Review of: Hearts 4 Hearts Girl Shola!

This Christmas, I get many, many, wonderful, amazing gifts. Amongst those gifts, I got 2 Hearts 4 Hearts girls; Shola and Nahji. I will post a review of Shola right now, and will post a review of Nahji later (she is currently in major "surgery" having her nose ring glued back on XD).
Shola is from Kabul, Afghanistan. She has a sort of tragic but happy background story. Her parents and brothers died, so she was left alone with her sister, however, the girls find a circus school, and join. In the end, they end up leading a fun, happier life, spreading happiness to other children like herself.
The book is pretty short, it is about 4 pages - it is more like a little excerpt or sample. It is good though, and in those four pages, you end up learning a lot about her.

This is the best far away, full body picture that I could really get of her like that. I still don't know what to call her cultural headscarf (I don't know the proper term for it or anything), so in this review, I will just call it a cultural headscarf.

Here is a picture of her beautiful, kind, face. I fell in love with it when I opened her up - she has a face with so much character and personality. Also, I can see it in her face, she is a very kind person.

Here is another picture of her! She is SO beautiful. Her skin is on the medium side, it isn't dark, but it isn't pale or anything either - it is sort of like an in between, tan color, it is beautiful and so suiting. 

Her shoes are rubber or soft plastic or something (with all these different materials, I can't tell them apart honestly XD). They are detailed, and look more like slippers. They are very easy to slip on and off, and are a beautiful color.

On her arm, she has three rubber or soft plastic bracelets. I took the pink one off, and it seemed to stretch it out more or something, so I just left the rest of them on. I don't know if I recommend taking them off, they stretch out easily. They are brightly colored though, and are a fun addition.

This is a picture in attempt to show you the detail in her eyes. The picture doesn't do the eyes justice, they just have so much detail, they are so kind looking.

Her cultural headscarf is able to Velcro on the back. The scarf is made of some type of light fabric, and is a cute bright pink. The Velcro does fit better together, I kind of spread it apart to exaggerate the Velcro for the picture (I wasn't sure if it would show up or not).

She also has cute gold ball earrings. They don't come out like AG earrings I believe - they can come out a tad bit, but I don't think they come out completely.

Not only does the cultural headscarf Velcro, there is also an elastic band underneath her chin to keep it in place. It isn't noticeable at all, I didn't even know it was there until I started exploring the doll's features more.

For the most part, her dress is a white polka dot against navy blue pattern. It is cute, and as you may notice in this picture, the polka dots aren't completely rounded - it is an uneven polka dot pattern.

However, at that top of the dress, framed in a cute little floral decoration pattern, is another fabric print with little flower drawings, it kind of reminds me of a skirt I used to have a long time ago.

This picture isn't that great, but her hair is amazingly long. She can easily sit on it - but it isn't annoyingly long, it is just the right length for some pretty cool long hair styles!

Here is my attempt to get another pic - this one didn't turn out as great either.

In the back, she has this part of her hair that is tied back, I figured that is goes around to the front strands of hair. I don't recommend taking the tie out, because I don't know if it'd be easy to get back.

Here is Shola with her cultural headscarf off, she is beautiful with and without it. Isn't she adorable?

Here she is sitting down, relaxing. Her head is different than an AG head, her head can move up and down and from side to side, rather than just up and down. That is another cool feature.

Another picture! H4H Girls are about 3 inches or 4 inches smaller than an AG doll - I am thinking that Shola could be an exchange student who is just a little bit shorter. I am thinking of making my other H4H doll a pen-pal of one of my AG dolls - I'll have to think about who.  

This is a side profile of her with a ponytail - her hair is easy to comb and SO fun to style. She came with a small plastic comb that had a ponytail holder wrapped around it - that is such a smart idea! However, the ponytail holder was too small for Shola's thick, layered, long hair, so I just used some of my AG doll ponytail holders.

 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Shola, and I am saving up for my next H4H girl - I think I either want Mosi, Consuelo, Lauryce, or Dell. Do you have any H4H girls on your wishlist?

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from American Girl Doll Story!!!
I am so sorry I haven't posted this holiday season, so much has been going on in the lives of the dolls and in my life too! I have been SOOO busy. However, after the holiday madness leading up to Christmas Day, I am ready to relax and wait for 2014 to roll right in - so this will give me a time to post a LOT more!
I will be posting a Christmas party for the dolls photo story that I did, I am very excited! But until then, I hold you over with some reviews and other things (I am hoping for the doll photo story to be finished tomorrow, but I can't promise anything).
Thank you for looking at the blog!

Quick Photoshoot with Payton!

Today, Payton wanted to do a quick photoshoot before heading off to the library, so I agreed! It is kind of short, but still very cute! :)

Payton posed for the camera; she was feeling extra fashionable in her big blue bow.

During this photo shoot we experimented with different camera angles! 

Payton's shoes against the light hardwood floor

(they are from the Pretty Spring Dress)

Beautiful! (Doesn't she look kind of like Samantha in this picture - maybe they could be twins?)

This is what she looks like from the top; Payton and I thought this was a pretty neat angle; it is kind of like the view a bird flying over you would get!

This is the long one; we wanted to fit some of her fashion selections into the picture as well! As you may be able to tell, she is wearing the Blue Plaid Jumper with the blue shirt, and Lanie's Nature Accessories white denim jacket. It is getting chillier here, so she wanted to stay warm on her walk to the library!

This is another interesting angle, it mainly focuses on her bow, which we really like! :)

 

I will probably have some more photoshoots coming up - I am trying to practice my photography; I am in a photography contest. Go here to sign up: www.americangirlcontest.blogspot.com

Payton sent in her headshots today! She is very excited! (and so am I)

A Note From Ellie and all the American Girl Dolls!

   We are so sorry that we haven't been posting a lot. It's not really that we're that busy, it's just that we have so many photo stories to plan out that we spend a lot of time planning them, and then, no posts go up for two weeks at a time (or more). We are really sorry about this, but of course, this blog means the world to us, so we aren't going to stop it! We are just going to try to be quicker at getting these photo stories done!
   Currently, for October, we have  a lot on our plate as far as this blog goes. Here is our schedule for the MAIN episodes, that doesn't mean there won't be spur of the moment little ones in between:

1. 1 Full Episode of Little House on the Prairie
2. One Full Episode of Annabelle
3. A Dolloween Party episode
4. a super interesting episode featuring Kirsten

It might not seem like a lot, but the Annabelle ones are my big main ones right now, since the series only had its debut, there haven't been any other episodes yet. Also, it takes me about a whole day to film a Little House Episode, and the Dollween Party setup contains lots of fall props.
But don't worry, we are going to keep this blog updated hopefully everyday once we get back into the "groove" of things. XD

Until our next post (1 day or less),
Ellie and the dolls

Trip to American Girl Place New York (last February)

I lost the memory stick (see previous post), but tonight, I was looking for it again and I actually found it! So now, I have pictures from my American Girl Place New York Trip from last February! I was unable to bring a doll (we had to pack lightly, and there wasn't room for my doll). But, I still got pictures! Of course now, I am going to post pics of my trip to AGP NYC and soon, I'll post pictures of my previous trip to AGP Washington D.C. (I went there this July, and I am going there again in a week!). Well, here are the pictures!

It was about to close when we went, but I was able to snap a few pictures. Here is one of a winter scene! I really liked how they had set it up, and I am pretty sure that the snowman in the background was wearing Julie's Scarf!

I thought this set up was really cool, especially how they had the scooter on display (at Washington D.C. store, I find that it is usually behind glass). This doll was kind of falling off it though!

The Saige stuff was really cool to look at, especially since she was so new (this was only in February).

I thought that this display was cute too, I loved it!

I love this picture, but the AGP NY is so amazing, that no picture could capture it.

 

 

 

Sorry I didn't take any pictures, I went about 30 minutes before closing time, but was able to get a special AGP Exclusive New York Shirt!

 

 

 

 

 

Found Memory Card, and A Trip!

So, I've been missing my original memory card to my camera for about 3 months now. Two trips were recorded on that memory card, so I was pretty excited to find it! The first trip was the Trip to AGP NY, but I'll post that one later, for now, I want to post the one that I took to FL and stopped by a place called Arcadia, FL. It is a small town, so a lot of people may not of heard it! We spent two days there, and I took my doll Jasmine with me (I couldn't take too much doll stuff either, so she is in one outfit for all the pictures!). Since the town is very historical, my doll and I both wore our 1800s clothes, and had a lot of fun. Here are pictures of my doll in some of the shops in the Historical District!

Here is a beautiful picture of Jasmine next to some pretty flowers that lined the walkway!

 

 

Another picture of Jasmine with the flowers, only with different lighting.

In a cool store, they had a place to sit and play checkers! The checkerboard was so authentic and placed on top of a barrel! Jasmine wanted to play a game of checkers, but we didn't have time to.

Then, we went into another store, with some really authentic looking school desks, and books! They are all the way from 1920 or something (I forget the exact era). It was a little bit big for Jasmine though....

Here, she is trying to read the text in a small book of spelling words...whoa, that print sure is tiny!

 

Then, in the next store, she found something that was more her size. She found her own table and chairs. They are really cool, don't you think?

A few stores, later, we came across a more modern store, where they had some pretty cool, neat, inventions and different products. They had a lot of handmade stuff too! Jasmine loved this handmade pinecone cat, so she used some of her money and brought it home to Ivy.

She also saw some cute Tape dispensers. She thought the frog one was especially creative, and bought a frog one for Lanie and a rooster one for Kanani.

After all that shopping, she sat to rest on a wonderful red, wooden, chair. It was quite comfortable. There was also a nice breeze.

 

 

Well, that's all the pictures from that trip......gosh, it is hard to believe it was all the way back in February/March, and I am just now finding the memory stick!

Awesome Giveaway on Doll Diaries!

So, if you haven't heard already, there is a huge Back to School Giveaway on Doll Diaries! It is a great deal! You get the three mix and match outfits, the accents that come with them, and the school backpack! Now how cool is that? 4 things in one giveaway? Amazing!

Don't miss out on this positively awesome giveaway! Go to www.dolldiaries.com to find out more and enter!