Little Red Bike~ A Photoshoot

Hello everyone! Sorry for not posting in so long. I always have all these crazy plans for summer that are well... less than realistic. Most of them involve dolls. Anyway, I was finally able to get out yesterday and take some pictures.

I'm trying to hone my photography skills for the AP Art class I am taking this coming year, and dolls are kind of my test subjects... (that sounds evil, not sure how to recover)
Anyways, dolls are the best models because they don't move and they do exactly what you tell them to! So here are some of my pictures...

I love how her bloomers peek out in this one!

The light was great that day! I love the way the bokeh burst in the background of some of the close ups!

Here is the video I made with more pictures in it for youtube! It is to Mindy Gledhill's song "Little Red Bike"

Enjoy!

A quick rant about my love hate relationship with Beforever...

Hello everyone! Over a year ago I wrote a post about where I thought the historical collection was headed. Since then, we have witnessed the rebirth of the Historical Characters as Beforever, My American Girl's transformation into Truly Me, and a packaging update for the Girl of the Year. In short, a complete facelift of the American Girl brand. So I thought I would go over these changes and talk about how I feel about them, and contrast my predictions with what actually happened.

Okay, first of all let's make a little timeline...

1986: Pleasant Company was founded and American Girl started with just the Historical Characters

1995: American Girl of Today was launched (now known as Truly Me)

1996: American Girl of Today changed to American Girl Today

1998: Mattel bought Pleasant Company and all marketing began to use the nomiker American Girl packaging colors were changed, etc.

2006: Modern line renamed "Just Like You"

2010: Modern Line renamed "My American Girl"

August 2014: Beforever Launched

January 2015: Packaging for GOTY changed

May 2015: My American Girl line changed to "Truly Me"

So, in just the past twelve months, we have seen American Girl completely revamp their entire line. That's a lot of change in very little time. But not all change is bad, right?

I guess the main thing that I struggle with is how much I wanted to see American Girl focus more on their Historical Characters. I wrote this back in February 2014, when we first heard Samantha was coming back:

The Ideal

This is what I really want to happen. I want AG to shift their focus back on the historical characters and their stories, and bring back the uniformity where each character had a birthday story, a christmas story, a winter story, etc. Unfortunately I don't think this is going to happen.

The funny thing is that that did happen. The uniformity the Historical Line had is returning. In the June 25th 2015 release, each character got a revamped bed and pajama set, along with bedtime accessories. There are now clear "key" items that each character is going to have, key collection points. The color schemes have also been homogenized. Addy is blues, Julie yellowy pinks, Rebecca is purply pink (magenta?), Samantha is pastel pinks and greens, Josefina is South Western Oranges, Blues, and Reds, Kit is bright green, orange, and pink. This makes boundaries between collections clear.

A job well done? Look at those prices...

And yet, I'm not satisfied. Probably because what I dreaded also happened:

The Worst Possible Outcome

AG changes the historical line so that it's non-existent? Okay, that's highly improbable, but they might consolidate what they have and perhaps redo the meet outfits of the characters to make them more pink. That's been a recent trend. Don't get me wrong, I love pink (ask Honey) but it's nice to see diversity and both Caroline and Marie-Grace had pink dresses.

This prediction was pretty spot on.

Is it just me, or is everything looking pinker?

At least Kaya's outfit doesn't have any pink on it. Yikes. And my guess about consolidation was right too. Remember the consolidated books? We now have two instead of six (plus a choose your own adventure book that I don't really count). So yeah. Here we are.

I have always been a huge fan of the Historical Line. It was pretty much the only thing I cared about. And now... I don't really care at all. I've bought a single Beforever outfit. At my last trip to the AG Place in LA, I didn't buy ANY historical clothing. It might be because Marie~Grace's collection was retired so I can't get any clothes for my doll. I mean, I'd like to get Addy's pajamas.. Or it could be because this line is losing its appeal to me. In any case, I'll probably be scouring ebay to finish my NOLA collection.

One last quote from my February 2014 post...

The Middle Ground

To be honest, I'm unsure about what this one would be, despite that it has the most likelihood. Maybe AG will redo the formating of how they market the historical line and add some new catch phrases? Who knows...

It's funny to me that the "Middle Ground" ended up being a combination of the best and the worst. So while in theory, I love the focus being on the Historical Line, this doesn't cut it and my wallet will speak for me.

Willow's Wishlist

Hello everyone.


         The other day Honey and I sat down to make a reaction video to the new American Girl releases. Half an hour later, we were finally done. Needless to say, the video was FAR too long to upload. Why? Because half way through I went to the Maplelea website and pretty much did an entire OTHER reaction video to their new stuff.

Wait, wasn't this supposed to be an AG reaction video???

So, um, yeah. I guess that video isn't going to happen. In any case, I still want to share my opinions on all those new items, so to focus things a bit I'm going to talk solely about my wishlist! And with any luck, Maple, Honey, Sassafras, and maybe even Aspen will post their own wishlists. Without further ado, my top ten wants from American AND Maplelea:

10. Maplelea's Days at Dauphin outfit

      At fifty dollars, this is sooo expensive but it comes with another skirt (not pictured here) and the mix and match possibilities are just about endless. And wouldn't Marie Grace look beyond cute in that sweater? Because it's so expensive, however, it's at the end of my list...

9. The ginormous carriage and horse set from AG

 This is the distant dream on my list ;) I love it, but it's 373$ and I honestly have no idea where we would store it. This one isn't going to happen. I need those four hundred dollars to pay for my trip to Europe in the spring. LOL

8. The Happy Holiday outfit from AG

I never thought I would be attached enough to a MyAG outfit to put it on my list, but here you go. I usually hate asymetrical hemlines, but I love this one. To be honest though, I'd have to see it in person before I made the decision to buy it. Especially since Marie-Grace already owns two Christmas outfits and this one would probably be worn by Aspen's doll Saila.

7. Maple Cabin Lodge Set

I LOVE this, it is so awesome! Plus I have mittens like those myself. Anyways though, this is towards the end of my list because it is 40$ without the shoes and jeans. I would probably buy it in conjunction with the rest of the club. A lot of the time Honey and I split the cost of outfits and then share them. It's a good way to get what you want but with less expense. So yeah, if she offered to split the cost with me I'd say yes!

6. Addy's Winter Coat

This one is just the coat. I love how it matches with her story and the plaid detailing on it! I have a soft spot for this kind of old fashioned winter wear and ideally all of our dolls would have a coat like this. This one would be worn by Addy (clearly) so I'm a little hesitant to purchase it for Sassafras' doll especially since it costs 24$. However, if I found her winter accessories somewhere I'd probably go for it :)

5.  Samantha's Bed

I feel pretty evil for wanting this one so badly. Marie-Grace's current bed is made out of a cardboard box though, and this is so her style. It's also 150$. It would have to be on super sale for me to get it. Or Santa could get it for me, but that wouldn't be the wisest use of my Santa present. (I could ask for a camera or photoshop for example) But still. I love this bed.

4. Samantha's Bedtime Accessories

For a "mere" 40$ this set could be yours. I love it, it harkens me back to the old pleasant company days! The piece I really want from this set is the music box, actually. It is gorgeous and would be a super cool piece for stop motion.

3. Samantha's Outfit

Probably the only thing I'll get from Beforever. This outfit is just Marie-Grace's style and it comes with some bloomers I desperately need for all my PC Samantha outfits! Marie-Grace could just wear this as an everyday outfit. I am such a sucker for Samantha's collection!! (witnessed by my 7 Pre-mattel Samantha outfits, her trunk, accessories, etc.)

2. Snowshoes and Beaver from Maplelea

Of all of Maplelea's newest releases, this was my favorite! The snowshoes resemble the ones from Kirsten's winter pass times and Kirsten's collection was the one I really wanted when I was younger (and still want today). The snowshoes would also work with my many pieces of historical clothing. The beaver is just too cute!!! It's 30 bucks and I'm actually willing to pay that for them!

1. Caroline's Ice Skating Set

I have had my eye on these skates for a while! They are adorable and I love how the shoes are separate. The set is actually really similar to Kirsten's Skating Outfit skates. I own the coat from the outfit and it is one of my favorite items as it is a rare limited edition outfit! These skates would complete the set and my intention is to get them at AG place soon!

Well everyone, thanks for hanging in there with me through all that! What's on your wishlist?