The Doll Ranch

Welcome! I'm an adult collector (she/her) of American Girl dolls and other brands of 18 inch dolls, and this blog is devoted to them. Here you'll find American Girl-related news, book discussion, product discussion, doll-related craft tutorials, pictures of my own dolls, and lots of vintage Pleasant Company nostalgia.

[desertdollranch]

For those of you reading on the Tumblr app or have clicked through your dashboard, you’re missing out on a lot of extra content! Take a look at what else you can do on my blog besides reading my posts: 

Meet my dolls

Browse frequently asked questions

Ask me a question

Check out the doll repairs masterpost if you need to repair, restore, or customize an American Girl doll

Browse the crafts masterpost if you want to make something for your doll (up to date as of February 2022)

Go through the tag list to see my most commonly tagged categories of posts (up to date as of July 2022)

Meet new friends by browsing the directory of more than 50 other American Girl blogs

See the archive of all my 5000+ posts, categorized by year and month

And of course, if you haven’t already, familiarize yourself with the theory that Marie-Grace Gardner is actually Grandmary

[luciana-vega]

Happy Pride from my Texas girlies! Special shoutout to those living in places where it's difficult to celebrate: even just knowing your truth is revolutionary. All the love ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

[desertdollranch]

Here they are.... it's them... straight out of 2006.... the Only Hearts Club!

From left: Anna Sophia, little sister Kristy, Taylor Angelique, Hannah Faith, Briana Joy, and Lily Rose.

[desertdollranch]

I spent the holiday weekend in Arizona visiting my parents and you better believe we did some hardcore thrifting while I was there! Here's who we found:

Marisol (far left) and Samantha (next to her) came home with me. Mostly I wanted the outfits they were wearing (which had to go in the wash), but Samantha needed a head-to-toe makeover. I felt so bad for her. Her hair was matted and dirty, her skin was covered with a layer of grime, her limbs were loose, and her face was slightly caved in, probably from having something heavy stored on top of her for a long time. I'm about 75% done with her restoration by now, and then she'll be ready to find a new home.

Marisol is in immaculate condition and is absolutely angelic. She just needed her hair sprayed down and gently guided back into place. Now that I've taken her outfit I haven't decided whether to keep her or let her move on too.

The WellieWishers were a lucky find, because my mom has both dolls and both their eyes have turned purple, so these girls were going to donate their eyes. I removed the purple eyes from my mom's dolls, shortly before she called American Girl and spoke to customer service, who said that purple eyes is a free replacement? So I had to put the eyes back into the eyeless dolls. This is good news because I also have two Wellies with purple eyes that need replacement.

The little coffee pot in front of Marisol is for me, and the AG brand saddle is for my mom's doll horses.

On my drive back, I stopped at a small town thrift store and found these:

These are obviously someone's old collection of Only Hearts Club dolls, from the early 2000's. Right in the middle is the very rare Hannah Faith doll, who I'm thrilled to have. I'm keeping everyone and their outfits, except for the two Briana dolls on each side of Hannah, since I already have Briana and don't want duplicates. I've since cleaned them up and they look brand new.

[agrosehamada]

Trying a new format--I know it's not the best but I thought I'd give it a try!

[viddywelldolly]

Has anyone ever completely restyled Courtney's hair? I thrifted mine and her hair was a MESS. Right now I have it really brushed out for that "big hair" look, but I'm wondering if I should try restyling it. I could always try and make it how it should look, but I honestly have no clue where my doll hair curling stuff is... If anyone has some tips to make her hair look accurate and from the 80's please let me know!

[desertdollranch]

My Courtney came to me secondhand and her hair was not well kept, so I just separated out each individual curl, sprayed it with water, brushed through it to detangle, and then twisted it in the direction of the natural curl. I did that through the rest of the hair, let it dry, and then once dry I used my fingers to separate each ringlet into smaller curls. That gives it the big poufy 80's look without looking tangled.

[definitelysamantha]

This is nice, but it's not Samantha's. And it's not Pleasant Company's. You can't just label things whatever you think is most likely. Why-

My beloved sister, brother, or enby in Pleasant, GPTchat doesn't know shit.

[samandnellie]

eBay should let you leave comments on listings PLEASE

[desertdollranch]

YOU specifically!

[queer-kit-kittredge]

grungy mcgrungerson

[queer-kit-kittredge]

cleany mccleanson

[desertdollranch]

Caroline's Creek Adventure

It's a beautiful spring day in Sacket's Harbor. Caroline dreads the thought of helping with the baking and needs an excuse to be outdoors for a few hours, so she tells everyone she's going fishing and hops in the skiff.

When she gets in and pulls out the fishing rod, she remembers that she forgot to bring bait.

She also notices there are no fish in the creek anyway, so even if she had brought bait, there's nothing to catch.

Being out on the water reminds her of sailing with Papa.

So she orients the skiff downstream, just to see where it goes.

She steers the skiff down the creek, where the trees thin out and the sun beats down.

Mostly she lets the current carry her along.

She ends up at a beaver's dam.

There aren't any beavers right now, but this will be a fun story to tell Papa some day when he escapes captivity by British army.

[desertdollranch]

I put Jessamyn in the mini nursery and let her play with the baby dolls.

Jessamyn is my little resin Helen Kish doll. I got her at the toy and doll show in Denver last month. The teeny tiny mini babies are Zuru 5 Surprise mini silicone babies, except for the one at the front row far right, who is a Miniverse baby.

The nursery was made for me by my mom, who makes the most amazing miniatures.

The blonde babies with the gold headbands are the ultra-rare twins, who came from the empty display case at Walmart. Sometimes if you ask nicely, the employees will give you the items in the display section when they throw away the empty boxes!

[misscorneliapitt]

Is Felicity’s sister’s name Nan short for something.

It must be. It has to be.

Nancy? That’s a perennially popular name. Anne/a? Annette?

Tbh. If I was Nan I’d be so peeved, my sister has a name like Felicity, so pretty! Literally joyful! And I’m…Nan.

This is a shit post.

Real talk it’s gotta be Nancy or something like that.

[desertdollranch]

I always thought it was a nickname for Hannah, but Nancy or Anne make sense too.

[desertdollranch]

Just a little something I made as an another addition to Caroline's collection!

This soft crown bonnet appears in her fourth book, Caroline Takes a Chance. Neither it nor this dress were ever produced for her collection, so I decided to just do it myself.

Straw hats are easy to find at thrift stores. I cut one up to make the brim and reinforced it with some extra stitching in matching thread. Now her face can stay shaded from the sun when she goes out fishing in the skiff, which she is going to do in my next post.

[definitelysamantha]

Are you sure? Might want to check the box.

[kirstenlarsons]

The famous blonde Samantha that's named Kirsten. How can you forget about her

[desertdollranch]

When AI writes your eBay listings......

[best-truly-me-tournament]

Round 0, Poll 2

18

18 revamped

Voting ended onMay 21

[raychleadele]

I’m here with 18.2 propaganda, because she’s one of the best dolls, period.

This is Esther, I bought her around 2001 and I adore her.

[lovemarisolluna]

"Show yourself! Step into your power!"❄️

🚨Unreleased*🚨 Show Yourself Frozen 2 outfit is here from ebay! I saw this pop up from an international seller, and because my choir is singing Show Yourself for our next concert, my brother bought all the pieces for me!

I really love this outfit, it's so beautifully made. The snowflake was advertised as a "hair accessory," but definitely is a ring. I edited the close up photo to show the design better, it is molded with the design of Elsa's snowflake including the 4 spirits.

The seller also had "hair gems," that I mistook for something from the birthstone line, but match the crystals on her bodice!

And yes, everything is tagged American Girl! this seller is one well known for selling "factory rejects" and the occasional unreleased items.

*as of this post, will update when AG releases this outfit!

[queer-nanea-mitchell]

Meet Neevee Tungilik

Meet my newest doll Neevee! She is a nine year old Inuk girl who lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut. She loves sewing, rock collecting and scrapbooking.

Neevee means nurture in Inuktut and she is my first modern doll OC. She's an Our Generation Mei doll who I re-wigged with Kavi's wig that I bought from a grey-market seller on Ebay.

[runawayorphantrain]

Day 1 of creating my sewing projects in The American Girls Dress Designer