Thursday, July 31, 2014

Not Just Dancewear:
Isabelle's Performance Set Unitard

Today we have Sharmaine sporting 
Isabelle's "sleek unitard," haha. 
That is how it is described on the American Girl website.
We'll call it a sleek-tard.


Our camera-phone experimentation continued with this series of pics.

And as you can tell her wig is in a different position from last time.
http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2014/07/camera-phone-experimentation-cropped.html

This is a benefit of not gluing down the wigs.
And we can swap them around all of our bald dolls as we please.

Her top was crafted by Etsy's Royal Doll Boutique.


Tiny pink bunny is from the San-X Sentimental Circus line.

You can buy it here:
http://www.shopkawaii.com/San-X-Sentimental-Circus-Dreamy-Land-2-7-Palm-Siz-p/mp-61901.htm





Sunshine moved a little bit and her hair became redder,
skin tone more golden in da pics....


Which goes to prove how different your doll 
can look depending on the lighting...

Even in this series of pics her hair color and skin tone look different pic to pic, 
because the clouds kept moving, 
shifting the quality and quantity of sunshine!

We should do more posts on that issue. :-)


Thanks for visiting us today!


________



Please check out our current photography contest:


Entries due tomorrow, August 1st.

And our Summer Fashion Design Challenge:


Entries due August 15th.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

My American Girl = Gymboree:
The Youthening of AG

We were going to let our photo contest reminder post 
sit at the top of the blog for awhile.

Then we got an email from American Girl.


The newest release at the end of June
told us that AG was going in the direction of Gymboree.

Now Gymbo carries items for girls up to 12, but really -- 

How many 12 year olds are wearing Gymbo????

If you are 12 and wear Gymbo, 
please feel free to tell me I am wrong in the comments section.

To us the style of clothing now being offered says young girls -- like 8-ish.

And this new email from American Girl confirms this.

Suddenly the girl models are looking much much younger.

Hence -- the youthening of AG.

Now that's all fine and good to market to 8 year olds --

But what about the 14, 15, 16 year olds 
who still want to use their dolls, dress them up, and gasp -- 
even buy stuff from AG?

Apparently they are SOL.

For those of you who are 8 year olds, 
that means Sorry Out of Luck.

For those of you who are 16 year olds, 
you know what that actually means.

And yes, there are still 16 year olds playing with AG.

Just go on Youtube sometime and check out the AG vids.
Or flickr, or instagram.
You can tell some of these girls are in high school.
And of course some of them are in college.

And also there is a growing part of the AG fandom 
which is now post-post-college.
I won't say any ages -- 
but we exist and we grow stronger by the day.
Like a parasitic disease. ;-)

Many Moms have larger AG and doll collections 
than their daughters.
Especially those who started collecting back in the 80s like us.
When dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.

Now if you want Gymbo - 8 year old's outfits -- that is fine and dandy.

But we don't.

We didn't see a single thing we are dying 
to have in this new release.

At first we thought it was some sort of malaise on our part.
We just weren't that into AG anymore or something.

But no, that wasn't it.

It was the clothing styles.
And we went on the Gymbo site, 
and saw them again there.


(That is one powerful walking stance.)


All that is missing is that bizarre belt.

Not to say we are disgusted by this shift.
But it is telling of where the company is going.
And we are disappointed by it.

And so we are going to be buying our AG goods 
from Etsy and not from AG.

Etsy is just the better option now.
Usually it was, maybe 75% of the time.
But now it is more like 95% of the time.

But anyways, we'll talk more about why Etsy is awesome later.

For now, see the My American Girl emails through the ages.
Or the last 6 years.

You can tell that the girls have suddenly gotten much younger.
And in comparison to back in ol' 2008,
there is a huge difference in the age of these girls,
 and also how they have been styled for the camera.

Today, 2pm -- July 29, 2014.


July 24, 2014


July 1, 2014


^ This image also appeared with this one below on June 5, 2014.


So that email showed a sort of mix and match of age groups.

And also that Isabelle, the GOTY, 
and her style was geared toward older girls.

Meanwhile most of the MyAG stuff was put on younger girls, 
more of the age that used to be shown with Bittys.
And of course the Bitty stuff is being shown with even younger girls.

But back to MyAG line images....

May 8, 2014


"Oh Dad, your Dad jokes are so funny!
You are buying me another doll today, right Dad?
Have I told you that your jokes are hysterical?
Because they are!"

April 3, 2014


(AG stores are beginning to look like arts and crafts sweatshops.)



Even the May 8th and April 3rd girls above 
seem older than, say the July 24th girl. 
See below.


(She really is psychotically staring at that doll.)

And jumping further back, even just last year many of the girl models 
seemed older, for the MyAG line.

11/13/13


9/12/13


And then a quantum leap back to 2010, 2009 and 2008 
for those of you wondering what these emails looked like 
when they first started bombarding your inbox with them.

4/22/09 and 4/20/10


9/22/2009


8/4/2009


2/24/09


1/27/09


9/30/08



And today's email again.


What are your thoughts on this shift?

Do you see what we see?

Or is it just crazy us?


Thanks for visiting us today!

________


Please check out our current photography contest:




Entries due August 1st.


And our Summer Fashion Design Challenge:




Entries due August 15th.


Friday, July 25, 2014

July 2014 Photo Contest Reminder!

We announced a new photo contest!!!

Entries are due on or before August 1st --

Next Friday!

The prize will be a $60 AG gift card to one lucky winner!


The theme is....dun dun dunnnnn:

"Dream World."


What is your doll's dream world?

Does she/he have a happy place in her imagination?

Or maybe a happy place in reality that is like a dream come true?

Does she/he have a dream she/he would like to carry out one day?

Does she/he have a favorite book that she/he likes to imagine herself in?
you want to construct a picture of her/him in it???

Or maybe even a nightmare if you want to make something scary!

Or perhaps a funny nightmare like opening the fridge to find only ketchup!

(We have that happen a lot....in reality...)


Be Creative Peeps!

If you want to know if your "Dream World" theme idea is legit -- just email us at nora.demington@gmail.com.



One picture entry per person.

Collages are okay, but sometimes they are hard to see visually, just fyi.

No youtube vids or vines. Just a single image my peeps.
Can be an Instagram pic if you wanna be a hipstah. ;-)


Entries Are Due August 1, 2014.

All entries should be sent to nora.demington@gmail.com.



We will be posting your pics on this blog:




The contest is open to anyone who wants to participate. 

Men, women.
Adults, children.
Elves, fairies.
Americans, Canadians, Australians, Japanese, Mexicans, Martians.

Anyone. Anyplace.



If you are younger than 18 years old, please get your parent or guardian's 
permission to participate.




There will be a week of reader voting after all of the photo entries have been loaded. 

Then Penny will be tallying all of the votes. 

From the top 50%, she'll pick one winner.





Penny's judging will be based upon several factors. 

They are ranked by order of importance:


1) Appropriateness to the Theme: "Dream World"

2) Quality of the Photography

3) Creativity of the Theme Idea

4) Complexity of the Photo's Set-Up

5) Creativity of the Image Composition





All images should be sent to nora.demington@gmail.com.

Images measuring 500 pixels wide or wider are best.

Try to make your images the best quality they can be.




Thanks for visiting us today!


If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us.

You can use the comment box below or email us at nora.demington@gmail.com


Really -- Feel Free to Ask Us Questions!!!

There is No Such Thing as a Dumb Question!!!

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Custom Dolls?

We have been throwing around the idea of 
making custom dolls and selling them. 

Nothing too drastic as far as customization. 
But new dolls. Not pre-owned. 
Not needing tender loving care and then fixed up.

Nothing wrong with that type of customization, 
but that wouldn't be what we would do.

Sort of like making more Sharmaines (a #26 with a Saige relaxed wig) 
and then offering them for sale -- 
but all types of face molds, skin colors, eye colors, boy and girl dolls, etc.


Please comment below whether you would buy these kinds
of dolls (in the comments section).

It would be super helpful to get y'alls opinions. :-)

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Camera-Phone Experimentation:
Cropped Tank and Peplum Skirt

Hello Fiends!


So it's been awhile since we have been able to post our own pics 
of dolly goodness here at The DW.


During the July 4th week we ventured outdoors (gasp!) 
for some camera-phone experimentation.


We usually use a Canon Rebel, but this time we purposefully 
left that puppy in the camera cupboard and 
used our Samsung Note3 camera-phone thingy.

We thought it would be interesting to experiment with it 
and see what we could shoot. 
You never know what you can come up with until you try!


Today we will share our pics of Sharmaine, our #26 that we have scalped.

Currently she is wearing Saige's wig that 
we boiled and conditioned; 
so it is a relaxed version of that wig.

The wig is not glued down, 
so we move it around on her head, haha.
This also allows us to use this wig on all of our other bald dolls.


Sharmaine is wearing a cropped mint tank top from
Etsy's Closet 4 Chloe,
a purple necklace from Etsy's Everyday Dollwear,
and a light grey peplum skirt made by
Etsy's Royal Doll Boutique.








And how did we get Sharmaine to stand up in the grass???

Certainly not on her own two feet, 
because we have never managed that very easily, haha.

With a stick! In the drain grate! Woot! Fancy!

But, hey maybe that will help people get some ideas for taking outdoor pics.


There is our "behind the scenes" pic! ^^^ Heehee.

Thanks for visiting us today!
________

Please check out our current photography contest:


Entries due August 1st.

And our Summer Fashion Design Challenge:


Entries due August 15th.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Spring 2014 FDC Winners!

The Spring 2014 FDC Winners are as follows:

Pro Category:

Entry #39



Intermediate Category: #13



Newbie Category: #1



Yay!!!

Each winner will receive a $60 AG gift card.

We'll be emailing these winners 
this evening. :-)



Also, we have 3 honorable mentions. 
They don't get prizes, but we thought you might want to know 
who was closest in the running. 


Pro Honorable Mention: #11



Intermediate Honorable Mention: #25



Newbie Honorable Mention: #9



Thank you for entering friends!

And thank you for voting!

If you would like to participate in the Summer FDC 
please send in your entries on or before Aug. 15th, 2014.

Click here to learn about the Summer FDC outfit theme!!!!



Tuesday, July 1, 2014

2014 July Photo Contest Announced!
Entries Due August 1, 2014

Yolo!!! 
Heehee.

I know that isn't actually supposed to be a greeting, 
but we have started saying it in place of 
Hello and Hola just to annoy everyone. ;-)

Today we announce a new photo contest!!!

The prize will be a $60 AG gift card to one lucky winner!


The theme is....dun dun dunnnnn:

"Dream World."


What is your doll's dream world?

Does she/he have a happy place in her imagination?

Or maybe a happy place in reality that is like a dream come true?

Does she/he have a dream she/he would like to carry out one day?

Does she/he have a favorite book that she/he likes to imagine herself in?

Or maybe even your doll had a dream while asleep and 
you want to construct a picture of her/him in it???

Or maybe even a nightmare if you want to make something scary!

Or perhaps a funny nightmare like opening the fridge to find only ketchup!

(We have that happen a lot....in reality...)


Be Creative Peeps!

If you want to know if your "Dream World" theme idea is legit -- just email us at nora.demington@gmail.com.



One picture entry per person.

Collages are okay, but sometimes they are hard to see visually, just fyi.

No youtube vids or vines. Just a single image my peeps.
Can be an Instagram pic if you wanna be a hipstah. ;-)


Entries Are Due August 1, 2014.

All entries should be sent to nora.demington@gmail.com.



We will be posting your pics on this blog:




The contest is open to anyone who wants to participate. 

Men, women.
Adults, children.
Elves, fairies.
Americans, Canadians, Australians, Japanese, Mexicans, Martians.

Anyone. Anyplace.



If you are younger than 18 years old, please get your parent or guardian's 
permission to participate.




There will be a week of reader voting after all of the photo entries have been loaded. 

Then Penny will be tallying all of the votes. 

From the top 50%, she'll pick one winner.





Penny's judging will be based upon several factors. 

They are ranked by order of importance:


1) Appropriateness to the Theme: "Dream World"

2) Quality of the Photography

3) Creativity of the Theme Idea

4) Complexity of the Photo's Set-Up

5) Creativity of the Image Composition





All images should be sent to nora.demington@gmail.com.

Images measuring 500 pixels wide or wider are best.

Try to make your images the best quality they can be.




Thanks for visiting us today!



If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us.

You can use the comment box below or email us at nora.demington@gmail.com


Really -- Feel Free to Ask Us Questions!!!

There is No Such Thing as a Dumb Question!!!

❤❤❤❤❤❤

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