A Wonderful New Gift!

  I wanted to add to the previous post, about the Goodwill Journey Girl and American Girl dolls, how much they cost. If you're curious, hop back to that post and see. That's, after you finish this one, of course!
  I am very lucky. I have a great bunch of readers. It has been nice getting to know some of you who comment, and feeling that you are friends. One amazing reader/friend, Dorothy in PA, comments regularly. We had an exchange in the comments recently about the virtual doll convention. Dorothy mentioned that the convention doll was a Little Darling doll, but she hadn't ordered one. I merely said that I would love to have a Little Darling, and how did she resist? Not long after that I got a package in the mail...
  I couldn't figure out where it came from. I hadn't ordered anything, and although I was expecting a few packages from some doll companies who are sponsoring reviews, neither the address, nor the packaging or size fit the dolls I was expecting. Inside the shipping box was another plain brown box.

I still couldn't figure it out. Maybe a company had decided to send me a doll without telling me? Then I opened the plain box and there was another box. When I started to pull out the inner box I got stopped...by shock.

Uhh...Little Darling?!

What?! What is happening?!

Where did this come from?! There was that note, which Ivy snatched and read before I could. (These pictures were taken later.)

What the THE Dorothy?! I remembered what we had 'talked' about. What...what...what the...?! Who is that generous?!
  Here is what my girl looked like.

Maybe she...is...a boy?

I'm going to have to decide about that. I feel under pressure! I'm afraid to mess this doll up, but I'm dying to customize it!

It even came with a wig.

And she's going to need it.

I have always loved the idea of dolls with wigs, ever since I was a kid and my sister had a Fashion Queen Barbie. I like that they can be different dolls at different times.

I coveted my sisters fashion Queen Barbie so much. She eventually gave her to me, but before then I was glad we had the wigs for Midge, whose hair my sister cut, and for my Swirl Barbie, whose hair I tried to refashion with glue... (You may have seen her, in all her wigged glory, HERE and HERE.) Of course, wigs remind me that, although I'm bad with hair, I'm equally bad with wigs!
  But back to the Little Darling! I contacted Dorothy to thank her, and she informed me that she was sending me an outfit! Dorothy! The outfit arrived in a couple of days. There was another lovely note from Dorothy.

And this cute outfit.

Dorothy! You said it included shoes and tights! Not shoes, and tights, and socks, and underwear!

Of course my girl, (for the moment at least. She may become a boy in the future.), had to try it on.

But outfit aside,(and in some of these pictures, that's accurate), look how cute she is!

She has some really nice detailed eyebrows.

And she's really cute!

Did I mention how cute she is?!

She was proud to model her new outfit.

Little Darlings are strung, and have five points of articulation: the neck, shoulders, and legs.

So her head can tilt, and her arms and legs can move out to the sides, as well as up and down, back and forth.

Little Darlings are 13" tall, the same size as the Maru and Friends Mini Pals like Chad, Noah. and Mary Had a Little Lamb. If you want to see my posts/reviews on these dolls you can click the links.

The Mini Pals share another thing with the Little Darlings. They are also sculpted by Dianna Effner.  They all have wonderful Effner faces.

Little Darlings have painted eyes instead of the inset glass eyes the Mini Pals have.

That sounds like not necessarily a good thing, but if you have seen some of the gorgeous hand painted Little Darlings done by Dianna Effner and the artists of her studio, you'll know that painted eyes can be even more realistic and incredible than the glass ones.

This girl has the standard eyes that come with the Little Darlings. They still have a lot of realism to them: those eyebrows and lashes. I'm super tempted to try my hand at customizing her eyes. I'm afraid to though. I'm afraid I'll ruin her. I don't know why I would even consider it. Maybe I've gotten too sure of myself after redoing my Kumik Paul McCartney head.

I'm sure the fear will keep me from trying it for a few years. That's probably a good thing.

I wouldn't dare touch the eyebrows though. Probably not the eyelashes either. I would only attempt the eyes themselves, and then only over the eyes that are already there.

As I said, the outfit came with a jacket. It was very hot, so she was hesitant to put the jacket on.

  She did eventually put it on though.

 I thank Dorothy for her amazing generosity and thoughtfulness. I am floored that somebody I've never met would do this for me. Although, at this point I do feel like I know Dorothy pretty well. It's like having pen pals, which is actually how I got most of my friends!
  You may have read me say often how much I love Dianna Effner dolls. You may have seen my Effner dolls in previous posts. If not, you can check out Dianna Effner in the sidebar. I have been wanting a Little Darling for literally years. If you don't believe me, look back at some of my Christmas List posts. So, thank you Dorothy!
  Did you notice my beautiful pink lillies in some of the pictures? Those used to be just one stem. It starts out as just leaves. That's why for years I didn't have any idea what it was. And that's because it was growing out in the middle of the yard, next to the teeter totter.

Yes, I know you just saw this picture in the previous post. And I also know that next to that teeter totter, (the thing on the right with the yellow seats.), is not exactly the middle of the yard. It feels that way when you're trying to mow, and there's a weird bunch of leaves growing there you can't identify, but they look like something.

It had come out of nowhere. Our Neighbours From Hell have some growing in their yard, so maybe a squirrel stole one and buried the bulb in our yard. In any case, the leaves were there forever, and never turned into anything, so eventually I would get tired of mowing around them, and mow them down. One year I decided I was going to leave them all summer and see what they were. The leaves were there for a while, and then died. Just about then we had a spell of rain that lasted for days, so I couldn't mow for a while. When the rain was over I went out to the yard and found a tall stem with buds on it! Apparently that's how it works. The leaves grow, then die, and then the stem grows, and then the buds bloom. Once I knew what it was I moved it to a more appropriate place. Actually, it's on the grave of our bunny Jerome. This year I didn't think it was going to bloom at all, but when it came up, it was now THREE stems with loads of flowers. Then Ken chainsawed the pear tree down, without waiting for me so we could get it to fall where we wanted it to. The hunk he sawed came down and whacked into the house and FELL ON MY LILY!!!

  Notice the stem in the middle that's...shall we say, MISSING something? Luckily it was retrievable. I was able to take it inside and put it in water, and all the buds have bloomed. It'll grow back next year.
  So, let's end with some more pictures of the Little Darling, and I will see you soon.