The life and times of Willow

Hello everyone, Willow here! Avery gave me permission to write on the blog... but now I'm not exactly sure what to write. I guess I'll tell you all a little about myself, since I'm new to school this semester and all.

My name is Willow Holland, but I think you already know that. I used to live in Massachusetts, but a few months ago my grandfather passed away and we moved to be closer to the rest of the family, who happen to live right around Mondale Academy. Sometimes I really miss it back home, it was all I ever knew. I had to leave my friends, my school, and sometimes I wish I had never moved. However, I have to admit, Mondale is pretty nice.

I'm used to going to public school, so a private boarding academy was definitely a big change, as were the room mates. I share a room with three other girls: Sophia Hamilton, Haydren Insalanco, and Sydney Jacobs. Sophie is a total drama queen, Haydren is a major chatter box, and I really don't know what to think about Sydney yet. I don't know if she's just quiet, but she seems to be giving me the cold shoulder for some reason.

Another big adjustment was the work load! I'm taking harder classes now, and there's a lot more homework to do. My favorite class would be biology of course, that and Spanish. I like the subjects to being with, but the teachers are great. Ms. Lafferick is the science teacher, she's a little odd to be honest, but it keeps things interesting. Señor Gwisdala is the Spanish teacher, and he is very nice and upbeat, and has neat games to make learning easier.

I wanted to get involved in a as much as I could, so as soon as I enrolled I tried to join a few student organizations. I'm not exactly a sporty person and most of the school teams were already filled, so I looked into any clubs they had. I looked at drama, but I have stage fright so that wouldn't work out. I don't know to play an instrument, so jazz band was out of the question. Things were looking kind of dismal until I spotted a small poster on the news bulletin board. And just my luck, there's an environmental club! I love nature and gardening, as well as biology. I went to a meeting after school, and it's headed by Ms. Lafferick. It's not the most popular thing to be in with only a few students, but it's fun so far. We're doing a recycling project soon, maybe I'll post again about that?

Anyways, I've just gotten settled into school life. It feels good to finally be finding my niche. I just hope it will last.

-Willow D. Holland

102 and Willow too!

Enjoy the rhyme-y, strange title! It reminds me of 'Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!', which is sad since History class really is wearing off on me. I hope people understand that reference, otherwise I'm going to seem more odd than I already do, haha.

Anyways, this is a rather important post, since it celebrates Avery-Here's 102 followers - what a great milestone! Thank you all so much for following this blog and putting up with my ramblings, rantings, absences, etc. I means a lot to know that people actually do read this and I'm not just talking to myself. :P

In order to celebrate these 102 amazing followers, I planned out an AG post! Finally! I know, I've been terrible with photographing the dolls, which is kind of what this blog is supposed to be all about. I took over for a little while, and I'm sorry about that. I hope to focus more on the AG's soon.

I posted about Lanie a while back asking for name suggestions, but kind of left you guys hanging and I haven't mentioned her since then. I've been super busy and haven't had much of a chance to do much with the poor girl. Well, I'm pleased to announce that I now have her name - Willow Delanie Holland. I used Delanie as the middle name so she can also be called Lanie, and I've started calling her Lanie-Bug. :) I was debating on Willow/Willa, but went with Willow since Willa Holland is an actual person/actress that I didn't even know existed. And I've typed Willow and Willa so many times that I'm losing the meaning of those words, haha.

She's a shy girl, who likes reading and biology and being outdoors, no matter what time of year, though she's glad that the weather is warming up and it's more feasible to be outside. Sadly, that's about all of her personality I have figured out now.

So enjoy the pictures of Willow! :) I love cross-process. I usually try not to edit my pictures too much, but I was bored and thought it looked cool.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!
-Brooke

Meet 'Curls'

Lanie has arrived! I'm not sure if I like that name for her, though, so at the moment I'm just calling her 'Curls'. Does anyone have any name suggestions? Something unique, but not totally crazy.

I love her hair and her eyes are beautiful. I got her as a Christmas present (the first AG I've gotten for a present in a long time). I hadn't had the time to take pictures until today. And of course, it RAINED. It poured, and melted all of the snow we had, which was several inches. Uh... So I went outside into the dreary snow-less backyard to take some pictures.

*warning - this is where the post gets really rant-y and self pity-like XD*

Okay, so on the the topic of photographs... mine have really been terrible lately and I find myself having to do a lot of editing just to make them presentable. I try to resize them, but it always makes them blurry. Plus they just haven't been that great to start out with. As far as point and shoots go, I love my Kodak and it has taken some great shots. It's just really fussy half of the time and not getting good pictures at all lately. I find myself really wanting a DSLR when I see all the great photos people take with them, but I know it's probably never going to happen. It's frustrating me and I don't know what's up at the moment since every picture I take lately is turning out just plain bad. I guess I'm just in a rut or something.

*rant over*

Moving on! Anyways, that's "Lanie" - or that's what I'm calling her temporarily. I like the environmental part of her story, I think I'll build off of that. I've been progressively thinning out my collection and not really talking about it much. I forgot the 'new doll hype' feeling, if you know what I mean. :D Sorry, that sounds really greedy/materialistic.

Well, I'm still not sure on names, so if you have any suggestions, be sure to comment!
-Brooke

One Year!

Today is our one-year blogoversary, and I almost forgot to post! As I'm typing, it's already 11:32 PM! Just a busy day, and it slipped my mind. Well, the 27th (or was it the 26th?) was met with the first real photo of the Lanie doll! I think she looks very pretty, and her story is nice. Plus, I really like her outfit ;) But Brooke isn't too sure about the wig, she says it looks "funky" from the pictures. In my opinion the sidebangs are cute, but real-life photos will help. Brooke said if the wig was right, she might use her as a base for a custom doll. But the side bangs kind of ruin that plan. I don't know if Brooke would have even went through with the custom doll anyways, though. She says she doesn't think she'll be getting Lanie now, but I don't know how true that is :P But really, we have enough dolls around here, and Brooke is still contemplating whether to order some Chrissa items before the end of the year. Uhhh, I hate the feeling of "I have to have everything". It just makes collecting AG's no fun. The amount of $ is absurd. But I guess this is Brooke getting to my head, and more her words than mine.

Anyways, I can't believe it's been a year since I first started the blog. So many things have changed, it's hard to fathom. 2009 has flown by so fast, in just a few short days we'll be entering 2010! It's so exciting, yet kind of scary.

~Avery~
Blogger of One Year who currently has 33 followers and 178 posts! I thank you, my readers, form the bottom of my heart!