Thanks to all our readers who have shared their photos with us this week! Here are the Sunday Showcase entries for this week.

Jasmine’s McKenna was reading Doll Diaries with her and spotted our Mckenna doll in the Fairy Garden, and was surprised to see her twin sister! Jasmine loved how McKenna looked in the pictures, so she dressed her McKenna in the same outfit and hairstyle! Too cute!

Dharma’s dolls are ready for a sleepover! From left to right – A Pleasant Company Kirsten, AG Chrissa, AG Felicity, and Claira from Springfield Dolls. Did you notice their matching bunny slippers from Springfield Dolls?

Ava’s friend brought her Moxie Girls dolls over for a visit.

Madelon’s family gave Cecile the Parlor Desk from the American Girl store at Tysons (DC) for Mother’s Day.

Merida’s a hit in Australia too! Catherine sent in this photo of the Brave, Merida and Angus playset she found in Big W, which is the Australian version of Wal-Mart.

Hayley just started her YouTube channel and shares a photoshoot she did with her doll Kirsten.

Heather was the winner of the Graduation Gown for dolls a few weeks ago. Her daughter’s Our Generation doll looks great in it!

Sharry sent in a photo of her Springfield Collection doll Julie getting ready for bed. She is wearing replica Julie pajamas available from dollclothesstore.com. She is holding her 1975 Holly Hobbie doll from Knickerbocker toys. Sweet dreams, Julie!

In honor of her birthday, Kit is wearing her reporter’s dress and holding one of her chickens. The backdrop is pink, but she probably wouldn’t have preferred it. I hope this year she has the Robin Hood Party she wanted many years ago. Thanks to Madelon for this beautiful photo.

We love seeing what you make for your dolls, adventures they have, and great finds. If you would like to submit your photo for next week’s Sunday Showcase, here are the basics:

• Email your photo to share@dolldiaries.com (it must be your own photo – do not take photos from someone else’s site and submit them as your own)
• Put “Reader Photo Submission” in the subject line (I get a ton of email & this will make it easier to sort through)
• Resize your photos to 540 pixels wide (if you can)
• Make sure you include a description or caption for your photos

PS - I am going to be gone at Megan’s State Meet for gymnastics today so this is the only post for today. I will try to check comments from my phone as much as I can, but no guarantees. Also, keep sending in the Lights, Camera, Dolls entries and I will get them all posted tomorrow.

I just love, love, love seeing photos of our prizes once they make it to our winners homes. Katie and Lissy were two of the three Mystery Prize box winners I awarded for taking the time to fill out the Doll Diaries survey. All three Mystery Prize boxes had different things in them, but you can see there were some similarities.

Lissy’s box had an American Girl Washington DC t-shirt in it, plus some mini stickers, bunny slippers from Springfield Dolls and sunglasses.

Katie’s dolls got a bathing suit from Springfield Dolls.

Katie’s dolls also got pink fuzzy slippers, pink and white tennis shoes and tortoise shell glasses from Springfield Doll.

Ivy looks adorable in the tortoise shell glasses, too!!

As always, we LOVE to see what your dolls are up to – whether it is showing off something you won from Doll Diaries, something created for them or you have a photo you just want to share!

Happy Mother’s Day! There are so many great photos in my inbox just waiting to be shared this week, so let’s get started!

Dawn says, “Here is a photo of Mini Addy wearing a mob cap that I made 30+ years ago and a pinner apron that I made this week. This is the latest photo for a 365 photo challenge that I’m doing. I’m taking a photo a day of my mini American Girl dolls. I’ve been focusing on one doll each month. Here is a link to my challenge set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/68499916@N00/sets/72157628874396773

Brinley sent in a few photos but this was my favorite.

Maggie threw a great party for Kanani!

From Madelon: Lanie holds her Wild Thing stuffed animal in honor of author Maurice Sendak who passed away this past week.

Sherie was the winner of the Matilda doll earlier this spring. She sent in photos of Matilda dressed as a Victorian girl, apparently she couldn’t wait for Amelia! She bought the clothes from eBay, and they fit surprisingly well.

And Sherie also sent in a photo of Zoe, one of the original Karito Kids, the one from NY, wearing last years’ holiday outfit.

Sarah got a new doll this week – #49 (Elsie Abigail Hope) doll she got for her birthday in Marie-Graces Summer Outfit!

Chloe shares a photo of Kanani during her spring photo shoot.

We love seeing what you make for your dolls, adventures they have, and great finds. If you would like to submit your photo for next week’s Sunday Showcase, here are the basics:

• Email your photo to share@dolldiaries.com (it must be your own photo – do not take photos from someone else’s site and submit them as your own)
• Put “Reader Photo Submission” in the subject line (I get a ton of email & this will make it easier to sort through)
• Resize your photos to 540 pixels wide (if you can)
• Make sure you include a description or caption for your photos

Sorry for the delay in getting these posted this morning. Natalie had a swim meet and we are just getting back. Thank you for all the gorgeous photos this week!!

Laura posted her Sunday Showcase photo to our Facebook wall. “This is Heather, a Magic Attic Club doll. The Magic Attic Club dolls are some of my favorite dolls from childhood, though I actually didn’t get my first until I was in my late teens. Miss Heather is my favorite, and I absolutely adore how she looks in Ruthie’s meet dress.”

Another entry via Facebook – Wendi’s daughter wanted to share a photo of all her dolls with us – I just love seeing Bitty Baby right there in the middle!

Erin sent in a photo of her #39 Mackenzie in her Winter gear! Winter in Australia is pretty harsh, so she must stay warm. If she thought April was freezing then I don’t know what she’ll think about the weather in June!

AGTLCrepair made her own version of  Kanani’s Shave Ice Stand including food.

Laurie was inspired by MyFroggyStuff and made a couch for her dolls.

From Mary Rose – Bethany and her little sister Jenny are leaving a May basket on Gran’s door. Bethany is wearing her May Queen crown of flowers. Happy May first everyone!

Bella sent in a photo of her dolls doing a really cool cheerleading stunt she and her cousin put together! The fliers (the girls on top from left to right) are Felicity, Julie, Kanani, and Elizabeth. The bases (the girls with a foot on their head) are Jess, Samantha, Nicki, and Emily. The girls with their arms in a “high V” (the ones in the middle) are McKenna, Chelsea (I can’t find her #), and Lanie. The girls in a split are Marie-Grace and Courtney (unsure of #).

And here is AGOverseasFan’s video she made thanking me for making her YouTube channel a Spotlight Site last week:

We love seeing what you make for your dolls, adventures they have, and great finds. If you would like to submit your photo for next week’s Sunday Showcase, here are the basics:

• Email your photo to share@dolldiaries.com (it must be your own photo – do not take photos from someone else’s site and submit them as your own)
• Put “Reader Photo Submission” in the subject line (I get a ton of email & this will make it easier to sort through)
• Resize your photos to 540 pixels wide (if you can)
• Make sure you include a description or caption for your photos

I had wanted to get a lot more photography done today, but that was just not how my day went. So, instead, let’s have a little fun with Ellowyne! First, this is my original Ellowyne Wilde doll – Dark Days – who I named Elle. She is wearing the top and the jacket from her from friend Ellowyne Raw Edges who I have named Aine. The computer is from American Girl as is the mug.

So, now it’s your turn!! Tell me in the comments what Elle is up to. It can be as simple as a caption or as creative as a short story. You decide!

This is a note and some photos we got from Susan – the winner of the American Doll Houses Barn Scene giveaway from earlier this spring.

Ellie (8), Caroline (3) and I want to thank you again for the wonderful giveaway you ran.  We love the two room dollhouse and still can’t believe we won!  Of course once we opened it we decided we needed to make a few more crafts before we could send good photos, though Ellie and her friends started playing with it right away.

One of the first things they played was washing horses at the stable.  We don’t have the right size horse yet, so Samantha is washing a foal sized stuffed animal.  I think Ellie will be saving for an Our Generation horse next.

The second and third photos show Jenny (My AG 43) and Felicity having dinner.  I think it must be leftover night because Jenny is having Doll Diaries lasagna and garlic bread while Felicity has a taco.  I like showing Jenny’s face because she’s the one Santa thought looked most like Ellie, but the Liberty Jane square chairs I made only show up in the photo where the dolls are too busy chatting to look at the camera.  You can decide what looks best.

Finally, Felicity changed into her nightgown to have a slumber party with Josie (a Madame Alexander doll).  Can you spot all of the Doll Diaries crafts in the picture?  We’ve been busy Doll Diaries readers since Ellie received her first doll this past Christmas.  The site has really inspired our creativity and given us lots of projects to work on together.   I really love sewing and crafting and Ellie and her friends love making things for their dolls.  We check it every day for new ideas and hope the photos will give new ideas to other readers, too.

Thanks again!  As you can see, we’re having a lot of fun.  – Sue, Ellie & Caroline

Awww, thank you Sue, Ellie & Caroline! Your dolls are so lucky to have a great new house and your craft projects look great! And thank you American Doll Houses for sponsoring the giveaway.

Here we have the Doll Diaries survey analysis team hard at work reading over every single answer that was sent in. As you can see Ellowyne is in charge and looking very serious and Hadley is up to her usual antics because that girl can not sit still! Chrissa is there representing the American Girls of today while Kirsten is making sure nothing about the historical characters gets missed. McKayla was invited to this session on behalf of all the other dolls as they are some of the most loyal friends a doll can have.

So, what did we learn?

• The Doll Diaries readership lives up to its name! We literally have a community of doll lovers of ALL age groups! I was impressed by the number of survey participants that are 12 and under and the ones that are over 46. And of course, there are readers of every age group in between. I encourage our readers to participate in the conversations and leave comments when you feel compelled. Be respectful and kind – and join in!
• The question “Do you feel that Doll Diaries is a safe and positive place for girls of all ages to share their interest in dolls?” was answered unanimously YES! You have no idea how good that makes me feel! I work very hard to ensure that inappropriate words and behavior do not make it into the comments. I read EVERY comment left on the site, too.
• The overwhelming majority of you collect 18″ play dolls like American Girl and similar brands. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many of you are interested in fashion dolls, pose-able dolls and smaller play dolls (like BFC, Hearts for Hearts, etc).
• Some of you think the site is easy to navigate and some of you don’t. Basically the posts on the home page are the most recent additions to the site. If you are looking to just browse a topic, click on the tabs at the top or the categories listed on the bottom of the sidebar. And, if you are looking for something very specific, the search bar is in the upper right corner above the My Doll’s Life ad. If you have other questions about how to find things on the site, just ask! And for those of you who left specific suggestions, they have been noted and may be incorporated in future design updates.
• There is quite a bit of interest in being able to buy Doll Diaries t-shirts for dolls or an exclusive Doll Diaries outfit. While this is not an option right now, it may be available in limited quantities in the future. I do not want to get into the doll clothing business, but think it would be fun to have limited edition Doll Diaries pieces available from time to time.

Answers to some common questions:

• Why do I have to leave my email address to comment? First of all, we do not share your email address with anyone without your consent. Second, that email address is what makes you, YOU. We could have 10 girls named SuzieQ leaving comments and the system would not know who was who without an email address. The little graphic (called a gravatar) that shows up next to your name is unique to your name and email combination.  So if you decide to post from a different email address, then your little icon will change and your comment will go into moderation. It doesn’t do you any good to create a persona for each of your dolls or pretend friends and have a conversation with yourself. My software figures that out, plus its just weird.
• Do I have you use my real name? Absolutely not!! As a matter of fact, using your first name only or a nickname is best – especially if you are under 13. You don’t need to give out any personal information.
• Why do readers who are 13 and under have to ask permission from a parent to comment or get a parent to enter giveaways for them? That is a standard internet rule, not mine. It is however, for your own protection, and some higher governmental authority has decided that 13 is the magic number. Really, if you are under 18 and online, your parents should know what sites you are interacting with and why. It’s just common sense (this is coming from a Mom of three, remember). My kids will tell you that the more they let me know what they do online and are open about it, the more of my trust they gain.
• How about a Doll Diaries forum where we can have our own profiles? Some of you may remember there was a Doll Diaries forum very briefly a few years ago. I quickly found out that it was too much work to moderate the forum and keep putting up quality posts on the site. There are other doll forums out there already and I don’t think it would really benefit any of us for me to add one more to the mix.

I do want to thank each of you from the bottom of my heart for all the amazing comments, suggestions and input you gave in the survey! Of course there was a lot more information in the responses than I just shared, but I don’t want to bore you all! Look for some of the suggestions to start appearing in coming weeks and thanks again – you are the best!

Mary Rose (Granof4) was one of the recent reader photo winners and she chose the Ellowyne sized t-shirt for her prize. Here is her Ellowyne named Larissa showing us what she got in the mail.

A package! For ME?!?!

Oh look! It’s our Doll Diaries T-shirt! I can’t wait- I’m going to try it on RIGHT NOW!

It fits great!! It’s perfect attire for helping in the sunroom!

I love it!! And I promise to share it with the other Ellowynes living here. THANK-YOU, CHAR!!!

Thank YOU Mary Rose for being part of our doll community and for sharing these beautiful photos with us!

Whoa! Nothing like waiting until the last day of April to share the spotlight sites for this month! Sorry for that – things have been a little busy around here. It is time to give a shout out to some of the new sites I have discovered in the last month that have that something special! Spotlight sites can be websites, blogs or You Tube channels. I typically choose sites that have been adding new information regularly, share something unique or I just happen to really like them.

1. live.life.create.art

Jen at live.life.create.art is one of our fans on the DollDiaries Facebook page and she has shared some super adorable crafts for American Girl dolls that she has made. Just this morning she added this tutorial for making a doll sized shopping or gift bag. How cute is that? Plus there are so many cute photos of her daughter, her dolls and the fun they have been having on her site, too.

2. My American Girl by Emma

Emma’s blog http://myamericangirl.blogspot.com/ has a fun mix of doll photography like this gorgeous photo of Felicity. She frequently features her dolls in different photoshoots, shares her favorite doll items and inspiration for posts.

3. AGOverseasFan YouTube Channel

AGOverseasFan has a TALENT! Not only is her photography just phenomenal, but she makes excellent YouTube videos, too! You have to check out her YouTube channel – so many videos from how-tos, to collections, to music videos and more.

Congrats to our Spotlight Sites!

Feel free to grab your badge using the code below.

Elizabeth’s photos of her Ellowyne dolls have been so much fun to look at and this week she is sharing even more photos with us – but of even more dolls she has in her collection. Elizabeth’s collection is a great example of what I have heard from a few very esteemed doll collectors – collect what you LOVE. Your dolls do not all have be from the same brand or same size. So, now over to Elizabeth…

Hi, its Elizabeth again. I noticed on the Doll Diaries Facebook page a request for pictures of a variety of dolls. Since I have been enjoying dolls basically all my life and I’m 23 now, I have very large and varied collection of dolls from the past 20 or so years. So I put together some displays with a lot of different dolls.  Most of the dolls in these pictures are from the past three or so years, since those were the brands requested on Facebook. The oldest dolls would be the Gene Marshall dolls and I am not certain when I bought them but it was definitely more than five years ago. possibly even ten or more. Time flies when you are collecting dolls.

First, a very formal party! Everyone dressed up for this one. From left to right we begin with a BFC Ink doll wearing a dress that used to belong to a porcelain doll. Then we have a Barbie doll. Next is Gene Marshall doll “American Countess”. Then a LIV doll wearing a Barbie outfit I purchased on Ebay. Then my gorgeous new Ellowyne “Plaid to Meet You” wearing a different wig. In front another Moxie Girl doll wearing a dress I sewed for her. All the way on the right is a Moxie Teenz doll who has borrowed one of Ellowyne’s wigs for this photo shoot. It is a little too loose but it stays on okay for a picture. A fancy wig can really dress up a less expensive doll!

Again, left to right. All the way on the left, is a “Brenda Starr” Tonner doll who is the same size as a Tyler Wentworth doll. She is wearing a blue dress and hat I made for her. Shorter than her is a Disney Fairy Doll. Then there is a Moxie Girl doll wearing a dress I made for her out of Kleenex and some scotch tape. In the pink 1920′s dress is a BFC Ink doll. “Raw Edges” Ellowyne in the center says “Welcome to the Shakespearean Historical Appreciation Society Semi Annual Masquerade Party. Thank you for all coming in costume!” She is wearing a dress that used to belong to a porcelain doll but doesn’t anymore. In front of her is a Playmobil Princess. Next to her is another Moxie Girl. Then there is a LIV doll wearing a Barbie Little Bo Peep outfit. A Mini American Girl Samantha is standing beside a Star Doll. There is also a cute little teddy bear in a ballerina costume sitting on the chair behind.

Here is a party that even I am not quite certain what the theme or level of formality was supposed to be… However, the dolls all seem to be having a good time. From left to right there is Gene Marshall doll “Calendar Girl” inspired by Coca Cola, she is holding a small coke bottle in her hand. Next a BFC Ink doll holding a tiny Ariel princess doll. Beside her is Hearts for Hearts doll Consuela wearing her fiesta dress. Leaning on her is a LIV doll. Then there is a very tiny Lego Friends doll next to the Barbie Fashionista. A trio of fairy tale themed Moxie Girls next. Then there is an American Girl doll. Lastly is my Mom’s “Plaid to Meet You” Ellowyne wearing a different wig.

And Queen Rhiannon (“Raw Edges” Ellowyne) insisted on having a picture of just her. She can be a bit insistent sometimes…

And, just for fun, here is a picture of the whole cabinet display area. It is supposed to be an American Girl dollhouse of sorts. The top room has Rebecca’s bed in it on one side and a sort of parlor on the other. Then there is the fancy ball room with the grand piano one side and a banquet table on the other. The lowest room is the kitchen with Kit’s cook stove on the left and a table and chairs on the right. However, it is so full of dolls right now you hardly can see the furniture.

There, I think that was about sixteen different types of dolls if you include the Lego friend and and the Playmobil princess.  I really like the Moxie Girl dolls, I think they are very cute. Of course, I like all of these dolls, though some I absolutely love and others I just like and there are a few, like the Gene Marshall and LIV dolls, that I liked when I bought them but they now have been surpassed by some of the more recent dolls I’ve acquired. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Thanks Elizabeth for sharing your fantastic and varied doll collection!! We look forward to more of your photos soon.