Preparing for Benefit Sale 2019 & Checking In

Before you say it, I know it's been a long time since I checked in here. I promise it's not because I've suddenly lost interest in my collection (it's the opposite, really)- I've just had a lot of major life stuff going on this past year. For those who don't follow my Instagram I lost my dad on December 27th, 2018. I was laid off of my job on Halloween 2018. I had to put my kitten, Helga, down in November 2018. I celebrated my first birthday without my dad, watched as his birthday and the birthdays of my mom and brother passed by. I've been struggling with a deep depression and all of this grief. I've been spotty online and in real life, but I'm here and I'm making my way back. 

Me & my dad on my parent's wedding day- March 20th, 1998.

This is old news by now but 2019 welcomed, as every year does, a new Girl of the Year! This year it's Blaire Wilson, a spirited redhead who is navigating a newly diagnosed dairy intolerance and enjoys helping out around her family's bed & breakfast. Her collection is a great combination of adorable farm animals (that pig!) and outfits that go from working in the garden to attending a wedding as a junior bridesmaid. She's even got her family farm restaurant filling the role as her big ticket item. All of these qualities point to her being a home run for AG, but that will remain to be seen until the quarterly reports come in. For me? She was a must. My mom and I attended her launch day at the Mall of America store knowing nothing about Blaire besides the images and blurbs from her books. What we discovered was that she shares more than few qualities with my dad. With that in mind my mom purchased Blaire for me in memory of him. Needless to say she is treasured around here, which brings me to my next topic...

Blaire's debut photo.

Eye exchanges. Remember American Girl's torso exchange last year after the permapanty uproar? AG's done it again, this time in the form of replacing their standard eyes for a cheaper version. These 'new eyes' debuted in 2017 with the release of Nanea Mitchell and lasted through the release of Blaire. This means that every doll produced during that time period has a chance of sporting those new eyes. How do you spot them? The new eyes have a brighter white, white posts that are sometimes visible if you gently push the eye to the side, often give the doll a downward gaze and have a slight ridge where the pupil begins. Like the torso exchange, American Girl is offering a free eye replacement through the end of this year. You can either drop off your dolls in store for the exchange or print off the form from AG's website and mail them in.

I'm going to be honest here- the eyes bothered me, but not enough initially to send in my dolls. I was nervous to send mine in, especially Blaire. What if they came back with wonky expressions? What about all of those rants from collectors who received dolls that were damaged?  I spent a good couple of months debating whether or not to do the exchange, that is, until the imminent closing of the Mall of America location forced my hand. Well, forced it because I wanted to drop off the dolls in store to avoid paying shipping fees. On March 20th I dropped off 4 dolls for the exchange: Nanea, Luciana, Blaire and Nancy (Truly Me #78). They returned home 8 days later on March 28th. I was really pleased by the quick turn around and even happier with the results. While all 4 dolls were a little disheveled from their travels, their new eyes were beautiful- so much so that it completely changed my bond with Nanea. None of them had weird shine marks, ruined wigs, ripped vinyl or any of the other complaints thrown at AG by some collectors. If you're on the fence about sending your dolls in for this procedure I would highly recommend it.

Nanea before the eye exchange.

Nanea after the eye exchange.

As I mentioned American Girl made the decision to not renew the lease for the Mall of America location. This means that the Chicago store is now the nearest AGP location for me. I'll admit it, losing the store was another big loss for me. It was one of my safe places, somewhere I could go and get away from all of my thoughts and worries. I'll miss being able to see new releases in person and chatting with the incredibly friendly staff. Thankfully I still live close enough to Middleton to make the drive out for the annual benefit sale and will be attending this year with my mom. We will be attending both days of the sale and are staying in town for the event. If you'll be there drop me a message on Instagram! I would be thrilled to meet more collectors. 

Jude- Truly Me #61 and my last purchase from AGP Mall of America.

I plan on writing a post about my second year attending the sale so keep an eye out for that! Until then I'll be working on a lot of housekeeping here- my Meet My Dolls page is sorely out of date and I will be slowly adding pictures and blurbs for each of my girls. In the meantime I'm hoping to write a blog post or two to introduce the girls who joined my collection over the last 10 months. Thanks again for sticking around during this long absence. I hope all of you are doing well and are having a fantastic start to your summers!