Costa Rica + Munecas

I am just writing a quick update here from Costa Rica.  After the first day in Costa Rica, my boyfriend told me he had a surprise for me.  He told me to close my eyes, and he handed me a bag.  I opened my eyes and looked inside and this is what it was:

A new Juanita Perez!!  Isn't he the best boyfriend ever?!!  He had a friend in Mexico City go to 3 different Palacio de Hierra stores to find a Juanita Perez that did not have blue eyes.  You probably can't tell from the picture, but this sweet girl has GRAY eyes.  Very pretty, and very different :)

Of course, I brought Juanita, along with Kirsten, with us to Playa Hermosa.  Here are some photos of the girls playing at the beach, taken from a cell phone camera:

Kirsten, playing around the lava rocks

Juanita, with beach hair :)

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My New Dollhouse

I'm so excited I can barely contain myself. I'm going to try to make this update as clear as possible, but with my current state, it may not make complete sense. Forgive me.

About two weeks ago, I purchased an Ikea Wardrobe from Craiglist with the intent of making it into a dollhouse for my American Girl dolls (big shouts to Zak). I paid $30 for the wardrobe, in white, with two doors and no other furnishings. The doors are normally $60 and the wardrobe frame is normally $90, so I felt like I got a great deal. Today, Afner and I went to Ikea to pick up the shelves I needed, plus some lighting for the dollhouse.


I debated a lot about whether to get white shelves to match the wardrobe, or to get wood colored shelves, since the shelves were going to be the floor of the dolls room. I thought it would be cute to have hardwood floors. After considering for awhile, I finally settled on white. Shelves cost $25 for a 2-pack, and I needed 3 shelves, so I had my 2 sets of shelves loaded up and ready to pay. I, however, love to check out the "As-Is" section of Ikea on my way out, so we made our way over there. Lo and behold, there were 2 packages of the shelves I needed, in a dark wood color, for $2.99 each. The only reason they were so cheap is because they were in a discontinued color. Well, I loaded up the shelves, Afner pushed the cart back and we returned the white shelves. I was soooooooooo excited. Instead of paying $50 for shelves, I paid $6, and they look great! I also got some really cute lights, 3 in a pack for $20. Afner (aka the world's best boyfriend) wired up the girls' rooms for me. Here is my finished result:

The apartments. The top floor is Samantha's (but Felicity is squatting there for awhile), the second floor is Addy's, and the bottom floor is Josefina's.

Josefina, enjoying her new place

Addy in her room

Now, the dollhouse is far from finished. I hope to collect lots more Now, the dollhouse is far from finished. I hope to collect lots more furniture and accessories to furnish the rooms. Tomorrow, I'm going to check out some wallpaper scraps so I can cover up those ugly holes in the girls' walls.

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