#sariah solomon

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Some scenes from Sariah’s busy weekend in November 1984! She just got some new clothes for her birthday!

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Happy Pride month from Sariah! She’s at the video game arcade today, wearing her rainbow stripe shirt and shorts with a rainbow belt. She won a ton of prize tickets from playing Skee-Ball and Cosmo Crusader, and redeemed them for this cute rainbow Care Bear!

Sariah’s story takes place in 1984, and even then pride parades weren’t a new event. They’d been happening in several cities in the United States since 1970, although in the early years they were known as gay liberation marches. This is the first year Sariah is openly celebrating. Last year when she and her mom moved in with her mom’s girlfriend, Sariah was secretive and shy about their relationship. But then she met several other girls at her new school who also had two mothers or two fathers, and now Sariah is allowing herself to feel pride in the reality of her family. Now she can’t imagine her life without her two loving mothers by her side.

I made Sariah’s full outfit except for her 80′s hi-top shoes, which are American Girl brand. I also made her arcade games. 

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Full collection of Sariah Solomon, an American Girl. Santa Clara, California, 1984.

Sariah’s story begins with big changes in her life. Her parents have just gotten divorced, and she isn’t adjusting well to her father’s sudden absence. Her older sister Alisha is acting like she’s too cool to hang out with Sariah any more. When her mother begins dating a woman, they all move into her wealthy new stepmother Elaine’s home in the Silicon Valley, where Elaine works as a software developer at a computer company. Sariah is sent to an all-girl private school, and she worries about other students judging her for being mixed race and having two mothers. But she meets and befriends several other girls who are just like her in these ways, and their pride in that is encouraging to Sariah. Her heart softens even more toward Elaine when they travel together to see the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where she points out how many new women’s sports have been added to the games. This inspires Sariah to pursue her interests in gymnastics and soccer, with hopes of someday being an Olympic athlete herself. Elaine also brings home a newly released Macintosh 128K, one of the very first personal computers on the market, and starts teaching Sariah how to use it. But with all these changes, Sariah wonders if she’s betraying her father and moving on without him. She’s always busy on the weekends and vacation days she’s supposed to spend at his house, and she wonders if her new life is worth the sacrifice of her relationship with her dad. But he proves to her in his own way that love is all that’s needed to make a family. 

Sariah’s collection includes full outfits as well as some mix-and-match pieces. There is some overlap with my other historical OC Antonia’s 1978 collection, and they can share several shirts. Striped shirts were very trendy for children’s clothing from the late 70′s to the mid 80′s. Also popular were corduroy pants, high-waisted jeans, polo shirts, oversized button-downs, muscle shirts, raglan sleeve athletic shirts, and branded clothing. Sariah’s clothes feature some of her favorite characters--Rainbow Brite, My Little Pony, and Fraggle Rock. I got inspiration for her wardrobe from several sources, the initial one being Courtney Moore’s collection. But after trying out a few outfits based on Courtney’s clothes, I realized that Sariah’s clothes realistically should more closely align with the trends of the first half of the decade, rather than the second half when clothes became much more brightly colored and influenced by pop music. Sariah’s nightgown, purple bubble skirt, and denim jacket are the pieces inspired by Courtney that I did keep, though. Her pink and white hi-tops are also Courtney’s. I also got inspiration by looking at sewing patterns and watching 80′s children’s movies and TV shows like Kids Incorporated, which showed the everyday clothing that children of that time were wearing. The only things here that I didn’t make are her shoes and her long-sleeved gray shirt with the blue quilted vest, which are American Girl of Today clothing items. I made her pink and green striped romper using a Lee & Pearl pattern. Everything else is just variations on basic shirt and pants patterns.

Sariah (pronounced sa-RYE-ah, rhymes with Mariah) is a Pleasant Company JLY #15, one of the original Girl of Today dolls. I found her a few years ago on Mercari. She has not been customized. Sariah spent a while as a modern character before I felt compelled to make her a historical, as a way to learn some more about some less well-known yet very influential events of that decade. I wanted Sariah’s story to cover the topics of changing roles of women in the workplace, the rising rate of divorce, the acceptance of LGBT people and families in the San Francisco area, the release of the first personal computer, and the increasing participation of female athletes in that year’s Olympics. I think Sariah’s collection is now complete, although I might someday make her a school uniform if I can actually decide on a design for it.

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Spring Has Sprung photo challenge, week 5: cartoons

Sariah’s favorite cartoons are also some of her favorite toys! Tonight she’s watching My Little Pony dressed in a matching nightgown and with four of her ponies. 

The 1980′s, when Sariah was growing up, were the early years of children’s cartoons that had associated toys, clothing, lunchboxes, breakfast cereal, and tons of other merchandise. Some of the most iconic were My Little Pony, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, Transformers, He-Man and She-Ra, Jem, and The Smurfs. 

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Sariah’s 1984 Skee-Ball Arcade Game

The only thing that will bring Sariah inside during the winter break from school is the arcade at the roller skating rink! You might remember her previous visit the arcade to play some video games after skating. The arcade just installed a skee-ball game, and Sariah wants to get good enough at it to win some redeemable prize tickets. There’s a certain trendy toy she’s got her eye on...

This can be a frustrating game at first, but finally getting a ball into a cup is really exciting! To play skee-ball, the ball must be rolled uphill fast enough to fly into one of the holes. The smaller the holes and the farther away, the higher number of points the player gets. 

Sariah pitches it fast enough to get it going up the incline and into the cups. Once all the balls have been thrown, the machine dispenses tickets based on the player’s final score. The tickets can be redeemed for some fun prizes.

Good thing she’s got lots of quarters.... she’s playing until she runs out of money.

Her first attempt wins her six tickets. Not bad!

I built Sariah’s skee-ball game entirely from foam board, using plans I drafted myself. Even the score cups at the top are foam board that I carefully curled and glued into place. The tickets, coin slot, and ticket dispenser are printed images. The balls are regular bouncy balls. 

I wish it were an exact reproduction of a life-sized one, but that’s probably not something I can build without the right skills and lots of money. And the physics for an accurate skee-ball setup were not on my side, due to the limitations of materials and the size of it. Keeping the foam board from snapping when it’s curved enough to the right slope for the ball to catch some air, while being long enough for the ball to accelerate to the necessary speed, is just not realistic with what I’m working with. 

But the ball can be tossed into the holes, so playing with it is certainly possible! I’ve had a lot of fun with it so far. I put an inclined piece of foam board inside so that the balls roll downward and come out through the opening you can see above, in the bottom left corner below the tickets. 

Sariah’s denim shorts, oversized button-down shirt, and Fraggle Rock tee were inspired by an outfit I saw being worn on the TV show Kids Incorporated. I watched some clips of episodes from 1984 to get some ideas for what kids were wearing back then. Fraggle Rock was another TV show that was on in the early 80′s, featuring puppets by Jim Henson. I used iron transfer paper to attach the image to her shirt. Her green button-down was cut from an old shirt of mine that was too worn-out to repair. Her pink jellies are Sophia’s brand.

And of course Sariah is taking home a prize today! She earned enough tickets to get a Care Bear!

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It’s winter break from the 1984 school year, and Sariah is determined to spend every minute of it playing outdoors! She wears her favorite striped muscle shirt and pleated green shorts while she zooms down the streets of Santa Clara on her skateboard. 

Sariah’s skateboarding outfit was inspired by a few things. Her high-waisted shorts are based on the pair in Courtney Moore’s collection. I made them using the Vintage Tap Pants pattern by Forever 18 Inches, and added buttons, belt loops, and an additional waistband. For her shirt, I searched for what clothing was most trendy in 1984, and muscle shirts were at the top of every list. This was made with a modified tank top pattern. I used iron transfer paper to create the rainbow design, based on an 80′s outfit I saw on Pinterest. Her hi-top sneakers are from Courtney’s collection, and her skateboard is AG brand as well. 

Compared side by side, I definitely prefer the shirt over the shorts rather than tucked in. 

Wipeout! Don’t worry, she’s fine! 

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In July of 1984, Sariah and her family drove from their home in Santa Clara, California, down to Los Angeles to see the Summer Olympics! She has a lot more fun than she expected to have, and was thrilled to see how many women were competing there, and how many of them were winning! Sariah had always felt intimidated when she saw girls her age who were excelling at sports, and she thought she wasn’t good enough to do the same thing. But seeing the results of years of that dedication gave her a change of heart and inspired her to find her own athletic talents. As soon as she returned home, she signed up for the soccer team and began gymnastics classes.

For her trip to the Olympics, Sariah wears an 80′s style romper that I made recently. It's patterned after real rompers that were popular at that time. It’s got shoulder pads, real working pockets, buttons down the front, and a wide belt, and is accessorized with an oversized belt buckle and big dangly earrings that I also made. I can’t decide if I like the pink belt or the matching belt better, so here’s how both of them look! Her hi-top sneakers, watch, and glasses are by American Girl. 

I got the romper pattern for free as a gift for signing up for Lee and Pearl’s newsletter. Lee and Pearl makes really nice quality doll clothing patterns and craft tutorials, so I wholeheartedly recommend them. The pattern also includes instructions for making belt buckles and earrings from Shrinky Dinks. The wind was blowing her earrings around while I was trying to take these pictures so the earrings look different from each other, but they are both the same shape. In another post, I’ll go more in depth about how I scrounged up some DIY Shrinky Dink plastic from dollar store products! 

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Sariah’s accessories + lunch box

Having Courtney Moore’s collection around makes it so easy to come up with things to make for my own 80′s character, Sariah. I’ve been looking at a lot of the stuff offered for her and trying to recreate it for my girl using things I’ve got on hand already. 

Sariah attends a private girls’ school that requires her to wear a uniform, but the last Friday of each month is casual Friday. So for that occasion today, Sariah is wearing a Courtney-inspired outfit and accessories. 

I based this outfit off of Courtney’s shirt and tie and her purple suspenders skirt, which when worn together looks adorable. Her shirt is from Our Generation, but I made the tie, the skirt, and the suspenders. This bubble skirt was a very easy sew, with only a few seams. Instead of a bottom hem, the fabric is folded into a tube and stitched at each end. Her suspenders are elastic ribbon; I haven’t figured out yet how I want to secure them to the skirt, so they’re just pinned right now. Her socks, shoes, glasses, watch, and earrings are American Girl brand. 

I also based her accessories on Courtney’s. 

I didn’t make the “Maureen for Mayor” pin since that’s only relevant to Courtney’s story, and not my doll’s.

On her right arm she wears jelly bracelets, which were trendy in the 80′s. Courtney’s accessories set has plastic bangles, but I wanted to try making jelly bracelets from hot glue. So this is very much a prototype. What I did was trace a single line of glue onto a piece of parchment, let it cool, and then glued the ends together into a circle that I then painted and varnished. I’m not sure that I love the irregular edges, and they aren’t stretchy enough to be smaller. So I’ll probably try this again with another material. 

Around her neck she has her Lip Smackers peach lip balm. The container is a rolled up piece of paper; I designed the label and then printed it out and rolled it around a small candle. Then I filled the other end with hot glue and pressed the ends of a piece of yarn into it.

And of course, she has a Walkman! I made this from a small plastic hinged container. I designed the graphic that goes on the top, based on pictures of the original Walkman, and glued it to the container. The buttons are painted pony beads and the headphone cords are attached through a cylindrical glass bead that I painted. Right now it doesn’t secure to her clothes, since I’m still trying to figure out what to use to fasten it. 

The box opens and has a cassette tape inside. I used an image search to find a photo of a cassette and added the words “Sariah’s mix April 1984″ on the front. The picture is glued onto a piece of foam board and laminated with clear packing tape.

The headphones are My Life As brand, and the cords are from a defunct small appliance. 

She also brings her lunchbox to school! This is also based on Courtney’s PAC-MAN lunchbox set.

Character lunch boxes were extremely popular in the 80′s, and I’m assuming are probably still around today. Sariah’s has a picture of Rainbow Brite, a cartoon she would have watched in 1984. 

The lunch box is made from a carton of egg whites that I washed and cut apart. It hinges with a piece of clear packing tape and opens up. The thermos and the lid are made from a rolled piece of paper printed with Rainbow Brite and her friends on it. I laminated it with tape to give it a plastic look. The lunchbox handle is a bent piece of zip tie. 

Sariah is an athlete so she prefers healthy lunches. She packs extra snacks on days when she has gymnastics or soccer practice. She’s got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, sliced green apples, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, string cheese, and two Girl Scout cookies. I made the apples and the sandwich from painted foam board. Everything else is clay. The plastic bags were cut from a real sandwich bag and the cut edges were sealed with clear tape. 

Here’s what they look like out of the bags, and with my hand for scale. 

After this, I’ll be working on recreating Courtney’s sleepover accessories and school supplies! 

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Sariah's 1984 Video Game Arcade

On Saturdays when she doesn't have gymnastics or soccer practice, Sariah likes to hang out with her friends at the roller skating rink! When they're feeling ready to take a break from skating, they like to hit the snack stand and then stop by the arcade to play some video games.

Roller rinks were massively popular in the 1980's and beyond, much more so than they are today. I skated at my local rink a lot when I was a kid in the 90's, and that one had an arcade attached, to bring in a little extra money and regular customers. For a lot of kids in the early 80's, arcades were the only way to play video games. There were very few choices of handheld and play-at-home platforms, and the technology was still low quality, not to mention expensive. Courtney Moore in 1986 had her own Nintendo at home, but even she preferred the brighter lights and louder sounds of the arcade games!

Replicating an arcade for my 80′s girl, Sariah, was pretty easy. I got the idea from the craft and activity book Doll Decades. 

The book has instructions for making game consoles from shoeboxes, but I knew that would end up making them way too small for an 18 inch doll. So I used black foam board instead to construct each console. I didn't use any plans; I sort of just eyeballed it. I looked at images of arcade games from the 80's to give me an idea of where to start.

The game screens and logo stickers are from the book's craft kit. Sariah has a choice of three games: Cosmo Crusader, Samantha Spree, and Chow Down.

Sariah's favorite is Cosmo Crusader. She's almost got the highest score!

The joystick is made from an upside-down wooden candle cup that I painted. The buttons are translucent plastic beads. To embed them in the console, I pressed the tip of my glue gun into the foam board to melt it and carve holes in it. Then I put a dot of hot glue in the hole and placed the beads inside half way. The back of the console is open, so I can stick a flashlight inside and underneath the buttons to make them light up!

The games cost 25 cents to play, so Sariah always brings a few quarters. If you look closely, these have the year 1972 stamped on them--the year Sariah was born! My mom found these little coins in the bead and charm section of her local craft store, and she sent me some. They are just as detailed as the real thing.

I made the coin slots by printing out a picture I found from an image search. The coin return buttons are circles of craft foam sheet with pencil erasers glued on top. I then painted them with metallic silver acrylic paint.

During the week, Sariah wears a uniform to school, but she likes to dress up in trendy clothes when she goes to the rink. She's wearing a tank top under an oversized off-the-shoulder shirt, an acid-washed denim skirt, leggings, legwarmers, dangly silver earrings, and a watch. I made her denim skirt, and gave it a bleached look by sponge painting it with white paint. I initially tried using bleach to get the denim the right color, but I wasn't happy with the results. Using paint made it a little easier to have control of the final outcome. The rest of her outfit is American Girl brand items, minus her pink shirt, which is Build-a-Bear brand.

Sariah changed her mind. Samantha Spree is now her favorite game. It's the only game in the arcade that is for two players! The objective of the game is to help Samantha sneak Nellie, Bridget, and Jenny out of an orphanage, and.... well, you probably know the rest of the story. 

That's enough gaming for the day! Sariah skates back to the rink as fast as she can when she hears her favorite song being played--Ghostbusters!

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The year 1984 brings a lot of changes for Sariah. After her parents divorce, she and her mom and sister move in with her mom’s girlfriend, Elaine. Their new hometown of Santa Clara is at the center of new technology development, and Elaine works for Apple Computers. One day she brings home a computer, the groundbreaking Macintosh 128K, Apple’s first personal computer. Sariah is immediately drawn to it. Soon enough, she’s almost as good at using it as Elaine! Having this shared interest brings the two of them together, and that bond makes Sariah reevaluate her initial coldness to her new stepmother. 

I made Sariah’s Macintosh computer from printed images and a piece of foam board and embroidery thread for the bulky, block-shaped mouse. I tried to make it as accurate to the computers of the time as I could, which gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about the interesting history of personal computers in the 80′s. It’s amazing to see how much the tech has changed since then, and how much of our world now has been shaped by those innovations. Sariah’s computer has a slot on the side where I can put in different screen images so that she can use the word processor (shown here) and the graphics program (still working on that). 

I also made Sariah’s outfit, featuring high waisted jeans rolled up at the cuffs, and an oversized button-down striped shirt. Both are made from upcycled thrift store clothes. Fashion in 1984 still retained some of the muted colors and ubiquitous stripes of the late 70′s, but was beginning to give way to the brighter colors of the more iconic 80′s looks. She’s also wearing the hi-top shoes from Courtney Moore’s collection. 

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Who wore it best?

I’ve been looking for fashion inspiration for my historical OCs for a while now, and something I’ve noticed is how ubiquitous the striped polo shirt was in the late seventies to the mid-eighties. This was a staple in nearly every kid’s wardrobe back then, arriving at first with the neutral tones and big collars of the latter half of the 1970′s, and lasting until it gave way to the bright colors and patterns of the later 1980′s.  What that means for me is that both of my girls from that time period can share their striped shirts! I made this one from a baby onesie and some fabric scraps for the collar. Antonia (on the left) is wearing it while she plays Dungeons and Dragons with her friends in 1978. Sariah is wearing it while she plays, and easily wins, a quick round of chess with her dad in 1984. 

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Your favorite 80′s girl Sariah is trying out a few new casual looks I’ve made for her! Here she is showing off her Rainbow Brite shirt, worn tucked into her high-waisted shorts just like everyone did in the 1980′s. I used iron-on transfer paper to put the graphic on the shirt. I made her denim shorts and jacket from a thrifted denim shirt. I used white and dark blue acrylic paint to give the fabric an acid-washed appearance. 

Bottom row is an outfit I could see her wearing to a classmate’s birthday party at Pizza Hut (do kids still do that like my generation did in the 80′s and 90′s?). I got inspiration from Courtney Moore’s splatter-print dress, but Sariah’s is made from black velvet. Doing a splatter print was really easy; I just put acrylic paint on a big paintbrush and flicked it over the fabric, one color at a time. The velvet soaked up a lot of the pigment, so it’s not as brightly colored as Courtney’s, but the skirt is delightfully swingy and swishy so I think it still works out okay! 

She’s also wearing homemade scrunchies with both outfits. They’re ridiculously easy to make, so I’ve been churning them out for all of her outfits.

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May photo challenge, day 5: friendship

Sariah’s favorite thing to do with her friend Eugenia is have a sleepover! Tonight they’ve put out their sleeping bags in the living room of Eugenia’s house. They’ve got music, a movie, snacks, and no bedtime!

I got inspiration for this scene from Courtney Moore’s sleepover accessories and nightgown.

Sariah is my 1984 historical character, and so I’ve been looking at Courtney’s collection for ideas about what to make for my 80′s girl. 

Sariah wears her My Little Pony nightgown, fuzzy socks, and matching scrunchie at sleepovers with Eugenia. My Little Pony was an iconic toy brand that debuted in 1981 and was massively popular all through the 80′s and into the 90′s. A cartoon based on the pones came along in 1986.

I made her nightgown from some leftover scraps of soft and fuzzy fabric, and then used printer transfer paper to iron on the design on the front. 

She brought a movie to watch tonight--The Neverending Story. This movie came out in 1984 and is still a classic favorite. I used an image search to find a picture of the VHS cover, and glued it to a sleeve I made from thin cardboard. The video cassette is a picture that I glued to a piece of foam board.

The TV is made from a printed picture glued to a box made from foam board. The antennae are painted wire. Under the TV is a Betamax player, which was similar to a VHS player but came along a little earlier. Both Betamax and VHS were around in 1984, but I gave Sariah a Betamax purely for my own nostalgia purposes (even though she brought a VHS tape to the sleepover). My family had a Betamax through most of my early childhood and we didn’t get a VCR until the 90′s. 

The image on the screen is a still from the movie. I overlayed the image of the TV onto that. 

When the movie is over, the girls still aren’t tired enough to go to sleep, so they keep the party going with a boombox and music! They like to write their own lyrics to songs they like, which they record in their journal. 

The boombox and journal are both from the Express Yourself With Gabriela book and activity kit. The cassette tapes are pictures glued to foam board. 

Eugenia teaches Sariah to make a cootie catcher, which is a folded toy that shows different images depending on how you hold it. 

The one they’re playing with shows the steps of the scientific method. There are tons of free cootie catcher printables on Pinterest; this one was my favorite. I made it small enough to fit doll hands. 

They’ve got snacks and soda, too! The soda cans are rolled up pieces of rigid aluminum that I cut from a pie tin. The labels came from the Doll Travel book and activity kit. The chips are yellow construction paper that I flecked with brown paint and then tore into tiny pieces.

DANCE PARTY! 

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I’ve been transitioning several of my modern characters into custom historical characters, and the first one to do that is Sariah! She has left the present day and is now twelve years old in 1984. She’s growing up in Santa Clara, California, an iconic city in Silicon Valley known for being a hub of technological innovation. The 1980′s were a time when computers were quickly becoming smaller and faster, laying the groundwork for the advanced technology we carry around in our pockets nearly 40 years later. I was hoping Courtney Moore’s story would explore more about this topic; since that didn’t happen, I figured I could make my own character with those elements in her story.

Sariah Solomon is an athletic and energetic girl who is involved in gymnastics, soccer, and softball. She was inspired by attending the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and seeing so many talented female athletes compete and win. Both of Sariah’s moms work with computers for a living, so sometimes they bring home the latest PC technology. Sariah is always amazed and is fascinated by all the things computers can do as they make huge strides in their capabilities. And just like with sports, she’d rather participate instead of watching, so she starts learning how to code, with help from her parents. Maybe she’ll get good enough to build her own computer someday soon!

Sariah attends a private girls’ school, so most days she’s wearing either her school uniform or comfortable clothes. But sometimes after school, she likes to meet up with her friends at the roller skating rink, and she always gets dressed up for that occasion in trendy clothes like the outfit pictured here. Her skates are from Julie Albright’s collection, and her leggings are from Isabelle Palmer’s collection; her oversized shirt and tank top were made by me; her belt is jeweled ribbon. I used this pattern hack to make her shirt from a thrifted baby shirt. I made the backdrop by splattering paint onto a piece of foam board, and the roller rink floor comes from the Doll Decades book and activity kit. 

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For this bonus Daisies and Daffodolls post, Sariah is showing off her impressive collection of Cabbage Patch Kids. In her historic year of 1984, the incredible popularity of Cabbage Patch Kids was at its height. The previous December, people waited in lines for hours at toy stores for their chance to buy a doll. The appeal of the Cabbage Patch Kids was mostly due to the fact that they were all unique, and had a variety of skin tones, hair colors, eye colors, and clothing.  Most dolls sold before then were white with blonde hair, but Cabbage Patch Kids offered the chance for all children to have a doll that looked like them.

These little mini CPK are perfectly sized for 18 inch dolls. They were sold in the 90′s, and the girl with dark hair in the middle was mine when I was a kid. The others were found secondhand. 

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Tour of my doll room + all my dolls (2023)

I usually do an “all my dolls” post at some point in the first few months of the new year, and this year is no exception. I’ve had some additions and subtractions since the last time I posted an official tour, and I’m ready to introduce you all to everyone. Follow Addy through the door and meet each and every one of my dolls! 

This post is already long enough, so I'll keep all the introductions brief. If there are any dolls of mine you want to know more about, they’re all individually listed on my Meet the Dolls page.

Part 1: The Doll Room

I got really lucky finding a house in which I can have a dedicated doll room. It’s one of two bedrooms in the house. If I have guests, I can move stuff around to make room. There are two windows, one facing east and one facing south. The room gets lots of nice morning light all year. 

The large majority of my dolls are secondhand, with probably half of those being thrift store rescues. You may also notice that American Girl dolls are a minority in my collection.  

This picture shows what you’ll first see when you walk through the doll room’s door. Historical AG dolls are on the wall shelves. Our Generation, Karito Kids, and My Twinn dolls are standing on the bookshelves below the wall shelves. Above my comfy chair is the shelf of mini AG dolls and my porcelain fairies. Sitting in the chair are my Cabbage Patch babies.

Here’s a view of the crib.

But let’s start at the door.

This is facing the door, and the wall immediately left of it. On the shelf closest to the left side of the photo are historical American Girl characters Eugenia and Rebecca, with Minuk in the middle between them. Eugenia Holland is my original character from 1934, and she’s a Truly Me #57 wearing a dress I made. Rebecca Rubin is from 1914 and is wearing a dress I made.

Next to them are Moonchild and Lyra. Moonchild Mossyroot is an Our Generation doll I customized to look like a fairy, wearing an outfit I made. Lyra is a Götz doll and I also made her outfit.

Hanging on the wall are some of my handmade (not by me) dolls. The two hanging dolls in the middle are Tilda dolls made for me by my aunt. The one above Eugenia and Rebecca is my Navajo doll. 

Below her and next to Eugenia are my American Girl original characters. From left to right they are Sariah Solomon from 1984 wearing an outfit I made, Harmony Rivera from 1995 wearing an American Girl outfit, Antonia Snow-Flores from 1978 also wearing clothes I made, and here’s another look at Eugenia Holland from 1934. 

On the left side of the photo are my 11 inch toddlers. Their brand is Llorens. They’re such delightful little dolls with superb quality and the cutest little faces. I wish there were more to buy than just these three. From left to right: Frida, Mari, and Evelyn. I have them as little sisters to some of my modern characters. I made their outfits, including Frida’s and Mari’s shoes, and Mari’s little bear hat. 

Also facing the door, but this is to the right of the door. 

Immediately to the right of the door are the two shelves of 14 inch dolls. 

The top shelf is Hearts for Hearts Girls. From the left: Nahji from India, Consuelo from Mexico, Lauryce from USA, Tipi from Laos, Mosi from USA, Dell from USA, and Rahel from Ethiopia. I made Nahji’s dress and Rahel’s skirt, but everything else is either original to the dolls or in Tipi’s case, a little dress I bought at a doll show. 

WellieWishers are on the bottom shelf. From left: Willa, Emerson, Kendall, Ashlyn, and Camille. I made all their clothes including their shoes. 

Between that wall and the bureau niche, I have my doll’s purses/bags/backpacks hanging, clothespinned to a ribbon. 

I made some of them and others are AG or OG brand.

The bureau has five drawers, and I keep my doll clothes and some accessories in there. (At this point, I think most of them are clothes that I made.) 

On top of the bureau are my modern girls and girls of the year (which I will abbreviate as GOTY). 

From left: Kanani GOTY 2011, Saige GOTY 2013, Sierra, and her sister Leanne.

From left: Leanne, her sister Jillian Josephine Sarafina Aurora (who goes by various nicknames), Grace GOTY 2015, Isabelle GOTY 2014, and Luciana GOTY 2018. The only thing I made here is Grace’s outfit, which is based on one from her collection.

Above these girls are my other modern characters, all of whom are not American Girl dolls.

From the left: Heather (Magic Attic Club), Rose (Magic Attic Club), Victoria (Melissa and Doug), Virginia (Götz), Layla (New York Doll Company) and Cara (All About the Doll). 

From left: Layla, Cara, Léonie (Maplelea), Ellen (Faithful Friends), Zoe (Healthy Roots).

To the right is where I hang up doll jewelry. 

Hung up on the bathroom door are my doll accessories. 

It looks random, but each pocket holds a different category of items. Felicity’s accessories take up two pockets since she has so many caps. 

Looking to the right of the door will bring you to the wall with my original historical characters, representing time periods that American Girl has not covered.

On the left is Judith Blalock, who is my time-traveling doll originally from 1587. Right now she’s living in medieval Scandanavia and is dressed as a Viking. Next to her is Pauline Leung from 1884. In the blue outfit is Susanna Hanchett from 1664. And next to her is Eleanor Shaw from 1784. All outfits made by me.

Directly below these shelves are more dolls.

Nobody here is historical, they’re all modern. On the left is Kendra, a My Twinn doll who is the mother of six of my dolls. Next to her is Fernanda, who is a Karito Kids doll. Then there’s Jane, Carina, and Kathleen, and those three are Our Generation dolls.

To the right of Kathleen are Iris and Tally, who are also Our Generation dolls. Next to them is Grannie, who is a My Twinn doll with a gray wig and some custom face pain. She’s Kendra’s mother but will be anyone’s Grannie if they need one. She’ll be yours, too, if you want!

To the right of Grannie is the closet. 

In the closet, I have shelves set up to hold all of the larger items that I have built or collected for my dolls. Most everything in here was made by me. You can see the hot cocoa stand, Kanani’s shave ice stand, Addy’s spool puppet theater, Antonia’s chicken coop, Sariah’s arcade video games, Grace’s bistro set, and Grace’s pastry cart (currently in pieces since I’m going to remake it with wood instead of foam board, which can’t support the weight of everything). My grandpa made the two log benches, and Kirsten’s blue trunk in the corner.  

Moving right again, on the other side of the closet door, are my American Girl historical characters.

This is Marie-Grace Gardner and Cécile Rey, both from 1853 and wearing dresses I made based on illustrations in their books. I also made Marie-Grace’s locket. The little porcelain baby was made for me and given to me by my grandma years and years ago. My mother and grandmother are both doll artists too.

Rotating right again are Elizabeth Cole and Felicity Merriman from 1774, Caroline Abbott from 1812, and Addy Walker from 1864. Addy and Felicity are wearing dresses by American Girl, but I made Felicity’s red cloak, Elizabeth’s entire outfit, and Caroline’s dress and cap.  

This shelf is for my mini AG dolls, plus a few other tiny dolls. From the left: 30th anniversary special edition Kaya in her adorned deerskin dress, 25th anniversary special edition Josefina in her Christmas dress, BeForever Josefina, Pleasant Company Josefina, Pleasant Company Felicity, Pleasant Company Kirsten, Pleasant Company Addy, Nellie, BeForever Rebecca, and Luciana. In front of Luciana is mini-mini Isabelle, who was sold as a McDonald’s happy meal toy in 2014.

To the right are my flower fairies!

These are little porcelain dolls that I found at a thrift store.

Turning right again, in the corner under the windows is the crib for my baby dolls. 

So here’s the deal with the bubs. I love my little babies so dearly. Say what you want about me for that, I don’t care. I actually do think real human babies are adorable and I’m happy for people who have them, but I do prefer having baby dolls rather than the real thing. They have the immense advantage of never growing up and staying cute forever. 

Most of my babies are “unplanned”, just like many real babies! Except mine are “unexpected surprises” because they’re from thrift stores. I love walking into a thrift store not knowing what sort of baby I will be carrying in my arms on the way out.

This crib was a lucky find for me since it’s got some broken parts and is not safe for real children to use. Which makes it perfect for dolls.

Babies in the back row are all Lots to Cuddle brand. From left, they are: Abigail, Dinah, Robin... 

...Juniper, Noelle, Leah... 

...Clementine, Hannah, Ruby, and Naomi.

Here is Miss Mischief herself, Julia! She’s a My Twinn baby.

Half of the Bitty Committee is on this side. From left: Heidi and her twin Holli, and then Katie, who doesn’t have a twin yet. But considering how many Bitties I’ve found at thrift stores, I’m planning to just wait for the right twin to fall into my lap.

On the right side are Bitty Babies Betty and Clarissa. Next to her is Kimberly, a My Child doll, a brand that was produced in the mid-1980′s. To the right is Jenni, a My Twinn Cuddly Sister. 

The newborn baby in the pink velour sleeper is Vayda. Next to her is her twin Aviva; both are La Newborn brand. The small baby in the pink sleeper with the binky is Polly, Felicity’s baby sister, a Berenguer brand baby. The little baby next to her is Seth, who is Grannie’s only grandson; he’s a mini La Newborn doll. 

Big baby on the left is Madelyn, an Ashton Drake doll. Slightly less big baby in the middle is Marigold, and next to her is her twin Violet. Both are Berenguer dolls. The little baby in the red sleeper is Isadora, Luciana’s baby sister, and she’s American Girl brand.

 More tiny littles! The baby in the pink robe is an unnamed baby doll that my modern girls share. Next to her is Opal, who is the baby sister of Ellen, Kendall, and Frida. 

Part II: Not the doll room

If you’ve noticed a few dolls missing, that’s because they’re not in here! I have some larger setups out in the living room.

I’m reusing pictures from 2022 since nothing has really changed since then with the arrangements.

This is Caroline’s parlor. I built it based on the one in her collection, using foam board and a variety of other materials. Caroline doesn’t live out here at the moment, but if I end up with one or two more AG dolls, she’ll have to give up her space on the shelf and move out here.

Back in 2022 I had my Our Generation girls living out here, but they moved back into the doll room and you’ve already met them.

Here’s Kaya’s tepee and her setup. She also cares for the horses: Steps High, Sparks Flying, Horsefina, Penny, and Picasso. Garnet, Caroline’s calf, is back there too.

Kirsten’s bedroom. That’s baby Britta (another Berenguer baby) in the cradle, and her cousin Anna Larson behind the rocking chair. Anna is an extinct brand of dolls called The Brass Key. 

Next to that is Josefina’s room. This is a mix of items from her collection, and stuff that I’ve made. She’s wearing a skirt made by my mom and a long-sleeved camisa (shirt) made by me.

Part III: Books

That’s it for doll stuff. On to my American Girl book collection.

I have a bookcase in my bedroom that holds all my AG books plus my others. The AG books take up about 1 and 1/3 of the shelves. 

I have all the historical series up to 2 of Molly’s books, and both of Courtney’s. I have a few mysteries and short stories too, several Girl of the Year books, and two World By Us books which aren’t pictured here since I haven’t yet made room on the bookcase for them. 

On the next shelf are activity books, Girls of Many Lands books, History Mysteries, Mini Mysteries, Minute Mysteries, three Magic Attic Club books, one Girlhood Journeys book, and Léonie’s story journal is the thick one with the silver rivets. Past that I have a few other YA and children’s books.  

Part IV: Calico Critters and horses

Here’s my Calico Critters setup. My sister has generously gifted me many of my Critters, since she’s a collector, and I adore them all. She built the house on the top left shelf for me. The other houses are all thrift store finds. I’m only showing the exteriors because they’re all under construction while I work on making furniture and such. 

The only one fully finished is this one:

The Sweetpea family, the Hopscotch grandparents, and various baby bunnies live here in Casa Conejo (rabbit house). In addition to the house itself, my sister made a lot of the furniture and accessories too.

Next to Casa Conejo is the barn for my Grand Champion horses. I’m not showing it right now because it got dropped while I was moving it and the roof was damaged, so I have to repair that. But here’s what it looks like! 

I built it myself from foam board and wooden craft sticks. 

And those are my horsies inside!