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Since we last saw Emily, I've gotten my covetous little hands on the boots that go to this outfit. Completing it a little at a time!

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Before dressing Sameen in this outfit, I decided to take off her head so I could get a look at her shoulder tag and figure out when exactly she was manufactured.

Only to find that she didn't have a shoulder tag. This is approximately when I noticed she also didn't have a body tag. I've had her for about five years at this point, but I was so thrown off by her zombie skin (which tends to be more of a Mattel defect) that I never even noticed she was actually a Pleasant Company doll!

Fitting, then, that she's wearing the Blue Jeans Basics II outfit, which was released in the 90's.

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It's bread baking day at the Merriman household, and Felicity is happy to have her friend Elizabeth helping out with the tedious chore. Today they're making loaves of Sally Lunn bread, a soft and dense loaf rich with eggs and sugar, reminiscent of French brioche.

The recipe comes from Felicity's Cookbook, which I've owned for years and have used quite often. I made this bread for the very first time this week, and I was very happy with how it turned out. It's soft, flavorful, and doesn't require any kneading. As much I as I enjoyed it, I don't think it will ever be my go-to bread recipe, since it's so exceedingly rare for me to have eggs, milk, butter, and sugar in my kitchen all at the same time!

Unlike Felicity, I never learned to make bread when I was her age. When I grew up and moved out into my own place, I brought my childhood copy of Kirsten's Cookbook, and the recipe for whole wheat round bread was what got me started and helped me learn to make my own bread instead of buying it. I've been doing that ever since. I even taught my mom to make homemade bread, which had always intimidated her.

Felicity's Cookbook mentions that the origin of the name "Sally Lunn" is not known for certain. It might come from the French words "soleil-lune" which means "sun-moon", or "sol et lune" (sun and moon) due to the golden top (sun) and white interior (moon). I checked to see if this is still a mystery 30+ years after Pleasant Company published this book, and apparently it still is. The Sally Lunn Eating House in Bath, England claims that the recipe originated from a French Huguenot refugee named Solange Luyon, whose name was then Anglicized as Sally Lunn, but there's still no solid evidence of this being true either.

In the UK, Sally Lunn bread is usually made as buns, while in the American South it's a loaf made in a round or tube pan. I thought it would be cute to make it in doll-sized mini loaf pans so Felicity and Elizabeth could help.

The recipe is below the cut, with a few of my (experienced bread baker) adaptations.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup milk 1/4 cup warm water 1 package active dry yeast 6 tablespoons butter, softened 3 tablespoons sugar 2 eggs 3 cups flour 1 & 1/4 teaspoons salt Shortening or butter to grease the pans

Here are the mini loaf pans I used. Or you can use just one standard sized tube pan or loaf pan, but the minis are cuter and in my experience the bread turns out better in small loaves.

Directions:

Measure the milk in a saucepan and warm it over medium low heat. Turn off the heat.

Measure the warm water into a small bowl. Add the yeast and stir. Then stir the warm milk into the yeast and water. Always use WARM water and milk only, NOT HOT liquids. Yeast is alive and temperatures above 140F will kill the yeast.)

Measure the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and beat them together with a hand mixer or whisk until they are creamy and soft.

Crack 1 egg into the mixing bowl and beat it into the butter and sugar mixture until it's well blended and creamy. Then do the same with the second egg.

Stir in about 1/3 of the yeast and milk mixture into into the butter and sugar mixture, then add the salt and 1 cup of flour.

Once these are all mixed together, do the same with the second cup of flour and another 1/3 of the yeast mixture. Then do the same with the last cup of flour and last 1/3 of the yeast mixture. Mix it all together until it's soft dough with no lumps. If it feels too dry to mix, add one or two tablespoons of milk until it's soft and mixable.

Scoop 1/3 of the batter into each of your three greased mini loaf pan. Or into the single pan.

Cover the pan(s) and let the dough rise for about an hour in a warm place. On the kitchen counter is fine. Or set it in the oven but do not turn the oven on. Don't put it in the fridge or anywhere cold.

After an hour, turn on the oven and pre-heat it to 350 degrees.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes if you're making three small loaves. Keep a close eye on them and take them out once the tops are a nice golden brown, like in my pictures. If you're making a single loaf in a single pan, it will take closer to 45 minutes to bake. Keep an eye on that as well and take it out the moment the top is golden brown.

Let the bread cool off for a few minutes. It will continue to cook on the inside as it cools, so let that happen before cutting a slice with a serrated bread knife.

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five below pet glasses 👍

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A kind redditor gave me a Josefina doll, in super rough condition, for just the cost of shipping c: They got her along with a couple other dolls that they planned to fix up and donate to children, but poor Josie was in quite a state, and was offered as a freebie to anyone who might want to send her to the doll hospital. I asked for her because I wanted to try and fix her myself! She was so much fun to fix up! The last photo is how she came to me.

Her leg had come off, because the tension cup cracked. I took off her other limbs, removed her original wig because it looked like there was missing hair under all that matting, cleaned her limbs and her body and face, put her back together again, and rewigged her. I think the short, wavy hair really suits her! It was between the short hair, and a super long, thick wig which also looked really pretty on her but I ended up preferring the short. Now I want to find another doll for the long wig 😁

I might rename this doll Azucena, because she's not quite a Josefina anymore. I'd love other name suggestions though!

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Rose and I road tripped to the AG Store to check out all the new stuff!

All the new stuff is so cute!!!! Sadly they didn't have Kirsten or Addy's birthday outfits in stock :( But Julie's skating outfit came home with us! 💙

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I brought Nicki with me to see Six!! 👑🎤🎵

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This is Emily.

Emily is excited because she was promised a new friend. Who can it be? The box is really big, bigger than Emily's old one.

"She's one of a kind, just like me!"

"Hello, friend! I'm Heidi!"

The finger rings swivel, which is nice. It makes the game more poseable.

The little button has a clip for putting on a doll's lapel.

The purple bracelet matches the shirt for Julie's school outfit really well.

And the bag fits over doll shoulders. It also holds everything that comes with the accessories set. (The glasses were separate.)

So far, the most frustrating part of the whole thing is the hairband. It keeps trying to fly off and I'm afraid it's going to end up jumping into my trash can if someone bumps the doll wearing it.

Heidi and Emily are already planning their first adventure together.

*Heidi may not end up being the new girl's permanent name.

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mitsumi in the same outfit but in nicer weather 🥰

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Spring has Sprung, AG 24: Endangered Species

Liv loves elephants! She is hoping to help raise awareness of the plight of her favorite animal. Both species of African elephant (savanna and forest) have been listed as endangered since 2021. Their populations have declined during the last few decades due to poachers seeking ivory and loss of habitat.

Liv’s friend, Kira, has come over to help brainstorm ideas for a “Protect the Elephants” campaign.

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Louisa looks so sweet in Kirsten’s birthday dress!

I don’t have the new version, the dress and apron are marked Pleasant Company 1994 and I got a grey market wreath.

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While I'm on a Samantha Parkington kick, I am once again thinking about this one piece of dialogue from the movie:

Mr. O'Malley: I want to thank you, Samantha, for your kindness towards Nellie and the girls.

Samantha: No thanks needed, sir. Nellie and the girls are my friends.

The thing that gets me most about this is the fact that he calls her by her first name and she calls him "sir". This is the norm in the hierarchy of age, but not in the hierarchy of class. Normally, he would be calling her "miss", as Nellie does at the beginning of both the books and the movie, while she might even call him by his first name, as she does Jessie's husband, Lincoln (although race may also play into that; I would need to do more reading on how all that worked); even if she referred to him by last name, like Hawkins, there would still be a usual understanding that he is considered her inferior.

But that's not what happens here. Samantha addresses Mr. O'Malley with the same respect and dignity as she would any of her wealthy friends' parents, and she doesn't expect him to address her any differently than his own daughters, who she sees as no different than her; they're her friends, no more, no less. Even though by this point Samantha's character is already pretty well-established, I feel like this just adds something extra to it.

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Happy belated birthday to Claudie!! 🎂💕

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obsessed with this outfit on Cierra (wbu Maritza)

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Spring has Sprung AG 24, Week 8: Teachers

As you probably know, Addy worked hard and fulfilled her dream to become a teacher. She taught in Philadelphia for many years and was well-respected and much-beloved by her students. She never stopped wearing her treasured cowrie-shell necklace.