Liz in The Garden

There has been surprisingly wonderful weather here in Yorkshire as of late, just the kind we enjoy. Warm and sunny, with a bright blue sky dotted with puffs of white clouds, and just the slightest hint of a cool breeze. Doesn't that paint of lovely picture?

Now, imagine a blonde girl with shiny golden pin curls framing her face, in a butter yellow summer dress. She's running about the garden in her bare feet, her fair skin turning red from the sun. Her blue eyes are filled with wonder as she roams about the colourful flowers. A dream-like atmosphere ensues, with only the slightest of sound and a blur of beautiful scenery.

I'm feeling rather descriptive today, can you tell? (:

-Brooke

Adventure in the Woods

circa April, 1854*

Lina and Kirsten quickly scampered outdoors, having just finished their chores. The two were practically inseparable when they were together, though they usually couldn't spend much time playing. Lina lived on the farm over from the Larsons and worked as a servant girl with her family. She was busy on the farm and had to work most of the time. The Larsons' neighbor, who owned the farm, was Johnathon Rhodes, a rather mean old man. He didn't let Lina off of chores very easily. The two still maintained their friendship, though, and were now, on a rare occasion, off to play.

It was a beautiful day, and they walked over the field, which was dotted with colourful wildflowers. The two girls giggled and picked the blooms as they approached the woods. They made their way into the cool shade and cover of the trees where reality seemed to disappear. After slipping off their boots and stockings, Lina and Kirsten splashed in the creek and played various games during the sunny afternoon. Too bad it couldn't always be this simple...
~*~*~*~*~

*As stated, this short story (which is poorly and quickly written) takes place in the 1850s. Sorry for the mild hints of slavery/servantry (more servant than slave!). I don't mean to offend anyone or get political, etc.
Minnesota, where Kirsten is said to live in the stories, was technically a free state, but it wasn't admitted into the Union until 1858. With its admittance to the Union, it was a free state, but I supposed there could have been some form of slavery or at least servants years prior. I have been writing about Lina and Kirsten on/off for a while, and thought I'd share.

Happy Earth Day! :D
-Brooke
PS: Sorry for the other dolls/myself taking over Avery's blog. I promise she IS alive, though there hasn't been any photos of her (and many others) since Valentine's Day... :( My poor, neglected dolls!

Winter Wonderland

Yay, it's the weekend! :) Here in MI we got a nice weekend surprise; five inches of snow! It came over Thursday night/Friday/and it is still snowing today. Everything looks so pretty, all the trees are covered in ice and snow. Finally winter has came! I was beginning to get worried that we would never have a substantial amount of "the white stuff".
Personally, I love snow! I'm glad that a thick, white blanket has fallen over Mondale (my boarding school). This morning I got bundled up in my new sweater and went outside. Erin came along as well. Her and I have been getting to be good friends.


Anyways, we went out into the woods to play in the snow! We had a lot of fun, and Brooke snapped some pictures.



I hope my readers are having a wonderful weekend!
-Avery

Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree!

*picture heavy post!*
Today we set up our doll sized holiday tree! :) It was so much fun. We put on the lights, garland, green and gold bulbs, and other ornaments as well. We couldn't find a star for the topper, so we just used a red bow instead. We also placed a few presents underneath. I think it turned out very nice. We're really in the holiday spirit now!

Brooke has also been working on a project the week or so- a fire place! She just finished it today, and it's perfect for the holidays. It isn't the greatest, but it looks good in the room. It makes everything look so warm and cozy, just like winter! It really finishes the scene, if you know what I mean. Plus, it was really simple to make (if anyone wants to know how to make their own, comment and I'll tell you! It is insanely simple and can be a one day project! All you need is cardboard or wood and some paint!) Us dolls scavenged around the house to find some things to put on the mantle. We came up with two candles, a mirror, a snow globe, and a clock. There's also a nativity scene at the base of the fire place. I told Brooke we need to find a menorah, so we'll have to get that soon. If you don't know, I'm 1/2 Jewish, so I celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah (which starts December 11th)

After everything was done, Erin, Chrissa, Sonali, and Mia put on their holiday dresses and posed for some photos! Don't they look pretty?
Well, without further ado, here is our finished holiday set up!


And here are their Holiday 2009 portraits:
We hope you enjoy!

~Avery~

Kirsten and Mia out in the forest

Today I took Kirsten and Mia out into the forest for some fall photos. It finally stopped raining, so I took the opportunity to get some pictures outside. Sorry for not the best backgrounds, most of the leaves have already fallen, are still green, or not on "AG level" (not close enough to the ground to get a picture with a doll).
I think they both look so sweet! Mia looks great in Kirsten's school dress, it goes nicely with her coloring. I think she looks really cute as an 1850s doll.

You should have noticed Kirsten is in these photos. She arrived last night, and I couldn't more thrilled, she's absolutely perfect. I read her books when I was 7 or 8, and she's always been my favorite historical character. I don't know what took me so long to get her! She is wonderful, I recommend getting her before she is archived! I can't believe AG is archiving her :( Well I can, but I can't, you know what I mean... But their business ploy (that's all that this archiving junk is) worked like a charm on me.
-Brooke

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~

Fireworks, Photoshoot, and Tallships (long post w/ pictures)

I've been having an amazing time the past few days! There are recreations of the Niña and the Pinta tall ships docked in a town near where I live, so we got to go see them! The Niña and The Pinta are two of three ships (the third was the Santa María ) Christopher Columbus used on his first ocean voyage to the Indies in 1492. What I found interesting was that the Niña was Columbus's favorite ship of the three, even though the Pinta was by far the fastest. The Niña was actually captured by pirates! She was captured by a pirate corsair when leaving the port of Cagliari and brought to Cape Paula, Sardinia. The Niña logged at least 25,000 nautical miles (46,000 km) under Columbus' command. The Pinta was the fasted of the 3 ships, like I already said. It means the painted one, or the spotted one in Spanish. The New World was first sighted by Rodrigo de Triana on the Pinta on October 12, 1492. So there's your history lesson for the day (: It was a lot of fun to get to see them up close. They really weren't all that large, and I can't believe that they sailed across the ocean. It amazes me that even hundreds of years ago, the people were amazing engineers. The made 70 tons of wood float on water, across the Atlantic! They didn't have computers or anything of those sorts. That is amazing!

They were giving tours of the boats, but we didn't go on, we just took a few pictures. I wish all the sails would have been down, that would have looked amazing! Last year there was something similar to this, and they two ships had a mock battle. That didn't happen this year, but it was still great to see them.

Before we went to the fireworks, I got to do a photo shoot outside! It was just as the sun was setting, and Brooke got a lot of good pictures of me, and some other things too (hehe). She edited two of them to use for the blog. It's a picture of my eyes and my feet photo shopped together and it says "Take a walk in my shoes, view the world from my eyes, Avery-Here." Very dramatic with the black and white selection, and the text is a little small, but oh well.

Then, we were able to go see fireworks! There were so many people there, it was insane! The fireworks incredibly hard to get pictures of. We tried, got a few good ones! 2 of them really look neat! That's not the way the fireworks looked in real life, but the camera took the pictures that way, and it looks pretty cool! I love my pyrotechnics. My favorite kinds are the gold ones that sparkle and curve down like vines, kind of.

Sorry for such a long post, I just had to share everything!

~Avery~