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Welcome back to the Spring Has Sprung doll photo challenge! I know we skipped a year, but since there seems to be some interest--we're bringing it back for 2024! My dolls and I are all very excited to get this started, and we hope that you guys enjoy this too! Like last time, we decided to focus the prompts around some of the maybe lesser known holidays taking throughout spring! This is an absolutely no pressure challenge, please feel free to participate as much or as little as you want to, we’re all just here to have fun! I’m using the tag #springhassprungag2024 for this challenge if you guys want to use it too (and please, even though this challenge was made primarily with American Girl Doll Tumblr in mind if you have other kinds of dolls who want to participate they are totally welcome as well!) I'm making it my own personal goal to try to showcase my dolls you all may not have seen as much, and I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!

Week One: Reading 3/17-3/23

In honor of "Read to Me Day" on 3/19 share a picture of your dolls reading or sharing their favorite books :)

Week 2: Theater 3/24-3/30

In honor of "World Theater Day" on 3/27, share your dolls performing in or enjoying their favorite piece of theater!

Week 3: Colors 3/31-4/06

In honor of "Crayon Day" in 3/31 and "Rainbow Day" on 4/03, share your dolls wearing their favorite color--or all the colors of the rainbow!

Week 4: Pets 4/07-4/13

In honor of "Pet Day" on 4/11, share your dolls with their pets--or, if they don't have a pet, sharing their favorite animal or stuffed animal!

Week 5: Lookalike 4/14-4/20

In honor of "Lookalike Day" on 4/20, dress your dolls up like each other, or dress up to match your doll!

Week 7: Creativity 4/21-4/27

In honor of "World Creativity and Innovation Day" on 4/21, show your dolls being creative or innovative, or sharing a piece of creativity or innovation that they think makes the world a better place!

Week 7: Superheroes 4/28-5/04

In honor of "National Superhero Day" on 4/28, share your dolls dressed up as or appreciating their favorite superhero!

Week 8: Teachers 5/05-5/11

In honor of Teacher Appreciate Week, share your dolls appreciating their favorite teacher--or, if they want to be a teacher, share what they dream about teaching!

Week 9: Endangered Species 5/12-5/18

In honor of "Endangered Species Day" on 5/17, have your dolls help raise awareness for their favorite endangered species.

Week 10: Tea Time 5/19-5/25

In honor of both "Baking Day" on 5/19 and "Tea Day" on 5/21, share your dolls having tea time--or maybe even a whole tea party!

Week 11: Smiles 5/26-6/01

In honor of "National Smile Day" on 5/31, share something that makes you and your dolls smile :)

Week 12: Oceans 6/02-6/08

In honor of "Ocean's Day" on 6/8, share your dolls enjoying or sharing something they love about the ocean!

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Useful Websites for Identifying AG Stuff

A Thousand Splendid Dolls - These Flickr albums have great high res photos of a ton of American Girl clothes and accessories.

AG Heaven - Almost all the illustrations from American Girl books and magazine stories. Constantly being updated.

AG Playthings.com - This site is pretty useful for the early American Girl of Today line and the older lines like Hopscotch Hill.

AG Playthings Message Board - Fun place! The reviews section is viewable even if you’re not a member. Here’s a link to the Historical Characters section.

AG Scans - Paper items from all the historical collections plus a few modern ones. Also has some assembly instructions.

American Girl Wiki - Almost every single American Girl thing. I don’t really agree with how it’s run but it is useful. The Visual Chart of the Truly Me Dolls is especially helpful.

Curt’s Complete Guide to American Girl Doll Collecting - It’s no longer complete since it hasn’t been updated in years but it’s invaluable as a resource for the early Pleasant Company and partnership with other brands products. You can also see all the Scenes and Settings Scenes.

Emily’s American Girl Dolls - Book illustration comparison, photos of the Rebecca dollhouse, Kirsten’s mini paper dolls, and scans of the short-lived Pastimes newsletter

Lissie and Lilly - Paper doll scans, a gallery of dolls dressed in various outfits, lots of doll related reference guides. Pleasant Company catalog scans posted on Flickr.

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When the end finally comes for the terrible yellow fever epidemic that swept through New Orleans in 1853, Cécile and Marie-Grace help put together la célébration of the end of the sad times and the return of normal life. The two girls get to work making paper flowers to decorate the theater and give to the audience! 

For the happy occasion, I made this dress for ma fille précieuse Cécile, based on the book illustration! I spent a long time looking for the right fabric, until I finally found this green floral print at JoAnn Fabrics. For the smaller details (since I’m overflowing on fabric and notions), I tried to stick to using stuff that I already had in my sewing stash, including this green silk ribbon, lace trim, tiny buttons, and antique cherub charm that I used instead of what looks like a cameo brooch. 

Cécile’s green dress actually makes only one appearance in her series, but it also shows up in some promo images. For the first illustration, the one that shows the majority of her dress, I think it was meant to be a half-page book illustration, but at some point the decision was made for the books to have only a few full-page illustrations instead. 

This is one of my favorite of Cecile’s dresses, even with just a small glimpse of it. Unfortunately, like most of the clothes seen in her series, very few of them were actually produced by American Girl. 

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Happy year of the dragon! 🐉

Ivy and I continued our tradition of going to our city’s Lunar New Year celebration and had tons of fun! The performances, decorations, and food were all fantastic. The highlight was, of course, the wonderful lion dance!

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American Girl is offering FREE downloads of books featuring their Black characters!!

This includes books and short stories featuring historical characters like Addy Walker, Cécile Rey, Melody Ellison and modern characters like Gabriela McBride, Makena, Evette, and Maritza.

Check it out!

#american girl #american girl books

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Sorted through my doll patterns today, and I came across this one.

Now, I don't know about you, but version B screams Melody at me.

I've been trying to hunt down the original pattern.

I did find this Barbie pattern, which looks an awful lot like the patterns on the pattern I have, just different colors. I haven't found a version in a larger doll size, so they may have sized up the pattern to 18 inch dolls instead of re-releasing the Barbie version.

I'm guessing someone snuck a little bit of their fandom into the cover art!

#ag dolls #american girl #american girl dolls #agblr #american girl melody #sewing #doll clothes

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(Please ignore the fact that Molly is not wearing her glasses) 🙂

Molly McIntire kind of inspired this entire readathon project. When I bought my Molly doll last fall, she came with her copy of Meet Molly. I read it one afternoon out of nostalgia, and it made me realize I wanted to read *all* the books.

In my mind, Molly, Samantha and Kirsten are icons. These are the three American Girls who launched the brand and form the foundation upon which everything else was built. If they hadn’t been popular and successful, we wouldn’t have any of the other historical dolls, let alone any of the other AG product lines. Molly is also the last girl of my childhood; the last character for whom I have childhood memories associated with her books. I actually have a lot of thoughts on this one…

Pre-Reading Thoughts: When I got back into American Girl last year, one of the first fandom havens I visited was the American Girl subreddit. I still mostly enjoy this subreddit and I read and post on it daily. I’m a veteran reddit user and one thing that is very common on that site is sub echo chambers. Subreddits devoted to anything you can think of will seem to fall into patterns of group think with certain opinions becoming standard operating procedure on the sub, coming up over and over again as if everyone feels that way. The AG subreddit has a few of those but the one that stands out the most for me is a general hatred of Molly McIntire. Molly is extremely unpopular over there.

To say that this shocked me would be an understatement. For me, Molly always felt like one of the most beloved of the Pleasant Company girls. All through my childhood, all of the AG fans I knew seemed to like Molly. I personally loved her. It honestly hurt me (and still does) to see people writing that Molly is a brat, is boring, that her books are bad, that her story isn’t important, that Emily “should have been” the main character, etc. etc. People have incredibly uncharitable readings of her character and actions, present things that happened in her books with little or no context and generally hate on her. I have defended her on a few occasions, but I was doing so based on my memories of her books from over twenty years ago. I was really ready to refresh my memory.

Molly was always one of my personal favorite American Girls. Kirsten was my top girl, but Molly was probably second. Looking back on it, it is so strange to me that I never got a Molly doll as a child. I had two opportunities to do so. Talking with my mom about it, I do think that she influenced me (not in a bad way!) to get Felicity for my second doll. I think Felicity was my mom’s favorite and my family has such strong ties to Williamsburg. That makes my love for my Felicity doll very sweet (she makes me think of my mom…) but it does mean that I didn’t ask for Molly, who is probably who I really wanted. Finally getting her as an adult was a real moment of joy for me.

I read her books a LOT as a kid. There actually exists a picture of me reading Meet Molly in my bedroom. I remembered Molly’s books as having a fresh, modern energy. I remembered Molly as being outgoing and silly and full of big emotions. I did not remember her as a brat. And these books meant a lot to me on a personal level, which I’ll get into below. Would I feel the same way about these books now?

Thoughts on Books: Yep, I feel the same way. I still love Molly. I still love Molly’s books. I don’t understand why that subreddit hates her. I mean, it’s perfectly fine if she isn’t your favorite. But I’m here to tell you how I feel, and I love this girl and these stories. I’ll start by explaining why it was that Molly meant so much to me as a kid and has perhaps always colored my judgment slightly. I am a military brat. My father was an officer in the United States Army until I was a teenager when he retired. I read voraciously as a kid and I never, ever read books about kids who had parents in the military. We just didn’t seem to be a demographic of family that got written about much.

Molly’s father was in the Army. More than that, he was serving overseas far away from her. During my entire fourth grade year, my father was stationed overseas while my mom, brother and I stayed behind in America. We were separated for a year and he was in an active militarized zone. He was also deployed on a number of other occasions all through my youth. In Molly, I saw a piece of my own experience reflected. It meant so much to me. Everything related to her Dad in these books was critically important to me as a child and reading them as an adult, I was full of empathy for Molly and for young me. Her worry for him, their long-distance communication, the fact that she isn’t sure if she (or he) will have changed while they have been apart. It really hurts me when I see people say that Molly “had it easy” or “had no struggles” or “had a story that was totally separate from the War.” That’s absolutely not the case. Families serve.

And I thought the stories did a great job of showing over and over again how life on the home front affected every day, regular families. Molly’s class is constantly discussing the war in school. Every aspect of her home life from food to clothing to hobbies is impacted by rationing and the war effort. She and all of her friends have people in their families fighting in the war and we hear of at least two supporting characters who die (including their teacher’s fiancé). That was the World War II experience for most American children.

Molly’s books are also just very warm and cozy. I’m a big history nerd (probably at least in part because I loved American Girl as a child…) and the mid-20th century is my favorite period to study and read about. Her life in the ‘40s was a lot like mine in many ways. Her school looked similar to mine. She went Trick or Treating and went to camp and had an older brother who teased her. This was history but it was so relatable. We should be glad that most children in the 1940s didn’t have to suffer the kinds of hardships we saw with many of the earlier chronological dolls. I love Molly’s big family and her friends and I love the experiences she has. The knitting circle, playing in the snow in her pajamas, almost doing a home perm in the room above the garage. Absolutely everything about Molly Saves the Day was always so much fun to me. That is one of my most read and most cherished childhood favorite books. That game of capture the flag was endlessly entertaining and exciting to me. 

American Girl should be educational, but that has turned into some adult fans wanting the characters to suffer through some incredible hardships and to see the characters who don't have as difficult of lives as 'lesser.' That's just not how I feel. I like the fun parts of the books very much. I loved them as a kid. I love seeing that girls have always been girls, going all the way back to Kaya. And the mid-century stories have such a sweet wholesomeness to them.

Thoughts on Molly: I said above that I think people have uncharitable readings of Molly. I say that because I see people bring up her flaws, shortcomings and mistakes all the time (and dismiss her as a brat) without acknowledging (a) the narrative purpose of those things or (b) the growth that she demonstrates. Molly messes up. Repeatedly. In many ways, she is one of the most realistic of the nine-year-old girls we have read about. She is a daydreamer who wishes to find glory and praise, especially because she has obvious insecurities. Yes, she plays pretend bomb shelter with her friends. In terms of the narrative, she does this because it is wrong and so that she can be corrected by Emily, who can educate her about the realities of the war in England. She is jealous of Alison’s idea getting chosen for the Lend a Hand competition, but she eats crow at the end and learns that it isn’t all about herself and the project only gets off the ground when all the girls work together.

I’ve even seen people criticize her for wishing for presents from her father for Christmas even though she explicitly states on the page that she doesn’t actually care about the presents—receiving a box of gifts would be proof that her father was alive and well. She is really wishing for his safety. Molly is a silly chatterbox. She isn’t a shrinking violet or a genius student or a perfect role model. She’s an every girl. She flubs things. But she’s good-hearted and fun. And she’s a kid! Lest we forget. I do see growth in her by the final book as well, especially in how she is no longer hoping for everything to magically be just like it was before the war. She has adjusted to her new circumstances, while also understanding that she doesn't need to be a completely new, grown-up person to still be loved.

Thoughts on Supporting Characters: I am especially fond of Molly’s best friends Linda and Susan. I wish they had been selected for the Best Friend line rather than Emily, who appears in but one book. Linda and Susan are major supporting characters and, as I’ve written before, I love girl friendships. Susan is such a cheerful sweetheart and I always thought Linda was awesome as a kid. I still do as an adult. I think I may actually be more like Linda than I am any other American Girl character. I too am plain-spoken, practical and self-deprecating. She really is straight-ahead as a person and I appreciate that. They are both good foils for Molly in their own way and I think the hair perm scene is very indicative of their dynamics. Susan is just happily guessing as she goes along, assuming it will all turn out in the end. Linda is the voice of reason.

I also really like Molly’s family. Her mother Helen is a delight—just a very warm presence all through the books. She comes to tuck a sick Molly into bed in the last book and Molly describes her as being beautiful and smelling like perfume. That’s kind of how I always felt about my mother when she came to put me to bed. Ricky is a very realistic teasing older brother (don’t I know it). I like Jill and Molly’s bond and the way Jill can be a good older sister when she lets Molly in. Brad is very cute and is especially adorable in Emily’s book Brave Emily, trying to take care of Emily in his own way.

I like Emily fine but I don’t really understand her popularity in the fandom—certainly not thinking she should have been the main character of this story. I think her popularity must have skyrocketed following the release of her doll (which is admittedly very, very cute). She's a fairly minor character. Molly does try to meet her halfway with their tea party (having some things Molly wants and some that Emily wants), but it is Emily who is stubborn about keeping it all authentically English. Her supplemental book was just fine but I found that I didn’t like it as much as the main series. It actually takes place in the middle of Happy Birthday, Molly and I found the plot a little bit thin.

Thoughts on the Setting: As far as I know (this may change in a future series I haven’t read yet), Molly is the only character with an entirely fictional setting. Jefferson, Illinois is not real. The point was to just have it be generic middle America and I think that actually works well. Towns all over America were just like Jefferson, with mothers working at the Red Cross, fathers serving overseas, kids doing projects to help the war effort, etc. It’s a good stand-in for any one of a thousand towns. For Molly, it is really the time period that is the most important part of the setting rather than the location and life on the home front certainly comes to life. I liked when they discussed the purpose of the stars in people’s windows indicating how many members of the household were serving. Or the general way in which “patriotism” was made a part of everyone’s lives all day every day. It's "patriotic" for Molly to not get new rain boots.

Favorite Book: Shoutout to Molly Saves the Day for entertaining me so much as a kid, but my favorite book as an adult was Changes for Molly. I read it in the crowded breakroom at work and had to hold back my tears at the end. That scene of Molly’s father finally coming home when Molly is the only one there and her rushing into his arms…oh gosh. And the way that he thinks she looks perfect because she is his same olly Molly.  It really tugged at my heartstrings. This book also has some of the best Molly/Linda/Susan interactions, which I love, as well as great conversations for Molly with her older sister and her mother. She’s growing up and more understanding of the changing world.

Least Favorite Book: Happy Birthday, Molly is certainly the most complicated book in the series. Molly does make some big mistakes here but most of them are out of ignorance and cluelessness rather than maliciousness. Emily isn’t quite what Molly expected, but they bond when they discover they have things in common. And she does learn about how different Emily’s struggles are from her own. However, it can still be a frustrating read and I dislike when pets are introduced in these books just to immediately disappear. Molly’s dog never appears again and it frankly seems foolish to give a dog to Emily when she will have to travel overseas with it at some point or leave it behind.

I wasn’t hugely into Brave Emily either, with its weak story about the flutophone. It also was weirdly overly positive about Molly in Emily’s narration—constantly talking about how great Molly was. It felt odd and unnecessary, almost like character shilling. Just let Molly’s actions speak for themselves. Plus they have this big bonding moment at the end but this happens chronologically before their massive fight about the tea party when they were still misunderstanding each other. It feels more like the book should be set after the events of Happy Birthday.

Thoughts on the Artwork and Doll: I mentioned in my Kirsten reviews that Renee Graef has the best and most iconic illustrations for an American Girl series. She may actually be tied with Nick Backes. He did the original illustrations for the last two Molly books and then was asked to re-illustrate the first four for consistency. His art has been the look of Molly since 1989 and they are the only Molly illustrations I’ve ever known. I just Googled the original Molly art by Chris Payne and I’d never seen it before.

Backes’ illustrations are beautiful and timeless—the perfect Americana feeling for Molly’s stories and characters. His art is wholesome, fun and lively and his character design is fantastic. So many of his illustrations have stuck in my head forever, from the girls getting sprayed by the hose on Halloween in the first book to Molly and her mother looking at the family photo albums in the last book. I have the small pocket book “Everything I Know I Learned from American Girl” which pulls illustrations from the books of the first ten historical girls for fun life lessons. Backes’ illustrations are featured more than anyone else’s.

The Molly doll is everything. From her braids to her pie bangs to her glasses, there has never been another gosh and golly Miss Molly in AG history. She’s iconic. Still the only representation for us bespectacled folks. One of only I believe eight or nine AG dolls with gray eyes. Such an adorable wardrobe full of memorable pieces. She and Kit really remind me of each other with their down to earth looks. I’m so glad I chose the two of them to be my daughter’s dolls.   

Overall: Maybe this entry was a bit defensive. I can’t help it. I’ve read a lot of negativity about Miss Molly as of late and it really hurts me. This character meant so much to me as a child and her world and books were absolutely a safe space for me. She’s kind of a mess, but that’s why I love her. A character can be both relatable and admirable and Molly walks that line. I also just have fun with her. More than I think any of the other characters, she feels like a friend to me. If I have any AG regrets, it is definitely not getting her as a child. I’m so glad she’s in my house now and hopefully enjoying herself.

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Ugh, Pixie Faire. It’s the second night of Hanukkah, and Pixie Faire has produced a Jewish pattern under their house brand of Liberty Jane.

While kippot (yarmulkes) are not with a specially religious garments (as a tallit would be), they are worn by non-Jews a sign of respect and are often worn by observant Jews during prayer and at the synagogue.

As Pixie Faire/Liberty Jane is owned by a Christian, they never should have developed and sold this pattern. Also, they plagiarized their kippah description directly from the Wikipedia article.

If you’d like to sew your Jewish dolls and their friends a kippah (so they can wear one at your doll’s b’ mitzvah!) I HIGHLY recommend purchasing a handmade item or pattern from a Jewish person.

SewJewish has a pattern available on Etsy, as well as other doll patterns and products! Check her blog too for tutorials, sewing tips, and more. I love her doll tallit tutorial, and I used her instructions when I made my doll’s!

You can find SewJewish’s kippah pattern here.

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Kavi and Amara wish everyone a bright and happy Diwali!

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Found a fat quarter of this doll fabric at my local thrift store. I'm not sure what I'll make of it though --- I don't know if I can bear to cut it up!

#fabric

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Such a beautiful variety of goods! I hope Antonia has lots of customers.

It has become an annual tradition for me to help Antonia put together her farmer's market booth, where she sells all of the fruits, vegetables, and homemade goods that her family's community farm has produced over the past year. Every year, the harvest brings more and more goods. But this autumn, she has outgrown the farmer's market, and is now selling at a roadside stand!

Antonia is ten years old in 1978, when she is inspired by the American Indian Movement to help establish a community farm on land her family owns. It's been a huge success. It has strengthened bonds between friends and neighbors as they all care for each other and make sure that nobody goes hungry.

Whatever is left over after everyone is fed, is then sold at the roadside stand. Antonia is also supplementing with a few special handmade extras that help bring in a little more money. The money will help pay for everything needed to help Snow Mountain Farm grow bigger and better.

Antonia is so proud of what the fields and orchards have grown.

Just look at the size of some of these pumpkins!

Under the cut, Antonia will give you an up-close look at what she's selling....

Everything seen here was either made by me, harvested from the wild, or purchased. (See if you can guess which ones were handmade/bought/gathered!)

The gourd and squash harvest was abundant this year. Antonia managed to coax the garden into producing a few giant pumpkins.

Lots of other fruits thrived as well!

Pears are new this year.

Beautiful pink plums are also new.

Apples are a returning favorite. There are three varieties this year: sweet yellow apples, tart green apples, and a red striped variety that has its own unique flavor.

In the front row are apples, plums, chiles, and pears. On the shelf there are fresh flowers and packaged seeds, various fruit jams, honey, apple cider, dried ground herbs, potted herb seedlings, packaged seeds, and bottles of apple cider.

Up on the shelf there are several varieties of jam: rose petal, peach, grape, prickly pear, and strawberry. Next to them is honey that the farm's bees made from the local wildflowers. The apple cider is made from apples grown in the farm's orchard.

One particular farmer is very gifted in the art of raising flowers. Here you can buy fresh cut flowers, or seedlings for your own garden.

Fruit and vegetable seedlings or seeds are also for sale.

On the checkout counter, Antonia is selling popcorn and apple cider donuts. Directly below the donuts are cartons of eggs, which include white, brown, and speckled eggs.

Below the checkout counter is the small shelf offering some smaller items. In the plastic bags are freshly made tamales, which are like dumplings of meat, veggies, beans, or cheese mixed with a corn dough and steamed inside corn husks. To the right are two wheels of goat's milk cheese. In the middle are skeins of yarn dyed with natural sources, like prickly pear fruits and cabbage leaves. Next to those are bars of soap, in sagebrush or rose petal scent. And on the right end of the shelf are bagged pine nuts, gathered from the wild.

Below that is more produce! On the left, colored corn. In the crates there are potatoes, cherries, strawberries, tomatoes, peaches, and cauliflower.

Antonia is especially proud of the fancy colored corn she has grown. It's fun to open the ears and see what colors the kernels are!

Next to that are giant sunflowers. Above that are the pretty gourds and squashes.

On the bench are some lovely watermelons. And surrounding those are even more pumpkins and squash!

These, too, emerged in all sorts of different colors and shapes. Antonia lets the different varieties cross pollinate, so that the appearances of the resulting pumpkins are a surprise.

Thanks for stopping by! Here, take a sunflower home with you!

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I saw this listing for two dolls for $15. I zoomed into that little spot of her body showing at her neck, asked no questions, held my breath and filled my Kirsten mug with coffee.

I met the seller in a diner parking lot, purchased her for $15 and ran to my car like a thief.

Finally, I took a peek under her dress…

Yup, this is my $15 white body Kirsten!

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I'm working on a 1930s sampler quilt with reproduction 1930s fabrics, and I realized I should make Kit her own 1930s quilt with my scraps.

A lot of the patterns are pretty efficient at using up fabric, so I may end up using some of my leftover fabric to do mini copies of my favorite blocks.

Comparison of some of the blocks I've made for Kit's vs my own 12 inch blocks.

#ag dolls #american girl #american girl dolls #agblr #american girl kit

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It's that time of year, so I've dug out the Halloween costumes. First up, we've got Leya in the Medieval Princess Outfit from 1998!

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Today I am starting to read We Need to Talk About Antisemitism by Rabbi Diana Fersko. This is the first book we'll be reading in an antisemitism and Jewish culture book group being led by iamexcessivelydollverted on instagram.