Accessories Reviews: Saige's Painting Set (2013)

Part 1: Saige's Sweater Outfit. Part 2: Saige's Painting Set.

And now time for Part Two in my "Better Know a AGGiB Member--" wait, that's not it. That's later. Time for the second half of my review of Saige's items before the year ends: Saige's Painting Set.

To rehash the opening details--Saige is boring and white in a state where there's a high Latina/Native population so bad move AG, however I think her things are pretty nifty. Thus I have often been known to buy the GotY stuff and ditch the central girl. Reviewing this now so that people who want it can see it before the year ends and you're stuck paying eBay prices. Are we all caught up? Goodie goodie gumdrops.

Paint Set, with all the components. Tubes in the back.

Saige's Painting Set consists of a plastic wood modeled easel, water/brush cup, five non-functional paint tubes, four brushes, an artist's palette with faux plaint blobs, five completed paintings, five completed sketches, an art portfolio, and a drawing pad. I paid the full cost of $48 at the start of the year. eBay's already throwing $70 prices, which as we all know is madness. Don't do it, people, if you can get it now.

There will be images of Abbi playing with and handling a lot of the items in the set, because she's the artist around here--another reason we don't need Saige in the AGGiB. Also, as a person who actually arts the things, there will actually be comparisons to my own full sized art supplies.

Part 1, Saige's Sweater Outfit, is here. Read it as you'd like; I've linked to this one here in that one. Also, some of these shots come from when I got the set way back in January, though you might not be able to tell which.

Clothes Reviews: Saige's Sweater Outfit (2013)

Saige's Sweater Outfit. Well, Abbi's.

This year's Girl of the Year is Saige Copeland, a redheaded ear-pierced white girl living in New Mexico with her horse and her balloon and her paints and her educational worries. Why they picked yet another white girl and then set the story in New Mexico is another rant altogether. Le sigh. After seeing her collection, at least one of her outfits appealed to me--only one for sure, though. That's how I treat the Girls of the Year (hereafter refered to as "GotY"): if I like their stuff but hate the character or doll, I get it for the Mod Squad, and toss the character.¹ (Only a few Historicals have got this treatment, notably Samantha and Rebecca.) Thus, I got Saige's Sweater Outfit (and Saige's Painting Set) soon after it was released in January. No Saige in my house, unless it's a spice. We'll be doing this in two parts: Outfit in one, painting set in the other. It was starting to get ridiculously long, so I broke it up.

It's not often that I review things that are still out for purchase. I have a lot of backlog to get through with outfits, not to mention historical sets (including a near complete Addy collection, my pride) and Etsy stuff. But seeing as this is a limited edition outfit and there's a little less than a half a year to get any hands on this outfit and/or set, I'm willing to tackle this one early so that anyone who might want to get good opinions on the set can see it before it's retired and folk are looking at a stupid ridiculous markup on eBay.

The outfit consists of a open multicolored drape sweater, sleeveless shirt, denim-style leggings, and brown sandals. I paid the full, original cost of $34; there are already auctions going for 60+ bucks on eBay--which is absolute nonsense; there's still some months left in the year to get it. I haven't seen the movie yet (I'm not exactly rushing to) so I can't tell you where it shows up there. It however, is shown in the books; I'll show which pages at the end.

This review (and the set afterwards) are going to be with Abigail Mona "Abbi" Dormany², my quiet sensitive painter. I've already talked about the pink stripe in her hair in the Dolly Weave review; she likes it so much she's likely never taking it out. She is also wearing the Raspberry Glasses (reviewing later when I do a Glasses Run) and what I am pretty sure the necklace from the 2008 Gardening Outfit; she came in it and I've never taken it off. You may also see two of the hair decs that I have in her hair; one is Our Generation, the other from my collection of buying small clips and finding hair stuff in used stores. 

Clothes and Accessories Reviews: The Western Riding Outfit (2010), Braided Headband, Curly Ponytail Set, and Bright Highlights Set (2013)

Dolly weave and western wear, courtesy of Sonali Matthews.

It's a whole new month! Which means maybe, with the lack of going out of town and the whole less drama for a while and some, I can get some reviews done. It helps that I got some new things at AG Seattle Saturday, and decided to play beauty parlor with Sonali--who, by the way, is forever styling on most of these heaux.

Today is a double review: An entire outfit and dolly weave¹! This is probably the fastest I've gone from "item out by AG" to "I am reviewing it." Don't get used to it. A lot of my stuff is old, and I like to take my time reviewing stuff. Moving along. Not only will I be reviewing the Braided Headband, Curly Ponytail Set, and Bright Highlights Set,² I will be tackling the Western Riding Outfit. There is not much to say about the hair stuff that won't be said in review, so let's talk about the outfit for a bit.

The Western Riding Outfit, all by itself.

The Western Riding Outfit was released in 2010, and is still out--though seeing as it's three years old at this point it'll be going into retirement sooner rather than later. AG tends to always have something equestrian in their moddie collection at any given time, capitalizing on the fact that most girls have a pony stage about the same time they have a doll stage (both stages I have never quite outgrown, as can be attested by my collection foci). This was also a few years post Nicki Fleming, who was pimped out as a horse rider and all over ranch girl by AG. So since her, AG has started adding a little more western riding into their horse riding collections. The cost of the full outfit--shirt, boots, skirt, and bracelet--is $30. Like most things on the AG secondary market I fully expect that price to make stupid spikes after this retires. Even right now the eBay auctions have the price jacked up to the $40-50s, even while it can still be ordered directly from AG. The set also included the "Loyal" heart charm but I have no idea where my charms are, and if I ever do review the ones I have they will get their own post.

My Sonali, despite her being a witch,³ is a bit horse crazy. To the point she has her own horse and wears all my horse riding stuff in my collection. I never got the accompanying hat, but eh. I can find a decent cowboy hat that's not made of straw. So anytime I review my western and horse riding stuff, we'll be doing it with her. She'll also be doing the hair reviews, since she's the best moddie for the job today.

Outfit first, dolly weave second.

Braid Spray and the Ingratitude of the AG Fandom

Tara and Abbi know damn straight how braid spray can make a girl look good.

As a woman with 25 AG gang members--and many other dolls and ponies and other things with silky hair that can go rogue--I tend to invest time into their hair care regiment. And one of the centerpieces of my hair care is a big old bottle of braid spray. Not that the AG community at large really appreciates that I introduced this into the fandom. So this post is part basic care, part backstory, and part bitchiness.

AG Identifications: Leggings

Naomi puts up with the 90s. She thinks they're bitchin'.

If there is one thing AG has been doing a lot of lately, it's leggings. While they did them in the past with some of the 90s stuff, lately they've been slapping them under every skirt they can find. I apparently own more than seven different outfits that have come with a form of stretch knit pseudopants. Gods help us all the day they do a 90s doll. Baby doll dresses and leggings everywhere.

Hey, they can go back into their own catalog. I slay me.

Six sets of leggings. And that's not all there can be!

Now, some people store their outfits precisely by outfit, in zip lock bags on hanger. I don't have time for that. I have a semi-job, don'tcha know. So I tend to store all my clothes in plastic drawers, and then dig them out and mix all the matching. So I forget what's what. Consider this a brief little article: how to tell apart some of the leggings that have been offered from AG.

Well, almost all of them. I don't bother with Bitty Baby/Bitty Twin shit.