Doll Rehab :)

Krista's American Girl doll.....

Cadie's cousin asked for an American Girl doll for Christmas.  A brand new one was out of the budget for Great Grandma though.  I searched and searched and finally found a preloved doll on Craigslist.  I brought her home, cleaned her up and fixed her hair.  She turned out to be good as new. :)

A Stable For The Horses!

So for Christmas this year Ryan & I made a stable for Cadie's American Girl doll horses.  It was a lot of work.....really it was harder to keep her in the dark than build it though.  It turned out great!  I even made some accessories like horse blankets, hay bales and hanging feeders for the horses.  It was so much fun to add the finishing touches.

A Boy To Join The Girls!

So I found this American Girl flannel shirt this summer at a yardsale.......and that got me started thinking that we needed a boy doll around here to keep the girls company.  I had seen a lot of great custom dolls that members of AGPT had made from American Girl dolls but I hadn't had any luck finding one that was in rough enough shape and cheap enough that I felt I could justify making a boy doll.
Then while looking on eBay I found the rest of the outfit that goes with the flannel shirt......for $11!  It is an older AG outfit called simply Cargo Outfit from 1999.  It is perfect for a boy doll.  So far $11.25 I had a perfectly complete boy outfit and no doll.

Until today that is.......

While I still haven't found an AG doll to make into a boy I did find an Amy Elise 18" doll that is pretty similar in size and build to an AG.  This doll cost me a whopping $5.99.  The doll was a bit dirty and the hair was totally frizzy.  It was bride of Frankenstien scary!  So I immediately check and it was a wigged doll as opposed to rooted.....SCORE!  That is what has stopped me in the past from buying thrift store dolls for this project.  Rooted hair would be a pain to shave off of the head of a doll so I could put a new boy doll style wig on.  But this soon to be handsome doll had a barely glued on wig.  By barely, I mean that it literally took one minor tug and off it came.  So for now he is bald.  We are awaiting the arrival of a boy doll wig I found on the AGPT sale boards.

Here is a picture of the type of doll I found.....this same character just not my doll.

Here is a picture of our new boy in his outfit.....along with our other thrift store finds Licorice & Coconut!  And some other AG sized pets (Ty Beanie Babies) from the same thrift store lots!

Miss Abby

This is Cadie's doll Abby.  Abby is technically the American Girl Historical doll Addy but Cadie decided that she was a modern times girl named Abby.

Fun facts about Abby:

She joined Cadie's doll family Christmas 2013.
She loves animals.
She has an American Girl doll of her own, Cecile.
Her favorite colors are aqua blue & pink.
She loves butterflies and flowers.

Clandestine Coconut Exchange :)

This year we qualified to participate in the single gift exchange done through AGPT.  We decided that Cadie and one of her dolls should participate.  She chose Ariel, her first 18" AG, to be the lucky girl.

Here is a picture of the wrapped gifts.  Cadie and Ariel had filled out a survey that let them make a wishlist as well as information about what they like and a little bio about Ariel.  Obviously, they said they liked Frozen. ;)

Here is a picture of Cadie and Ariel :)

Now on to pictures of their goodies......

 Sticker books, temporary tatoos, barrettes, necklace & bracelet set, charm bracelet, bookmarks, stickers, crayons, a stuffed Olaf and a little tin that looks like a lunch box for Ariel.  And craft ideas for Frozen Fabric!



Here are some pictures of Ariel with some of her new goodies in her room.

We decided to use some of the stickers, that looked like posters, as posters in Ariel's room.

Santa Coconut Exchange :)

This year we participated for both Cadie and I.  I was assuming that if it were a large group it would be split.  I was not entirely correct in my assumptions......so I ended up making with some help from Cadie two different groups of goodies x 36.  So 72 items total.  It was a lot of work but it was worth it when we opened the exchange boxes and got to see all of our goodies!  Here are some pictures of a few of the goodies we received.

Creepy Coconuts Exchange

Cadie, "The Girls" and I participated in the AGPT Creepy Coconut exchange this year.  We had so much fun making the candy corn milkshakes and cotton candy for the exchange and are thrilled with the items we got in return!