Fairy Journals.

    

To my dearest friends and followers,

Towards the end of 2020, I released a revised edition of my novel. Due to the screwed-up system that is Amazon, I had to find another way for people to buy said revised edition in time for Christmas. So I opened a shop on Ko-fi, where my book could be purchased directly from me.

For a while now, I've wanted to sell handmade journals or bookmarks or drawings - long before I ever heard of Ko-fi. In fact, I think it was in 2015-ish that I first began thinking of starting a shop.
For those of you who don't know, I love crafting and making things, from drawing and painting, writing books and short stories, to making my own bookmarks, journals, and 3-dimensional boxes from patterns.

Since about 2008, I have been making myself a journal every year, my "year book" as I call it. I doodle in it, I write down ideas and notes and tear pages out if I need a scrap piece for something. It's made to use and I use it to its fullest potential. Earlier this year, I made a journal with one of these fairy designs on the cover. I also promised that "very soon I'll be sharing more about my journals, and quite possibly, you can get one for yourself too..."

Well now that time has come. I'm finally going to be selling handmade journals!!

This Monday, I will have 4 different fairy journal designs available for purchase in my Ko-fi shop!! I will not be doing pre-orders, but all 4 journals will be available for purchase on Monday, March 1st!!

Some of these designs might look familiar to you, and that's because you've probably seen them before. In August of 2019, I shared on my blog that I was drawing fairies in a slightly different style than what I was used to. Now, I have featured 4 of those drawings on the cover of the journals!! My husband also contributed a little something to each journal as well!!
Be sure to check my social media on Monday, I'll be posting to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram when the journals are live in my Ko-fi shop!! I'll also be adding a new "shop" tab on the cross-column near the "About Me" tab on my blog!!

Until then, thank you so much for reading!!

Yours truly,
Me

My Trip To The American Girl Place.

To my dearest friends and followers,

2006 was a big year. I remember little about the year as a whole, but I do remember there was something big - something to look forward to. It was the year the American Girl company opened their third brick and mortar store, the American Girl Place. Their first ever store opened in Chicago in 1998, just after Mattel purchased Pleasant Company (American Girl). In 2003, another American Girl Place opened in New York City. In 2006, a third store opened in Los Angeles.

And my parents took my sister and I for our birthday.

Thinking back, I remember how grand it all was! There was so much to take in: the doll shop, the cafe, the doll hair salon, the book store. It was so surreal. It was everything we had seen only in the catalogue. It was every little girl's dream (well, at least, it was mine). There were huge cases with all of the Just Like You Dolls, display upon display of all the dolls wearing their modern outfits, from Sunday best, to daily/weekly activities, such as baking cookies, going to school, or playing outside. There were outfits targeted towards different sports, such as horse riding gear, swimwear, basketball, ballet, and ice skating. There were fancy dresses for holiday gatherings, recital dresses, and costumes for Halloween, such as a cat, a Flapper girl from the 1920's, or princess dresses. There was lounge wear, and little pajamas to put the doll to bed in. There were even beds and bedding, pets and pet accessories. There was everything!

And then there were the Historical Dolls. That's where it was at. Seeing each of the historical dolls in her time appropriate attire (ranging from 1774, all the way to 1944) with beautiful detail to her entire wardrobe and collection of accessories and furniture. It was an amazing experience, with so much to see on the two levels that was the American Girl Place.

This past week, I got to go to the American Girl Place in Los Angeles once again, only this time, I went with my husband.
It was so much fun to go! There were plenty of things I didn't remember, and plenty of new things that I'm pretty sure weren't there before. American Girl has changed so much since I was a child, and I daresay, they have lost some of their charm. But that's another thought for a different day. American Girl will always be special to me. It was very exciting to look at everything, see all the new things, and marvel at some of the changes.

I brought my Kirsten doll with me and admitted her to the

Doll Hospital for some limb tightening. I did not leave empty-handed though. I bought a new outfit for my dolls, the Japan outfit from the new World Traveler Collection. And I bought a pair of glasses for the doll, a doll hairbrush, and a set of accessories that included a backpack for the doll, and a tiny cellphone!!
It was really fun to go and spend the day in LA. I've spent the last few days making little things for my dolls, getting Jess dressed in the new outfit, and yeah. XD
Check out my Twitter to see what crafts I worked on this week!!
As always, thank you so much for reading!!

Yours truly,
Me

Additional:
Check out my book on my Ko-fi shop!!

Explore The American Girl Company!!
Follow me on Twitter!!

Acrylic Painting - Trying A New Art Medium.

Click to enlarge

 To my dearest friends and followers,

While I have yet to get back in to the swing of writing (I will soon though, I promise!), I have been doing something else which has been quite fun and relaxing in a way - acrylic painting!

Last year, I believe it was around this time, I began learning how to use watercolors. It was something I really wanted to do and had had an interest in for a little while. I decided to take it up when I did for the purpose of designing the cover for my book (which you can buy from my Ko-fi shop here).

This year, taking up acrylic paint was entirely unexpected. Basically, as I wrote in my blog post 2 weeks ago, I began going through my American Girl stuff. I got rid of some things and bought some new things and yeah - it's been great fun!
Anyhow, I decided I wanted a tiny little box to store my doll's things in, such as hair ribbons, necklaces, and the like. So I bought a paper maché box at the craft store and borrowed some acrylic paint and paint brushes from my mother-in-law and I painted the box to look like the American Girl Kirsten's furniture set. XD
I spent the entirety of 1 evening painting it and I love how it came out!

Click to enlarge

After that, I realized I had a lot of fun painting it, so I decided I wanted to paint something else. But what? It didn't take long to decide. I wanted to paint a box for my American Girl doll shoes. So I found a Schwan's box I had on hand, bought my own paint brushes for this project, and painted the box to look like the American Girl Coconut Stationary Kit box. The Stationary Kit was something I wanted as a kid and never got, so it came to me easily what I wanted this new project to look like. It took me about 4 days to complete it. Turned out super cute in my opinion. XD

So yeah, that's what I've been up to mostly this week. I hope you have a great week ahead! Be sure to keep an eye out on my blog and my social media for upcoming projects I'll be working on! As always, thank you so much for reading!

Yours truly,

Me

Additional:

Check out my book on my Ko-fi shop!
Contact me about the rare and retired American Girl items I'm selling!!