WELCOME 2015 AND AMERICAN GIRL OF THE YEAR GRACE THOMAS TO VANCOUVER!

 The signage within the store welcoming Grace Thomas as The American Girl of the Year for 2015

Happy New Year! It is hard to believe 2015 is here already but I was so ready to say goodbye to 2014 that I am glad we have now turned the page on the calendar!

Today was the launch of the new 2015 Girl of the Year, Grace Thomas, at American Girl Stores so I decided to go downtown and see her in person at the large Chapter's Bookstore on Robson Street in their in store AG boutique! It was a fun outing!
Here is part of the line up to enter the boutique when I arrived just a little after the store opened!

There were lots of very excited girls and dolls there to meet Grace! I soon met up with some other adult doll collectors and it was much more fun browsing with others than on my own!

This sweet lady is Lauren and she is a school teacher. She brought her doll Clementine along. Clementine is A Girl For All Time manufactured in the UK. Isn't she darling?

This lovely lady standing with Lauren is someone many might already know as she writes her own blog called Karen Mom of Three Craft Blog and she also writes and posts articles for The Doll Diaries website. Karen is holding Grace! Grace is much cuter in person than in pictures!

Here is Grace in her baking outfit with some of her baking supplies! I love this outfit and all of her baking things!

This is her Bistro set but only one chair...hmmm

 I liked this sweater a lot but I wasn't crazy about the shorts and sweater look! The outfit is adorable though and I imagine the target aged girls are just going to love it!

 Here are the new books!

This is Grace wearing her darling pink beret. They have named this the "Welcome Set" and it contains flowers, 1 set of macaroons, 1 gift box, 3 post cards, 1 bag with 2 cookies and the beret. I bet you have guessed by now that Grace has a French theme! And she enjoys French baking!

These are Grace's PJ's. I really like them! the print on the bottoms are a French print. Her dog BonBon has a very clever collar on, it has a bow and when you release the bow, it becomes the dog leash! You can see the little bow on the picture below!

The pastry cart is really lovely! Lots of very nice french pastries, french bread and all sorts of neat accessories! It was speculated to be plastic however some folks who bought it say only the wheels are and most of it is made from metal. It is hard to tell in our store as it is behind glass so you cannot touch it to see what it is made out of! 

There is a very large piece of the collection that will not be coming to Vancouver as they just don't have the space to display it in our little boutique store. It is a bakery and looks very lovely on American Girl's website! It is a shame they couldn't find a corner to put it in so we can just look...lolol

Here is the actual Bakery that is not available here! As you might notice, they are displaying it in stores that do carry it with the Pastry cart and Bistro set

 These are more shots of the pastry cart which is available in Canada for $180.00

 The pink dress is very pretty but also very similar to the dress recently released for the Beforever Samantha. I already own that dress so probably will not get this one even though I love pink!

 This mixer is really fun! It really runs using batteries to power it! I saw someone online who had a daughter that brought it home and was mixing real house flour in it! It was working well! This set is very pricey in Vancouver! With our low valued Canadian dollar all the items in our boutique store are priced much higher than the US stores.

 I really love Grace's travel coat, it is very well made. The top is lined, the buttons down the front are real buttons and there is a tiny piece of velcro at the waist. The lining is pink! Beside Grace is her suitcase all ready to travel to France, it is adorable too! Almost all of this collection is totally adorable! I think American Girl has picked a winning theme this year as the target aged girls in the store were enthralled with the collection!

 The next lady to arrive was Deena. Many of you will know her from her utube channel BeenaAndDeena! She has quite a following on Utube and many of her little fans were waiting for her arrival! She brought her Caroline along! Tomorrow she is going down to the Seattle store to check out their launch and will be posting on her channel for everyone to see so check out her utube channel as she will probably get to see that bakery in person and review it!

 Here is a group shot of Lauren, Deena, Karen and myself!

 Now this is not Grace but shortly after we got into the store Karen took us over to see a new very lovely item that has come into stock! It is a red American Girl T-shirt...why is that a big deal you ask? Because except for when the store opened, we don't get store exclusives in our tiny store but due to popular demand, they have brought in a red t-shirt with Canada written on it and it has a Maple Leaf on it! Very fitting! And they have also brought in blue jeans with the AG logos on them to go with it! Modeling the shirt in this picture is #61 with red hair and green eyes and previously not carried in Canada! She is displayed in the new doll and pet carrier!

 These are Grace's official accessories. There is a girl sized purse available to match Grace's and it is a very generous size and I imagine a lot of girls are going to just love it!

 Here are the price signs in the store, the lower priced one was on display when we first when in the store but was incorrect and replaced later on with the correct price chart.

 And this below is MY Grace, yes she came home with me. I received money and gift cards for Christmas rather than gifts from my family in anticipation of this release. I really wanted to buy the doll from the first ever launch on New Years Day of a Girl of the Year in Vancouver! As I was there on launch day, I received her limited edition apron that they only give out to store visitors for a couple of days when she is first released! And of course I had to buy the Canada T-shirt as well! I love store exclusives!

I really enjoyed my visit to American Girl today! Thanks Karen, Lauren, and Deena for hanging out with me, I think we all had a lovely time! And thanks to Nikki for doing such a nice job of piercing Grace's ears!

For more coverage of Grace's launches across Canada and the USA head over to the Doll diaries webpage!

Here is the link for Karen's blog: http://karenmomofthreescraft.blogspot.ca/

Here is the link for Doll Diaries:  http://dolldiaries.com/welcoming-grace-to-vancouver/

Here is the link for Deena's utube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/BeenaandDeena