Review of Our Generation “Fashion Notes”

Our Generation has released a ton of new stuff lately but it doesn’t show up on their website!  What’s up with that?!  If you want to see some of it, you have to either look on the Target website, or hope that someone shares their finds on social media.  There are plenty of cute items, ranging from clothing to accessories, and prices on this line are still very good.  One set in particular caught my eyes–Fashion Notes.  And I was lucky enough to find it in a very unexpected stop at Target, yay!

The main reason I wanted it was for the little trumpet, although I thought it was a cute set as well.  This set retails for $17.99.

The top and skirt are cute and very well made.  The pink sparkles on the top are beads, and I’m not all that wild about them.  I’m not sure what is up with all of the blinged out doll clothes lately.

The trumpet is very cute and the set comes with two pages of sheet music.  I didn’t look at them closely enough to see if they are accurate or not.  I was kind of annoyed that they were taped together in the package, so I had to be very careful to get them apart.

The set includes a headband, leotards and shoes.  The headband is probably my least favorite thing in the set because it has this giant pom pom thing stuck to it.  I’ve not seen any of this in real life, not sure my dolls like it either.  The leotards are nice (although mine ended up snagged getting them out of the packaging).  The shoes are very cute though.

The shoes are the standard Our Generation plastic ones, but they have nice details.  Mine had two smudges on them out of the package, but they came off with just a damp cloth.  I loved the detail on the sole of the shoes.

Marie-Grace was the model for this outfit.  I think it looked cute on her, but I’m not sure if I’d use these pieces together.  The way the waist band on the skirt is made created a bulky look when the sweater is on.  And the shoes were a bit difficult to get on because of them being hard plastic, the tongue of the shoe was next to impossible to move to make it easier.

A close up of the sweater so you can see the metallic details.  Lots of metallic fabric in doll clothes lately too.

And a close up of the shoes once I got them on.  The laces are a bit long, not sure how to remedy that and not make them impossible to tie!

Here’s Marie-Grace with the trumpet.  I couldn’t get her to hold it without help, thank heavens for clear hair bands!

Overall, I think it’s a cute set, but I would use it more as separates.  All of the items are well made and fit the American Girl dolls just fine.  It’s not a perfect set, but it’s not horrible either, so I give it a B+ rating, marking off mostly for the weird headband and the stiff shoes.

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Some rather scary news…

You can imagine how shocked I was when I came across an article today that talked about retailer Toys R Us going bankrupt.  I’ve shopped there since the 1980’s, and it’s sort of an institution in the United States.  I’m sure there are some American Girl purists who would love to see this as they haven’t been happy about the AG product line being sold there.  However, it’s not that simple.  Once the news of this possible bankruptcy hit the news, shares of multiple toy company stocks dropped in price.  Mattel was included.

Not too long ago I saw a piece on the news about the difficulties that Lego is having financially as well.  Who would have ever thought that a company as well established and known worldwide like Lego would have any kinds of sales issues?  I’m sure 20 years ago, no one would have thought that Kodak would become a minor player in the photography industry.

The problem is that kids aren’t playing with toys like they did in the past.  Instead, they are playing video games or are obsessed with their smart phones.  Childhoods like many of us remember are rapidly disappearing.  I can’t help but think that we are going to lose a toy company or two before too long either.

If you’d like to read an article about the bankruptcy:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-18/toys-r-us-is-said-to-plan-bankruptcy-filing-as-soon-as-today

Sunshine Blogger Award –2017

Back in June I was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Dolls By The Dozen, and with everything I had going on, I totally missed it!  So I’m a little late to the party, but better late than never, right?

So the gist is to answer 11 questions and then come up with 11 questions to ask 11 people who I nominate.  Since I was so late getting to this, I’m not going to nominate anyone but instead, leave it open to anyone who wants to do it.  I’m sure most of the people I regularly would nominate have already done it, but there are probably others who’d love to give it a try!

The questions I had to answer are as follows:

1. What’s your favorite post you’ve ever done on your blog?
2. What’s your favorite photography tip?
3. What season is your favorite? (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall)
4. Do you play an instrument? Which one?
5. Do you like to cook or bake? What’s your favorite thing to make?
6. What’s your dream doll? (Custom, retired, available, leaked are options)
7. Where would you like to go if you could go anywhere?
8. What do you want to do when you grow up?
9. Do you prefer things you craft or things you save up to buy?
10. What’s your favorite bible verse?
11. What’s your favorite school subject?

So here goes.  Some of these I had to really think about and others were really easy.  Thanks again Christina for nominating me!

1. What’s your favorite post you’ve ever done on your blog? This was one of the hard ones, but “The Protest” is probably my favorite.  It’s kind of bittersweet though because I had a huge falling out with the person who inspired me to do it afterwards, and we no longer speak.  😦  Some of the bad Ebay ones were close runners up, I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard as I wrote something.
2. What’s your favorite photography tip?  Take two shots of everything–one with flash, one without flash! I sometimes see photos where the person tried to rely totally on natural light, and it flops.  Don’t be afraid to use the flash!  I take two photos of most of my shots, and then once I pull them up on the computer screen, decide which one looks better.  I get that natural light is always better, but it doesn’t always work.  Fill flash is your friend!
   
3. What season is your favorite? (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall)  Fall, but I hate what follows it. (I don’t like snow)
4. Do you play an instrument? Which one? Yes, actually several.  I started out with flute, but then also learned the piano, piccolo, baritone horn and tuba!  I dabbled with guitar too, was too busy to make a go of it, but I’m still tempted to try it again. (now you know why we have so many instruments and musical girls here!)
5. Do you like to cook or bake? What’s your favorite thing to make?  I wouldn’t say I like to cook or bake, but if I have to choose one, it would be cook.  My favorite thing to make–anything that involves chocolate and/or peanut butter!  I have a peanut butter pie that uses a no-bake cookie crust that is to die for.
6. What’s your dream doll? (Custom, retired, available, leaked are options)  Alya is actually my dream doll, I was so excited when I came across her on Ebay!!
7. Where would you like to go if you could go anywhere?  I still want to go to China.  And Scotland.  And Italy.  And Switzerland.  I couldn’t choose just one.
8. What do you want to do when you grow up?  Since I’m already grown up (or am I?), I’ll have to pick what I’d do if I had it to do over again and was just starting out.  I think I would enjoy being a history professor!
9. Do you prefer things you craft or things you save up to buy?  This is actually a hard question since I do a lot of crafting.  I’d have to lean towards that because it does give you a tremendous amount of satisfaction when you finish a craft project and it’s turned out well.
10. What’s your favorite bible verse? Psalm 118:24 “This is the day the Lord has made;
    We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
11. What’s your favorite school subject?  Band.  Does that qualify as a subject?  My best memories from school are from the many, many hours involved in several different band related groups and activities.  If I have to choose a regular subject, it would be math.  No, not history–we had the world’s lamest history classes.

I’m going to use the same 11 questions that were posed to me since I thought they were really good ones!  If you decide to give it a try, please let me know in the comments section with a link to your post.