Working on Wednesdays / November 18

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Bella

Hello!

Happy Wednesday, friends! Lulu and I apologize for taking a brief hiatus without warning; the two of us didn’t plan to go two weeks without posting. Now that we’ve both had the chance to catch our breaths and devote our attention to DM matters, we wanted to share a few Doll Mag updates in a new “Working on Wednesdays” – a little housekeeping, if you will. Then let’s chat: what have we missed on your sites? In doll scoop? With our favorite readers?

First, we are planning to publish our holiday issue on Wednesday, November 25. Think of it as a special treat to read alongside your turkey day leftovers! :) We have been working hard on wrapping up each article, and we’ll be finishing our final design elements this weekend. Thank you for your patience; we think the wait will have been worth it {Hamilton reference for the win}.

Second, we recognize the lack of posts on the DM blog! Lulu and I like to live by the motto of “quality over quantity,” so when life gets busy, we would rather keep the site quiet than hastily put a post together. Hopefully, you understand our slow blogging approach, but with the holidays coming, our hope is that it won’t last forever.

And that brings us to our third and final point: mark your calendars for December 1, the return of Holiday Headquarters! This will be our third year running our series of festive posts, and the two of us couldn’t be more excited for it to begin. Let the gingerbread-making and present-wrapping commence!

Have a terrific night!
Bella

Working On Wednesdays / September 9

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Bella

Hello, hello!

With our issue release date nearing by the day, we wanted to share a few sneak peeks of our fall cover! If you follow us over on Instagram {we still stink at it, but we’re getting better! :)}, you would have seen that we had our cover shoot over the long weekend; it involved our favorite furry friend, buckets of tiny apples, and a number of colorful – and fake – leaves. Here’s a behind-the-scenes shot of our set-up:

Eek! We can’t wait to share it with you. Have you taken any creative photos of your doll recently?

Working on Wednesdays / July 22

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Lulu

Hi there!

One of our favorite parts of making the magazine is brainstorming and photographing our cover. While it can be a long process, it’s always an enjoyable one, and this month’s photo shoot was no different. For the July/August issue, we were inspired by our love of all things nautical — so we headed to the nearby Boston harbor to take some pictures of Lauryce, our oh-so cute Hearts for Hearts doll, by the water! We ended up using only one of these shots in the final magazine, but the two of us couldn’t wait to share the outtakes of this summer photo shoot with you.

Have you gone any fun adventures this summer?

Bella and Lulu

Psst. We are super behind in replying to comments, but we hope to get to each and every one soon! Thank you, as always, for stopping by and reading.

Working on Wednesdays / 33

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Bella

Hi!

{via, although we would love to know the original artist!}

May has been a busy month for both us and the doll world – we need a moment to catch our breaths and recap! Since a new Working on Wednesdays is LONG overdue, Lulu and I felt there was no better time than now to update the DM readers on a few notes.

+ Doll Mag Birthday Party
Lulu and I were delighted at how many of our readers voted in the Doll Mag Birthday poll; we can’t wait to share the final product with you all! It was a close race throughout the voting period, but Starry Night was the ultimate winner. Our brainstorming sessions have already begun.

+ The Maryellen Leak
Avid American Girl fans have likely seen the book covers of the new historical character, Maryellen Larkin. She will be making her debut in August, so in the meantime, we can look at her adorable book covers and imagine the cute 50’s outfits of her collection! Lulu and I are hesitant to speak of Maryellen without seeing the finalized doll, but we do like her bangs and meet dress. What are your thoughts on the newest AG addition?

+ Caroline’s Archival
Finally, Caroline’s archival was also announced this month, much to the disappointment of some doll collectors. We felt that Caroline was such a cute doll, and Lulu and I are sad to see her go! However, we weren’t eyeing anything in her current collection, so our wallets are safe to buy the new Flamingo Dress instead.

Your turn! How has your May been? Just as crazy, or have things been winding down? {For those out of school, know that you are lucky ducks :)}. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Bella

Working on Wednesdays / April 8

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Lulu

Hi friends!

I hope you all had a lovely Wednesday! Over the weekend, Bella and I woke up to find our Easter baskets filled with some fun goodies, including a new outfit for my Hearts for Hearts doll, Lauryce. I fell in love with the cute shirt and shorts right away!

I couldn’t wait to share some photos of Lauryce’s new look with you…

Here she is! We ended up using one of Bella’s scarves as a backdrop – I think it looks really nice with the color of the shirt.

Have an awesome rest of your week!

Lulu

Working on Wednesdays / 31

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Lulu

Hi!

Happy Wednesday everyone! We’ve had a bit of a slow posting week, but there’s no need to worry — we’ll be back to our normal schedule in no time.

In other news, there was a bit of sunshine last week where we live, but it was short lived and we’re now back to lots of lots of wind, rain, and melting snow! This weather is perfect for splashing around in, so Louisa and I headed outside in our cute rain gear to take some ~~April~~ March Showers photos…

Have you had any rainy days lately?

Working on Wednesdays / 30

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Bella

Hi!

With the first day of March coming up this weekend, this week’s Working on Wednesday seemed like the perfect time to share a few sneak peeks of our next issue! We have had vegetables, pastels, and sports on our mind {you’ll understand why once you take a look at our spring-themed list of contents} these past few weeks as we set up photo shoots, wrote up articles, and coordinated emails. Above, our adorable models, Payton and Cece donned their athletic wear for our new hair article. Despite the cold weather we New England girls are experiencing, our dolls look as cute as can be in their sleeveless sports tops :)

Our photography set-up couldn’t be simpler: an IKEA chalkboard with scrapbook paper {you may recognize the heart backdrop from this post!} and a big book. Easy-peasy, right?!

What are you looking forward to in spring? I personally can’t wait to see this snow melt; the day grass appears again will be a good one.

Happy Wednesday!
Bella

Working on Wednesdays / January 28

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Bella

Hello!

Lulu and I are hard at work on our next issue, especially with our unexpected days off due to the snow; the spring-y fun is a welcome change in the midst of winter weather. One article we can’t wait to share with you is our two-page spread dedicated to Barbie, in honor of her anniversary in March and Barbie Day in April. Plenty of sources have come as great help, but my elementary school project on the history of Barbie is one we turn to a LOT :)

My project includes plenty of information for our article, but looking through it is a fun trip down memory lane too! It’s strange to see how much my handwriting and style of drawing has changed over the course of several years.

We hope you’ll check out the final article when we release the new issue on March 1st, but in the meantime, let’s talk school projects! Have you ever researched dolls or a certain type of doll for school? My Barbie book was for my independent study project in elementary school, and Lulu made a pretty poster about American Girl for school a few years ago.

Have an amazing {snow} day!

Bella

Working on Wednesdays / January 14

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Bella

Hello!

The road from our first idea to the final cover is a long – but certainly fun – one! While we shared photos from our November/December cover in our last Working on Wednesdays, Lulu and I wanted to kick off the feature in 2015 with more behind-the-scenes shots from the latest issue.

Need a quick refresher on what the purpose of Working on Wednesdays is? We don’t blame you – it’s been a bit since we’ve done the feature on a regular basis. The two of us often receive questions and comments from readers about Doll Mag’s “behind-the-scenes” aspects, whether it be setting up a blog or using Powerpoint to create images. Lulu and I are using your feedback to create new features for our site, but Working on Wednesdays gives us a chance to post a few images of our previous or current projects. You can view the entire archive of WOW posts HERE!

We don’t take our cover photo in one shot; in fact, for the January/February issue, we took dozens of practice pictures the night before! Here, you can see how low-key we keep our set-up – and Lulu’s thumb of approval :)

Of course, Bri makes an appearance in each and every Doll Mag project. Her snowman dress seemed especially festive for this shoot!

What have you been working on lately?

Have a lovely rest of your day!

Bella

Working On Holidays / December 3

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Lulu

Hi!

How are you enjoying Holiday Headquarters 2014 so far? For my first post of our winter extravaganza, I wanted to share the behind-the-scenes photos from our November/December cover photo shoot with you. We built the scene using cardboard boxes, winter house decorations, fake snow, a white blanket, and black poster board. It was one of my favorite shoots, and Bella and I had loads of fun, as did Sienna and Rubye…