Caroline Giveaway at Barnes and Noble

Some of you might not have heard that Barnes and Noble is currently having a giveaway.  100 winners nationwide will receive a brand new Caroline Abbott doll in a random drawing taking place on October 15th.  You can either enter online or in stores, but there is only one entry allowed per person and per email address.  Also, all entrants must be at least 18 years old, so if you're younger than that, you'll have to get a parent to enter for you.  If you'd like to enter online, you can click HERE to go directly to Barnes and Noble's Caroline Drawing page.

The other great thing about this giveaway is that it gives those of us without an AG Place nearby an opportunity to see this gorgeous new doll in person! :)  I hightailed it for my local Barnes and Noble this morning after dropping off my two older daughters at school, and sure enough, there was Caroline, looking adorable but slightly claustrophobic in her protective plexiglass. ;)

I had my cell phone with me, so I took a couple of pictures.  (Sorry about the crummy quality!!  I don't have a smart phone.) ;)  Trust me, these pictures do NOT do her any sort of justice.  

As you can probably tell, I also had a major problem with the store lights reflecting off of the plastic surface of her container.  

Still, it was wonderful to be able to see her in person.  Her eyes are just stunning, and I am well on my way to being completely "in love" with this doll. :D  It probably won't be anytime soon, but someday I would like to add Caroline to my doll family. 

I decided to purchase a "Meet Caroline" book while I was there, so I'll be sure to share my thoughts after I've had a chance to read it. :)

Now off you go to enter the drawing! ;)

My New Doll Rooms Post #4 (Tess and Hailey's Room)

Thanks for hanging in there through all of these doll room posts. :}  I wanted to share as many details of the rooms as I could without creating the longest blog post known to mankind. ;)

So, for those of you who are new to this, I've provided links to the first 3 doll room posts here:

      Hayden and Jenna's Room
      Emma and Charlie's Room
      Rachel and Maggie's Room (plus the BFC Ink/Hearts 4 Hearts Room)

Now, it's time to move on to the 5th and final room:  Tess and Hailey's room. :)

This was another one that took me a while to figure out.  Tess and Hailey have been there from almost the beginning, so they have a lot of stuff and several cute pieces of furniture that I really wanted to fit.  It took some time and lots of trial and error, but I finally figured out the best way to get everything just right. :)

First off, we have Hailey's Hello Kitty nightstand/shelf that my mom found for me at Goodwill.  On top, Hailey has her pink Hello Kitty figure, a box of CDs, and her Littlest Pet Shop chameleon...or maybe it's an iguana?  She prefers to think of it as a chameleon, since then it reminds her of Pascal. :)

The first shelf has her Hello Kitty tape, hole punch, and stapler, along with her scrapbook and other books.  The Hello Kitty drawer is full of some of her extra books, collectibles, and other various items.   

Here's Hailey, having fun with her Rapunzel and Flynn dolls.  Her chair is the same one that used to be in Hayden's room.

Hailey's shelf is one of my favorite pieces of doll furniture, because it has so much display space. :)  The top shelf has, from left to right, her Hello Kitty calendar from McDonald's, her mini Valentine's Day kitty figure, her Hello Kitty bubblegum that Charlie brought back for her from Eureka, her mirror, a Hello Kitty figure, and her Hello Kitty gumball machine.

The second shelf holds her Hello Kitty pencil pouch, her Hello Kitty eraser/paper doll, 4 Hello Kitty Squinkies, her Hello Kitty hot chocolate, her Hello Kitty clock, two kitty Squinkies, and her Hello Kitty picture frame with a picture of Tess inside.

The third shelf has her Rapunzel doll, another Hello Kitty figure, a framed picture of Hailey and Charlie, her camera, a Hello Kitty pin back button, and her stuffed Hello Kitty made by TY.

The narrow shelf underneath holds her notebooks and other art supplies, and the drawer has even more random stuff (she must be a pack rat like me!). ;)

Next to her shelf is her cute stuffed bunny.  She loves him because he's so soft and cuddly.

In the middle of the room is Tess's curio cabinet, one of my other absolute favorite pieces of doll furniture.  It was originally supposed to be for jewelry storage.

On the top Tess has a porcelain doll, some framed pics, the miniature tea set Maggie brought her from Eureka, a clock, and her Holly Wildwood Sylvanian Families bunny.

A quick look at some of Tess's figurines and Kitty Squinkies.  I've probably mentioned this in a previous post, but my dad made a special wooden box to fit inside this so it would have shelves like a real curio cabinet.

Tess keeps an extra framed picture and her music box next to her dresser.

And speaking of her dresser, here it is.  At the risk of sounding repetitive, I have to say that this is yet another of my favorite furniture pieces.  It was a Salvation Army find.  

The top of the dresser holds Tess's books, her Hedgehog eraser, more framed pics, her miniature cottage, another mini tea set, and her beloved Anniversary Samantha doll.

Tess also has posters from some of her favorite Jane Austen movie adaptations, along with a little inspirational poster she got at Ladies Retreat last year.

Tess and Hailey's bed sits in front of Tess's dresser.  True, it's a bit of a squeeze to get both of them on there, but it works. ;)

Hailey and Tess both have a Miss AG Bear now. :)

Tess's cat, as yet unnamed (he was originally Marisol's cat Rascal), guards her "Pride and Prejudice" book.  I'm thinking I might name him Diamond or Ace, and "he" might end up being a "she" instead.  I haven't decided for sure yet.

Oh, and their rug is another place mat.  It technically doesn't match very well, but it's lovely and old-fashioned looking, so I decided to use it anyway. :)

So now that you've made it through all of my doll room posts, here's a look at the entire doll room section of my bedroom.  Yes, I have an amazing hubby.  And as you know, these are not all of my dolls! :}

I've also taken some pics of the way I've rearranged the rest of the room, so stay tuned! :)

My New Doll Rooms Post #3 (Rachel and Maggie's Room; BFC Ink/Hearts 4 Hearts Girls Room))

Today's post features Rachel and Maggie's room, which is at the bottom of my stacked doll rooms.  To see my two previous posts, click here:

  

      Hayden and Jenna's Room

      Emma and Charlie's Room

And before I forget, this question keeps coming up in the comments, so I'll mention it here.  The dimensions of these rooms are approximately 24 inches tall by 24 inches deep by 37 inches wide, just so you have an idea of how big they are. :)  When figuring out the dimensions, I took into account my available space, the amount of dolls and furniture I wanted to fit into each room, and the materials my dad had on hand.  Hope this is helpful to all of you! :)

Out of all of the rooms, this one looks the plainest to me, probably because of the white walls.  I still love it, but I'm definitely looking forward to hanging up some posters and things to give this room a bit more character. :)

First off, we have Maggie and Rachel's bed.  You'll notice that it looks very similar to Emma and Charlie's bed.  That's because it's exactly the same (except that I decided to keep this one its original color).  To change things up a bit, I decided to partially pull the trundle bed out so that Rachel had a place to sit.  The bed holds both Rachel's stuffed Kermit (a treasure I found at a thrift store on the coast!) and Maggie's stuffed unicorn.  By the way, I'd like to apologize for the rather yellow tint to some of the pictures in this room.  I had a really hard time getting the lighting right. :(

In the corner is the girls' dresser.  Maggie was a bit annoyed by the roses, but it was the best I could do. ;)  

The top of the dresser holds the girls' radio and CDs, as well as Rachel's Thor action figure and monkey eraser, and Maggie's Iron Man action figure, unicorn eraser, and Toothless dragon from "How to Train Your Dragon".  I originally had a much bigger Toothless toy for Maggie, but he was really huge and didn't exactly fit well with the doll displays.  This smaller Toothless was at Salvation Army for 50 cents.  Perfect! :)

The girls keep their books and magazines on the floor between the bed and the dresser so that they can easily reach them at bed time.

Next to the dresser is a white shelf that holds all of their treasures.  You can also just barely see Maggie's Aragorn/Strider action figure and her big unicorn figure between the two pieces of furniture.  Oh, and the rug is actually a placemat. :)

The top of the shelf has Maggie's pirate's gold from her coastal vacation, Rachel's seashell, a picture of Maggie at the beach, Maggie's Frodo figure, a framed picture of Tess and Maggie, and Maggie's porcelain lion figurine.  

The first shelf holds Maggie's unicorn collection.

The middle shelf has their Avengers Squinkies (sorry about the crooked picture!).

The bottom shelf has their globe (a pencil sharpener from Target) and Rachel's pail of shells.

Next to the shelf is a sandcastle and Maggie's "Lord of the Rings" magnetic mini poster.

After I finished filling the three rooms, I realized that I had a lot of extra space on top of them.  At first, I used it to store some of my extra doll stuff, but then I realized I could make it into another fun doll room.  I had some leftover furniture and accessories, so I got to work making a room for my BFC Inks and Hearts For Hearts Girls. :)

Here it is!  Once again, the "floor" (or ceiling of the next room, however you want to look at it) is NOT as crooked as it looks in this picture. :}  

I didn't end up using all of my BFC Inks and Hearts For Hearts Girls because the room ended up looking too crowded with that many dolls in it.  

Zelia enjoys playing dolls...

...and so does Nahji!

BFC Ink Noelle gets ready to pour some tea...

...as she visits with Yuko and Calista.

A close-up of the furniture between them.  The tree with the ovals hanging from its branches is a little picture frame I just picked up at Goodwill.  I definitely need to take some more pics of the girls so I can fill it up! :)

I love this little curio, and especially love how the McDonald's Madame Alexander dolls look in it! :)

I used a mini quilt from Goodwill for the rug.  I thought it brightened up the "room" nicely.

So here's how all 4 of the rooms look together.  And don't worry...I haven't forgotten Tess and Hailey. :)  I'll share pics of their newly rearranged room in the next post.

Click HERE to see the next post in the series! :)

My New Doll Rooms Post #2 (Emma and Charlie's Room)

On to the next doll room! :)  For those of you who missed my first post in this series, click HERE to see Hayden and Jenna's new room. :)

I decided that Emma and Charlie should have the light green room with the hardwood floor.  I LOVE the way this one turned out. :)  (I noticed after I posted this that the floor looks really crooked in this picture.  It's not...it must just be the angle of the camera!  I couldn't very well have my father's integrity as a woodworker besmirched, now could I?) ;)

Here we have Emma and Charlie's bed, which is an American Girl bed I found on Craigslist in rough shape.  I repainted it with silver spray paint to make it unique from Maggie and Rachel's bed (which you'll see in the next post).  It has a trundle bed underneath.  I decided to keep the trundle hidden to make the room more open and spacious.

At the head of the bed are Emma's Shahrukh bear and Ruthie doll, and Charlie's Buzz, Woody, and Kit doll.

Faithful Rontu sits at the foot of the bed.  He doesn't like to be far away from Charlie. :)

This large white shelf in the corner was a thrift store find.  It actually came with two drawers, but I took them out and used it as a shelf instead.  This is the shelf that was in Hayden's room before.

The top has some framed pictures (and one frame yet to be filled), a Bath and Body Works candle, Charlie's  Hawaiian vacation Jessie, Woody, and Buzz figures, and her big Flick from "A Bug's Life".

The first shelf belongs to Emma, and has her stone elephant, her Christmas Belle doll, her "Beauty and the Beast" Squinkies, her tiny Pascal from "Tangled", her Bollywood stars playing cards, her American Girl Cecile doll, and her Lego Friends Emma doll.

The next shelf belongs to Charlie and has many of her Disney Pixar toys.  She has Jessie and Buzz Lightyear from the "Toy Story" movies, Princess Atta from "A Bug's Life", Merida from "Brave" (although it was not her favorite Pixar film), Jack Jack (still in his package) from "The Incredibles", Wall-e and Eve from "Wall-e", Mater and Lightning McQueen from "Cars", and in the front she has Buzz under a cone (a TS2 Squinkie), Remy from "Ratatouille", Gill from "Finding Nemo", Boo from "Monsters Inc.", and another mini Buzz Squinkie.

The bottom shelf holds the girls' books, CDs, and art supplies.

Beside the shelf are Emma's Belle and Rapunzel dolls, Charlie's Buzz Lightyear car and Woody guitar, and the girls' games.

I absolutely love this dresser, especially in this room.  It looks like it was made for it! :)  This was the dresser I found at Goodwill for $4.99 on the day it opened.

On top of the dresser we have Emma's Belle journal and her tiny New Testament.  Next to that is a lamp I found at Salvation Army.  It actually holds a tea light candle.  I wouldn't feel comfortable burning a candle in their room, but I'm thinking about using one of those battery-powered, fake tea light candles instead. :)

Next to the lamp is a third Buzz Lightyear Squinkie, the girls' Vaseline, anti-bacterial hand gel, and lotion, Emma's jewelry box, Charlie's Koala from her coast trip, some wallet-sized pics of Charlie, Charlie's hibiscus flower (also from her trip), and a framed picture of the two sisters. 

I especially love the little Vaseline jar.  I found it at the checkout aisle in my local Walmart.  It's the perfect size for them, and as long as you don't notice that it says "lip therapy" on it, it looks like the real thing. ;)

Charlie and Emma love their new room! :)

I have a framed picture and several posters I hope to put up in this room eventually, but this is how it looks for now. 

More to come as I have time to post! ;)

Click HERE for the next post in the series! :)