Lily by the Kiwi

What up gang its been a BILLION years since I've posted. 

I've been in college and have had mental health issues like mad. WHOOP! But I still love my dolls and instagram is such a hard-to-look-at platform. So here I am.

 

The weather was GORGEOUS today and I just got back from a high school graduation party for one of my younger sibling's friends. I've talked to the same 8 people (my immediate family and my college roommates) for a year and a half, so I went just to have some novelty and socializing. There was yummy pizza and cookies, and I chatted with my old 8th grade english teacher and my elementary school librarian.

 

My family went off to another person's graduation party and I stayed home, one party is plenty for me. But the light was so nice outside, and the shadows were so bright, that I was suddnly struck by the urge to take doll pics again. Well, the urge is always there, but the energy and brainpower isn't. I'm on new meds now so I hope that this wanting-to-do-things streak will keep up.

 

Here's Lily in my favorite outfit for her under our big kiwi... tree? bush? Its a whole bunch of vines climbing up this pole by our deck, and it was pretty scrawny the first 3 years we had it, but now its branched out into this huge vine monster waving many arms and tendrils in the air. I love it.

Hope any of you still out there are enjoying the weather in your area. Monday is supposed to be 90. YEW!

Gwen

A snowy walk

Rylan and Andie went on a walk in the snow a few months ago, when we had a thick blanket of snow all over the property. It was such a nice break from the soggy deadness of winter.

Andie is wearing the fair isle sweater outfit, that had that nice puffy jacket sold seperately or something. Its easily one of my favorite AG winter outfits. Rylan is wearing a Lorilizgirlsanddolls flannel. It is my favorite Etsy purchace ever, but unfortunately Loriliz is no longer active. Her mittens are AG, but I don't know from what outfit, likely before I started collecting in 2013.

They breifly debated making a snowman, but decided it was too darn cold for that and decided on walking instead. 

Maybe they shared a snowy smooch, who's to say

In this one, I'm unsure if Andie fell over or if she's trying to make a snow angel. Whatever it is, Rylan is egging her on, or laughing at her for falling. 

Another shot of the abandoned snowman endeavor.

Bye from Andie and Rylan!

Do you miss the snow as soon as it melts or do you get so much snow you are glad when it leaves?

We don't get that much snow in western washington.

Kaya in the ferns

Howdy fellas! It's been a fat minute since I've posted, but worry not, I'm still interested in dolls. I've just been mostly working on maintaining my instagram since it doesn't ruin the quality of my photos.

This picture of Kaya, for example, I worked hard on focusing and making clear and crisp for your viewing pleasure, but dumb ol blogger had to go and make it grainy. I mean, It could just be my computer, but these were clean when I uploaded them but got grainy as soon as I added them to the post.

Now I know a lot of you aren't on here anymore, but if any of you doll bloggers are still out there, I'd love for you to tell me how to fix this stupid ass problem. I want the work I put into my photos to be reflected on the screen.

Also, aren't these boots cute?! They're from Kit's gardening outfit. Not too fond of the rest of the outfit but these boots? Damn I love em.

These pictures were taken out by a lovely mossy boulder in my yard. Most things are still too dead from winter for acceptable photos, but lucky for us, moss and ferns stay green year round.

I may have posted about this previously, but Kaya belongs to my cousin Barrett, who's house is being remodeled. I get to use her dolls while she gets her room put together. Kaya is easily my favorite in her collection. I've photographed her before by some different ferns further back on the property, wearing pieces from Isabelle's collection. Pastels look nicer on brown skin, I think.

That being said, I'm not too fond of this outfit. The light blue turtleneck might have been a mistake. But the boots and yellow Our Generation jacket really make me happy.

Welp, Kaya had a fun time out fiddling around in the ferns, and I had a good time taking pictures.

Hope anyone reading this has a good day!

Signing off,

Gwen

The arrival of Aurora (and many others)

Up the front walkway abloom with late august lavender came a stranger. No dread arose in her chest from being someplace new and unfamiliar, instead it was near bursting with excitement. Everywhere she looked she saw possibility and beauty. And everywhere she looked she noticed what plants were growing and which needed attention.

She grinned and nodded at everything on the front porch. Teal bench, little old teapot, hostas making a big leafy sea. There were high hopes to be had for this new home. Coming upon the door, she went to knock, but found that it swung open under her knuckles. Before she could think "that's odd"-

The door was yanked open to reveal a blond girl, who immediately spouted greetings and questions. 

"Hello! Welcome in, welcome in! Was your journey here uneventful? My name's Lily. The rest of the house is here to meet you. What's your name?"

When the blond girl Lily paused for breath, our stranger managed to wedge "Hi I'm Aurora." In before the next barrage of words began.

"Behind me here is Rylan, Leo, Cameryn, and Andie. Say hello everyone!"

There was a staggered chorus of "hello" "hi" "howdy" and suchlike.

Peering inside beyond Lily and the door, Aurora saw more faces than she ever expected, including one who was studying the ground from atop a cardboard box. She started inside, unsure of what to do with herself or her stuff now that there was such a large greeting party.

"Uhh, Just so you know, everyone, there's like. A whole bunch of girls coming up the driveway. I saw them on my way up." Said Aurora to the room at large. 

"Oh yeah that'll be our cousins, we're expecting them too. Let's go out and greet them!" Chattered Lily. "And Andie? Get down from that box, please."

Aurora watched as Lily skipped out the door, shouting "Yoo-hoo!" and waving. She was followed quickly by Andie, who had slid off the box grumbling and was now being tailed by the girl with the afro, who must have been Rylan. She looked around the inside now. They were in a living room, and she was accompanied only by Cameryn and Leo. She wondered vaguely who was who, especially since both seemed like boys names but one appeared to be wearing a skirt. Oh well. One could never assume these things. 

Presently, Aurora wandered outside to have a look at the cousins. Four seemed like a lot of cousins. But then again, even one cousin would be a lot for her. Lily was hugging everyone and cooing "how are youuuuuu?!" While Andie was smiling distantly and patting whoever was nearest on the shoulder. Rylan stood by holding Andie's hand.

She was surprised when Lily dashed past her viewpoint by the flower pot.

"Hey everybody! Come get up on the bench so we can all see each other and introduce ourselves! We've got like five new people today!"

So everybody made their way over to the bench and did their best to scramble up. Cameron and Leo wandered out of the house and said a pleasant hello to those they past on their way up the bench by way of the side brace on the legs.

After a lot of kerfuffle and hubbub, everyone was situated on the bench and ready to listen. Aurora stuck her bag between her legs. No one had told her where she should put it yet.

"All right, I'll go first." said Lily. Nobody disputed. "I'm Lily. Our BFG's name is Gwen, and I'm her second doll." 

"Hold up, what's a BFG?" asked Aurora

"Stands for Big Friendly Giant, like the Roald Dhal book. But in our case its our Big Friend Gwen." Somebody answered. 

Lily continued "Andie is my sister, and Mckenna and Maddie are my cousins. Andie, Your turn."

"Ok uh." Andie said to the armrest opposite her. "I'm Andie, Lily's older sister. This is my girlfriend Rylan. I was BFG's first doll, and uh. Mckenna and Maddie are my cousins. Yeah. You go now, Ry."

"Howdy, everybody, I'm Rylan!" said Rylan cheerfully. "I am everybody's housemate and Andie is my girlfriend, aaaand I'm nobody's cousin and nobody's sister. Let's continue."

The one in the green shirt and denim skirt started speaking. "Hi! We are Leo and Cameryn. I don't think the Seattle dolls have met us before, but we live here on swamp road with everyone else. Lots of housemates means lots of frenemies." 

"Hold up. Which one of you is Cameryn and Which one of you is Leo?" Asked Aurora.

"I'm Leo." said Leo the green shirt and denim skirt. And next to me is Cameryn. She doesn't like talking very much. Except to me. It's chill."

"Leo, are you aware you are wearing a skirt?" asked one of who were presumably the Seattle dolls.

"Yeah man. My shorts are in the wash but I look great!"

Realizing it was her turn, Aurora took a breath. "Hey all! I'm aurora and I just got here. I guess I'm your housemate now. Uhh. yeah." She bit her lip and stared at her feet, embarrassed she couldn't come up with something better.

The girl next to her went. "I'm Maddie. Mckenna is my sister and Andie and Lily are my cousins."

Mckenna introduced herself in a similar way, adding that she loved gymnastics.

When it was her turn, Saige said "I'm Saige and I live with Mckenna, Maddie, and Kaya. And I can read y'all's natal charts if you want. I don't know why we didn't add our sun signs in here."

"Yeah yeah we know you're an astrology nerd, Saige." Said Kaya. "Anyway, I'm Kaya and I live with Mckenna, Maddie, and Saige. But I guess we live here now. It might be fun."

~~~~

I bought Aurora at the very end of august when I was staying with my aunt for a drama class.My cousin, Barrett, doesn't use her dolls much anymore so they are staying with me to make room in her house while they remodel the kitchen.

Adventures in doll care- hair repair

Saige and Mckenna's hair was absolutely whack. Even though they had been brushed responsibly, stuff happens with long hair. Both of them were enormous, bushy, and tangled. The synthetic fibers had curled up on themselves and made strange squiggles that interlocked and made terrible knots.

For mckenna's hair, which was reasonably short and incredibly thick I just pulled apart sections and brushed them individually, working from bottom to top, trying not to pull it out and trying to ignore the noises the brush made going through the tangles. It took more strength than anticipated.

I bunched all the sections together to see what it would do and got this lovely... to me it looks kind of like flames shooting out the end of a rocket or a really cool motorcycle. It could also be a haystack. Anyway, the hair stuck straight out and was still insanely frizzy at the end. I stuck her aside and tried to do the same for Saige's hair.

Here are the crazy, frizzy, interlocking squiggles. This was a nightmare to brush through, and it poofed right back out and bunched itself together when I was through.

Heres how it was when I got done. Still very frizzy and you can see all the hair this poor doll lost in the bottom right corner. There was even more of it out of frame.
BUT WORRY NOT! There was hope for this hair, and hope that did not lie in scissors. (In fact, scissors are for when you lose all hope.)
Our hope here lies in boiling water. Plastic heated up will bend to your will. Or straighten to your will.
So I boiled some water in the teakettle, poured it into a big bowl, and let it cool for 5 minutes lest I melt their hair.

After several dunkings and brushings, saige's hair was getting more manageable. The crazy squiggles straightened out and the brush positively glided through.

I did the same for mckenna.

After several more brushings to ensure everything was perfectly straight and not tangled, I left them to dry.
Now let's see how Maddie is doing

Maddie has had a little strand of wig hanging off for quite some time now, and her part was weird on top so it showed the seams and cap.

I pulled up the hair, showing the wig cap, so I could find where our dangly strand belongs. I'm always amazed at the cleverness of wigs.

My sewing job was messy, but the strand is now back on securely. The white thread is mine