HAPPY 100th POST!!

And two year blog anniversary!

You know when I started this blog I never thought I would make it three months let alone two years. I didn't think I'd make it five posts and now we're at 100! It totally blows my mind. I've thought long and hard about how I want to celebrate this milestone. It's a pretty big one for me! And I've decided that today we're just going to take a look back at the last two years. Talk about some stats, talk about the dolls, talk about the projects and at the end I will give you guys a chance to win something pretty cool! But we'll get to that in a moment.


This blog was started as a way to document my collection. I wanted a place where I could have lots of pictures of each item and descriptions so that I could easily look and see what I have. I never intended to try writing real reviews of things but I kind of ended up doing that. (What is a review but showing people something and saying what you think about it?) I just wanted to take pictures and talk a little. Of course it didn't quite turn out that way. I talk a lot! So far I've "reviewed" around 34 outfits. Most recently the AG special edition sets for 2015! I've also reviewed several dolls, fashion dolls, and (something I never saw happening) action figures! I've done a couple of tutorials, I've compared brands of clothing and recently I started getting brave enough to take my dolls out in public and take pictures. Which I've shared with you :)

But I think the most exciting thing I've done is showing you the processes of making customs! Since starting this blog I've made 7 custom dolls. In fact my very second post was the start of making Caroline and Laura!

Here they were two short years ago:

 And here they are today!

They were my very first eye swap and it was so hard that I didn't do another one till this year! But before that set of customs I did another. Sam and Jay.

Sam and Jay were a project for my bestie! I made sure I did NOT have to do an eye-swap with them! And here they were:

Sam was in good condition but he had a lot of ink stains and poor Jay was a hot mess with his missing thumb and smushed face!

But after a lot of hard work here they are today:

Such handsome boys!

Doing Traci's boys really made me want to get mine done! Now I had special plans for one of them and that required a brand new doll....but he was worth it! Here are my boys on their first days with me:

And here are Jeb and Daken today:

They did require an eye-swap but man the second time was MUCH easier. Also during the whole process I discovered that Jeb is a counterfeit AG doll but that just makes me love him more!

My most recent custom actually isn't finished yet! She belongs to my bff and her name is Ilona:

There is her before and there she is today! Hopefully she'll be back at the end of the summer or so to get her new eyes.  (Pictures of Laura, Sam, Jay and Ilona are used with permission from their owner Traci. Also looking at all those old pictures I think my photography has gotten A LOT better. Go me!) 

Along with customs I've done several restorations over the last two years. This baby Crissy was a Christmas gift for my mother:

She didn't need too much done but a cleaning and a good hair brushing! It took me at least an hour and two broken brushes but it was all worth it because she looked amazing when she was done:

My mom loved her!

My next restoration was all about a white-bodied Molly. I didn't have any white-bodied dolls and I really wanted one to round out my collection. Of course the one I got was a bit of a disaster:

Her face was deformed as was one of her legs and she was filthy. About the only thing she had going for her was that she didn't have silver eye! But after a lot of hard work here she is today:

Chilling out in her blue jammies!

Most recently I did a restoration for Traci. Her Lissie was in desperate need of a new wig! Here she is the day I got her in the mail:

And here she is back home:

She got a new wig, her lips repainted and freshly tightened limbs! This really is still my favorite kind of work to do with the dolls. I love taking a doll that needs TLC and giving it new life!

I haven't just been making customs and restoring dolls here though! I've also been checking out different brands. I've added three doll brands to my collection the last two years!

First was Carpatina's Kohanna:

And then I got an Extra Special Dolls Grace:

And finally a My Twinn Adopt a Friend who I named Melody:

 Side note: Check out her hair!

I've been working on new hair styles recently and I'm pretty proud of this one!

There have also been a few new AG's! Ivy was purchased on a trip with my mom to St. Louis in 2013.

Charlie was a gift from my husband for my birthday last year!

Mia Wren was a gift from my best friend:

She and her cousin Callie are running their own blog now. It's called Isn't She Dovely? and it's pretty much just a fun mix of crafts and general silliness!

And finally I got Grace (who I renamed Maggie) January 1st of this year!

I'll be going on a trip in August and will probably be bringing another girl back then so our AG collecting days are far from over!

Hmmm, what else have I done? Well I did that brand comparison I mentioned earlier, made hats, made a mermaid rag doll and learned how to make shoes and did a tutorial. In fact the first post of that three part tutorial is my highest viewed post ever! The other two posts in the top three are Come Meet Kohanna and Extra Special Grace. My least viewed post is actually my very first one! Which isn't surprising at all; first posts are usually super lame. Mine is especially lame!

Here are some more interesting facts. My audience primarily comes from the US, Canada, and the UK. Which makes perfect sense, though I've also has visitors from Australia and as far away as Russia. Most of you use Safari and yet most of you are on Windows. Most of you are coming from our overlord the Google. And the search phrase that most often leads to my blog is just the name of the blog!

Speaking of the name, Up to My Eyeballs in Dolls was picked because it made me giggle. It still does! I was talking to my mom about starting the blog and she was helping me brainstorm names. We kept coming up with things like Lace and Lovelies or the Vinyl Life. Things that would probably get me a WHOLE different kind of viewer and finally it just kind of came to me. Up to My Eyeballs in Dolls. I still think it's an absolutely ridiculous name but then again it suits me!

So what is next for this little blog? More clothing reviews, of course, I have most of Caroline's clothes to review and the new doll I mentioned somewhere up there. We've also got a couple of planned customs and some new action figures. Maybe I'll get around to finishing that never published post that got me into so much trouble last week! Is there anything you guys would like to see? Let me know! But I think we're just going to keep swimming. I still haven't lost the love of doing posts and taking pictures so I think we'll easily make it to three years!

And now as a thank you to everyone who reads, follows and comments I'm going to be giving away something that was one of my favorite things to review EVER. Today you have a chance to win your very own Surf's Up! Batman!

DA-TA! (If you're never read Tyra Banks' novel. Find it. Read it. That reference is hilarious!) Yay! We're so excited!

Now keep in mind this Surfs Up! Batman is new in the box but the box is no where near mint. Unfortunately this box, while super cool, doesn't hold up to packaging and shelf wear well.

If you want one of these to display in the box, this one is not for you HOWEVER if you want one to play with (which I highly recommend) then please enter!

The figure itself is just as awesome as mine:

He says won't you be my new owner?

So how do you win him?! It's very simple. First go like my new Facebook page for the blog! Then check out my blog, find your favorite post and comment there telling me why you liked that one! Your name will be assigned a number and then I'll be using a random number generator to choose the winner in three weeks. That's right, comment by midnight July 10th. A winner will be announced July 11th and contacted through Facebook.

There are a few more rules:

1. Unfortunately this is only for readers with US addresses. Sorry, but I'm not made of money and shipping is expensive!
2. You must be 13 or older! If you're not you can always have a parent or guardian enter for you.
3. And one more time. You must comment by midnight July 10th!

I really want to thank everyone who reads this. I love every single comment I get and I'm so glad that you're here. It's been an amazing 2 years/100 posts and I can't wait to see what happens in the next 100! Till next time!