Put together my tiny doll room today and I forgot how stinking cute it is!!!!! What do y’all think??? And does anyone remember this thing from way back in the day?
I saw the “Spring Has Sprung” photo challenge, and decided that since I have all my dolls packed up for a tornado warning we had two nights ago (we’re fine, no tornado near us, but it did hit a town over) that I was going to do a full blown photo shoot with all 7 of my girls. So without further ado…
We’ll start with Kieryn & Kirsten, who stopped to do a little work on our garden. Kirsten checked to see if the strawberry plants had taken root yet, while Kieryn put up some tomato cage trellises for our quick growing green beans!
While they did that, Felicity went over to check out our blueberry plants to see if any of the green berries had turned purple yet. Sure enough, she found the only one that has started to turn… and she made sure to claim it loud enough for everyone to hear!
Nanea begged me to show you our fairy garden, named Pixie Hollow, and to show you our state rocks. My mom and I camp a lot and my lovely mother has a habit of stealing large rocks for her garden. On our cross country road trip in 2020, she grabbed a rock from each state we visited and we now have them proudly displayed in our fairy garden. Nanea also just had to show you guys her favorite house and her favorite decoration we have out there.
Next we have Trevi, who is supposed to be doing her spring break homework with Molly but both of them were not having it on such a beautiful morning. Trevi decided to tend to her roses, while Molly gave me probably twenty reasons why I should let her practice her tap dance routine over doing her math.
Lastly, we have Willow who is in our home library catching up on some light reading of one of her favorite books, Earth Power: Techniques of Natural Magic by Scott Cunningham. Like her mother always says, her favorite quote from Roald Dahl, “…Above all, watch with glittering eye the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.” Willow goes back to this book the most to find the best ways to let witchcraft and nature help with her anxiety and depression.
Eons ago, someone had all the songs from the AG Christmas CD uploaded for downloads. That link is long dead, and unfortunately I long lost my copy of the songs (screw you apple itunes). The songs on the CD still don’t seem to be anywhere online, and copies of the CD are going for Weirdly High Prices, so I thought I’d try to fix that.
I snatched up a cheaper CD I saw for sale online, and I’m still working to see if I can get the songs extracted. In the meantime, I scanned the booklet and uploaded it onto the Internet Archive! You can download the PDF or read it in the browser.
This is my family’s go to for birthdays and gatherings. It’s the easiest cake I’ve ever made, and comes together quickly for a professional result.
It’s also likely the cake Kirsten’s mother would have made her. Almond desserts are highly prized in Scandinavia, especially in Kirsten’s time, and this cake requires no expensive ingredients like chocolate or vanilla extract- all of what goes in here, except the almond paste, would be lying around the farm.
After 45-50 minutes at 300 F, our cake is ready to come out. Now we need strawberries, raspberries, and powdered sugar. Slice your strawberries.
Get your cake on a plate or pan to cool. From the bottom, it should look like this. Cool for about 20-30 minutes- it’s a thin cake and should be served warm.
Kirsten gives the all clear!
Gently flip it onto the plate you’re going to serve it on, and arrange the strawberries around it.
Dust with powdered sugar.
At this point, the cake is accurate to Kirsten’s story and illustrations, but in my opinion, a raspberry garnish is necessary.
Get about 2 cups of frozen raspberries and microwave them for 30 seconds. This loosens up the juices and makes them mashable. Then, with the back of a spoon, strain them through a mesh strainer into a bowl, and scrape off the bottom.
Add about a tablespoon of sugar.
Now you’re ready to enjoy.
The texture of the cake should be dense and slightly chewy, with a good crust, similar to a brownie.
The raspberry garnish enhances the sweetness of the cake but cuts through the sugary, cakey taste, making it light and tart.
And there you have it. A nice summer treat in time for Kirsten’s tenth (or 176th) birthday.
“I remembered the day you were born, Kirsten. I remembered how my mother came to help me… It was this time of year, late spring. New leaves were on the big maple tree outside the door. Then you were born, and Mrs. Hanson cleaned you and wrapped you in a blanket and put you in my arms. You were a red faced little thing with white fuzz for hair. But I thought you were beautiful. I was very, very happy because I wanted a daughter so much.”
I took out all of her best things for this photo, and as you can see, I included a little red dala horse I bought in Texas. Maybe Lars made it for her. She has her cats, her doll, and the quilt from her friends- could life be any better?
(Well, maybe if American Girl would re-release her…)
Tomorrow I’m going to make Kirsten’s birthday cake. I’ll share the recipe my family uses, which makes one 8 inch cake and fits in my grandma’s old heart shaped cake pan.
I’ll be making a marzipan cake. A marzipan or almond cake is what Kirsten’s mother most likely would have baked her- almond desserts are traditional in Sweden, and in her time would have been considered even more of a luxury food. Chocolate would likely not have been affordable for Kirsten’s family, and even if it was, they would probably have made the marzipan cake anyways. Heck, my family makes the marzipan cake now, and we live in suburban America with cocoa powder cheaper than gas.
So stay tuned! If I do it right the end result should be pretty much identical to the illustrations and play cake as well.
“I remembered the day you were born, Kirsten. I remembered how my mother came to help me… It was this time of year, late spring. New leaves were on the big maple tree outside the door. Then you were born, and Mrs. Hanson cleaned you and wrapped you in a blanket and put you in my arms. You were a red faced little thing with white fuzz for hair. But I thought you were beautiful. I was very, very happy because I wanted a daughter so much.”
Happy birthday Kirsten! And happy Pride Month! I haven’t take many photos with Kirsten lately so here she is with Josefina. I like to think they’re stargazing (ignore how it’s very bright)
The amount of time I spent posing this and the number of takes I did is truly embarrassing. Her dress is probably stained now and I ended up using the base of her stand as a plate. The bun was too heavy for her to hold.
Check out my Saint Lucia meal this Friday, December 17th, @pancreasrecipes.
Hopefully by the next holiday season I’ll have Kaya’s winter accessories and Josefina’s Christmas outfit, and maybe even Felicity/Elizabeth outfits for Caty and Abigail.
I’m just glad that the painters finished before the end of Hanukkah, so I could access everything and have somewhere to put them all.
This is the most interesting collab I’ve seen AG do in a while. The last thing I need is more travel bags but when I saw it being hinted on the AGIG last night, I was intrigued.
In addition to these pouches, there will be different types of bags and, I’m guessing, patches and other travel accessories. But their products are pricy, so I can’t see myself getting more than one.
I like Kirsten and Samantha’s prints best.
These will be available on Stony Clover’s website starting October 22nd.
Kirsten’s Surprise: A Christmas Story (American Girl) [Belated Christmas Gift!]
IT IS DONE. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but getting the wreath candles to glow (and not blink like airtraffic control beacons!) and then fix a million fiddling things with the dress took a solid week longer than I was expecting. :-x
SO. I was obsessed with all things pioneer as a kid (I’m also part Swedish) so I was predictably a Kirsten girl. I got the doll, but my family couldn’t afford any accessories or extra outfits or, what I wanted the most: her furniture! So, I liiived for the next AG catalog where I could pine after all the sets that I wanted so badly and beg my parents for it all.
These days I’m nostalgic but still poor… but omg HEY. I can MAKE the sets now! (Even if only digitally)
ANYWAY, here is your belated Christmas/Saint Lucia day present and the first installment of my American Girl Project stuff!
PS: The preview pic is ugly because it looks like the catalog pages of my 90s youth! ;)
INCLUDED (All BGC):
Saint Lucia Gown (girls, 2 swatches, white and black)
Saint Lucia Wreath crown with glowing candles (children, right wrist accessory)
Happy birthday Kirsten! And happy Pride Month! I haven’t take many photos with Kirsten lately so here she is with Josefina. I like to think they’re stargazing (ignore how it’s very bright)
![Kirsten’s Surprise: A Christmas Story (American Girl) [Belated Christmas Gift!] IT IS DONE. It was s](https://64.media.tumblr.com/c3fca69adddbfee8085d1076683a96d0/074b88493573f28c-c8/s1280x1920/6ce376ed52b2ca746c0492a2ecdd88d5e0a86592.png "Kirsten’s Surprise: A Christmas Story (American Girl) [Belated Christmas Gift!] IT IS DONE. It was s")
