Awards spread faster than winter colds in elemtary school

Watermelon nominated me for the:

Hand in hand Blogger award

How many dolls do you have?

3. Rylan, Lilly, and Andie. Plus Kaya is boarding with us until I see Barrett again.

What do you want to do on your blog in the future?

Take stunning photos like Shannon and Maddie and dolly dorm diaries and....

What do you have planned for this summer?

We were going to go to Canada, but we forgot to get passports.

The only thing I know for sure is that I will be a Star Guide and engage in astronomical awesomeness.

What are your favorite songs?

This changes week to week. Right now its:

I wish I was the moon (Neko case)

Snow (red got chilli peppers)

Stairway to heaven (cover by Rodrigo y Gabriela, original by Led Zepplin)

Orion (cover by Rodrigo y Gabriela, original by Metallica)

Minority (green day)

Into the west (LOTR soundtrack)

May it be (Lotr soundtrack)

Sorrow (bad religion)

Future days (pearl jam)

Unthought known (pearl jam)

On the radio (Regina Spektor)

Fidelity (Regina Spektor)

Wonderwall (oasis)

Come away with me (Norah jones)

Missy (airborne toxic event)

The trees (rush)

And. So. Many. More.

If a new AG doll came in the mail right now, what would you name her?

She would be #61 and I would name her anzley, or Sarah Wednesday, or Jordan, or Logan, or fern.

And Tenley from The Sunshine Dollies nominated me for:

Great photographer award

Tip

Make sure you have:

• enough light (don't shoot inside or at night. Outside and by a window are your best bet)
• no harsh shadows (shoot on a cloudy day or in the shade, or use a reflector {aluminum foil over cardboard! cheapskate greatness!} pointing up at your doll's face to reduce raccoon eye.
• your dolls in focus (grainy, blurry dolls suck)

Another tip: Gwen should use her own tips

What is your favorite book?

Leviathan (Scott Westerfeild)

Rooftoppers (Katherine Rundell)

The Color Of Magic (Terry Pratchett)

Favorite ice cream flavor?

Tillamook Mudslide.

What profession would you like to peruse when you're over?

Anything sciency. I liked earth science and life science (because "geology" and "biology" seem to be too advanced for middle schoolers. huh.)

And I like space and stars (us smart people like to call that astronomy, don't you know) which is why I'm doing that star guide thing this summer.

Does your handwriting look better in pencil or marker?

Depends on how tired I am.

What does the fox say?

"why do we have a song about me making human nonsense noises? Will you all please be quiet?"

Swimming or sledding?

Swimming. It requires less walking uphill and you just get to lay on your back and float. And you get to pretend you're a mermaid.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

This actually a philosophical question.

Let me refer to my 3rd grade sound unit in science. Sound is just molecules bumping onto eachother, which go all the way to bump into your eardrum, and then your ear does this complicated ear thing.

The answer to this question depends entirely on if you call sound just molecules bumping into eachother, or molecules bumping into your ear...

I say that no, it doesn't, because there are no ears for the air molecules to bump into, and hearing and sound is something unique to animals (who aren't around to hear it).

But this only works in theory, because there is no way that you will get all animals out of earshot of the tree.

Why did you start your blog?

It's time for a history lesson!

I first discovered doll blogs when I looked up american girl crafts (the website you see on the side of AG craft boxes that doesn't seem to exist) and I found American Girl Fan. I read that for a while until the "shout out your doll site" thing came up. Then I read everything. I read a lot of your blogs before getting my own and saw many great bloggers. (does anyone miss the spicys?) I had seen how awesome everyone was and I wanted desperately to be a part of it. After discovering the doll blogoverse I took pictures of all my doll activities in hopes that I would someday have a blog. In November of 2014, I finally got my own! It's so much fun and I love you all!

There are no nominations because I am a lazy butt.

I got this awesome t shirt last week.

 I have some good news! My birthday is in 1 week, and school gets out in 13 days! (school days, that is. Im not counting weekends. Also, I have a photostory that should be up soonish, and an OG review after that.

Good Later!

Gwen

It's 80 degrees and I have gone insane

It's May. In Washington. And it's 80 degrees outside. What is wrong with that? Washington seasons go: wet (late September- early June), and damp (July-early September) It should not be this hot nor the plants this droopy in May. 

I don't like being hot. Heat makes me angry. (For that matter, I don't like bright sunshine either- it makes taking decent pictures difficult.) Rylan is the same way. She doesn't like the heat, but even less than that she likes her grouchy housemates lazing around inside like steamy sweaty slugs with a cantankerous streak.

(that was her terminology. Rylan is BFFs with the dictionary, and cantankerous is her new favorite word.)

In the garden with Kaya

Hey everyone! I took Kaya out for a photoshoot today. I think I'm finally out of my funk; I finished my homework, did a photoshoot, cleaned my room a tiny bit, and even made dinner! It's amazing the things that you can do when you aren't hiding in bed hating people (don't worry- there's still plenty of that) and scrolling through Pinterest so satisfy your out of whack sense of humor. Shall we get on to the pictures?

Kaya is such a pretty girl. Dosen't she have the cutest nose?

the night sky and things that inspire me and a sleepover

For the Everything AG follower competition thing that I am late for but whatever.
I arrive precisely when I mean to, and everyone else is simply early.
And the question is:
What inspires me?
The answer is Everything.
The quirky people I hang with at lunch, my oddball language arts teacher, Pinterest, my cousins, you guys, nature, the night sky.
Speaking of which--
Oh man I have the most amazing news.
So.
There is a middle aged couple near my town who live on the top of a hill. They have a small planetarium and an observatory.
And it's the coolest thing ever because they let schools and scout groups come to see and use and learn about their space stuff. Touchy feely intergalactic education. At star parties you get to use their fancy telescopes to find Andromeda, our sister Galaxy, and other things like Hercules and constellations and planets. In the observatory you learn about astrophotography and use the big mechanical telescope to take pictures. (It takes black and white photos, but then you take each picture and put it through a red, green, and blue filter {those are the three colors of light} and use photoshop to put them together.) and Mr. Pauly lets kids turn the big domed roof and control the window so we can look out into the night.  

Yeah. It's the best thing ever.
I had gone there once with my 5th grade class, and then again to the star party in August. After that I didn't get to go anymore 'cause I'm not a 5th grader.
But yesterday I had the opportunity to go again with my brother's boy scouts.
And it was just as awesome as I remembered.
The best part was that Mr&Mrs Pauley remembered me and offered me a position as "star guide", which means I go to star parties in the summer and help kids find Andromeda and such.
My friend John is a Star Guide also, I discovered.
This summer is going to be the awesome!!

Colors

I was thinking about the colors of my room yesterday and thought that they needed to be shown to you. Andie helped me.

Blues and grays are so calming to me.

It wasn't really helping- mostly testing which of my blankets is the softest.

As I was fiddling with her hair, I noticed it smelled sort of like my cat... who has been dead for three years.

I realized it was from a sheet I had used as a background a couple weeks back that has sat around in the closet since before Otis died.

I do not like the smell of cat.

To fix this, Andie had her hair rinsed in the sink. But it still smelled and I did not want to use shampoo. So instead, I made cinnamon apple tea and soaked her hair in that. I don't know why I'm less afraid of tea than I am of shampoo, but there it is.

It turned out rather well, actually. The water made her hair soft and the cat smell has been replaced with cinnamon smell.

At first I was worried that this would fall into the "ideas that work well in theory but I should never try" pile, but I guess not. Another idea in that category is drilling holes in my doll's feet and filling them with sand so they're less top heavy. Do you think I should try that?

Yes, I am just posting pictures of my bedding. 

Oh hold on! here's some flower pics for you all. That's a relief.

Sweet peas

Dandelions.

Well, that was fun. 

Do you have any outrageous ideas?

I would like outrageous ideas, whether it's doll care/improvement or just things I should post.

Yes, really. Anything is helpful. You could have my dolls riding cows on the moon, for all I care.

P.S. I need to update the meet My Dolls page, and I'm not sure what Rylan's personality is. Do you have any more outrageous ideas for me?