Dolls For Natural Disasters and For Children in Hospitals (Part One)

Hello everyone,  it's been two months since I last blogged. 

If you are wondering why I was gone for so long, This post will explain it.

But on to the actual post!

For those who didn't know, I have been working on a project for children who lost everything they owned due to a natural disaster, be it flooding, a hurricane, a tornado, etc. I intend to visit the areas where the natural disasters occurred and give children customized dolls that I have made.  I am planning a second project as well, that involves making dolls for children in hospitals.

For both projects, I intend to give customized dolls to people once the current COVID-19 quarantine is over.  Some of these dolls will have their face repainted and their hair re-wigged with yarn. Like my previous doll customizations, however, the hair re-wigging will only happen when the child wants it (since you can't really brush it after re-wigging). I feel even more deeply connected to doing both of these projects, as I have had a surgery and live in an area where a tornado recently hit.

           What I intend to do for the Natural Disasters Project: 

1. Visit hospitals (this will also cross into my other doll project for children in hospitals).

2. Visit areas that have been damaged and/or destroyed by disasters. 

3. Send dolls to people who need them, even if I cannot visit them. 

So far for this project I've finished brushing the hair of and making clothes for about twelve or thirteen dolls. I intend to bring them to hospitals for those who have been affected by a natural disaster, given that some natural disasters have injured people enough that they need to go to the hospital. And I hope to visit those in my area, who have lost their home.


            And for the Hospitals project: 

1. I intend to talk directly to children in hospitals, and ask them what type of doll they want. 

 2. Go on visits and give dolls to people. 

3. Perhaps get a group of people to customize dolls with me. (This will probably apply to both projects). 


For this project, when focusing on the doll customizing portion, I hope that I will be able to talk to the child about what type of doll they want before making it. If they want a character from a movie, a book, or a TV show, I will customize a doll for them to be that character. I even intend to create dolls of characters they made up themselves.

For the natural disaster project, I will bring pre-customized dolls in for people. Hopefully,  I will eventually get to talk to talk to people about what kind of dolls they want beforehand. But I'm not sure how much time I will have to do that before I actually go to those places or if the people who were affected by the disaster would exactly want to talk that much to me. But even so, I will bring custom dolls of course.

                        For both of them: 


As well as giving dolls to people in hospitals, and to those who suffered natural disasters, I hope to teach people who want to learn how to clean up and customize thrift store dolls. I know for some going to the thrift store to find dolls that are not completely perfect must be disappointing.
So, I hope that knowing that they can be fixed, will help them.

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What have you done to help your community? I would love to hear your stories in the comments. 

That's all for now. When I have more updates on this, I will post them.

-Quinley

Custom Doll Project: Fairy Girl

Hello everyone,

 I didn't post this right away due to the fact that the holidays came up and I already had a holiday post. 

 Shall we begin?: 

I started out by using a Tinker Bell doll since her ears would already be pointy and I wouldn't need to use clay to make them that way.  

Then I removed her paint by using non-acetone nail polish remover. 

(After that I ran her under sink water, as it is bad for the polish remover to stay on her face.) 

I then cut her blonde hair and glued on red yarn. 

Then I painted on purple dots to begin her eyes. 

The I outlined her eyes in black and gave her a pupil. (Sometimes this step has to be done over and over, because the pupil sometimes looks wonky.) 

I then did the other parts of her face. I dotted her face with other paint markers, 

and gave her blue lips (this was later changed to green, but I don't have a photo of it) and orange colored eyebrows. 

I also then made her an outfit, using felt, and gave her silk leaf wings, which I then also dotted on with paint markers.  

The last thing I did was to add glitter glue to her. The glitter took a lot of time to dry, but in the end it looked great. 

Before: 

After: 

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What is your favorite story or stories involving fairies? Also, who are some of your favorite fairy characters? 

-Quinley

Fun Things to Do During the Winter Holidays (post by Tenney and Z)

Hello everyone, this is Z and Tenney sending holiday cheer!

We hope you're having a happy third day of Hanukah!  Or a good Christmas Eve, if you celebrate Christmas, or are looking forward to Kwanzaa which begins in two days, or had a good Winter Solstice, or are enjoying whichever holiday you celebrate since there are so many around the globe.
We thought to make everyone feel welcome, we would make a post that everyone would enjoy, and not feel left out of.

Here are some fun things to do over the winter holidays...

1. Do a winter themed stop motion animation. 

I (Z) always love doing stop motion animations with my AG dolls (and my other dolls as well). It can be fun to do stop motions that have themes related to winter.

2. Take photos outside of your doll in the snow* 

*If it snows where you are. You may want to be careful about what types of dolls you bring out for this. If it is an American girl doll, Carpantia, or a Girl For All Time, there is a possibility that their eyes may rust or they may get damaged.

I (Z) love doing this, since the photos I take tend to turn out beautiful when it is snowing, and it gives it really festive feel.

3. Write a winter themed song 

This is an activity that I (Tenney) enjoy doing during the holidays. The song could be about the snow flakes falling down and how beautiful it is this time of the year.

4. Film a music video or video outside side in the snow* 

*if it snows where you are. 

This has a cool (quite literately) effect to it, that both of us can agree on. And it makes it even better if your song or movie has a winter theme to it.

5. Read winter/holiday related books to get into the spirit of the holidays 

There are so many fun winter related books to read during the holidays, whether they be about your holiday or merely winter itself.
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What are some of your favorite things to do during the winter holidays? Feel free to share some of your own ideas in the comment section below! 

Happy holidays! 
-Tenney
-Z

The Fairy Girl (a Photoshoot)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone,
 Today, since I didn't have a post planned for Thanksgiving, I decided that I wanted to make a non-Thanksgiving related post, which revolves around one of my recently customized dolls.

Let's begin the photo shoot:

I really like the way this angle looks. 

I like how the glitter on her face was captured in this photo. 

I like the angle of this photo. 

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Which photo is your favorite?

-Quinley 

P.S. The next post will show the progress of how I customized her. 

The White Lady (a lyrical photoshoot)

Happy Halloween! This is the first time I've done a photo shoot, and have written poetry to go along with it. Usually, I simply write what I like about the photos, but this time, it is poetry and photos. If you are confused about the title, a white lady is a female ghost seen wearing white. :

                                         She floated along the moor, 

                                             And is the talk of the town's core, 

                                                  She haunts the creeks, 

                                                        And frightens the meek, 

                                                          Her red hair flowing, 

                                                         and her body glowing, 

                                                   That would often lead travelers astray, 
                                                 On the most damp and rainy day, 

                                                    What cause of her death may be? 
                                                   Well, you shall see... 

                                                 She received word that her lover, 
                                             from her most heart wrenched mother, 

                                               had been drowned in the waves, 
                                               this caused tears, 
                                              

                                                    from which her mother peered, 
                                                Unknowing what the fates had in store, 

                                              For it was soon that she ran out the door, 
                                             Into the damp and forbidden moor, 

                                       What happened exactly is unknown, 

                            But many hear her long moans echoing through the night, 
                           giving many a fright. 

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What did you think of the poem? And which photo was your favorite? 

-Quinley

Autumn is in the Air (a photoshoot)

Happy autumn everyone! To begin the autumn season (which is going to be filled with posts about Halloween), I thought I would post a fall-themed photoshoot of Carol:

I like how Carol's hair is hiding her face a little in this one. 

I really like Carol's pose in this photo. 

I like the layout of this photo. 

I like the layout of this photo, and the way her face is hidden 

slightly behind her hair. 

                                        I also really like the view in this photo.

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Which photo is your favorite? And who is your favorite female Marvel super hero? 
-Quinley

P.S.  I recently posted a stop motion animation which is a part of the series of introduction videos for my dolls:

                             Meet Suzanne "Z"| AGSM 

You can also watch it here