Home at last!

Tonight we brought Opal and Crystal home!  We were able to transport them together, and it worked just fine to have Opal tethered and Crystal was just "with" her.  More updates will follow soon!

Happy Birthday Crystal!!!

As you may know, we have been anxiously waiting for Opal (SOPD) to have her foal.  Our journey to buy her started this summer and it has been a VERY long wait!  There were some ups and downs, and we almost thought for a while that maybe things weren't going to work out, but the we eventually came to terms with the seller.  Once we figured it all out however, we didn't know exactly when Opal would have her foal.  We thought it might be soon, but we weren't sure, so we decided with the seller to wait just a little while longer to try to help her be comfortable for birthing.  That's when the waiting seemed to drag on and on.
In fact, we thought that she would have had the foal at the end of August, she was showing so many signs, but through September, and into October, she just kept looking more and more like any day would be the day.
TODAY WAS THE DAY!!!
Opal was checked on earlier today around lunch time and there was no foal, but by 5 when the seller came home from work, there she was!

Opal seems to be doing very well.  She was calm and composed and attentive to her foal.  The foal is a filly!  We wanted to name her similarly to her mom.  We liked how we picked the names for Opal.  We picked the first name for her temperament (she is docile sweet and very different from how we were told miniature horses could be), her second name for her appearance (lots of variation of color and textures, the more you look, the more you see), her third name for her size (she's small like a pixie), and her fourth for what we knew about her breed (we were told she had some Appaloosa in her pedigree).  

We followed that pattern for the baby!  Her full name is Spunky Crystal Fairy Jem.  We only spent about an hour with her, so the elements of her temperament remain to be seen.  As a new life, she was very independent and full of her own spirit, full of spunk.  For Crystal, she has different colors and her coat seems to almost sparkle and shine. And we feel that miniature horses are Jems.  They are wonderful companions and can be hearty and fun.   We picked from a list of names we all liked, but we also feel the name fits!

Crystal seems to be very sturdy and strong for her first few hours of life.  She nursed, and then after we had been there a while started to fall asleep.  Being born is a lot of work!

She has roan coloring like her mom with some spots by her rear.

She is a lot lighter though, maybe she will darken with time, maybe not.

She has lovely eyes, with black all of the way around them, like she's wearing eye liner!  And she has the cutest chin whiskers.

And her coat is super soft, with curls and whorls all over it. I've never seen a baby horse, let alone one just a few hours old, I didn't know what to expect. She's super adorable. Her little mane and tail are kind of laughable, they were soft and curly not like typical stiff horse mane and tail hair. And the hair was short, not long like you think of a horse mane and tail.  I wanted to keep petting her.  

Opal has a lot of whorls as well. The ones on her flanks stand out and are are pretty visible.   You can see one in the middle of Crystal's forehead, as though there should be a unicorn horn starting to grow there.  

She has a nice temperament like her sweet mother.  She wasn't skittish or anxious at all. If anything, she was curious.   Her little curly tail was swishing around the whole time. She was happy to stay by Opal, but also to explore a bit and even follow me around a little too.   

We are planning to FINALLY bring Opal and Crystal home this Sunday evening.  I can't wait!

Meet Lorilei

Today we found Truly Me #43 at the same consignment store that we found Strawberry and Kryptonite at. We had more store credit from consignments, and she was deeply discounted so we got her without spending anything.  We spent some time fixing her.  As well as her (pre)trimmed bangs, she had a few other issues.  After a little work she is ready to join the gang.  She has very vibrant pretty eyes and we gave her a nose piercing.

 Here she is with her sister Hannah at the beach.  She is riding Jess' scooter my mom found at Value Village, and they each have their own Beanie Boo.  

Here's Hannah up close.  I love her freckles.  

Felicity got a little update to her appearance.  It's not much, but we realized why she looked so pale, her lips and her cheeks were the same color as the rest of her skin, apparently her coloring had worn off.  Mom mixed a little paint and carefully painted her lips.  Then she took some pink on the cheek and blotted it in as blush.  Now she looks like she's full of life.  Lorilei and Felicity look so much alike to us.  Their hair color is different, but the value is so similar.

We took pictures of the others, and we may post those pictures over the next few days. 

Oh and my mom found this desk at the consignment shop and we used our consignors credit as well, it was labeled as an American Girl Doll desk, but it has no markings to indicate that it is AG.  It's sturdy wood and rather heavy for doll furniture.  Does anybody recognize this?

The drawers both work and are nicely sized to actually hold a fair amount of things.  I haven't decided if this will be my teacher desk for the school, or one of the study desks that my girls use.  

my weekly news begins

To begin I think I will do an up date on my life ever week plus other stuff. So this week we got Hannah, we went and saw SOPD, and i might go to Urban Air today.

SOPD update, meet Hannah, Cinnamon, and a group picture!

I just finished up a week at Camp Caraway!  I have never been before, I usually go to The Rock, but a couple of things didn't work out for me to go there this year, and other things worked out for me to go to Caraway.  I went with leaders and kids that I know from my church and Awana.  I had a lot of fun!  I was worried before camp because my parents weren't going to be there, and I was worried that it wouldn't measure up to The Rock, but I realized that it was different.  I had a lot more fun, learned and tried new things, and it was a blast!  I passed the swim test this year at camp!  It felt so good, I have worked hard at my swimming this year.  I did paintball sling shot, pottery, dancing, and a lot of other activities. I hit the bulls eye in air rifles.  I got to be bunk mates with Morgan and across bunks from Lila, two of my friends from church. At Caraway, they let you choose which activities you do. I had some time with my dorm, and other times where I was with different campers while I did my activities.  I wrote Bunk Notes to my family.  They also sent them to me.  One of my chaperones told my mom that I was so busy having fun that I didn't get homesick once!

SOPD update::
Now that my week at Camp Caraway is over and my parents are back from the mission trip to TN with my brothers,we planned to get Opal tomorrow!!! My mom texted the owner to set up a time.  The owner said that thought she see's expanded milk glands!!! If this is the case, Opal may have her foal in the next week or so!  The owner wants to have her vet come and take a look, so instead of picking up Opal, tomorrow will visit her.  I would love to get her now, we are pretty much ready, but the current owner is concerned that transporting her, and a new environment would be difficult for her and the baby, so we wait.  Waiting is hard.

Meet Hannah::

When my parents picked me up today we went to eat at Showmars with my friend Morgan and her family.  I spent the night with Morgan last night.  I loved spending time with Morgan, she and I have so much in common, and we had so much fun!  But I missed my family, so it was good to be back with them too.
After lunch my dad had to run an errand, so we stopped at the thrift stores close to the errands and my mom found an American Girl doll for less than $5!!!!
I decided that her name needed to be Hannah.  She had a little surface grime on her vinyl, as most thrift store dolls do, but after a wipe down with antibacterial wipes, and then a Mr. Clean Eraser, and some hair brushing, she looks very nice.  Her legs and arms are tight, her body is perfect, her neck strings are in tact, her wig is secure.  So overall she is in really great condition.
She is Truly Me #55, but her hair is no longer curly, just slightly wavy.  She came with her pink underwear and this meet dress, no shoes.  Her freckles are super cute.  I counted 42. I love her hazel eyes, and her dark hair is a pretty mixture of dark browns.  Mom and I are still deciding if we are going to try to curl it, or use a flat iron on it.  It has gone a bit frizzy at the ends.
Oh, and as you can see my mom dyed my hair.  I get lots of compliments, I think it makes me look a little older.  It has faded a bit from all of the sun and swimming, but I still love it!

Meet Cinnamon::
Right before camp my mom found a MLA chestnut foal at our local Christian Ministries store.  I was wanting a Chestnut, but didn't have room unless I expanded the stables for the full sized horse. She surprised me with the foal, and I named her Cinnamon.  Now I have all of the colors of MLA horses (Black, Chestnut, Palomino, and Appaloosa) other than the dark brown.   I reorganized the stables and in the original stall (box) for Vanilla, Cinnamon, Cream, Strawberry and Blaze all stay across the front gate.  It's cozy, but they enjoy each other's company.

Group Picture::
I asked mom if she would help me to get a picture of all of the dolls and their pets (not the big horses)

From left to right; Cinnamon, Hannah, Belle, Melody, Coconut, Peyton, Strawberry, Jacob, Sketch, Coco, Kanani, Cream, Nanea, Blaze, Mele, Tia, Diamond Tiara, Felicity, Josephina, Kryptonite and Pupito.
I want to start to take a picture each year, to show how the "family" grows.  (I think mom and I have decided to keep Josephina and Felicity since they haven't sold.)

A little sewing with friends

My friend Lily's mom (my Explorer's leader) noticed that the AHG catalog now has 18" doll uniforms.  I have wanted doll uniforms for my girls, and mom and I had talked about it, but we had not actually done anything, but purchase a small amount of blue and red fabric at one point.  Lily's mom bought all of the fabric as well as miniature flags to use as patches.  The moms talked about it with each other and set a day for us to sew.   I have had more experience than Lily, so I could have managed this on my own, but it was more fun to sew with a friend. 
Lily and I sewed one doll khaki skirt.  My mom sewed and embroidered both vests, and Lily's mom sewed us each a pair of khaki pants.   Nanea and Lily's doll, who she named Addy, model the uniforms. 

I know they will have a ton of camping adventures with all of their camping gear.  Now they can also do the more formal side of AHG.  

SOPD, long post, but it's totally worth it!

A month ago before my parents went to Haiti my mom found a miniature horse for sale online.  We talked to dad, and it was not easy to convince him but eventually between his love for me, and his love for horses, he caved!
We called on that horse, and actually a few other miniature horses, and nothing seemed to be working out.  Dad said, "wait until after Haiti," and we could look again.  I was very disappointed.  But then later the next day at a homeschool race, I found out that a friend's sister had a miniature horse that she wanted to sell.  Mom made some phone calls and we made arrangements to go and meet the horse.  On June 10th mom drove me to Albemarle to meet the horse.  I could barely wait for the thirty minute ride, I was so excited.
When we arrived I saw her, and I knew it was love at first sight!

Even though she was still shedding her reddish winter coat and needed a groom, she was beautiful to me.  I also loved that she was super sweet.  She didn't have the temperament I had been warned that many mini horses have of biting and kicking.  She is very gentle, but still has a little spunk, kind of like me!  I had brought my helmet, and I still weigh well under 90 pounds so the owner tacked her and I got to go for a ride!



I rode her around the field, and even a little on some trails behind their field.  She was easy to ride, even out of practice, so there were a few times that she was more interested in stopping to try to eat some grass.  Riding her is so much fun, and she's such a petite little thing, I loved how it felt like we were connected.
It was neat that our friends happened to have a saddle that fit her and fit me!

Our friends had named her Bitsy, because she was so small.  We liked that name, but I have renamed her.  Introducing Sweet Opal Pixie Dot Ray.  

Mom also fell in love with her right away too.  Right away we started to figure out exactly what we would need to be able to have a horse. Even though nothing would happen until after my parents got back from their mission trip, it wasn't going to be easy to "make" and save the money that we needed to start out with a horse, plus the horse money, but mom had some ideas of things that we could sell, and also that we would need to stop spending money on things that we don't need, or that were wasteful.
We actually decided to try to sell Felicity and Josephina.  They are still listed for sale, so if you are interested, email my mom through blogger or leave a comment.

Yesterday dad went with mom and I to visit Opal for the second time.  I'm planning to call her Opal by the way.  She has finished shedding her winter coat and we spent some time brushing and using the curry comb on her as well.

  You can see her coloring a little better.  She's half Appaloosa.  I always wanted an Appaloosa horse!  Looking at her she is mostly blue roan, with black and white hairs.  But her Appaloosa patterning is very apparent around her head and hind quarters.  Her reddish brown mane flips part way down to the other side, and under her forelock is a large star and strip of white!  You can see the white and reddish brown on her tale as well.  I absolutely love her coloring, she has black, white, red and tan hairs all at once!  That's why I named her Opal.  All of those colors together give her a shimmery appearance and her coat has lots of variance just like a real opal!
In less than two weeks we will pick Opal up and bring her home!  I am having a hard time waiting again.  In the mean time, dad is preparing our back yard and a stable for her.  Mom and I went shopping today and bought some things that we will need.  We still need to get a few more items and then there are some items that I want.
The saddle that I was riding won't come with her, but her harness, bit and bridle will.  Mom and I think that I am going to get a bareback saddle.  I have already picked it out and if everything works, we will order it soon.
So, the seller said that last spring Opal was around a stud, and she may have bred! This wouldn't be her first time being a mother. It's hard to know for sure without a vet testing her, but her shape has changed some from when she first went to their home. She has gotten rounder. Time will tell, we aren't planning to have her vet checked yet, but it's possible she's pregnant! If she is, the stud was a full Appaloosa miniature horse, and she would foal in the spring.  If that happens, the chances are high that the foal will look similar, or have more spots!  I will post more as I have updates!

Meet Strawberry and Kryptonite

Today my mom and I found an American Girl calf (Caroline's collection) and goat (Josephina's collection).  I named the calf Strawberry and the goat Kryptonite.  They now live at the stables with the other farm animals.  They belong to Jacob, but Tia helps to take care of them.  Here, Kanani is bringing them out to introduce them to the other animals.  

My mom saw them at a consignment shop where we already had credit, so they didn't take away from the money I'm saving.  We were there dropping off some consignment items and when we browsed through the store they were hiding behind a Paradise Horses black and white paint horse with Western and English saddles.  At first I was very interested in the horse but I decided I have enough doll horses for now, and would rather have a real horse...

Galaxy comes home!

Galaxy is well enough to come home.  It was rough at first.  She needed some serious work to make her a healthy horse, but with a little TLC she's whole again! 

Now that Galaxy is here, the three horse stable is "full".  Lyric is a part of Melody's imagination, so it makes perfect sense that he lives over the stable...

The hay storage is up there too because we all know that when left unattended that horses can eat until they make themselves sick, and we don't want that.  Goaty found her way all the way up to the hay though, she's such a funny little climber!

Galaxy update

I posted yesterday that Galaxy spent some time in the Animal Hospital.  She had some injuries and needed TLC and care.  She got it today, and is doing much better!  She should be ready for some photos tomorrow.  Kanani has been by her side taking care of her.

Summer activities have begun and 18" doll UNICORN!!!!!

Two weeks ago I went to Cornerstone Kids Summer Day camp for the first time.  It was so fun!  I went because World Changers was also hosted at my church, and my entire family was working on missions.  I'm not 6th grade yet, so I couldn't participate. 
The first day that I went was actually Tuesday.  We had a splash day with water slides, sprinklers, and water play.  I played lemonade stand with some friends. 
The second day we had kitchen science.  I made a spider out of pretzels and cookies.  I ate the entire spider!  Yum!  We played a tag "spider" game.  We also made chalk/finger paint and bouncy balls.  I colored my ball red.
The third day I went to camp was spirit day.  I wore my camp shirt, and in Camp Plus we made bracelets with loom bands and played with LEGOs. 
Every day I had time to play outside, and inside with friends.  One of my best friends, Morgan, was also at camp and it was a lot of fun to see her every day.
After camp I went to my grand parents for the next week while my parents were doing mission work in Haiti. 

But before camp on the last day was the coolest surprise!  Mom took me to Goodwill and I found some 18" doll horses!  A black one that I named Galaxy and a white one I named Lyric!  We also got a green and purple jeep, which I am planning to resell to raise money for something special I want to buy!
Galaxy was in rough shape, she's a My Life As horse, and was clearly loved and played with.  She came with a red halter and leg warmers.  No reigns or saddle.  My mom worked for a long time detangling the mane and tail.  She's been groomed, but needs a little more time at the Animal Hospital before she can come to live at the stables.  She is being adopted by Kanani. 

Lyric the white one is different from all of my other horses.  He is not poseable, or covered with soft velvet.  He is an Our Generation 20" Camarillo horse.  He was absolutely perfect to be transformed into a unicorn. 

We used foil, Sculpy oven dry clay, paint, glitter and hot glue, and this is what we came up with.   

Now that we made his horn and groomed him, he's magnificent!  His full name is Lyrical Laif.  He's Meldoy's special friend.  He comes to her when she's creatively dreaming and they go to have adventures in her imagination. She has a special call for him too!  It's hard for me to describe it, it sounds like a hummingbird.  

He came with an English saddle, but no reigns.  We took the saddle off because WHO RIDES A UNICORN WITH A SADDLE???

We will be making some reigns for Melody to guide him with.  

Now that my mom is back, our summer is getting back to normal.  Along with the jeep, I am selling my Pleasant Company Felicity and Pleasant Company Josephina to add to my special purchase funds.  I will miss them, but I didn't play with them as much as I do the others.  

Stay tuned for more adventures with me and the American Girl Dolls!

More horse crafts

I made a bareback saddle with rings to attach my saddle bags.  My mom helped me to make a training rope halter.

More craftiness

Yesterday I decided to try to make Zoomer Zupp's for my dolls.  I used hot glue, craft foam and pony beads.  I made 4 and plan to make more.  I'm happy with how they turned out.

Last night mom and I made two outfits for a friend's birthday today.  I didn't get a photo, I will have to see if my friend's mom can take some for us.  The patterns were from Erin Hentzel's book, Sew in Style.  We made the party dress, a top and some shorts.  We also gave her some coordinating My Life As accessories.  She seemed to like them, a lot.  

Later today after we had gotten back home we had some time to make something for our stables. Mom found a tutorial on Anna White's website.  We had picked up the burlap when we bought the fat quarters for the above outfits.  Mom sewed the burlap, it is very messy and linty when you handle it. Anna's recommendation to zigzag them was spot on.  It helped the seam to not pull through.

I stuffed them, trimmed off the loose threads, then stitched the red ties onto them.  It was fun to work together to make them, and we are very happy with how they turned out.  They are just the right size to look real in the barn.

If you look on the left you can see a set of jewelry drawers that we found at the local thrift store yesterday.  It's perfect to help to organize the tack that doesn't fit onto the back of the stable.  It's like a doll sized tack room. 
I then remembered that I had a ty goat, so I pulled him out of mt added him to our stables.  She keeps Blaze, our miniature horse company.  They are best of buds and spend most of their time together.  

Horse Ride

Peyton and Tia meet up with each other and their horses to ride.  Peyton's Appaloosa is named Big Mac, and Tia's Palomino is Vanilla, her foal is Cream.










They had a rather long ride planned, so they talked for a while about exactly where they were going to go.  Tia realized that she wasn't dressed appropriately and that she was going to pay for it later with thigh burn. They had a light lunch of sandwiches and gave the horses a few apples and some snacks.  The foal is still nursing so she didn't need many snacks.  Vanilla is a good mama!

Peyton has a cast on, because Cream fell on her wrist, but it can come off and Peyton decided to remove it before the ride, she wanted to have full range of motion in her wrist.  Big Mac is a gentle horse, but he's strong and powerful, so controlling him sometimes takes a little effort.

Peyton mounted Big Mac first, because of her wrist, Tia gave her a little boost.

Soon Tia with Vanilla and Cream were all mounted and ready to follow.  Cream is such a good foal, she always follows her mother on trail rides.

Finally the girls arrived back at the horse barn.  They had such a great time on their ride, and can't wait until the next time.  

Blaze the miniature horse didn't go on the ride this time, but she was waiting when the girls got back.

My mom and I love how the American Girl Dolls, Our Generation Horse Barn with accessories, and My Life As horses and accessories all work together so nicely.  We have even made some additional accessories. 

I made a training saddle, for Cream as well as some hay, and you can see the barley sticking out of the leather style saddle bag.  Mom shredded tan and yellow construction paper to make straw.  Mom will be making some hay bales soon as well. 

Meet the gang

My mom and I decided to get out all of the girls (and guy) that I had at the time and have a family photo.  We also included my Corolle Les Cheries, and some of the pets that aren't AG in this photo as well as my mom's mini dolls.  

In the back 18": Josephina, Peyton (JLY #22), Nanea, Kanani, Jacob (originally Marisol), Felicity, Melody and Tia (JYL # 26)

In the next row:  

Pupito on Cocoa, Corolle Les Cheries; Cathy, Clara, Cecile, Chloe, Capuccine, Cammile, we were never able to locate a Charles, and Candice was never affordable, and on the end DIamond Tiara and Mele

In the mini's row:

Kit, Melody, Kirsten, Saige, Caroline, MaryEllen, Cecile, Lea, Kaya, Tenny, Julie, Josephina, Felicity, Addy

and in the front there are 6 Mega Construx AG figures

I love how AG thought out the scale, the mini dolls are the right size to be dolls for the 18", the Mega Construx are the right size to be dolls for the minis.  

But one thing that I didn't see until recently is that the Les Cheries are perfect for little sisters. 
Mom got me Corolle first.  She said that she wanted to know that I could take care of the hair and doll before she invested in AG.  I have had Chloe since my 4th birthday, and the other friends came within a few months.  Capuccine, Cecile and Cammile are  officially my mom's.  An online friend sent them to her as a gift when she started looking for my dolls.  She has allowed me to play with them however.  I still play with them, and they have a place in the dollhouse.  Speaking of my mom's dolls, Josephine, is also hers, as are the following mini dolls:

Kit, Caroline, Cecile, Kaya, Julie, Josephina

Acquired after the photo:

1 Mega Construx

Mini Nanea, Mini Addy (mom's) with glass eyes, Mini Molly (mom's) with glass eyes.

I love the different face molds AG has for the dolls, they make a huge difference in how they look.  

Let's not get too hot and bothered!

After making the other doll camping items, one of the things that we felt we needed was a cooler.  We couldn't find anything suitable in our household items to use, until we found this tutorial on dolldiaries.com.  This camper is made from a few simple materials, a recycled tea box, of which we have an abundance, craft foam in two thicknesses and two colors.  We chose teal and white, a hot glue gun and scissors.  Additionally we used a grid mat, and lined rulers, but they aren't essential.
Thank you Anna for sharing this tutorial.  It was very easy to follow, the only hard part was not putting too much glue.  We decided to add a label to easily tell the front from the back as well.
Melody is so excited about the cooler because now her cold camping food and drinks will stay nice and cold!

She is ready to go out with the other girls and spend a few nights when they go camping again,  she is modeling a peplum top made from Erin Hentzel's book Doll Days and a double layer ruffle skirt my mom designed and made with her plastic rain boots.

Spring has sprung! Let's go camping!

Last night mom and I sewed a doll tent from a tutorial that we found on www.timandmeg.net.  Even though it took us what felt like a long time, (mom says a little over 3 hours) it wasn't as hard as we thought it would be.  The longest part was waiting while we pinned or clipped things together, and waiting while my mom figured out how we were going to make our tent.  She found the fabric in her bins once we decided to make this style of tent and we already had the thread and ribbon on hand as well, so the only thing we had to buy was less than $4 of PEX pipe.
We made the following changes:
The base is 24" square.
We used batik cotton for the front, windows and pole sleeves, and a linen blend for the rest of the tent.
The height of our tent sides is 20".
We used 1/2" white PEX tubing because we couldn't buy 3/8" at the store we went to.
We used acetone to remove the writing and chose to not wrap them in duct tape, though it would have made them pretty, I don't like it when it gets sticky later.
We cut the pole sleeves in half because our pipe was thinner (accidentally the wrong way) and they barely fit our poles!  I like them thinner though, it looks more like a real tent.
We used a 20" invisible zipper for the front, it goes all of the way from top to bottom.
We used a french curve and rotary cutter to make our pattern vs. freehand.
After everything was done mom tied craft thread between the pole supports to help the tent stay a little more open.

I had seen a doll tent at a garage sale a few weeks ago.  I am glad I didn't spend my money on it.  This one is much nicer, and I love that I made it with my mom! 

Here's Tia, on the left, Peyton in the tent and Josephina on the Right enjoying their new tent.

Mom and I followed tutorials from www.dolldiaries.com to make this camp fire, we added rocks around the fire and a few pony beads to simulate coals and embers. We layered the red felt on the inside, and as we added wood and worked towards the outside, added orange, and finally yellow like a real fire.  I had some extra wood, so I labeled it and bundled it up to look like the campground safe wood bundles.  You can see it pictured in the first photo with Peyton in the tent.

We also made a camp stove/grill from this tutorial video on American Girl Ideas YouTube channel.  We used buttons for the knobs, but the striker is a small bead.  We used sharpie to color the craft sticks and toothpicks black.  We have a few more things to make, but the girls are already enjoying their new camping gear and accessories!