The Fairest of Them All: Apple White

Remember how I said I wasn't planning on buying anything new for a little while? Well, Toys R Us heard me and gasped, and scheduled a Buy One, Get One Free sale on Monster High and Ever After High this past weekend. That's not the kind of sale you can let pass by, especially with the prices the way they are up here in Canada! I got myself a few things, and it's possible that someone else socked a few away for me for my birthday... ;)

I got myself Apple White and Blondie Lockes, and now I'm very nearly done with the basic Ever After High characters! I just need to get my hands on Cupid, and as soon as that happens, I'm sure the next wave will start hitting stores, because that's how these things work. Today, I'm going to show you Apple White, who I find myself enjoying more than I expected I would. Snow White has never been one of my favourite fairy tales, starting when I was four and I ran out of the movie theatre when the Evil Queen sent the huntsman after Snow White, and refused to go back in no matter how much my mother tried to convince me she'd probably be fine. There's some baggage there, alright? 

Add to that her colour scheme of red, gold and white which isn't exactly my favourite, and originally, I thought I was going to be perfectly happy to pass Apple over, even though she's one of the main characters.

If you want to know what changed my mind, click through and read on!

From the Vaults: A new series, starting with Madeline Hatter!

So, even though I definitely do buy a lot of dolls, and often have something new to talk about, there are times when I don't. Recently, I've decided to take a step back and slow down on buying new dolls and take advantage of it being a bit of a slower time in terms of releases and regroup and get myself ready for all the new, exciting things that are coming down the pike from both Monster High and Ever After High!

In this downtime, I've decided I'm going to go through my collection and do reviews of some of my other dolls that I bought before I started blogging. I'm going to call this series From the Vaults, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun to take a deeper look at some dolls I may have had for years! These reviews may be a bit different, because I won't have the original packaging anymore, and I may have even played around with redressing the dolls in question, so you'll get a different look at them than just being straight out of the box. Plus, it gives me more opportunity to practice taking photos, which will be especially fun as the weather gets better and I can take some outside.

Over on my tumblr I asked for suggestions of dolls to feature in this series, and one of the suggestions was Madeline Hatter, so I've decided to start with her. She's the only Ever After High doll I have that I haven't reviewed yet, so it seemed like a good place to start! And since I've asked for opinions over there, I want to ask my readers over here as well. Have a look through my current collection, and let me know in the comments who you'd like to see my thoughts on!

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's jump in and have a good look at Madeline Hatter, the first Ever After High doll to join my collection, but the last to be reviewed!

Join Maddie on her way down the rabbit hole!

She's so slow she's.....Deadfast! SDCC Exclusive Ghoulia Yelps

This is exactly going to be a review, since this doll isn't readily available anymore and is definitely a few years old, but I couldn't let her quietly join my collection without a bit of fan fare! Plus, Ghoulia hasn't had a new doll in the time I've been blogging, and since she IS my favourite character, I had to take the chance to get her in front of my camera!

As you'll know if you've ever had a look at my wishlist tab, my number one most wanted doll was the SDCC Exclusive version of Ghoulia Yelps, who comes dressed as her favourite comic character, Deadfast. In box, these dolls go for upwards of $300 dollars, usually WELL upwards of that, and that is not a price I was ever going to be comfortable paying. Especially when I know I would just take her out of the box, as cool as the box is. Recently in one of the Monster High Facebook groups I'm in, someone was selling an OOB Ghoulia. I nervously asked for a price, and while it was still more than I have ever paid for a doll, it was nowhere near what they usually go for, and I went for it. Maybe not the smartest decision I've ever made, but right now I'm pretty happy to have this awesome doll in my collection, so I'm feeling alright about it!

For more pictures, click through!

A-Tisket, A-Tasket: Picnic Casket Two-Pack, featuring Frankie Stein and Jackson Jeykll

Way back in November, Toys R Us Canada had the new Picnic Casket two-pack featuring Frankie Stein and Jackson Jekyll up for pre-order. It happened to coincide with their Black Friday sale, so I of course jumped on that and pre-ordered my set for 30% off! It was supposed to ship at the end of January, and then at the end of February, but I didn't actually get mine till the end of March. And then I ripped into the shipping box, super excited, aaaand...Frankie's makeup was smeared and Jackon had hair stuck in his lip paint. Sigh. You can see pictures of that original messed up set over at my tumblr. I was so disappointed!

Luckily, I do live close to a Toys R Us, and really only pre-ordered to get the discount, so on the weekend, we went off to do an exchange. My Toys R Us had an absolute ton of these two packs, and nearly every single one of the shelf was better than the one I actually received, so I grabbed a new one, did the exchange, and we were off! I was excited to finally be able to crack into the box and get my hands on these dolls, since Frankie is always a favourite, and I loved Jackson's outfit, though his hair needed a bit of work.

And I wasn't disappointed! Click on through to see lots of pictures, and my thoughts on the Picnic Casket two-pack!

She's got no strings: Cedar Wood

This week as an early birthday present, my mom gave me a brand new camera! It was pretty great timing too, as just a few days later I got both my Picnic Casket two pack, and, thanks to a friend who grabbed her over in the States, Cedar Wood from Ever After High!

Cedar is so gorgeous, she was the perfect first model to pose for me new camera. I'm still playing around with the settings and figuring out what works best for doll photos since this camera is considerably more complicated than the point and shoot I was using before, but this is the kind of learning curve I love! I mean, one of my favourite things to do is photograph my dolls, what could be better than getting a gift that is essentially permission to do it for hours?

As for Cedar herself, I think Ever After High has kind of out done themselves with this lovely lady! At first glance, she's obviously adorable, but the closer you look, the better she gets. I'm not even a huge fan of Pinocchio, and I was squealing at all the little details I was discovering! When Mattel gets it right, they really get it right, and I think they've hit the nail on the head with Cedar Wood.

Click on through to see just what details had me so excited!

Life in the Dreamhouse Barbie

Today, I have yet another Life in the Dreamhouse doll for you, but this time, it's the lovely Ms. Barbie herself! Thanks to the Wal-Mart clearance section, Barbie joined my collection for $10, which is definitely a more than fair price for how nice I think these dolls are.

I'm excited to have an actual Barbie in my collection for the first time since I was a kid, so click through to see more!