Addy’s Patriotic Party Dress

In “Changes for Addy”, Addy is given the honor of reading the Emancipation Proclamation at her church’s special New Year’s Eve service. They were celebrating the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation which was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. That’s 154 years ago tomorrow! Even though slavery was not officially ended until…

New Year’s 1999

The year was 1999. I was nine years old. The item at the top of my Christmas list came from this wonderful catalogue, American Girl’s first holiday “wish book”: I badly wanted this, the special edition Year 2000 Outfit: How could I possibly have been able to welcome a new millennium and survived the Y2K…

Merry Christmas from Daphne and Delaney!

  “Merry Christmas, Delaney!” “Merry Christmas, Daphne! Look at all these presents!” The girls rushed to open the big, exciting packages under the tree. “Wow!” they both exclaimed as they ripped them open.   “A new guitar,” exclaimed Daphne. “It’s just what I wanted!” “It’s Addy!” cried Delaney. “I’ve wanted Addy for so long!” The…

December Photo Challenge

Merry Christmas Eve! This month on Instagram I took part in a daily photo challenge created by a fellow AGIGer, @mountainspeak. I had an absolute blast with it and really enjoyed every aspect of the challenge. Some of you follow me on Instagram (@dollsandsmiles) but I thought I would share with you my photos from…

Make a Groovy Beanbag Chair! (That’s super easy, super cheap, environmentally friendly, and would make a great gift!)

If you are like me, you’ve been making a lot of online purchases lately. If you are even more like me, a lot of those purchases have arrived in boxes with a return address from Middleton, Wisconsin. 🙂 As much as I love getting mail, I cringe when I open the box and it looks…