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In which the BSC appears in AG:DC
For me there were two big reasons for going on my trip last weekend. One was to see Cass. That was the big one. The second was to hit up the new AG store that calls itself the DC store, even if it's not really in DC. Geography and I were never close friends, so since I wasn't driving or responsible for a parking spot, it doesn't matter.
Also, for simplicity's sake, this part will be more of the AG and less of the drama that raged during the large part of our visit to the store. That is coming later, I promise, and will probably have bits thrown in to explain why things are so disjointed.
Backstory: In June the DC/Tyson's Corner store opened. Cass, Jess, and I were going to go toward the end of June, maybe around my birthday (start to mid-July) and plans were tentatively made. Then Dad died and I realized no way in hell could I make the trip because just getting there would cost too much. I was bummed about not going but Cass kept saying she'd go to the store and take pictures. She didn't. Instead, she waited til Jess and I could go with her. This part of the trip was a Big Deal. If nothing else, it was the bonding time set aside for us. (Anyone was free to join in, but we figured, and rightly so, that everyone else would rather hit up the rest of the massive mall and find things they were actually interested in.)
This part of the trip was also pretty much unchanged. It was pushed back til 5:30 when we didn't leave Cass's father's house on time but no big deal. After some crazy driving that left me feeling decidedly sick (that and I really don't think I should have eaten what little I did as it didn't seem to agree with me) and an argument with the GPS, we arrived at the mall. There was a thing with the deciding who was going where and in what car and... I dunno. Jess, Cass, and I entered the mall and headed for AG. The plan was simple: Jess and I would hit the bathroom and Cass would check in with our Personal Shopper (PS) and then FUN TIMES. I'd given Cass my card that should have gotten her a goodie bag and, I think, cookies. COOKIES, dammit. We never got any damn cookies and she never got a damn goodie bag. But I'm jumping ahead.
I resisted the urge to take a picture of the doll hanger they have in the stalls of the restrooms because, well, other people have taken them and I was otherwise occupied. Jess and I head off to find Cass who is in the PS area talking to Ellyn. The PS area, if you're going, is to the left of the escalators and behind the bistro where the cookies will taunt you. COOKIES. ;__:
I should say that Ellyn seemed very nice. Very nice. I cannot really stress this enough. But she knew nothing. Nothing. It was... a let down. I know everyone has to have their first day or three sometime and she'll learn as she goes and again, very nice, but I should not have to be the fountain of knowledge while in your store, k? The main perk of having a PS was that hey, someone could hold our stuff while we shopped. Except I didn't get a bag. :( Which didn't bug me too much because I had said that I was along for the ride. What I meant, though I can't imagine how she would know this, was that I wasn't buying a doll. Cass and Jess both wanted Kanani. I already own her (and she's lovely!) and I could buy stuff for the dolls I already own... or another doll. I decided I wanted actual stuff, so my list was different than theirs. For whatever reason Cass was holding her own bag and Ellyn was carrying Jess'. I didn't notice til Cass snarked a comment to me about it later. I was a bit more distracted by our first stop: Kanani land!
My list of things was small and easily changeable. But the one thing I wanted above all others was Kanani's blue dress. It was sold out/unavailable. Which shouldn't have been a problem. Many an AG fanatic has gone to a store and found their desired item unavailable. Your PS is supposed to be able to either take you information or maybe bill you now and then ship it for free when it arrives in stock. Since their tax is less than shipping from the website, I'd have had no problem at all with this. NO PROBLEM.
But we have a problem. Ellyn does not offer this. She doesn't seem to think this is an option. "You can order it online or something." My sad face turns to a bit harrumph-y. Cass is also a bit harrumph-u because I gather she wanted it as well. I'm not sure if Jess noticed it was out or wasn't interested or what. There was a cute little moment where both Cass and Jess showed me their dolls for me to declare them fit for duty. :D
Anyway. Back to Kanani shopping. Cass is trying to suss out the accessories or something and Ellyn isn't being all that helpful. I do my best to not bother her as, well, having your attention split three ways is a bit dangerous and to be honest, I got the feeling she thought we were weird since none of us was shopping for a kidlet. :P Whatever, lady, I gots this. When E wandered off to do... something, maybe help Jess, I pointed to the things in the case that came with Kanani and the things that were her accessories and thus not included with the doll. Cass decided the accessories were not necessary and we moved onto Cecile and Marie-Grace land. (...yes. I did have to do that.)
Upon spying them Cass asks, "but where are their holiday dresses?" I'm still not sure if she meant these two or the very Foofy Fairy Costume. E was stumped, so I leaned over and whispered that according to the paper dolls and other people, the red dress for Cecile and the green.... tent for Marie-Grace were considered their holiday outfits. (And behold, I was right. The minis came out today wearing those outfits and since everyone but Kaya has been wearing their holiday outfit, it stands to reason that these are considered their holiday outfits.) I asked Cass to snag me a Special Dress and crinoline of DOOM because, well... if I wasn't getting Kanani's goodness for cheaper, I'd be getting Cecile's, dammit.
We move around to the second display of MGC goodness (no pics) and drama intrudes. Karen, the little girl, has gone "missing." Cass disappears to either look or lead the search or something. I'm not sure. Before you think I'm a horrible person for not going to look, A, I had to hold Cass's bag because E has disappeared with Jess's bag, and B, I trusted Karen to be with Matt and Liz since she was obviously not with her mother or her babysitter who was the worst babysitter in the history of babysitting and Kristy Thomas would back me up on this!
Jess and I wander a bit, a little unsettled by Karen's disappearance, but also fairly certain that it's more a case of sucky babysitter being horrible and less a case of kidnapping. Cass reappears and tells us how right we were, so we head off to look for exclusives because when you're in a store, there are things that prove you were there aside from the serious price tag. :p
E has disappeared either again or is still MIA because she's checking someone else in or out and she's gone for quite awhile. It's actually really rude the way we don't see her for more than half an hour and this essentially strands us in the store when shit hits the fan in a bit. But the exclusives! I already have the black shirt courtesy of Cass for my birthday (yay!) and I'm not really that enthused about a lot of of the other things until I remember that I don't have a pair of non mom-jeans for my dolls that aren't capris. Plus I'm already getting the red t-shirt for Ivy so she might as well get an actual outfit, right? Right. I draw the line at shoes, even if black boots are nifty. I think all three of us buy the jeans and possibly the red-shirt. Maybe Cass goes for something else instead. If I weren't already beginning to worry about my budget, I probably would have bought the cute pink skirt and the pink faded sweatshirt/hoodie. But I am and it doesn't occur to me til a bit later to check the price on the crinoline of doom. I'd mentally priced it $10 more than it was. Phew.
Still no sign of E. Cass gets kidnapped by Lisa and the shitty babysitter and Jess and I try to find an outfit for Julie. She wants a Halloween outfit as well, so we go ask someone because E is still missing. Find an employee who helpfully takes us to the Halloween display downstairs... whereupon Jess falls for the black cat but it too is out of stock. (The Genie costume was also there but my picture turned out horribly. HORRIBLY.) It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the cute Halloween display was something out of one of the craft books. I might have to buy it because look at how adorable that is!
Trying to maneuver through the store with a bag carrying a doll and some outfits is pretty damn difficult. I'm annoyed because Cass is being waylaid by drama and E has all but disappeared and I'm not sure, but I think I've nearly taken out a display or three and the escalator is scaring me. (I... don't like getting or on off them. It's a thing.)
I'm also a bit miffed because I wanted to love this dress and I didn't. I do not take disappointment well, k? So I'm lugging around a doll that isn't mine for a person who seems to have forgotten us while drama unfolds concerning a really bad babysitter and neither Jess nor I want to look at everything without Cass because half the point was that this was supposed to be TOGETHER, dammit!
Do you know how hard it is to look at things and not see them when you want to see them? Exactly. If you go to the gallery and look for them, you'll see a couple of pictures with my reflection holding a box. These were taken when E came back and took Cass's bag to the back and we got left again.
Yeah. So Cass comes back and I look around in the front area I'd been avoiding while shit went down because it was essentially the window area where the mall shoppers could look in. (Molly and Josefina's stuff as well as some of Kit's seems to have been there.)
Realized I owned almost everything of Molly's aside from the doll herself and her accessories. Still loved the displays. Something about Molly and Kit makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
So much so that I bought Kit's holiday dress for Ruthie. This display did me in each time we passed it. So cute! :D
Anyway, when Cass has returned and we've sped through Historical land, Cass announces in a voice on the verge of tears that she's ready to leave. Which seems insane because she hasn't seen the downstairs yet! She loves Bitty and she wanted the holiday dress and it's not fair that I waited to share this and she waited and we're getting robbed by the drama queen and she's just rolling over and letting it happen!
But what can you do when the birthday girl has spoken but ask quietly if she's sure and then follow her to the PS room where there had better be some damned cookies. There weren't. It was sad. We did, however, get little Cecile and Marie-Grace chocolates (a set of two in a pretty box) and they were pretty tasty.
Jess spends the most because she's been waiting for this, I believe, since possibly her birthday (which is sometime in May, I think) and then I drop the least because no doll. Cass is fighting back tears and it's obvious that she doesn't want to cut the trip short but she's also tired of being pulled in a thousand directions. Because E is so new, it takes her awhile to ring things up. I gather their system is a bit tricky, but since I sweat bullets at the thought of our new registers coming through this week, I'm not going to think anything bitchy. Also, it gave me time to point out that if Cass wasn't ready to leave then she shouldn't. And I got to paw Cecile and Marie Grace in person. Cecile's outfit is really soft and pretty and it's probably the most ornate and beautiful of all the historical Meet outfits. Marie Grace's isn't too bad.
I still don't know where I stand on MG. In pictures she looks weird and in person she's very cute. But the moment you leave her immediate vicinity you're back to thinking "...weird." so I'm not entirely sure how I feel. I'm not so secretly hoping to win her anyway.
Cass checks out and we find ourselves with time to kill because Lisa has decreed she is Leaving. No one truly believes she's going home and not just back to the hotel to sulk, but since we took her car to the mall (well that and Cass's car), this means that Liz and Matt have to go with Lisa to pick up his car from their condo/apartment/whatever. I point out that since Kiki is on the other side of the mall, if Cass really wants to see the holiday dresses and Bitty land, dude. We've got time.
So we do.
Which means I get to admire the pretty of #46 here (doll on the left) and the way they have her curls done up. I love her. So cute!
And admire the display here. Which nearly caused me to die from laughter. All the other displays are very well set up. This one? Probably the most realistic of the bunch, but still. Try harder! Or I will be forced to photograph it. ;) I'm not sure if it's just been exceptionally well loved, or if it's meant to look like my room come noon after any given friend spent the night. Everyone asleep and curled up under the blankets to block the sun. The sun!
After an embarrassingly long time I finally remember one of the things I wanted to check out at the store, which was the ability to make your own t-shirt. Technically you pick out your design from a book or the poster on the wall, and then you pick from three shirt colors (white, pink, or periwinkle) and whether you want long or short sleeves. None of the dolls on display near the order window were wearing the long sleeves and I've found that other than the long sleeved shirts AG uses in specific outfits, the long sleeved shirts tend to look doofy. If you wanted the beach print or the peace and love print, they were sold out. I nearly got the Owl asking Who do you love (or something similar) but realized it looked kind of cheap on the white shirt and it would clash on the pink and periwinkle wasn't doing it for me for once. So I ended up going pink. Ivy will show this off eventually.
Not on her, but hey. I haven't had much time since we returned for funsies.
Cass bought two Coconut themed shirts. I thought she'd bought identical shirts for her Sonali and Destiny (#11) but later pictures proved otherwise. Since Jess had spent the most by far and she had this look that said, "I want one too, but I'm not sure I have the money" I offered to buy her one as well. I know full well the sticker shock and since I spent less than I initially feared and another $20 wouldn't change that, it seemed the thing to do. I know I'd like it if someone did the same, y'know? She did go with the owl, but long sleeved and periwinkle's.
Part of the fun of going was seeing all the dolls being carried around by little girls and their family members. I was surprised by the lack of Marie Grace and Cecile in anyone's arms, or anyone really freaking out about them either. I admit I was distracted and I would love to go and just wander and people watch to observe the trends, but I really thought I would have seen at least one coming in to convince a kid to buy more for them. (That'd be the doll sweet talking the kid.) There was a small troupe of girls in orange sweaters and skirts carrying Mollys and they were adorable. I saw the same Chrissa being carted all over the mall, but I believe I saw another one as well, which surprised me for some reason. I saw a Kailey which definitely surprised me since it's been quite a few years since she's been out and I never got the impression she was terribly popular. (And yes, I know, one doll does not popular make.) Quite a few Kananis were running around and at least two Julies that I noticed. One of the AA MyAG dolls with straight hair (couldn't see them close enough to figure out which number) was obviously well loved as her girl carted her around the store. A number of Bittys were being carried, and I only saw one truly awful case of Loved To Death hair at the salon (the curly strawberry blond, I think). It was funny watching these tiny little girls barging their way through the crowds in the mall to get to the store, followed by their parents/families. Not so many dads/males in attendance and one of the girls in the salon commented on that to a dad who did not have that "get me out of here!" look on his face.
I did have to stop and wonder why no one told one little girl that perhaps having her doll wear ice skates to the store was dangerous, but overall people watching was enlightening.
The store was an odd mix of exactly what I'd hoped for and a bitter disappointment. The PS element came down on the latter side, but I do wonder if we'd had Lisa, the PS Cass kept communicating with on a variety of things, if the trip would have been better. The store set up was a bit weird near the Bistro as it seemed to kind of disappear, but I'm not sure if that's where the books were or something, or if it's just a weird use of space. Escalators freak me out, but I liked the split level especially as it meant that if you didn't like Bitty, you didn't have to look at Bitty. Jess enjoyed the Atlanta store more, but I think the store itself was better in DC. The experience at Atlanta was better.
Also, dude. They really have amped up the security in these places. It was really obvious unlike Atlanta in 2008 where it looked like if you had time enough to plan it, you could grab a doll and run without too much trouble.
If you would like to join me on the virtual tour with more comments than you can shake a stick at (or something) or see these pictures larger because, like me, you're just into pictures of just about anything, you may click here. There are extra photos, you can try and spot the Imp in the reflection if you're stalkery like that, or you can just marvel at how they've opened two stores this year and already there's word that another two are underway. If you haven't been to one of these and you'd like to, I suggest that you realize there is a frickton of pink.
Sorry this took awhile to post, but hey. It appeared! Now the wishbooks should be going out soon, yes? Want. Want now.
Also, for simplicity's sake, this part will be more of the AG and less of the drama that raged during the large part of our visit to the store. That is coming later, I promise, and will probably have bits thrown in to explain why things are so disjointed.
Backstory: In June the DC/Tyson's Corner store opened. Cass, Jess, and I were going to go toward the end of June, maybe around my birthday (start to mid-July) and plans were tentatively made. Then Dad died and I realized no way in hell could I make the trip because just getting there would cost too much. I was bummed about not going but Cass kept saying she'd go to the store and take pictures. She didn't. Instead, she waited til Jess and I could go with her. This part of the trip was a Big Deal. If nothing else, it was the bonding time set aside for us. (Anyone was free to join in, but we figured, and rightly so, that everyone else would rather hit up the rest of the massive mall and find things they were actually interested in.)
This part of the trip was also pretty much unchanged. It was pushed back til 5:30 when we didn't leave Cass's father's house on time but no big deal. After some crazy driving that left me feeling decidedly sick (that and I really don't think I should have eaten what little I did as it didn't seem to agree with me) and an argument with the GPS, we arrived at the mall. There was a thing with the deciding who was going where and in what car and... I dunno. Jess, Cass, and I entered the mall and headed for AG. The plan was simple: Jess and I would hit the bathroom and Cass would check in with our Personal Shopper (PS) and then FUN TIMES. I'd given Cass my card that should have gotten her a goodie bag and, I think, cookies. COOKIES, dammit. We never got any damn cookies and she never got a damn goodie bag. But I'm jumping ahead.
I resisted the urge to take a picture of the doll hanger they have in the stalls of the restrooms because, well, other people have taken them and I was otherwise occupied. Jess and I head off to find Cass who is in the PS area talking to Ellyn. The PS area, if you're going, is to the left of the escalators and behind the bistro where the cookies will taunt you. COOKIES. ;__:
I should say that Ellyn seemed very nice. Very nice. I cannot really stress this enough. But she knew nothing. Nothing. It was... a let down. I know everyone has to have their first day or three sometime and she'll learn as she goes and again, very nice, but I should not have to be the fountain of knowledge while in your store, k? The main perk of having a PS was that hey, someone could hold our stuff while we shopped. Except I didn't get a bag. :( Which didn't bug me too much because I had said that I was along for the ride. What I meant, though I can't imagine how she would know this, was that I wasn't buying a doll. Cass and Jess both wanted Kanani. I already own her (and she's lovely!) and I could buy stuff for the dolls I already own... or another doll. I decided I wanted actual stuff, so my list was different than theirs. For whatever reason Cass was holding her own bag and Ellyn was carrying Jess'. I didn't notice til Cass snarked a comment to me about it later. I was a bit more distracted by our first stop: Kanani land!
My list of things was small and easily changeable. But the one thing I wanted above all others was Kanani's blue dress. It was sold out/unavailable. Which shouldn't have been a problem. Many an AG fanatic has gone to a store and found their desired item unavailable. Your PS is supposed to be able to either take you information or maybe bill you now and then ship it for free when it arrives in stock. Since their tax is less than shipping from the website, I'd have had no problem at all with this. NO PROBLEM.
But we have a problem. Ellyn does not offer this. She doesn't seem to think this is an option. "You can order it online or something." My sad face turns to a bit harrumph-y. Cass is also a bit harrumph-u because I gather she wanted it as well. I'm not sure if Jess noticed it was out or wasn't interested or what. There was a cute little moment where both Cass and Jess showed me their dolls for me to declare them fit for duty. :D
Anyway. Back to Kanani shopping. Cass is trying to suss out the accessories or something and Ellyn isn't being all that helpful. I do my best to not bother her as, well, having your attention split three ways is a bit dangerous and to be honest, I got the feeling she thought we were weird since none of us was shopping for a kidlet. :P Whatever, lady, I gots this. When E wandered off to do... something, maybe help Jess, I pointed to the things in the case that came with Kanani and the things that were her accessories and thus not included with the doll. Cass decided the accessories were not necessary and we moved onto Cecile and Marie-Grace land. (...yes. I did have to do that.)
Upon spying them Cass asks, "but where are their holiday dresses?" I'm still not sure if she meant these two or the very Foofy Fairy Costume. E was stumped, so I leaned over and whispered that according to the paper dolls and other people, the red dress for Cecile and the green.... tent for Marie-Grace were considered their holiday outfits. (And behold, I was right. The minis came out today wearing those outfits and since everyone but Kaya has been wearing their holiday outfit, it stands to reason that these are considered their holiday outfits.) I asked Cass to snag me a Special Dress and crinoline of DOOM because, well... if I wasn't getting Kanani's goodness for cheaper, I'd be getting Cecile's, dammit.
We move around to the second display of MGC goodness (no pics) and drama intrudes. Karen, the little girl, has gone "missing." Cass disappears to either look or lead the search or something. I'm not sure. Before you think I'm a horrible person for not going to look, A, I had to hold Cass's bag because E has disappeared with Jess's bag, and B, I trusted Karen to be with Matt and Liz since she was obviously not with her mother or her babysitter who was the worst babysitter in the history of babysitting and Kristy Thomas would back me up on this!
Jess and I wander a bit, a little unsettled by Karen's disappearance, but also fairly certain that it's more a case of sucky babysitter being horrible and less a case of kidnapping. Cass reappears and tells us how right we were, so we head off to look for exclusives because when you're in a store, there are things that prove you were there aside from the serious price tag. :p
E has disappeared either again or is still MIA because she's checking someone else in or out and she's gone for quite awhile. It's actually really rude the way we don't see her for more than half an hour and this essentially strands us in the store when shit hits the fan in a bit. But the exclusives! I already have the black shirt courtesy of Cass for my birthday (yay!) and I'm not really that enthused about a lot of of the other things until I remember that I don't have a pair of non mom-jeans for my dolls that aren't capris. Plus I'm already getting the red t-shirt for Ivy so she might as well get an actual outfit, right? Right. I draw the line at shoes, even if black boots are nifty. I think all three of us buy the jeans and possibly the red-shirt. Maybe Cass goes for something else instead. If I weren't already beginning to worry about my budget, I probably would have bought the cute pink skirt and the pink faded sweatshirt/hoodie. But I am and it doesn't occur to me til a bit later to check the price on the crinoline of doom. I'd mentally priced it $10 more than it was. Phew.
Still no sign of E. Cass gets kidnapped by Lisa and the shitty babysitter and Jess and I try to find an outfit for Julie. She wants a Halloween outfit as well, so we go ask someone because E is still missing. Find an employee who helpfully takes us to the Halloween display downstairs... whereupon Jess falls for the black cat but it too is out of stock. (The Genie costume was also there but my picture turned out horribly. HORRIBLY.) It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the cute Halloween display was something out of one of the craft books. I might have to buy it because look at how adorable that is!
Trying to maneuver through the store with a bag carrying a doll and some outfits is pretty damn difficult. I'm annoyed because Cass is being waylaid by drama and E has all but disappeared and I'm not sure, but I think I've nearly taken out a display or three and the escalator is scaring me. (I... don't like getting or on off them. It's a thing.)
I'm also a bit miffed because I wanted to love this dress and I didn't. I do not take disappointment well, k? So I'm lugging around a doll that isn't mine for a person who seems to have forgotten us while drama unfolds concerning a really bad babysitter and neither Jess nor I want to look at everything without Cass because half the point was that this was supposed to be TOGETHER, dammit!
Do you know how hard it is to look at things and not see them when you want to see them? Exactly. If you go to the gallery and look for them, you'll see a couple of pictures with my reflection holding a box. These were taken when E came back and took Cass's bag to the back and we got left again.
Yeah. So Cass comes back and I look around in the front area I'd been avoiding while shit went down because it was essentially the window area where the mall shoppers could look in. (Molly and Josefina's stuff as well as some of Kit's seems to have been there.)
Realized I owned almost everything of Molly's aside from the doll herself and her accessories. Still loved the displays. Something about Molly and Kit makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
So much so that I bought Kit's holiday dress for Ruthie. This display did me in each time we passed it. So cute! :D
Anyway, when Cass has returned and we've sped through Historical land, Cass announces in a voice on the verge of tears that she's ready to leave. Which seems insane because she hasn't seen the downstairs yet! She loves Bitty and she wanted the holiday dress and it's not fair that I waited to share this and she waited and we're getting robbed by the drama queen and she's just rolling over and letting it happen!
But what can you do when the birthday girl has spoken but ask quietly if she's sure and then follow her to the PS room where there had better be some damned cookies. There weren't. It was sad. We did, however, get little Cecile and Marie-Grace chocolates (a set of two in a pretty box) and they were pretty tasty.
Jess spends the most because she's been waiting for this, I believe, since possibly her birthday (which is sometime in May, I think) and then I drop the least because no doll. Cass is fighting back tears and it's obvious that she doesn't want to cut the trip short but she's also tired of being pulled in a thousand directions. Because E is so new, it takes her awhile to ring things up. I gather their system is a bit tricky, but since I sweat bullets at the thought of our new registers coming through this week, I'm not going to think anything bitchy. Also, it gave me time to point out that if Cass wasn't ready to leave then she shouldn't. And I got to paw Cecile and Marie Grace in person. Cecile's outfit is really soft and pretty and it's probably the most ornate and beautiful of all the historical Meet outfits. Marie Grace's isn't too bad.
I still don't know where I stand on MG. In pictures she looks weird and in person she's very cute. But the moment you leave her immediate vicinity you're back to thinking "...weird." so I'm not entirely sure how I feel. I'm not so secretly hoping to win her anyway.
Cass checks out and we find ourselves with time to kill because Lisa has decreed she is Leaving. No one truly believes she's going home and not just back to the hotel to sulk, but since we took her car to the mall (well that and Cass's car), this means that Liz and Matt have to go with Lisa to pick up his car from their condo/apartment/whatever. I point out that since Kiki is on the other side of the mall, if Cass really wants to see the holiday dresses and Bitty land, dude. We've got time.
So we do.
Which means I get to admire the pretty of #46 here (doll on the left) and the way they have her curls done up. I love her. So cute!
And admire the display here. Which nearly caused me to die from laughter. All the other displays are very well set up. This one? Probably the most realistic of the bunch, but still. Try harder! Or I will be forced to photograph it. ;) I'm not sure if it's just been exceptionally well loved, or if it's meant to look like my room come noon after any given friend spent the night. Everyone asleep and curled up under the blankets to block the sun. The sun!
After an embarrassingly long time I finally remember one of the things I wanted to check out at the store, which was the ability to make your own t-shirt. Technically you pick out your design from a book or the poster on the wall, and then you pick from three shirt colors (white, pink, or periwinkle) and whether you want long or short sleeves. None of the dolls on display near the order window were wearing the long sleeves and I've found that other than the long sleeved shirts AG uses in specific outfits, the long sleeved shirts tend to look doofy. If you wanted the beach print or the peace and love print, they were sold out. I nearly got the Owl asking Who do you love (or something similar) but realized it looked kind of cheap on the white shirt and it would clash on the pink and periwinkle wasn't doing it for me for once. So I ended up going pink. Ivy will show this off eventually.
Not on her, but hey. I haven't had much time since we returned for funsies.
Cass bought two Coconut themed shirts. I thought she'd bought identical shirts for her Sonali and Destiny (#11) but later pictures proved otherwise. Since Jess had spent the most by far and she had this look that said, "I want one too, but I'm not sure I have the money" I offered to buy her one as well. I know full well the sticker shock and since I spent less than I initially feared and another $20 wouldn't change that, it seemed the thing to do. I know I'd like it if someone did the same, y'know? She did go with the owl, but long sleeved and periwinkle's.
Part of the fun of going was seeing all the dolls being carried around by little girls and their family members. I was surprised by the lack of Marie Grace and Cecile in anyone's arms, or anyone really freaking out about them either. I admit I was distracted and I would love to go and just wander and people watch to observe the trends, but I really thought I would have seen at least one coming in to convince a kid to buy more for them. (That'd be the doll sweet talking the kid.) There was a small troupe of girls in orange sweaters and skirts carrying Mollys and they were adorable. I saw the same Chrissa being carted all over the mall, but I believe I saw another one as well, which surprised me for some reason. I saw a Kailey which definitely surprised me since it's been quite a few years since she's been out and I never got the impression she was terribly popular. (And yes, I know, one doll does not popular make.) Quite a few Kananis were running around and at least two Julies that I noticed. One of the AA MyAG dolls with straight hair (couldn't see them close enough to figure out which number) was obviously well loved as her girl carted her around the store. A number of Bittys were being carried, and I only saw one truly awful case of Loved To Death hair at the salon (the curly strawberry blond, I think). It was funny watching these tiny little girls barging their way through the crowds in the mall to get to the store, followed by their parents/families. Not so many dads/males in attendance and one of the girls in the salon commented on that to a dad who did not have that "get me out of here!" look on his face.
I did have to stop and wonder why no one told one little girl that perhaps having her doll wear ice skates to the store was dangerous, but overall people watching was enlightening.
The store was an odd mix of exactly what I'd hoped for and a bitter disappointment. The PS element came down on the latter side, but I do wonder if we'd had Lisa, the PS Cass kept communicating with on a variety of things, if the trip would have been better. The store set up was a bit weird near the Bistro as it seemed to kind of disappear, but I'm not sure if that's where the books were or something, or if it's just a weird use of space. Escalators freak me out, but I liked the split level especially as it meant that if you didn't like Bitty, you didn't have to look at Bitty. Jess enjoyed the Atlanta store more, but I think the store itself was better in DC. The experience at Atlanta was better.
Also, dude. They really have amped up the security in these places. It was really obvious unlike Atlanta in 2008 where it looked like if you had time enough to plan it, you could grab a doll and run without too much trouble.
If you would like to join me on the virtual tour with more comments than you can shake a stick at (or something) or see these pictures larger because, like me, you're just into pictures of just about anything, you may click here. There are extra photos, you can try and spot the Imp in the reflection if you're stalkery like that, or you can just marvel at how they've opened two stores this year and already there's word that another two are underway. If you haven't been to one of these and you'd like to, I suggest that you realize there is a frickton of pink.
Sorry this took awhile to post, but hey. It appeared! Now the wishbooks should be going out soon, yes? Want. Want now.
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Also sadface? That your trip was ruined by Drama Queen butting in where she had no business. Ugh. With "friends" like those, who needs enemies?
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It was most vexing that no one else but the birthday girl wanted her on the trip because everyone knew she'd pull something like this. It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when.
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Which reminds me - I owe you some fic-reading comments, don't I?
*will try to sneak on during lunch break*