Giddy Up!

Growing up I always wanted a horse; I love everything cowboy: horses, boots, rodeos, hats, you get the picture. So when I see something horse related I get really excited. Over the years I've collected several horse related items. 

I found a really cute outfit for our American Girl dolls at Target. This outfit features a cute pink-checked cowboy shirt, jean skirt and vest, brown cowboy hat and oddly enough brown flats rather than cowboy boots. Marie-Grace looks super cute in this outfit; it's perfect for taking her horse, Spirit, the American Girl palomino horse, for a walk.  We have several other cowboy outfits, too. My favorite is the blue denim outfit with black fringe and  black and white cowboy boots. This outfit is several years old; it was actually a Halloween costume complete with mask and trick-or-treat bag. The other outfit is from Nicki's collection; it has pink corduroy pants and a mint green top with horse design and a straw cowboy hat. Nicki also has riding chaps and cowboy boots.

We've added several horses to our collection. I love the quality of the American Girl horses. They are covered with a soft velvet material and the mane and tail are from the same hair as the American Girl dolls. Daphne brushes Penny, the American Girl chestnut horse while Nicki feeds her horse from 2007, Jackson.

We made a horse barn to house our horses. It's constructed out of a simple plywood box; we added corral beams and barn supports so our horses all have their own stalls to relax in.

There's nothing like a good horse and a great friend to make a day special!

Kirsten's spring fashions

I always enjoy trying out new patterns and I found one for Kirsten that I just had to try out.

This dress is made from a vintage flower print that looks right out of Kirsten's time period. The dress has long sleeves that Velcro closed at the wrist. The dress is trimmed with pink ribbon.

I love the little pleat in the front bodice of the dress and the matching sunbonnet.

Kirsten can add a cute apron when she wants to make her dress look a bit more formal for school or church.

Sailor's Hornpipe

The Sailor's Hornpipe is a highland dance that mimics the actions of a sailor at sea.  The dance includes movements like hauling in the ropes, climbing the ships rigging, looking out at sea, swabbing the deck and hoisting the sails.  The hornpipe is danced in a sailor's uniform (either white or navy blue). It was named the hornpipe because it was originally danced to hornpipes rather than bagpipes.

Here's our American Girl version of the outfit worn for the Sailor's Hornpipe.  Our dancer wears a white hornpipe outfit made from gabardine.  The outfit has a top with a a v-front neckline and attached collar. Under her top she wears a white dickie with a black ribbon trim, and a black ribbon tied in a bow is attached to the front of the top.  The sleeves extend to the dancer's wrists and the top rests at her hips. The pants are made from the same white gabardine material and have an elastic waist and bell-bottoms. The hornpipe hat is a circular white sailor's cap with a blue band. Our doll's outfit is completed with a pair of white socks and her black dance ghillies.

The collar was the most difficult part of this outfit to make. The navy blue collar is a double thick collar with white stripes. Three stripes are regulation for a competing dancer's outfit, but our doll models a collar with two stripes due to the petite size of this outfit.

I love the detail of the collar; it's my favorite part of this outfit!

Rebecca

Here's a look at Rebecca and her display at the American Girl store in Chicago.

Here's Rebecca in her meet outfit and accessories.

I love Rebecca's school outfit.  I love this skirt and sweater set; it's really cute in person.

Here's a close-up of Rebecca's school set. It has her lunch, lunchbox, and everything she needs for her play at school.

Rebecca's winter coat is so soft and warm!

This is one of my favorite pieces at the American Girl store. I love Rebecca's settee.  It's such a well made piece of furniture; I'd love to have it in my dollhouse. Rebecca looks really cute in her lace dress, too.

A view of Rebecca's world.  I love her movie dress and summer outfit. She has some of the best pieces.  Her costume chest and bed are really well made and so cute in person.  I wish I could take her entire collection home with me!

At the American Girl store in Chicago they offer a peek into the past for each of the historical dolls.  Although the vignettes are all small, they offer a realistic view of the time period.

Sew Fun!

I love all of the fun sets for American girl dolls. We have lots of sets from AG, but we have sets from other brands, too. One of the sets that I just love is the sewing set from Our Generation which is available at Target.

This sewing set from Target is "sew" cute.  I love the sewing machine; it looks just like mine!  The set comes with all the items you'll need to set up your own sewing room.  Marie-Grace wears the wristband pin cushion. (It's a bit hidden behind her sewing project.)  The set has bolts of material, scissors, thread, needles, buttons, a thimble, tape measure and marking chalk.

The set also includes an ironing board, iron and spray bottle so you can iron your projects (or laundry!)  My little girls enjoying "sewing" lots of outfits for their dolls.

The Irish Jig

Several years ago when my oldest daughter started Highland dancing I started sewing outfits for her doll. She always wanted outfits to match her outfits, so I made her doll a Jig dress to match the one she had at the time.

I laugh now to look back at this Jig dress. It's green and has a white apron. I got frustrated having to tie things over and over again for my daughters and their dolls, so I just made this apron part of the doll's dress.  If I were going to remake this dress, I'd definitely sew the apron separately so it looked more in keeping with a real Jig costume. Also, I'd make the bodice of the dress a bit more fitted so it didn't look so sloppy.

Julie

Here's a look at Julie Albright and her display at the Chicago American Girl store.  Julie is a groovy girl from the 1970's.  I love her long, long blond hair and with a mini braid. 

I really love Julie's meet outfit because it reminds me of a shirt and jeans I had as a child.

Here's Julie with her BFF Ivy and her pet bunny. Check out the ultra cool kitchen table and chairs. I dig the sunny yellow color, but I remember lots of avocado green and harvest gold colors in the 70's.

Here's Julie in her floral jumpsuit; it's authentic right down to the little details like the zip-up turtleneck.

Here's Julie's lunch and lunchbox.  I remember having one like this, but I think mine also had Scooby-Doo on it.

Here's Julie in her casual outfit and cap & scarf. She wears this for dog walking.

 My youngest daughter really loves Julie's bedroom. I have to admit that I found it very groovy, too.  I love the beads handing down from the canopy.  I bet Julie gets a great night's sleep in this bed.

 I liked the fact that they had the bed out where you could look it over and handle it. It seems to be really well made. Perhaps there's a spot for it in our dollhouse?

Just in case your daughter wants to dress like Julie, there's a matching set of pajamas and slippers for girls, too.

 Here's Julie's sound accessories.  I remember getting a tape recorder when I was young.  I had such a great time recording my own music and talk shows!

 Here's the mock up of a girl's room from the '70s.  My daughter got really excited when she saw this room and the items in it.

 "Mom, you have those books at home!" Yes, I still have my complete set of Little House on the Prairie books, and they came in a box just like this one.  If only she knew I had green shag carpet in my room and wore purple Converse hightops, I bet she's be even more impressed!

 "Hey, there's a record player just like this in grandma's attic. We played with it when we went to her house at Christmas!"  Yes, it's in the attic because it was mine when I was little.  I remember playing records on it when I was little and singing along to the latest songs; different, but yet not so different, from girls today.





The Hidden Gold: A Marie-Grace Mystery

Title: The Hidden Gold: A Marie-Grace Mystery
Author: Sarah Masters Buckey
Pages 140 (Plus a Looking Back section)

Summary: Marie-Grace is on a steamboat traveling down the Mississippi river with her father when she meets a girl named Wilhelmina Newman. Wilhelmina's father was a prospector who discovered gold and was returning to the family so that they could build a new farm together, but before he could return, he fell ill. Wilhelmina had traveled to see her ill father, but before she could reach him, he died. Wilhelmina's father has left her and her brothers enough gold to start the farm their family dreamed of and remain together as a family.  The problem is, her father has hidden the gold so that it would be safe from thieves. Willhelmina's father left her clues as to the location of the gold, but she isn't sure what they mean, or even if they are clues, since all the clues are hidden in nursery rhymes.

Marie-Grace meets Wilhelmina when she boards the steamboat that Marie-Grace and her father are on. Willhelmina doesn't have any money nor anyone to look after her, but Marie-Grace comes to her rescue and offers to share her cabin with Willhelmina.  Slowly, Wilhelmina opens up to Marie-Grace and shares her secret. Marie-Grace agrees to help Wilhelmina unravel the clues and search for the gold, but they'll have to be quick, because someone else on the boat is looking for the hidden gold, too! Will Marie-Grace be able to help Wilhelmina solve the mystery before it's too late?

Creating A book club is a great activity you can do with a friend or two. Book club meetings are lots of fun; they give you a chance to talk about a good book and share your ideas and feelings with friends.

There are several different types of questions that you can write for your book club. Each type of question will give you different things to talk about.

The first type of question is a direct reading question. This type of question asks you to find information in the book. Sometimes teachers give these types of questions on a quiz to see if you remembered what you read. You can write your own direct reading questions by using these phrases to start:

Who is…

What is…

Where were...

When did…

What does…

Define…

Name…

List…

For instance, for the book The Hidden Gold I might ask the following questions:

Who is Wilhelmina?

Name the riddles that might be clues.

Where were Marie-Grace and Wilhelmina when the clues were stolen?

List the possible suspects.

Define a Spider.

 Create a few of these questions to test your memory of what you read. Does everyone in your book club remember? If not, who can find the answer in the book?

The next type of question you can pose in the book club is an interpretive question. This type of question requires the reader to think about what she read and apply it to something she already knows. It might take some reading between the lines or putting two and two together to answer this type of question.  You can write your own interpretive questions by using these phrases to start:

Summarize…

Retell in your own words…

Why does…

Explain…

Compare…

Give reasons why…

How did…

Conclude…

What do you think…

What would you do if…

Why?

Solve…

Prove…

Predict…

Evaluate…

What if…

For instance, for the book The Hidden Gold I might ask the following questions:

What would you do if you had some gold to hide for a loved one?

Predict what type of changes are in store for Wilhelmina when she returns to her family.

Evaluate the way Marie-Grace followed the boat's rules.

What do you think will happen to Marie-Grace on the next part of her trip?

Book clubs work best when you plan what you’d like to do. Do you want to write all of the questions yourself? Would you like your friends to each share the responsibility and come to the club with a list of questions to share? Do you want to read a few chapters of the text and then meet to discuss those chapters, or would you rather meet once everyone has read the entire book?

For instance, for the book The Hidden Gold I might ask the following questions:

Explain why Marie-Grace crosses Sister Catherine off the suspect list but not Monsieur Andre'.

Give reasons why Marie-Grace finds Mr. Bold suspecious.

How did Marie-Grace save Annabelle? Wilhelmina?

Compare Marie-Grace's lifestyle to Wilhelmina's.

Explain why Wilhelmina is at first unwilling to accept Marie-Grace's help.

The third type of question you can pose for your book club is an application question. This type of question asks you to apply what you've learned to another example or to your own life. Teachers often give these types of questions as essay topics, but they can be fun bookclub questions since everyone will have a different answer! You can write your own application questions by using these phrases to start:

Marie-Grace and Cecile'

One of the best parts about visiting one of the American Girl stores is seeing all the historical dolls up close. I thought I'd share some pictures of Marie-Grace and Cecile' with you.

My daughter, Adeline, was very excited to check out the Marie-Grace display. She has Marie-Grace and wanted to get a new outfit to bring home to her from our visit to the Chicago store. Upon entering the store there are several displays with all of the historical characters (one near each entrance). I took a picture of Adeline here, and she took all of the rest of the pictures of Marie-Grace and Cecile'.

A better view of Marie-Grace (I wish we could figure out how to get rid of the glare, but for the most part, our pictures give you an idea of the displays).

A close-up of Cecile'. I love her curls! Currently, she's the only doll missing from my collection. Hopefully I'll be able to add her to my collection before the new historical character comes out in September.

Marie-Grace in her party outfit and Cecile' in her special dress. I just love Marie-Grace's golden boots!

Here's Marie-Grace in her summer outfit. This is a limited time offering (although American Girl has not said how long it will be available for).  This is the outfit that Adeline decided to bring home to her Marie-Grace. I love the pink boots, and I'm planning to make her doll a few outfits just to go along with the boots!

Here's a look at Cecile' in her summer dress. I love the bonnet; it reminds me of Jane Austin. I might have to get this outfit just for the bonnet!

Besides the limited edition summer dresses for Marie-Grace and Cecile', American Girl is offering a limited edition courtyard furniture set.

Here's a close-up view of the courtyard furniture set. I love the color of the furniture, but I wish I had been able to touch it, too. I wonder if it is as sturdy as Kit's table and chairs.

A close-up of the chair; it looks like the chair comes apart? Or perhaps the side opens up? I'd love to hear if anyone has this set.

Here's Marie-Grace in the fancy dress and fairy costume and Cecile' in the fancy coat.

The banquet table and treats.

I love the embroidery on the tablecloth. I wonder what the table underneath looks like.

Here's a peek at Marie-Grace's time period.

The dress-up trunk looks like lots of fun.

Marie-Grace's skirt set and her dog Argos (more items on Adeline's wish list!)  I was surprised by the size of Marie-Grace's dog; he's much larger than I expected.

A display featuring all of Marie-Grace and Cecile's products.

Here's Marie-Grace's summer outfit which we purchased while at the American Girl store. My daughter discovered that it made a super cute Easter outfit for her Just Like You doll, Wendy. Instead of the pink boots, Wendy wears the pink and yellow checked dress with a pair of pink ballet flats which gives it a more contemporary feel.

Wendy looks super cute in the pretty hat.

I love the flower detail on this hat.

I'd love to see how Cecile's summer outfit looks with a contempory feel to it; I bet it would also double as a cute Easter dress.