Hello friends and visitors, Treesa here. Quinley, over at the doll blog Q's Creative Corner, tagged me for the Mystery Blogger Award. Thanks, Quinley! I've been 'nominated' for similar blogging 'awards' in the past, such as the Great Doll Blog Award in 2016 and the Liebster Award in 2015. The Mystery Blogger Award specifically was the creation of blogger Okoto Enigma. Basically, these 'awards' are a way for bloggers to connect with and draw attention to other bloggers. The standard format for these types of awards requires any blogger who is tagged to answer a list of questions provided by whoever tagged them. Once these questions have been answered and the answers have been posted, the tagged blogger will then have to nominate a certain number of additional bloggers and write a new list of questions for their nominees.
The specific 'rules' for the Mystery Blogger Award are as follows.
1. Display the award logo on your blog.
2. List the rules.
3. Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
4. Mention Okoto Enigma, the creator of the award, and provide a link.
5. Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
6. Nominate 10-20 people
7. Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog.
8. Ask your nominees 5 questions of your choice, with one weird or funny question.
9. Share a link to your best post or posts.
That's a lot of steps, so let's take them one at a time. I already completed steps 1 through 4, so we'll skip ahead to step 8 and answer the list of questions that Quinley posted. Now, I'm not 100% sure why Quinley chose to nominate me, since the questions she wrote mostly seem to apply to 18 inch dolls, while my blog focuses primarily on one-sixth scale fashion dolls. Maybe this nomination was actually part of a cunning plan to try to get me and my dolls posting more regularly. Just kidding, Quinley, no offence intended. I do at least own some 18 inchers, so I'll do my best to answer Quinley's questions.
Question #1: Who is your favorite American Girl doll, and why?
My family started receiving American Girl Doll catalogs back when there were only 3 dolls to choose from: Kirsten, Samantha, and Molly. Kirsten was my favorite of the three, mostly because she befriends a Native American girl in one of the books of her series. I had a bit of a fascination with Native American culture back then. My mom actually contacted Pleasant Company after Felicity and Addy were released to suggest that they add a Native American doll to the line, and she was essentially told by a representative that because there were so many different native tribes in our nation's history it would be impossible to fairly single one out for inclusion in the line. So, when young me finally saved up enough birthday and Christmas money to buy an American Girl doll of my own, I chose Kirsten. If Kaya had been released at that time, I probably would've chosen her.
I also ended up developing a bit of a fondness for Josefina when I was going through my 'Zorro'/'Queen Of Swords' phase. For anyone who doesn't know, Queen Of Swords was a short lived addition to the syndicated TV adventure show craze that started with Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. In a nutshell, the title character of Queen Of Swords was pretty much a female version of Zorro, a Spanish aristocrat turned avenger of the common people.
Anyway, as far as American Girl dolls go, I don't really have a current favorite either in my own collection or in the present American Girl lineup.
Question #2: Do you like any other 18 inch dolls that aren't made by AG?
I have a few 18 inch dolls that aren't American Girl brand. I have a Magic Attic Club Rose doll that I managed to get, dressed in her 'meet outfit', for an amazing deal at a thrift store. As a grade-schooler, I used to pour over the Magic Attic Club catalogs just as much as I did the American Girl catalogs. Rose was my favorite of the Magic Attic Club dolls because her character had Native American heritage.
However, I think my current favorite of my non-American Girl 18 inchers is my Madame Alexander Wicked Witch Of The West doll, that I bought when I was on my 'fantasy skin tones' doll kick. This Wicked Witch doll has a similar body type and similar features to a standard 18 inch doll, but with a green skin tone. I've redressed her in a contemporary American Girl doll outfit, given her a pair of American Girl brand eyeglasses, and named her Helen, after the legendary beauty Helen Of Troy, because my doll is beautiful just the way she is. Yes, I know I'm a bit odd. In my defense, I may have still been in my X-Men/Marvel mutants phase when I bought Helen. But I can't remember for sure. I also gave Helen a black plush cat as a pet, who she named Gilbert. In my little group of 18 inch dolls, Helen is the one who does the most reading, and her favorite author is Lucy Maud Montgomery, who is best known for writing the Anne of Green Gables book series.
Question #3: What retired dolls do you think AG should bring back, and why?
I think Caroline would be a good candidate for a comeback, given how popular the Federalist/Regency period is in modern society due to Hollywood's perpetual cycle of adapting Jane Austen's work. Granted, I've never actually read Caroline's books, so I'm not entirely sure what aspects of the time period they cover. I've also heard a lot of good things about the Cecile and Marie-Grace AG line. But again, I never took time to read the books, so my opinions of the line are under-informed.
Question #4: If you were to create an AG doll (or any other type of doll), what would your doll's story be? And what would your doll be like?
I've tried my hand at creating character backstories for some of my dolls once or twice. I came up with a reasonably detailed, in-universe character bio for my Monster High Create A Monster Witch doll, who I named Sabina Osborne. I also incorporated a few elements from the musical stage play Wicked into the doll's backstory. In true Monster High fashion, even the doll's name has some deliberate character allusions worked into it. Sabina is actually a reference to the television show Sabrina: The Teenage Witch, starring Melissa Joan Hart. But I dropped the R to make it sound more Ozian, because of course, Osborne = Oz born.
I actually wrote up Sabina's backstory, mostly in the form of a stylized, first person narrative, and then posted it to my Fanfiction.net account with the title Sabina Of Oz, under my pen-name T'Ley. I had started drafting something similar for my Monster High Create A Monster Sea Monster girl doll, who in my mind is now Calpurnia, daughter of The Sea Witch. But I never actually finished writing it.
As far as my 18 inchers go, the only one I ever really attempted to construct an American Girl style backstory for was Drexel, an American Girl Just Like You #24. But that backstory was never fully fleshed out, and because I didn't write it down I can't remember now most of what I had planned. I know I named the doll Drexel after a well-to-do family from the early 1900s who were prominent in the history of my hometown. Drexel, the doll, was going to be a history buff who enjoyed antique hunting and learning about other time periods. I even gave her a miniature, hardcover copy of the book Antiquing For Dummies, to keep in the reusable canvas tote bag she would carry while browsing outdoor flea markets and garage sales. Of course, Drexel's favorite books were going to be the American Girl series.
Question #5: If you could own any of the clothes that your dolls have in your size, which one would you like to have, and why?
For everyday wear, I tend to prefer comfortable clothes over fashionable ones. My casual, summer wardrobe can mostly be boiled down to tee shirts and shorts, while for colder weather I tend to lean towards fleece pullovers paired with long pants. I do try to wear fancier or more formal tops and slacks in certain situations where I want to be respectful, such as attending weekly religious services.
I also prefer to wear loose fitting clothes, and I'm very sensitive to the weight and feel of certain fabrics as well. So, pretty much everything I've seen in the current doll market would, in my scale, either be too tight, or too heavy, or too scratchy, or what have you.
Step 9 involves sharing links to my 'best post or posts'. Since I'm not quite sure how to judge which posts are the 'best', I'll just link to some of my most viewed, and presumably most popular, posts.
(I am a little confused why this post has such a higher number of recorded views than Dandelion's original post.)
An Inspirational Moment With Misty and Tom Servo
As for steps 6 through 8, having to nominate other bloggers causes a bit of a problem for me, since so many of the ones I've followed over the years are no longer actively blogging. But then, my own blog has been rather quiet lately, so I can't exactly judge.
That just leaves step 5, tell your readers 3 things about yourself. I thought it might be a good idea to find out if there was anything specific you readers wanted to know about me. So, if there's anything that you've been curious about or that you've wanted to ask me, now's your chance. Leave your questions in the comments, and I'll choose a few to answer in a follow-up post.
Signed, Treesa
P.S. If there are problems with any of the links in this post, please let me know so I can try to correct them.
