Molly and Emily's Black and White Christmas

So I took some photos of Molly and Emily in front of our Christmas tree, and of course, the coloring didn't turn out all the great because our tree is always far from the window and I always take the tree pictures at night... not a good combo...  and that's the same mistake I made last year... oops.)

But anyway, I made them all black and white, much to the girl's delight, and it turns out, they look much better that way!

 Whisperings under the tree...

 Christmas mugshots *cough* head-shots! In Molly's photo, I was experimenting with a different kind of lighting. My mom picked up some rope lights from the store, and when you pull them out of the package, they're packaged in a ring shape, and have a really strong, bright glow. So I held them up above molly to try and imitate studio lights.  What do you think?

 Molly's a little excited about Christmas.... just a little. She's mostly excited for the snow. That's the main thing she asked for this year, lots and lots of snow. We'll have to see about that, since I have no control over the snow.. hmm..

 

Emily's just happy to be celebrating with friends, and to be able to enjoy their company. 

What are your Christmas plans, if you happen to celebrate Christmas?

I hope your holiday is a good one, and if I don't get around to blogging before this Thursday, 

Merry Christmas!

-Jeneca

Virtual Doll Christmas Card Swap: Download the Cards!

 Yay! Thank you all for such a successful Christmas card swap! I loved seeing all of your cards, and how they're all so different from each other, and so unique and individual... it's really, really neat.
I would like to apologize for taking so long to get these up. I just finished a release for my etsy shop, Zellawear (which I failed to tell you all about... again.) on Wednesday, then I had to ship everything out and that took up a lot of time... But now I can share with you all the cards that we got!
At the end of this post, I will link you to a .doc that you can print out, so you'll have your own little dolly versions of them!
For now, let's take a closer look at the cards, and see who made them! (since it'll be near impossible to read the credits when they're all tiny and printed out. 

From Treasured Friendships with a Flair

From Tea Time with Melody Q

From American Girl Collage

From Carrot and Claire

From Oh My Dollies Family

From Forever Love Dolls

From Photo AG Dolls

 

 

From Polka Dot Bee

Again, thank you all so much for participating! This couldn't have happened with out all of you hard work. Thanks for making this possible.
Here is the link to the document. Please let me know if there's anything glitchy about it, such as it won't load, or the doll cards are too big if you print them.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
-Jeneca

Reminder: Don't forget about the Virtual Christmas Card Swap!

I know how hard it is to remember. I forget things constantly, then remember when it's too late. I'd hate for anyone to get left out of this, so don't forget to post links to your doll Christmas cards here!

(Don't have a clue what I'm jabbering about? Don't worry, some times I don't either! (I'm kidding... mostly...) Read this post to get all filled in. I'd love to have you join in as well!)
And because this post is just a paragraph or two long, let's have a nice little picture...

Virtual Doll Christmas Card Swap of 2014!

DEADLINE DECMEBER 17th 2014
So yesterday, I had an idea. It was this girl that made me think of it, (to give credit where credit is due).
 I saw her adorable doll Christmas card that she made. It looks just like those family photo cards that us humans take and send to everyone we know every holiday.
It got me thinking.
If you can make doll Christmas cards that look just like the real ones... why not send them to everyone you know? I thought.
Then I realized something easier... a gigantic virtual Christmas card swap.... of dolly sized christmas cards!
You can print everyone's little Christmas cards out and plaster them over your doll fridge, just like your family does to your fridge every year!
But how would all these cards be organized in one place, you may be asking?
Good question.

Starting today, December 2nd, you can comment below a link to your doll sized Christmas Card that you can make, so I can see it. All December I'll be compiling a printable document that, towards the end of the month, I will post on the blog for you to download and then print out dozens  of little doll sized Christmas Cards to glue to your fridge!
Want to know another plus side of this? Not only will I compile all the cards into a doll sized printable, I will (if I can) post the doll sized cards in one big blog post, that will include a link back to your blog! Free advertising!
Want to know another plus side? You don't have to celebrate Christmas to join in, just whatever holiday you celebrate. Hanukkah , etc. All holidays welcome.
But now, you're probably wondering, how do I even make a Christmas card, Jeneca?! What's it supposed to look like?!

First question, where do you make it?  Picmonkey. Super duper easy site that offers many wonderful free tools. How? Slap a picture of all your dolls next to some cute text, pictures and backgrounds and bam. You've got a card. You could even make a small collage, if you prefer. It can be as simply as you like, or as complicated as you like.

So what do you think about this? Comment down below with any questions or comments you have, I'd love to hear what you have to say!
-Jeneca

(P.S. Don't bothering printing out the card I have above... it's just an example card that I made with an ancient picture so I'd have something to show, because I haven't gotten a chance to take Christmas photos of my girlies!)

Merry Christmas! {{Mia Blogging Mondays}}

YAr Har Har and Hello! I do not know where the pirate came from, but MERRY BELATED CHRISTMAS! I HOPE YOUR HOLIDAY WAS ENJOABLE. Whoops left caps lock on, hehe. Anywhay, like I said, I hope your holiday was enjoyable! Here's what we did...
(sorry if these take forever and a million years to load, someone forgot to turn of shooting in RAW)

 Here am I, In my brand new lovely outfit that is all mine ;) {{credit to the human for taking this one. There's only so many things that these tiny vinyl hands can do, and taking full link selfies while capturing the adorable bow atop my head? that's not one of them.}}

But I took the rest of the pictures.

 Random, tilted pic of Molly... ? Yeah.  She's still in her PJ's (I'm wearing my fancy smacy new years outfit.)

 Emmy. She doesn't like it when I call her that, but it's a habit. She was "quite" (as Emmy would say) "bewildered" (also as Emmy would say) when I started flashing people with my camera.

And here's Kanani. I've got the prettiest cousin around! XD

How did your holidays gone, my lovelies? It was all good around here! (as you can see) even if the presents were really short this year... I mean, whats up with that? But I did learn (yet again) that Christmas isn't all about presents, and who cares what everyone else got!
TOODLES.

A Blue Christmas of 2013 ~ Part 2

{{Here's part two to 'A Blue Christmas! I hope you enjoy.}}

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Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

But wait, what is this?

A bed empty as cold, gone was the miss who usually slept there.

Down in the kitchen, on the floor she sat,

Pouring over a paper, scribbling this and that

Molly Mcintire, what a sight of a girl,

rushing her pencil about in a whirl

Not a care in the world, but what she received

A girl who was clearly confused and deceived.

Molly took her paper in her hand and folded it, setting it on the couch beside a plate of fresh cookies and a glass of warm milk.

Which a sigh and a visibly heavy heart, Molly turned and walked out of the kitchen, leaving the glow behind her.

Christmas morning arrived with a crash. On the top floor of the apartments, there slept Mia. She was notorious for falling out of bed every morning, and this morning was going to be no different.

“Practice,” She groaned. “I gotta go, Coach Schuberts gonna be sooo mad.” She said, pulling herself off the ground, and groping about for her clothes.

Two hazel eyes and a stream of curls appeared from above her, peering down from the top of the bunk. It was Kanani

“Sorry,” She mumbled, looking up at her cousin. “You seen my skates?”

“No Mia.” She repeated flatly. “It's Christmas! No practice!”

“Again?” Mia asked, confused, rubbing her head. “Did I seriously do that again?”

“You do it every year. Somethings never change” Kanani chuckled, climbing down the ladder.

Mia let out a relived sigh. “I'm glad theres no practice... that means I can have waffles even earlier that usual!”

“Hey, we're up kinda early, maybe I can start the Waffles FOR Emily! I mean, it can't be that hard, she just puts stuff in there and bam, waffles!”

“You do that.” Mia nodded her head, unsure.

The two girls ran quietly down the steps, passing strings of christmas lights as they headed for the kitchen and gasped.

“Presents!” Mia squealed. “But what's Molly doing down here?”

“No clue, maybe she was waiting for Santa. Do you know where the Waffle Iron is?”

Ignoring the question, Mia reached for a letter that was on top of an empty plate, beside the slumbering Molly on the couch.

“Hey, this is my paper!” She exclaimed, studding the purple striped paper that bore her name. Carefully, she read the letter aloud to Kanani.

“Dear Santa,

I'm sorry I didn't get my letter sooner. I'm being retired this year, and I was wondering, if you had anything from my collection in your sleigh, could you leave it here under the tree?

But who am I kidding, I want Linda and Susan! I miss my best friends, We were quite a trio!

Please if you can, can you leave them with me? I can find clothes and things for them, and we can get bunk beds!

Signed, Molly Mcintire.

(if you need some persuasion, I'm fine with waiting a few weeks if you need to go pick them up and ship them here. I have some carrots for your deer and some of Emily's very famous cookies.)”

Mia folded the paper back up and set it on the crumb filled plate.

“I had no clue Molly still missed her friends.” Kanani said, looking over at her cousin, shocked. “I thought she got over that, like, a few years ago!”

“She was complaining to Emily about wanting a new doll, which is so un like her. I'm not surprised she begged Santa for her friends and stuff.”

“Do you think we'll get another “sister”?”

“We'll have to wait until after the humans open there stuff, which'll take a katrillion-billion hours, as usual..” Mia sighed. “But I hope not! We're already crowded in here as it is, I mean, theres like 4 dogs, 4 dolls and a cat living here.”

“Don't forget about Laylie and her cat.” Kanani added, pulling out the waffle iron.

“Hey, she's got space! That's it! If a new girl comes, which won't happen, you can conk her on the head with the waffle iron, and help me drag her off to Laylie's!”

“Mia!” Kanani shouted, scowling at her friend.

“Sorry,” Mia grumbled.

As the kitchen filled with the smell of slightly different smelling waffles, Emily made her appearance.

“Good Morning girls, and a Happy Christmas!” She smiled sleepily. “You're all up early, I do believe I've never been the last one up.”

“Not quite, Molly's sleeping in, as usual. We found her down here on the couch..”

“Oh,” She said sadly. “I hope she didn't stay up all night waiting for Linda and Susan to come--What is that smell?” Emily asked suddenly, wrinkling her nose.

“Waffles!” Kanani exclaimed. “ I made them myself. Wanna taste?”

“Oh dear, you made the Waffles?”

“Yeah! They're a bit different, but I like them. Wanna try?”

Nervously, Emily accepted the plate of waffles handed to her. She picked up the cold metal fork and drew the bite into her mouth, forcing herself to chew and swallow.

“Like them?” Kanani asked eagerly.

“They're alright, I-I- guess.” Emily tried to smile, setting the plate back down. “It was good for a first try.”

“They're awful, aren't they?” Kanani replied flatly.

“I wouldn't say awful. Just different. And that's alright, it's the thought that counts.” She smiled, comfortingly. “Besides, it doesn't, matter about Waffles, or presents, or new “sisters”. Christmas is all about the Birth of Jesus, God's sacrifice for us.”

Mia looked up, confused. “God's sacrifice?”

Suddenly, Molly sprang up from her sleep, off of couch.

“Sisters? Are they here? I knew I could trust Santa! Where are they?” She shouted, looking about with her facing glowing with pure joy.

“No Molly, no new sisters.” Emily replied, shaking her head.

“Oh. Okay.” She said, her facing becoming a grave one and focusing on the pile of presents at the bottom of the tree. “Are you sure?”

“I've not heard, smelled or seen sight of anyone new.” Emily smiled.

“Waffle?” Kanani asked from the opposite side of the kitchen.

“Um, sure.” Molly replied awkwardly.

“But, to answer your question, Mia, yes!” Emily answered happily. “God gave up his one and only Son for us, sending him down to the Earth he made to save us from all our sin. He cares for us very much, and wishes us not to die an eternal death, but live forever with Him.”

All fell into a slow silence in the small kitchen. Everyone received a slightly misshaped and miscolored waffle, each drenched in peanut butter and syrup and ate it without complain.

“So. No new sisters?”

Everyone shook there heads.

“Are we sure?”

“Well,” Emily stated, “We can't really be sure of such a thing, after all, it is only Christmas Morning, but--”

“It's safe to say theres nobody else here but us.” Mia ended.

“I should be happy with you guys, and I'm sorry I wasn't. Christmas isn't all about presents and getting things, or even new friends... Thank you for being here guys.”

A chorus of happy replys bubbled up from the room.

“Merry Christmas! Now, pass me another waffle.” Molly grinned sadly, holding out her hand.

  

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I hope your day was great, if if you do not celebrate Christmas, I hope your day yesterday was great anyway! I probably won't do a haul because I didn't get anything doll related... What did you all get for Christmas? Tell me below in the comments! Or just tell me your favorite thing... my favorite thing was the amp I got for my Guitar, since its Electric Accoustic.
Merry Christmas to you, yes you, who is reading this!
Jeneca

A Blue Christmas of 2013

 {{For some clarification, I've lost the pictures to this photo story. I haven't the faintest idea where they went. But I would like to post it anyway, so here you go!}}

 

The last Christmas decorations were hung, and the lights turned on. Lights danced and flickered about the new kitchen.

Molly and Emily both let out a sigh of relief. “That was a lot more work than I though it was gonna be! It's a lot easier if we're all doing it together.” Molly decided, plopping into the nearby couch, which currently resided in place of tables and chairs.

“You're right. We'll defiantly need Mia and Kanani's help next year. But Mia's at skate practice and Kanani had to go to the Animal shelter again."

“Yeah.” Molly sighed.

“I feel like some brownies. Would you like some too, Molly?” Emily asked polietly, pulling out a mixing bowl from the cabinets.

“Yes please!” Molly exclaimed, leaning over the arm of the whicker couch and turning up the radio. She relaxed back in between the pillows, with Emily's small gray and white cat serving as a lap warmer.

The two were together in the kitchen for quite some time, completely silent amongst the clanking spoons and pouring ingredients, and the soft hum of early Jazz buzzing from the radio off in the corner. The brownies were soon poured and set into the oven to be completed, and the time drifted past with the warm gooey smell of brownies wafting beneath their noses.

“Do you think theres gonna be a new doll this year?” Molly blurted, all very suddently.

Emily turned to glance at her friend, before opening the oven slightly and checking on her masterpiece.

“I don't know, why do you ask that?” Emily returned, confused.

“Nevermind, it was just a hunch I had.” Molly mumbled, countinuing to stare off into the distance with a grumpbled look on her brow.

“What's your hunch? You've made me curious now.”

“Well,” Molly began, shoving the cat off her lap. “There hasn't been a new doll here since Kanani, and that was in 2011, which was like a million years ago--”

The timer rang loudly throughout the kitchen, and the brownies came out of the oven looking perfect.

“--and I was thinking--”

  

Suddenly the back door flew open, releasing the chilly air into the festive, glowing kitchen. In burst Mia, and the door slammed behind her. All the decorations shook and trembled.

“I had to do my routine like, SIX times today, and coach kept making her perfect my camels... at least I can do it to dupstep-classical this year, but I need to start on my new costume for the show this weekend, maybe, because my purple one isn't gonna cut it... I think I've got a few dollars stuffed somewhere, maybe they'll accept iTunes gift cards in trade for fabric at Jo-anns in the next town over. Are those brownies?” Mia babbled.

“Er, that's great Mia. Would you like one?” Emily asked nicely, obvisuly processing the blur of a paragraph that was just spoken to her.

“YES PLEASE!” Without waiting for them to cool down, she took a steaming hot, deloiously gooey brownie from the pan and stepped back.

“So whats up with you guys? The kitchen looks great!” She exclaimed, spewing brownie from her mouth.

“Molly was just telling be about her hunch that a new doll is coming.”

Molly groaned. “I was just thinking that because there hasn't been a new doll since 2011. It's nothing...really.”

“A new doll? I'd better hope not! It'd probably be the icky Saige girl, with all of her horsey stuff and paints and new fashioney western clothes and talent...” Mia muttered. “and she'd have to sleep in our room, then because shes the “Girl of the Year”, whatever that means and I might have to give up my bed...”

“Well not really, she hasn't liked Saige since Janurary, and she probably wouldn't get her because Saige's hair is kinda like Kanani's hair... I've been doing my researh.” Molly said proudly, standing up before continuing on. “ And I realized there's enough room in our bedroom for two bunk beds and then she could buy Linda and Su-” Molly stopped, blushed and sat back down. “Sorry. I-I should be happy with the friends we've got."

“Toodles,” Mia said, waving her brownie cover fingers at them before leaving the room. “I'm off to shower and change so I don't smell so bad.”

“I thought you didn't like new "sisters".” Emily asked, surprised, sitting on the couch with Molly.

“Well, that was different... Mia and Kanani are just modern... but... American Girl came out with two new MAGs... They look just like Linda and Susan! I think that AG must of accidentally released them in in the wrong section, and they're supposed to be Linda and Susan, so people can get them before we... you know... retire.” Molly confessed.

Suddently, Mia's head peaked into the room from around the corner, looking determined.

“I am TOO historical! I'm from 2008, thank you very much, and that is a year now in history. So technically, I am historical.”

“Then go throw away your new macbook air, It's from 2012, not 2008.” Molly added flatly.

“How could you say such a thing about Eddy?!” Mia gasped, darting from the room.

“Sorry about my attitude, but I still think Linda and Susan are going to come.” Molly said firmly. “Jeneca's obsessed with the 1940's, I mean, we've got a whole kitchen and bedroom straight from our books! Well, almost complete, anyway.” Molly said, eyeing the spot where the floor still needed flooring and the space where the wooden shelves should be.

“Maybe.” Emily replied, trying to be optimistic, for her friend's sake. “Maybe.” 

What do you think? It's different, but honestly I'm not sure why I haven't done it before. I write a lot anyway. I'll post the other half on Christmas, hopefully with pictures this time. :)

Jeneca

American Girl Graham cracker Gingerbread Houses, a Guide

Today I've got something that's tons of fun to make, and has been a family tradition in our family.. for two whole years! I do it with my brothers, but it's just the right size to make for your dolls. The perfect addition to your dolly decor, Grahamcracker Houses! These are so versatile, I'm not even calling this a tutorial. It's a guide.
and yes, it's edible! No cardboard and glue here folks! Only different forms of sugar ;)

 

Here's what you'll need: 

• Grahamcrackers  (I accidentally bought the square kind, buy the rectangle kind is just fine too) (you could also go all out and buy gingerbread flavored gram crackers :O )
• Icing (Royal icing is the kind that is traditionally used in Gingerbread houses, but I found it too sugary, so I just used cream cheese that we had in the fridge. Get your favorite and go with it!) 
• A plastic baggy 
• A paper or tin plate
• Candys! (pull out all that Halloween candy and go crazy! Chocolate chips, smarties, pez, candy canes,  M&M's, Nerds, Skittles... use your imagination! :oD )
• optional: Cereal (depending on what you've got, you could use cereal to decorate. Life brand cereal would make a cool roof, etc. Again, use your imagination.)

Cut the corner off of your baggy. Make sure that it is realtivly small, like the bag on top, and not big, like the bottom bag.

Spoon some icing into the bag, and give it a squeeze into the corner. This is your piping bag!

If you have square kind, you'll need eight of them, with some extra for backup. The rectangle kind only need six, to for the sides, two for the front, and two for the roof.

 

To cut your gram crackers, use a serrated knife and make a line on the cracker, and "saw" it. I held up the cracker to the rest of the house.   

And here's how you put it together....

 Afterwards comes the fun part-- decorating! You could do anything you like. Plaster the roof with icing and cover with cereal, candy, chocolate, whatever! I iced on shingles, basically little fish scales, starting from the top.

 Add on a few necessary things, such as a door, windows, or a wreath... (don't forget about the back! you can just have windows on the sides. ;D )

 And you're done! Time flys when you're having fun... added icing around the base of mine, and even icicles

Don't you just wanna shrink yourself comfy inside next to a roaring fire... and then eat your house?! Yeah.

Maybe just the chocolate... <3

That's all for now folks! I've got several things I'd like to post, along with a stop motion I made late summertime, the beginning of a Christmas themed photo story, and bunches upon bunches of photos form photo shoots! I've done like, three or more, and I took one of Mia outside in the snow today. You can them later on my flickr, and I post frequently on Instagram 

(disclaimer: I'm being serious when I say this, don't eat the whole thing at once! My brothers made houses of their own, and ate only one wall each... and lets just say that were NOT pleasant to be around for the rest of the night. Be careful when consuming these massive amounts of sugar!!)

Tour of the Doll House, Christmas Style!

The dolls have finally finished up their decorating! It took the better part of the day to do it all, but that's just because the lights kept falling down (and still are! Urgh!) Let's go from top to bottom.

 

First we have Mia and Kanani's apartment bedroom. It could use a little more lights, but does have a super cute "Happy Dollidays" sign I made a few years back. :) It's very cute up there at night!

The next level down is Molly and Emily's 1940's bedroom, with noise everywhere. >.< I apolgeize for that, but I love their room with all the lights everywhere. :) I hope to make a bunch more snowflakes and stick them all over their walls, but for now, it's fine.

 And here we have the kitchen! It's not quite done yet, it was my late off and on project this summer, but the flooring will have to wait until next year ;) They have their Christmas tree off in the corner, and stockings hanging around the walls. I also have a little Nativity Ornament that is place by the oven, and a small nutcracker off in the corner from a ballet performance a few years back.

Last but not least (because I LOVE this room) Its Laylie's cabin, the lowest level in my doll house, and the most 'played' in because of it's level. Laylie is my ALOF doll that you don't see much of, and has her own cabin, and apparently a stocking. I'll have to convince the girls to move their stockings down to her house. :)

That's all for now! I might update this post with better pictures later on, but enjoy. :)