Baking Lessons with Grace

Grace has started teaching everyone some of the fun baking techniques 

she learned while she was visiting Paris.

"You can do this, I'm here to help you." said Grace.

She's happy to share all she knows with everyone!

Fashion Friday - Pj Edition

Through the years we haven't bought many of the matching girl/doll outfits.

{Other than Bitty Baby outfits which we loved when we were little.}

But we have had fun buying/gifting a few of the matching pj sets.

The above nightgown might be a personal favorite.

Caroline was added our doll collection
when we took a mother/daughter trip to NYC a few years ago.

Here is another fun one -- the cute girl who wore this matching set is now 16.

It was her favorite.

These cute summer pjs were from our grandma,

and hand delivered by a doll-loving cousin! 

{The slippers are AG.}

There is a fun story behind these silky rhino pjs.

This past summer we were at our favorite local doll shoppe,

and these pjs were marked-down to $3. 

Everything in the store was an additional 20% off, so they were basically free!

You have to understand that we have a rhino-loving gal in our family!

{She was ridiculously excited when she saw the rhino-green-heart pjs on the sale rack!}

The store owner actually told us she had fallen in love
with blue pjs when she ordered them,

and was so sad that nobody had bought them.

We decided to buy up all of the pairs they had, and we've been gifting them to our 

doll-loving friends over the last couple of months.
  {They've been pretty tickled to get pjs from their rhino-loving friend!}

One Christmas these flannel jammie-bottoms were a gift
to the youngest doll-lover in our family.

Her older sister had just begun taking sewing lessons, and she
surprised her with matching girl/doll jammie-bottoms for Christmas.
{Fun memory...and our dolls still love to wear them!}

Saige was our first family AGOTY.
She and  her owner were surprised with matching summer
pajamas for a June birthday.

One year, a little girl was delighted to find Rebecca
{and matching pajamas} on Christmas morning!

And last but not least, a pair of hedgehog pjs.
This fun purchase was made with saved birthday money!

We hope you've had fun seeing our doll pajamas.
It must be time for us to plan a pajama/slumber party!
We'd love to hear about your favorite doll pjs.

Dollhouse Rugs!

Recently, we were looking for a couple of new rugs for our home.

We decided to order the rug swatches before making our purchase.

We had no idea at the time that those swatches would become our favorite dollhouse rugs!

Here are three of our favorites!

A green and cream rug for the dinning room.

We aren't exactly sure where to put this fun dot rug, 

but for right now we've got it in our bakery!

Keep your eyes open for fun rug swatches to use in your doll play.

The circular heart rug we posted about here was found at Target in the Dollar$pot.

Rug Source:

The three rugs in our dollhouse are from Land of Nod!

Converting Cups to Milliliters

When you are only familiar with teaspoons and measuring cups,

it can be a little tricky working in milliliters. 

Luckily, Grace is there to help!

"Now you try measuring the milk --

1/2 cup is approximately 118 milliliters.  

You can do this!"

Everyone needs a cheerleader like Grace!

Babysitting

We changed the setup in this room for Grace's arrival here.

Now it appears to be a great room to babysit in.

The cute hoodie was part of Fashion Friday last week.

The school accessories are from OG {a mini set}.

I believe it is called "School Smarts" --
backpack, library card, pen, notebook and notepad.

Time to go -- so much fun baby siting.
Now it is time to head to the library and get some studying done!

Fashion Friday

There are lots of fun plaid items in the world right now.

Orange is one of our favorite colors, 

so we were super excited to find a hoodie that was 

orange AND plaid.

We thought it would be a fun trendy addition to our doll play. 

Cheers to Fashion and cheers to Fridays!

Boots: Sophia's

Pants: Springfield Collection

Hoodie: LoriLizGirlsandDolls Etsy Shoppe

Bathroom Update

The bathroom continues to take shape --

We added a yellow trash can {under the sink - $1.00 Hobby Lobby 2015 Spring Line} 

and some crate/shelves that we painted a coral color {$1.00 per crate Michael's Hobby & Craft}.

The towel racks are finally up and we love how it all looks {drawer pulls from Target}!

We still want to put up a couple of pieces of art,

but other than that, I think it is almost finished.

Thanks to everyone who has viewed this room -- 8,000 view just on our blog,
and several features on other blogs!

Home Improvements -- Inspired by Grace

We've been switching things up a little in honor of Grace.
You can read about our Little Prince projects here.

We recently hung this key rack in the doll kitchen.

A great storage solution for our aprons.

A macaroon poster {mini graphic from packaging}
from a recent visit to Ladurée in NYC.

We created some new art work for our dinning room.
The Paris cafe painting is from a magazine.
The 'antique frame' is from Hobby Lobby.

We might add a few more paintings over the next year,
and make a France-inspired grouping.

This last photo is from the back wall of our bakery room.
We are excited to fill this room with all kinds of baked goods and baking supplies.
Thanks for the inspiration Grace!

Are you using France, Paris, or baking items in your doll play this year?

Little Prince Inspiration

We love 

The Little Prince 

by

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Did you know that it has sold over 140 million copies?

It is published in more than 240 languages.

It sells 2 million copies each year, which makes it a best-selling book of all times.

We decided to decorate with some Little-Prince-inspired prints.

Even our dolls need a copy of their own!

{Thank you Grace!}

Are you using French/France inspiration in your doll play?

Fashion Friday -- Makeover Edition

A few weeks ago, we were in Hobby Lobby and saw this outfit.

We didn't actually fall in love with it, but we thought the corduroy dress

might be fun with our pioneer play [minus the belt and red flowers].

The doll clothing was 50% off, so we bought this 3 piece outfit for  $4.00,

and decided to do a mini-outfit makeover.

There are some fun details on the dress, but for our taste, 

there was just a little too much going on -- 

We decided to remove the roses.

{In our opinion, the bright red flowers clash with the muted pink fabric.}

We also decided to remove the lavender leather bow. 

We also removed the flower and bow from the hat. 

The vest is paired here with a white blouse, khaki skirt, and sandals.

What do you think of the necklace?

{It is actually one of the leather belt strands,

 and five of the beads from the original outfit.}

We also tried adding some olive leggings.

Here is our 'pioneer/prarie' outfit idea.

A Sunday dress and bow.

Dessert in the dining room.

So what do you think of our $4.00 outfit makeover?

Coconut & Friends

One of our projects for 2015 is to create some fun

for our AG pets.   

After doing some 'AG pet research'

we came up with this do-able list for 2015:

1. Create a hamster habitat or a fish tank.

2. Make a few fun dog beds.

3. Create a simple pet store.

4. Create a vet office.

Grace is in the Test Kitchen!

Lots of fun with Grace this week.

The baking set is adorable.

We love the aqua mixer...and seeing things written in french.

Grace is going to wow us with her culinary skills! 

You can see Grace here with her strawberry crepes, french custard, 

and a couple of healthy avocado/olive tartines 

[little open-face sandwiches on slices of a french baguette].*

We're getting ready to sample her yummy creations!

*French foods in this photo made by Pipaloo.

The House that is Always Moving!

We recently moved things around {AGAIN} in preparation for Grace.

Here is what our house currently looks like.

Looking forward to a lot of creative projects this year!

We put away Annie's Craft Cottage to make a baking room for Grace.

{You can see how we decorated the cottage for Valentine's Day last year here.}

The cabinet on the left is this design studio.

She is Here!

The peach galette is cooling on the sideboard,

and just in time -- Grace just walked in.

"Welcome Grace, we are so excited to have you here!"

"We are looking forward to a year of trying new recipes, and baking with you!"

Waiting on Grace

We don't usually purchase the GOTY doll.

{In fact, in our 16 years of collecting,

we have only brought home one GOTY.}

But we do have Grace coming to our home.
{And until she get's here, someone seems to be enjoying her 'city outfit'.}

French/France is a big deal to our family -- the doll collectors in our family

speech French, and a few months ago we started taking baking/cooking classes!

Doesn't Grace seem like the perfect fit?

We are also involved with our local shelter,
and helping to feed the children in our community. 

The 'No Kid Hungry' campaign is dear to our hearts.

So, the goal was to clean out our dollhouse for the New Year!

We spent all day today yesterday getting our 18 inch house ready --

sorting out our rooms and organizing our closet.

We put together this red/pink/black sitting room  --
Inspired by the color pallet in Grace's collection.

We are now ready to welcome Grace!

The pillows are homemade.

The sofa is two foldout Sophia chair/beds put together.

{I think we found ours on Amazon.}

The rug is from the 2015 Target $ Spot.

We made our sofa table here for under $2.

We made our end table here.

Today is the big day!  Grace will be here any minute.

Peach Galette

This year we've been taking a cooking class.

{We know a fabulous chef who shares her talents AND her fabulous recipes.}

When peaches were at their peak, she taught us how

to use them to make peach galettes!

They are delicious -- 

simple and something you'd find in a rustic kitchen.

We thought our dolls needed a peach galette* too!

*Inspired by real french baking and created in  miniature by Pippaloo!

Fashion Friday -- Baker Edition

A couple of months ago we had a dance performance that took us to
a convention center.  The convention center was hosting a Holiday Festival,
so we took a little time between performances to look at the booths.

We found the cutest booth of 18 inch clothing and accessories.
We fell in love with this french inspired baker set.

{We had no idea that Grace was coming out this year,

and that she has a baking/french theme!}

Practicing our French crepe* making skills

before Grace arrives.

Cheers to fashion and cheers to Fridays!

*Crepes by Pipaloo

A Loft Room for Grace

The loft bedroom is clean and ready for Grace.

We decorated a shelf for Grace.

La tour Eiffel on the left was in our stash of buttons {and sewing notions}.

La tour Eiffel on the right is a ring holder from Michael's Hobby & Craft.
{It was part of our 2013 Christmas Advent. You can see it here.}

It felt good to do some winter organizing in the 18 inch world.

Looking forward to Grace's arrival!