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Sunday, October 21, 2007

Only 64 more days til Christmas, or in my case Yule

I love hubby so much!!! My daughter went out and brought in the mail and in there was the new "American Girls" catalog with the new doll! Well I went online and saw they had it on sale for $99 with the special TV offer. So I showed it to him and his eyes just about rolled out of his head....I explained to him that the doll itself is usually over $100 so it was a fantastic deal for our youngest daughter.

Well....if we had gotten it....it would end up being the ONLY thing she got....we wouldn't be able to afford anything else.

I told him that if I could find the cheaper dolls that look just like the American Girl dolls that I had gotten for my daughter when she was 4 when her brother was born, for myself in '98, and then again for my oldest daughter and her cousin for their 10th birthdays....I would....but I hadn't been able to find them anywhere.

On a whim I did a quick Google search and low-n-behold I found the Springfield Doll website!!!
These dolls are fantastic--they look incredibly like the AG dolls but are about 1/4 of the price, and if you have a child who is a bit more rough on dolls they are the perfect solution....and the AG clothes & patterns fit them!

So they had Michael's stores listed as a distributor, but the last time I was there they no longer were carrying them at our store, but on a whim I called. They had two models, both for $24.99 (I was told, but at check out they were only $18 each, and hubby let me get both - one for each of the girls)...one was very much like the first one my oldest daughter had when she was 4--red hair, green eyes....it bit the dust when she colored on the face and body with an ink pen and I decided to wash it to try to get the body clean...actually it was putting it in the drier that killed it.

Her hair fried into clumps and her eyelashes came off....so I cut down the hair as far as I could and tried to get one of those wigs for her, but it just wouldn't stay on---but my daughter loved her so much that she played with her anyways...until one of the arms fell off in 2000, then I had to take the doll to try to fix it.

The original collection, in 1996, was a Stuff-Your-Own type and they sold an armature that you put inside. This allowed you to make the doll as skinny or fat as you wanted--I like my dolls on the thick side so I packed her....in order to fix the arm I figured I would just have to undo the back where I had sewn her shut, pull out the stuffing and then attach the arm with a zip-tie from the inside as they had originally done (its the standard)...but first I forgot where I put the arm...then I forgot where I stored the doll for save keeping.

You can see a photo of "Amy" as my daughter named her on my website, she is featured on my doll sweater pattern. (before the wahing incident).

The ones I got for the girls 10th birthday we had to order via internet because no one was selling them.

Now I had already gotten each of my girls, and myself, one of those round knitting machines that you hand crank....normally $45-60, I got them for $5 each! It was such a bargain! This is working out great....plus I got my older daughter and myself booklets on patterns that used the Addi machine, but they should still be able to apply.

I love hubby---it was so sweet of him to take me out....the football game was starting in 1/2hr...and he usually keeps me away from Michael's like the plague (its almost as tempting as Walmart)....I was so surprised when I called Michael's and he over heard the call when I said the price---I think that may have been what did it....even buying two dolls we saved over 1/2 the money of buying one AG doll.

Yes I do have an AG doll for comparison.....several years ago I bought "Kirsten" for myself so I would have one AG doll for designing crochet pattern dolls for....but when she came I found she was the EXACT same doll as the Springfield dolls. I also have "Megan" from the Magic Attic Club dolls--I was so sad when I heard they went out of business....I loved that collection and the stories...

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