Little House on the Prairie: Garnet Part #1

One afternoon, Laura & Mary were walking slowly home from school. Mary was a bit upset because Nellie had told her that the white on Mary's dress collar and her white pinafore didn't match, and even though she didn't show it, Mary was still upset that Nellie thought something was wrong with her outfit, even if she knew that Nellie's opinion didn't matter.

Neither girl talked, they just walked along, looking forward to where they were walking; watching their little house get closer and closer.

"Hey, isn't that the new calf - Garnet out there with Pa?" Laura asked Mary. Mary, startled by Laura's voice breaking the silence, quickly looked up.

"Yes, I think it is," Mary turned to tell Laura.

"Come on, let's run home!" Laura grabbed Mary's hand and they ran over to the barn next to their house.

Pa gently guided Garnet around the field near the barn. He didn't even realize the two girls running up behind him.

"What are you doing with Garnet?" Laura asked. She wondered if Pa was preparing her to be a pet for the girls. However, she was wrong.

"I'm preparing her to go to the market at a fair in a nearby town. She probably won't get a good price, but it'll be good enough for us to keep the farm."

"But you can't give Garnet up! The people that buy her could do anything to her!"

"Half-pint, you're just too young to understand. We need to keep the farm and we need the money. Garnet just can't be ours anymore. That's why I tell you not to name the new animals when they are born. You have Jack and the chickens, not to mention the horses!" Pa seemed a bit angry with Laura for questioning his decision, but he sighed and patted her on the head before putting Garnet back and then going inside to wash up.  

"Oh, Pa can't sell you, Garnet!" Laura sighed, hugging Garnet. "You're going to be a part of the family now! You can't be hurt by some new owner!"

Garnet, who seemed to understand, looked up at her a bit fearfully.

Later that night, Ma came up to check on the girls after dinner.

"Ma, does Pa have to sell Garnet?" Laura asked. Mary pretended to be super interested in her writing homework, but she was secretly listening to what Ma said.

"Pa is doing what he thinks is best, and if that's what he thinks, then we all have to go along with it or don't say anything at all. It will provide us money, Laura. You are too young to understand, but don't you want to keep our house and barn, and for us and Garnet to be happy?"

"But Garnet won't be happy if he's dead!" Laura told her defiantly.

"Watch how you speak to me and you don't know what you're talking about. Stop prying into affairs that don't concern you and get back to your homework!"

Ma walked down the loft ladder, leaving Laura and Mary to silently do their homework.

Laura just couldn't focus on her geographical reader. It was so hard to do with Garnet filling up her mind.

"I have an idea!" Laura smiled suddenly.

"What?" Mary asked, turning to look at her expectantly.

"What if we set Garnet loose in the woods? Then Pa wouldn't be able to find her and we could just say he ran away!" Laura began to get excited, but she was careful to keep her voice down so that Ma & Pa couldn't hear what she was scheming.

"Laura," Mary let out an exasperated sigh. "Really! You think that setting a calf loose in the woods is a good idea? Garnet will end up bad off anyway, because a calf can't just fend for itself out there! That would be terrible!"

"I guess you're right," Laura replied, but in fact, she didn't think Mary was right at all.

The next morning, Laura stepped out of bed softly in her slippers. She grabbed her clothing and dressed in the barn so that no one would hear her.

After she was dressed, she quietly guided Garnet out of her stall and they set off into the woods together.  

 

In a tiny clearing in the woods, Laura said goodbye to Garnet and prepared to let her run off. "Garnet, good luck," Laura whispered softly and sadly, nearly tearing up.

Garnet just looked down at the ground.

Just then, Mary walked up, "Laura, wait!"

Laura spun around in surprise. "Mary?"

"I trailed you here - I heard you get up. Laura, you can't do this."

"I have to, Mary."

"No! You cannot just do this. Laura, bring Garnet back - please. If you don't, I'll tell Ma and Pa what you did to Garnet. They'll be so mad!"

"Fine, I'll come home then," Laura rolled her eyes and the two girls walked out of the woods together; each secretly planning ways to save Garnet from being sold away.

Doll Clothes Idea & Outfit of the Day #4

Hi! First off, I want to thank everyone for 35 followers!!!! I am so thankful! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Anyway, today we are going to do an outfit & idea of the day for your dolls!
Idea: A lot of people already know that Bitty Baby & Bitty Twin clothes still fit the regular AG dolls, but today I'm going to give everyone an idea on how to incorporate them into your doll's spectacular wardrobe! Even the Bitty Twin boy clothes look great on the AG girl dolls!

Kit is our model for today! As you can see, she is wearing a Bitty Twin boy shirt!

Here's a creative photo that I took of her freckles and one of her eyes. I am still working on my photography quality, so I turned this outfit of the day into a photo shoot!

Aren't her freckles so cute? (I love freckles! XD)

Another sort of interesting shot where you can see her whole outfit from a 'bird's eye view'! ;)

This is the Bitty Twin boy shirt up close! The shirt is so well made, and since the Bitty Twins are a bit chubbier than the AG dolls, the shirt is loose and casual on Kit!

So, what do you think of incorporating Bitty Twin clothes into a regular AG doll's wardrobe? Do you do this already?

Outfit:

Shirt: Bitty Boy Meet Outfit 2014

Pants: Julie Meet Outfit (original)

Shoes: Kanani's Aloha outfit (or something along those lines)

Camera Used: Canon Powershot

 

Picnic on the Pier: Part #1

Today, Felicity, Payton, Jasmine, and Molly all went out for a picnic on the pier. They had a GREAT time! We all wanted to have some fun in the sun before it started turning into fall!
This is only part #1 because I had to leave before I finished taking pics - I hope to get Part #2 up, but I have no idea when I'm going back to the docks.

It was early one afternoon when the girls decided to go out for a picnic. There was a small dock on their farm, and the girls wanted to have some fun now that weekends meant more since school was in full swing.

Payton laid out a few beach towels and the girls began to get comfortable. They were going to stay through the afternoon and hopefully stay late enough in the night to do some star gazing.

Once everything was settled, they began to relax.

"Do you want to go down to the water with me?" Molly asked.

"Do you think it will be really chilly?" Payton asked. "I want to know whether I should put my rain boots on."

"Oh Payton, the water can't be that cold. After all, there still is a bit of heat in the air!"

"Alright - but let's relax first. We can go down to the water after lunch."  

Jasmine stood near the water, letting the wild breeze blow her hair around; whipping it this way and that.

"Don't you go falling in that shallow water!" Payton told her. It seemed like Payton was a bit uptight about something for some reason.

"I won't!" Jasmine called back just as the gust of wind died down.

"You sure are wearing a lot of red, white and blue!" Molly laughed at Felicity, "It's not bad though. In fact, I really like your outfit!"

"Thanks!" Felicity smiled, "The 200th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner was last weekend and I just had be a little patriotic!"

"Oh, I should've been patriotic too!" Molly sighed, "How could I have forgotten a date like that?"

After a little while of lounging and sunbathing, Molly and Jasmine started playing dolls.

As they played dolls, their latest addition to the dog family, Sandy, barged in.
"Woof! Bark! Arwoooof!" he started barking like crazy and running up and down the docks. Being a Labrador, it seemed like he wanted to swim.

"Do you want to go down to the water, girl?" Payton asked her. She jumped up and barked in excitement.

"Alright, I'm going down to the water now, Molly. Do you want to come?"

"Of course!"

With that, the 2 girls set off down the dock and to the water.....

TBC (To be continued - if I can manage to get some time to go back down to the dock before it turns into fall completely XD)

Thrift Store Finds!

Yesterday, I went to the thrift store and I found and saw some pretty awesome stuff! I got a ton of AG stuff (alright, maybe not a ton, but still a lot!)

                                

                       First, I got Ginger, the cat! I've always loved her unique eye patch and her appearance, but I never got the chance to get her, and now that she is retired, I considered it a pretty lucky find! She wasn't new in her box or anything, but I think she is nearly in mint condition, looking as though she had rarely been played with or was maybe once a collector's item in their collection.                                    

This picture is pretty strange looking, I know, but It is to give you an idea of her fur texture. It feels similar to Licorice's fur texture, so it is nothing new or different. The coloring is though, which is SO cute!

Sorry for the shadow, but this is her tail! It, like Licorice's tail is wire and can bend into countless positions.

One more pic of her face!

The next item.......

SANDY THE DOG!!! Yep, that's right, Kailey's dog Sandy! He is pretty rare, I think, so I nearly screamed - well, I guess I did scream when I saw him. He isn't obviously AG at first glance, so everyone looking for AG stuff passed by him without even looking!

His bandana is SO cute and yes, it is sewn on. They used three different fur types, which I think is just great, and it shows how much attention to detail they put in back then! (They still do, but this dog is over the top!)

His paws are bendable and made of wire, which is great - flexibility is always a plus! Not only that, but one of his front paws actually, if pressed, makes him bark. However, to replace the batteries, you have to rip his seams apart, so I will not use this feature too often as I don't want to go through all that seam-ripping trouble. XD

His (or I guess it's a her - I am NOT good with keeping track of hims and hers when writing about animals XD), bandana is framed in a beautiful AG logo that I've never seen before.

His unique face with little eyebrows, tiny freckles, and everything!

Full image of her! She is quite big and dwarfs Ginger and most of the other cats and dogs (the only one who is bigger than him are my 2 horses and Garnet the calf) 

I also purchased the Jess book because it is one of the only ones not in my collection, and I've never really read this book all the way through! I absolutely love AG books and if anyone is interested I could give a tour of my AG book shelf!

I also got a........CHRISTMAS TREE! I've wanted one for forever and I finally got one! I am so excited for the holiday season so that I can do plenty of photostories and other activities with it! This picture isn't great of it, but it'll look great this holiday season!

It is considerably taller than Jasmine, which is perfect, because rarely is the child taller than their family's Christmas tree! XD

 

Here is Jasmine with Sandy & Ginger! The 3 of them look great together!

That is what I got! I am so happy with my purchases and there was a lot to choose from. They had a AG doll craft, but they still sold it at Michaels where the box isn't dented in so I decided not to buy it! XD They also had Josefina & Julie, though Julie's hair was cut all choppy and I felt so sorry for her I almost wanted to purchase her just so that I could fix her up, but she was $74!!! I thought that was crazy. Josefina looked beautiful though and wore a red snowflake MAG Christmas dress. I barely recognized her with her hair all down and combed! There was a Bitty Baby stroller, a Bitty Twin blonde haired girl, and a AG Tees & Accessories craft set which I almost got, but all the shirts had been decorated and it was missing stuff all for $25 which I considered a lot for something like that. The non-AG thing was a Karito Kids doll new in box, but she was $74 too and I didn't think that that seemed worth it, well I did, but my parents didn't and besides, I didn't have $74 to spend anyway! XD They lastly had a few MA & OG dolls that were sadly naked, but I couldn't  buy them to fix them up (I didn't have that to spend). There was also a doll of a different brand dressed up in jeans and Molly's striped pj shirt. I didn't purchase the doll just for the shirt, because the pants weren't with it and I

 didn't think it was such a great deal as the doll was $9. (I know, an expensive thrift store when it comes to dolls XD)

Anyway, I am so happy with my purchase and so thankful! I don't think that I could've found better things to purchase and I am excited because they have given me photostory inspiration (though the cameras are dead XD)

Note: If the pictures in this don't show up at all or don't show up right, it is because I'm experimenting with pictures from my mom's new Iphone. Please give feedback on how the pictures show up (or don't show up XD).

 

 

Doll Clothes Idea & Outfit of the Day #3!

Sorry we haven't done a doll clothes idea lately....we just were having trouble brainstorming more great tips to give all of you! :)
Anyway, we have thought of a couple that we are now using in everyday life, and here is one of them!
Tip: A lot of people, I noticed, tend not to put shoes on their dolls with a lot of the outfits. I didn't used to put shoes or accessories on my dolls that often either. Let's face it, putting on doll shoes and keeping track of doll shoes can sometimes be a pain. But today, I'm here to inspire you to find shoes to go with every outfit! I never really realized it before, but they truly do make any outfit that much more special! Whether it's a pair of fuzzy slippers with some pajamas or a pair of Converse sneakers with a funky, artsy outfit, your doll needs it if you want the outfit to look complete. So, keep track of those doll shoes (I have tips for that in a moment, just scroll down), and get your dolls fancy in the footwear!!! XD

Now for the Outfit of the Day: 

Beautiful profile

 

I love the jumper set's shirt graphics on the sleeve. They are so cute.

Closer, better shot of the graphics and the texture of her jumper

Her hat (sorry for the fuzz on the hat - it tends to attract fuzz that isn't even there - even after you vacuum!)

A handbag also completes an outfit!

Cute appliques with vibrant colors

More cute appliques!

The socks also play a big part in the creating of the outfit. Don't they just add a little extra punch to these already cute shoes?

Closer up of the Converses!  

Payton really wanted to strike a pose here, so I let her. Pretty interesting choice for a pose, don't you think? XD 

PC shoes! Look at the cute logo on the sides!

Tips for Keeping Track of Shoes/Accessories: The best thing you can do for keeping track of accessories is to get a sewing box sort of thing with compartments in it and put everything in the compartments in an organized fashion. As for the shoes, there are cool little jewelry holder things that have plastic slots and hang on the wall, those are perfect for shoes!

I am NOT an organized person, by the way, contrary to the little "organization" tip given in this post. In fact, I'm about as far away from organized as they get.

What do you do for organizing doll things?

What this outfit is made of:

Shoes: Unknown outfit but definitely PC

Socks: Julie's Roller skating set

Hat: Molly's Accessories

Shirt: Jumper Set

Jumper: Jumper Set (cannot remember exact name)

Tote bag: Ivy's Accessories

 

Payton Paints Pictures!

Today, Payton decided that she wanted to paint! (this is a super quick photo-story, BTW)
She had been to a few art museums and had really enjoyed the animal pictures. The pictures at the museums inspired her to create her own. She decided to draw an elephant, just because she'd never drawn one before and she wanted a challenge.

She just started to fill in her elephent. As an artist who was trying to improve, she made sure to try and do different shades to practice her shading with water color. 

She had a wide variety of colors to choose from for mixing and matching.

"Hmmm," Payton thought to herself. "Maybe I should try out the water color tubes?"

(She did not end up using them during this painting session)

After the elephent picture, she decided she wanted to paint something else, so she chose to paint a fawn. "Awww," Payton smiled, "The fawn is SOOO cute!"

She had a bit of difficultly with the background outlines of her landscape, but the landscape didn't turn out bad at all.  

Here is the now-famous (or somewhat famous artist) posing next to her work of art!

Bonus close up!

Do your dolls like painting or any other art activities?