've had in the blog; her companions here are Elmyra (Baby See 'n' Say), Leslie Emily (a Cabbage Patch Kid), Zlata (a Waldorf doll) and Little Honeymoon.  The similarities in size are kinda rough (Leslie Emily's legs are way shorter than Kiara's), but they're still there.

As with many (but not all) baby dolls, Kiara's hair is both molded and painted, though the molding is pretty subtle.  My doll has been around the block a few times and thus her paint has quite a few scuffs.  Thirteen years is young for a doll in my collection, but it's a long time for a child's toy.

The molding can vary; Afro-American Bitty Baby has a lot of texture molded into her hair to simulate fluffy curls.  The rest, as far as I know, have molded wisps on their foreheads and above their ears, like so.

The paint jobs vary more than the molding does.  Kiara's paint follows her hairline pretty well, but other Bitty Babies have a fade of sorts, kinda like #4 does.  And of course the colors vary some.  Most Bitties have dark hair, but there are also blondes and redheads, as I've discussed above.  Overall my doll has nice no-frills hair, or she would if she hadn't been used as a toy.  She certainly has more hair than Baby Peep does!

While hair on these dolls varies a bit, these faces don't much.  These are babies, after all, and babies tend to look a lot alike.  That said, there are a few differences.  Here's a general idea of what these dolls look like; my doll's face is asymmetrical.

Kiara isn't that yellow IRL, I promise!  She is obviously brown-eyed, as most of the current Bitties are.  Her eyewells have a tiny bit of bone structure behind them, at the sides.

#3 has blue eyes, #6's eyes are hazel, and retired eye colors include green, gray, and blue-gray.  I bet that blue-gray was pretty.  In addition, #4 has "almond-shaped" eyewells, as Asian dolls often do.  But Kiara has rounded brown eyes, and they sleep like American Girl eyes do.  

Sometimes one eye or another likes to stick, and Kiara subsequently looks derpy!

Cutest derp ever!  Also of note are Kiara's eyebrows...or rather, the lack thereof.  I think it was 2013 that Bitty Baby started having eyebrows, and those were a little divisive among fans.  Some fans liked 'em and some didn't, and I admit that I like Kiara without 'em.  But it's not a big issue; I'd have taken her with eyebrows too.

Now the lower part of Kiara's face is where the asymmetry is on full display.

She's got a cute little nose, a small chin, and thick cheeks.  I love baby cheeks!  The mouth is a nice peachy shade and has...maybe a suggestion of a smile.  Babies can start smiling as early as six months, so this isn't too unrealistic. 

Kiara's ears are delicate and are relatively flat.

Bitties don't get their ears pierced at AG's salons, by the way.  I wouldn't make note of this because I've NEVER seen a baby doll with earrings.  But once in a great while I do see a child under one year of age with earrings.  I don't like that, but some parents do it anyway.  For some folks it's a cultural thing, so I'll just shut up.

Being a baby doll means that Kiara will have a fairly simplistic body, but she's got a few important things that I want to look at more closely.

Firstly, I have a handful of baby dolls whose bodies are plain white fabric.  Adam Middleton is my best example of this; a perusal of his pictures shows his fabric body peeping out from under his clothes.  It's not a huge deal, and I've got quite a few dolls that are like that anyway.  But I admit that I prefer when the body semi-matches the limbs, and Kiara and her Bitty sisters have just that.  Note that Kiara has a white cord around her neck, confirming that she predates 20xx.

Yep, Bitty Baby had white cotton strings that held her head on, just like Silver Bird does...

...and like River Song and most of the Cabbage Patch do not.  River Song's tie is covered by her neck fabric, while Nathan Hunter's is on full display. 

I like to tie the older dolls' ties into bows so they won't be as unseemly.  If you've got 'em, may as well flaunt 'em.

Unsightly as they may be, I prefer these strings to cable ties.  The strings are easier to undo if home repairs are needed, though in Bitty Baby's case home repairs usually aren't needed.  Her joints are not strung like American Girl's, but rather sewn fast to her torso.

From a practical perspective I get this, because very young children play with Bitty Baby and very young children can be rough on their toys.  Joints are a weak point.  But from a collector's perspective this lack of joints is kinda a pain.  In their catalogs and online American Girl shows Bitty Baby sitting up to model her outfits, like so...

...but in actuality, it's more complicated than that.  The cloth parts of Kiara's legs are loosely stuffed, so she CAN sit.  The problem is that she often sits like this...

...or like this.

That's when Kiara is undressed, and I don't make a habit of parading my dolls around nude.  When Kiara is dressed I usually have to prop her up from the back.  Par for the course for a baby, really. 

In a similar manner Bitty is shown standing up to model several ensembles, like so...

...but Kiara can't stand at all.  Splop!

I know, I know, AG's pictures are edited, but I'd have been a little bummed as a kid to know my Bitty Baby couldn't sit on her own.  Another thing that I don't like about the lack of joints is Kiara's inability to move her arms into a more dynamic pose.  But then again, Bitty Baby is meant for very small children, very small children don't know their strength, and joints can be a weak point for someone who doesn't know their strength.  One thing Kiara CAN do very well is lie on her back.

She's even better at lying on her stomach, though doctors warn not to put real babies to bed like this due to fears of SIDS (I did it anyway when I was a baby; Mama told me I'd roll over if I was put on my back, LOL).

Kiara's neck is jointed, and like the majority of American Girls her head can turn but not tip.

The back of her neck is marked as such.  I don't know if that's significant or not, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Kiara's arms are...oh, I'd call 'em three-quarter arms since the cloth bit extends a little below the shoulder.  These are a bit floppy, but they don't hold a pose.

Kiara's hands have different shapes.  On her right hand her index finger is extended slightly.  She's got lovely little nails and shallow little dimples on her knuckles.

The left hand is mostly the same, except that Kiara's fingers are clenched.

As far as I can tell, Kiara's legs are the same...except for there being a left and a right, LOL.

Maybe there's a subtle difference in the position of the toes, but for the most part these legs are the same.  They're nice little legs and nice little feet.

Kiara's soles are mostly flat, with no molding except for the toes.  I know from eyewitness experience that babies love to stretch out their toes...but that might've been tricky to mold.

Oh, and while I was flipping Kiara over and turning her this way or that, she was derping.  She did this several times.

Maybe I should change her name to Derpina.

Like Just Like You, Bitty Baby's meet getup has varied over time, though she's almost always wearing a sleeper.  Kiara came in a flowered pink onesie, which would put her between 2011 and 2013...or between Joplin and El Reno, if you're going by violent tornadoes.  

This one is one of my favorite onesies (my other two favorites are the blue one and the one with green stripes).  Truthfully there...isn't much to say about this outfit.  It's pink paisley with short puffed sleeves and a pink satin bow on the chest.  And the logo, LOL.

For the sake of completion, here's how Kiara looks in it.  Nice and cozy, a hair warm for August. 

Bitty Baby never was stuck in a pink rut like some dolls are, and that's ironic because one of my favorite little Bitty Baby dresses happens to be pink.  In the beginning my favorite outfits were these two, the Happy Birthday set and the Holiday set.  I particularly liked those cute little shoes.

"Holiday," indeed.  Red and green kinda screams Christmas.  The American Girls got sets for Kwanzaa and for Hanukkah, but as far as I know Bitty Baby did not.  Oh yeah, I also like this one an awful lot; it's the Wildflower set.  I can remember a day when ponchos were all the rage for girls and women; I even crocheted a few for myself.

Hot dog, I own this one!  It's way too warm outside for Kiara to wear this full-time, but she'll get her chance.  For now she's happy to model it.

I don't think Bitty Baby's size has changed much over the years, but don't quote me on that!  Pleasant Company American Girls are known for being a bit thicker all over than their Mattel counterparts, but I don't think the same is true for Bitty Baby.  At the moment my Kiara just has her sleeper and a few dresses from Etsy, and for the time being that's how it's going to stay since I've gotta pay for paint for the house.  Dress #1 is this one, in which Kiara spent the past two years.  Etsy shop is AngiesSewCrafty.

This other little outfit came from TheSpottedCalf.

In addition to the stuff on Etsy that's specifically for Bitty Baby, Kiara can wear some Cabbage Patch clothes and some Waldorf clothes.  Just be mindful of sizing; something that might fit a sixteen-inch Cabbie would be too big for Kiara.

I wanted to add that I love how Bitty Baby is included when American Girl releases a designer line for their eighteen-inch models.  When the LoveShackFancy line was available Bitty Baby's outfit was the Garden Party dress (left), and during the Janie and Jack collab Bitty got the Wrapped in Roses party dress.

During the Something Navy collab Bitty Baby got TWO dresses.  Blooms of Blue is a summer-type dress, while Crimson Sparkle has a Christmas/winter vibe.

I make note of these designer Bitty Baby threads because the Wellie Wishers weren't initially included in these collaborations.  They did get a Wrapped in Roses dress of their own, but not a Garden Party dress.  They also got a pretty Something Navy dress...but just one.  Kinda makes me wonder how well the Wellie Wishers are selling.  Interestingly, Something Navy went under during their collaboration with American Girl!  Talk about rotten timing!

Let's take a quick look at Kiara's friend, Bitty Kitty.  

Bitty Kitty was a member of the so-called "Bitty Bunch," and was a spin-off of Bitty Baby's original teddy bear friend, Bitty Bear.  The other friends were Bitty Bunny, Bitty Ducky, Bitty Froggy, Bitty Lambie, Bitty Piggy, and Bitty Puppy.  If I'd remembered Bitty Ducky I might've reached out for her instead since I owned a stuffed duck as a child.  But Bitty Kitty is who I have.  She needs her neck ribbon replaced, but I can fix that.  Y'all might've noticed in the images above that early Bitty Baby outfits included small clothing items for their critter of choice to wear, like this little poncho that came with the Wildflower set.

While the Bitty Bunch was available one could've chosen which companion they wanted to come with their Bitty Baby.  In that case I'd have picked Bitty Froggy for reasons I've discussed in the past.  Unfortunately by 2013 the whole Bitty Bunch (Bitty Bear included) had been archived, and if I'd bought Kiara straight from American Girl I'd have received a wishing star like this instead.

Accessories for Bitty Bear had been largely phased out by 2008, but Bitty Bear stuck around until 2013.  The star in turn was available until 2015, and as far as I know Bitty Baby hasn't been accompanied by a soft toy since.  The star is okay, but I prefer the stuffed animals.

Funny thing about Bitty Baby is that like so many baby dolls, there's not a lot to say about her.  Kiara is adorable, no question about that, and she's built to take a fair amount of punishment from a small child.  She comes with an amazing wardrobe, and I can't say that about all my baby dolls.  She can also share clothes with other like-sized dolls, creating further options for clothes and accessories.  The thing is, Kiara is just...nice.  She can't do anything that the Wal-Mart babies can't also do, and she's a LOT more expensive.  Indeed, some of the babies at Wally World CAN do something Kiara can't:  they can drink and wet.  On the other hand, they're a lot more likely to break, and they don't have the extensive wardrobe that Kiara and her Bitty sisters do.  So...well, if you like baby dolls and insist on having that American Girl name attached, or if you like that sweet little face that isn't eternally smiling, Bitty Baby is perfect.  If money is an issue, or if you do like smiling baby dolls, or if this is for a very small child...better go to Wal-Mart or Target for your baby doll instead.  I personally like Bitty Baby, and I hope she's around for years to come.  She's a nice alternative for that little girl that wants an American Girl, but might not be quite ready for one.

Love,
RagingMoon1987