Maplelea Monday: a trip to the diner

Attention!  First diner photo coming up!

A few of the Maplelea girls are at the diner until their home is finished being remodeled.  And they’re wearing new outfits!

Saila is in Leonie’s new outfit, Beaux Arts:

Jenna is in Brianne’s new outfit, Very Prairie:

Brianne is in Jenna’s new outfit, Campus Collection:

And Leonie is in Alexi’s new outfit, Art in the City:

You can see that I haven’t taken a lot of the diner stuff out of the box yet.  There are plates and trays and placemats and food and a bell and stickers and…

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Clementine’s Winter

Clementine the doll, from A Girl for All Time, came out 2 years ago.  But her book was just released this summer!  I finished reading it a few weeks ago and I really really liked it!  It was so nice to get to know Clementine better.

This book is my favorite of the 3 A Girl For All Time books.  It has a mystery element, but we are spared the topics of toileting and taxidermy, so it’s much less creepy than the other two.  The author, Sandra Goldbacher, has a screenwriting background, so her writing is delightfully concise, yet descriptive.

Isn’t this illustration gorgeous?

And we’re given an introduction to Lydia’s book, which will be published in 2016!  It’s called Lydia in the New World.  She goes to Boston and meets a Native American.  I wonder how Lydia gets to America in the 18th century, and at what point the Marchmont family returns to Britain, where Clementine lives.

I also wonder if Sam, the next character, is Clementine’s daughter or niece.  If Sam is a young girl in the 60s and Clementine grew up during WWII, then it adds up!  I wonder if Clementine will have a role in Sam’s story!  I know my Clementine doll is excited to pass the key to the Marchmont trunk on to Sam, who should be here by the end of the year.

I still wish the A Girl For All Time collection had more clothes, because the few outfits each doll has are all beautiful.  I want more!

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Maplelea Monday: Meet Charlsea!

Is it still Monday where you live?  It is where I live, so I’m gonna squeeze in my photos of Charlsea and her collection.

Charlsea is the newest Maplelea girl.  She is from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.  That is very close to where I live, and Charlsea and I have a lot in common.  For example, I got a kayak for Christmas.  Charlsea has her own kayak:

Isn’t she cute, and her outfit is so much fun!  Here’s a closeup of her tights and boots that she comes in:

Living on an island, Charlsea has a special relationship with the sea.  Her pajamas have sea otters on them, and they come with her favorite stuffie named Nottafish (because sea stars are not fish!).  Here they are modeled by Taryn (whose hair is quite a bit darker than Taryn’s, but Charlsea has slightly darker skin)

She also has a swimsuit and a wetsuit.  Here’s a picture of Charlsea wearing her wetsuit backwards.  I figured out later that it’s meant to zip up the back because it has a little sunshine graphic on the other side.

Charlsea is Canadian, so she needs a snowsuit.  Though her island doesn’t get much snow, she likes to head to Whistler with her family.  Here is Portia modeling “Weekend in Whistler”

And she has one more outfit available, called Gulf Island Stylin’.  It’s a little crazy, but I like it:

And finally, I took a new group photo of these outstanding Maplelea girls from Canada.  Here are Brianne, Leonie, Jenna, Charlsea, Taryn, Alexi, Saila, and Portia:

For this one, I think you need a link to a larger image

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New dolly!

A sale on the Today Show tempted me to get this pretty doll and this adorable bathtub.  I think she’ll stay in there for a while.  The other dolls know that she was on sale (this is the first sale doll I’ve kept for myself), and that she doesn’t have a name (this is my first American Girl of Today/American Girl Today/Just Like You/MyAG/Truly Me doll).  Maybe if she spends enough time in the bathtub the other dolls will like her better.

So far, her name is Twenty-Two because that’s what’s on her box!

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Some Maryellen Photos!

Hello!  Today I have just a few photos of Maryellen.  I got her on Thursday, August 27.  I found out about a special preview one hour before store opening, which worked out because I had to work that afternoon.  I would have risked being late to work if I had to wait until regular store opening.  On Maryellen’s first day, staff were dressed up in 50s dresses.  And so was I:

Molly dressed up too.  Of all my dollies, she seemed most excited to meet Maryellen.  I imagine a teenage Molly liking Maryellen’s stuff too.  Poodle skirts, jukeboxes, and diners, oh my!

I got most of Maryellen’s things.  I did not get the sofa bed or the TV (I might have if the store had the TV in stock).  I also skipped the poodle skirt because I already have one.  But then I read Maryellen’s book and her friend Karen copies her and also wears a poodle skirt on the first day of school, so now I’m considering buying a copycat poodle skirt!  I bought the diner even though the store didn’t have it in stock, but that way it was shipped to my house for free, so I didn’t have to carry it up to my 3rd floor apartment!  I haven’t had much diner playtime yet, but I hope to soon.

Here are some photos of the gang dressed in Maryellen’s clothes:

And how ’bout a pajama party with Maryellen’s living room furniture?

I think Maryellen’s collection is off to a nice start, but oh I hope we get more.  I’m terrified that Maryellen will follow Caroline’s pattern, and we will get 2 more outfits before she retires in 3 years.  Oh I hope that will not be true!

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Last day in Newfoundland and Labrador!

Happy Monday!  Happy Labor Day to us Americans.  Labor Day is a holiday designed specifically to give people a day off work.  Unfortunately, I have to work today, but we have abbreviated hours!

I’m sorry I kinda forgot that I didn’t finish my journey to Newfoundland.  But here it is!

On the last day, we had just a few hours for some more sightseeing.  We stopped at Western Brook Pond for a group photo:

The woman holding Leonie is named Pam, and I remember most of the other names still, but I think it will be okay if I forget them tomorrow.

And we stopped at the Lobster Cove Lighthouse:

And then we grabbed lunch (A&W poutine and a root beer float!) and headed to the airport.  The flight home went a lot more smoothly then the flight out, but I am never flying home through Vancouver again.  I had to walk all the way across the airport to go through US customs, then walk a really long way to wear my tiny airplane was, and of course there was no food there.

But look at how cute Leonie was on the airplane:

(she had to sit on the tray table on the first flight, but then she got her own seat on the second/longer flight.  She took a nap).

I can’t wait until my next vacation!

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