I know, I know.  There are still a few weeks of summer left, but I can't help anticipating fall and the fun things that go with autumn time.  

 I just changed the outside of the Parkington's house to have fall leaves all over the ground, and now the flowers on front of the porch are a combination of dark roses and bright orange flowers.  There are a few miniature sunflower patches in front of their bay windows as well as a long vine of orange leaves that climbs from one side of the house all the way up to Teresa's attic bedroom.  

Right now Samantha and Rebecca are out on the front porch sitting on some wicker chairs and talking about how they still have some wrap ups to do regarding the county fair.  They are in their winter coats though, because the breeze is a bit chilly.   

 Cristal and Suzanne just switched out their spring and summer clothing with their fall and winter clothing, so now they're almost ready for the season.  Suzanne called Mrs. Larson yesterday to complain about the food rounds not being done in a few weeks, but Mrs. Larson just started complimenting Suzanne on how proud everyone was for her to win Miss Pleasantville, and Suzanne just forgot about what she called for in the first place.  

 It's amazing how good people feel when you compliment them.  It makes you feel good, and it makes them feel good, and such an amazing feeling is achieved.  :-)

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Willow 

Posted by tinuviel_156 at 11:37 AM EDT

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I wonder why blogs are called blogs?  What a strange word.  I might have to look that up. 

 Anyway, here I am in Montana!  One more leg of the tour and it's back home to the Northwest and Pleasantville.   I miss Nafy.  And Cristal.  And Ana.  And everyone else, it's time for them to get back to normal life after the County Fair.  I wonder what the next big town event will be.. 

Suzanne hasn't even had time to gloat about being Miss Pleasantville to all of town yet.  That means there hasn't been much going on!!  As soon as we get back I have a feeling that she will go off and call on everyone just so she can relive her moment of glory. 

There are also still some scenes we want to shoot for the movie!  We had no idea when we started filming what a big deal it was going to end up being.  Now we just can't let anything go by without making it the best it can be.  Even if that means shooting winter scenes in the summer!

Love,

Willow

Posted by tinuviel_156 at 10:45 AM EDT

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We left Pleasantville the day before yesterday to head off on tour for a few weeks.  Yesterday was the first day of shows, and although I was very tired because I didn't get any sleep the night before, they went very well!   The most exciting part though, was that a few Our Dolls fans showed up to see the show!  It was so amazing for someone to come up and say "I really like Pleasantville."  I felt like jumping up and down for joy.  :)  Today I'm sitting in a hotel room in Goshen, Indiana, and we're about to drive to Valparaiso to another fair for a few days.

 Yesterday I went on the ferris wheel at the fair, and I had fun acting like Nafy in her blog, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcYdKjjkVjI) "I'm at the top I'm at the top!"  "I'm at the bottom I'm at the bottom!" For some reason the ferris wheel seemed very special after having made one in miniature scale.  I definitely looked at it differently than I would have before.

Well I've got to pack up to leave the hotel now.. the room is very messy.  We got in really late at night,  (well, technically it was early in the morning. 4:45 am!!) so no one felt like unpacking in an orderly fashion.

I'm really curious about if I'll get to meet any more Our Dolls fans on this trip. 

TTYL!

Love,

Willow

Posted by tinuviel_156 at 10:05 AM EDT

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Hey everyone!  I am SO EXCITED about the new holidays section on the website!  Decorating for and celebrating different traditions that go with holidays is one of my favorite things about playing dolls.  I love building up a collection of crafts and decorations that can get taken out of a box when that certain time of year rolls around.  It's always so special to remember what we made last year and then to add to it with new ideas.

I spent half of yesterday developing a pattern for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons for all of the County Fair contests.  Now Greta, Solana and I are making 39 of them because there are 13 contests.  1st prize gets blue ribbons, 2nd prize gets white ribbons, and 3rd prize gets red ribbons.  So far, I have almost finished all 13 of the 2nd places.  I also made the sash that will be awarded to whoever wins Miss Pleasantville, and embroidered it so that it looks special.  I decided that it is VERY unlikely for there to be a 'Sir' Pleasantville, so I  just went ahead and wrote 'Miss' Pleasantville.

 Hope you all have a great week,

Love,

Willow

Posted by tinuviel_156 at 10:53 AM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, 30 June 2010 11:13 AM EDT

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I took SO many pictures yesterday.  I won't give away what they were of, but it actually took me all day, and I made a big mess.  :)  I did clean it all up before I went to sleep though, which always feels good.  When I can, I like to completely clean up after a big project before I start another one.  It doesn't always happen that way, but I do try!

Lisa has been trying to organize an outing with some select friends (Suzanna, Alex, and Angelica) for the last week, but the problem is she wants to go swimming in the river and then have a volleyball match, and every day keeps turning out cold and rainy.  The four of them have been hanging out in Lisa's apartment for the last few days just waiting for the weather to clear up.

I can't believe how rainy and cold it's been this month compared to last year.  I think it's about time summer appeared.  Seriously.

Meanwhile, all of Pleasantville is getting decked out for Independence day in as much red, white and blue as possible.  There will be lots of pictures pretty soon.  The 4th will supposedly be the kickoff to the County fair, but that's assuming that everyone is ready for it and all the contest entries are finished... and I still have a long list of projects I haven't even started.

We'll see what things look like a week from now.  ;)

Love,

Willow

Posted by tinuviel_156 at 12:30 PM EDT

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It's wednesday again- crazy how fast the weeks go by....

We just got back yesterday from a weekend trip to Pennsylvania where we performed for a few days at a festival.  One of the best parts though, was finally getting to meet one of our message board moderators in person for the first time!  We met up with Amy and her mom at a Bob Evans and chatted for a few hours over lunch.  It was great fun, and we'll probably see them again in September since that is the next time we head over to PA.

Since we finally had a day off yesterday, all of the Pleasantville ladies gathered at Cristal and Suzanne's houses for a sewing circle.  Cristal and Suzanne practically had to beg Mrs. Merriman to allow it to be held at their houses, because between the two of them they barely have enough room for everyone.  However, their reasoning was that they had the only clean houses in town, and Suzanne had just redone her decoration in order to match the latest fashion advice, making her house the most fashionable choice to host the circle.

Everyone thought carefully about which projects they needed to complete before the County fair, and it turns out that each of them has quite a list of what they want done in order to look just so at the fair, and also to enter in the many contests.

The town buzz is all about "who will become Miss or Sir Pleasanvtille?"

That's it for now!

 Love, Willow

Posted by tinuviel_156 at 12:40 PM EDT

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As you all might have read in the latest Pleasantville Lady issue, Pleasantville is going to have it's very own County Fair this summer!  It was inevitable that this was going to happen, I mean, the dolls have always done things that we do in real life.  For example, when we did ice-skating, the dolls were into coming up with skating routines and doing competitions.  When we were traveling over to Ireland/Scotland for the irish dance world championships, the Parkingtons went on a trip to Europe.  It only makes sense that since we have been performing at county fairs so much, the dolls should do that too.

 The funny thing is, I never went to County fairs when I was little.  I guess I've never completely understood what they are all about, but now that we're planning Pleasantville's fair it makes so much sense!  The judged competitions in all of the different categories, such as livestock, artwork, stitchery, etc. is such a fun idea.  Yesterday Suzanne and Cristal sat down and tried to decide what they would enter.  They are both very determined to win the title of "Miss Pleasantville" for winning the most blue ribbons.  They even considered entering the horse race for another shot at a ribbon, but luckily they realized that you can't do that unless you own a horse!!

It will take LOTS of preparation before the fair can happen, (especially if they're going to have a ferris wheel...) but I'm so excited about this idea!

 Love,

Willow 

 

Posted by tinuviel_156 at 3:10 PM EDT

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Cleaning has commensed as of yesterday because we have guests coming over this friday.  That means Pleasantville is in need of some serious cleaning.  Solana and I cleaned the Montoya's house yesterday, (well, actually Ana and Francisca did) because it was a DISTASTER.  I have no idea how it got that messy.  The last thing they did was have a little party to celebrate it being a year since Ana and Tomas arrived, and Nafy and William happened to be coming along the road, so they joined in at the end for the salsa dancing.

 Anyway, the're all cleaned up now and all Francisca can talk about is how pretty she thinks she looks in Clara's shawl.  All Ana can talk about is how she thinks it is dreadful that Mama let the house get horribly messy.  When you get Francisca and Ana together you can usually count on a lot of complaining and pestering of other people.  :-P

The sisters and I went on an early bike ride this morning even though it was raining.  It was really refreshing except that my hands got freezing cold and the route we took was sort of strange.  It started out with a huge steep hill that we had to walk the bikes up (definitely a workout!) and then we pretty much coasted the rest of the way back to the house since it was mostly downhil the rest of the way.  Tomorrow we'll have to experiment with how to make it more effective. 

 That's it for now,

Love,

Willow

Posted by tinuviel_156 at 11:33 AM EDT

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Hey! It's a cloudy, rainy wednesday morning and it definitely seems like a crafts type of a day.  Solana got her wisdom teeth removed on sunday and she's still recovering from it.  Her cheeks are a bit puffed up and her mouth hurts, so she hasn't been having the best few days ever.  :-(

 I have a quick suggestion for anyone who wants to find some good fabric for doll dresses for not very much money.  I don't know how common they are around the country, but Value Village is a great place to go treasure hunting.  It's a used clothes store, and often times you can find some long gowns out of fancy material that, when cut up, have plenty of fabric to make a doll dress. 

It's definitely worth searching through the rest of the store as well as the dresses section.  You can find all kinds of knick knacks that may look useless to some people, but they are perfect for something in your doll house.  If you see a little rack of shelves but it's an obnoxious shade of green, you can take it home and paint it white.  If there is a tiny picture frame that has a weird picture in it, take it home and exchange the picture with a photograph of your doll family.  It's also an excellent place to be on the look out for miniature plates.

If you have any antique stores nearby, those can also be gold mines for finding little doll trinkets, and usually they are not very expensive!

 That's it for now,

Love,

Willow

Posted by tinuviel_156 at 11:04 AM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, 28 April 2010 11:57 AM EDT

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It's funny, because I keep thinking that www.ourdolls.net is pretty up to date on everything that goes on in Pleasantville, but it changes so much that things become out of date on a daily basis.  I keep thinking you guys know everything there is to know about Pleasantville, but.. I hate to break it to ya... there's still plenty more coming!! ;)

 Right now I'm trying to sew a costume, and I'm realizing how little I actually know about sewing.  I've become really good at developing and adjusting doll patterns, but it's so different sewing for a doll than for a person!  You can always have the doll right there to try the outfit on for fitting, and once you make a pattern for, say, an American Girl doll, the pattern will work for ALL dolls that size.

 So right now, probably the busiest person in Pleasantville is the Merriman's governess, Mary Stewart.  She has been cooking, cleaning, and planning tirelessly in order to keep the Merriman children in top shape.  She writes them lists of duties and activities, and has to try and keep Nancy from getting into too much trouble, (which is quite a sizable feat!) she has the task of making sure that Felicity continues her training for being presented at court, and that William gets enough work in on his studies in preparation for Oxford.

Not only that, but she is desperately in need of a few new dresses, and has Mrs. Merriman to care for as well as the children.  Mrs. Merriman is very elegant and refined, but she is a bit too used to a life of luxury.  When she is not out at some fine social dinner or gathering with Edward, she is usually to be found either resting in her room or sewing in the parlour.  She requires Mary to take care of the children and bring her the special teas that she prefers for certain times of the day.

So, needless to say, Mary Stuart has been quite the busy lady!

See you next week,

Willow

Posted by tinuviel_156 at 1:00 PM EDT

Updated: Thursday, 22 April 2010 11:32 AM EDT

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