Back in Action

It's been so long! So many wonderful things have happened! Over 60 videos on youtube and more than 100,000 views! The last year has been amazing and I can't wait for what this year brings! Currently I'm a staff reporter for www.CraftCritique.com and am in talks with other blogs to keep more content coming!

Today I bought some glass jars for Honey, hopefully next week I'll be able to extract about 80 or so (guess-timated) pounds of honey from the bee hive in my back yard. I'm also in full swing preparation mode for my next cupcake event to celebrate the opening of the newest location of Adornment, a fine jewelry company, in Newport, RI. You could say, that I'm as busy as a bee!

Here's a link to my latest video on youtube, a fun card for Mother's Day! Enjoy!

Another Video

A nice viewer asked that I show all of my dolls. I didn't know how many exactly I had. Oh boy I have more than I thought! Enjoy!



I think I have figured out the problem with my youtube posts being cut off in blogger, if not you can always go straight to youtube and search: christiantamez

:Update, I did not fix the problem, and I'm not sure how but I want you to know that there is more of a right side to my videos than what is being shown on my blog!

A new video!!!

A new video about caring for American Girl dolls with curly hair! Fun stuff. Shot with a flipcam. I was finally able to upload myself in HD so it's pretty good quality on youtube! AND I also fixed my old video and it's also finally uploaded in HD so search for "Collecting American Girl Samantha Parkington" or just scroll to the bottom of the page!

Something Wonderful

It's not often that a treasure such as a nearly mint White Body American Girl doll comes on the market. It's even more of a rarity for myself to become the proud owner of such an item. Nevertheless it has happened and she is mine!

The original red box and the rare paper ribbon which held the top to the bottom, book insert, pamphlet, and original hair style. Everything you could possibly want as a collector.

This particular White Body is Samantha Parkington. What's interesting about this doll is that she is a transitional doll. Transitional meaning that while she does have a white body - which dates her production from 1986 - 1990- the darker color of her hair indicates that she was produced closer to 1990, when the bodies were changed to tan. The earliest Samantha dolls have a lighter shade of brown hair.

Two White Body Samantha Parkingtons, The "transitional" Samantha is on the left with the darker hair. The earliest Samantha's had lighter brown hair (right).

Another excellent surprise was that this doll came with most of her original packaging. Everything but the piece of tissue paper that originally covered the brand new doll. The book insert is another collectible piece of packaging that originally came with the doll. The seller I purchased my doll from didn't know this and didn't make any note of a book insert. It was after I had won the eBay auction that I asked the seller if it was included. If other collectors had known about it, the price would have risen significantly.

On the left is a Samantha Parkington doll from 2008 - the last year she was made. On the right is an example of how a Samantha Parkington would have looked if she had been purchased from Pleasant Company in the 1980's.

Why I Like American Girl

The two Samantha's eye this new red haired harlot with her scandalous two-piece swimsuit.

Recently someone asked me, "Why do you like the American Girls so much?". Believe it or not, I was puzzled. It's not that I didn't have a reason to like the American Girls. The problem was that I had so many reasons why I like them, I couldn't think of which to share.

In 1992 when I first was introduced to the American Girls collection it was still run by the original founder Pleasant Rowland. It was that fateful day, I was at a neighbor girls house and saw her Molly McIntyre doll sitting pristine, proudly displayed in its red box. Then again at my other friend Britni's house, I met her doll Kirsten Larson. Somehow I managed to find a catalogue at home and for months I agonized over having my own. I had chosen Samantha Parkington, she was the one for me.

I can't quite remember exactly how it came to be that I would finally get my own Samantha Parkington. It must have been the result of cleaning out the pantry some odd number of times and almost certainly a disgusting amount of begging on my part. Either way, Samantha came. I'll never forget filling out the order form. SDP - Samantha doll paperback book, this was the first code I ever ordered from American Girl. Over time I would end up with Samantha's : Lacy White Undies, Play Dress and Pinafore, Hair Care Kit, Nightgown, and Middy dress with matching boots.

I remember the day she came. I must have waited entire days looking out the window, because back then it took a week for the company to get the order and then two weeks for it to arrive. The doll was packaged with great care in a white box with silhouettes of girls playing on it. The box top was secured to the bottom by a maroon paper ribbon, with Pleasant Company and a picture of a girl reading a book with her doll by her side. For years Samantha never left my own side, and I remember proudly taking her to school. It was there that I convinced my friends, Allyce and Chelsea that they should have dolls of their own.

As time passed, Samantha and I spent less and less time together and eventually she lay packed away in a chest with Molly McIntyre. I had a Kirsten Larson doll as well, but once I made the mistake of taking out her braids she was sent back to Pleasant Company in exchange for Molly.

2008 came and American Girl decided it was time to retire Samantha Parkington as a character from their doll line. The news came as quite a shock and I scrambled to put back my own childhood collection. I fell back in love with the doll who had been such a close friend. The adventures and memories floated back, as once again packages started to come from the same address in Madison, Wisconsin.

I should probably inform you that the American Girls collection is split into two categories, Pleasant Company and Mattel. Pleasant Company was the original company which offered the dolls in 1986 and continued running the business until it was purchased by Mattel in 1998. It was when Mattel took the company over that many changes happened. Changes which might lead someone to believe that the newer products made by Mattel are of a lesser quality than their Pleasant Company predecessors.

In my quest for the ultimate Samantha collection, I discovered that the first dolls made from 1986 - 1989 were significantly different from dolls made in the 90's. Samantha had lighter brown hair that was long and curly - something that I noticed right away when I got my own Samantha. I remember thinking "Wasn't her hair lighter in the magazine?"- the dolls in the 90's had hair that was still long and curly, but the color of the hair was definitely different. Also for the first three years, the dolls were made with White Bodies. The white bodies had to be changed to a flesh color to accomodate Felicity's lower necklined outfits. Another big change was that the boxes the dolls came in was originally red, something I recalled from seeing that first Molly in her red box.

What I remember enjoying the most, was looking at the pages in the catalogue. All of the different scenes the dolls had to collect, were beautifully set up and displayed for any eager child to covet. Now as an adult I can finally collect all of the scenes, piece by piece to put together my own ultimate American Girls collection.

The difference between a white body Samantha and Mattel Samantha's hair is easily seen here. The white body doll has the longer, lighter, curlier hair.

A Large portion of my Samantha collection

My Woodland Christmas Tree!

The idea for a "woodland" themed tree came to me right after I had missed out on a delicious white body Molly, that was mint in the box.

Interestingly enough, Martha Stewart has a special collection of animal ornaments available from Macy's this year. It seemed fate that our minds would work together, and I knew this tree would be spectacular.

Settling on a color scheme, of moss greens, golds and browns I collected ornaments and ribbons for weeks and finally as tradition goes, Thanksgiving day I set up my tree. It turned out quite well, if I do say so!

My Favorite Ornaments are the Skunk and the Owls

Garden Maintenance

Besides American Girl dolls, one of my passions is gardening. Whether it's indoors or out. I really love plants, trying to understand them and most importantly, making them grow. I'm lucky enough to have some boxes which I'm able to garden in freely and I have really taken to enjoying them. I thought I'd share some pictures of my herb garden box, and also what I've learned in the two seasons that I've been able to enjoy it's bounty.

It must have been late spring 2007 when I planted my herb box. I had been keeping an herb garden in pots and I had noticed that as the season progressed the herbs weren't doing as nicely as I had hoped. I knew that it was much better to put them in the ground and let come back stronger and better the next year.

The layout for the garden was simple enough. The box was square and I wanted the garden to look tidy so I planted 9 herbs. Three rows of three containing: 3 types of Lavender, A silver leafed and also lemon Thyme, a Spearmint, Sage, Oregano and creeping Rosemary. This year they all returned and I decided that I had enough room to increase the number of herbs to 13 with three new Rosemary Plants and one new Lemon Verbena.

The biggest change I've contemplated with the herb box is removing the Spearmint entirely and relocating it to its own container. I was readying the beds for winter, doing a little last minute trimming and weeding and discovered that the spearmint had sort of secretly taken over the herb box with its web of underground roots.

Luckily I think I got to the problem in time, and was able to remove most of the excessive root growth before it started to harm the root systems of the other plants. But now that I know this little booger grows with underground roots, I don't want the same problem to happen again next year. Which leaves the new problem of where to put this lovable pest? I'll let you know how that goes, but for now you can see how nicely the herb garden has filled in this year and also just how invasive the underground roots can be!



This box filled in so nicely, but it really is time for a trim, you can see how the thyme is starting to cascade over the edge of the box, but you can also see it's woody growth, not very attractive.



Nothing is more pestilent than underground roots, because you think you've got them all and them wham bam there's waaay more for you to pick. Look at how the roots just moved right over and tried to snuff out my beloved lavender (which I like more than Spearmint by the way).