Where to See Us!!

Hey guys!!!
Let's start off by getting this out of the way- I'm not back for good, just here for a minute to tell you something, sorry :/ Anyway, I've started posting and taking pictures of my dolls on my AGIG (American Girl Instagram)! The account is called AG.Beans (Linked HERE.) Please check it out, and if you want to keep seeing the girls from the blog, make sure to follow!

A sample of my much improved doll photography!

 If you want to see my reborn dolls, the account is called @ashleighlovesreborns (Linked HERE) if you want to see Lucas all finished!
Anyway, that's all!
Ashleigh

P.S.- If you're still reading this, leave a comment to let me know if people are still looking at this blog!

Goodbye For Now

Hey y'all,
     It's Ashleigh. I'm sorry to say, but I don't think that I'll be posting anymore on this blog. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I just haven't wanted to do anything with my AGs. All of my dolls except for Taylor are going to be stored at my grandparents' house for now; they're just taking up a lot of space in my room. I know that some of you will be upset, but I'd rather not post about something that my heart's not in. I WILL be leaving this blog up for you to come back to, if you want to read a post or something. And who knows? Maybe someday I'll start posting again, once I start feeling like doing something with my dolls; right now just isn't working out. If you have any questions, you can feel free to leave a comment or email me (you can find the email address on the "contact us" page) and I'll do my best to get back to you. 
I hope that you understand,
Ashleigh

Taking a Break.

Hey guys, it's Ashleigh.
     I'm not sure why, but lately I just haven't wanted to do anything with this blog. I don't think that I'm leaving permanently or anything without letting you know first, but I am taking a break for a while. I've started an Instagram account for the dolls called AG. Ashleigh where I'll post nicer pictures of them. A few of my dolls may be getting their names changed as well. I'd love it if you'd give the account a follow :) There aren't any posts yet, I'll work on that when I actually feel like taking pictures of them. Anyways, I guess that that's it. 

Ashleigh

Camp's Almost Over!!!

Hey guys! It's Natalie!
     Well, Camp's almost over... This is the last week for campers, and then we leave on Saturday. We thought that it would be fun to share some of the pictures that we took while we were at camp this year, so here you go! There's not a lot (like I said before, we got almost no free time), but I hope that you'll like them anyway. 

We are posing by the cabinet of crafty goodness here... That's where we put a lot of the stuff that we made over the summer.

Taylor came to visit!

     Did you notice that Saige has a cast on her arm in these pictures? She broke her arm last week on a double dog dare from a camper to climb the tallest tree in camp. She fell off before she even got ten feet into the air. You can't decline a double dog dare without sounding like a wimp! Oh, Saige... 
     Have you noticed anything else about these pictures? They were taken with an actual  camera!!!!!!! Almost every single picture on this blog was taken with the cruddiest laptop camera ever produced.... Eew. That's right readers! Our photos will (mostly) be of a much higher quality from now on! You may have noticed this in our craft last week :)

Well I guess that's it... We might not update again until we get home, so this may be our last post from Camp Little Lake this year! 
Goodbye!
Green Bean
Sparky

Craft Time With Natalie and Saige!!!!- Easy Magnets

WAAAA HOOOO!!!!
     We've finally gotten around to making a craft post!!! This time, we're making some easy magnets like the ones that we made with our campers a few days ago.

Materials:

• Mod Podge or clear glue
• Scrapbooking paper or old magazines
• A paintbrush
• Scissors
• Clear rocks
• Crafting Magnets
• Hot glue gun and sticks- Make sure that you have adult supervision!!!

1. Paint a layer of Mod Podge onto the flat side of the clear rock with a paintbrush.

2. Press the Mod Podged side of the rock onto the decorated side of your scrapbooking paper or magazine. Make sure that it's stuck really well! Let it dry completely.

3. Cut the excess paper from around the rock.

4. Paint another layer of Mod Podge onto the back of the rock, over the paper. This will help the paper stick a little bit better and it will create a seal. Let it dry completely.

5. Hot glue the magnet to the back of the rock. You're finished!

     We hope that you enjoyed this craft! Did you notice that we actually used a camera? Hahaha... Let us know if you can tell a difference in photo quality please!

Saige

Natalie

Ashleigh's Off To Camp!

Hey guys, it's Emily!
     I just wanted to let you all know that Ashleigh will be at camp this whole week, so if you leave a comment or something on here, It won't be visible until next Saturday or Sunday:) We just wanted to let you know that so you don't think that we ignored/deleted your comment. All comments left on this blog need to be moderated by Ashleigh before they are visible on the blog:)

Emily

P.S.- Don't forget to put a vote in our poll off to the right! It would really help Ashleigh decide:)

What IS a Reborn Doll?

UPDATE: You can vote for Lucas's middle name in the poll off to the right side of the blog!
Hey guys, it's Ashleigh.
     I decided to make a quick post explaining what a reborn doll is! A reborn doll is an extremely lifelike doll that is painted and assembled to resemble a real baby.  A reborn doll starts off as a blank vinyl kit. This kit is then painted in many thin layers to create a realistic skin tone. Each layer of paint is set into the vinyl by baking it. The kit below is mine; it is the Twin B kit by Bonnie Brown. He isn't painted yet, I'm going to send him off to an artist in a few months when I've saved up enough money.  I've assembled it because I wanted to see how big he would be when he's finished:)

He's so detailed. And tiny. He's like 17 inches!

Squeeeee!!

     By the way, I'm naming this reborn Lucas. If you have any middle name suggestions for him, please leave them in the comments! I'm drawing a blank;)

     Once the kit is painted, the doll's hair can be micro-rooted, painted, or there can be no hair at all. Micro-rooting can take days, but the results are well worth it. This picture is of micro-rooted hair.

This is not my picture! All credit goes to the original photographer:)

     Once the doll has hair(or not!), it is assembled and weighted to be as heavy as a real baby. Usually, the doll is assembled to make the head slightly floppy, so that you would have to support its head like with a real baby. The reborn artist will then pack the doll and layette into a box and ship it to its new mommy/daddy. Reborn box packings are usually very fun to open, like a whole bunch of presents! Here's an example-

This is not my picture! All credit for this picture goes to the original photographer:)

Some Key Words
Artist- The person that creates the reborn doll (painting, rooting, assembling, etc.)
Kit- The unpainted vinyl pieces (head, arms, legs, head, and sometimes a tummy plate) that are                  painted by the artist

     Well, I hope that this post helped you understand just a little bit more about what reborns are! If you have any questions at all,ask me in the comments! I'd be happy to answer them!

Ashleigh

P.S.- I JUST got my new laptop, so now I have to find the camera cable and photograph the craft post. I should have it up soon!

A Few Updates

Woah, two posts in one day! This is crazy! I just wanted to let you all know about some of the stuff that's going on.

• I am finishing up the craft! It should be done by the end of this month; and I'll tell you why in a minute. I have all of the instructions written out, I just need to take the pictures and upload them. 
• I am getting a new laptop! This is why I haven't posted anything lately; I've been cleaning out all of the stuff on this laptop that I don't want transferred onto the new one. This is also why I haven't finished the craft. 
• I'm getting another reborn doll! Well, sorta. I only ordered the blank kit (I'll make an explanatory post when it gets here), and I need to save up some money so I can send it off to get painted and stuff. So this reborn will be finished by the beginning of next year. I can't wait!
• Natalie, Saige, and Taylor will get back from Camp Little Lake on August 22nd.
• We only have 6 months to reach our goal of 30 followers! If you like this blog, do us a favor and follow us:) You'll be one of the first to know when we make a new post! 

I'm pretty sure that that's it for now... I'll let you know if anything else happens:)

Ashleigh

A (sorta) Photoshoot!

     Hooray, a photoshoot! Well, not really... Ashleigh took these pictures on a whole bunch of different days, but whatever. I had a day off from crafting today, so I decided to finally post this; it's been finished for a few weeks:P Some of you have been waiting for this for a while.... And some of you didn't say, so we don't know whether or not you'd have liked to see this. Oh well, too late now! Anyway, this is a photoshoot of Piper! Ashleigh's been kinda obsessing over Piper lately (or more than usual, at least... We got some reports about this from Em) so we decided to do something with her. Ashleigh took the pictures, I'm gonna add the captions along with some of the other dolls. 

You may have seen these first two already...

All swaddled up!

Ready to go on an adventure! (or to the store)
I still can't believe that that car seat was only 95 cents!
I wish I was there. I love thrift stores!

SQUEEEE!!
She's so cute here!
And realistic...

She's really chunky ;)

 

Chillin' out
She just needs a pair of sunglasses!

     That's all of the pictures that we have of her right now! I hope that you enjoyed Piper as much as I do:) Let me know what your favorite picture of her is!

Saige

Camp Updates!

Saige here!
     Hey readers! We've been having a lot of fun during counselor training here! The campers are going to arrive in a few days, so I decided to type this out now because I can really only use my laptop when I have time off. Natalie's been a bit more busy than me, so she couldn't type anything right now. She said that she'll post something soon. We don't really get to see Taylor very often, which is kinda annoying, because she works in the kitchen. Sometimes we get to see her at meals, though! Taylor gets one day off every week, so she's hoping that she'll be able to post then. 
     This summer, we are going to make a few(hopefully) craft posts! We are super excited about this! We're finishing our planning for camp right now, so we're too busy to post an entire craft on here... Hopefully we can get something done next week!
Talk to you all soon!
Saige

And Taylor's Counselor Name Is.......

Natalie here! 
     I'm making this post really quickly before we leave for camp, so it's gonna be pretty short. Taylor picked the name Sugar! It was suggested by an anonymous commenter, so we're not 100% sure who it was... Anyway, thanks so much! We'll update you from camp soon.

Natalie

It's Your Last Day To help Taylor Out!

Natalie here,
     I feel like I've posted a lot about this... But it's important! Today is your last day to suggest some names for Taylor to use at camp for her counselor nickname!!! The original post is HERE, you can leave your suggestions here or at that post. I'll let you know what Taylor ends up choosing tomorrow, before we leave for camp.

Natalie

OUR 50TH POST!!!!!

     WOW!! We've finally posted 50 times (including this post)! I know that that's really not a lot when you consider that there are blogs that post like, three times a day, but it's something :P I don't think that any of us ever thought that we would get this far! I guess that there's really not a lot of other things to say... oh well. Thank you to all of our wonderful readers!

Emily

P.S.- Make sure that you give Taylor a few name suggestions HERE! The deadline is May 29th. We've received some AWESOME suggestions! See if you can come up with something even better!

Taylor Still Needs Your Help!

Hey guys,
     It's Natalie again. We still need some suggestions for Taylor's counselor name!! You can check out the original post HERE. We've received a few really great suggestions, but unfortunately Taylor is not allowed to use her real name in her counselor name (for security reasons, I guess,) and these used her name. You can still help, though! Taylor's thinking that she wants her name to be something cute, maybe something that has to do with working in the kitchen? It doesn't have to be about the kitchen, that's just an idea. The deadline for name suggestions is Friday, May 29th; we leave for Camp Little Lake on the 30th. Just leave your suggestion in a comment, or in our suggestion survey (RIGHT HERE!). Be creative! Counselor names are supposed to be silly :P We'll make a post before we leave for camp telling you what Taylor chose.

Natalie, A.K.A. Green Bean

Looking Back

Greetings from Emily!

     Ashleigh decided that it would be a good idea to look back on what we've accomplished for our blogging resolutions, since we're already almost halfway(!!!!) through the year. HERE'S the original post, if you haven't read it yet. Here's the part that I'm going to focus on today-

"1. Get to 30 followers on Blogger

2. Reach a few thousand more pageviews! We got over 2,400 last year, and we're more popular now       than we were before!
3. Post more often. We really do try to post, but we are CONSTANTLY busy!
4. Start working on "Craft Time With Natalie and Saige!" posts. Seriously. We need to do this.
5. Start a new series of posts. Any ideas would be helpful! We were thinking about doing a short info         post about each non- AG doll. Sound good?
6. Do more on Pinterest!"

     1. Get to 30 followers on Blogger- We haven't reached this goal yet, so keep following guys!

     

    2. Reach a few thousand more pageviews! We got over 2,400 last year, and we're more popular now       than we were before!- Complete! As of right now, we have a little bit over 4,500 pageviews. I wonder how many we can reach by December?

    3. Post more often. We really do try to post, but we are CONSTANTLY busy!- Well, we've tried to follow through with this... Hopefully we can post more in the summer!

    4. Start working on "Craft Time With Natalie and Saige!" posts. Seriously. We need to do this.- Hehehe... Umm... Well... We're going to work on it. Our current goal is to make one craft by the end of the year. 

    5. Start a new series of posts. Any ideas would be helpful! We were thinking about doing a short info         post about each non- AG doll. Sound good?- Hooray! We actually made a post about this! You can check that out HERE. Hopefully we can work on this a little bit more over this half of the year. 

     6. Do more on Pinterest!- This goal really isn't that important to us... We did pin a few things semi-recently though, so I guess that this is complete? 

     Overall, we've completed 3 out of 6 of our goals! Not too bad! The resolution that I want to complete the most is for us to get 30 Blogger followers here. Help us reach our goal! By the way, check out our suggestion survey! You can find it on the page "Help us improve our blog, please!"

Emily

Help Taylor Out!

Natalie here!
     Taylor asked me to help her out with something. Help us decide what her counselor name will be! Every counselor at Camp Little Lake has a funny nickname, and Taylor can't figure out what she wants hers to be! My nickname last year was Green Bean, and Saige's was Sparky. We get called the same thing every year, so we don't have this problem ;) Help us out! Every idea that we've come up with, Taylor had rejected; maybe you can come up with something better? We'll pick from these suggestions (unless we come up with something else here.) Maybe something that has to do with working in the kitchen? We need all of the suggestions by Friday, May 29th, because we leave for camp the next day. Leave your suggestions in the comments, it'll be greatly appreciated! By the way, the camp director doesn't want us to use our real names in the counselor name :)

Thanks for helping us out!
Natalie

Preparing For Camp!

Hey guys! Taylor, Natalie, and Saige here!
     As you may remember, Saige and I were counselors at Camp Little Lake last year.
     We're going to be counselors again this year! We filled and sent out our applications a few weeks ago, but we took pictures to show you what they looked like.

     I got to be a counselor this year too! I'm very excited. The only bad thing is that I have to work in the kitchen; I wanted to work with Natalie and Saige in the craft cabin.
     Hey! At least you got to work there this year, Taylor!
     That's true... I just don't want to wash dishes all day.
     We're packing today, we need to be at the camp on May 30th so we can set up stuff and go through a bit of training. The campers will get there on June 14th. Last year they only gave us a day to set up! 
     I'm glad that they gave us a few weeks to prepare this time. We didn't even finish training last year! It was a bit of a disaster.
     The pool wasn't even filled up by the time that the campers started to arrive. It was chaos!
     Okay, we need to finish packing now. Do you think that this post was too short?
     Nah. There's not a lot to be said. 
     So I guess that we're done!

Thanks for reading!
Taylor, Saige, and Natalie
     

Some More Blogging Tips!

Hey y'all!
     Taylor and I finally came up with our blogging tips! You can read the first post HERE. Here goes nothing!

1. Keep your blog a happy place!

     I think that this tip is pretty self-explanatory... Just try not to post really sad/upsetting stuff on a normally happy blog. There's a chance that you'll upset some of your readers, and you most likely wouldn't want to do that! We usually try to post happy things here on Emily and Friends; that's how a lot of doll blogs are.

2. Try to keep a schedule!

     This schedule doesn't have to be super detailed if you don't want it to be. I recommend that you should try to at least know how often you're going to post something. Some people go super in-depth, like knowing exactly which post that they're going to make months in advance. As you maybe able to tell, we don't do that here (We're working on making a schedule, but with the end of school coming up, it's getting a little tough). 

     I know that these tips weren't as useful as some of the tips in the earlier post, but I hope that you find them to be useful anyway :D

Addie and Taylor

Some Blogging Tips!

Hey guys, Emily here.
     AAAHHH!!! I'm SO SO sorry that we haven't posted in so long! I feel super bad about this.... But I remembered that I wanted to make this post, so I guess that that's good? This post is NOT supposed to be super strict rules, you can just use one tip, or none, or however many you feel like using :P But they are pretty useful.  I had each doll write out one tip that they thought was important for having a fun blog. Let's begin!

1. Don't make false promises!

     This is simple! Don't say that you're going to do something and not do it! (We haven't been super awesome at following this, like with Craft Time With Natalie and Saige! posts :P) Don't promise that you're going to do something like have a giveaway when you reach 100 followers and then not do anything when you reach your goal. All that you're doing is making people upset that they didn't get what you promised them.

2. Don't stop posting without notice!

     This applies to any break- be it a month, or forever- that you take from posting. When I said a month, I meant that more for a blog that normally posts a few times every week. Just make a short post telling people that you're taking a break, and let them know for about how long it'll be. Try your best to be back to posting by the time that you said (read tip #1). If you're going to stop posting forever, then MAKE A POST TELLING PEOPLE THAT!!!!! We've found SO MANY blogs that just suddenly stopped posting and didn't warn their readers. It's kind of upsetting. If you're going to completely remove your blog, make a goodbye post that tells people that you'll be deleting the blog and leave it up for a month or two, then delete the blog. Leaving the post up will give your readers time to stop by the blog and know that they won't be able to visit anymore. If you're going to keep the blog up (which we recommend) then just make a goodbye post and let it be. Make sure that your readers know whether they'll be able to access the blog after you stop posting!

3. Don't use bad language!

     Don't use bad language on your blog! People will probably not return to your blog if you curse a whole bunch. Remember- kids are the main readers of doll blogs! 

4. Don't brag!

      Honestly, nobody wants to hear about how you got 20 AG dolls and all of their accessories for your birthday. Maybe it's just me, but when I hear stuff like that, I start to not like the blog as much. It's fine if you have a lot of dolls, but don't brag about how many you have. Keep in mind that there are a lot of kids that don't have any AG dolls! 

     Addie and Taylor couldn't come up with any tips; if they do, I'll make another post. Tell us your favorite tip!

Thanks for reading!
Emily, Saige, Molly, and Natalie!

Happy Easter!

Hey guys!
     Happy Easter! We hope that you have a wonderful day filled with church, bunnies, and chocolate! Let's just hope that you don't eat it all in one day, like somebody here.... Hey! You said that you wouldn't talk about that! Sorry Saige, too late now! We are really "hopping" to post more this month (Get it? Hopping, like a bunny? I hope you do), so stay tuned for that. That's all for now! Tell us what you got in your Easter basket! (That is, if you celebrate Easter :P)

Emily