It's A Doll World After All: Isabelle's Items of Interest: AGPlace Chicago

In August, Nellie and I went to the AG Place in Chicago. Right away, we were greeted by a lovely Julie doll.

Julie was very chatty, and we hit it off right away. She was very proud of her bicycle and was telling us all about it.

Nellie had never seen such a fabulous bicycle in all her life! A basket! Something oddly called a

"banana seat"! Patriotic American colors! She jumped right on, ready to ride all around the store. Except that it didn't move. That's ok, she was happy to pretend.

Julie wasn't extremely pleased and began waving her arms in the air and shouting that Nellie was going to break her bicycle. We decided that was our cue to leave.

I saw another Julie waving to me, sitting in a blue car that was very dirty. All of the sticky little fingers that had touched it had left the windshield permanently damaged. I tried to clean it while talking to her, but I don't think I did much good.

Nellie spent an inordinately long time gazing into the mirror on Julie's yellow plastic vanity table. What COULD she have been picturing for herself in that mirror?

Next I met a Samantha doll. I got very excited when I saw her. "We have a Samantha at home!" I told her, but no response. Uh oh... a human must have seen her breaking the doll code, and now she was in Doll State. Poor thing.

I enjoyed getting pictures in her gazebo, especially since I matched it!

It seemed a little flimsy and shook with every step I took, though, so I decided to leave and see what Nellie was up to since she was still in Julie's area.

When I saw her, Nellie was with the egg chair. She scrambled right in, transfixed. The shape! The colors! Beaded-curtain-looking-thingies!! Posters! Girl Power!

She stood by the display, a new light and determination in her eyes.

I met a sweet Rebecca, who said she liked my dress. I was very surprised, especially since I made it myself!

I managed to pry Nellie away from Julie's things so she would get a picture with Josefina and Kaya... but as soon as the picture was done, she was back in Groovy Land.

I decided to go to the GOTY section and visit Grace in her Patisserie. All the shopping had made me thirsty, so I purchased a drink, thanked her, and left.

The weirdest part of the trip was seeing... myself... in a glass case. I felt like Snow White having an out of body experience.

I didn't spend a lot of time in the Truly Me section (although MyLittleMegara ended up getting an outfit there, which she reviewed here.) These two girls, named Ginny (left) and Lucy (right), were happy to tell me all about the funny things they'd seen as display dolls.