Evening Sun

Is there nothing better than the lighting at early morning or late evening? Nope! :) This was really an impulse photo shoot. I saw the great light when I got home and scrambled to get some pictures taken! You know you're a little obsessed when you can't pass up an opportunity to photograph your dolls. :/

Elizabeth and Ruthie time traveled for this photo shoot! If you haven't noticed already, I'm not very strict about keeping my dolls in their time periods. I do try, but they always end up in colonial gowns or a t-shirt and jeans at some point.

They're both wearing dresses made by Heritage Dolls Fashions. Elizabeth has a recreation of Samantha's icecream dress, which was seen in book illustrations. The red dress Ruthie is wearing is called the Toy Soldier. It's not explicitly made for the 1904 time period, but I thought it fit well enough.

Even the colors were nice in these; with Elizabeth's bright blue eyes, Ruthie's stunning red dress, and the black-eyed susan's in the background, I decided to put the photos in a sepia tone with a dark brown vignette. That's another one of my "obsessions" black and white/sepia photography. I just love old time feel.So Elizabeth and Ruthie ran around outside while I snapped pictures of their excursion. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, actually. I've kind of been looking in to getting a DSLR camera of some sort, but the price is scaring me a little, even though I know it would be a good investment. But my little Kodak digital camera seems to be doing just fine, even though it will act up on occasion.

I'd also like to thank everyone for all the super-nice comments I've been getting lately. I'm glad you guys like the descriptive stories that sometimes accompany my photos. I was thinking that it might be a little too much, but it seems I'm wrong! Sorry that I couldn't have one of those stories for this post as well, my muse is rather low at the moment.

Ranting aside, I hope you enjoy the post! Yeah, I've posted three times within the week! Unbelievable, right? I guess I've been re-bitten by the blogging bug.

-Brooke

Spring Time

A glance outside from the window, you see partial sun, green grass, seemingly nice weather. Step outside, and there's fifteen mile per hour winds, a temperature of forty degrees, and foreboding, dark rain clouds in the distance. Are you sure it's spring?

The dolls had been dying to get outside, so I had scheduled a "spring party" outdoors with the new picnic table this weekend. Unfortunately, on the account of rain, the spring party was transferred indoors. Though inside, Sonali, Gwen, Nicki, Emily, Marisol, Ruthie, Mia, and Jess still had a good time. They talked, ate cookies, and played games. The silly girls even began singing! :P



It figures that the rain stopped as soon as the party was coming to a close. Either way, I wasn't complaining. Everyone quickly headed outside to splash in puddles and pose for some photos.

You can see all the spring photos here. The pictures included in the post are just a teaser :)
Models:
-Ruthie Smithens: Electric Turquoise Drawstring Dress by The Heritage Clothesline
-Nicki Fleming: Eyelet Spring Dress by The Heritage Clothesline
-Jess McConnell: Precious Pink Party Dress by Melody Valerie Couture
-Sonali Matthews: Dainty Dots Dress by Melody Valerie Couture
-Gwen Thompson: Chrissa's Meet Dress by American Girl
-Emily Bennett: Kit's Blue Bell Dress by The Heritage Clothesline
-Marisol Luna: Flower Garden Dress by American Girl
-Mia St. Clair: Chrissa's Sundress Dress paired with Sonali's Meet T-Shirt by American Girl

As you may or may not notice, we have two new dresses from the Heritage Clothesline. Micah does an amazing job, the quality, customer service, and price are great. The Electric Turquoise Drawstring dress is shown on Ruthie, and the Eyelet Spring dress is shown on Nicki. A big thank-you to The Heritage Clothesline!

Thanks for reading,
-Brooke

Gwen's sleepover!

Hello, everyone, this is guest blogger Gwen Thompson! This is my first time posting on the blog, which lately is more for all the girls here, and not just Avery. Life has been pretty busy, so sorry for the lack of updates.

Well, as you may or may not know, I moved to Yorkshire to attend Mondale Preparatory Academy, where my two best friends from Edgewater, Sonali and Chrissa, transferred. I missed them so much, not to mention that Mondale has an amazing orchestra program (I play the violin). So, here I am! Though, I almost feel bad about coming here. Because of me, Erin moved away. But, she still comes back for visits, so I suppose it's all right.

Anyways, March 27th was my birthday, my first one celebrated here at Mondale. It was the first weekend that I didn't have mountains of homework in what seemed like forever! To celebrate, I invited some of my closest friends to a slumber party. Unfortunately, Chrissa was sick with a flu that's been going around, and Avery was doing things with the science fair (I'll make sure she posts to explain!), but Mia, Emily, Sonali, Jess, and Ruthie were able to make it.

The group came to my room where we all changed into our pajamas, ate popcorn, and talked. I had a great time, and I hope my guests did, too.

Coconut and Licorice had fun as well!

-Gwen
PS: Brooke apologizes for the poor indoor lighting and messy scenes.

Jess and Ruthie: A Tribute

Jessika and Ruth-Ann,
Some people have the power to chance our lives- even after they're no longer a part of it. A sister is a forever friend.
♥

[[Our 200th post is dedicated to Ruthie, Jess, Sitara, and everyone over at MLWB]]

Best Friends

Felicity and Elizabeth:


Ruthie and Kit:


Finally a 'real' post!
Some updates: I gave Erin to my cousin. I'm not sure if said cousin will keep her or not. She said that she was going to 'borrow' Erin for a while.
I feel absolutely horrible because I'm not spending very much time with my AG's. Like Kirsten; I just got her a few months ago and I've barely done anything with her... I feel terrible about it. It's the same story with a lot of my other dolls, too.
I feel like I might be 'growing out' of them again, like I did in 2007. :'( I guess it's just because I'm so busy.
-Brooke

Ruthie

Doll Focus: Ruth Anne Smithens

Meet Ruth Anne, more commonly known as Ruthie; a fantasy-loving dreamer from Cincinnati. Ruthie came to live with us in July 2008, much to the delight of her best friend Kit Kittredge. Ruthie loves princesses, fairy tales, and playing pretend. She is known for her great imagination and fun personality. Ruthie is originally from the 1930's, but occasionally time travels. She has curly, red-brown hair and gray eyes. During the holiday season, Ruthie's favorite thing to do is bake cookies, go sledding, and decorate the Christmas tree. This is her second holiday with us, and she is happy to spending time with her friends.

Winter Photo Shoot

Today I took Erin, Nellie, Nicki, Avery, Mia, and Ruthie outside in the snow to take some photos! :) They're all dressed for winter! Last night we received a dusting of snow, just in time for the holidays.
Check out the video with all the photos here.
Here's a preview shot:











Happy Holidays, everyone!
-Brooke

Being a favorite doll...

Because of my blog, Brooke is almost forced to take lots of pictures of me, develop my personality, etc. I'm the one that Brooke does things with. Where as other dolls hardly get any attention! Jasmine, our #26, isn't "played" with too much, and neither is Ruthie, Julie, Marisol, or Erin (#12). I feel guilty when I'm out every day getting my clothes changed and picture taken, when they've been sitting in the same spot for months. I'm worried that Brooke might start selling some of us. I doubt she'd sell me, but she's been talking about getting rid of some of my friends.
But at the same time, she was watching the QVC show today and said she wanted Gwen, Chrissa, Molly, #23, #27, and #28!!! Uhhhh....

On another note, I have to go back to school tomorrow. I'm having trouble adjusting to my new routine/schedule. Plus, I've been putting off my homework til the last second, so I better go do that now...

~Avery~

Photo shoot with Kit, Ruthie, Jasmine, and Emily

Today Kit, Ruthie, Jasmine (#26), and Emily got to have a photo shoot! They're the resident 1930's-1940's doll, so they got dressed up in their appropriate clothing and went outside for some summer photos! I got to help Brooke take the pictures. I'm really interested in photography. It was a lot of fun to take some pictures of them. They're all so pretty! :) They all look like models in the pictures we took. I Ruthie and Jasmine's hair. It's so curly! I've always wanted curly, or at least wavy hair. At least my hair isn't as straight as Julie and Ivy's. I feel bad for Ruthie though, she did a face plant in the dirt! Luckily, she's okay, no major damage. Enjoy the pictures!

Just a note:

Brooke will be on vacation starting tomorrow! She'll be gone July 3-5. I'll STILL POST, even though Brooke's not here. There is an option where you can schedule posts. So, there will still be posts, I just won't be on the computer and won't able to reply to comments, read blogs, etc. Thanks!

~Avery~