I looked and looked, on Ebay, Flickr and Pinterest, loads and loads of listings and photos. I really like one of the American Girl faces, I think they call it the Josefina face sculpt, but unusually for me, I don't like the tan skin very much. But the biggest problem with the American Girl dolls is....I really really do not like the all cloth body and the big 'American Footballer' shoulders. (Sorry to those of you who love her, I guess we can't all like the same things!) So an American Girl wasn't for me.
Whilst looking on Flickr, I saw a photo of a Gotz Happy Kid Clara wearing a very pretty outfit and as these things go, one thing led to another and I found myself on the Bonnie & Pearl doll website....and there was a sale on!!! Now I've always found the Bonnie & Pearl dolls interesting to look at and I like the fact that they are a British doll company, but I never liked the eyes. The dolls come with a'sleep' eyes and they are a bit too 'staring' for my taste. But it went through my mind that maybe I could change them!!! I went to look at the doll which is my favourite, a dark skinned girl with black affro style hair, and lo and behold, she was on sale at 30% off her normal price!!! So I decided to order her. AND three outfits too because they too were on sale. I mean, it would be a sin not to, wouldn't it?! And just think of all the money I save! :D
My order arrived several days ago and I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised! The doll is lovely! She's much prettier in real life than her photos would have me believe. The quality is excellent, she is mostly vinyl with a vinyl chest plate but her lower torso is cloth. Her default outfit is made up of many pieces and the three outfits I ordered with her were so nicely presented, each in it's own individual box. The doll herself is nice and heavy with lovely smooth vinyl which is a gorgeous coffee colour. She has an unusual face which in this 'skin tone' makes her look very exotic.
I decided to change Claudia's eyes straight away to glass ones, completely removing the sleep mechanism and now I'm even more happy with how she looks.
Below are photos of Claudia with her new eyes and wearing one of the outfits I bought for her. The outfit consists of the lovely orange polka dot jacket with matching hairband, white short sleeved tee shirt, frilled denim skirt with faux suede belt, white underwear and brown faux suede boots!! A great outfit for this girl I'm sure you'll agree! (I added the socks)
I will show other outfits in other posts as she wears them!
(OOoops! I realised after uploading these photos that I really should have ironed the skirt!)
I hope you've enjoyed meeting this new little girl, who as yet hasn't told me her name, and I hope you all are enjoying your weekend!
Thanks for visiting :)
