Guest Post by Tess and Maggie: Fan Mail Friday

Hey humans! Maggie here. Did you miss us? Of course you did. Tess and I promised you a guest post here on Hannah's blog ages ago. Little did we know she was such a blog hog and wouldn't let us post until now.

Oh, surprised that we call Mama "Hannah" now? Here's the thing. Now that Hannah isn't anonymous anymore, we don't have to keep her name a secret. Tess still likes calling her "Mama." (Yes, yes, Tess, I know...it's pronounced ma-MA like they say it in those stuffy Jane Austen movies. I think you bring this up every time we say it on the blog.) The rest of us, however, are relieved to use her real name and stop talking like some boring period drama character. (No Tess, I don't think I need to apologize to any of Hannah's readers who are Austen fans. They know me by now. And if they don't, too bad. They should go watch a real movie. Like The Avengers.)

So apparently a couple of months back, Hannah shared some ideas for possible future posts, and one of them was "Fan Mail Friday." In February she got one package and planned on doing a post. As usual, though, time got away from her. (Seriously, I don't know what this lady does all day.) 

Then March came and went (as of yesterday). She got two more cards and one more package...all from the same person! Best. Reader. Ever.

I have to say, she's making the rest of you look bad. ;) 

*Tess takes over the keyboard.*

Um, Maggie, you really shouldn't say things like that. We don't want Mama's readers to think that she's ungrateful.

*Maggie regains control of the computer.*

Whatevs, Tess. Look, if you're going to interject things into my conversation, maybe we should color code our words, like we used to do on our amazing blog, Jane Austen and Unicorns. (Yes, that was totally a shameless plug...link included.) ;) I'll be blue and you be purple, okay?

All right, I suppose that works for  me.

So, this awesome reader who keeps sending Hannah goodies is Treesa from fashiondollmemoirs.blogspot.com. Hannah wanted me to tell you guys to be sure you stop by and check out her website. It's all about fashion dolls, which, as most of you know, are not my favorite dolls in the world. Still, a lot of you will probably enjoy it.

I thought the blog was rather lovely.

You would. But moving right along. Treesa's first package for Hannah had this card:

A bit pink, but totally something Hannah would like.

Treesa also sent Hannah two Love-A-Bye Babies (thrift store rescues, apparently). 

She was especially excited about this dark-haired one. It's one she had as a little girl, and she's been looking for her for a while.

The babies are cute enough. A bit on the fussy side, but Hannah says that's how babies are.

Treesa also sent Mama a lovely handmade card celebrating spring...

...and an Easter card as well.

I think she makes the cards herself. :)

On the same day Hannah got her Easter card, she got another package from Treesa. But this one had a card inside addressed to us:

We decided since Hannah kept putting off doing her Fan Mail Friday post, we would do a unboxing/Fan Mail Friday post for all of you.

We hope you don't mind us taking over. I think Mama was relieved for the help. She's been really tired ever since she got back from her writers conference. With Papa's new night schedule and all three of Mama's daughters home for Easter break, it's been pretty hectic for her.

So, let's read the card already and see what it says.

Oh, she's so sweet!

Here's her message to us. I like her already. :)

Time to open the box! Oh, cool, there's a ton of stuff in here! How about we take turns opening stuff and showing it to everyone?

That sounds perfect. I'm so excited! I wonder what she sent us?

I'll go first. Here's a really cool silver pin just our size with a poem Tess and the other sentimental ones will like.

Here's a closer look at the pin. Isn't it awesome?

Oh, look! She sent us a pretty pink notebook with the word "Smile" on the front.

It has lots of pages for keeping a journal or writing stories.

Here's another one with the word "Delight" on the front.

Ooh, I like this one the best. Such a beautiful shade of lavender. It says "True" on the front.

This one's kinda cool, too, with all of the flowers and fabric. I wonder if she decorated these herself?

One last package! I wonder if this is the jewelry she was talking about?

It is! Look how many necklaces there are! 

Oh, I love this one so much! I've been needing a necklace for ages! I hope I get this one.

I'd say go for it. If you like it that much, I doubt anyone would fight you for it. Check out this one. It's perfect for Rachel.

Oh, and this one would look wonderful with Jenna's green eyes. Or Emma's.

Hmm, now I can't decide which one would be better for Rachel. She'd really like this lighthouse one, too. There was a lighthouse where she used to live before she moved here with us.

Look, another heart necklace! It matches the first one almost perfectly! It could be a best friends necklace. 

Um, before you suggest that we wear them, let me just say that cutesy heart necklaces are not my thing. But you're still my best friend. Maybe Hailey or Ella would want to wear it with you. 

This is the last necklace. I love how cool and simple it is. 

I wonder if she made these herself?

If she did, she's super talented. Try on the heart one you liked, Tess. I want to see it on you.

Oh, it's perfect! I love it.

What do you think, Treesa? Does it suit me?

So, we want to give a big shout out and thank you to Treesa for giving us so many cool gifts. We'll go divvy up the spoils here in just a bit. Thanks for thinking of us.

Yes, thank you so very much, Treesa. I love my new necklace. I'll think of you and your kindness every time I wear it. 

We also wanted to make sure we said thank you for Mama. She has been so encouraged by your sweet notes and fun gifts. :)

Since you were our only reader who sent fan mail these past two months, we wanted to give you something special. Mama will be sending you Kristoff and Anna Little Kingdom dolls. 

We hope you enjoy them as much as Mama does. They're one of her very favorite new doll lines.

We also wanted to show everyone Treesa's cards, the first three hanging in Hannah's fan mail section on her wall: 

They always make Mama smile when she looks at them.

But as you guys can see, there's a lot of space left for other cards and letters, both here...

...and on the wall next to it. So, if any of you want to send a card, Hannah would be thrilled. Seriously. It doesn't take much to get her all excited. Me, I'm partial to gifts or money. For Hannah, just nice words make her day. Weird.

Maggie, you really shouldn't say things like that, especially as a guest blogger. What will Mama's readers think?

Hey, everyone loves a snarky writer, okay? It's my signature style.

Um, sometimes less snark and more sincerity might be a better choice.

Whoa, look at you, getting a backbone and everything. Write it on the calendar!

We really should wrap this up. 

I guess. So, hope you guys enjoyed this post. After this, it'll be back to Hannah's usual sweet, semi-boring posts.

Maggie!

Sorry! I can't help it. I open my mouth and this stuff just comes out.  Okay, wrapping things up before Tess never speaks to me again.

I would never do that to you. 

I know. You're too sweet for your own good. So, people (and dolls, if any of you happen to be reading this), have a nice weekend and hopefully you'll hear from us again sometime in the next millennium. 

Oh, and before we go, Mama wanted us to mention that she's working on several review posts that she'll hopefully have up by next week. :)

Laters, everyone!

Goodbye!

Tess and Mags

Off to Ladies Retreat! :)

Hey guys!  I just wanted to let you know that I'm off to Ladies Retreat for the weekend! :)  Tess and Maggie are coming with me, so I'll have lots of fun pictures to share with you when I get back.  Have a great weekend! :)

Back from Vacation with Goodies! :)

Hi everyone!  I'm back after 6 wonderful days at the ocean. :)  My family and I had a wonderful time.  I also brought my Maggie doll, and she blogged all about her experiences on "Jane Austen and Unicorns".  You can read her first post about the trip HERE. 

Meanwhile, here are some of my favorite pics from the trip.

It was a wonderful vacation...just what we all needed. :)  There are some great pics of my family too, but per my hubby's request, I'm trying to keep this blog free of pics of the girls, for their security.  Just thought I'd throw that in, in case you thought I liked the pics of my dolls better than the pics of my girls. ;)

Now, you might have noticed a couple of new dolls in the picture.  There's a funny story about that. :) 

A few days before we left, I thought I'd check the Humboldt County Craigslist, just in case they had anything I couldn't live without.  Lo and behold, there was someone selling a lot of two AG dolls with some extra clothes.  I could tell from the picture that it was Jess in Kaya's meet outfit and Julie in a mishmash of AG clothes.  The seller wanted $75 for everything!! 

I emailed her right away, explaining that I would be vacationing in the area and would love to come meet her, and that I was very interested.  Then I sat back on pins and needles, hoping everything would work out.  I called my mom and told her about what I'd found (since she's now my doll buddy and was coming, too). ;)  I had $45 to spend, and I figured if we went in together, we could get everything.  

I finally heard back from the seller the night before we left.  We arranged a day to meet and exchanged phone numbers.  So, that's how I found myself, on the second day of my trip, pooling money together with my mom and purchasing 2 dolls and some clothing for the price of one eBay doll!! :D  Here's a pic of everything we got:

The clothes ended up being a lot of odds and ends. 

Here we have the mesh hoodie from the 2005 JLY "Seaside Wardrobe" set, the AG backpack from the 2006 JLY "Backpack set for dolls", a gray and pink Battat skirt, the blue dress from the JLY "Ballet Recital Outfit" from 2006, and a homemade knit hat.

In this picture, we have the detachable spider legs from the 2004 JLY "Spider Witch Costume" and the white away jersey from the 2006 JLY "2-in-1 Soccer Outfit", plus the backpack and skirt from the first pic.

We also got Julie's meet hat, Jess's meet skirt, and the pink corduroy jacket from the JLY 2006 "Petals and Plaid Outfit".

Here we have a gold Build-a-Bear skirt, the bottoms to the 2005 JLY "Star PJs", a random little mini soccer goal, and a pink pillow, as yet unidentified but tagged AG.

Jess came wearing Kaya's meet dress and moccasins.  We think the seller might have thought that Jess was Kaya, because she talked about this being the outfit she came in, and apologized for cutting her hair. 

Julie came in her meet shirt, a Build-a-Bear skirt that was way too big for her, and the boots from the 2005 JLY "Sightseeing Outfit".

Both dolls required some pretty major cleanup.  Their previous owner had obviously been a budding makeup artist.  Jess had makeup over, around, and in her eyes, and a huge makeup mark on her forehead.

She also had this really nasty white stuff in her mouth...I'm thinking it was some sort of sparkly makeup.

This shows the makeup on her eyes.  Thankfully, it was all dry stuff that came up fairly easily between the Lysol wipes and the magic eraser I used. :)

Unfortunately, when I got Jess undressed, I discovered this huge mark on her chest...

...and this one on her thigh.  I was really worried that they were permanent marker stains, but when I looked closer, I realized they were also makeup stains.

Front view...

...and back view.  Her hair is a bit dry and will greatly benefit from a Downy dunk.

A few marks on her foot...these also came up easily with the Magic Eraser.

Julie, showing off her makeup job.

Another close-up of her face (that was NOT supposed to be sideways...oh, lovely Blogger!).

General gunk and goop on her face.  The only thing that didn't come up was the small blue dot on her chin.  I'm hoping to do an Oxy treatment on that in the coming weeks.

Julie's hair was really not that bad, but I am still planning on doing Downy on her, too.  Partially because both dolls' hair and all of the clothes smelled pretty strongly of patchouli oil...ick.

Despite their minor flaws, both dolls had really tight limbs, as you can see from these two pics.

Sorry Jess's is so blurry, but it's the only one I have.

The girls after their skin clean-up.

Much better!!  The makeup is still on Jess's cloth.  Mom and I are thinking of trying a Tide pen and seeing what that does.

Julie looked incredible after her clean up. :)

Mom and I decided to split things 50/50.  I was tempted to keep Jess, but I already have so many brown- haired, brown-eyed dolls and no blonds, so it made more sense to keep Julie.  I decided to make her modern and change her name to Rachel Jane Benson. :)  She is an initially shy, exuberant girl who loves Marvel heroes, Muppets, and the ocean. 

Rachel with her favorite superhero:  Thor.

My mom is keeping Jess.  We divvied up the clothes and that's that!!  It was such an exciting added bonus to our trip. :D

There were a few other doll-sized goodies I found while on vacation.  I thought you might enjoy seeing those things, too.  Here's a pic of Maggie with all of our souvenirs:

And now, for some close-ups. :)

This is a little plastic unicorn I found for Maggie at a toy store in the mall.

I got a set of 3 of these little white pails at Dollar Tree.

This little Hello Kitty container was at the same toy store where I got the unicorn.  It has two putty erasers that work like modeling clay for the dolls.  The case is a little small to be a lunch box, but looks really cute on Hailey's Hello Kitty shelf. :)  My mom bought me the mini starfish at a shell souvenir shop.

I found these two "Dippin' Dots" ice cream container lip balms at Dollar Tree, too.

These two gift books were at a little gift shop in Old Town Eureka. 

Here's one of the pages of the Strawberry Shortcake book.  I love that it's the Strawberry Shortcake that I grew up with! :)

This mini Raisin Bran box was from part of my continental breakfast served by the hotel my hubby and I stayed at one night.

Here's a pack of 30 cute mini claws, also from Dollar Tree.

This was Maggie's souvenir from the shell shop:  a bottle of Pirate's Gold! ;)

This mini picture frame was another Dollar Tree purchase.

My mom bought me this place mat at Kohl's to use as a rug for my dolls (sorry the pic is sideways).

I found this cute mini tea set in a box at the same store where I found the gift books.

It came with a little mini book on tea...

...the tea set itself...

...and two sheets of stickers to make your own customized tea set.

Here's how my set turned out.  I used this as a souvenir for Tess.  Oh, and the paper doily came with the set, too. :)

Well, that's about it for now.  We had a great time, but we're all glad to be home.  I have some other things to share with you, but I think I'll save those for another post. :)