Making doll furniture for American Girl Dolls with my mom!

Since there are not many places in Australia that sell furniture for American Girl sized dolls and it is too much money to send things from America, my mom and I are making stuff. This is our first project. It is a school desk and chairs. I even made the rubbish bin. The book that Harper is holding came with an American Girl backpack set. 

My mom bought a pink hot glue gun. She made the desk by glueing the lid of a pretty (cardboard) storage box on to the box it came with. (We turned the box on its side so the bottom of the box became the back of the desk.) My mom made the chairs out of post-it note holders (turned upside down as the base) and bookends glued to them (as the seat and seat back). If you need more information, just leave a comment and we can answer your questions there!

The photo storage box was $2.00. The Post-It note holders were $2.00 each and the bookends were $2.00 for a set of two. This whole project was only $8.00!

The next project we are going to work on is a clubhouse for the American Girl Dolls. She says that it will take a bit longer for that one.

The notes in italics were made by my mom.

American Girl Doll Photographer

I am opening a little photography business. I will take some portraits of your American Girl Doll. I am starting with my friends' dolls, if you want we can put the pictures of your doll on here. E-mail my mom if you are interested in having your dolls photographed. 

These pictures are of my doll, Julie, in the garden. The light was really pretty at the point of day that we were taking the pictures and the weeds need to be pulled. Though they were really pretty photos with the long grass. My mom taught me to focus on the eye when I want other things out of focus. When I took the first photo I knew it was too bright, my mom helped me change the settings. These pictures were my favorites. It was really fun doing this and I think you should try it with your doll/dolls if you have a big fancy camera or not. We will be doing a doll portrait series as part of littleSIDEKLICK.

Photo Info: D200 with Tamron's 17-50mm f/2.8 lens

Backseat Rider

The view to the right in the back seat of our car.

Photo Info: D200 with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens.

My Day Out

Today my teacher was on strike...Pay them more money!!!!! We went to see the Myer windows in the city. I did not take photos of the Christmas windows, but I did take photos of other things in the city. The D200 is a heavy camera. I need a better strap. We went to Starbucks, Hungry Jacks (also known as Burger King in the USA) and Lord of the Fries, it was a junk food day. My mom nearly never lets me have this kind of stuff.

More littleSIDEKLICK photos to come...we are working hard on all the details. Join the Facebook page to be the first to know the latest and how you can get involved! :)

littleSIDEKLICK begins

Finally I have my mom's old camera. We started taking pictures together today. I have always wanted to be behind the camera as well as being a model. 

This is my first picture on the D200. We will learn about editing later. I am using picmonkey.com to make the pictures fit on my blog. Right now editing is a bit too much and I just want to take pictures.

I was taking pictures of Kieran when Clover came along and hung her toy rabbit over the couch. I told Kieran to not smile. 

Later on I took pictures of Clover and her doll in the same spot as the first photo of Kieran. I learned that the light is great there in the morning and the afternoon. We are starting to learn about how to hold the camera and light. I could see when the photos were too dark or too bright from looking at the screen on the camera and then my mom would tell me what I could do to fix the photo. Most of that I did not understand, but she said we will go over all that later on and that this is about seeing what I see.

I loved being the boss.

There are more posts coming to show you what I am learning and to maybe help other kids learn with their moms. The world looks different to kids is what my mom and I are finding out.

My mom and I want you join our project. You can join the facebook page (I can't because I can't have a facebook yet) and tag (#littleSIDEKLICK) on Instagram. We are working on lots of things besides just the blog posts, but the best part is that I get to work on it with my mom.

I can't wait to see your photos and meet the other littleSIDEKLICKs!

- Gemma!

Gemma is shooting with a Nikon D200 and Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. All shots here are manual settings, but auto white balance...one step at a time. - R

The New Look...

Gemma is getting back into it again and so we have tidied up her site to make it easier for her to update and for people to read.

Stay tuned for a few projects...the first that will be revealed is SideKlick. It is a project that you can participate in.