😀 😀 I WON I WON I WON I WON!!!! 😀 😀

    So before I tell you what I won, I have a confession to make, otherwise the prize I won probably won’t make all that much sense.

    For the past year I’ve had a bit of a private obsession, private because I thought perhaps that my majority of male friends wouldn’t understand it and might even think it was a bit childish of me. The few that I have told, though, were surprisingly sweet, understanding, and even supportive of it, which was lovely. So that’s why I don’t have a problem announcing it now; honestly, I should have announced it a long time ago.

    As most of you know, I’m a bit of a Fashionista. Not in the sense that I’m label-crazy, more that I just absolutely adore beautiful things of all kinds, especially beautiful things that I can wear. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had such a massive wardrobe that I never had a closet that could fully contain all my pretty clothes and accessories. This obsession started in preschool, when I would design my own line to wear to school. By kindergarten, my teacher and school principal confessed to my Mom that they looked forward to when I showed up each morning, because they couldn’t wait to see what I was wearing next. I adore clothes and I always have.

    Which made it especially hard when all this swelling started. Suddenly clothes hurt even more than they used to because of the Dercum’s Disease. When I finally got my body back after suffering through those five surgeries to treat the Dercums, I spent so much money and so much time amassing what I called my “Perfect Wardrobe”. It was an absolute obsession. All through the operations, I’d scoured websites, magazines, designer lines, everything, just so I could piece together the wardrobe of my dreams.

    Just as I’d gotten that wardrobe together, my body started swelling, every inch of my body hurt, and I just couldn’t stand to wear all the beautiful clothing I’d invested so much time, effort, and money in. All of those clothes are now in boxes and I’m stuck wearing ugly, boring, blah mens pajamas all the time. I miss my beautiful clothing, I miss feeling pretty, I miss feeling stylish, put together, and presentable. I miss feeling like a normal 20-something woman. I want that back more than I can say, but it’s just not possible right now.

    So when a girl can’t wear designer clothes of her own, what’s a girl to do?

    Well, this girl found refuge in… dolls. Yes, I’m a grown woman, 24 years old, and I have gone back to my childhood by yet again collecting Barbie dolls. 🙂

    Laugh if you must, but it was an easy way to bring beautiful clothes back into my life. I can’t wear them, but now the Barbies in my room can wear the beautiful clothes for me. I now have two massive glass cabinets in my room, filled to the brim with Barbies in the most beautiful clothing imaginable. (Hehe, and even those two cabinets aren’t enough to hold all the dolls…) 🙂 There are suits, blouses, skirts, and gowns by the likes of Givenchy, Christian Dior, Burberry, Robert Best, Dooney & Bourke, Diane Von Furstenberg, Monique Lhuillier, and so many more. I even have several Ferrari Barbies! I’m now finally surrounded once again by gorgeous, sophisticated, stylish clothing and even though I can’t wear it, despite what this disease has done to my body, I can still enjoy it.

    As much fun as it has been to collect these gorgeous dolls, this habit has gotten kind of expensive. And since I’m not working anymore, it got to be a bit more than I could handle. So my collecting has slowed down considerably over the past year. But there were still several dolls that I was dying for, especially some of the newest dolls that have just been released by some of the world’s best designers.

One such doll on the top of my wish list was by Vera Wang. She’s done two Barbies in the past, both equally gorgeous, but neither of which I’ve been able to find cheap enough to be able to afford them. But last year, Vera Wang surpassed herself, releasing ‘The Romanticist’, a bride doll decked out in a heavenly concoction of cascading lace. I wanted that doll so badly, but her price tag of $150 was so far beyond my budget it wasn’t even funny. I’d honestly given up hope of being able to get her any time soon.     Despite not being able to afford that doll and the many other gorgeous creations up for sale at BarbieCollector.com, I still regularly go to the site to see what’s new, what’s on sale, and what dolls will be released soon. Last month, when I was making my rounds at the site, I happened to find a contest they were running. It was the Doll-A-Day Sweepstakes, where for a whole month they were giving away a different doll each day. Including the Vera Wang doll I’d been coveting for so long.     Needless to say, I entered every single day. I added the contest site to my favorites toolbar and every day before I’d check my email, I’d go to the site and submit my entry. Of course, I thought with my luck, if I did win, I’d win one of the cheaper dolls that I already had, since I can afford the ones that aren’t so expensive. But I wanted to try. Maybe, just maybe, Mattel would pick my name.

    I’m thrilled beyond belief to tell you that Mattel very well did pick my name! In particular, they picked my name for the contest date of Sunday, May 24th – the only day during the entire sweepstakes when they were giving away the very same Vera Wang doll I’ve been wanting for an entire year!!

    I seriously can’t believe I won it!! 😀 I would have found out about winning the doll sooner, but unfortunately somehow the nofitication letter that Mattel’s promotion company sent to me got lost in the mail. Thank heavens they gave me a second chance! Of course, the funniest part is, earlier this month I went through my daily habit of going to the contest site, but I was so bleary-eyed from just waking up that I realized it was the day after the contest ended. When I saw that, I thought to myself, ‘I should check out the list of winners…’ But just as I was about to click the link to the winner’s page, I literally thought to myself, ‘Eh, what’s the point? I didn’t win, not like I’ll recognize any names on there.’ Hehe, turns out, I would have recognized one name – MINE! Hehe. If you go to the winner’s page now, scroll down a bit and you’ll see my name there! 🙂 Exciting, huh?

    
Ah well, it all worked out well anyway. When I signed in to check my email tonight around midnight, I found the email and literally squealed with delight when I read it. I squealed so loud my Mom, who had just gone to sleep in the next room, heard me and thought I’d hurt myself or found a bug or something, hehe. Ahhh, this has totally made my day (winning the doll, that is, not that my Mom thought I found a bug, hehe). Heck, it totally made my week, my month, my year, etc!! I’m so excited. 🙂

    Now I need to get to work adding this beautiful doll to the website I made ages ago to chronicle my growing collection of Barbies (hehe, yes, I made a website… what can I say? It’s what I do.) 🙂 If you’d like to see just how insanely huge my collection has grown, feel free to check it out for yourself here. I’ll be adding my new doll soon. But if you notice, on the Wish List page, the Vera Wang doll is at the very top of the list (along with the uber-gorgeous Empress of the Golden Blossom Barbie, another $150 beauty I’m still trying to figure out how to get…). 🙂 Now, thanks to the kind folks at Mattel, I can move the Vera Wang doll off the Wish List and put her with the rest of my lovely collection. 😀

    Many, many, many, many thanks to Mattel! You guys seriously have no idea how happy this has made me. 🙂 I also want to thank Jessie Berggren at LITCO Sales Promotion & Design – Jessie was kind enough to try one last time to contact me via email, so that I could sign all the right forms and claim my doll. Man, if I’d missed out on that, I would have been so sad! But thanks to Jessie, everything’s a-okay. Of course, as soon as the doll arrives – in two to four weeks – I’ll definitely be posting pictures. 🙂 Until then, thanks again to Mattel and LITCO, you guys are awesome! 🙂