I'm an American Girl Who Loves American Girl!

My love for the American Girl doll collection started when I was a little girl in second (or was it third?) grade.  Back then when American Girl was still owned by Pleasant Company before the Mattel buy-out there were only five dolls and their sets of stories you could collect.  Each doll represented an era of American history:

1)      Felicity Merriman: a spunky, spritely girl growing up in Virginia in 1774, just before the Revolutionary War. Felicity grows impatient doing the "sitting-down kinds of things" that colonial girls are expected to do. She much prefers to be outdoors, especially riding horses! Felicity learns about loyalty and responsibility - to her family, her friends, and her country - and what it means to be truly independent.

2)      Kirsten Larson: a pioneer girl of strength and spirit growing up in Minnesota in 1854. After a long, dangerous voyage with her family from Sweden to America, Kirsten finds it difficult to get used to a new country and a new way of life. But as she makes friends and discovers what her new land has to offer, she learns the true meaning of home.

3)      Addy Walker: a proud, courageous girl who escapes from slavery with her mother in 1864. Together they embark on a dangerous journey to the North, hoping one day to reunite their family. Addy learns to read and write, makes new friends, and discovers what being free really means.

4)      Samantha Parkington: a bright, compassionate girl living with her wealthy grandmother in 1904. It's an exciting time of change in America, and Samantha's world is filled with frills and finery, parties and play. But Samantha sees that times are not good for everybody. That's why she tries to make a difference in the life of her friend Nellie, a servant girl whose life is nothing like Samantha's.

5)      Molly McIntire: a lively, lovable schemer and dreamer growing up in 1944. The world is at war, and she misses her father who is overseas caring for wounded soldiers. Molly doesn't like many of the changes the war has brought, like rationing rubber, eating turnips for dinner, and not seeing Dad on Christmas. But she learns the importance of getting along and pulling together - just as her country must do to win the war.

(Descriptions courtesy of http://curtdanhauser.com/AG_Collecting/Main.html)

When I was little I really wanted the Kirsten doll and my family gave her to me for either my birthday or for Christmas—I can’t remember which.  But I do remember the absolute excitement and happiness I felt when I opened the box and saw that I finally had my very own American Girl Kirsten doll.  My friends and I all had dolls from American Girl and we would always play with them.  We were creative girls and we took our dolls on adventures through beautiful, enchanted forests and magical landscapes that were inhabited by faeries, unicorns, gryphons, various other mythical creatures, and animals that could talk.  I took very good care of Kirsten and of course I still have her, her books, and many of her original outfits and accessories.

Inevitably, as these things happen when you’re growing up, I stopped collecting American Girl and found new hobbies to explore (such as model horse collecting, among other things).  But I always had a soft spot for American Girl.  Whenever I would see the books in Barnes and Noble, or when I would come across a catalogue in the mail, or when I would see Kirsten tucked safely away in my closet, I would get a little wistful and remember all the fun times I had playing with her.  I knew then that when I had children (hopefully a daughter or two!) I would want them to play with her and create their own wonderful American Girl memories. 

When I was in eighth grade my whole class and I went to the east coast and traveled from Williamsburg all the way up to New York City in two weeks.  We explored all of the major historical sites and I absolutely loved them all!  My favorites, though, were Williamsburg, Mt. Vernon and Monticello.  It was on this trip where the love that I have now for the Revolutionary War era of American history blossomed.  Ever since the East Coast Trip I’ve loved studying and reading about the Founding Fathers and the birth of my beloved country.  I remember the fleeting thought passing through my mind when I was traversing the Williamsburg grounds: I should have been more into Felicity when I was little!  While I love Kirsten and her story, Felicity is really the doll that represents the period of American history that I love the most.  And so, as I graduated eighth grade, I got it into my head to buy my own Felicity when I was older.

 Flash forward to ten years later...

A couple weeks ago, my friend Erin and I were reminiscing about American Girl (it turns out she was just as into all of the dolls as I was!).  I shared with her that I really wanted to buy Felicity one day, especially since I found out last year that American Girl was going to retire her soon.  (American Girl has slowly been retiring all the historical dolls and is going more mainstream with their sales of modern-day dolls that “can look like you!”  It makes me a little sad to see all of the historical dolls, who were such a wonderful part of my childhood, disappear year by year).  I told Erin this and she told me she wanted to buy Felicity too!  The next day I saw Erin’s message on my facebook wall: “I can’t find Felicity on the American Girl website!  Is she gone??  PANIC!”  I rushed over to the site to check—and sure enough, Felicity was gone.  Just like that.  Retired.  No longer available anywhere!

Except on ebay.  You can find anything on ebay.

So I then rushed over to ebay and did a little research on the Felicity doll, both the pre-and-post-Mattel models.  After a day or so of debating with myself over whether I should buy her or not now, I decided to commit to a purchase (as did Erin!).  Since Felicity is now retired, her value as a collector’s doll is going up—and will continue to do so as the years go on.  So, with a beaming smile, I bought an original Pleasant Company pre-Mattel Felicity doll and excitedly awaited her arrival for a whole week.

My friends, Felicity finally came yesterday!  She really is a beautiful doll with a pretty, round face, lovely green eyes and bright copper-red hair. 

Erin and I have decided that we are going to continue collecting Felicity’s original outfits and accessories.  We’re really excited about owning Felicity (finally!) and starting our American Girl collections back up.  I have such wonderful memories of American Girl when I was a little girl playing in my room and out in the backyard with my elementary school friends, and it will be so fun to create brand new American Girl memories with more friends as an adult.  Erin already has a great ebay story about how she got into an intense bidding war with someone else over Felicity’s Christmas gown—I’m sure there will be many more stories like that in the future!  I can’t wait to share all of these stories and my love of American Girl with my future daughter(s) one day.

<3

(Reposted, since blogger crashed and lost it the first time around!)

Renaissance Faire Adventures!

Me, Melissa, Kat and Erin

Yesterday I shared my first Renaissance Faire experience with my close friends from my Renaissance Drama class: Katrina, Melissa and Erin (her boyfriend Ben and Kat’s boyfriend Tu came too).  We all had so much fun!  We arrived at the Faire early and purchased our discount tickets.  My change came back in “gold” dollar coins—that was much more Faire-esque than paper money!  I felt like a legit Faire-goer with those in my wallet.  Then Melissa and I were asked by a woman dressed as a peasant if we wanted to buy “fine carrots grown in the Shire”—we declined…we were more in a “Sin on a Stick” (a rather bawdy name, isn’t it?  But it’s actually frozen cheesecake dipped in chocolate on a stick), fish and chips, meatpie, pasta, turkey leg, chicken and quail kind of mood than a veggies mood.  (We were definitely looking forward to eating all of that famous Faire food!)

My hairdo

The first thing the group of us did was to go to “Braids for Maids” so I could get my hair done up in swirling French braids, ribbons and flowers.  The maid who did my hair was quite skilled in her craft.  It took her about 20 minutes to gather my hair up and twist it into two fancy braids and adorn it with pretty ribbons and flowers—it was well worth the money!  When we were all there a group of Puritans came inside and did a Biblical skit for us.  …There was a unicorn in it.  And an ark.  And that’s all I remember about it!  I tipped my hair dresser maid and she yelled out “God save the Tipper!  All Tippers go to…(and the rest of the people chimed in)…Heaven!”  That was hilarious.  All day, whenever someone would tip the Faire workers (who were always “in character” by the way), they would either yell “God save the Tipper” or “Huzzah for the Tipper” or “All Tippers go to…Heaven!”  Loved it.

The weather stayed blissfully cool until about 12:30 in the afternoon.  But even after 12:30 the weather didn’t get too hot.  The wind blowing in from across the water kept the temperature inside the Faire grounds relatively cool despite the sunshine beating down on us.  I still got a little sunburned (no surprise there, thanks to my Irish heritage!) and we got parched enough to shell out the money to get “Cold Drynks” as we traversed the Faire grounds.  We girls had a blast stopping at all the booths to ogle the pretty jewelry, try on skirts, peasant blouses and gypsy shawls and sashes.  The girls talked me into trying on a beautiful green, short-sleeved peasant blouse.  When I pulled back the curtain, they oood and ahhed over how I looked in it, then Melissa and Kat told me I had to “whore it up” and they pulled the sleeves down until they were off my shoulders (and showing much more skin than I’m used to!).  I felt feminine wearing it that way though—and we all decided that next year we’re going to try to make the effort to dress up in peasant blouses, corsets and full skirts!  Can’t wait.

Of course, you can’t go to the Renaissance Faire without having someone say something inappropriate to you.  A peasant woman with a basket full of flowers came up to us and told us we needed flowers for our bosoms.  I blushed and told her no, no, I really didn’t.  I was good.  And she insisted that men wanted to see flowers tucked away in our cleavage, and I told her, no, I’m pretty sure they don’t care.  (But maybe they do?  Who knows!)  Besides, my chest isn’t that big…the flowers probably wouldn’t have stayed even if I did buy some!  The girls were cracking up over my embarrassed responses to the peasant woman.  Later that day, Melissa was accosted by a drunk pirate who wanted to find her “treasure” and her “booty.”  He actually had a treasure map and laid it over her chest, and then tried to lay it over her bum.  Special, right?  And I was hit on by a Renaissance Archer Guy who I think was supposed to be Robin Hood.  Or something.  I felt him looking at me, and I purposefully did not look back, but he came over anyway and asked me, “Do you know why blondes have more fun?”  And I thought, Uh-oh, but decided to play along.  I smiled sweetly at him and said, “I…don’t know.  Why?”  And he replied, “Because there aren’t enough redheads to go around!”  *facepalm*  Special.  I’m pretty sure I flushed but I handled him as well as I could and told him “Thank you?” and was then rescued by the girls (thank you, girls!).  Later that afternoon we had a Yeoman “escort” us for 10 minutes or so.  Nevermind the fact that we had two guys with us—he just wanted to flirt with us girls.  I let Melissa, Erin and Kat handle him and I just laughed inside.  Eventually Melissa escaped him to walk with me.  Like Melissa said, these Faire workers have it pretty good: getting paid to flirt with girls?  Not too shabby of a job for a young buck. 

We all bought some things at the Faire, besides the seriously delicious food.  The girls bought jewelry, hair decorations, coronets and gypsy shawls, and I bought a half-wreath of cream-colored flowers with a pretty ribbons and greenery woven through them to wear on my head.  I felt like a princess wearing that!  While we were out shopping, Queen Elizabeth I went by with her train of nobles, including Shakespeare and Marlowe.  We girls slipped into “crowd character” and cheered and waved and shouted “Hi!” to her.  She met our eyes and waved and shouted “Hello!” back.  That made our afternoon.  Also, I almost got run down by the Pub Crawl.  Do take note: when going to the Ren Faire, don’t get in the way of people and their booze!  Thank you.

The last thing we all did was watch the jousting.  We were cheering for the black and white knight (I think he represented England) and it was a joust to the death!  We were totally into it.  We yelled and booed at the three knights we wanted to lose, and screamed and clapped for our knight.  He ended up being run through by two swords (bummer)—but at the end he lived again and came out of the gate galloping on his steed so it was all good!  Once the jousting was over we got to meet our knight and pet his horse.  I absolutely love horses.  I always have.  I love to ride them—trail riding or trotting or cantering, I love it all (and I’m a fairly good rider too, if I do say so myself!).  The horses these knights rode on were rescue horses, so I donated money to their cause. 

Also, I must share two of my favorite signs I saw: "Laundry Service: Drop Thy Britches Hither" and "Children Left Overnight Will Be Sold"  Hah!

So, moral of the story: Go to the Ren Faire!  It’s really fun, especially when you’re with a really awesome group of friends.

<3

Kiss kiss! Maybe he'll turn into a prince!

My Weight-Loss Challenge

Last week was the week of carbs for me: pizza, pasta, potatoes, bread, ribs, chicken, more coffee in a day than usual, cheesecake, chocolate…you name it, I ate it.  Like most women I’m an emotional eater.  When I’m upset or stressed out all I want to do is eat my comfort foods.  But yesterday I felt so guilty about giving in and swore I’d weigh myself on Sunday (today) and once again try to be stricter with eating right and calorie counting.

This is the dress!

So after I rolled out of bed this morning I gathered enough mental strength to weigh myself.  I stepped on the scale, braced myself, and peered down at the numbers—and was actually rather pleased!  Over the last month or so I’ve maintained weight rather than gained and I’m so relieved, you have no idea.  I do have a rather gorgeous bridesmaid’s dress to fit into by July and the last thing I want is to gain any more weight back.  It fits well now but I know it could fit even better by July, so it’s a real motivator for me to do the right thing by eating right, counting calories, and exercising as often as I can.

I used to hate exercising.  I loathed it as much as I love PF Chang’s (my favorite restaurant in the whole world).  But in the Fall of 2009 I overcame the mental block I had about it, especially once I could see that all my hard work with weights and cardio and effort to eat right was paying off.  After seeing the definition starting to appear in my legs and seeing my waist start to shrink, giving me a better figure, I began to enjoy doing it.  I liked to sweat and feel my muscles tremble and quiver because it meant I was doing the right thing.  When I lost my first 10 pounds I went online and splurged on my first pair of designer Seven For All Mankind dojo-cut jeans and  told myself that in another month I would fit into them.  (I chose Sevens rather than True Religion because the pockets on the Sevens tend to make a woman’s behind look pretty darn good…just sayin’!)  And a month and a half later I could fit into them!  I was so happy and so proud of myself.  I actually still have those Sevens but they are too big for me to wear now.  I’ve decided to keep them for sentimental reasons…I’m sure you women out there can understand that!

I’ve been on a weight-loss kick since the Fall of 2009.  Since then I’ve lost 20 pounds, a shirt size, a pant size or two depending on where I shop, and have gained a lot of confidence in myself.  However, I still feel that I can do better—hence the push to lose more weight and inches off my hips, legs and arms by July.  And it is a push.  My body likes where it’s at right now.  I know most women can relate to this—when your body likes where it’s at it’s so hard to cut back on foods you love and push yourself to exercise more.  But I’m making the effort and will continue to do so even after July.  For those of you who are struggling with the whole weight thing, don’t give up!  As long as you have your goal in mind and you really want it, you’ll get there.  We’ll make it there together  :)

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