Doll stuff goes Here

Courtney is having a fun summer so far, in 1986. She's back from her road trip vacation with her dad, and now she intends to spend some quality time at Smiley's Arcade. She is determined to beat her high score in Skee-Ball!

Normally Courtney prefers strategy games like Pac-Man, but she still has room in her heart for the classic challenge of a game won by strength and coordination.

She knows there must be some strategy to getting a higher score. She just hasn't quite mastered it yet.

She pitches it up the slope and holds her breath for that agonizing moment when she's not sure where it's going...

An hour later, Courtney's friends track her down at the arcade, and she knows it's time to go with them. She starts counting the tickets the machine has spat out.

She takes the tickets over to the prize counter and is astonished to realize she has enough of them to get something good.

The most prominent part of this park is the Valley of the Goblins. Can you see why it's called that? The "goblins" are the weird and wacky sandstone formations scattered across the valley.

When I say this park is full of unique surprises, this is what I mean. In the valley, there are no trails. You descend into the valley, and then your heart and your feet guide your explanation.

If you see something in the distance that interests you, you simply walk toward it until you arrive.

The valley is encircled by a massive rock wall, so it's impossible to get lost. And the parking area is on a tall mesa, visible from anywhere in the valley. You can see it from pretty much everywhere.

Wandering free range like this does feel very taboo to me, as an experienced hiker, when practically everywhere else requires one to stay on the trail.

This is especially important in the desert, where walking on cryptobiotic soil can cause a lot of harm to the fragile life forms clinging to life in a harsh environment.

But we went with the flow and enjoyed the opportunity to go wandering, and had a great time. We walked out to the farthest reaches of the three valleys, where we found ourselves very alone.

Or in the presence of so many goblins....... were we truly alone?

At the end of the day, I don't think I could have walked another step. Poor Raphaela was struggling to stay upright in the heavy winds.

Anytime you see her sitting instead of walking, assume it was very windy. And she's so good at standing unsupported, usually. I think I really tuckered her out.

After the cut, please enjoy some more freaky scenery pictures minus Raphaela or myself. As you may be able to tell, I so very much enjoyed my time at the park.

I sewed up Andy’s shirt today!

Unlike some of the commercial versions, this has shoulder seams (as opposed to a grown-on sleeve). It sewed up like a dream! I did copy the technique for the collar: sewing wrong to wrong, snipping, flipping, and ironing very well). This is also a lengthened version of the shirt body because…

These clothes are separates. They will be worn tucked in. So cute!!

I wanted to avoid any threads pulling at the waist seam, and allow for mixing and matching. Since they’re Asleep Awakes, it makes me want to sew a pajamas/ sleepshirt and a nightgown.

Disney Princess X American Girl Dolls

I've been frantically searching for a G2 Clawd Wolf doll as he has a bigger body than the G1 male body. However, because he has been so obscure to find at the price I wanna pay, I just wanted to start working on him so I used this Scarnival Clawd head that had pieces of his flock missing.

I rerooted him in a blend of warm red and brown saran from @customdollhairAU as it matched my G1 Clawdeen's hair blend.

I decided to fully root his sideburns as well as his hair because of how bushy the animated version of him looks, and I think it brings him closer to his Wolfman inspiration.

I'm really chuffed how well he turned out as he's one of my favourite Monster High characters from the show and I'm really happy to finally scratch that design itch.

Meet Violet Fielding, my original historical character from 1918 Boston!

I've been doing some workshopping with my custom historical characters because I've been a little bored with AG's historical offerings of late, and because it's a fun excuse to dig into moments in time that interest me personally, but AG probably wouldn't produce a similar character themselves. (I say that, but my 1940's Hawaii character predates Nanea, so who knows! Maybe I'm manifesting some future stuff I can borrow for my gals.)

Violet is the youngest of three siblings. Her older sister Alice is in her early 20's and either a nurse or a Hello Girl, leaning towards nursing because I'm not sure I want her to go overseas and she could work at a hospital in Boston during the war. Her older brother James is 19 and enlists in the Marines once the US enters World War I. I think by Violet Saves the Day, he's returned home dealing with quite a bit of "shellshock" and that becomes a somewhat major theme.

Her parents are pretty wealthy, and the family lives in a brownstone on Beacon Hill in Boston. Her dad is a doctor and mom is a suffragist who also gets involved in causes supporting the war effort. Both parents are very supportive of their kids following their passions and getting themselves out there in this still relatively new century, which is why Alice has been allowed to go to school instead of immediately marrying some wealthy guy.

Vi herself is a precocious and creative kid. I think she likes to draw and paint and generally be crafty and creative, which comes in handy when brainstorming ways she can support her brother overseas and the war effort more broadly. While she's not afraid to get her hands dirty, she does like typically girly things like having teatime and looking at catalogs filled with new dresses. Her book series would theoretically cover 1917 through 1919 or so, and touch on the war, Women's Suffrage, the Spanish Flu, shellshock, and possibly the Boston Molasses Disaster.

Currently I'm trying to come up with a best friend character for her, as she really needs a Nellie or Ruthie in her life with the age difference and both siblings being off doing exciting and scary things without her. There are a lot of different directions I could go in with said friend - fellow wealthy-ish kid feels boring, Boston had a lot of new immigrant communities in the 1910's, some of whom did live in a specific part of Beacon Hill, Boston historically struggles with insidious covert racism but was still a city with a number of prominent Black and Jewish communities - and nothing's quite clicked as perfect just yet.