Happy New Year!

Happy 2019! It’s been my tradition for the last couple years to take a photo of my whole 18” doll collection at the beginning of the new year. It’s fun to see how my collection has grown, and hopefully how my doll styling and photography have improved. This year, one of my Instagram friends challenged me to photograph my dolls on the stairs: a classic if tricky setup for larger collections. I’ve always envied people who were able to do that not because of their large collections, but because of their stairs! Until last year, I lived in a little apartment that didn’t have many good photography spots (and did have a whole host of pretty bad management and maintenance issues). Last April we started renting a much nicer place, and I’m grateful every day for how much better it is. And it has stairs! So I thought I’d take Deb up on her challenge by dressing my dolls in their holiday finest and posing them in tiers so all their adorable faces were clearly visible. Here’s the 2018 crew in all their glory:

New dolls this year include:

• Felicity, the last doll of 2018 and my childhood dream come true, whom I bought at Mall of America on December 26th
• Kit, the doll I almost didn’t buy in Calgary because I’d just purchased Caroline
• Caroline, whom I was lucky to purchase new in box from a private seller on Instagram
• Despina (Julieta), a modern Greek-Canadian girl who loves vintage fashion and practices mindfulness to help cope with her depression
• Valentina (Consuelo), a little girl from Mexico who loves baking and experimenting with her own recipes to occasionally disastrous results
• Jennie (Tenney), an original historical character who represents the experiences of working-class Polish-American labor activists in the American Midwest of the 1890s
• Luciana, the best Girl of the Year American Girl has ever made and my forever buddy
• Nellie, one of my favorite American Girl characters, whom I purchased from a private seller on Instagram
• Z, with whom I share fashion sensibilities

2018 was a big year for collection expansion. Here's the 2017 crew:

And the 2016 crew:

I’m hoping to spend more time in 2019 photographing and crafting for my dolls. I’d like to work hard on another doll-related project, too: this blog! Why Dolls? has existed since 2017, but I’ve been improving it and finishing old posts with the intention of updating regularly going forward. So don’t be put off by the dates on previous posts! Almost everything here is secretly shiny and new. I hope you enjoy hearing about what my dolls and I are up to. Thanks for reading!