Dana Loves Her Pets

…Lots and Lots of Pets!

Dana's room teams with life...and noise, from most of her pets (her fish don't really make much noise).  Everyone is especially active since it is time to eat. 

Bun-bun is her first pet to get fed.  Dana's beautiful tan bunny gnaws away at his carrot.  His nose wiggling as he goes.   Dana pets him, loving the feel of his soft fur.

She finishes feeding Bun-bun as Ginny, her guinea pig runs through her play tube. She pauses at the end of the tube, surveying the scene, deciding if she should venture out of her tube.  

Ginny toddles out of her tube towards Dana.  Dana picks her up.  "You are so darn cute!" Dana squeaks.  She puts Ginny back on the table. 

She scurries around the table sniffing things as she goes.

Morla, her pet turtle is not as exploratory as Ginny.  She also isn't as soft and cuddly as Ginny or Bun-bun, but she is very lovable. 

Morla crawls out of her little dish towards the lettuce leaf Dana holds out for her.  Slowly Morla makes her way towards the leafy vegetable.  Stretching out her neck, she snaps at the lettuce, then retracts her neck back with a tiny piece of lettuce in her mouth. 

Dana giggles, laying the rest of the lettuce down so that Morla can finish it.

As Dana feeds Morla her hamster Ralph runs on his wheel as though he’s running a marathon. Round and round and round he goes on his wheel. 

Ralph loves running on his wheel, so Dana leaves him to run on his wheel as she goes to check on his friend Amy Rose the hedgehog.

Amy Rose hides underneath her tunnel, her little nose sticking out just enough so that Dana can see where she is hiding. 

With a little coaxing and some food Amy Rose comes out of her hiding spot, enough that Dana can pick her up. 

Although she looks like she is prickly, Amy Rose is actually fairly soft.   Holding her hedgehog up Dana talks baby talk to her. "Oh you’re so cute! You’re so cute aren’t you?" she says. 

Tucking Amy Rose back in her cage Dana moves on to feeding her fish.

She loves watching her fish as she drops a little pinch of fish food into the tank. The fish swim to the top of the tank, grabbing the food as though they haven’t eaten in years.

After feeding her fish she watches them swim around darting in and out of the plants at the bottom of the tank.  Dana's orange clown fish, Charlie, is hiding in the castle. 

Dana giggles as the fish dart around. She wonders what she looks like from their viewpoint

Dana loves all of her pets but her chameleon is her favorite right now. Pascal fascinates her with his strange eyes and the way he lumbers along the branches in his cage. 

She opens up his cage and puts his food in his dish. Pascal doesn’t seem very interested in his food, which is normal for him. 

He eats when he wants to. So Dana takes him out of his cage and puts him on her arm. 

He slowly strolls up her arm, looking around the room, seemingly perplexed by the world he sees. 

Pascal's little toes tickle Dana‘s arm as he walks, making her giggle again.

Before putting all of her pets back in their cages, Dana gathers them together for a big hug.  Pascal rests on her shoulder as she holds Ralph in her hand.  Bun-bun nuzzles against Dana's leg, softly touching her leg with her wet nose.   

Ginny and Morla roam around, Ginny jumping up on Dana's leg.   They all make Dana so happy.  Dana is so glad that she has so many wonderful pets to care for and love.

Dana's Japan Release

A Review of Dana's Release Outfit

Although it wasn't the Journey Girls release that we were hoping for, it was nice to get a few new Journey Girls at ShopKo. So far Meredith and Dana have been released at ShopKo. I did a review on Meredith and now I'm going to do one for Dana.

As I spoke about in the last review, the dolls themselves are identical to the dolls that were released in the Australia release last year. I'm not going to go into all of the issues that the dolls have. If you have not read my last review, I would suggest reading the Meredith review to find out some of the issues that Journey Girls dolls have.

Dana comes in a very cute outfit. She has a white tank top with three ironed on monkeys; the hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil monkey. She has a cute denim skirt with fake pockets and a beautiful long sweater with pink, white, and gray in it. She has some brand new white leather tennis shoes with a purple stripe along the bottom of the shoe and JG stamped on the heel. Dana comes with socks made of a purple porous material. And finally, Dana got new glasses.

Out of the two outfits that have been released this is the one that I like the most. It's unique and has some great new things that we haven't seen before. The white tank top is very simple.  It Velcro's up the back like all Journey Girls tops.  Of course the Velcro only goes 3/4 of the way down so you still have to slide it over the bottom of the doll rather than being able to put it on completely from the back. 

The iron on "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys are adorable. Wearing a crown of flowers the first little monkey has her hands over her eyes. 

The second monkey wears a queen's crown and is covering her ears and the last monkey has a little purple bow in her hair and is covering her mouth. Cute, simple, and fun.

The denim skirt is a medium colored denim.  It comes down to mid-calf on Dana. There are stitch marks to mimic pockets on the front and in the area for the zipper, but neither actually open. Like most Journey Girls skirts, the back has Velcro on the 1st inch or so making it very easy to get on and off.  

This also makes it more likely that the skirt can be worn by other 18 inch dolls. The only issue that I have with the skirt is that it is fairly form fitting. It's not an issue with this skirt per se, but more of an issue with the doll's joints. Because of how the joints work with Journey Girls their legs go out to the side quite a bit when they sit down. Due to that Dana's skirt rides up so far that she shows off her underwear.  

Unfortunately, the dress's design just does not work with the Journey Girls joints, making it so it really doesn't fit her appropriately especially when she is sitting. I wish there was a good solution to this, but unfortunately, until Toys R Us figures out how to make the doll's joints better this is what we have.

Besides the tank top, my favorite part of this outfit is the sweater. It's a long knit sweater that goes down past Dana's knees.  

The loose knit sweater is mainly a light pink with white flecks and white stripes. There are also light gray stripes and solid pink stripes throughout the sweater. It's a loose fitting sweater with nothing to hold it shut.   Almost like a robe rather than a sweater. The one downside of the sweater is that Dana's fingers get stuck in the wider knit holes since there is no lining. Also the sweater can be prone to snagging on things like Dana's fingers or anything that has a rough edge.   So be careful with items that have sharp edges.

I want to be really excited about the shoes, but they're kind of strange. The toe of the shoe isn't quite big enough and instead of arching up, it is concave and dips down, looking very strange on Dana's foot.   The rest of the shoe is made really well. 

It's just the toe that looks a little goofy. I do think the shoe could've been a little bit wider and it may have helped with the toe area. The bottom of the shoe is a hard plastic, not a rubber like last year's shoe.  

I love that it has the little JG stamp on the back heel and the laces are nice. Not quite perfect, but still very good.

The last piece of clothing are the socks. These things are downright goofy. They're made of a netting material. Last year Journey Girls released tights that were made out of a similar material which made sense for tights. 

These socks just look strange. At first I thought they were OK but as soon as I took them off and put them back on the top stitch fell out.  So one sock has a cuff but the other one does not. Without the cuff there's nothing at the ends of the material. It would've been much better just to get a solid cotton sock rather than these kind of goofy socks. That being said I do appreciate that Dana get socks as it adds to the outfit.

As I mentioned in the Meredith review, Journey Girls changed the dolls underwear.  Dana gets the same upgraded underwear which fits much better. 

Dana also gets some new glasses. She has always come with dark brown glasses, but this year she gets light pinkish purple glasses. Especially with this outfit, they look amazing. They're the same design as her old ones but the color really changes the way they look on her face and how they fit in with this outfit particularly. The only issue that I have with mine is that one earpiece keeps popping out of the glasses. 

Another Journey Girl fan noted that the glasses are very tight on Dana's face when they come due to one of the clear rubber bands that goes around the back of her head. She thought that this causes squishing of Dana's face. I'm not sure that it does or if her face mold is just a little bit different, but her face does seem like it is squished right around the eyes.

The final piece that comes with this outfit is a purse. Well kind of a purse. I would say it reminds me of a sack for pixie dust or fairy dust more than a purse. 

The light lavender color is beautiful and goes well with Dana's socks. The purse is a rounded sack that has a pull cord at the top.

Rating
All ratings are out of 10

Value 9 – Love everything that comes with this set.  Well, I love that it comes with all of the things.  I don't like the socks, but I'm glad that the doll comes with everything it does.  With the exception of the socks, the rest of the outfit is made well.  

Fitment 8 – The socks are a little bit of an issue.  They fit okay, but don't hold up well.  The sweater can be difficult to get on due to the knit, but it fits well.  The new shoes can also be a little bit of a struggle to get on.  As with Meredith, the skirt fits when Dana is standing, but rides up when she sits.

Versatility 10 – Love all of the variety in this set.  Everything can be used with other outfits.  I think the sweater will go with a little dressier outfit, where the shirt and skirt are always going to be more casual.

Cuteness 8 –  One of the cuter outfits that was released this year.  I mean, how can you not like those cute little monkeys on Dana's shirt?  The colors are great, and the design is really cute.

Overall 9 – For the most part this outfit is great.  It comes with a lot, the sweater and shirt are cute, and it has a new shoe design.  But a lot of things are just off.  As I have mentioned the socks are not amazing, even though they are cute.  The shoes fit goofy.  And even though I love the sweater, the knit can really be an issue when putting it over Dana's hands.  As with Meredith and all the Journey Girls, joint issues are the main downfall of the dolls.  But, just looking at the outfit,  it is a very nice set.  Definitely worth the $24 price tag that Shopko has been selling the doll for at times.

"It's a Doll Affair" Kelsey

Custom Kelsey Doll From Carol Linacre

I have had the great pleasure of purchasing a couple of custom Journey Girl dolls from an amazing artist, Carol Linacre.  My most recent purchase was Kelsey.  Carol takes the base doll and does a “face up”, improving upon the dolls facial features, making them look much more realistic.  Carol mostly customizes American Girl dolls, but sometimes does Journey Girls and other brands of dolls, creating beautiful additions to anyone’s collection.  I thought it might be neat to look at Kelsey and the new details that Carol added, just to get an idea of what is possible with the Journey Girls.

Carol does an amazing job of keeping the original feel of the doll intact, while enhancing the dolls features.  I have seen some customizations that add eye liner, eye shadow, and darken the lips a lot.  They are beautiful customs, but I really like the more natural look that Carol does in her customizations.  So let’s see what she did!

Note: Kelsey just had her face customized, the doll is still an Australian release Journey Girls Kelsey, which as many of you know, means her joints are stiff, her legs spread like crazy when she sits, and the vinyl is prone to staining.

Carol wrapped Kelsey up before shipping her to me. 

The outer box fit around the Journey Girls box perfectly, but even so, Carol added a little padding just in case. 

Even covering her face, just to make sure that there were no scuff marks in case the shipping company got rough with the package.

Kelsey has her original Australia meet outfit on, and the purse that comes with the outfit.  Carol added a few bonus items in with her.   

She has a new puppy (I named her Pugly) to take care of and love.

There is a scuff/mark remover with instructions on how to use it.  And then finally a note from Carol with photos of Kelsey after she was finished being customized, along with her Certificate of Authenticity, which has the artist's signature, when Kelsey was finished, and her certification that she is one of a kind. I love that Carol includes the Certificate of Authenticity for two reasons: first it legitimizes the doll as something new/different from the original Journey Girls doll, and two, it has her signature for her work of art, which is very important.

For Kelsey's "Face-up", Carol adds shading to areas that would naturally have shading, for example around the nose, mouth, and upper eye lids.  

There is deeper shading on Kelsey’s mouth than underneath her nose, as the space on her mouth is deeper.   Her lips are a very natural color, but have been enhanced with vertical lines that mimic the skin on our lips.  

There is also slight shading to give the lips a more realistic look, as our lips are not all the same color.

Kelsey’s cheeks are blushed, as is the bridge of her nose, and a little bit of her forehead. Again this mimics the coloring that naturally happens in us as humans.  

The Australian dolls did come with some cheek blushing, but this looks more uniform and is not just on the top of the cheeks.  Around Kelsey’s nose there is shading as well as on her philtrum (that’s the little divot between or nose and lips).

A fuller set of eyebrows helps make Kelsey’s face look more realistic.  Carol changed the arch of the brows to look more realistic, setting them lower on Kelsey's face.  Gone is the high "surprise" arch that many of the Australian Journey Girls originally came with.  

Most of our eyebrows are like this with multiple colors of hair rather than one uniform color. The detail work on these thin hairs is awesome!  I love how the eyebrows arch, and how they feature on Kelsey’s face now that they are fuller.  Plus the color is a closer match to her hair.

I was so happy to see the Australian Kelsey with freckles.  As most of you know, my original Kelsey I customized by adding freckles (and I like to believe that is where Toys R Us got their inspiration to freckle Kelsey - J ).  Carol adds beautiful freckles to more of Kelsey’s face.  

Most of them are on her cheeks, like the original doll, but they are on her nose and up the side of her face also.  I love the non-uniform look of the freckles.  

They are different shapes and colors with no discernable pattern, which is an important piece of making the freckles look more realistic.  The freckles are perfectly imperfect!

Carol does a lot of customization to Kelsey's eyes.  I mentioned that she added shading to the upper lid of the eye, where the eye socket and the upper eye lid meet, creating a more realistic looking eyelid. She has added a line (the same color as Kelsey's eyebrows), almost like eyeliner, on the outer edge of the lower eyelid, accentuating it while also making it look more realistic. 

Below that, fine drawn/painted in eyelashes create a full, realistic look to Kelsey's eyes that was missing from the original.  A small amount of pink was added in the inner corner of the eye (the lacrimal caruncle) to finish the lower lid.  There is a gloss on the lid and the corner for that realistic touch.

Along with the shading on the upper lids, Carol adds another set of eyelashes, but not the same type as are already on Kelsey.  These ones are auburn, like her hair, creating a much more natural look, especially when they are mixed with the black eyelashes already on the doll.  

The addition of the new lashes really draws you in to Kelsey's beautiful green eyes (new for this release of Kelsey).

It looks like all of the custom work was then sealed so that it stays on Kelsey's face.  That being said, I don't know that I would give Kelsey to an 8 year old.  More likely an adult collector or a child in 
their teens.  And since the joints can be touchy, you wouldn't want to break them on such a wonderful doll.

I love this iteration of Kelsey!  The details that Carol added to her are amazing!  They accentuate the beautiful facial features of the Journey Girls dolls and really bring out the eye color in Kelsey. I love the addition of realistic freckles and eyelashes. It is amazing how different these things make Kelsey look!  

At about 3x the cost of a normal Journey Girls doll, customized dolls aren't for everyone.  For me, the cost was completely worth it.  My "It's a Doll Affair" Kelsey is worth every penny.

For more information on Carol's awesome work check out her webpage www.itsadollaffair.com or follow her on Instagram @itsadollaffair