spring has sprung week one’s theme is reading! i’ve been reading to my dolls from this beautifully illustrated book of stories about fairies from different cultures. marie-grace put on her fairy costume for the occasion!

In the Barnes house, self care is a daily thing. Willow loves doing yoga and conversing with her deities to center herself, but she finds balancing her chakras the most helpful.

Willow also recently “dyed her hair” because I had an issue with the original wig she had. So this is Willow’s new look!

Kieryn wanted to be the one to share her pets for week two of the Spring has Sprung challenge.

She’s responsible for making sure Fiona and her babies, Shay and Nessa get fed every morning and evening.

She’s very proud of the responsibility her family has entrusted her with.

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.

Neill-Cochran House Museum is a small museum in Austin that I really admire because of the important interpretation work they’re doing (such as recently hosting Joseph McGill of the Slave Dwelling Project). The museum also hosts community events, and for me, that’s helped me start feeling comfortable on the grounds instead of just coming once and being done. Last weekend they hosted a fun tie-dyeing event. I tie-dyed an old tee shirt that I later sewed into a couple of doll tee shirts, including this one that Melody is modeling.

The theme for week 11 of #springhassprungag2022 is #outdoors so here we have #gwynntan and Ophelia a renamed Ndanaka from @sibahlecollection playing with a toy farm from #giftinabox Image Description: two dolls sitting down against a farmhouse background holding a wooden chicken and horse with a wooden farm in front of him. #sibahlecollection #dolls #welliewishers #dollphotography #sibahledolls #sibahlecollection #dollsofcolour #agig #agiger #americangirlbrand #americangirldoll #americangirldolls #agdolls #vitiligo

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The prompt for week 10 of #springhassprungag2022 is #ocean so we have our very own #mermaid #welliewisherashlyn swimming in the #sea image Description: a doll dressed as a mermaid lying against a blue background #welliewishers #welliewisher #agdolls #agig #dolls #dollphotography #americangirldoll #americangirldolls #americangirl #americangirlbrand #agiger

The 12th and final prompt for #springhassprungag2022 is #magic so here we have Edward my #trulyme74 doll showing #girloftheyear2015 #gracethomas a #magictrick I have had so much fun taking part in this challenge and I hope that you have enjoyed it too. Image Description: a doll standing by a covered table with a card on it face down, there is another doll to the left holding out a card with #spades on it. #dolls #dollphotography #americangirl #americangirldolls #americangirldoll #agig #agiger #americangirlbrand #agdolls #americangirlboydoll

https://youtu.be/XYW9dbahp0s Hello everybody I’ve posted a new video on my #youtubechannel featuring my #dollphotography from #springhassprungag2022 please check it out. It would mean a lot to me. Image Description: a screenshot of a YouTube video featuring a collage of doll photos. The text reads BC’s Doll Place: Spring has Sprung AG 2022 Part 1 #dolls #agig #americangirldolls #americangirldoll #agig #agiger #agtube #agtuber #americangirlbrand #sibahlecollection #mapleleagirls #welliewishers

Spring Has Sprung Week 11: Outdoors

This was the perfect prompt to finally take out Xena and Gabby since they basically live outdoors most of the time! There was the perfect forested park right by the coffee shop I hang out at all the time. I learned so much about these dolls doing this shoot. One thing was that 25-year-old fake leather doesn’t hold up very well and they desperately need new clothes. You can see the wear–what you can’t see is the way they flake off in gross little bits every time you touch them. Luckily, the finer work like Gabby’s shirt and Xena’s plastic shoulder pads are ok, so I think it would be simple enough to redo their clothes in ordinary fabric.

I love that these dolls have knees and elbows that bend even though they don’t have full joints. However, they do not stand on their own at all, no matter how they are balanced. Hence Xena here doing some warm-up workouts against this tree. That’s also because I left Gabrielle’s staff at home and I think Xena’s sword is in my parents’ storage unit somewhere, so there was a distinct lack of weapons on this outing.

I was very proud of pulling off this flip stunt in which you can’t see my hand even though I had to hold her the whole time. She’s not even fighting anyone, just moving about camp and showing off for her wife.

Gabrielle absolutely rolled her eyes at the unnecessary stunt but then gave her a kiss anyway. (I am STILL holding them both here–they really don’t balance at all with anything short of a wall behind them)

And, of course, we have to have the obligatory lying in camp talking under the…imaginary, 5pm stars.