Apology and update on Elle

Hello, ya'll, this is Poppy in my sweet south voice. I owe ya'll an apology. We have not been posting like we otta. However, I do have a reason, darlin'. Life. Revolutionary, I know. Whoda thunk? But in all seriousness, life has been a little crazy around here lately. A week ago we ended a 2 week long acting intensive and out fourth and final performance of the play Street Robber, A story of George Muller and His Orphans.  It was a very fun play to perform and we had a great time doing it. On the down side, though, we have all been sick and more tired than an overworked farmer this last week. When you have a 110 kids all crammed into the same space for 2 weeks solid, germs are bound to spread. Anywho, after this happened we had school to get back into the swing of. We had been doing school all through out the rehearsals but it had been minimal. We were finally started again and Wednesday hit. My mom woke up sick and incredibly dizzy. She suffers from vertigo and this her third spell so far. I had been up since two that morning watching out for her and around 8, a friend took her to a therapist to get relief. The next day was even crazier. My mom was still sick and we had a bible study to attend. Thankfully, my best friend, her mom, and her brother offered to help. They arrived and helped Mom and then Arista's parakeet died on us. So while her mom drove my mom to the therapist again, me, my friend, and our brothers held a funeral for Gylfie. Arista did not attend due to grief and also stayed home from bible study while the rest of us went. We spent the day with them to let my mom rest, so no school got done that day. Friday was catch-up day and we had our cousin arrive to stay the night. She left about 7 hours ago and I have finally (on Saturday night) gotten to sit down to post. I am incredibly sorry about our lack of posting and we are trying to do better.


Now onto Elle. In May, I bought my first monster high doll, Elle Eedee. (Or in other words, the coolest doll on God's green earth!) Well, I've had to fix one of her arms already but Wendsday the other one snapped off and left the entire peg inside. Currently I do not know of anyway to fix her except to drill into her arm, which I refuse to do. This doll was wonderful and still one of my favorite although she only has one fixed but function able arm.
So thanks for sticking with me, I know this seems kind of like a depressing post. Remember God made you special and he loves you very much! Night y'all!            

Lion King - Be Prepared (Here's the video!)

How to effectively clean a room

Hello, everyone, this Poppy. I couldn't think up an accent I wanted to use so you'll just have to make one up today. On that note,  I will be explaining to you today how to clean your room in an incredibly short amount of time. Now I know you're thinking,  This is a blog about enjoying the benefits of childhood. Why bring cleaning into this?  Because all of us who have ever played with toys know that messes happen, A LOT.  SO we have to clean up our messes. Now this can take anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 hours! I am a notoriously messy person especially when I am in the middle of something. (blogging, crafting, playing, sleeping) And when I am working on something, I don't want to have to stop and give my room a through cleaning. My mom says that if you just clean up whatever you drag out, you wont ever have a mess. Now what if you need LOTS  of things out? MESS! Complete and total MESS! Then you have to clean it up. SO how do you do this quickly and still continue with your project? I will tell you my secret.

Music.

The absolute best way to do anything besides grammar and government is with music! To help me clean up I have what I call the Disney challenge. 

*First, you assess your mess! Look at how much you have to clean and set a goal on how much you want to get done. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! DON'T SKIP THIS STEP! Usually for me this is just the bare minimum I have to do to make my room look clean.

* Second, find your favorite Disney song. Villain Songs often have a fast, heavy, theatrical beat that is good fro working with.  For me, this is Be Prepared  from the Lion King. Video above. The time it takes to run through the song is one rotation. You have to clean up as much as you possibly can in one rotation. There are ways to cheat the system such as picking incredibly long songs. (The longest Disney song I know of currently {not counting Star Wars} is The Bells of Notre Dame. Heaven's Light/and its not so great counter part* is also pretty long.) You can use as many rotations as you need to complete your cleaning. One usually does it for me.

* Finally, clean!Work as fast as possible and good luck!        

Well, that's all for now! I have to go clean my room so I'll talk to you later. Remember, God made you special and He loves you very much! Bye!

On the subject of the Heaven's Light/Hellfire. This looks a lot worse than it is. The third word in the title is pretty awful, but rest assured there is no curse words in that song. The word ______ is used in a strictly biblical sense and while maybe not something you want someone repeating,  Frolo (the singer of the song) is using it in the proper context. The song itself is beautiful and like a sermon in song.  It tells a very moving story about a man's struggle with righteousness and temptation. For a Disney song, it has a surprisingly large amount of theology. In fact, it has more biblical truth in it than some other "christian" songs. That said, I'm finished. Have fun cleaning!                 

Flynn Custom Doll

Hallo to all! Poppy here in meine (mine-a means my) German accent ready to introduce du (doo  means you.... I'll just speak English from on. :D ) to my favorite custom doll Ive done so far! Sie fabulous Flynn!

Alright.... I know Ive used this picture a dozen
 times, but she looks so awesome here!

Flynn was originally a used Hat-tastic Cerise Hood Ever After High doll that I found on Ebay.

I received her for my birthday along with hair to reroot her with. My mom and Arista had gone onto Dollyhair.com (which is a great hair supplier for dolls by the way) and bought me a 38" and an RD hank of saran hair from there. The RD hank was a blend of golden auburn and torch auburn while the 38" was a blend of a blend of tangerine orange and flame auburn. When we ordered her, she was the I had never customized a doll before so I had no idea was I was going to be doing. That was quickly changed. 

Taking some old dolls we had lying around the house, I tried my hand at this thing called customizing. Armed with less than worthy supplies, minimal knowledge, and absolutely no experience, I ripped the hair out of my first custom doll, Phirozythe.

 I rerooted her with yarn and inspired by my success, made Anne Burrell for my mom and created Phirozythe's (and Flynn's) mom Trina, the middle-aged fairy, along the way.

R.I.P. Trina. She died two weeks ago. 

By this point I felt ready to tackle customizing Cerise into Flynn. I was still scared, no doubt! I had been thinking about this character named Flynn for a LONG time and she already had a more detailed more detailed background than all my other dolls at the time. I really did not want to mess up on her. But, praying hard, I did it anyway and she turned out better than I would have imagined.  

I even entered her in the fair! (She didnt place in case you were wondering. She lost to a cabbage patch doll) She has quickly become one of my favorite dolls right up there with Elle Eedee.

       

With longer legs than most EAH dolls, custom-rooted hair, and dragon/fairy hybrid heritage, Flynn is packed with personality. (Her name is even spelled funny! Its actually spelled Phleinne but most people cant pronounce that so we just spell it Flynn.) 

Overall, Flynn is a very unique doll and so is her family.

Gute nacht (goot na-k-t  means goodnight.... had to throw in one more German phrase...) and wielen dank (vie-len da-n-ck  means thank you... so maybe two more....).  

  

Remember, God made you special and loves you vey much. Goodbye!

Denken Sie daran, Gott hat dich besonders und liebt dich sehr. Auf Wiedersehen!

(Dont ask me for a pronunciation guide on that one! Just use Google translate. :)

Promo Time: MyFroggyStuff!

 Hi again! This is Arista with another promo! Here is a wonderful YouTube channel and blog to follow! These people make tutorials on how to do most anything for your dolls, American Girl, Ever After High, Bratz, or even Monster High! Me and Poppy have made several super cute things using her videos, like waffles, houses, clothes, and even mini music instruments! We love them! So using the link below, go and check out her blog and YouTube channel!
http://myfroggystuff.blogspot.com/
https://m.youtube.com/#/user/MyFroggyStuff
Arista signing off!

How to repaint a dolls skin

Hullo, everyone, delightfully British Poppy is here to show you how to repaint a dolls skin. This is incredibly easy and makes your dolls look much more realistic.

All you will need is a doll, acrylic paint color of your choice, water, and modge podge.

I know in the photo I have school glue sitting there, but after a couple of tries I found that modge podge doesnt peel like school glue does. So, jolly good! Lets begin!

First, mix a good amount of paint in with the modge podge.

Coat all the body parts  liberally. This is a Create a monster doll so she came apart easily. Normally, you would just remove the forearms and hands though. 

 

Wait for her to dry and reassemble.

And shes ready to rock and roll! Meet Onyx! A top notch girly and sister of Flynn.

(Just in case you forgot :D)

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Remember, God  made you special and he loves you very much!

This is Poppy signing off!

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! 

How to Fix a Broken Doll Limb for Cheap!

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERYBODY! This is Poppy and today I will show you how to fix a broken doll limb super cheap and utterly painless! YIPPEE! I will be writing in the style of Princess Unikitty from the Lego movie, because I am so happy my doll is fixed! YEAH! (Yes, I know right about now you think I'm totally nuts, but I am super thrilled about my doll being fixed. She was one of the prettiest one I have and fairly new, so I was pretty excited when my Mom suggested this method to fix her)

THANK YOU, MOM FOR THIS WONDERFUL SOLUTION! 

MOMS ROCK!!!!!!

Now, on with the totally awesome tutorial!
 
For this fix you will need is the poor doll, broken appendage, and a piece of chewing gum. I broke my dolls arm by trying to pull it out of its socket. Now those of you who have never played with Monster High dolls are like, "PULL HER ARM OUT! OF COURSE YOUR GONNA BREAK IT!" And those of you who HAVE played with these dolls before are thinking, "How did she break it I wonder? The forearms are supposed to come out" THAT IS LIKE TOTALLY WHAT I THOUGHT! The forearms were supposed to come out, but when I tried to remove her arm it snapped at the joint, leaving me with a bad arm and a socket with a part of a pin in it! AGHGHGHGH!! I thought about ordering a replacement piece, but the end of the peg still securely wedged in there, no other arm would fit. AGHGHGHGH!! again! Not to mention, by this point I had already had the doll for two months so I couldn't get a replacement doll!! Triple AGHGHGHGH!! I looked online for solutions, but nothing short of drilling wire into her arm was said to be able to fix it. Now I have tried this method before and ended up with a poor barbie that had bent wire sticking out from all over her. Not gonna do that with Elle. Completely and totally distraught and frustrated by this point, I went to lament to my Mom. She was working on homeschool stuff on the computer so I just went ahead and told her everything. Without even breaking grammer-curriculum-shopping-stride, she replied, "why not use some gum?" Thsi si wher my world turned from cave trolls, mean bears, and broken dolls, to unicorns, puppies, and happy emojis! (I was rather happy) Instantly, I grabbed a piece of gum and began to chew. This is one of the steps you will need to take to fix your doll. So take that peice of gum, by the wrapper and chew! Once it is pretty soft...

SMASH IT ON TOP OF THE BROKEN PEG!
 
Then push the arm into the hole, pulling out the extra.
 
And she's fixed!!!! WOO HOO!!! This method holds the limbs together pretty well and allows the same degree of articulation and removal abilities as before. (WHICH IS VERY IMPORTANT WHEN PHOTOGRAPHING DOLLS!) The gum will eventually have to be replaced and some will probably have to be added if the arm is removed freguently. Other than that though, your doll is fixed!!! YEEAAHHHH!!! Hope this tutorial was helpful. Remember, God made you special and he loves you very much. GOODBYE, ALL! 

7 Things to never say to a homeschooler

Gooday, mates. This Australian Poppy speaking and I wanted to share a list of seven things that you should never EVER say to a home-schooler.

1. Does your Mom (or Dad) just give you your grade?

Yes, our parents do assign us our grades, but 90% of all homeschoolers work for every point they get. 

2. You really need to get outside more often.

This is okay in the sense that someone need to be out in nature more often, but is often used to emphasize someone's lack of knowledge on pop culture and is incredibly rude.

3. Do you have any friends? (said with a look of pity)

This one speaks for itself. HOMESCHOOLERS DO HAVE FRIENDS. period.

4. Are you socialized?

I spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with my siblings and we haven't killed each other yet. I think I'm pretty well socialized.

5.So I guess your Mom (or Dad) can't be your teacher anymore.

When I moved into high school, I cannot tell you how many times I heard this. If our parents have been able to teach us up to this point, they can teach us through high school, its not against the law.   

6.Do you get to do whatever you want?

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO and NO. Next... 

7.Is the only schoolwork you do homework? (trying to be funny)

Technically, yes, all the schoolwork we do is homework. but please, spare us the awful joke.    

There you go, 7 things never to say to a homeschooler!  (unless, of course, you are a veteran homeschooler yourself, then you can joke about these all you like and other homeschoolers will find them incredibly funny because all of you went through the same thing.)

Well, remember, God made you special and he loves you very much and this Poppy, over and out! 

Promo Time: littlelotr.blogspot.com!

Hiya this is Arista! Here is a promo for a awesome blog! Someone I know very well runs it... (fine fine fine it's MY blog). Yes, you heard correctly! This is my other blog that I put comics and drawings on! My web comic is called, Little LOTR. Sure, some of my pictures aren't that good but hey! Who cares? So please go and check it out using the link below and leave a comment! Thanks a lot!
http://littlelotr.blogspot.com/

LPS Sci-Fi Repaint

      Hello, everyone, this is Poppy again and today i will using my Siri/robotic voice. As promised before  I said I would post some crafts to do with your Elle doll. As this doll does not come with a pet I thought this would be a perfect craft. An LPS REPAINT!  the directions are super simple and no special supplies are needed. Onward with the craft!
                                        
So for this craft all you will need is: acrylic paint, glittery nail polish, and an old LPS. I chose a dragon fly.
                                       

So first I chose to coat his entire body in a light gray. 

                                        
                 Next, I covered his eyelids and wing dots with a lavender I mixed up.
                                        
Thirdly, I took some bright blue and coated the UNDERNEATH of his wings. As they are transparent It gives the wings a really cool effect.
                                       
Wait for it to dry and then cover with a layer of purple glittery nail polish for a real mechanical gleam and you're finished! Now you have a perfect pet for your Elle Eedee doll! Have fun with this craft and remember God made you special and he loves you very much! Goodbye!

TOY REVIEW: Monster High Elle Eedee

   Hello, hello, hello! This is Poppy typing and today I have decided to have a New York accent today as I write this post. (Please note: I will NOT be writing in the pronunciation. You will just have to use your imagination). This accent perfectly fits this post as today I will be reviewing the Boo York, Boo York Gala Ghoulfriends Elle Eedee doll.

 This is Elle Eedee. Say hello Elle!

Hello!

 Elle Eedee is one of the three Gala Ghoulfriends dolls from the Monster High movie, Boo York, Boo York. Seh haas two editions currently nad is featured in a three pack with the same dolls included in the Gala ghouldfriend line. (Luna Mothews, herself, and Mousecedes King)  

 Thsi version of Elle comes with the doll, her accesories, a stand, diary, and a hairbrush which I currently cant find her now. Mmph. I saved the back of the box. I think its perfect for photo shoots and for some odd reason I have a real problem wiith throwing away cardboard. Weird. 

Anyway..............   

 LEts begin to look at Elle's accesories. She comes with a basic Monster high stand that clips around the waist.

 THE satnd has the monster high logo imprinted on the base and some rock/crystal/comet detailing around the sides. 

 IT seems to be leaning at a weird angle in this picture but I think that's just my camera.

 She comes with a diary which has lots of comet/crystal drawings on the front. 

 Teh inside of her diary tells about the events leading up to what happened in the movie and a little bit afterward too. The print is all about the same height which makes it a little hard to read, but its legible so not that big of a concern.

 The back of trhe diary takes on more of a Boo York night-scape theme. 

I saved the back of the box which was designed to look like Boo York city at nighttime. I think it will make a great backdrop fro photography though the shine on the carboard might prove to be troublesome. 

THE other side of the saved cardboard has a colorful picture of the Boo York city scape at the top and goes on to tell a little bit about Elle.

NOW ONTO THE DOLL!!!!

Elle comes with a puple and polka dots shimmery dress wuth cape, a silver cage-like thing (still havent really figured out what it is) that goes around her waist, a pair of tranluscent blue heels, a set of comet/crystal earrings, and a hair accessory. 

 Her body is a light gray color with a hint of blue sparkle. (Sorry you cant see the sparkle in the photo, but it looks awesome on the doll!) 

 Her face is the same light grey but with a much finer sparkle to it. (Again, sorry you cant see the sparkle, it really adds a lot to this doll) This same type of sparkly face is used on the new Ever After High Crystal Winter doll.

(I like Elle's sparkle and overall look a WHOLE lot better. This doll just looks MEAN and overly fluffy! What do you think?)

Love Ever After High and all, but I think a normal skin-tone and a kinder expression would be MUCH better for this doll. And a different hairstyle. And a different hair color. And a different dress. And a different accessory. And different eyebrow color. Mattel may have struck out on this one. Of course the blue and the sparkle will appeal to all the Frozen lovers out there but I cant help but think that this doll is just plain ugly!!!  Oh and I just know noticed how awful her crown looked. love the jewels but their a little too dark for her look and the crown's plastic is just a little too white. The only  nice thing about this doll is the skirt!  

Whoops, just realized I wasn't reviewing this doll. That's awkward.

Anyway...............

Elle has camera shutter-like eyes with a purple center and a lilac outer. She is wearing one layer of sea foam blue eye shadow and has simple mascara and purple lipstick. She has purple eyebrows and lines running down her face form where she was put together and a power button in the middle of her forehead. (Sorry you cant see the lines better. They are really faint) 

 Her ears are shaped like speakers with a headphone jack hole for her earrings. It is also interesting to note that her chin is very angled and juts out quite a way. (I've found this makes her head rather hard to angle downwards) 

 Her earrings are a pretty slightly metallic purple with what looks like a crystallized comet hanging down. (Mattel is really taking the comet crystal theme seriously!)

 On top of her ponytail she has a rather large hair clip. IT seems to be a couple of speakers with crystal decorations.

 Underneath, the accessory has a small hinge to allow it to pivot center... 

 left....

and right for easier styling. 

Now lets take a look at her gore-geous hair. Her hair is pulled up in a high pony tail with two smaller strands wrapping around it. 

 The hair is beuatifully colored with black, purple, magenta, and turquoise. Im not really sure what type of hair it is, though Im pretty sure sure its not saran. As IVe heard that monster high dolls are only rooted with saran or kanekalon, I'd say it would be safe to guess that her hair was kanekalon.        

 (Now for my favorite part!) Lets see what her hair looks like down!

I gave her hair a quick brush with another one of my doll combs (Still cant find hers *grunt*) and This is how it turned out. The top of her hair still has a bit of volume on it due to the fact it was in a ponytail and I haven't brushed out the top curls yet.

Her hair goes back up into its original style very easily. 

Onto the shoes! Her shoes look like a transparent blue metal building square with (guess what!) comet/crystal decorations.  

Top View

Side View

SUPER CUTE!

Elle has a silver metallic "cage" thingy on top of her dress. I call it her roll cage. I do not know this fro a fact, but several of the people who reviewed this doll on amazon said that her roll cage looked like a programming tree. Now I have have absolutely no interest in the inner workings of a computer so I have no idea if this is true. If it was however, it would really add to her theme of being a robot. I'm not really sure if I like it as an accessory though. It seems as if I handle it too harshly it'll snap in half. 

 Thankfully the thing comes off. It is made of rigid plastic which makes it impossible for the doll to sit down while wearing it.

Underneath the roll cage Elle is wearing a purple and polka dot mod dress made of a slightly stretchy material. 

THE dress is sorta off the shoulders but stays on very well.

The cape is attached to the back of the dress (Arghhh) with a small hole for dressing. As with the roll cage, the cape is said to have a design that is somewhat reminiscent of programming stuff. It looks awesome either way except for the tiny snag at the bottom where it was attached to the back of the box.

 Now lets take a look at the doll herself. She has the basic monster high 11 points of articulation.

This is the widest split I've seen her do so far. I do not know if this is normal for monster high dolls, but when i extend one of Elle's legs out to the side it makes this clicking noise. ???????? I do not think it is a defect, but it almost makes me think I'm gonna snap her leg off! But enough of my fears.
I want to quickly compare Elle to an Ever after High doll.

Flynn!!!!

This is Flynn, my 4th custom I've done. She was originally the hat-tastic Cerise Hood doll and thus is a little taller than most dolls. (PLEASE NOTE: Yes I know Flynn is a guy's name, but the name fit her so perfectly that I figured it wouldn't be that weird.) More on Flynn later. 

As I explained in the paragraph above, Flynn is a bit taller than most dolls in these two brands. I did not notice this earlier but Flynn seems to have a much wider face than Elle.

Elle has a much more severe case of scoliosis than Flynn.

You can see here that she is also much skinnier in the waist than my other doll. (Which really stinks because they cant share clothes!) 

Okey Doke. Im finished ranting so now Im just going to show you a couple of pictures I took with this doll. 

The Scientist

The Country girl

IN the city

Overall, I love this doll. She has a beautiful design and theme and I cant seem to get over the colors in her hair. It was impossible to show this in pictures but, the shimmery quality of her skin and intricate molding makes her by far one of the coolest dolls I've ever seen. On the downside, her leg does the funny click thing and she had quite a bit of dandruff. These really aren't that big of a deal to me as I will be playing with her anyway. (I just hope her leg doesn't fall off!) She is an awesome doll and I will shortly be posting some crafts to make with her. THis rather long review is finished now so this is Poppy signing off. Remember, God made you special and he loves you very much.

P.S. Forgot to mention that this doll totally creeped my parents out! My dad said he thought it was some kind of ghoul (no pun intended I think) and my mom's exact words were "I LET YOU BUY THAT?!?!"