Laverne, Shirley, Robyn, and Joss

Welcome to my newest little friends!

My best friend Brittany needed rid of them, so I took them off her hands.  The green one is Laverne, the blue one is Shirley, and they have their own distinct little personalities, just like their namesakes do.  Laverne is sassy and likes to bicker, while Shirley prefers to avoid conflict.  They both have healthy sets of lungs, and neither of them act afraid of my cats.  Keep in mind that I have eight cats, and the youngest three (Tommy, Bobbie, and Sir Lancelot) would love to get to know their new housemates.  They even sleep next to the cage.

I don't leave the birds alone while I'm at work, but sometimes when I'm at home one of the cats will climb on top of the cage.  This hasn't caused any harm to the cage and the birds barely seem to notice (they lived with cats at their old home).  I don't allow the cats to make a habit of this, though.

In dolly news, Miss Emily sold another doll.  Or rather, one of her reviews enticed me to buy another doll that I needed like a hole in the head.  LOL, just about every doll that she reviews, I've gotta see for meself.  Robyn is an I'm a Girly doll, and she's on the left.  The lass on the right is none other than Joss Kendrick.

I'm a Girly is a Swiss bunch that is designed by "Kids4Kids," literally.  The line is big in Europe and the U.K., but apparently they've yet to gain a foothold here in the States for reasons I can't quite put my finger on...yeah I can, LOL.  Target and Amazon carry the dolls here in the U.S., meaning that Robyn and her friends have to compete with Our Generation in addition to American Girl and My Life.  The line has its naysayers, but don't all doll lines have their naysayers?  Anywho, as insinuated in the above picture Robyn and Joss are already pretty thick.  Robyn doesn't speak sign language yet, but Joss can talk to her aloud and can read lips so it's all good.  According to her online bio Robyn is an explorer who likes to spend time outside, and she wears the right shoes for the occasion.  Dig these!

Clear shoes beg for trippy socks, so that's exactly what I did. 

Robyn can't wear all AG clothes (she's too slim to wear Joss's shorts, for example), but shoes and socks can be done, as can some other pieces.  Regarding the face, all of the I'm a Girly dolls have either brown or blue eyes (no green darn it), with Robyn being in the brown club.  Her eyes are more amber than brown, though.

Robyn is my third redhead in this size after Felicity and Reagan, and they've all got different eyes.  Wait a minute...does Crissy count?  She's close in height to the American Girls and she's got red hair.  Okay, I've got four dolls in this size with red hair, and they ALL have different eyes.  Felicity has green eyes, Reagan's eyes are blue-gray (and wonky, I'm just now noticing), Crissy has very dark brown eyes, and Robyn's eyes are amber.  Pardon the crud in Crissy's eyes; they've developed some mold that I'll need to deal with after taking her closeup. 

For that matter, their hair is different too.  Crissy and Felicity tie for the most realistic shade, Reagan has...well, carrot-colored hair, and Robyn's is that lovely dark shade that I don't get to see too often.  

Reagan's hair is the softest, Felicity's needs a boil wash, Crissy's grows, and Robyn's can come off.  Yes, Robyn and her I'm a Girly companions wear wigs that can be switched around.  For comparison, I'm a Girly's smaller companions, entitled "I'm a Wow," have rooted hair that changes color under sunlight.  Robyn's wig ties on.  Wait a minute...TIES ON???  Yep, here's the tie.

This renders high ponytails out of the question, but it works pretty well.  The tie fits into a sizeable groove on the doll's head, and since Robyn's wig cap is black her pate is sheathed in plastic.

Reminds me of My Way Kids and their ill-fitting pates.  Speaking of, Robyn can apparently share wigs with My Way Kids and American Girls, so let's test it.  Here she and My Way Kid Leah have swapped wigs.  I already know that Leah looks nice as a redhead, but I've never tried this shade of red on her before.

Mmmm, I'm not feeling Leah's wig on Robyn.  Maybe a different style might do, but I'm just not feeling it.  The cap doesn't fit Robyn very well either; if you look closely at the hairline you can see the groove in Robyn's head peeking out.

Robyn's dark red wig fits Leah like a glove, and I love the color on her.  As with Leah's other red wig, I might braid this if Leah uses it again. 

Now it's Justine-Marie's turn.

I'd always wanted to know how Justine-Marie would look as a redhead, and now I know.  I don't think it suits her.  Or rather, the style doesn't suit her.  Justine-Marie is one of those types that was born to wear a bob.  

Robyn, on the other hand...she actually looks good in Justine-Marie's wig.  She looks way better than I thought she would.  My mom thinks the exact opposite, LOL; she likes Robyn's wig on Justine-Marie, but not the other way around.

Interestingly, Robyn is the only I'm a Girly with bangs.  Even these dolls' extra wigs don't come with bangs.  I love, love, LOVE that blue wig, by the way; if I can find that then Robyn and Lark can pal around together.  Not that they can't anyway, but having two with blue hair would be cute.  Blue would also look striking against Robyn's orange romper.  Some people would call the colors clashing, but I prefer to use the artistic term, "complimentary."  Shame that Robyn couldn't have Lola's purple wig with a yellow romper; yellow and purple has always been my favorite of the complimentary pairs.  Lola was almost my choice over Robyn due to that silvery purple wig, by the way, but I don't care as much for Lola's outfit or her shocking blue eyes.

I wanna skip over to Joss now and show y'all her hair.  It wasn't in its original style when she got here, and when I was finger-combing the fibers for the first time I found several tiny braids that someone had put into her hair.  I didn't like finding those since they made more tangles, but they looked cute and I'll probably put some more in after I've had Joss awhile.  But my main point is that this color is not like anything I have in my American Girl collection.  For example, here's three of my brown-haired girls, Samantha (left), Molly (center), and Zoe (JLY #26)...

...and my other three, Amanda (JLY #16, left), Luciana (center), and Joss.  In the pictures Luciana and Amanda appear to have similar hair, but IRL Luciana has a slight ruddy cast to her hair and Amanda's has a bit of a silver sheen.  Neither of them have hair like Joss.

Oh yes, and Lindsey.  Her hair has a subtle red cast to it, which I touched on in this post about Girls of the Year.

I own four Girls of the Year now, and they've all got special wigs, either in terms of length or of color, or both.  Makes me wonder if I spoke too soon when I derided Lanie and McKenna as "boring."  I know I had to eat my words when I met Isabelle for the first time.

Just for the heckuvit, here's how Joss's hair compares to Robyn's.  The colors are nothing alike, but they're both shiny and eye-catching.  If you're a brunette and have ever hated your hair (like I have in the past), take a note from Joss.  Even brown hair can be beautiful.

I want to go back to eyes for a minute.  I'm a Girly eyes are sometimes bad about degrading like My Twinn eyes.  One of Miss Emily's I'm a Girly dolls came with her eyes strangely fogged up, kinda like they'd been exposed to heat or something of that stripe.  Robyn's eyes appear to be okay for now, but I'll be keeping a wary eye on them no less.  A wary eye on eyes...Lordy, I didn't mean to make that joke!  But seriously, I've been watching doll eyes more closely than ever, because guess what?  I saw someone's new Gwynn Tan doll, not even two months old...and her eyes had turned LILAC!!!  A Wellie Wisher with eyes that turned!  Granted, the doll had apparently been a window display and thus exposed to sunlight, but still!  American Girl is supposed to be better than that!  Right, Joss?

Right.  I don't think Joss will ever have to worry about eye problems, but never say never.  Even now the folks at American Girl warn that their dolls' eyes can turn silver with time, especially if they get wet, and silver eye shows the most in dolls with dark eyes, like Joss.

Yep, another brown-eyed American Girl doll for me.  That makes...how many?  Lemme see...Amanda, Denise, Julie, Kyle, Kailey, Luciana, Samantha, Silver Bird, Zoe, and Z.  Two of them (Amanda and Silver Bird) have varying degrees of silver eye.  Add Joss to the mix and that makes eleven (her eyes are NOT silver and I plan on keeping it that way).  So yeah, Joss's eyes aren't as unique as the eyes of some of my dolls, and they're not as bright (unusual?) as Robyn's.  Her shoes aren't as fun as Robyn's either.  Indeed, they were a pain in the posterior to get on.  But then again, I'm always griping about Julie's and Kailey's shoes constantly falling off.  Joss's shoes fit pretty tight around the ankles so they won't be falling off.

At some point during this past week I had Joss and Robyn together with Rita Cheryl, one of my darker dolls, and I noticed the difference in their vinyl tone.  Robyn is fair (with freckles!), Joss has a sun-kissed shade, and Rita Cheryl is one of AG's medium tones.

I'm gonna set Robyn aside again and look a little closer at Joss, since she's supposed to be fair-skinned but doesn't really look the part.  Most of my fair-skinned dolls are pretty old and have yellowed or faded or God-knows-what, but Courtney still looks pretty good.  I'll throw in Z too, since the wiki claims she's fair-skinned.

Am I seeing things, or are all three of them different?  My mom can't tell the difference, and indeed it may be my imagination (once again) running away with me, but I think their vinyl is subtly different in color.  Not a huge deal really, since we all come in a wide array of skin tones, but I just thought I'd throw that out there.

That's about all I have to say for either of these gals.  Joss is an American Girl, and usually if you've seen one of those you've seen 'em all.  Indeed, I knew what to expect with Joss, as she was well-photographed and had clearly visible hair and eyes.  She had no flaws, so there were no surprises, good or bad.  I knew I'd like Joss.  Robyn was more risky.  Her eBay listing showed only a stock photo, and I knew from Miss Emily's review that these dolls could have bad eyes.  I also wasn't sure how her angular face would photograph, but Robyn turned out to be a delightful surprise.  She photographs well, her eyes are clear, and she's just a fun doll to own.  For reasons neither Miss Emily or I have been able to establish these dolls are relatively cheap...well some characters are.  Robyn and Lucy are easy to obtain, for example, but Mia is not for some reason.  Either way Robyn was well worth the twenty bucks plus shipping and handling that I spent on her.  Oh, and just for the heckuvit, her romper glows under my porchlight.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and get a black light for my porch.  I've always enjoyed that kind of thing.  No, this particular bulb isn't a black light, but with the way it reacts to certain materials it might as well be.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

Sunday randomness: a whole new level

A whole new level of weird, that is.  Frequent fliers of this blog know fully well that the Moon Girl revels in pushing the envelope of strange, but this one may be too strange even for some of y'all.  I'm going to birth a tiny baby.  Yes, birth, as in help it get born in a way.  Now this won't involve any blood, pain, or nudity unless I cut myself with scissors and have to strip (y'know, so I won't get blood on my new jeans), but if you're weirded out feel free to step out.  For those of y'all who choose to stay, this rather odd purchase was inspired by a video I saw on YouTube, one of this teeny-weeny little silicone baby being pulled out of an appropriately-sized amniotic sac.  The Etsy seller apparently has shuttered its store so I don't know where one could get something like this now, but I doubt this will be a repeat purchase so no biggie.  My baby came wrapped up in tissue paper and ribbon, just like a present.

I was only expecting one amniotic sac, but the baby came ensconced in two.  This bigger one apparently was used to cushion the smaller one during transit...I guess.  It's made of thick...latex?  God only knows what, but it's like a balloon.  It looks a little like a breast implant.

With all the protection that this baby got, I assumed that there would be fluids involved, and this bag reinforced that assumption.  There's a pad in there, and a tiny pair of plastic forceps.  Yikes!

My grandfather was a forceps baby, and he carried the scars for the rest of his life, in the form of a few small dents in his head.  Anyway, it took a fair amount of force to open the first bag, and inside is the second bag.  I see a little bald head in there, and an umbilical cord.

Here's the sac from the side.  As y'all can see, it too is tied off like a balloon.

This second sac fits comfortably in the palm of my hand, kinda like a stress ball.

Yeesh, I've seen stress balls that look like womens' boobies, but not babies in utero!  Regardless, I could tell at this point that the sac had no fluid in it after all, so I relaxed about making a huge mess and opened it up.  Once again, I had to exert quite an effort with the scissors, but the forceps were not needed.  Here's my baby!

Hmmm...looks like one of those toys that grows when you let it soak in water.  Definitely not the prettiest thing, especially with that umbilical cord attached.  It's a very realistic-looking cord, but let's cut that off anyway, just like we would a real baby.

Still not the prettiest baby in the world.  It's made of rough, gummy material, and thus painting those little eyes and that mouth can't have been easy.  In addition to the baby itself and the "c-section kit," the seller included several items that should determine this child's gender...

...but all of that crap is green except for the little hat.  Luckily there's also a pram inside, and it's BLUE!!!

Huzzah, I got a boy!  He looks a little like an "Ichabod" to me, since he's so funny-looking.  He looks only a little less funny with his hat (which appears to be the fingertip of a glove).

Ichabod is a little one.  He fits nicely in the palm of my hand.

He looks ridiculous in his little blue pram, though.

All of Ichabod's toys are way too big for him, especially that binky.  

Well...maybe that bottle isn't too big.  Ichabod is rubbery and soft, and he's completely flat on one side.

Yeah...weirdest thing I've ever bought on Etsy, hands down.  Luciana's Tribble was a little goofy, but there was at least a rhyme and reason for that.  By the way, "Goldie," as Luciana calls her has given us zero trouble with breeding.  So far there's just the one...and Ichabod seems to think she's a pillow.

Don't get too close to her mouth, kid.  Goldie hasn't been reproducing, but her appetite matches that of the other Tribbles.

Very truly yours,
RagingMoon1987

Readdressing Jenny Lind

Specifically, my pretty parian reproduction.  Or I thought she was a reproduction.  Read on and you'll see that I was mistaken.  For the sake of reference, here's Jenny.

Yesterday I was digging around online for pictures of I forget what, when I discovered a doll on Etsy that looked a lot like my Jenny.  Granted, she ISN'T Jenny, but she looks a lot like her.  Said doll is up for adoption if any of y'all want her, by the way.  Anyway, Jenny's friend had the name "Yield House" attached.  I'd never heard of them before, so I started snooping for info.

Apparently Yield House specialized in doll kits, with most of the dolls being modeled after literary and historical characters.  Romeo and Juliet and the Little Women were all available at one time, as were George and Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Betsy Ross among others.  I don't know who completed this Martha but she is gorgeous.  Interestingly, my Jenny is piecemealed from two different dolls.  The head is definitely the Nightingale, as stated by her chest plate...

...but the Nightingale dolls wore white painted stockings and black flats.  The body I found for my doll has high-button boots.

A closer look at the Jo March doll reveals that the shoes belong to her, or to one of her sisters.  Oh well, I can live with Jenny wearing shoes that belong to Meg or Amy or Beth or Jo.  The boots may also belong to Betsy Ross, who...wouldn't have worn high-button boots in real life.  Regardless of whose body this is, publicity posters of the real Jenny Lind showed her wearing high boots like this, so she at least looks accurate.

But wait, there's more!  My doll is apparently not Jenny Lind after all!  I got so caught up in china dolls (of which Jenny Lind was one) that I didn't even think about another, far more important Nightingale.  According to Melody Maker and to Yield House themselves, my doll is Florence Nightingale, the great British nurse.  Indeed, my doll's hair looks more like Nurse Nightingale's than it does Jenny Lind's.

Well...come to think of it, Nurse Nightingale's hairstyle and Ms. Lind's hairstyle are kinda similar.  Regardless, I feel a little silly having misidentified my doll, since Nurse Nightingale's achievements still carry significance today (Jenny Lind is all but forgotten by the modern day).  But then again, Jenny was a popular china doll for awhile, and as far as I know Nurse Nightingale was not.  That's likely where my confusion sprang from, but either way I know now who my doll is.  The original doll's plain white socks and simple black shoes make more sense now, since nurses spent a lot of time on their feet back in the 1800's, just as they do today.  If you were a nurse back then, what would you prefer to wear?  Skin-tight high-button shoes or plain little black flats?  I know what I'd pick!  A completed Florence Nightingale doll can be seen (and bought) on eBay.  So my doll is not who I thought she was, nor is she even intended to be a reproduction of an old doll!  Well, Squidward, what have we learned today?

Melody Maker noted that two of the kits Yield House made were for Pinkie and the Blue Boy, and if I can I'd like to find those.  I have a fondness for those paintings that dates back to my childhood.  But until then I'll be content with my Jenny...yeah, I'm going to keep calling her Jenny.  Since she's wearing a fancy dress like an opera singer I'll just stick with my pet name.  But it's good to know who she really is!  And now y'all know more than you ever wanted to about Yield House dolls!  Keep your eyes peeled; I don't think these dolls are as common as Walda dolls are, but you never know.  They're so nicely made that some folks may mistake them for the real thing.  But don't be fooled!  Yield House dolls date from...I think the 1970's, just like Walda.  A finished Yield House doll is of better quality than a Walda doll, but it's still not vintage.

Love and sunshine,
RagingMoon1987

Flowers for Reagan

Step outside, summertime's in bloom...okay, we're not quite there yet.  Indeed, it's not quite warm enuff yet to turn off the heat at night.  But spring has definitely sprung here in the Bootheel, and during a drive yesterday I noticed that my grandmother's former front yard was full of crocuses.

Crocuses come out so early that I rarely get to see them, and due to this they've become a favorite of mine.  I had a complicated (eventually nonexistent) relationship with my paternal grandmother due to the way she treated Daddy and his siblings, but I will say that she could get anything she wanted to grow.  These crocuses were no doubt planted by her.

I had Reagan with me, clad in a bright new outfit courtesy of my mother.  She had to get up close and personal with one bunch of blossoms.

If I'd had my spade I'd have dug up a couple of these and planted them in my own yard.  But I don't think that would be good for the plant, and I didn't have my spade anyway so I left these be.  Grandma's old house has boards over the windows and doors now, so part of me wonders if someone is planning to demolish it.  I don't like that because I spent many happy times in that house, but it doesn't belong to the family anymore so I have no say in the matter.  Oh well, I have the memories, and no one can take those from me.

Happy St. Patrick's Day,
RagingMoon1987

Another temperature flip-flop; or the purging of some sadness

Flip-flop...speaking of flip-flops, it was warm enuff here in the Bootheel last week that I considered wearing a pair to work.  I didn't, because wearing flip-flops too much has really done a number on my feet!  Anywho, it was in the low seventies last week, and then yesterday the temperature bottomed out with copious snowfall, to my chagrin and Rita Cheryl's apparent delight.

Today the snow had all but melted by getting off time (5:30 for me), and temperatures will be in the sixties again by about Tuesday.  Amanda and Rita Cheryl sum up the wild variation pretty well.

Won't be long until Rita Cheryl will be wearing her spring clothes again!  In honor of Turning Red I bought her a red panda dress, but it won't be here for awhile yet.  Odds are that it'll be here in time for the tried-and-true equinox.  And no, I haven't seen Turning Red yet, though I love the idea of someone shapeshifting as their emotions rise and fall.  Plus, I love red pandas.  So does Rita Cheryl, LOL.  Rita Cheryl loves pandas, period, as shown by her raincoat and boots.

Now...as is often the case with these posts, I have some spleen to vent...no, wait...one vents one's spleen when one is angry, don't they?  I'm certainly not angry, not today.  I've mentioned off and on that my mother had a cousin who was sick with some trippy type of cancer, and up until about a month ago she was stable and holding her own.  Unfortunately a wave of complications hit in the middle of last month, and in a span of about two weeks Kristi went from being ambulatory and alert to on hospice to deceased.  She passed away yesterday.  Here is a screenshot of her husband's tribute.

Kristi was just a little slip of a woman, and since she was constantly smiling and friendly one would think that she was a complete wuss.  Not so!  Kristi endured her disease and the pain and frustrations that come with it with great courage and strength.  She had her moments of fear and despair, of course, but only her closest family saw that.  The rest of us, myself included, usually saw her smile and her optimism, and her unquestioning faith in the Almighty, a far greater faith than I've ever had.  So while I'll miss Kristi dearly, I'll also remember her with a smile on my own face, and in the future I'll strive to be more positive and more brave like her.  I'll also be keeping Kristi's husband Dan in my prayers, as his health isn't much better than Kristi's was.  He's got heart failure and is on dialysis, and last I heard he was trying to get on the waiting list for a kidney, though I don't know if he'll bother now that his wife is gone.  Y'all know how sometimes someone gives up on life after their spouse dies?  I hope and pray that won't happen to Dan; he's got lots of people who love him.  But then again, so did Kristi.  So I need to just shut face and let God do His thing.  He knows what He's doing.

Give your loved ones an extra hug tonight!  You never know when they'll be called home.

Love,
RagingMoon1987

AG's new girl...and her doppelganger

This is semi-old news now since this doll has been on American Girl's website for a few days, but the newest Truly Me doll made her debut.  Her number is #92.

I like the looks of that!  Lots of black and blue with touches of super-bright pink here and there.  Her eyes are brown, which is a bit of a disappointment.  Of all the classic-faced dolls with medium skin, only two I'm sorry, three have eyes that are NOT brown (#43 and #44 have hazel eyes, and my beloved #49 has blue eyes).  But brown eyes are only a mild disappointment, and brown is the most common eye color in humans anyway so I should just shut face.  Unlike her older Street Chic comrades, #92 has her own special set of accessories.

I love how she's receiving a phone call from #88.  In the past I've mentioned a desire for a green-haired American Girl, but this pet with her blue and black and pink hair is pretty awesome too.  And yet...and yet she looks vaguely familiar...yes, she looks a bit like the Forever Dolls that I discussed earlier this week.  Particularly Rebel.

They're not exactly the same, of course, but they're not too far off from each other.  Rebel looks more like a little girl with her kite-tie blouse, while #92 looks closer to the snarky teenage stage.  And they BOTH remind me of...no, it's not Mal they remind me of, but rather blue-haired Evie.  I said Mal earlier in the week, but Mal's hair is purple.  But yeah, both Rebel and #92 have dominantly blue hair with pink/fuchsia streaks, and they both wear their hair curly/wavy.  There's enuff differences that the two dolls can be told apart, but the similarities are there.  Similarities aside, I like the new Truly Me doll.  Will I be getting her?  Not anytime soon since I want to buy both Joss and Corinne this year, but she's on my radar.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987

Luciana's new pet

To quote Mrs. Puff, what are the consequences of what I've just done?  If any of y'all are Trekkies then you'll get what my problem is.  Luciana has adopted a rather questionable pet.  She didn't have a pet in her stories that I know of, and while my back was turned yesterday she decided to change that.

That, folks, is a Tribble.  The same kind of critter that almost ate the crew of the USS Enterprise out of house and home.  The only thing Tribbles are good for is eating (a lot) and asexually reproducing (a lot).  But Luciana likes this critter and vowed to take good care of him/her/it, so I guess I'll let her keep it for now.  Time will tell how this goes.

Peace, love, and puffballs,

RagingMoon1987 

Hasbro's answer to Steffie?

This, for you Barbie fans, is a Steffie head, utilized by Malibu P.J.

This, for any Hasbro fans, is Maxie's friend Ashley.

Maxie, whom I've reviewed in the past, had four friends:  blonde Carly, African-American Kristen, red-haired Ashley, and boyfriend Rob.  Kristen was later renamed Simone for reasons unknown.  Aside from Maxie herself, Ashley is the one I've always preferred, both because she's a redhead and because her face looks like a Steffie face.

It's NOT a case of Mattel loaning out a head or Hasbro stealing a head, though.  Ashley's head is rounder and bigger all over than P.J.'s, and the marks are different.  The resemblance is there, though.  I wonder if this was a deliberate move on Hasbro's part, since the Steffie head was still fairly common during the late eighties and early nineties.  Granted, P.J. had been retired by then, but good ol' Midge was very much alive and rocking the Steffie head.  LOL, if red-haired Ashley is indeed Hasbro's answer to red-haired Midge then I can't help but laugh.  Quite typical of toy companies, trying to outdo each other at every turn!  Alas, my Steffie-faced Midge dolls are in storage at the moment, so I'll just pose Ashley with P.J. and be done with it.

Yeah, I got rid of Ashley's ill-fitting nightie.  I'll put that on my Teen Talk Barbie.  Given Ashley's straight hair and flat bangs, I think she was indeed a pajama doll, so now I'm gonna try and find her original pajamas.  But the Chococat outfit works for now.  

Word of advice to any of y'all who like Maxie and her friends:  modern-day Barbie clothes are hit and miss, but most of the pieces I've got work just fine.  But forget Barbie shoes; Maxie and Ashley have more realistic feet than Barbie and P.J. do.

Happy early spring,
RagingMoon1987