American Girl Books: Samantha

October Pumpkin Patch

By the brook behind the old schoolhouse

Samantha again.  I've been the one going to Vermont with the human last fall (probably because I'm the favorite, no matter what the other dolls say.), which means I've gotten to see some gorgeous scenery and get spoiled with new outfits each time.

(Fun fact:  the human managed to blow up her sewing machine making doll clothes last September.  Changing the light bulb in her machine, no less.  The sewing machine has been fixed.  No one was hurt.  She's still not going to live it down.)

It was raining horribly the weekend with the best foliage, so by the time we could go outside for a nice photoshoot, all the leaves had fallen.  The hills were still rather pretty.  But the final destination was actually the farm next door.

And their pumpkins.

All the pumpkins.

The human bought many.  

And told her friends to come buy many.  

And we will back this fall to buy more.

Samantha at the Tunbridge World's Fair

The pumpkin at the Eastern States Expo last year might have
been bigger.  Might.

Samantha here.  We were a little occupied last fall with a number of things, so there's a bit of a backlog of our adventures.  Suffice to say, there were a number of adventures in Vermont.  One of the biggest attractions in our neck of the woods in the fall is the World's Fair at Tunbridge.

Decorative gourds and vegetables

So of course I had to go.  

It was an awesome agricultural fair, with jam and jelly competitions and crafting competitions.  The human is planning to enter some of our clothing for the doll clothes competition.  Not sure what it's going to be yet, but I hope something spectacular.  And then I can be the model at the fair for the weekend.

That is an American Girl sewing machine

The best part of the fair was the antique/historical buildings.  There was the crafting building (with a working loom, and someone teaching lace making.  Outside there were the steam engines, someone making baskets, and some Civil War reenactors.  There was also a replica schoolhouse (ours is better) with a shelf full of old textbooks.  I think we'll need those same textbooks for our schoolroom when the human finally gets around to building it.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

The cookie and cake party spread

Lily frosting cakes with some unwanted help

Samantha and Nellie with books and cookies

A holiday cookie platter with milk

Cauth and Anora in a heated game of Set

Z and Shep at the dessert buffet

Kana and Lily enjoying the roll cake

and someone trying to steal a cookie or two

Yuletide Greetings

Thank you for understanding the small delay in our holiday plans.  But we're back now with some last minute presents and gift boxes.  Because everyone needs fancy boxes to store presents.  And cookies.  The round boxes make wonderful cookie boxes.

Cookie Swap!

 The designs for the boxes are plain, and are meant to be printed out on fancy cardstock.  The human had several packages of winter/holiday themed cardstock left over from last year that were perfect for this.  To get mix-and-match lids and boxes, print the same box on two different coordinating cardstocks and just swap the lids.

Get the box designs here.

The instructions are from http://www.auntannie.com/BoxesBags/OvalBox/.  There's all sorts of cute boxes, most of which don't even need to be resized for miniatures.

And what did we store in the rest of the paper boxes?

Yes, those are Pleasant Company reproductions

Vintage and antique paper dolls.  Lots of them.  

Dating from the 1830s all the way to the 1940s.

Get the Pleasant Co. paper dolls for Samantha, Kirsten, and Molly

But going a bit back in history:  the first paper dolls were elaborately hand painted, not printed.  Paper dolls certainly weren't cheap toys, but rather expensive treasures.  The box on the left is a reproduction of a set of a French paper doll and her wardrobe from the 1830s.  The doll was double sided, as were all of her clothes and hairstyles.  This was so fashion designers and home dressmakers could see both sides of the dress should they choose to make it for themselves. 

Get the 1830s French paper doll and the box.

This was rescaled from a set of paper dolls at ufdc.org.

 'But there aren't any paper tabs to put the clothes on the doll!'  That's right.  Back in the dark ages (not quite, but close), you put clothes on paper dolls with tiny dabs of sealing wax or pins.  Tabs on paper doll outfits didn't happen until McLoughlin Brothers invented them in the 1880s or thereabouts.  You're going to hear a lot about the McLoughlin Brothers, because these were also the people who took advantage of chromolithgraphy (one of the first color printing techniques) to mass produce paper toys for children.  They're the ones who produced the original paper doll on the right.  The original dates to 1865.

Get the Civil War paper doll
This was rescaled from a set of paper dolls at ufdc.org.

The McLoughlin Bros. were known for their children's books, games, and paper dolls in the late 1800s.  We also managed to acquire a small collection of those.  First some 'themed' paper dolls:  Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, Fairy Tales, and Little Women.  Each of these sheets has a doll and 4-5 outfits of characters.  There's also three sheets of more generic dolls, each with 3 outfits (with hats).

Ge the McLoughlin Bros. Victorian paper dolls

We hope you have a happy holiday season and a joyous Yule.

The old schoolhouse

The old schoolhouse, or where we spent our summer vacation

Samantha here.  So, astute readers of this blog will have noticed that most of the posts from this summer were actually from the second-to-last weekend in May.  And you may be wondering, what did we really do this summer?

Remember when we said the human acquired an old schoolhouse from the 1840s?

This summer, the human and her male counterpart bought a house that had once been the District No. 5 schoolhouse in some small town in Vermont.  It was in service as an actual school from the 1840s all the way through 1953, from kindergarten through 8th grade.  (The human has neighbors who went to school there.)  The main body of the house is still one giant room, and you can see the original timbers in the rafters and the basement.

This has become the doll window

 The human couldn't take all of us, so Lily, Celestine, Nellie, and I accompanied her this time.  Our usual spot in the house is in the window that used to be an exterior window of the schoolhouse proper but is now internal thanks to the added sunroom.

The main schoolhouse, now converted for the humans

Out in the garden

There's an acre and a quarter of the house and the gardens, and across the street is another 27 acres of woods for us to play in.  We mostly stuck the gardens because the human did not want to deal with a 45 degree incline hill with us.  She remembered what happened the last time she took us on a hiking adventure...

 We went in August, which meant one thing.  Blueberries.  Lots and lots and lots of blueberries.  That's a 4 quart bowl full you see there, and the human filled one of those every other day or so.  There were also early blackberries and some apples from the two apple trees in the yard.

Obligatory tree climbing 

Jam and cat

And this is what became of all those berries.  About 4 gallons of blueberry jam, and some apple jelly and apple butter for good measure.  (Further apples were turned in cider and even more apple butter.  By last month, the human was making 3 gallons of apple butter at a time...)

Halloween at Honeydukes

Happy Halloween!

Kana and Lily (and Sam hiding in the back) here.  We're having a study break/tea party at Honeydukes to celebrate.  (Yes, we're still here.  The human managed to acquire an 1840s schoolhouse up in the wilds of Vermont, and has been occupied getting it set up for other humans and us.  We will, at some point, have our very own one room schoolhouse.)

But that's not what you came here for.  You came here for what lovely food we have.  The menu for afternoon tea is cauldron cakes. chocolate covered strawberries, pasties, pumpkin tarts, and the obligatory Honeydukes candy:  a chocolate frog and a box of sugary butterfly wings.

Sam's off reading about quidditch and other fun library books (Lily's studying potions again, and I have a few chapters of history of magic to work through.  Much less fun.)  The 'afternoon snack for 1' has a cauldron cake, 2 pasties, and a chocolate frog.  There are so many chocolate frogs everywhere.

Owl la carte, anyone?

 And if you want individual cakes to go, just pay the owl on the cart.  You have your choice of tarts (pumpkin, lime, citron, or bakewell), caudron cakes, and candy.  By the box or the half dozen.
Orders, anyone?  If you place them now with the human, she can have them ready by Christmas.