We’ve expanded!

Alright y’all. Posts around here are going to remain fairly sporadic at best. I do apologize for that, but between work issues, personal issues (love me, love my issues), various modly duties here and there around the internets, and trying to have some sort of life (which I’m failing miserably at, given the aforementioned issues), I just don’t have much time. So, if you hang with me, I’ll still be around and hopefully I can start posting again with some kind of regularity.

The big news around here is that we have expanded again! I say again with a caveat.

See, I bought that Adora Wicked Witch of the West doll and I love her! I think she’s gorgeous! I just… can’t make her fit into my gang. She’s so hard to buy clothes for given her difference in size to an AG doll (she’s considerably skinnier and shorter), and because her coloring means that there are a whole hell of a lot of things that just do not look good on her. I still love her, and she is still considered part of my gang, but the story is that she is off at school. You’ll still see her sometimes, but there’s other things to see for right now.

Right around the beginning of March, it became pretty clear to anyone with two eyes and a brain that the end was nigh for Cécile Rey and Marie-Grace Gardner in the American Girl Historical line. A good chunk of their collection had gone up in the sale section, and in the last catalog I had gotten, they weren’t listed. More and more things, leaks from Taobao, certain blogs trying to tout “insider knowledge,” were all pointing to the fact that the NOLA girls were going away.

While I was shopping for The Doll Who Would Become Eden, I briefly entertained the idea of getting a Marie-Grace doll because I so very much love that facemold,  but didn’t, because her price was jacked up so much on Amazon that it was ridiculous. So I ended up getting Eden.

I couldn’t get Marie-Grace out of my head though. And I used every reason I could think of to not get her. “I don’t have room for a historical” was the chief reason. And yeah, gonna admit it, there was a little wibbling that I’ve been a major proponent of Dolly Diversity in AG Collections (and I walk the walk as well as I talk the talk with my Chicana girl, my Native girl and hell, my Green girl [who was black before she was green]), and here I was, wanting to buy a white girl. What do? And then, while I was searching Ebay for things, I found a Marie-Grace with her hair straightened.

GAME. CHANGED. After having my fears assuaged by Neth that I wasn’t a huge farking hypocrite, I decided that come hell or high, Marie-Grace would come here and be turned moddie.

On Easter Sunday, we had a family dinner where all us kids (me, my sister and my brother-in-law) got “Easter Baskets.” Some candy, and something else we would like, stuff like that. Mine was some Jelly Bellies (yum!), a chocolate bunny and a little glass box shaped like a bunny that inside had $20 in. This was for the “Marie-Grace fund,” I was told. Excitedly, I put away some money from each of my next two paychecks until I had enough to get her and a dress just for her. I was excited!

I ordered her on Friday, May 9th, and she arrived exactly a week later. Amusingly, all of my American Girls have arrived on Fridays. Clearly, fate wants me to have weekends filled with dolly love. Hee!

All will be revealed, friends…

I was so excited to at least see what she was like in her historical garb before I stripped her of it and sent parts of it off to Neth.

Marie-Grace Gardner, An American Girl

The shoes are cute, and I nearly wept with joy at the white knee socks, which went immediately into my Box of Socks and Tights, but the dress really does leave a lot to be desired, I must say. It feels… not nice. And wrinkles really easily. Like, you look at it cross-eyed and it wrinkles. But lets be real, we’re not here for complaints about a dress she’s never going to wear are we? I didn’t think so.

Cutest face!

I absolutely love this facemold. I’ve heard all the complaints that she doesn’t photograph well, or that she looks bad in profile. Pfff. I loved it. Her stock photos do her no kind of justice, you really only see how adorable she is when you see her for yourself. However… those pincurls have got to go. I thought they were stupid in the stock shots, but in person, after being in a box for Flying Spaghetti Monster only knows how long and with a hairnet, they’re just horrible. Oh well. That’s what nail scissors are for.

Doesn’t look good in profile my wide, brownie-eating ass.

And here she is in profile. Anyone who says she looks bad in profile is a lying liar who lies, because as you can see, she’s precious. She’s got such a wide-eyed, engaged with the world around her look to her. I think she’s beautiful.

So, the first order of business was to lose those pincurls. Now, if I had google searched sooner about this than, oh, tonight? I would have learned a thing that is useful. Namely, that the pincurls are not attached in any way to the wig itself, but are instead glued directly to Marie-Grace’s head and I probably could have just wiggled them out. But, I’m lazy and nail scissors are quicker. I carefully snipped them away – and nothing of value was lost. Next was taking down those braids and brushing them out, and misting with water and hair-dryer and trying to get them straighter.

The transformation is complete!

So, they weren’t perfect. A few weeks later I purchased a flatiron and used it, and it really helped to tame the frizziness. I also put her into her new modern dress, which I love. She works amazingly well as a moddie, I think. Also, I love that she’s got all that hair and a center part, it makes for easy to do hairstyles, and I’m totally into wanting to learn more.

She’s a long way from New Orleans now, Auntie Em!

So, friends, meet Gracie Mae Edwards! She’s 12, from North Carolina, and is a funny, smart, opinionated wannabe ballroom dancer.

It was rather cold that weekend, it turned out. In the South. In May.And I got cold just looking at her in that sleeveless dress, so it didn’t stay on her for more than a day before there was a clothes switch.

Mari, Gracie and Elyse. Cuties in jeans.

(AG needs to make more clogs! I love clogs!)

She’s fitting in swimmingly with the gang so far!

Welcome party!

Even Eden came home to visit and meet her!

New clothes! (Polka-dot pants!)

And of course, some clothes had to be bought!

It’s not me without the Busy Beez Collective winter set, amirite?

I mean… c’mon, that’s just a must.

And another. Please ignore that Mari’s glasses went cattywompus.

Shout out to BusyBeezCollective for whipping up those hats, mittens and scarf in the space of a weekend!

Outside with the magnolia tree, which is just starting to blossom.

So that is how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb turned a historical girl into a moddie and had no second thoughts about it. I think Marie-Grace as a doll is a cute doll, but when you turn her into a modern girl she gains so much personality! She is such a bright and happy addition to my gang, and I’m so happy I have her!

With the NOLA girls officially being archived, if you want a Marie-Grace (or Cécile), you’re going to want to move quickly. Parts of their collection have been put back onto the site, and on sale to boot, and things are starting to sell out. It’s a damn shame that they didn’t last longer than they did. Sure, their time in history was obscure, but their story was a welcome addition to the line. My major hope is that we see them again in the era of BeForever, and also that the Marie-Grace facemold isn’t retired with her.

Welcome, Gracie!