hay im still here (new year of 2020)

hi, I'm so sorry I have not posted in forever.
so for Christmas I got a wellie wisher (kindle) I named her Charlie than I bought a willa and named her Cora. After Christmas I got a #75 who I named Jonah Finn, he is Mai's twin brother.

OH Also for Christmas I had my dad build me a better dollhouse than the one I had.


I'm working on making doll stop motionsand putting them on youtube hopefuly i can get some up this year!
as always stay you bye -Zuri

im back!

hi guys! i know i have not posted in a while but i am still here happy thanksgiving and merry christmas!!! i don't have any pictures today but i will tell you we have some new faces theres: buddy, tutu, Tira, Luka, Mai, and Everest! i hope next time ill have pictures.

Got curls?

Remember Hannah, JLY #55, our Value Village find?

She is super cute, and in relatively good condition, except for the ends of her hair.  It was obvious that her previous owner used the wrong type of brush.  Her ends were natty.  Even after brushing and TLC, they still were splitting and hard to manage.
A week or so ago I tried to flat iron her hair, hoping to get a result like I did with our Felicity.  But they were still pretty rough because I didn't trim. 

I had been thinking she would be very cute with curls, but I wasn't 100% sure how I wanted to execute them.  I had read quite a bit online, and finally went with a boil perm.  I didn't like the look of a straw set.  Sometimes the curls behave, sometimes they don't, and if you don't use end papers the ends are weird. 

I remembered I had Curl Formers and thought I would give them a try.  Here's Hannah getting ready. 

I used the clockwise and counterclockwise curlers to frame her face.  Then I got the temperature of the water hot, but not boiling. 
After I got started, I realized that her face was receiving quite a bit of steam, so I covered her eyes to prevent moisture in them which can result in rust.  I held the cloth in place and proceeded to dunk her hair for 10 seconds per section.  After I was done, I placed her onto towels, making sure to keep the water off of the cloth body so that we didn't get water staining.
I was curious afterwards if I could see a difference, so I removed this Curl Former while the hair was still wet and actually still warm!  We have curls, and they were exactly what I wanted!  I let her dry out a little more by draining onto towels for about an hour, then removed the rest and let her finish drying overnight. 
Then the next day I took each dried curl section and split it by hand into 2 or 3 and re twirled the hair by hand (no tools) and got this.
Z and I are very pleased with Hannah's new look.  The curls suit her face and as well as looking cute, softened the ends considerably!


I can't say that we will do more of the dolls hair like this with the Curl Formers.  Curls can be harder to keep looking nice vs. straight hair if the doll is handled and dressed frequently and her hair is not covered for laying down and cuddling.  But we have several dolls with ringlet curls and we have learned how to care for their hair and keep it nice. 
I would like to use much larger "rollers" and set Loreli with waves, but we'll see.  I haven't found the right ones yet!

Meet Theadora, a sweet, spicy Seventy's girl!

I'm not sure when, but I came to the conclusion that I wanted a just like me doll.  Actually first I wanted to get an Addy doll.  It never worked out for me to find one for the right price, and in the right condition. As I spent time with Zuri identifying dollst I started to realize that AGD had a variety of skin tones and hair textures/styles for the mold.  I came to the conclusion, that although I feel strong ties to the story Addy Walker shares, a different doll would be a better representation of me. 
After reviewing the various face molds, and hair offerings for the Truly me dolls offered through the years (a custom is not an option for me), I decided #58 matched me the closest.  I bid on her and won the auction at the end of December.
She didn't arrive until the middle of January!  I was rather upset, nevertheless, when she arrived, it was doll love at first sight!
She did however have a flaw.  She had a "tattoo", of unknown (probably permanent marker) origin.
I first wiped her body down, but there wasn't really any significant surface dirt.  I tried a q-tip of rubbing alcohol, and then fingernail polish remover to see if the mark was on the surface.  Sadly, it wasn't.  Then I paid some attention to her hair.  There were just a few of her curls that were not aligned properly.  I carefully picked then and retwisted all of her curls to smooth out those curls and any frizzies.
For below the surface spots on AGD "skin" I had seen online that the recommendation to us benzol peroxide and place it under saran wrap, then expose it to the sun.  The weather wasn't cooperating the days I tried.  I hardly saw a any change at all.  A forum member on www.Ravelry.com mentioned that LED lights as well as daylight lights also work.  I have a few dollar tree LED lamps in my studio, so I set up Theadora with a spa therapy for her scar.  It took a few days, of changing to fresh moist Oxy, and making sure the light was positioned only over the spot on her arm.  Eventually it mostly bleached/faded away.  (See, actually under the lamp, the reduction of stain was pretty quick!)

She still has a faint stain, but I think it just gives her character.  I may try one day to treat it again, but for now I am pleased with the outcome.
Theadora is such a cute doll.  She has such pretty curls, she sports a little afro!  I had gotten this outfit when I purchased my Ivy, and I know it's Julie's meet outfit, but it is perfect for Theadora.  Julie and Ivy's story is from my birth year.  I can remember as a child wearing this type of style of clothing, from the wooden clog sandals to the shirt over a long sleeve shirt, and bell bottom pants.







Theadora, is like me, she needs glasses to see things that are far away.  And I made her a little ring as well.
She makes the perfect big sister for Buttercup.
Of course Buttercup wants to be just like her big sister Theadora, and wear glasses too!

Let's talk about doll hair

Doreen here, as Zuri mentioned the Nicki (renamed Zoe) that we got for her had some serious frizzy ends.  I was frustrated that the seller didn't disclose how bad the hair was, as well as more details about some marks that she had.  At first I thought maybe we needed to re-wig her, but I decided that even if we did, trying to help her hair with other methods first wouldn't hurt.  I have flat ironed doll hair before with Zuri's Felicity.  It worked wonders to smooth and kill the dead ends (especially with a slight trimming), but all curl was lost!  Nicki was made with such pretty curls that I didn't want to just flatten out her hair. 
I decided this time to try Zuri's ceramic brush.  It's not this one, but this is a close model.  I set the temperature at 170 to start, but that wasn't hot enough.  I raised it to 190, and finally the sweet spot was 210.  It took the friz with multiple passes, without destroying the curl.  I then immediately took a pencil and rolled the small section of warm hair around the pencil and used a bobby pin to hold it into place.  After about an hour we removed the pins and finger placed the curls.  They are adorable, and it revitalized her hair significantly. 
My #58 is finally arriving Saturday if there are no other postal delays.  I think her hair will need some TLC, but hopefully it won't need heat, just re-finger styling.  I will post updates when she finally arrives.

Zoe(: :)

Hi. So Nikki came yesterday she's not in the best condition, but we like her. I might get a rainbow wig for her and make her into a unicorn doll.
SOPD (Sweet Opal Pixie Dot) and SCFJ ( Spunky Crystal Fairy Jem) are doing good.  We put them in a small fence that we can move around the lower pasture sometimes. There is green grass, and they are small horses so they are fine they like grass. I will post pictures soon of horses and doll's.......!!!

Zuri's update, and new dollz!

Hi guys! I'm back. It's been good, hope ya'll have had a great Christmas. I got two new dolls within the time period of December, a Nellie and number 77. Truly Me number 77's name is Theodore he is Tia's brother.  They have two little sisters, my mom's dolls: Truly Me number 55, and a Corolle doll mini named Buttercup.  Anyone can play with dolls!

The first picture is of Tia and Theodore. Peyton and Nellie are in the second.  I also got a yellow lab AG dog the same day that I got Nellie.  It is her puppy, I named her Daisy.  Peyton's pup is Winter.  I bought Nellie from the same consignment shop that we got Loreli from.  I used birthday money to purchase Theodore from the American Girl Doll store.    

 Me and my mom made a unicorn onesie for Tia. We used this video tutorial.  It's tight in places but adorable!

I'm also getting a Nikki soon, but I'm renaming her Zoe because one of my besties has her also and we like to play dolls together.  Mom won her in a auction, but we are waiting for her to come in the mail. 

Till next post, bye!!! :) (: