Two will enter, one will return

Yesterday, it was Rylan's turn to take Pepper out for a romp in the yard. He was excited for a walk and the force of his wagging tail made his whole body wiggle.

"Hold on, Pepper. Im still trying to get my shoes on and you dancing around my feet is not helping."

When they finally made it outside, Pepper bounded happily along the paving stones before scampering off to have a nice roll in the grass and pee on a bush or two.

"Are you a good boy, fur face? Yes, I think so. Fuzzy lumpkin. Puppy boy. Fuzz nugget."

"Urrrrrrrrrrooo." Said pepper, unimpressed by all the goofy names.

He wandered off to mark his presence on a few more bushes, so Rylan waited around looking at the trees, all of which she loved dearly.

Among these was a little willow across the grass from the house. It was an ant compared to the fir trees surrounding the yard, but being a doll she fit under it nicely, where she began inspecting the bark. Thin, white, papery. Perhaps she should start a bark collection.

Off in the distance, Pepper gave one sharp bark and bolted off.

"Huh?" Rylan said to the tree.

"Hold on. Pepper? Pepper! Get back here!"

But Pepper was already disappearing beneath the fir trees and undergrowth.

Rylan jogged a little apprehensively across the grass, which was quickly giving way to weeds and rocks. She wondered what he had seen. Maybe a deer?

But the mild apprehension grew to straight up uneasiness after countless calls of "Pepper, come!" fell on deaf ears (or no ears) as she moved deeper into the forest.

She was running now. Pepper almost always stayed in the yard, and almost always came when she called. And certainly he always came with this much fuss.

Long past the underbrush where she saw him disappear, she began shoving back ferns and peering around trees. But surely she would have seen him bounding through the tules if he was anywhere nearby.

"Pepper?" Rylan called one last time.

But she was alone.

*** ***
Tune in next week to see how Pepper is found, and what he found in the process.
May your doll's noses never get shine marks,
Gwen

Book Reviews with Andie- The Language of Spells

Good afternoon and happy... whatever day today is, everybody! It's Andie here and I am going to spill my thoughts to you about The Language of Spells by Garret Weyr.

My summary is this: a dragon named Grisha is born in a forest in Germany. He gets turned into a teapot by an evil magician, and then sold to an emperor, who dies and gives him to an antique shop, where a young man named Yakov finds him and brings him home. Yakov can see that he is a real dragon inside a teapot. He is sure to put the teapot in a window so Grisha can get some sun, and talks to him every day. Eventually, he finds a way to release him from the teapot, and tells him that all the other dragons have been called to Vienna. Little did they know that it was the evil magician Leopold who was doing the calling. More than half the dragons are put to sleep and hidden beneath the city. Grisha and the remaining dragons are left as museum and national landmark guides. They forget the terrible fate of their brothers and sisters.

Eventually, Grisha meets an eleven year old girl named Maggie. They become fast friends and on their adventures around the city of Vienna, Grisha remembers his early days there and that his friends are missing. He and Maggie embark on a quest to save the sleeping buried dragons, talking to enchanted cats about where they're hidden, and to Yakov's granddaughter about a potion to wake them up, going on excursions to London, Rome, and the Black Forest. Unfortunately, all magic demands a sacrifice, including the magic to reverse Leopold's spell. When they find the sleeping dragon's deep beneath Vienna's subway system, Maggie's sacrifice is to give up the thing she loves most- being able to see and talk to her friend Grisha. The spell works.

Now lemme tell you guys, I loved every page of this book! I love dragons and old cities, and children literature that reads like you could be telling a fantastical story to a child. There were beautiful illustrations and likable characters, the whole shebang. But the ending. Oh, how I loathe the ending. It's not a bad or poorly thought out ending, it just makes me sad. Imagine not being able to see, hear, or feel your best friend, even though he's right there. Imagine him knowing that and not being able to do anything. Maggie can't even see the dragons that she freed, nor can they tell her how grateful they are. Good Lord I Hate sad endings. If you are going to read this book, read all of it except the last chapter, and then make up your own ending.

Farewell form Andie, hater of bittersweet books.

Alex's Hair

Remember an eternity ago when I bought my little brother a Marisol doll from Ebay for $50 and made it into a boy? I cut the hair then and it didn't go as well as I would have liked. But after an eternity, I bought a new wig and it looks fabulous! It is from GramcatsCloset on Etsy.

Monique wigs are nearly impossible to get on. I struggled with this one for a while and finally got it to a place where I could glue it. Aaaaaand got glue in the hair. I'll figure it out sometime.

Now that Alex is in use, I need to start thinking up a character for him. My brother is helping since he's still technically his doll. Cole says Alex is going to be a vlogger. 

This flannel came from LorelieCreations on Etsy.

Rylan and the Face Melting Tunes

I bought Rylan Tenney's guitar for christmas and she loves it!

Previously she had been playing with the human sized guitars laying around my house, and I decided I needed a doll sized one.

 I bought it at the little pop up AG store in some mall near portland, making off with a heavy bag and a light wallet. In the bag was Logan's performance outfit, Z's camera set, and Tenney's guitar. It was the first time in a long time I had bought anything from AG. Logan's outfit was only $10, though, which was amazing.

This shoot was done with a black scarf, my dad's line 6 amp, and a couple plant lights. I was super proud of them, but they didn't do too well on Instagram. I think it's because I organized my feed and have 3 pictures in a row and post them all at once. Do any of you use Instagram and can offer me advice?

Rylan typing now. I want to help out with posts too. I wish I was playing something really face meltingly terrific but I've only had this guitar for a month. So I was doing my best to pluck out Immortality by Pearl Jam, which is terrific, but its just me, haltingly and by myself. Maybe I'll learn to sing too!

This is Gwen, back to talk about pictures some more. I really like the feel of these, the energy in them, but they might be a little dark or hard to look at for the average person scrolling on by. Aside from really wanting to show off the new guitar and have a lifelike shoot, I also went to the Museum of Popular Culture in Seattle with my aunt and uncle, where we saw Mick Rock's pictures of David Bowie. They were something else, I tell you. I hadn't listened to or seen David Bowie before, only heard the name. But the idea of a genderqueer alien from mars with a bunch of spider friends was right up my alley. I got home and listened to some Bowie, and didn't like it all that much, but that man's style and creativity was really fantastic.

Of course, none of this shoot is at all reminiscent of Ziggy Stardust, but the pictures on the wall did make me want to do something with darkness and color photographing a musician, even if the musician is an inanimate 18 inch vinyl girl.

Oh but who are we to stand in the way of two girls in love

 I was doing a photoshoot with Andie and Rylan in the shade of the shed trying to stay out of this 93 degree bullshit

And I was thinking about what good friends they are and how I've been hinting about their relationship for a while

So I asked them if they minded being open about it and they were like
"Nah man we're lesbian goals. Everyone wishes they were us."
"Actually I'm pan!" Andie said
"Oh yeah that's right. We're sapphic goals. We're queer as hell!" Rylan yelled excitedly and grabbed Andie's hand.

Rylan wanted to kiss but Andie got distracted by the fact that the needles on cedar trees are really just folded up leaves.

Its all ok though, cause trees and girlfriends are the most interesting things in the universe. Especially if you can hang out with your girlfriend in a tree. (They're planning their next date in a tree, I'm guessing.)

Yes indeed ever since Rylan came to live with us a few years ago they've gotten along swimmingly. Lilly, like any good sister, pretends not to notice and swears to maul Andie if she hurts Rylan and vise versa. "Of course I'll be protective of my big sister," she says, "But if she upsets my buddy Ry-ry all sisterly bets are off."

Can't kiss when you're busy giggling, sillies.


Have a fantastic day, y'all. And if it's not, aggressively try to make it so. Queer kids gotta stay strong.