November 21, 2016 – My Little Country

Over the weekend, for the first time in about two years, I was able to sew to my heart’s content. Jason was out with a friend on Thursday, so it gave me the opportunity to crank up some Steely Dan on Amazon Music and get to work.

May it be said that as a young child, I wasn’t doll-crazy. I had dolls, but it was stuffed animals that I was obsessed with. Do you remember Kaybee Toys in a mall near you? If you lived close to Tyler, TX, we had one. Remember the giant stuffed snakes that were suspended on the ceiling? If you ever wondered what weird kid would actually want a giant stuffed snake, now you know one. His name was Jake The Snake, and I used to curl him up into a giant “O” and sleep in the middle. But back to my point.

I wasn’t a girly girl and so I didn’t have very much to do with dolls. However, God sent me a doll-obsessed child. And this child wanted an American Girl doll more than anything. Now, AG dolls ain’t cheap, and this Mama is frugal. So, her first 18 inch doll was of the Target (Tahr-zhay) variety. As far as I could tell, she was quite similar to an AG doll and there are tons of little cute accessories you can choose. But after some time, her hair became crazy. Like, rat’s-nest crazy. I managed to straighten it some with Internet tips, but it wasn’t ever the same as straight out of the box. Still, I reasoned, a doll is a doll, and this one cost about $80 less than a bona fide AG doll.

Then, after a year or two of begging, we all visited the AG doll store in Dallas. Look, people. I am trying my best not to be materialistic, and then I walk into THIS PLACE. The Mecca of Materialism. Not only are the dolls fantastic, but they have the most incredible accessories ever! A crock pot? Got it. An entire 1930’s era canning set, complete with water canner? It’s there. A 1960’s Volkswagen Beetle with real rubber tires and plays songs? Yours for only 350 smackers. Does your doll have potentially life-threatening food/insect allergies? Don’t worry, she’s safe with the optional epinephrine kit. I’m not kidding.

It was, in a single word, amazing. Oh, and the AG dolls’ hair? It’s fabulous. Like human hair fabulous. They even have a doll styling studio and a café in-house. You can have a birthday there. Ah yes, and there are doll holders in the bathroom stalls… yes. Annnd, the tiles in the bathroom and the party area are awesomely glittery.

So anyway, that Christmas we splurged on Kit, the doll whose era is the 1930s. You can only imagine the excitement that day! That has been about three years ago and Kit is still played with, and I will add that her hair still looks like she was just released from her box.

Being a frugal mom, I can only do “splurge-y” gifts like that every few years, though. Otherwise, it really sucks the fun out of the season for me. This year, I decided to give Kit some new duds. Rather, I decided to MAKE Kit some new ones. So, here are the results of a kid-free weekend! Hope you enjoy. Oh yes, and Kit has a buddy now: Zoe the doll. You did know that dolls need friends, right? Just like you shouldn’t keep a single horse or goat, you probably need a doll friend. Or so I was told. No, I didn’t buy Zoe, if you were wondering!

Zoe modeling a vintage-styled dress, trimmed in ric-rack: