While she was out modelling her necklace, we decided to take a few more shots of multiple dolls. Here are few that compare Nanea's face mold with other American Girl doll molds, as well as one large shot that shows eight of the different face molds (we don't have TM #4).

From left to right, the molds are: Classic, Addy, Josefina, Kaya, Jess (this is an Ivy doll), Sonali, Marie Grace and Nanea.

And, just for fun . . . here is a photo of my five dolls all together!

I'm keeping posts on the American Girl doll theme here, because I still have a few photos left to post. One of the big changes in the last couple of months to the whole line of AG dolls are the eyes. Apparently, some of the old metal pieces inside have been changed for plastic. While I can't say anything definite about the inside mechanism, there are some very obvious differences to the visible part of the doll's eye.

This is obviously just rolling out on the newly produced dolls, because almost all of the display dolls at American Girl Place in Columbus (as of May 9, 2018) had the old eyes. Except, that is, for the brand new dolls like Luciana, and the four Truly Me​ boy dolls. Here are some pictures to compare the eyes.

Every Luciana doll in the store, whether displayed or boxed, featured the new eyes. (The same was true about the Truly Me boy dolls in the store.) However, they still had a small display for Gabriella, the Girl of the Year doll from last year. Every Gabriella on display had the old eyes (as seen in the photo above). But all eleven of the Gabriella dolls in boxes had the new eyes! Elizabeth was actually really wanting to purchase a Gabriella doll, but she opted to come home and order an older one online because of the eyes. So, here are some points about the visual differences:

Point #1: The whites of the eye on the new eyes are bright white. Notice Luciana's eyes in the photo above and how white they look. Then, look at Gabriella's eyes in the photo, and you can see that they are a more realistic and muted shade. This problem is very noticeable on all the dolls, but more particularly on the darker skin tones. The eyes look like they are almost glowing and shining out from the face.

Point #2: The new eyes appear to be sitting slightly farther back in the head, which means that you can see in the sides of the eye. On further examination, though, we're wondering if it is not necessarily that the eyes are sitting farther back, but more that the new eyes don't fit in the eye sockets as well as the old ones. This is slightly visible in the photo of Luciana below (though it's hard to see in a photo).

Point #3: The eyelashes are not as wide as they used to be. They are almost always thinner than the iris or colored part of the eye. It looks very unnatural. It is also very noticeable when you close the doll's eyes, which brings us to the final point ---

Point #4: When you lay the doll's back to close their eyes, you see how thin the eyelashes are. And the eyes do not close down all the way. You still see white showing below the eyelashes.

Other dolls that are quite noticeable with this problem are Melody and Nanea. Melody definitely has new eyes coming in on some of the dolls but not all of them yet. Nanea looks like she is in between. She almost has transitional eyes. Her whites are brighter than they should be, but the eyes seem to fit in the sockets of her head better (being a different face mold, she may just accommodate them a little better) --- though you can still see them sitting back a wee bit. When picking out my Nanea doll on Sunday, we looked through a lot of the boxed dolls, and there seemed to be variance in all of them. If you are considering her, then I would try to purchase her as soon as possible. 

The Truly Me boy dolls all feature the new eyes and have this problem. The eyes fit better in #77 (the modified Addy mold), and he tended to look good almost all the time. #76 (modified Sonali mold) has a real problem, and we had trouble finding any that did not look a bit strange.

So, if you buy a doll, be sure to check the eyes. The easiest test is to lay it down and see if the eyes close all the way and the lashes are wider than the iris.

This picture below shows another comparison of Nanea and Kaya. You can see Nanea's new eyes, but they don't have bad lashes, which makes a difference. The thinner lashes look very strange.

Well, it was so inspiring to go to the American Girl store, that we decided to go again. I really wanted to take Dad there to show the display of Nanea's Store to him. I have decided that we have to make a store for Josefina . . . but she wants to have Cuban store! She can sell pineapples, sugar cane, maracas, pastelitos, canned coconut and cream cheese. You name it! Being Mother's Day, we wanted to do something fun yesterday afternoon, so we decided to make a trip back to the store.

This time, Josefina had to come along. She dressed up in a modern outfit, fixed her braid and road in the back seat with Elizabeth and me. She had a great time! In fact, it was lots of fun to stand in the displays with all kinds of dolls and accessories to have her picture taken. Here she is trying out Luciana's Mars space capsule!

Besides getting know Luciana and all of her really cool space accessories, Josefina visited with most of the Beforever displays (even trying out Julie's shower and Maryellen's living room) and some of the Truly Me​ spots. The slideshow below shows all of Josefina's snapshots!

While visiting the displays, Josefina got to meet Nanea. In fact, this was the big reason that I took Josefina along . . . to see her with Nanea. I'd come around a big circle since first visiting the store on Wednesday, so here's the story ---

You can't miss Nanea's displays, because they are literally right inside the front door. She is the newest addition to the historical Beforever girls, being a 1940s Hawaiian. We walked in on Wednesday, and after glancing over her case, I came to a decision: I loved all of the outfits, accessories and colors. I couldn't stand the doll herself. No way. So, we continued going through the rest of the Beforever displays (we were in the store more than four hours). I continued to look at Nanea's things. Loved her store front, drink stand and all the colors of her clothes. Fell in love with Julie's display, too. Admired Maryellen and Melody with Mom (who LOVED them), really enjoyed Kit's mini golf with Elizabeth, etc. After a few hours in the historical area and Luciana's display, we moved on to the Truly Me section and spent a long time there --- all the time, though, Nanea was in the back of mind.

Elizabeth fell in love with the Sonali face mold, so she was busy choosing a #62 for herself. I decided to go back up to the front of the store and look at the historical displays again. Mom joined me, and we went back to Nanea's display. The whole color palette of everything is just so totally appealing, and the doll didn't look so bad anymore. But I didn't want her.

Then, while we were standing there, a lady came up to photograph the display. She started telling us how excited she was to see this doll. Her own daughter had one of the older AG characters, and they'd gone to the New York AG store to buy accessories. Now, that daughter is married to a Filipino gentleman and has a daughter of her own --- they live in Hawaii, and the granddaughter is seven years old. And she's so sad, because no one ever makes a doll that looks like her. And Nanea looks exactly like her! Wow! So, the grandmother was texting her daughter to find out about buying the doll. I certainly hope she did get it, because that granddaughter will be so happy! All of a sudden, the doll looked pretty beautiful.

So, we went home, and I kept thinking about Nanea. I thought about her all evening, and by the next day, I decided to look her up online and see some pictures. Plus, I started going back over the pictures that I had taken at the store of the many different Nanea dolls on display (there are at least twelve of them!). I talked it over with my sister and my Mom. They laughed and said that they guessed I'd be wanting one. I guess they just know my too well!

I thought about it, and by Friday evening I knew I would need to have my own Nanea. She would look like an adorable little sister for Josefina . . . and when something sticks in my mind like that, I know I won't change it later. So, when we set out on Sunday afternoon to visit the store again, I took Josefina along to see how she would look with Nanea. So cute!! Elizabeth says she knew that I'd be coming home with one. :)

We enjoyed our visit through the store, and then we decided to look for the perfect Nanea doll. She has the new eyes (more on that in a future post), so I wanted to make sure that the doll I picked was the perfect one. Actually, the first one we found turned out to be it! I was sure of it from the beginning, but Elizabeth wanted to be totally positive and look at all of them. There she was, totally beautiful. It was a bit too crowded in the car to open her right away, so she had to wait the drive. 

She's the perfect addition to my dolls! I couldn't be happier. She's beautiful, and even more beautiful in real life at home than I thought she would be. In the store and on some of the displays, she gave the impression of having a head that was slightly too small for her body. She doesn't look like that here. She's amazing! Here's a slideshow of photos showing her as she was unboxed and greeted by Josefina. I took careful pictures, too, of the packaging, because it is amazing. Fabulous because it keeps the doll totally safe but comes off so easily with no harm to her at all.

One more comment here about the Nanea doll: her clothes have not velcro! The shorts have an elastic band in the back, and her shirt buttons up the front! It is a much nicer, higher quality meet outfit than any other dolls we've gotten!
​More later, because there are a lot more dolls to introduce . . .

If you managed to make it through the previous very photo-filled entry about the American Girl store, then this is the continuation --- showing the second half of the store. This includes the Truly Me collection, Wellie Wishers, and Bitty Baby​.

After finishing with the Beforever area, you come into a little space of displays that are in front of the registers. These racks and shelves feature individual accessories and AGP related items (including eye glasses, shoes, bags, etc.) Sadly, none of the little t-shirts are specifically for the Columbus store, rather just generic AGP. The doll-sized "mini tote bag" is totally adorable, as is the special doll "seat" designed to strap onto the handle of your wheeling suitcase!  ​

Just opposite of the registers is the hair salon area. This seems to have been a pretty busy little place. There were lulls, but customers were steady! You can click on the three photos below to see them at full size.

Step past the registers and into the back half of the store and you see the Wellie Wishers. These are smaller dolls meant for younger girls, though they are also popular as "little sisters" of the American Girl dolls. Currently, there are five WW dolls, and they have a very cute section of displays. The chicken coop was pretty cute, but I don't think I got a photo. :(

Adjoining the Wellie Wishers is the Bitty Baby​ section. This is not the largest section, but I think it looked like everything was represented. I still have my old Bitty Baby and wasn't really paying too much attention to these. :) In the case, they look cute, but I held one briefly and thought that it did not feel quite the same quality of my old one. 

There is a very cute little "swaddle" station for you to buy a blanket and swaddle your baby! Very appealing colors.

There are two matching cases, sort of facing each other on a diagonal. Once case has all of the blonde and medium brunettes. The second case has all of the red heads and dark brunettes. The dolls in their boxes are spread throughout the TM area, so you can either look for your choice --- or you can take a little piece of paper (hanging from the bottom of the doll cases) with your choice's picture on it to an employee, who then helps to locate it.

For anyone who either wants something extra different or totally new, you can also pick from four brand-new boy dolls! (These are really cute, particularly #76 and #77!) There is also the really neat option of going online to create your own custom doll. You can choose between different hair, eye and skin tones, freckles, etc. Some of these custom dolls are on display under individual domes. The short hair-cut wig is about as cute as you get! (See last couple photos in group below.)

Once you've viewed the Truly Me cases, there are a LOT of displays for the TM accessories. Every TM doll can be seen in a different outfit and in a display, and it appears that most can actually be found twice --- under glass in a set up, and also in an open display where you can touch them. The slideshow below is loaded with the various displays . . .

There is one whole display for pets for your dolls. Very appealing! It also gives you the idea of using all kinds of plush animals with your dolls! I think the cutest thing must be the harness for the service dog. :)

And once you make it to the back of the store, there is a bistro there. We were at the store on a Wednesday afternoon, so there weren't many people in the store and none eating --- but here's a picture to show what it looks like!

Well, that's the end of the photos from this trip. More doll related news coming very soon, though, so check back!

We finally took a trip down to Columbus to visit the American Girl Place store there. After living in this part of the state for 25 years, and taking periodic trips to Easton to visit stores there, we only just found out that there was an AG store there as well! The weather has finally broken, so we had sunshine and the urge to do something fun for the afternoon. So, we went down and spent four hours in the American Girl store! It was totally amazing! I took 307 pictures in there, so I'm needing to upload in two entries . . . just to keep the blog from crashing. This entry will be the front half of the store, which is dedicated to the Beforever (historical dolls) collections and the specialty collections for modern characters.

The very front of the store (right side) features displays for Luciana (Girl of the Year 2018), Gabriella (Girl of the Year 2017), Z Yang (a photographer) and Tenney and Logan (Country Western musicians).

Some displays are under glass, but every doll can be seen standing on open displays or shelves, so you can touch them and really experience each one. Luciana has a very large area, being the current GotY doll. She is a lot more impressive in real life than in photos (though the streak of purple in her hair is a detraction, in my opinion). If I didn't already have a gorgeous Josefina doll, I would have needed Luciana! However, she is basically Josefina with a haircut, so I brought home the NASA t-shirt and souvenir set for Josefina. Luciana's "Stellar Outfit" was also really appealing. [Edit: By the time we returned to the store four days later, Luciana's Space Suit was back in stock and on display, so I've added a photo of that below.]

To keep the blog entry readable, I've separated photos into slideshows by dolls or collections. You can just flip through the photos to see them all.

Right up in the area with Luciana were the other modern characters. While the Z Yang doll did not particularly appeal to me, she had a lot of cute accessories . . . particularly, the umbrella! Gabriella was also a beautiful doll and our first time of seeing the Sonali face mold in real life. It is not photogenic and looks so beautiful in real life. In photos, she always appears to have a sort of "buck teeth" look, but not in life!

Once you've finished with the featured modern characters, the rest of the front half of the store is devoted to the Beforever dolls, which are the historical characters. This was certainly my favorite part! Because of the layout and amount of display cases, you can't really get a picture of the whole store. Here is one showing just a part of the Beforever area and some of the displays. That's Elizabeth standing there . . . she was really enjoying Kit's pajamas!

The newest addition to the Beforever group is the little Hawaiian girl, Nanea. She is quite a photogenic doll and looks just like herself in any picture you take! When we saw her at first, I didn't like her at all. By the end of the four-hour visit, though, she's been growing on me. In fact, I have thought about her . . . and thought about her . . . ever since. I can't decide, but my Josefina might just like to have Nanea as a little sister.

The doll itself has a cute expression and totally different face mold than any other AG dolls. However, the head is slightly too small for the size of the doll body. It is not as noticeable in the thin little outfits she wears, but I don't think Nanea would look very good in winter clothes or coats --- anything that would pad her body too much. 

Everything in her "palette" really appealed to me! Look at the second picture in the slideshow below, and you'll see the different outfits with accessories. Totally precious! Also, keep going and you will see the large accessory --- a big store front (not the little drinks stand). It was SO cute!! I'm going to talk my Pop into making a wooden store front for Josefina and theme it with all Cuban items, like the stores my grandfather and great-grandfather had in Cuba in the 1940s-50s. So, having to rate the collections, Nanea is one of my very favorites! 

Another one of the newer dolls is Maryellen. This is a 1950s cutie who looks like a red-haired version of "Sharon", Opie Taylor's little girl friend in The Andy Griffith Show. She is certainly a doll that has a lot more appeal in real life than in photos. She's cute in photos, but up close and 3D --- well, she's about as cute as it gets! She particularly appealed to Mom, since every outfit and accessory looked like something that Mom grew up with. I think that the Christmas decorations set, Roller Skating set and Living Room table lamp win for cutest! Lizzy and I really liked Maryellen's Camper, too, but the scale is a bit too small to actually fit the doll. It's adorable in the display, though!

Next up, you see Julie. This is a 1970s girl who looks exactly like Mom and her younger sister during this era. In fact, I have just gotten one of these dolls (a really neat Craigslist deal, but that's for another entry altogether) and named it "Susie", after my aunt! Here are photos of the whole collection of outfits. Also, you can go through the slideshow to see her other accessories. This was a doll that didn't particularly send me in photos. Mostly because I'm not too keen on the whole 1970s look. But, in real life --- different story! She's amazing! In fact, I would have to vote her collection about as appealing as Nanea, when you see it all up close. My Mom and I can't wait to start sewing outfits for her!

One of the cutest things is the 1960s doll, Melody. She looks like something right out of Cleveland's Motown! Everything is very appealing, but I think that the hairpiece (or "fall") that can be seen on the top left in first photo below is about as cute as you get! Not to mention her little red suitcase in that classic '60s round style. We've got the real thing in blue!

This next slideshow shows Rebecca and Kit. Elizabeth's personal favorite is Kit, so I think that every outfit there was a hit --- though, if I had to rate something for sheer cuteness, it would be the Mini Golf outfit. I think it's the hat! 

Rebecca is one of my very favorite dolls, but the displays at this store were a little disappointing. Every doll had her hair done in the sausage/banana type curls. While that's common for owners to do, that is not how the doll comes or is usually shown. Personally, I don't think that the extra long curls show her off at her cutest. Have a look at her, though, because she's an adorable doll! Her Russian Nesting dolls are really cute!

As always, Josefina is totally appealing. She doesn't have very many outfits or accessories in the store anymore, but she's an all-around-fabulous doll! Kaya still has a lot of outfits and accessories and quite a number of displays. Her teepee and travois sets are really neat!

Because there are so many photos in this entry, I'm going to stop here at the end of the Beforever dolls. I'll post another entry with the modern Truly Me dolls, Welliewishers, Bitty Babies, etc.

All in all, I highly recommend a visit to the Easton (Columbus) store if you are anywhere near there! It's a fabulous place and so inspirational. You'll want to go home and create a cool doll display of your own!

Here they are (seeming like they are in record time, actually) --- the first officially released photos of Prince Louis of Cambridge! One shows the little prince in a pensive pose, and the other is adorable with Princess Charlotte!

Here are pictures of the result, and I think it couldn't look cuter! Mom and I did the cutting together, and Leo can now wear hair ribbons, headbands, barrettes and anything like that. Here are some more pictures to show her re-done.

We needed to do something totally fun this past Sunday afternoon, so Elizabeth and I decided to experiment with cleaning our American Girl dolls. I'd been doing some reading (and watching on YouTube) about using "Mr. Clean Magic Erasers" on AG dolls to clean shiny spots, dirt and odd rubs. It looked amazing, but I really didn't want to use the chemicals if I didn't have to . . . we try to do everything that we can with all natural ingredients, and those erasers look like some pretty toxic pieces! So, I decided to look into the idea of cleaning the dolls with baking soda. That is what American Girl suggests, but the majority of people seem to opt for the erasers. That may be, partly, because everyone seems to just have them in their house already --- so it's easy to grab. But the baking soda looked like it should do just about the same thing, so we decided to give it a try.

It was Josefina who really needed a good clean, but I didn't want to touch her until trying a doll that I wasn't as attached to. So, we decided to try my old Bitty Baby and the newest AG addition, Leonore (she's a Kaya that we got a few weeks ago on Craigslist for $20). It worked! We were so thrilled with the results. The shine marks were disappearing almost immediately. The white marks on Bitty Baby's head were gone, so was the green mark on her little finger. Seeing how well it worked, we brought Josefina down to the kitchen. She definitely showed signs of years of love and play. She needed a bath. She had shine marks all over her (including a giant one on the tip of her nose), two green marks on the left side of her head, marks on her arms and even a colored spot on her finger. It ALL came off! Here are a few "before" and "after" pictures. The "before" pics are on the left, and the matching "after" pics are on the right.

One discoloration on the back of her foot did not come off. This was a wide brownish mark caused by the little moccasins that came with her original outfit. The color has obviously impregnated the vinyl itself, so Josefina has a beauty mark!

Cleaning dolls with baking soda is really simple. We just made a paste of baking soda and water (on the runnier side, but you have to continually add water as the soda soaks it up), took a soft rag and dipped the corner into the paste. Then, you gently rub (in a circular motion, unless the area is too small) a small amount onto a shiny spot or mark. Sometimes they come off immediately. Some of them took a few times. For her face and any areas near her cloth body, we rinsed the soda off by rubbing her gently with a clean wet rag. For her hands and feet, we were able to just run them under the faucet. 
A good little tip is to bring some Q-Tip cotton swabs along, because that made it much easier when working on spots near her hair line, eyes or nose and mouth. Be sure to cover her eyes when working on the face. The inside mechanism is metal and will rust if gotten wet. Elizabeth actually held a dry towel over her eyes while I used a swab to clean her.

I was so thrilled with how clean and beautiful Josefina looked that I decided to be brave . . . and re-do her 21-year-old braid! It was looking so poorly, but it was her original braid. Mom had always taught us to keep really good care of our dolls and never touch their hair. That meant that they stayed nice for years and never looked raggedy and worn out. But even great care can't help a braid stay perfect for 21 years! So, I sat down on the sofa and took a deep breath. It actually wasn't very hard, and Josefina looks so much better!

So, if you're ever looking for something fun to do on a Sunday afternoon, I can't recommend some doll cleaning enough! They look amazing, and it's hard to believe that an old doll can look practically new with such a simple method!

There's a new little Prince in England, and he was actually born on St. George's Day!!! Hopefully, he'll make his public debut pretty soon . . . with pictures. I know Arthur is one of the top names that people are guessing, but (personally) I hope it's Albert! Let's hope for more news soon.

Addition:
And now there are the first photos out! He looks just like George and Charlotte . . . at least, at this age.