Welcome to Islandshire, Lauren Elizabeth!

Ordinarily, Trudy would be writing this blog post, but I've decided to take over for this one! This is something really exciting! A new little girl has joined the Islandshire group, and it took a long time in coming . . . about 22 years, actually! Meet Lauren Elizabeth:

Trudy (right) welcomes Lauren Elizabeth (left) with celebratory t-shirts and a fun balloon!

Back at the end of 1995, when the first "Girl of Today" dolls were released, Elizabeth fell in love with #11. This was a medium-skin Addy mold with long black hair and bangs. She decided that she would call her "Lauren Elizabeth" after actress Lauren Bacall and Queen Elizabeth. There wasn't money for her at the time, and she wasn't an historical doll, so we saved some old catalogs and continued to admire her. Well, when we got back into the swing of our AG doll collections earlier this year, I told Mom that we needed a #11. She's been long retired now, and we've not seen one all year while we've been watching eBay for old AG dolls. That is, until August 23rd!

Mom and I were sitting in the computer room, and she told me to come over and have a look at the doll auction she had just found! I couldn't believe it! There was a poor little #11 doll in the photo, no clothes on and sitting against a blank wall. I stuttered out the fact that it was Lauren Elizabeth and probably said "buy it" at the same time! It was only on as a seven-day auction, but Mom e-mailed the seller and asked if he would consider a Buy-It-Now. He said that he would, so for a total of $68.75 --- Lauren Elizabeth was ours!

I couldn't believe how excited I was (and still am) about finally having a #11. And she was so much more beautiful in real life than even the catalog showed. There was a short moment of heartbreak when she arrived, because she was dirtier than the seller and advertised, and there were some chew marks/nicks on her left hand and right foot. But we just couldn't send her back! Elizabeth took her upstairs and did an amazing job smoothing the marks out by heating the area carefully with a hairdryer (do not do this if you are a child or nervous about doing it). This worked well, because her limbs are the older softer vinyl of the PC era dolls (even though her body is already the early Mattel era with the "2008" product number). She just has a few scars now, but you hardly notice it. We gave her a baking soda clean up, shampooed her hair with wig shampoo, and Elizabeth re-strung her and re-stuffed her body with all new stuffing. She's as good as new! Here she is meeting some of her new friends (Trudy and Nanea).

1996 Catalog Photo

At the moment, Lauren Elizabeth is wearing an old bathing suit set from 1998 ("Swimming Outfit"), topped by a hot-pink t-shirt from AGP Chicago. Her shoes are the AG jellies from the 1996 outfit, "Culotte Dress". This isn't what she's going to wear forever, though, because I am on the hunt for the overalls and t-shirt from the 1996 "Earth Day Outfit". I've already got the sandals and the hair piece, but she needs the whole outfit. The reason? Well, that was the outfit she modeled in the original 1996 catalog photos, and that was the picture that we fell in love with when we were little! So, it will just be a matter of finding the two pieces.

Lauren Elizabeth now has a happy new home. To make it even cooler . . . last week, another of these old #11 dolls came on eBay, and Elizabeth was able to get it! She hasn't arrived yet, but we'll post about her soon.

Check back for more Islandshire fun . . .