HAIR! And the best Star Trek Next Generation moment.

Our plans have changed and so now we are going to Canada TOMORROW.
So, I decided to sieze the moment to do a quick post on three cute hairdo's I did on my American Girl's this morning.

First, Jamie's 'do.

Jamie used to be a Felicity doll but when we got her from eBay, she smelled like cigarette smoke. We tried everything to eliminate the smell. We washed her, we stuck her in a box of coal, we took her stuffing out....

.....Then we stuck her in the garage. Meanwhile, I found another Felicity in better condition at a garage sale for $1!!!

Well.... Three years later, I go into the garage and pick up she-who-is-now-Jamie. I was thinking, "I have an extra AG doll, I could sell her on ebay for $30 or something." I sniffed the doll to see if she still smelt like smoke. No smokey smell. Just musty.
Instead of selling her, my mom and I cut her hair in a shoulder-length style. My dad and re-stuffed her and re-attached her head, and she became Jamie!

The hairstyle above is a french braid. I did one on each side of her head. It was practically my first time french braiding other than a few trial runs and I'm pretty pleased with the outcome! Especially since Jamie's hair is very dry and hard to style (it has an odd twist at the back as well, and she has a bald spot. Hee hee).
This is the video I worked off of (primarilly): How to do a french braid hairstyle on American Girl with short hair.

Felicity's 'do (front and back) :

I got this hairstyle from the girls at Our Dolls.
The style is Twisted Bun. 

Finally, Juliet's style (front and back... with Tintin in the background, hee hee) :

This was a fun but hard stlye to do.... I also got it from Our Dolls. It is the Colonial Daytime Style.
I had a hard time with this because Juliet's hair is short, curly, and a little bit layered. I had to modify the style. Instead of doing two small curls on either side of the head, I just made one big bun on the back of the head. It used less bobby pins and turned out much nicer because of Juliet's short hair.

And now, my absolute favorite scene in Star Trek Next Generation. It is from the episode Deja Q.
Q is an alien from the species Q. They are omnipotent beings and usually keep to themselves.... Q however keeps interfering with the lives of mortal species, and particularly with the human race, even more specifically, with Captain Picard.
In this episode, the Q Continuim has kicked Q out for sending an asteroid on a collision course with a habited planet. The Q Continuim strips Q of his power and makes him mortal. They strand him on the Enterprise with Picard's crew.
In the end, Q is given his power back and in turn, gives Data, the andriod, a special gift of his own.

Ah, Brent Spiner (Data).... So talented. He can laugh on command, sing, act, and he's DATA! =D

A random assortment of things pertaining to American Girl Dolls and dog tags.

First of all, WHAT?!?!?! American Girl came out with new outfits and I didn't know about it!! It must have just happened within the last day because I recently checked the AG website.
Among the new things are, new doll outfits (for My American Girl/Just Like You dolls, Historical doll Julie, and Girl of the Year Mckenna), a new pet (Meatloaf - love the name), an old pet (they retired Licorish, they brought her back. Personally, I like the old Licorish better. Dad says, "I can't tell the difference." *shakes head* ), some new black boots (cute, but I already have, like, 4 or 5 pairs of black boots for my dolls 0.0 Oh well, they go great with the Star Trek costumes), and.... A DOLL SIZED CAR!!!!!

Is a little Bug! How cute! And blue, my favorite color. Unfortuneately, this car costs $350..... For a doll sized car. You could easily make your own car for virtually free. That's what Anna at basilmetos did.
A cute car AG, but a little too expensive..... Alright, a lot too expensive.

Every month or every few months I go on an American Girl Doll rave. I dress and re-dress them. I make videos with them... Most of this happens during the summer when I have time.
While I dress and re-dress my dolls, the clothes that I take off of them pile up on my desk. The desk was originally supposed to be a writing desk.... But most of my writing takes place elsewhere. I don't know if I've ever sat down and written a story at my desk. Probably 'cause it's usually overflowing with American Girl Doll stuff. Hee hee.
Currently our living room floor is also scattered with AG stuff. Outfits and hair accesories and shoes.
Tonight I dressed 5 of my dolls in the Kit Kittredge outfits I have (6 dolls including Kit, but she was already dressed).
And since I really don't have anything else to blog about and this blog was originally supposed to be an American Girl blog (but has spilled out into all the other areas of my life), I will show you my collection of Kit outfits.

From left to right:
Jamie wearing Kit's Christmas Dress (in the books, the dress is a hand-me-down from Ruthie who has outgrown the dress. Kit angrily refuses it because Kit thinks Ruthie is giving it to Kit because Kit's family is poor - the books are set during the Great Depression. In the end, Kit takes the dress.)
Felicity is wearing Kit's Birthday Dress (in the books, the dress is made of feedsack - you know, the stuff chicken feed comes in? Aunt Millie made the dress for Kit after buying the family some chickens. Kit feels so embarressed to wear the dress because a feedsack dress in the Great Depression lets the whole world know that you are one step away from the poor house. Luckily (and probably thanks to Aunt Millie) it doesn't come to that. Felicity is wearing shoes that came from Michaels Crafts.)
Rena is wearing Kit's School Dress (with the bow from one of Samantha's dresses. I honestly don't remember anything about this dress from the books... Only that it is on the cover of "Kit Learns a Lesson.")
Ruthie is wearing her Meet Outfit.
Kit is wearing her Reporter Dress (which never shows up in the books, only the movie.)
Jess is wearing Kit's Meet Outfit.

So there you have it.... I might do all of my Samantha outfits next, since I have tons of those too.

Anywho, I will be in Canada for the weekend so no blog posts (I will actually be in Canada on Canada Day for once!). My dad's family all lives in Canada, eh? I guess you could call this my vacation from the vacation I just took.... I would be upset to go except for the fact that my favorite cousin will be there and we always have a blast playing Mario on our Nintendo DS's. And playing at the park around the corner from our Grama's. We always end up playing freeze tag or hide and seek or the Alien Game or making up our own running/tag-ish game (like Lord of the Rings!) with our Dad's.
The last time I was in Canada, the dad's wanted to go back to Grama's so they said, "We'll leave now. You come 5 minutes later. We'll try catch you before you get to Grama's. If we catch you, you lose. If you get to Grama's, you win."
So my cousin and I were thinking we would sneak around to the front entrence of the neighborhood my Grama lives in and get in that way. So we walked and walked and walked and we went into this neighborhood thinking it lead out to the main road.... It was a culdisack. So we walked all the way back. It took us a good 30 minutes. We snuck back to Grama's and almost got in... and then the Dad's caught us.
That was the absolutely funnest adventure I've ever been on. =D

I took a World War 1 and 2 class last fall/winter/into the spring. I completed all the requirements (memorizing 3 quotes, memorizing 3 Bible verses, watching WW1&2 movies, reading all the books on the book list, memorizing the poem Flanders Fields, completing the weekly opinion papers - 13 in total, writing a 3 page+ hero report on a hero from one of the World Wars {I did George M. Cohan}, and giving a class presentation on one of the countries during WW2 {I did Holland because my Grama lived during Germany's occupation of Holland}). If you completed all the above requirements, at the end of class, you got your own dog tags. Three of them. One with your name and the date of the class, and two with quotes that you got to choose.

The first one (in the red silencer) says, "Do Hard Things" (fantastic book, by the way. Everyone should read it).
The second one says, "Freedom is never free."
I won't show the one with my name. ;)
It was a very cool ceremony. We went to an old people's home and the veterans told stories. There were even two men that had served in WW2 there! It was very fun.

Well, I've ran out of random things to say so I shall leave you with a picture of Rosey. Or maybe two or three.....

(Rosey and Davie. Davie is the dog of the people who watched Rosey. His tail is a blur because he spotted his owner coming home and kind of went crazy).

(Rosey being adorable and hogging Davie's bed.)

(Hanging out the window on the way home.)

P.S. Sorry for any spelling mistakes. Spellcheck isn't working!! AHHH!

HOME! (and... The Return of Doll Trek)

We are HOME!!!

Tintin was reunited with Captain Haddock and Snowy:

We drove 14 hours yesterday. Note to self: NEVER do that again!
I listened to some music.... finished The Fellowship of the Ring.... Started Two Towers.... Read some Sherlock Holmes.... tried to keep Mom awake by playing Mad Libs (ever heard of Wolfgang farfegnugen Mozart? Or the song, "Yankee doodle went to town, riding on a toe nail, stuck a feather in his button, and called it ham bun?") .... and tortured Tintin.

"Ai ai ai ai ai! Put up your sword!"

"My name is Tintin Montoyo, you killed my father, prepare to die."

"Duuuuuuude."

"Snowy! Bite through these ropes! Oh yeah, Snowy isn't here because someone wouldn't let Abbey take along more than 2 stuffed animals!"

We got home around 9 PM. It was great to see my dad again and Rosey! We missed Rosey soooooo much. She stayed with a friend while we were gone. They took very good care of her. =D
The first thing I did after saying hello and bringing the stuff in from the car, was to dress my dolls in the outfits I got at American Girl Place New York City; I wasn't allowed to take a doll along on the trip. This morning I did a photoshoot with them and their knew things.

Addy's Plaid Summer Set:

This dress is absolutely beautiful. It is worth every cent, except maybe the bow which I'm not quite sure what to do with. It's very wide and very short. The boots that came with this outfit are adorable!

Speaking of adorable... Kit's Reporter Dress!

Next to her birthday dress, I think this is my favorite Kit dress. It is so cute! The shoes are the best part of the outfit. I think they are the cutest doll shoes I own! Again, the headband I'm not sure what to do with... It doesn't fit the doll's head and just pops off, but I was kind of expecting that. If you are considering this outfit, do not hesitate to buy it! It is worth it (just for the shoes, hee hee).

Josefina's Dress and Vest:

Josefina's accesories:

Emily's accesories (1940's; I don't have Emily, but the sweater looked cute on Ruthie in her meet outfit! And Ruthie and Emily's stories are only 10 years apart so the dress styles aren't too different.... And yes, those are the school desks that you can sort of see!)

AGPNYC black exclusive tee:

I kind of went crazy with the pictures...

Some of you may remember Doll Trek from my third or fourth blog post.
Well..... It has returned.

The last hurrah

Tomorrow we leave for home. Hurrah! After 33 days away, I am in dire need or my own bed, my friends, playing board games with Dad (I want to play Thebes when we get home ok Daddy?), my dolls, my SAXOPHONE!! I haven't been able to play it since April. I was sick the beginning of May because of an ear infection and I didn't want to blow an ear drum, so I just haven't played sax all this time. My ears are better, thank goodness, and I can't wait to get back home to play saxophone! And play my own piano. I guess you can say that I have been longing for home since we got to Grama's.

We've been packing the car up, but there is some extra baggage coming with us..... Old timey school desks! My grandparents have about 6 in their basement and they were planning on getting rid of them so they sent an email out asking if anyone wanted them. I said yes! I have lots of memories playing school in Grama's basement as a little kid. We are taking two desks back with us. I'm not going to show any pictures (mainly because I don't want to run downstairs to take a picture of the remaining desks) or tell you what I'm going to do with the desks.... But I do have a plan brewing in the windmills of my mind.

But this blog post is not about the desks. It is about typewriters. I have always thought typewriters are pretty cool but never really got further than that.... I'm not really sure what made me suddenly interested in typewriters. It might be because Miss Jack Lewis Baillot mentioned she bought one. Or it might be because Kit Kittredge the American Girl Doll has a typewriter that is very special to her (an American Girl decided to retire it!! Read the books before you retire things AG!). In the Kit movie, Kit uses her typewriter and it just looks fun.... Although pieces and parts are broken and the "E" doesn't work (in the books her dad and brother fix the typewriter and surprise Kit. It's very sweet).
Anyway, down in Grama's basement, among piles of other stuff, are two typewriters.

There is this electronic one which works very well and makes bold, black, beautiful letters:

And then there is this typewriter:

This typewriter is from the 1940's. My great-grandfather bought it in 1954 (I believe) for $60. My Grandpa used it to write college papers and my mom wrote her high school papers on it. As of today, when Grandpa dies, that typewriter is going to be mine. I'm going to go put a piece of tape on it that says, "ABBEY."
I wrote a bit on this typewriter as well as the other one. The letters on this one aren't as strong, and I fear the ink on the ribbon is running low, so when I get this typewriter it will probably be for show.
If Grandpa would have let me, I would take it right now. I would set it on the school desk.
Having a piece of family history this old and with so much history makes me happy. I love old things.

Big Red

This is Big Red:

Big Red is a 37 1/2 year old Caprice Red Chevrolet. She used to be my grandparents family car when my mom was young. They went to Yellowstone and DC and Boston and New York City in Big Red. She always faithfully pulled her camper.

Grandpa doesn't take Big Red out much anymore (partly because the fan that cools down the engine isn't working) but we managed to get a short 10 minute drive today.

Riding in Big Red is like driving a boat. I'm trying not to fall in love.

Me "driving"

 

I don't know much about cars but I know enough to know that this is one cool car! Thanks for the ride Grandpa!!!

Hip hip!

Hip hip huzzah! My glasses are fixed! I can see! I was blind but now I see! =D

That is not the reason for this blog post, though. I wanted to share with you all a small part of my novel.
The novel is the sequel to a novel I wrote last summer. Last summer's novel was a sequel to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
My reason for writing the novel (which is called After The Twelfth Night) was because I played Antonio in Twelfth Night about 4 years ago. Antonio rescues one of the main characters but we never find out if Antonio goes to jail or is freed at the end of the play! So I wrote a book to explain what happens to him.
In the second novel, Sebastian (the friend Antonio rescued) and Antony (Antonio's son) and a whole bunch of other random people (not including Antonio because something happens to him in the first book which makes him unable to go with Sebastian and Antony... Those who know what happens, don't spoil it!) go to an island in the middle of the ocean to try find buried treasure. But not just any buried treasure... This is Sebastian's father's treasure.
Anyway, enough back story. Here is a section of the novel:

Torchlight illuminated the walls of the cave. Sebastian and the other men were standing in a small chamber just inside the cave. In front of them was a decision; two tunnels.
"Which way do we choose?" Toms asked.
"Half of us could go one way and half could go the other way." suggested Antony.
"I think we should stay together." Joseph said.
"I concur." Verges' quiet voice was heard.
"Let's try the right passage first." decided Sebastian.
"You can't go wrong if you go right!" Antony said with a boyish grin covering his face.
Sebastian rolled his eyes, "The right passage smells fresher."
"Let's stop standing around talking about the passage and go down it." Joseph said.
The men nodded and headed down the right passage.
The walls were dry and smooth. As the men progressed through the tunnel, the walls got closer and closer together until arms and shoulders were scraping against rock. The ceiling also seemed to close in on the travellers. The rock was suffocating. There wasn't room to turn back. The only way was foreward. The men stooped over their torches, rock pressing in on them from all angles. They were just starting to wounder whether they were going to die, stuck in the tunnel, when Sebastian, who was first, cried out.

So there you have it. I have to do more editing on it... But I just wanted to share that with you because I have nothing better to blog about!

Something to lbog about

Yesterday I was pondering what to blog about. We are at Grama's house for a few days before heading home on Sunday.
I haven't been doing anything since arriving two days ago. Just reading, writing, playing piano, watching TV and videos on youtube - including a "how to play fife" video. I think I know basically what I'm supposed to do.
Now I have something to blog about.
I've gone and done it.
I've broken my glasses on vacation.
All I can say is THANK YOU LORD that it did not happen at the beginning of the trip!!!
I was cleaning my glasses while out and about thrift store shopping today when the lens popped out. My glasses have a small band that holds the lens in place. This band snapped. Tomorrow we are going to go to an eye doctor to see if he can fix it. Grandpa thinks my glasses are unfixable. I really do not want to get a whole new pair of glasses, especially while away from my own eye doctor. But I really don't have another choice, if my glasses are unfixable. I can't even see what I'm typing (so I apologize for any spelling mistakes). I can only see if I get about 5 or 6 inches from the screen, squint, and strain my eyes. Everything is a blur.  I'd rather be blind than deaf any day.
We just called the eyedoctor. Hip hip! They said that any eye place could fix this [roblem easily. I guess life is still pretty boring. Oh well, boring is good sometimes.

I mentioned that I have been playing piano. I thought it was probably time to show you all what is known as "my signature piece" by my friends.

I give you, the Peanuts Theme Song. (played on my Grama's Mason and Hamlin piano - great for playing theme tunes and ragtime!):

The rest of our trip - speed version.

I have been so exhausted these past few days. There comes a point where you just can't absorb any more history!

After Washington DC, we headed to Richmond Virginia, the Confederate capitol during the Civil War.
They have a great Confederate museum there. Soooo many times, Civil War museums are very biased towards the North. They say that the war was primarily about slavery, when that wasn't the case.
Lincoln originally fought the war to keep the Union together. Slavery became a part of the war later.
The Confederacy fought the war for states rights. They weren't fighting FOR slaves. They were fighting for the right to choose whether or not they wanted slaves or not.
I must say that I am on the side of the South. People who hear that usually go, "WHAT? You want slavery???"
No. I think slavery is wrong. All men were created equal. The only difference between white people and black people is melanin!
I believe that if the Confederacy had won the Civil War, slavery would have eventually died out and we would be a much freer nation than we are today.
Anyway, enough of past wars.
Here are some pictures from the Museum of the Confederacy:
(It's a fez! Fezzes are cool....)

(Civil War drum! They are SO cool!)

(J.E.B. Stuart's saddle, desk, hat (you can see the hat in the picture in the back), gloves, sword, and pistol)

(A 19th century bull horn: "Let's MOVE. THAT. BUS!!!!!!!")

Another drum, along with a fife, and a bugle!

Civil War pipes:

I will let these two next pictures speak for themselves:

"Sherman's Bow tie." Sherman, a Union general, had his troops pull up rail road tracks and twist them into spirals so the Confederates couldn't use them.

I will let these next to pictures speak for themselves:

Next we toured Jefferson Davis (the president of the Confederacy) house:

It was very nice inside, although he only lived here during his presidency.

The day after Richmond, we went to Colonial Williamsburg. It was amazing! They say take three days to meander through the whole place... We had one afternoon. It wasn't long enough. We could have stayed a lot longer.
We saw lots of people in period clothing and lots of building that were period buildings. I was very excited to walk down the streets because Felicity, the American Girl Doll, is from Colonial Williamsburg!
Near the end of the afternoon, there was a big presentation done by reanactors. It was so good! We nearly witnessed a tar and feathering! And we got to sit in on a young couple's wooing.
Oh yeah.... and Grama, Tintin, and I were thrown in the stocks.

Then to the gift shop.... And I got a fife! A $15 fife! A great price... Especially since we saw $25 and $100+ fifes in other stores in Williamsburg. I have wanted to play fife for awhile now (along with piccolo and organ) and this instrument will be the perfect thing to learn on. I even love the color.
So far I can make noise. The fife came with instructions for a beginner but without a teacher to show me how things work, I don't think I'll get far. I don't even know what sound is supposed to come out when I play a certain note.
So, when we get to Grama's I will be searching "How to play fife: beginner" on Youtube.

After 10 hours in the car, we went to the Creation Museum. It was a very good museum! Lots of great information. What was really neat was they were refuting things that evolutionists say. I feel like I can defend my faith even better now. Plus, the museum had a lot of dinosaurs, which is always a plus. =)

Wax paleontologists. This museum was full of wax figures that looked real! As all homeschoolers, I had a dinosaur faze. I wowed my parents when, at 6 years old, I could name all the dinosaurs. Grama was impressed that I wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up. When my dream changed to archaeologist, she was still impressed. Now that I want to be a worship team/youth leader/mom/writer/wife when I grow up, I'm not sure what she thinks. Hee hee.

"I found Captain Haddock's friends from Prisoner's of the Sun!" Tintin laughed.

He wasn't too pleased when a dinosaur decided to have him for a snack.....

He even got to meet Adam and Eve!

(They invited him to go for a swim with them but Tintin declined the offer....)

Methuselah:

Outside the museum in the beautiful gardens was a petting zoo. They had Zorses!

And a whole family of peacocks (including a white one!)

(Where'd the head go?!)

Yesterday we went to a museum about the Underground Railroad. I didn't take any pictures and personally, I didn't think the museum was all that great. It was mostly reading repeating stuff.
But it was still interesting! To each his own.

Today we went to the Abraham Lincoln museum in Springfield Illinois. It was absolutely amazing. Lifelike figures and displays to make you feel like you were really there, enhanced the experience greatly.

Tintin got to sit on Abe's shoulder:

Tintin and I with fellow Shakespearean.... John Wilkes Booth:

Fascinating museum. I would recommend it highly to anyone who is a fan of Abe Lincoln.

Tonight marked the last day of our travels. We drive for 7 hours tomorrow and end up at Grama's house where we will stay for a week or so. Then Mom and I will drive back home. I can not wait to get to Grama's, and eventually home. As I said before, I am burned out. I have learned to much and experienced so much. It's like you can't believe it's over so quickly, but yet you can because you want to get home so much.

So long farewell for now, I suppose. Until my next blog post. =)

Now I bid you all a good night. And don't let those bed bugs bite.