Patti Doll Plays Guitar!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

I have a friend named Patti who loves to play guitar. Ever since I found her and gave her a make-over I've meant to get some photos of her with one of the many guitars I have gotten from the Dollar Tree. She is my first doppelganger doll made after a friend who actually plays guitar in real life... So it had to happen! Right?

So here she is, finally... Patti and her guitar about to play us a nice song. As I am posting this, I notice that, apparently, poor Patti has been sitting in the same outfit since I made her over. Time flies! When you have as many dolls as I do *blushes* it happens sometimes that they don't get their clothes changed as often as you'd like. So I'll have to give her a fresh new spring outfit today sometime..

One of the reasons I was spurred to action about getting a post about Patti is that she gave me a couple of doll sized gifts! If you look at the back of the chair she is sitting in, you'll see the beautiful red doily on the back? I got that as a Christmas gift from Patti. She made it just for the Doll House! Isn't that nice!Then, if you look over by the bed in the red tote bag? There is a little doll sized Gospel of John she gave me 'just because' this past week when we got together for coffee and Bible Study. I love it! John is my favorite of all the Gospels! Patti knows me so well. I meant to post a closer up photo of it for you... I'll come back and add one later. I've been having technical issues with the Blogger App again and I am just going to get this posted 'as is' for now in interest of getting it posted!

Here is Patti playing us a pretty song... She is so talented!! I have the best friends! 

Speaking of, I have the best Doll Friends too! Thanks for being one!
I better run and get ready for Church! I hope this finds you having a wonderful Sunday!

XXOO
Heather

Frann Doll Visits Build-A-Bear At Oakview Mall

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

For a while now I've wanted to do some doll photos at the mall... I finally realized it wasn't likely to happen unless I just scheduled it in instead of thinking it was just going to happen by some magic or something. So the other day, I made plans to go by the mall on my way home from work. I was happy that when the planned day arrived, it was sunny and pretty outside so there'd be good light even. Hip-hip-hooray!

So here is Frann Doll ready to get out of the Jeep and go into the pretty Oakview Mall. If you read my last post you may notice she is wearing same outfit here that she did in that posting. I pulled out a change of clothes for her to bring with me that morning before I left for work but apparently forgot to put them in my bag. Oy! So Franny had to wear the same outfit twice. Rats. Oh well... She didn't seem to mind all that much. She was just excited to see the mall and get a bite to eat!

Frann went to the food court and looked around... She decided that Burger King was the best place to have lunch. 

Frann got a burger and fries from Burger King. Then she noticed the Smoothie Shoppe and decided to get one of those instead of a regular soda from BK. YummO!

Frann took her time eating lunch... She loves 'people watching' and the mall is a great place for that! So many different people all going about their shopping. Real people are so much more interesting that TV, right? 

French Fries from BK are so delish!! 

What a nice place for lunch.

When she was done eating, it was time to go shopping...

First she needed to find a kiosk with a map so she could find the store she wanted to go to in this huge labyrinth of a mall! 

Such a pretty place and what great light coming in the enormous sun light!

Before she found a kiosk, Frann happened upon an art display! What great luck! She stood and admired the beautiful original art for a few minutes before going on.

"I really like this blue etching piece with the white frame"

Did I mention the mall is huge? After walking a while and realizing she'd taken a wrong turn and gone down the wrong hallway, Frann decided to take a moment to rest on a bench in front of Sears.

Finally, Frann found the shoppe she had come to the mall for! Build-A-Bear Workshop!! 

As I've mentioned in prior postings  about them, Build-A-Bear clothes are some of the few you can walk into a store and have a huge selection of clothes that fit 18inch dolls. Mind you, only the t-shirts work just as they come and those have to be 'large oversized t-shirts' but it's still fun to be able to go in and pick out a t-shirt or two right off the rack out of the huge selection they carry. As I mentioned in the prior posts, with just a small alteration here or there the clothes can fit just right but not everyone likes to sew. 

Frann was amazed by the selection.... She only took photos by a few of the 'walls of clothes' but there was so many cute things!!

Just about every motif you can imagine or super hero you admire or sports team you are a fan of had a t-shirt or other clothes item to represent it. How to choose just a couple?!

When Frann saw the Star Wars clothes she knew she'd have to come back another time to buy a gift for Vito Doll because he absolutely loves Star Wars and has done since he was knee-high-to-a-grasshopper. Yes... Christmas shopping must happen here. 

Naturally there was a huge display of Disney Princess themed clothes... They seemed to think of everything! Frann picked out two tshirts after much thought as to which two she liked best.

On her way out of the mall, she decided to stop and 'people watch' again... It might be a while before she makes it back and so she wanted to squeeze every drop of enjoyment out of it while she was there!

All too soon it was time to go home for dinner..! Here she is waving goodbye to Oakview! 

As we were leaving the mall, Frann noticed the Applebee's... She said "I have heard of that place, I will have to visit there sometime too..." Sounds reasonable to me! 

As we headed out we noticed that we'd need to gas up the car... So we filled up the gas tank and headed home! 

What a fun day at the mall!!
Hope this finds you having a fantastic day too!
Better run!
Till next time.
XXOO
Heather

Frann Goes To Runza and Epic Church!

Hi Doll Friends!!

This past Saturday my daughter and I had an event at church... Being as it was such a nice day, I decided to bring Frann Doll along and maybe get a few photos. My daughter was slightly worried I'd embarrass her so I promised I would only take photos in the car. Ah, the sacrifices we make for our children. LOL

So I tried a few shots from the car... Here is Frann ordering her very first Runza sandwich. You can't come to Nebraska and not have a Runza! My favorite is the Swiss Mushroom Runza and crinkle cut fries with ranch dressing to dip them in. YummO!

Frann took my suggestion and ordered one just like mine. Twinsies!

"I'll also take an Iced Tea!" 

Getting closer to the window!

We decided to take our lunch and park in a nice sunny spot to eat...

Then it was time to go to Epic Church for our event. Frann was so excited to see the church finally... Our family started attending there a few months ago after years at Flatland Church because we moved to a small town in Nebraska and we are an hour from Flatland now. After trying to keep up going there for a year because I love love love Flatland, God finally helped me figure out that more local church family is very important. So... After visiting several places, we found Epic and are slowly making our home there. It's the first time I've ever changed churches really, at least as a grown person... Long story that but I didn't start at Flatland until I was 37 years old. I went on to get to know and fall in love with Jesus and get baptized and become part of my first church family. So it was really hard to leave but it's feels like what God told me to do and so it feels right. It helps a LOT that I can still attend retreat every year with my Flatland sisters and visit there occasionally. I am rambling... Better run!

Hope this finds you having a blessed day! In case you haven't heard it lately:
Jesus loves you!!

Jesus loves you!!

Jesus loves you!!

(He told me to tell you and three times so you would hear it for sure... Not even kidding. I've learned not to ignore the Holy Spirit... It leaves a nagging feeling in my gut and better to just listen. Eh?)
Till Next Time!
XXOO
Heather

Equestrian Happenings At The Doll House!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

When my son Vito was little bitty, he loved ponies and horses. I mean it, he was obsessed with them... I had a good friend when he was little that owned several ponies and a couple of horses and I got him over to ride a few times. As much as I'd have liked to pursue his passion for them further by getting him a pony or horse of his own, ponies and horses are very expensive and a lot of work. So... That never made it past the 'dream' phase. 

However, since I've become so interested and started collecting American Girl sized dolls, I have found more than a few for my dolls. At first I was reticent to buy them because space is an issue and goodness knows my dolls take up their own fair share of space!! However, when I found Equus for only $2, I just couldn't help it... I had to bring her home. Same story with the Our Generation Ponies I got for a few dollars each. Just too cute to leave there. 

However, I never really pulled them out to use with the dolls for photos. I always imagined carrying the horse, ponies and some dolls outside somewhere and taking really neat photos... But that is a bit more tricky than you might imagine. Weather, timing, bugs, kids coming up and wanting to play.... All manner of things can be stacked against such photos happening. So mostly they sat and collected dust. Even when I found a sleigh and took photos of Equus pulling it, the back drop was a 'wall'. So I wasn't ever enthusiastic about taking photos with them. 

Untill..... photo backdrops. Finding them on eBay was such a gift! When I saw this one I knew it would be perfect for photos with both the horses and the other pets. I also got a Doll Tent from my husband last year that I've never really used for photos for the same reasons. I think this backdrop will work well for it as well. 

So, obviously, I pulled out the ponies and horse and my Vito and Lilly (my daughter's doppelganger) dolls out and take some photos. Vito finally got his ponies and horse!! 

As you may notice, there is also an American Girl Doll Paint Filly in the photos as well. I can't for the life of me find a post about having found it at Goodwill in my blog posts. Maybe I forgot to post about it at the time? As I recall, I found it for $3.99 and, despite already having all the others at home already, I bought it immediately when I found it. Nothing exceeds like excess, right? Teehee.

It was fun trying to make Vito look like he was actually riding the horse down the trail...

As you can see, the horse and dolls actually stand on a part of the photo backdrop. At first I thought I would hate that but I think it actually makes it look even more real. What do you think?

Off he goes! 

Speaking of which... I better run too. I have one more blog post I want to get written... So stay tuned!

Till Next Time!

XXOO
Heather

PS I nearly forgot to mention this fella.... I found him a few weeks ago, right before my Lent Fast of thrift stores.... I think he's cute and is mid sized between the horse and the ponies... He has a scratch in his 'flocking' but is other wise in great shape. Not bad for $1.50! See why I can't pass them up?!?