Celebrating the British Royal Wedding on May 19th, 2018!

May 19th, 2018 was an exciting day.

Prince Harry, Lady Diana's youngest son, was married to an American actress; Meghan Markle.

She is divorced so I hope their wedding will last for 70 years like Prince Harry's grandparents.

I made some special items for a doll tea, which I set up on the window seat in the living room. I used Samantha's table and chair set. I placed a paper doily on the table as I couldn't locate the tablecloth!

Alika was so excited to be chosen.

(due to her darker skin colour)

The tea sets don't match, but apparently that's the in thing!

The paper items which I printed came from this blog. They turned out so cute! I simply downsized them for the dolls.

I used my miniature teapot with the Queen's photo on it, which celebrated her 50th coronation event. It's the only Royal thing I had!

I made a fascinator hat for Nanea.

She was thrilled. 

I used part of a ribbon holder which had broken off, for the base; a round cardboard circle! I glued an oval shaped netting piece under the lace, and glued flowers and a lace butterfly on top. It was very easy to do.

I used a bobby pin to attach it to Nanea's hair.

What do you think of my background full of ancestor's photos? I finally put them up last year when a cousin from Australia came for a visit; I love to see them each day.

It was a very special event. I got up at 3 am to watch the wedding. Did you?

By Loretta Houben

Another new doll! Meet Truly Me #54!

While doing some much needed fall cleaning, I came across cash I was saving and had forgotten about! Do you ever do that? I like to keep some cash on hand, especially if it was given to me, and then I can spend it when needed without any guilt. I've been suffering from many bad migraines since October 11th, so I felt like I needed to splurge on something nice. And what nicer than a new doll?

I read online that the Truly Me #54 mold would be retired in December, and I had never bought Ivy Ling, (who also had this face mold) the best friend of Julie, so I thought I'd check out the AG Vancouver Boutique while downtown yesterday, after my chiropractor appointment. (so relief of pain is now associated with a new doll purchase!) I noticed that the doll on the shelf had notched eyes, and the doll in the case did not. That really intrigued me, so I asked to see some more dolls.

The shop assistant kindly brought out more, and I chose the one above. A lot of the dolls hair was quite messy which I thought strange. I always take my time choosing a doll, as they are definitely not cheap! I don't have a Truly Me doll yet, and I really like this one. I love her brown eyes! Apparently this doll and Samantha are the only AG dolls with brown decal eyes. The modern outfit she is wearing is very colourful and cute, although a bit skimpy compared to other dolls and their Meet outfits which I've purchased.

She has a print cotton sleeveless dress with a bit of netting on the hem, pink panties, and a very cute turquoise jacket. She also has white glitter shoes, which to me are very modern. The whole skimpy bright outfit suits 2017 to a T! It matches girl's and women's outfits in the stores!

I took these photos last night, so the lighting is a bit dim, but I was quite pleased with #54, who now needs to be named. 

I was also feeling awful as I'd heard news about a family friend who was murdered on Nov 7. I'm so glad I'm alive, and so glad I have the ability and privilege to buy dolls and enjoy them. I don't take anything for granted anymore. It seems weird in a way to be happy about a doll when someone has died such a grizzly death, but what can I do? It was a gun incident in the USA, and you know what I think of guns. (or maybe you don't, but remember that I'm Canadian and I don't own a gun) So there is the horrid dark side of life, and there is the fun playful side. I think there's a fine balance between the two, and each day that I can enjoy the good things I will do so.

By Loretta Houben

A package has arrived!

Look! A package has arrived!

We hardly ever get packages!

AG had a marvelous online sale recently.

They probably have a lot of them, but in this house we have limited funds. So when this package arrived, Tenney and Mary Ellen were thrilled. The plaid dress is so cute with diamond buttons and a brown belt, and cute boots. The white dress was for Lea, a GOTY doll for 2015. It's very pretty, with a bead hairband and gold sandals.

Then there was even a lovely new dress for poor neglected Josephina, with ribbons and darling shoes.

And two cute AG shirts with Vancouver on them, for the low price of $4.00 each! Of course this is US funds but I couldn't resist this, and it really cheered us all up, during this dark week in history. (August 14-18/17)

I won't speak of world events on this doll blog, but things are quite bleak out there. Whenever this happens, and it's been very regular lately, I turn more and more to doll play.

By Loretta Houben