Thoughts on Blaire

*Opens category dropdown* *Goes to click 2018* *Sadly realizes it’s no longer 2018* *Creates new category for 2019*

HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS!!! *throws confetti* 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

A new year means new surprises, new friends, new exciting experiences, and, for all of us doll lovers, A new GOTY!

I did see several leaks/spoilers this year, so I did hear about Blaire long before her release (thanks Faye), but that’s okay.

I did a “Thoughts on Luciana” post last year, so I’m excited to do another one about Blaire.

And . . . here are my thoughts on Blaire’s collection!

*Squeals* She’s adorable! Her hair is AY-MAY-ZING with all of those red curls. It’s my favorite thing about her. I don’t think we’ve had a redheaded GOTY since Nikki, back in . . . . . 2006?!?! So it’s been thirteen years. Holy cow.

(Maybe AG should add a pet cow to Blaire’s collection? Thoughts?)

Her eyes are such a pretty shade of green, but I don’t get the downward slant. Luciana’s eyes did that too, so maybe it’s a continuing thing with AG?

I’m not super in love with her meet outfit. The dress is a good length, but to me it looks sort of nightgown-y. I love the bow and ruching, though. The bandana thing is nice, as are the sandals.

(I’m getting Strawberry Shortcake vibes from her book cover, though . . . )

Her tote bag is so cute! The tablet looks cheaply made, though. The clipboard is really nice, and I like all of the lavender accents (though I am allergic, sadly, and I think of sneezing when I look at them). The stickers are cool too.

Blaire’s bridesmaid dress is a beautiful shade of blue. At first glance I didn’t like all of the beading (it looked sort of old-fashioned to me), but after further inspection I think it’s nice. I LOVE the uneven hemline on dresses so I think it’s a beautiful piece. The shoes are nice, the headband is adorable, but I’m not sold on the choker. Why would you wear a choker as part of your bridesmaid outfit?

I looooooove this gardening outfit. The top is exactly something a girl Blaire’s age would wear, and the overalls go perfectly with it. The boots are great and really compliment the outfit. Again, not sure on the bow thing. It looks really cute but I’m trying to imagine a real girl wearing something like that around her neck and I’m not really getting it.

The Floral Flair outfit is okay. I don’t love the dress (it’s pretty but reminds me of something you’d see in Nanea’s collection). I love the purple leggings, though, and the sandals are really cute. So is the headband (which seems to be Blaire’s thing).

Her PJ’s are my absolutely favorite thing about her collection, and I’m definitely wanting to get them for Tessa. I absolutely love the colors and those pom poms!

I don’t love the fabric on the apron in her gardening outfit, and I’m not sure why she has unmatching gloves (in real life they obviously wouldn’t match but for AG you would think they would). What I don’t understand is why the glove fabric matches her PJ pants??? That makes no sense to me. I really like the hat though, and the bow is very stylish.

 

Her piglet . . . oh my goodness . . . so cute!!!

The lamb is cute too, but I still like the piglet more.

 

The party décor is really pretty. I love those paper flowers – they would look great in a dollhouse. The accessories are really cute too, and I love the color scheme. Not sure how structurally sound the arbor is, though . . . but overall really nice set. Pricey though ($85).

THAT’S A CHICKEN??? I had to look at the product details to figure it out. It looked like a mini alpaca or something to me, but apparently it’s a Silkie, which is a beautiful breed of chicken. The garden is cute but quite small. The chicken eggs are a nice touch, as is the pretty watering can.

The family farm is a cool set but an ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS $300. People will pay it though, soo . . .

I love the pastels in Blaire’s collection. The lilac shows up again here. My favorite part are the pretty lights above! There are a lot of cool features in this set, but not worth $300 to me.

And that’s all for Blaire’s collection! Overall, AG did a great job on it. My favorite thing is the pretty pastel color scheme, with the light blues and lilacs. What do you guys like the most?

I hope you guys had a great start to the new year, and I will see you in my next post!

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2018 Wrapup

Has anyone every noticed that “wrapup” is such a weird word? 

Oh wait. There’s supposed to be a dash between “wrap” and “up.”

That makes a lot more sense now.

Hey guys, and welcome back to my blog! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Big thanks to everyone who watched my Christmas AGSM as well – if you haven’t watched it, be sure to do that right now!

I did a 2017 wrapup at the end of last year, and it was really fun so I decided to do it again.

And . . . let’s go!

In January, we were introduced to our awesome GOTY, Luciana Vega (who I even wound up purchasing!)

The other big thing that happened in January was the release of one of my series, Travels With Grace. Grace actually went to Washington State with me for Thanksgiving of 2017, but I didn’t release any of the pictures until January 2018.

 

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She visited her cousins Grace, Lea, and Cara, while I visited my cousins S and M.

In February, I did a hilarious How Much Does AGs in Alaska’s Brother Know About AG? post, which had some great results.

I also posted on The Customization of Tessa Elizabeth, where I showed you all how I created my customized TrulyMe doll.

 

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I also launched another series, “According to Crystal,” with my “Valentines Day According to Crystal” post.

In March, I did my first guest post with my rabbit Moe, who was more popular on blog than I thought was ever possible.

Seriously. You guys went gaga for my little rabbit.

Moe is the best! Carrots, Mmmmm! – Faith

Magosh he’s ADORABLE such a bun wow. Ahem. I WUV HIM. – Tess (blackiesunshine)

Moe is so adorable!!!!! – Sapphire

AWWWW! Moe, I have lots of carrots, come hang out with meeee!!!! – Natalie Therese

Aw, Moe!!! You’re so cute!! – Liz

And for good reason, too – he’s adorable!!!

 

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I also did my first collab with my friend Elysium, from Prompted Pens!

I celebrated two huge milestones in March – first, reaching 1000 likes on American Girls in Alaska, and second, my three-year blogiversary on WordPress (I started blogging long before my AG blog, for those of you who don’t know).

In April, we celebrated Easter . . .

 

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And then went to Texas!

I brought back Travels With Grace for that one.

 

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In May, we celebrated Crystal’s 15th birthday!

 

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Then, I celebrated my one-year blogiversary with a tee-shirt giveaway!

Our winners were Dianne and Faith.

June was fairly boring. I went on a hiatus, so that was pretty much it.

In July, I did a Patriotic Photography collab with Chachel from Wild Sketch, which was super-duper fun!

 

 

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In July, I announced the arrival of our adorable Chihuahua puppies, Jaxon and Callie, who my family had adopted a month earlier.

 

 

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You guys, of course, loved them. 🙂

I also did Take 2 of “A Summer Photoshoot,” which I did the year before as well. This time around, I used Lindsey instead of Crystal, but we went to the same park.

 

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Those two photoshoots are still my favorite (and you can bet you’ll see Take 3 sometime this summer! Which doll should I use this time?)

In August, I welcomed a new doll into the family – Luciana Isadora Vega!

 

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And then came her debut photoshoot.

 

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Crystal made another appearance on “According to Crystal,” this time with a back-to-school version!

I was super lazy in September (I’m kidding, school started so I was a little busy), and I only did two posts – introducing Tessa’s rabbit Mischief into the family, and then a photostory about him.

 

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Then came October, when I did an adorable fall photoshoot, “Pumpkin Pals,” with Molly and Luci.

 

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And we had a family meeting, with interesting results.

 

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In November, I promised you guys that I would have an awesome surprise for Christmas! (And I hope I came through on that one!) 🙂

I also shared some of my best non-doll-related pictures.

 

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On Novemeber 30th, Alaska was shaken by a huge 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck southcentral Alaska, 10 miles north of Anchorage.

That’s when I wrote my post “Please Be Praying.”

 

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We’ve had 6,000 recorded aftershocks since then, the last really big one on Dec. 27th (which was a 4.9 at 5:30 in the morning, waking my entire family up as our house shook back and forth for about five seconds!)

I started December off with a ballet photoshoot of Tessa in my backyard.

 

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Crystal returned once again with “Christmas Shopping According to Crystal.”

And then . . . dun dun dun . . . I revealed my HUGE CHRISTMAS SURPRISE!!!

It was a holiday American Girl Stopmotion, which I posted on my brand-new YouTube channel!

Click here to watch it! https://youtube.com/watch?v=VJHUWoYy314&t=47s

And that just about wraps up the year!

But wait – lastly, some stats! (As of December 27th, when I wrote this post.)

5,984 views

1,774 visitors

81 posts published (including this one)

1,162 likes

Views from 10 countries

136 followers

1,064 comments

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH for such an incredible year! You are all AY-MAY-ZING and I can’t wait to have another great year of blogging, and the occasional YouTube video, shared with you guys!

Much love from the AGIA family!

– AGsinAlaska, Crystal, Lindsey, McKenna, Morgan, Emily, Molly, Grace, Tessa, and Luciana

 

Thoughts on Luciana

Why, hello there! Happy 2018! I hope you guys are all recovering from staying up until midnight, or one in the morning, in my case.

I am SO excited to be doing this opinions post on Luciana Vega, GOTY 2018. Let me just tell you that I am WAAAAAAY happier with this year’s GOTY than I was with Gabriela. AG did a MUCH better job this time around, and I am very, very pleased.

All pictures are from American Girl.

First of all, let’s talk about the doll itself. I like her face mold. It seems a bit different from the standard AG face mold. Her eyes are beautiful, as well as her hair. It’s so glossy and I love the side bangs! And the purple . . . LOVE THE PURPLE. In case you don’t know already, purple is my favorite color. 🙂 🙂 🙂

I don’t totally love her necklace, and her shoes are okay. But her dress is ADORABLE. I AM IN LOVE WITH IT!!!! I like the length as some AG dresses are a bit short. But when I saw Luciana’s meet dress, I was like, “Ahhh! It’s so cute!!!”

Note quite sure about the red bag. I don’t really care for it. I like her book cover, though.

Luciana’s visitor center accessories are pretty cool-looking. I like the doll-sized Nasa shirt. The bag is very detailed. The bookmark and pamphlet are adorable, as well as the passport. And I really like the book! The astronaut kind of freaks me out, though . . .

The robot dog. Hmm. I don’t love the pink (there seems to be a bit too much pink in this collection), but the dog is fitting for a space/technology-oriented doll. It doesn’t look like it’s very high quality, but it is pretty cool that it moves (plus the tail wags, which is awesome).

Luciana’s telescope and blanket are adorable. I don’t like how the telescope is pink. I feel like blue would have been a better choice. But the blanket is SO CUTE!!!! I’m not quite sure why they’re charging FORTY DOLLARS for this set. That seems outrageously overpriced, but then again, AG prices have been going up.

Luciana’s accessories are pretty neat. The backpack design is pretty cool. The smart watch looks cheap, even from the picture. The ice cream is awesome. Not much to say about the other accessories.

Her pajamas are ADORABLE!!! The shirt says “To the moon and back,” which is awesome.  I like how it comes down further than most AG pajama tops. The pants are amazing. I don’t like the slippers very much, but overall I like it a lot!

I think this is totally adorable. Luciana looks so sweet in it!!! At first I was confused as to why a doll would have a space training suit, but then I realized that she goes to space camp so it makes sense. I think this is a really great outfit.

I don’t really care for the jacket in this outfit. Green is not a favorite color of mine, but I think the shoes and top are amazing. The shorts do not look like they are very high quality.

Her Mars habitat looks very, very detailed. But THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am outraged at this price. It is HUGE, for something this size. No way. It even looks plasticky from the picture. The stairs look like they would break instantly. The headset is cute, but no way am I getting this.

Overall, I think AG did a spectacular job with Luciana’s collection, except for the ridiuclous pricing and too much pink stuff. I would like to get Luciana, but . . . I don’t know.

What do you think of Luciana? I would love to chat in the comments!

 

Like my new signoff???

 

2017 Wrapup

Well, well, well.

On June 1st, 2017, I (AGs in Alaska) published my first post. Since then, amazing things have happened.

I have 45 followers.

I have published 80 posts, including this one.

I have gotten 2,932 views!

I have views from these countries:

• United States
• Canada
• United Kingdom
• Spain
• India
• France
• Kenya
• New Zealand
• Greece
• Ireland
• UAE
• Brunei
• Romania
• Indonesia
• Japan

And I have done some pretty epic photostories/shoots!

In June, I did my first tutorial on how to make an AG stopmotion.

In July, I did my first-ever photoshoot feauturing Crystal. Here are my favorite pictures from that:

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I was also nominated for my first award by the AG Homeschooler!

In August, I did my first photostory with Lindsey and Morgan. Boy, was that a mess. It was raining and my mom’s iPad was getting all wet. 😦 That was the day of the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse!

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In September, I celebrated 20 followers!

I also participated in the Back-To-School Tag (thanks, Kaylyn!)

In October, I started doing Day in The Life posts, beginning with Crystal.

The girls also celebrated Halloween with a ridiculous spooky prank!

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In November, we had a epic birthday bash!

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The girls also celebrated Thanksgiving!

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I also did my first Q & A! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Then, December got a little bit crazy.

I worked crazy hard to get the Twelve Days of Christmas done. Here are the highlights of that:

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And, on Christmas Day, the AGIA family welcomed Tessa Elizabeth into the family!

 

And now . . . it’s New Year’s Eve????

Seriously, that does not seem possible. Just yesterday I was ringing in 2017. And now? It’s almost 2018, people!!!!

I want to give a HUGE thank-you to every one of you amazing people who read my blog! I am inspired and impressed by each and every one of you guys daily. I want to give a few special shout-outs to:

• Kaylyn
• Madi
• Ava
• Hope

You guys are amazing and I could not do this whole blogging thing without your support and encouragement. When I first started blogging just six short months ago, I never imagined that I would make such amazing friends as you guys.

Happy New Year from the American Girls in Alaska family! I hope 2018 is wonderfully blessed for you with all of God’s grace and love!

Love,

AGs in Alaska, Crystal, Lindsey, McKenna, Morgan, Emily, Molly, Grace, Tessa, and . . . Coconut, Grace (the dog), Cooper, Chocolate Chip, Yank, Bennet, and Bonbon

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!