special day

12/12/12

This date makes me feel old. Seriously. I mean, I'm going to be dead when another repetitive date rolls around. Pretty crazy, huh?

Enjoy every day that the good Lord gives, because every one is a gift.

 

"I wanna live like there's no tomorrow,

Love like I'm on borrowed time.

It's good to be alive."

~Good to be Alive, Jason Gray

 

 

{Lena}

welcome + f.d.c.

Meet my new girlie, Jessa!

She arrived last night, after dinner. She was quite a steal, actually. I got Jess, a Christmas gown with matching headband, two shirts, a skirt, and shorts for only $60. She didn't come with her meet outfit, but I don't mind so much; I can find it on eBay or something. She's in excellent condition; her hair is like almost-new!

As you can tell, I'm calling her Jessa Akiko McConnell. :) There is a photostory about her arrival and meeting the other girls HERE.

As for the FDC, I would appreciate it if you would vote for me in round two! Just go to The Doll Wardrobe Fashion Design Challenge website. HERE is my entry. Just comment on it to vote or email Nora at nora.deminton@gmail.com and vote for entry #43. If you vote for me, thank you so much!

Have a great week!

Love, Lena

i stink

So basically, I am a loser. Why?

Well, I haven't updated since the middle of October, and I didn't make a Halloween post. Bleh.

In my defense, I had to help organize a trunk-or-treat and I was seriously injured yesterday and could barely move from my spot on the sofa. I'm all better now, though. So no worries!

Basically, it's too late to make a Halloween post for my dolls, but I PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE that I will post about Thanksgiving. PROMISE. So if I don't hold to that promise, you can virtually slap me in the face.

On another note, I finished making an outfit someone comissioned from me! Yay!

Here are some pics:

The lady gave me the flowered material and asked me to make a dress with it for her niece's Marie-Grace doll. I surprised her with the jacket. :)

So, that's all for now! Again, my profuse apologies. :(

Love, Lena

vote for me?

Hey guys!

I forgot to tell you.... I entered The Doll Wardrobe's Fashion Design Challenge!

I know my entry isn't that great but... would you vote for me? Just email Nora Demington at nora.demington@gmail.com and say, "I vote for Entry #1." To see my entry, click HERE. To see the rest of the entries, to to the Doll Wardrobe Fashion Design Challenge website.

I'm not forcing you to vote for me, as I know that there are many entries that are much better than mine. I can assure you that my second round outfit looks much better!

Thanks so much!

Love, Lena

josefina

Well, I had planned a great back-from-AG-Miami post complete with pictures and an opening video, but the video must have been too long and wouldn't load. So, I'll just show you what I got in photographic segments.

First, Josefina's party dress.

I'm sorry the pictures are so.... eugh. But it was really bright and sunny, and I could hardly see the camera screen. I was also experimenting with the aperture setting on my camera.

Hope you enjoyed!

Love, Lena

busy, busy, busy

Hello, all!

I know, it's been a whole month since I've posted, but I've been busy, busy, busy!

First of all, the moving truck arrived at my house and all the furniture came safely and in one piece, including my dolls. The bad part is that Josefina's bed was totally destroyed.

But that brings us to the second point: I'm going to the grand opening of American Girl Miami on Saturday! I'm so excited. I'm only planning on getting a few things (including a replacement bed for Josefina), but I will be sure to take lots of pictures when I get back.

I also went to Goodwill on Tuesday, and I found some cool stuff! First of all, I found two doll-sized candlesticks that will look perfect on our doll table.

I also got a great steal: I found "Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment" by James Patterson for $2.50. But here's the best part: it is signed by him! So cool!

"Hope these pages fly! Keep reading. James Patterson"

(This is a great book series, but I recommend it for ages 10 and up.)

 

 

So, that's all for now! I hope you didn't miss me too much. ;)

 

Love, Lena

welcome caroline!

I will assume you all know about the newly released historical character from American Girl, Caroline Abbot! I will now proceed to review all of her items with great detail.... *ahem*

I think that Caroline is a beautiful doll. Here eyes are a stunning new blue-green color, and I love her blond, curly hair. She reminds me of Lanie (who I wish I had gotten). For practicality purposes, that hair is going to be destroyed the moment a 6-year-old gets her hands on it, but it's lovely for collectors to handle. As for her meet outfit, it's just too.... pink. I mean, I seriously don't think it could get any pinker! It's cute though, and definitely has appeal for little girls.

 I adore the bonnet, but the top seems pointless and there's nothing to put in the bag. Seriously, AG, what happened to the historicals having coins, handkerchiefs, and meaningful jewelry? Definitely overprices for what you get.

 

 This dress is very sweet, but it comes with so little. I wish it came with the jacket and the hat, as it is so plain without them. I also think that the boots look a little funky with the dress, for some reason.

 I LOVE the jacket! I think the detailing is lovely, and looks great with the coordinating dress. I think the bonnet looks a little too huge on Caroline's head, though.

 I think the basket is really cute, but the contents are sparse for the price. The ginger cakes looks like bricks!

 

 I LOVE this dress! It is so beautiful, and I love how AG made Caroline crafty enough to make it herself. The shoes are also too cute, a nod to the two-toned saddle shoes to come in the 1920s.

 I love the color purple, but for some reason I'm not digging the dress. I don't know, but maybe it's the gloves; they seem like they don't belong. I think the braided headband is a great idea, though.

 

This is my absolute favorite set in all of Caroline's collection! The coat is such a lovely color, and so detailed. I love the skates and those mittens are just too cute. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!

This table is not my favorite. The chairs look really short. The dishes, look really detailed, though. Cute, but it looks like cheap quality.

 

 

I don't think this nightgown looks era-appropriate, but then again, I haven't been researching this for 3 to 5 years. It's cute for a 20th century doll, though.

 

 To me, this bed screams, "BUY ME! I'M CHEAP QUALITY FOR A RIDICULOUS PRICE!" If they are going to skimp on the contents, then the price needs to go waaaaay down.

 The kitty is cute, but looks too much like Licorice, which AG just recently re-released. I don't know.

 Wow. Just, wow. This was a genus idea, AG. Great job!

 

It looks quite a bit too small to hold two dolls like the catalog says.

 

Overall, I am so pleased with AG and Caroline's collection. I think it's the best collection AG has released since they released Kaya, and that's saying something. The last few new collections have looked cheap and skimpy, but now they have done a fabulous job.

As a general statement, everything is overpriced, but that is inevitable with AG. As long as we continue to buy, they will continue to augment the prices.

 

I would really like to get Caroline in the future, but she would be a modern doll. I love her collection, but I would keep her items as extras and not for any specific era. I'd name her Leia Marian Abbot. :)

 

What do you think about Miss Caroline? I'd love to hear from you!

 

Love,

Lena



i just bought a...

LAPTOP! Yes, I just bought my very own laptop! It's a lovely Dell, and I'm so happy with my purchase. I compiled my babysitting money from the past two years and decided that I should buy my own computer. Just thought I'd share my excitement with all of you!

Also, another exciting thing is that the American Girl store in Miami is opening in October, and it's less than an hour drive for me to go! So exciting!

That's all for now, folks!

Love,
Lena

pinch, punch, first of the month!

Happy first of September, everyone! I hope you are all having a good Labor Day weekend so far.

I feel really lazy because I have done nothing but read 41 books since mid-July, play Wii, and look at blogs on my mom's iPad. It's not like I have much else to do, what with our shipment being in customs and refusing to hurry up and get here!!! Gah!!! Also we are waiting for our curriculum to arrive. Oh, how I love extended summer break! :)

Basically, if you guys could pray for our shipment to hurry up and get here, that would be most wonderful. Also, please don't abandon my blog. I love all of you fabulous readers, and I'd hate to lose you because of my currently insanely boring posts. I promise that things will get more interesting once my stuff gets here. :)

Thanks for reading (ish),
Lena

a lot has happened...

Wow, a lot has happened since I last blogged!

I now have 41 followers, which is very exciting! Thanks for following! Speaking of followers, once I have 50 followers I will have a giveaway for a handmade item of doll clothing (made by me, item TBD), so if you read but don't yet follow, please follow! You will have the chance to win doll clothes!

My family and I are now living in our new house, sans furniture, but hopefully the furniture will arrive in the next couple of weeks. I miss my girls! (The dolls, not my sisters or anything.)

Also, I am entering The Doll Wardrobe's Inaugural Fashion Design contest! Yay! I think I have what it takes to win, so look out! Just kidding, good luck to everyone else who is entering!

So, that's about it!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Love, Lena

ideas

Not much has happened since I last posted...

I just wanted to ask you all for some ideas, as I want to put a name to my doll community. I want it to be called "______ Hollow", but I'm not sure what kind of hollow it should be. Keep in mind that I live in Florida.... thanks!

I also have a couple of ideas of really long photo stories that I want to do. One is a winter story and another is a summer story.

The winter one (which I am most likely going to do this winter), takes place on a cruise ship. The main character goes on a winter cruise with her best friend among the northern countries. There is a princess on the ship, and her crown is stolen. Point of the story is that the main character and her best friend find the crown jewels and become friends with the princess.

My other idea is loosely based on "The Parent Trap". It's about girls that meet at camp and discover that they're twins, but it will not include the whole switch-up. My idea so far is to call it "Camp Phipps Lake", but I don't really like that name anymore. Whatever you guys come up with that goes with hollow is what I'll use. I'm also going to make a school bus and matching T-shirts for this idea.  This is the logo that I created on PicMonkey:

These would all go on my doll blog, where Emily's story is on right now. I'm not really sure if I'm liking the whole "Emily as a person" thing, so I think I'm just going to post whatever doll stories I come up with at the time. I have lots of other ideas for stories that I could blog about, but they aren't as detailed in my brain as the ones that I just talked about.

{{Please please please keep in mind that these are ideas that I will execute in the near future. If you like these ideas and would like to use them, contact me above for permission. Thanks!}}

Thanks for your help with coming up with a town name! Remember, it needs to be "______ Hollow".

Love,
Lena

blog awards galore

So basically everyone loves me! Kidding, kidding. So I have been awarded for 2 different blog awards the last couple of weeks by 4 different girls! Thanks, all!

I was awarded the "I Love Your Blog" by both Kellee and Carolyn. Thanks again, gals!

The rules are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you
I've already done both!

2. Tell us why the idea of blogging popped up and why you still write on it.
Well, I joined Picasa a couple of years ago, and then everyone started leaving and were starting up blogs. Then, without my mentioning blogs, my dad suggested that I write a blog about my life in Europe since not many people in the USA know what it's like. I took off from there!
I still write on this blog because it's a creative outlet for me. I love to show off what I've done to people who have the same interests that I do.

3. Describe a usual day of your life.
Right now during the summer I...
9:00 am: I wake up and read until 9:30
9:30 am: I get out of my bed and eat breakfast
10:00 am: I get dressed and ready for the day
10:20 am: I read until lunch time
12:00 am: I eat lunch
12:30 am: I continue reading OR I go to my grandparents' next door and borrow the computer
3:00 pm: I read or watch some television
5:30 pm: I eat dinner
6:30 pm: I help tidy the kitchen after dinner
7:00 pm: I watch a movie with my family or read some more
9:00 pm: I shower and get ready for bed
9:30 pm: I read or watch television
11:00 pm: I turn out the lights and go to sleep.

4. The best collaboration with a blogger?
N/A

5. The worst collaboration with a blogger?
N/A
6. Explain what this blog means to you.
This blog means quite a lot to me. It is my creative outlet, my friends, just so many things that I have learned over the last year and a half have been through this blog. I can't imagine what my life would be like if I quit blogging.

7. Nominate five bloggers for this award.

For this blog, I nominate:

1. Vivy from Viviness and AG
2. Emma from My American Girl
3. Anna from Anna's Life in the Country
4. Willow from In the Words of Willow
5. Phoebe from Love That Doll

Congrats, girls! I love your blogs!


As for the other blog award, Lissie and Storyteller nominated me for the "Your Blog is Great!" award! I have already participated in this award before, so I'm not going to again. Thanks so much though, girls!

Have a great week!

Love, Lena

jamie grace concert, part 2

Hola, amigas (and amigos...)! Here's the post I promised you all on the Jamie Grace concert I attended last night at our church!

So, at 4:53 pm we went into our church and there was this loooong line going into the sancutary because we had to wait until 5:00 to actually be seated. Right outside the church's coffee shop/bookstore there was a table with a bunch of Jamie Grace stuff on it. We finally were seated and were bored waiting until the concert started at 6:00, so my mom said that my sisters and I could go out in the lobby and see what stuff there was for sale. There was a separate, short little line basically going nowhere, so after I bought my JG CD, I asked the sales lady what the line was for. She said, "Sweetie, that's the line to meet Jamie and have her sign your CD you just bought!" Adri and I started squeeling, but Bella had no idea what was going on. We got in the line, and Jamie signed our CD and took a picture with us!

So, this is while she is signing the CD... (By the way, I have no idea who that random dude is in the background, but I thought I should protect his privacy, too.) I'm the tall one with the curly brown hair, then there's Adri in the braids and Bella with the little pigtails.

Then Jamie agreed to take a picture with the three of us!

And this is the CD cover she signed for us! Sorry, I had to black out our names except for the cover names we use online.

Yay! So about the concert: She said a lot of inspirational stuff, she sang Veggie Tales songs such as "Oh where is my hairbrush?" "The Cheeseburger Song" and some others that I can't remember. Also while she sang "God Girl", instead of saying "I'm just waiting for the right boy 'cause I only want to listen......." She said "I'm just waiting for the right Tim Tebow 'cause I only want to listen......". It was hilarious! Overall, an amazing experience that I will never forget.

Love, Lena

jamie grace concert, part 1

Hello my little peepies! Okay, I know that's was a lame beginning. :P so anyway, I just got back from the most epic concert ever! Yeah, I know, the only concert I've ever been to. Now before I get off on a tangent, I will post pics and vids tomorrow when I have access to a computer! Also, could you guys please look at my friend Anna's blog? She's a real life friend of mine with an up-and-coming blog, so check it out, leave a comment, and follow! Love, Lena

more updates...

So, basically, this is a post about all I know about our move so far:

1. We are moving to the east coast of Florida
2. We will be homeschooling
3. We don't have an exact move-in date yet

Yeah, I know it isn't much, but it's all I have. I hope you are now better informed.

Furthermore, I actually have pictures to post! Yay! They are from the first day of summer break... yeah, I'm lazy, but I'm also in the process of moving!

Sorry the photos are all out of order. Blogger just wasn't working with me. :/

Happy summer!

Love, Lena