A close call- A photo story

Hi everybody. Today I want to show you a little photo story I made when Grace and Harper first arrived. This is the second post I made in Cape Cod out of three or four. I still haven’t decided if I want to use another photo story I made. I am proud to present to you. “A close call”.

The two sisters finally took their items out of the car and stood in front of the small house in front of them. “So, this is it?”. Harper asked her sister. This was the first time she had ever seen anything beyond Hannah’s yard and the orphanage she lived in before she was adopted. Her sister Grace gave a sigh and responded “Yes. Houses here are really expensive and this is actually a really nice one. There's even a beach down the street.”

“OOOOOOH! There's a beach?! I have always wanted to go to one! I guess you're right. This place does seem cute.”.

Their dog Chocolate Chip started to wander around sniffing everything and appearing distracted.

Chocolate Chip saw a butterfly and chased it towards the road. “NO!” Harper shouted. Grace didn't even look up from her suitcase and said “It's okay Harper. No cars are 300 miles from this place. Just go get him so he doesn't wander off.”. Harper gently put down the doll she had held on to since she left her house and bolted towards the dog.

Harper finally caught up with her excited dog right at the edge of the road. “Bad dog. No”. She grabbed him by the collar and brought him back to Grace even though he looked back a few times to see if the butterfly would come back.

“Come here baby.” Grace called for her dog as Harper picked up her doll that she meticulously laid on the ground worried that she would get a scratch.

Harper held out the doll to check for any damages when she realized something important. She gasped “Grace! I-I-I forgot my camera!”.

Chocolate Chip had already wandered off into the yard again. “Ugh Harper. Your camera doesn't control your life”. Grace told her sister who looked like she was about to cry.

Grace set down her suitcase, ran into the front yard and twirled. “Come on Harper! We are  in Cape Cod! Do you know how many people dream of coming here each year?” For the first time on this trip, Grace had smiled.

Grace ran back to Harper who was holding her doll close to her and said. “Come on sis. Let's go unpack and go to the park. We can go to the beach first thing tomorrow morning”. Grace was desperately trying to make her sister feel better because she knew how much she loved her camera.

Grace grabbed her suitcase and started running around with it and Chocolate Chip. “Well come on! You can have fun for a few days without your camera.”

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed (:

New AG items!

Everybody stop what your doing right now and go to Americangirl.com or click here. American girl just released all new products! The have a new puppy, new AG pet products and even new Lea Clark stuff! These are just so adorable!

How to pack for your AG dolls on vacation

Hey everybody. About a week ago I went to Cape Cod at my grandfather’s house and I brought Grace and Harper with me. I have a few different Cape Cod themed posts and I want to start with how I packed for my dolls given by the amazing Harper.

“Hey everybody. It’s me Harper and i’m in Cape Cod Massachusetts with my awesome sister Grace. This is my first time away from home since Hannah unboxed me and I am super excited. As you know, I am a mini doll collector so I get the honor of presenting to you 'how to pack for your AG dolls on vacation'.

The first thing you want to pack for your doll would be her/his personal accessories like headgear, glasses or even a lucky charm. If your doll has anything special to them, you should bring it but only bring it if you think you will need it.

Next, you need a doll sized suitcase. You can not leave your house without this.

Just kidding. (: You can always use a sandwich bag or other small bags/containers to hold you doll things like this sandwich bag Hannah used to carry Grace’s and my shoes.

Tbh, Hannah actually put all of my cloths in this AG suitcase :D

Here, we have a picture of all of the cloths that Hannah packed for Grace and me. The amount of cloths all depends on what you want. Think about the different pictures you are going to take and consider how many outfits each one will take. Since Grace and I are going to the beach and we are staying a few nights, Hannah packed us 2 swimsuits, 2 pairs of pj’s, a bonus outfit and an extra skirt.

The same thing goes with shoes. Hannah packed Grace’s and my slippers, flip flops and swim shoes (She forgot the other swim shoe at her house so Grace has to go to the beach barefoot). Keep in mind that both Grace and I are wearing casual sneakers and boots on right now.

You also want to consider the other accessories to come with you. A fun thing to do is to make a theme. Some examples of these could be if you are visiting somewhere snowy or sunny, the city, the suburbs or the country or you can do what I have which is a beach theme.

YOU WILL ALWAYS need this next item. Remember to always bring a doll hairbrush! AG dolls have very nice wigs that need to be cared for. There are very few dolls who can go through a vacation without a hairbrush. Hannah loves to do her doll's hair so she brought this Truly Me box full of hair accessories and a bun helper. You also might want to keep in mind that you should bring a short haired doll or a doll with straight hair so it isn't too hard to maintain her hair and when traveling, try to keep her hair up in a ponytail or a bun so it doesn't get messed up in your bag or suitcase.

And last but not least, remember to bring the fun little props to make your pictures more interesting in a photo shoot but always remember to not over pack. You don't want to have an overflowing bag full of things you don't need.”

Thanks for reading. I hope this was useful (:

Meet Harper

Hi everybody. As you know, Truly Me is all about having the chance to really personalize your doll and that is why I got Harper in the first place. As you might already know, I have decided not to customize Harper to make her identical to me because I just love her how she is right now so much. I have also picked out some character traits and more for her so she can really have a fun personality.

I have decided to give Harper glasses and to keep her favorite color purple and I have decided to keep her love of photography (I will have a post for that soon).

She is a big animal lover and her favorite animals are dogs and giraffes.

I have also decided to give her a middle name. Her full name is Harper Noelle my last name. Noelle is also my middle name so she still has some things in common with me. I also think that the name Harper Noelle is pretty (:

To see a few fun pictures of her that I have already taken, you can click here.

To see her portfolio, click here.

(I was also wondering if any of you bloggers know how to publish a new page. I have tried selecting them and clicking the little publish button but that doesn't seem to work for me. Blogger says that it is published but you are unable to see them on my blog. I would really appreciate it if you could help me in the comments or by emailing me.)

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed.

How to restore American girl doll hair/ how to curl American Girl doll hair or how to re-curl American Girl doll hair

Hey everybody. Today I want to show you how to restore American girl doll hair and curls. I would like to give a shout out to AGSnapshots from YouTube for inspiring this post. The fun part about my way to restore doll hair is that it does not involve heat! This is not to good to be true and I am excited to show you this method.

Step 1: Remove all clothes and hair accessories from your doll (I'm sorry this picture didn't come out too well).

Step 2: Completely brush out your doll’s hair. For this step, you will need a doll hairbrush and an optional spray bottle to remove knots easier. Typically, you don't want to brush out doll curls but here we will be re curling so it is okay.

Step 3 (optional): To help restore doll hair, you will need a sink so you should probably clean it up before use.

For this process, you will need shampoo and conditioner. I used Pantene classic clean shampoo and Suave almond + Shea butter conditioner but you can use any brand you would like.

You will also need 1 medium sized towel, 1-2 face cloths and optional safety pins.

Step 4: Wrap the towel around your doll. This will keep their cloth bodies nice and safe from water (Samantha looks like she's in a straight jacket (: ). If your towel easily unfolds like mine, you can pin it together like I did (you can be generous with the safety pins). Make sure you don't pin into her cloth body!

Step 5: Take your face cloth and you will gently put it on her face. I also pinned it in the back so it would not come off. This step is highly suggested because water can severely damage your doll’s head.

Step 6: Simply put your dolls wig in the sink and wet the hair with warm water. You also should before step 6 put your doll’s hair in a ponytail so washing it can be easier. I very much regret not doing this and I think Samantha’s wig is now damaged due to this. You do not want to get her wig wet

Step 7:  Apply shampoo to your doll’s hair but  keep it away from her wig. After that, make sure to completely wash it out. Repeat this step with Conditioner.

Step 8: Make sure you wash out all of the shampoo and conditioner in your doll’s hair and then wrap it up with a face cloth just like how you do a humans.

If you want to keep your doll’s hair straight, you are done and you should brush out her hair and fully dry it out. If you want to curl your doll’s hair, continue with the following steps.

Step 9: Remove protective cloth from your doll and get her ready for a hair appointment whether you typically brush her hair on your lap or in a styling chair etc. You will need bobby pins and doll hairbrush. If you did not pre-wash your doll’s hair, you will need a spray bottle.

Step 10: Fully brush out your doll’s hair (as I have previously stated, you typically don't want to brush out AG doll curls but here we will be curling your doll’s hair anyways). If you did not wash your doll’s hair, spray it down with lots of water.

Step 10 (optional): Use hair styling scissors to snip off some split ends or uneven hairs but remember not to do this without a parent's permission.

Step 11: Take the bottom layer of your doll’s hair and separate it from the rest of the hair like as shown.

Step 12: Separate a small part of your dolls hair and start twisting it.

Step 13: Twist it until it curls into a small bunch and pin it down with a bobby pin.

Step 14: Repeat steps 12-13 until you run out of hair on the bottom layer.

Step 15: Admire the fun hairstyle you have now created. Jk (:

Step 16: Take a new layer of hair and repeat steps 12-14 and do the same with the final layer of hair.

Step 17: Make sure you didn't leave out any extra pieces of hair and wait about 1 day or 24 hours to let it sit. During this time, you should spray the hair down with water. This will help it set but it is optional.

Step 17: Start to remove the bobby pins.

This next step is where it will be useful but not mandatory to use a hair pic.

Step 17: Now that the curlers are out, your doll’s hair might be a little bit crazy so what you can do now is gently pick at the hair with a doll pic or you can brush the hair as you would typically do with curls or just give it a little touch up with your fingers.

Ahhh. Isn't this much better (:

Step 18: Dress up your doll and enjoy your results. I am really happy with my results. Washing Sam’s hair made it a lot softer and definitely shinier. As you can tell, the curling worked as well. I hope this helped. Have you ever used this trick?

Remember to check out my last post "Lost dogs and dandelions" a photo story (: