Thursday, August 28, 2014

The Beginning of BeForever

I stayed up late last night waiting for the new items to debut on American Girl's site. A lot of people are fussing because the new items aren't like the old ones, or aren't historically accurate, or are too girlie or frilly or bright. I say...who cares? I adored the vast majority of the new clothing. Even 70s Julie, whose original outfits were mostly not to my taste, now comes in an adorable pair of bell-bottoms and a crocheted vest and finally has her own coat. Addy's new blue school dress is gorgeous. Rebecca the 1914 New Yorker looks beautiful in her new purple suit and blue Hanukkah dress. I love Kit's red-and-white Reporter Outfit (and her typewriter's back, too!).

But my biggest interest in BeForever was the return of Samantha. They retired her in 2008, much to my frustration. I was delighted when American Girl announced on their Facebook page in February that they would be bringing her back, with a whole new collection. A lot of collectors have complained that it's too modern-looking or pink or frilly. I think it's fine. I don't love pink, but I do love frilly, and Sam looks good in pink. I think they're mostly complaining about the appropriately-named Frilly Frock. I like it; love her coat and Christmas dress, too. Her "hairstyling set" comes with lovely hat that might be worth getting later. Her bike is pretty, but at 115 dollars, it's a tad too expensive to get now.

I ultimately ended up buying the new "meet" outfits (the outfits the dolls come in) for Josefina and Samantha and Samantha's Bicycling Outfit. American Girl originally put out a three-wheeled bike and bike bloomers outfit for Sam in the mid-2000s. Both were long gone by the time I got into collecting again and hard to find on eBay (and could cost over $100 on the rare times they did show up). While Samantha's new bike bloomers look more like they should belong to Julie, they're still really cute and cost a lot less than her old ones.

(And her "meet" outfit was the only new thing besides revised books Josefina got out of this release. Evidently, AG says they're going to spotlight her in the spring.)

The rest of the day was pretty quiet. Work was the same as it has been all week - quiet off and on. Most people are probably waiting for their weekend off to shop. I spent the majority of the afternoon shelving candy. By the time it got busy, my relief was coming in for me, and I was on my way out.

As soon as I got home and had a snack, I went in the bath. That felt really nice after a long work week. I haven't had a day off since last Wednesday! Thankfully, I have tomorrow and Saturday off. I'll just be running errands tomorrow, but Saturday I'd like to go to the Berlin Flea Market, which is supposed to be huge.

I just ran a Garfield special while making tilapia with leftover tomatoes and potatoes for dinner. Garfield In Hollywood takes the fat feline and his human and dog buddy to the title city when they win a pet talent contest. Garfield is determined to become a star at any cost...even if that includes leaving Jon out of the act.

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