Nellie's Holiday Coat

It is still SO cold outside! The one good thing about that is, in my time spent hiding from what, to my Florida mind, looks like a frozen wasteland, I have been able to take lots of pictures of my dolls. Hopefully that means I can stay ahead and keep to my goal of posting about once a week.

Again, we have a new doll on the blog: Nellie O'Malley, the Irish best friend of Samantha Parkington who is center stage in a fantastic (and historically improbable-but hey, it warms my heart) rags to riches tale.

It is hard for a lot of people to understand this nowadays, when Irish Americans have become so assimilated into mainstream white American culture, but the Irish went through a lot to make that happen. The Irish in America were discriminated against, hated, and were not considered white.

A political cartoon showing that African Americans and Irish Americans were seen as equally inferior. They are both drawn to look inhuman.

https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/28/irish-apes-tactics-of-de-humanization/ 

My family has been in America for a long time. I don't speak with an Irish accent or eat traditional Irish foods. But I want to stress that the reason I do not is because of specific choices made by other cultural groups that systematically stomped out (not for everyone, but for people like my family) the unique things that made up the Irish culture. Lots of people in America, including myself, have ancestors like Nellie who were treated like garbage because they were Irish and Catholic. Many Americans have ancestors who were forced out of their homes because of horrible practices and the threat of starvation and experienced the Irish Diaspora.

I am going to use my Nellie posts to both talk about her clothing and to discuss the Irish experience in America. I will go way before Nellie and way after Nellie.

Frosty Fair Isle Set

So I hope everyone is keeping warm like Saige!

Look how toasty she looks! Please check out the P.S. on this post to learn about my new picture taking methods!

I'm from the south, where even the hint of snow sends us into a panic. The city I live in might as well be shut down-and yes, I did participate in the mayhem. I went to the store to purchase the obligatory bread and milk as well as a flashlight in case the power went out, bottled water for me and the fur babies just in case, a huge bag of cat food (the apocalypse was surely coming, but my cats were gonna survive!), and Mountain Dew (which I am addicted to, there should be a Mountain Dew Anonymous).

Kaya's Winter Cape and Hood Set

Finally Kaya makes her appearance on my blog!

So I've discussed Kaya and tokenism before (Kaya would be a perfect doll and a perfect addition to the line if they would also have a modern Native American doll to show people that Native Americans are still around and live modern lives-some people truly think that they all live in teepees even today!) but I have never done a clothing/item review for her. It's also not yet her turn for the future prediction stuff. Therefore I'm excited!

So why the delay?

Mostly because I am not all that familiar with the clothing of the Nez Perce tribe (the modern term for the Nimíipuu-every source I consulted called them the Nez Perce so I used the terms interchangeably). I can discuss riding habits from Felicity's time or Christmas dresses from WWII with some ease. With Josefina, I at least have some background.

With Kaya, I often feel lost-the sad truth of the matter is that Native American history is pretty much ignored in our current education system and even though I have personally studied history, my knowledge is still lacking. It's actually embarrassing and I am trying to rectify the situation.

Since I don't want to mess up something that I believe to be important, I have avoided it. However now is the time.

Felicity's Riding Habit

I hope everyone is having a great 2016! My resolution for this blog is to post weekly-I don't know if I'll be able to maintain that, but I do think every other week is certainly doable.

So I should be doing the yearly GOTY collection review but...I just don't have it in me this year. I haven't been to a store to see it all in person so I don't have personal pictures. I do have a catalogue and I could do it that way but...

I'm just not feeling it this year. Lea is a beautiful doll, very similar to Kanani who is gorgeous...but she is a disappointment. We have been waiting and waiting and waiting for a DOC for GOTY and what do they give us? A 1/8th Brazilian doll. It's a sop to get us to shut up.