Chickens for Everyone

I do apologize for not blogging in the month of November. I've been very busy lately, and today is the first day in over a week that I can sit back, relax, and write without any cares in the world.

I know you've all been waiting to see the other doll clothes I made, and so you shall, just not today. Today I would rather write about a very unexpected friendship I made this fall. I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of her yet, but I can describe her to you. Her name is Daisy. She's quite short with an average build, she has big, dark brown eyes, and she's covered in soft black feathers. Yes, Daisy is a chicken.

I'm not quite sure how we became such good friends. She's always been friendly, but I never treated her any better than the other chickens. In fact, Daisy and her sisters were always the ones I never really paid attention to. One day she asked to be picked up, so I did, and now every morning I must pick her up and pet her or she'll go about sulking all morning. She prefers to stay away from the other chickens when I let them out of their pen, and if she sees me she'll follow me till I acknowledge her. She's a very sweet chicken and she enjoys playing games. The next time I see her I'll see if she'll pose for some pictures. She does like lots of attention, so she'll probably consent.

I must go now, my dear friends. I'll be back in a while with pictures of Daisy and the dolls, but probably not together. Animals tend to knock over dolls without much effort.

A Sweater for Isabelle

I finally finished some new clothes for my American Girls a couple of weeks ago, and though it's far too rainy to take any of the dolls out for a photo shoot now, I did get some photographs of Isabelle while it was still dry outside. I've actually been busy sewing clothes for a very different kind of doll lately. I find sewing clothes for my new Makie, Christina, much more enjoyable than making them for my 18 inch girls. You'll be seeing a lot of Christina and her lovely new outfits in the future, but for now I'll show you all the stuff I've been sewing for Izzy and her gang.

Here's Isabelle wearing a coral and gray sweater that I made. Mother and I modified the pattern to make it a bit more sweater-y. I didn't make these pants, but I did make some jeans to go with another shirt/sweater that I'll show you soon.

I do love Isabelle's blond hair. The color is just a bit lighter than mine, and we even part it the same way. She does, however, have hazel eyes instead of turquoise/blue/green/brown eyes.

Even Isabelle takes selfies. And yes, that is the string that holds her head on straight.

I hope you enjoyed seeing Isabelle in her lovely new sweater. I'll be back with some more doll clothes soon!

The Loveliest Time of the Year

Hello, everyone. How's your day going? My day is going quite well. I have a wonderful idea for a story, and I plan on working on that today. I suppose you're wondering why I've written another blog post in one week. Crazy, I know. I've decided that today would be a good day to explain why I never blog.

 I like to think I spend my days frolicking with my pets, writing stories about wild, mysterious lands, and dressing my dolls in their wonderful handmade clothes. But the truth is, I'm just a boring, lazy teen who likes to procrastinate more than anything else in the world. At the moment my pets are sitting patiently as they watch me play around on my computer, lots of unfinished stories are waiting for their endings, and my dolls are lying around naked wondering what happened to that new shirt I've been working on for a month. It's tragic, I know, but that's why I'm here today. Perhaps if I keep up on my blog, I can slowly get better at not putting things off. I know you enjoy reading the things I write, and I enjoy writing them for people to read. I love people's responses to my posts, and I love putting a smile on someone's face. If I start blogging more, it will help me improve my writing skills, which I need, seeing as I'm in the middle of about ten different stories. I can show you all my doll clothes that I make, even if they're not the greatest, because you probably won't even see all the flaws. I can provide you with short stories to read (I have a few good ones that I've almost finished). I can even give you lots of pictures of my animals, including all my new chickens. I'm certainly not lacking ideas for new posts, I simply have to take the time to write them down and share them here. Once I get started on something, chances are I'll keep it going for a long time. Now that I've started blogging again, I think it's safe to promise many more posts in the future.

On a lighter note, it's currently my favorite season, and it feels like it. I love walking on the crunchy orange leaves and feeling the delightful crisp air on my face the moment I step outside. It's wonderful to be able to wear sweaters outside without being too hot or too cold. When I look outside it's obvious that it's fall, and that makes me smile. Fall makes me want to go outside and take pictures of my dolls, go for a bike ride with Rosey (fat old thing that she is), or just walk around and enjoy the beauty.

Well, I've been working on this post for about an hour, so I should probably end it now and work on something else. I'll be back soon!

A Fourth Trip to California

Good morning, my friends. As some of you already know, in September we went to California to visit with my brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews for a few days. We had a lovely time there and on the way back we got to see one of my aunts and my other brother.

 We left on Friday and got there very early Saturday morning, whereupon we went right to sleep. Later on Saturday we went to Morro Rock.

This is Walter.

This is Owen.

Here's my mommy, who was very pleased to be holding her grandson again.

This is my lovely sister-in-law, Margaret.

This is my brother, Matthew.

That's me with Walter.

Here's Mother with Walter.

Here's Daddy with Walter.

We read to the boys a lot the whole time we were there.

Owen loved his grandpa.

And Walter Loved the homemade raisins Grandma brought him.

 On our way home, we stopped at my Aunt Sue's and my brother Patrick's houses.

We had a wonderful time with everyone, and I can't wait to see them again. But, of course, it's nice to be home.

Originally I had called this our third trip to California, but it's really our fourth. I don't know why I thought it was only our third. Perhaps it was because I didn't write about our trip last year, but whatever the reason, this is our fourth trip to California, not third.

Birthdays and Family

Good morning everyone! As you know, yesterday was my birthday. Yes, I am now 16 years old. Of course I would rather be 6 again. 6 was a wonderful year. But enough of that. I need to get on with the post that I promised a while ago.

Last May Matthew, Margaret, Walter, and Owen came from California to visit, and my other brother, Patrick, and his dog Lando came for a few days. On Saturday we had even more family members over and it was great fun. We had such a lovely time with everyone that, despite my darling mother's constant asking, I really didn't get many pictures. That's all right, though. There are certainly enough good ones to make a pleasantly long blog post.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures; I'll be back soon with lots more fun posts.

A Little Medley in Time for Spring

As I was sitting here browsing Facebook and sipping tea, there was only one thing on my mind: I should probably blog. For the past few days I've been thinking about how many interesting topics I have to write about, some happy, some sad. I suppose I ought to start with the sad part, since no one wants to end anything on a sad note, and the happier part is much longer than the sad part.

Well, you know how I live in a house surrounded by tall, beautiful trees? Heh. Not anymore. Our new neighbors clear-cut their property and now all that's left are stumps and slash piles. It makes me very sad to see the woods I used to walk past almost every day gone. To make matters worse, though, another neighbor is logging now too. Now, these woods were the ones I used to play in all the time. I went over there yesterday evening and looked at all the trees that had been cut down. I have many memories of those trees, and it pains me to think that I'll never be able to make more.

Now that the terribly sad, frustrating part of my life is out of the way, we can get on to the happier parts.

First, we have some wonderful newish chicks. We actually got them a few months ago, but they're still just as cute as they were when they fit into my hand. I have two very special ones in the group. At first I had planned on picking out one special chick to be my pet and naming her Barrow after one of my favorite "Downton Abbey" characters (yes, I still love that show), but then the smallest chick of the group, an Ameraucauna, was acting awfully sick. Daddy noticed her, and Mother and I held her and fed her and gave her water until we went to bed that night. In the morning we expected her to be dead, but she was fine! I was a bit funny, though, because I had named her Sybil after "Downton Abbey," and then she happened to be the chick who almost died. It was all rather appropriate for the poor thing. Anyway, Sybbie became very close to people because we held her so long and took care of her, so now she and Barrow are my two pet chickens and they always stick together like the best of chick friends. I'm afraid I don't have any recent pictures of the two at the moment, so here's a picture of when they were much smaller.

Sybil is now white with black instead of yellow and black, but Barrow has basically the same coloring (Barrow's a Buff Orpington). When they were little I had lots of fun setting them up with the dollhouse furniture. I do love to play with my little chicks.

You might remember that this time last year, my brother, his wonderful wife, and, of course, my nephew Walter came up here from California and we had a family reunion. Well, they're coming on Wednesday to stay for a few days. This time, though, I have two nephews to play with and take on walks down the (treeless) driveway. The last time they came, Margaret was pregnant with Owen, who's now eight months old. We saw him when we went to California in the fall, but of course he's completely different now. I'm sure you'll be waiting for me to blog all about their stay here and how much fun we all had, which I shall certainly do.

I'll be quite busy in the next few days, as one of my other brothers, Patrick, is coming home on Sunday, and Sunday happens to be Mother's Day. I must also do a great deal of cleaning this week. My room's just a bit of a mess at the moment.

I'll talk to you all in a few weeks!

An Adventure (or Two), Part 2

Alas, the long awaited ending to my birthday adventure (which took place over half a year ago) is here. I'm well aware that I promised it would be up before the end of the year, but this time I have a perfectly acceptable reason: I started watching "Downton Abbey." Now, for those of you who have not seen me since Christmas, this may seem a rather feeble excuse. But until I've watched all five series two or three times, everything is "Downton Abbey" to me. Yes, I am quite happy to sit in front of the television and forget about all my blogging obligations for the next few months.

I suppose it's time to get on with my birthday story since you've all been waiting so very patiently. You probably skipped that last paragraph anyway.

An Adventure (or Two), Part 2

Last July I ended Part 1 with the intentions of taking Isabelle and her goody bag goodies outside for some pictures in the gorgeous summer weather. I never actually got all the necessary pictures, so I'm afraid I cannot show you what came in the goody bag. Until it gets a little lighter and dries up a bit outside, I shall simply give you a list of the items in the bag.

• An enormous "Isabelle Dances into the Spotlight" poster
• A doll-sized poster of Jackie Sanchez (Isabelle's favorite ballerina)
• A human-sized movie ticket
• A doll-sized ticket
• A sheet of Isabelle stickers (I think there are five)
• A doll-sized plastic container of popcorn
• A doll-sized Isabelle T-shirt

There were plenty of items to begin with (the popcorn and T-shirt are especially delightful), but since they handed one out to each person, I now have three of each item.

Anyway, after we left the theater, we drove to Lincoln Park where we had a picnic by the water and watched the ferries. It was very beautiful and it reminded me of McKenna, Girl of the Year 2012, who lived in Seattle.

After we ate I took Kit (my very first American Girl), Filumena (my precious My American Girl), and Isabelle (the new girl, of course) onto the beach for some pictures. 

Filumena, Izzy, and Kit were very obliging and leaned against a rather large piece of driftwood. I fancy I would be terrified to stand in front of a colossal chunk of wood.

Naturally, Izzy got the most pictures taken. She really is lovely.

Kit and Izzy were quite intrigued by the seaweed, which happened to be the perfect size for them.

Filumena was lucky enough to find a seashell. It is now sitting in her bathroom in my bedroom.

My parents were the ones to find the seaweed and shell and set them up with the dolls. We had a great deal of fun.

After we left Lincoln Park (finding our way back to the car was an adventure in itself), we drove home. I read about half of Isabelle's first book in the car. It's a fairly good series, even if it's not my favorite. I think my favorite GOTY story is Nicki's or Chrissa's.

When we got home I was tired and it was dark outside, so I had to wait until the next day to really play with Izzy. But, that was my birthday, and it was a very enjoyable day. This is really the end of the adventure, but I still have so many pictures of Isabelle to show you, so I am including a sort of review of her. Just think of it as my apology to you for practically abandoning the blog.

Even though you've already seen her, here is the queen of all other Isabelles.

Her shirt has a ballerina and pink sequins on it, and the ballerina has a small triangle of tulle sewn on for a tutu.

Her capris are, unfortunately, stiff and a bit out-of-scale, but the cuffs on the bottoms are made out of a very soft knit.

Her shoes are delightful. They're better than many of the shoes American Girl makes now, and they're very sparkly and pretty.

Her hair is long, thick, and the perfect shade of blond. It has a lovely mix of dark and light blond streaks, and it reminds me of my hair when I was younger.

The one "special" thing that Isabelle dolls come with is a hot pink hair extension. Anyone who knows me probably wouldn't think that dyed hair, especially pink, is my style. It certainly is not, but Isabelle's extension is wonderful. It's just a chunk of hair sewn to a fabric strip with three plastic hooks at the top. The hooks go into three flesh-colored loops of ribbon sewn to her wig cap. They stay in very well, but the only problem is that pink hair doesn't show up very well without considerable effort.

While I was at the store, I bought her accessories. These coral fingerless gloves the black jacket are from them.

I didn't know that her jacket was made out of knit until I opened up her accessories at home. I do wish I had known, because I actually wasn't terribly excited about the jacket. Once I realized that it was made out of soft, stretchy knit, it became my favorite doll coat for all of two months.

Hooray! I have even more pictures of Isabelle's face.

Her hair comes in two twists, and once the larger one is taken out, her bangs like to completely cover her face. I generally keep her hair out of her eyes, but once in a while I let it down.

Here she is in her Performance Set. I bought this at AGP Seattle too.

It comes with a charming little crown which perches atop her head beautifully. I think I would wear this crown every day if it were mine.

And here is one last picture of Isabelle. That's one of the T-shirts that came in the movie goody bags.

Well, that's it. It's finally over. I will try my very best to blog more frequently, and now that I'm finished with my online English class, I shall feel guiltless when I do. Come to think of it, the English Class is story which very few of you know. Perhaps I shall write about that next. Until then, I wish you all a lovely day and a relaxing weekend.