Opinions of Cecile and Marie-Grace Items, Part Four

We are skipping ahead one day and doing another "Opinions" post instead of a Maple post. No logic really, just keeping you all in suspense. Stay tuned tomorrow for a new Maple's Pirate Treasure Hunt post. :-)

First we have a bedroom vanity for Marie-Grace (but of course it can be used by any doll). It is surprising AG made this since they seemed to have phased out all nightstands/ washstands over a period of time. Kit's was just retired last year. And Rebecca never got one. So it is extra-nice they have made this one and it is very versatile. As an heirloom piece it can be used for almost any time period from the 1800s on. The accessories for it are a little plasticy and Mattelish -- but whatevs. At least they made this nice long-lost piece of furniture for us!

Slideshow of past bedroom tables that are now lost to the sands of time... i.e. retired/archived.

The only one we have is Josefina's and it is awesome, leading us to think that the others are probably just as good. They are great for displays and for photos. Just the perfect size to include in photo shoots without being huge and overwhelming when you are modeling clothing. :-)

Here is another totally surprising piece. It's like the vanity and this hinged convertible desk are made as actual heirloom toys rather than as disposable toys. Which was kind of the point of Pleasant Company.

We know exactly where AG got the idea for this one: the double-parlor of the Gallier historic house in New Orleans. http://www.hgghh.org/g_house/parlor.htm Yep, this chair pictured below.... sits at 1132 Royal Street in the French Quarter.

As you can learn from the website, the Hermann-Grima and Gallier Houses are a little historical combo that you can tour in the Quarter. The Gallier house was built in 1857 as the personal residence of famed New Orleans architect James Gallier. You can see this elegant Victorian house, garden, carriageway and slave residences when you visit. 

But where did this desk-chair thing really come from? Metamorphic desks and convertible chairs had existed for years, but it wasn't until 1854 that New York cabinetmaker (person who makes furniture) Stephen Hedges patented the precise design you see in the AG desk. 

A) I wonder if the patent still applies? Haha and B) Cecile's family is pretty lucky to have gotten one at least a year before they were patented. Heehee. 

These are sometimes called "Aaron Burr desks" because the story goes that he owned one -- probably fiction since Burr predates Hedges. But like we said, this wasn't totally a "new" idea. Just newly patented. :-)

These types of desks are valuable and can be seen in the collections of The Museum of the City of New York, the Morris-Jumel Mansion in upper Manhattan, and of course the Gallier House. This is the one at the Morris-Jumel Mansion....

And if you'd like your own human-size desk they do occasionally come up for auction or at estate sales. Christie's has sold two, one in 1998 and one in 2007, for $8,050 and $5,250 respectively. See them below.

Here is another example in slideshow format... as you can tell by now... AG's decorative golden side-scrolls are not really accurate to these pieces. They also typically lacked the bottom shelf piece you see under the desk, but had a small drawer instead. The writing surface would have been lined with felt and there would have been casters on the legs. In addition, the truly "accurate" pieces don't have a leg where you would slide your legs under the desk when it is open. The item below has one, but that makes it kind of dubious. Look at the pics above of the other Hedges desks. You'll see what we mean.

If you can't tell by now, we like the Hedges desk and it is on our wishlist. :-) We especially like the e-catalog layout for it and Cecile's items. Let's just ignore the fact that she is wearing those gold boots.

Moving on to this nightmare.... I mean bed set..... Did they have to paint it blue and pink? Couldn't they have just left the honey oak coloring for the whole bed? It definitely would have been on our wishlist then. But in this painted state... we ain't buying. Just like Rebecca's bed. Yikes. And then they added on pink bedding to really push the knife in deeper. How many more beds will they have to butcher before they get it right? We are honestly tempted to buy it and repaint the poor thing.

Even Cecile in her pink night set seems hesitant to get in for a good night's rest....

Look at her face.... she may be smiling... but she is really thinking... 

"You have got to be joking, right? I think this was meant for Barbie, not me."

And our final piece of furniture is the banquet set for the masquerade party. All fine and good, but not for $150. Maybe $80... but given the amount of plastic sitting on top of that thing, $150 is a joke.

We'd buy it just for the nice table under it that could be useful in a variety of ways. But not for $150.  It's cheaper just to custom-order such a piece.

And we don't intend on paying $150 for plastic food and dishes. These "cream puffs" look like meatballs drenched in honey for a Winnie the Pooh playset. As with most AG food, if we really want cakes and treats we'll ask someone to handmake them for us.

After two back-to-back negative opinions, we do have something positive to say about this release. Thank you AG for finally making an e-catalog. You need to make them for every catalog you send out. I can't really express how important that is for marketing your items. Not that you are listening to me... but you should be.

Whoever designed these set-ups should be designing the AG clothing and furniture. For instance, in this room the only thing I want is the room... it is so detailed and beautiful.... hardwood floors, stucco-textured walls, ornate light-fixtures, delicate curtains...

If this shot doesn't make you want that dress, and doggie.... I am not sure what will... we love how it feels like a doll-size New Orleans street...

Same thing goes for the parlor shots, they really help to sell the outfits. We love the coloring of the rooms: gold and teal walls, deep blue and burgundy curtains, red and cream carpets... these are the colors we want to see in the clothing. And why don't they make us that awesome fireplace, those beautiful mirrors, and that lovely table set? Why not?

Anyways, applause for the e-catalog. Bravo! Keep them coming. Not everyone gets your catalog in the mail. But all AG fans want to see your catalogs. This is plain and simple logic. And whoever designed the sets and laid out the catalog should make all your other catalogs. They did a great job. And you should listen to us. We are smart. ;-)

We are signing off for now on this first barrage of Cecile and Marie-Grace items. We think we discussed everything we wanted to talk about. We'll let you know if we buy any of the items.

And if anyone else wants to contribute their opinion on anything, please feel free to comment on the blog at anytime with your thoughts. We'd love to hear them!

Opinions of Cecile and Marie-Grace Items, Part Three

So our first thought of the day is... What are these for?

I mean really? While they are awesome in an anachronistically superheroine I'm-gonna-kick-your-butt kind of way they don't really go with anything in the C and M-G collection.

For instance, this outfit looks better with black shoes or maybe some chestnut brown boots. Why didn't they make chestnut brown side-button boots?

Are you supposed to wear the gold boots with night attire to dress up that generic-looking nightgown?

Or are you supposed to wear them with "The Dress That Shall Not Be Named?"

Which already comes with frou-frou slippers.....

We aren't really complaining about the gold boots. They are awesome and on our wishlist for various fun costuming ideas. They just seem out of place, like an incomplete thought. And we think C and M-G, and many other 1800s/early-1900s dolls, could use a pair of chestnut brown side button boots.

So on the topic of the generic-looking nightgown.... we think Cecile's set is fine and dandy... for those people who like pink....

Oh how we long for that little jacket and those booties to be in any other color..... We even did a color chart to show AG what they could have made (and what we would have bought)... Seriously... we bought Rebecca's night robe just because it was blue.

Toss aside pink AG and look at how much better this teal jacket is!

Or any of these colors.... they are equally awesome... and would look great on Cecile...

Le sigh. We are defeated. Now it is up to you stalwart seamstresses of the world to make this beautiful night jacket in different colors....

Up next.... Overall Marie-Grace's nightgown is fine and we like the slippers that come with the set.

But it does kind of look like it was stained with tea, has been up in the attic too long,

 or is perhaps just a bit dirty.... bizarre...

This brings us to the underthings... the most useful thing AG has made for us in awhile and of course it has to include the color pink. But that's okay with us as they are hidden during use. ;-)

We also wanted to post Jennakitten's edited combo of the Cecile white shirt and Marie-Grace blue skirt... It looks quite pretty!

"The Dress That Shall Not Be Named" remains to be discussed in this post. 

Yes this one....

Which is supposed to go with this thing....

And fairy items that I am not even going to get into...

Why did they choose these awful colors? Why, oh why? Yes, we realize that there are those of you who probably like this dress. This is valid. But it is not for us. Our wishlist will be lacking these items.

Again, we offer up other color schemes for what would have been a beautiful dress (we really love the pattern). Here are light-colored versions, if one must go with pastels... we especially like the bottom right one...

And a silver version that keeps some of the original coloring... but still looks awesome enough for us to buy...

And of course, our preferred jewel tone colors.... 

how awesome would these dresses be?!?!?

Two-tone effect dresses... also totally awesome...

And just some final looks to ponder.... so many beautiful options...

So if there are seamstresses out there that don't mind dealing with shiny/slippery fabrics and can find them easily -- it might be fun to see what you can come up with that looks like "The Dress That Shall Not Be Named" but in different colors....

Stay tuned for our final thoughts on the C and M-G items.... 

Particularly the furniture pieces and the E-catalog....

Maple's Pirate Treasure Hunt! Part Three

We had a couple suggestions for destinations in this third installment: a cookie store and a spooky graveyard. While a cookie store would be an awesome location.... there is unfortunately none on the pirate treasure map. :-( We'll put it on the next one though. ;-) And we don't have a spooky graveyard (which is also a good idea) ... but we do have a slightly spooky location eventually planned. You'll just have to stay tuned..... :-)

The hint that I found at the entrance to Blackbeard's Wood said:

A hundred paces southward

Find the Stone Rock Road 

Follow where the seagulls lead you

Look for where the water stopped flow

"Where is it telling us to go?" Maple asked me as we stood at the edge of Blackbeard's Wood.

"I don't know, but it's getting dark and we need to go home. We'll start from the base of this tree tomorrow." I tied a red ribbon around the tree to mark where we were.

Then the next day Maple spent several hours getting ready to leave. She explained that she wanted to look good for her photos.

"If you were so concerned with your appearance in this photo-story, why did you make one that involves hiking all-over the countryside in the summer heat?" I asked her. She just wrinkled her nose at me and didn't answer. "You're just going to have to adjust your outfit and hair once we find the hint...," I added.

That did not deter her from being fashionable (and still quirky). Today Maple is wearing the Kate Middleton "Touch of Class" dress from All Dolled Up Doll Clothes, black and grey tights from Sew Fun Doll Clothes, and black gladiator sandals from Ebay's Pawprint Pals (manufactured, just FYI).

After getting "her look" just right we headed out to find the red ribbon and start on our hundred paces south. It took a long time to walk a hundred paces. Mostly because neither one of us could keep count. We had to start over several times.

But we eventually found the Stone Rock Road, which of course as most roads do, went in two directions.

"Where do we go now???" whined Maple. I think she was regretting her choice of trendy sandals as footwear....

"Look for the seagulls, like the hint said," I replied. Did she even read the hint?

"Oh, yeah."

We peered down the road in one direction, then the other. But only the southern side had seagulls floating in the distant air. So we started trudging on our way again, toward the gulls.

An eternity later, the road grew closer to a huge stone building that looked very imposing.

"This must be Fort Black," I commented. I had seen enough movies to know what a fort looked like... plus I finished 100% of the Pirates of the Caribbean Wii game... so I am like an expert on these things... right?

"What's Fort Black?," Maple replied.

I closed my eyes for a moment and breathed deeply.

"It's on the map," I said between my gritted teeth. "There's probably a clue here."

I think she sensed my aggravation and just nodded in response.

Shockingly, Maple then noted that there seemed to be water draining from the building around the foundation. And she had the thought that we should follow the water as it drained down the hill to see where it stopped. I thought this was an amazingly good idea, for Maple. I also started to think about what else was in that drainage water... eww....

So we crept around the foundation along the road, following the water flow. We came to a spot where the water went into a little canal under the road. How were we supposed to follow the water now? We continued walking around the corner of the massive building to find out.

"Look!," Maple said, "It's a drainpipe that doesn't have water coming out of it!"

"I guess that means the water has stopped flowing from it.... maybe the clue is inside," I said. Finally we were getting somewhere. Which is good because I was sweating like a pig and was quite hungry.

We bent down and looked in the pipe. All we saw was moss.

"You stick your hand in and see if there is a clue in there," Maple insisted.

"No way. If I hurt my hand how am I supposed to take pictures of you in your outfit?" I knew how to spin that. "You stick your hand in," I replied.

She stared at me for awhile, obviously thinking that would convince me to do the job.

Then she stared at the drainpipe for awhile. 

"What are you waiting for?" I asked.

"To see if anything alive comes out of the pipe," she answered.

"Like a snake?" I suggested.

She stared at me again with wide eyes. 

"Wouldn't it be worse if something dead came out of it?"... was my answer to the stare.

Then she scowled for awhile but eventually gave in to her fate. With a horrified grimace on her face she bent down and stuck her hand in the drainpipe.

"There is something in there!" she announced as she pulled out another rolled up piece of paper.

We decided this was a good opportunity for more pictures and we posed the hint sticking out of the drainpipe.

Then Maple "vogued" for the camera....

We thought that was a better shot than Maple bending over, butt in the air, and arm in a drainpipe...

Several glamourous photos of Detective Captain Maple and her clue discovery follow...

What will this hint say?
Where will we go next?
What will Maple wear?
Will I end up smacking her with my camera bag in frustration?

Stay tuned for Part Four where these questions and more will be answered..... 

p.s. Thanks for following our Pirate Treasure Hunt posts!