All Our Dolls

We finally made an All Our Dolls video after being n AGTube for more than a year!

Back row: Addy, Saige, Sonali

Front row: Emily, Josefina

Emily- She is a retired MYAG that my older sister and I both played with and traded playing with her and our #21 which we no longer own. We've had Emily for about ten years at this point! Even though she is the oldest doll we own, she has a pretty young and silly personality and she is actually slightly smaller than the rest of our dolls.

Addy- She was my second doll. I saved up for her for almost a year and was planning on buying Ivy but at the last minute I decided to by her because I loved reading her books so much.

Josefina- Our older sister bought Josefina around the time I got Addy and she didn't play with her much, so her hair was always silky. Our sister gave her to Jane for her 10th birthday.

Sonali- I bought Sonali in a time of my life where I had to deal with a lot of bullies. Even though Chrissa's story about bullying was a bit cheesy/stereotypical, I could sort of relate. Additionally, I'd never seen a doll quite like her and thought she was beautiful. 

Saige- Jane very badly wanted Saige for the whole year she was GOTY and our mom planned to get her for Jane for Christmas but it appeared that she wouldn't arrive in time. Fortunately, she arrived on Christmas Eve and was under the tree on Christmas morning.

The both of us share the dolls we own now because we make stop motion videos together. We are so grateful to own each one of these beautiful dolls!

Recommendations?

Though I don't at all regret owning any of these dolls, I would not recommend all of them. Sonali and Saige are the two I would recommend without hesitation. They have silky hair that is relatively easy to take care of and their faces completely light up on camera, making them extremely photogenic and life-like.

Addy is a wonderful, beautiful doll but her hair is very brittle and difficult to manage. I would recommend her to older girls and collectors.

Emily is a lovely, versatile doll who we've found can play a lot of characters easily. She is no longer available on American Girl but they do have similar dolls in the Truly Me collection.

There is something strange about Josefina face molds that doesn't look quite as lively on camera. She is a beautiful doll but I would not highly recommend her to people who want to make life-like stop motions. Additionally, her wig gets very thick and frizzy on the ends (I've seen this on multiple Josefina dolls).

Get the Look for Less! Melody

This Get the Look for Less video was really fun to make because Melody's collection hasn't come out yet, so I based the looks off of leaked photos and sneak peeks. It was also probably the hardest one of these videos I've made because of how complicated/unique some of her items are!
I'm so excited for Melody and her collection to be released because, well, it's about time! I can't believe how long it's taken for American Girl to come out with another historical doll of color. Who knows, maybe in a few years there will be a Girl of the Year who isn't white?
Click here to see the video!
To see more Get the Look videos, click here

My Entry for Rainy's SUPERMEGAAWESOME Contest!

I was so excited to enter this contest! I had filmed part of this video a few months ago (before school got super stressful) and I was really glad to come back to it. I gave myself some challenges for this video to make it more exciting and improve the quality. Here they are:
- Make more realistic sets
- Use each doll more times to make it look like there are more characters!
- (and in the coffee shop) moving the camera around in one take instead of changing angles
I think it turned out pretty well and I hope it encourages people to not give up when something doesn't work the first time!
The costume changes were ridiculous and I ended up with a huge pile of doll clothes next to me when the last scene was over :)
Click here to watch it!

Centertree Summer Plans 2016

We're back! The end of the school year was hectic and we were gone for the first part of the summer, but we're here and ready to get creative and film some awesome videos for you guys!

Here's the plan:
1. We are going to film more episodes for Elkwood Forest (so excited for that!) If you haven't seen the first episodes, click here for a link to the playlist.

2. We are going to continue the "Get the Look for Less" series where we make silly imitations of AG character collections. Make sure to let us know who you want to see us get the look for! Click here to see our "Get the Look for Less" videos.

3. We will be entering contests with fun videos we do on the side!

4. We would like to finally open up our Etsy shop where you could buy hand-stitched doll clothes from yours truly!

5.  We hope to do more fun collabs with AGSM International!

6. Also, we are planning a big surprise project that we can't wait to tell you all about! :)

Elkwood Forest is Back on Track!

Elkwood Forest is a series I have been really enjoying, but unfortunately, it got put on hold for a while. The reasons were that we got a lot of snow, that was mushy or icy, depending on the day and then when it melted, it was super muddy. Once, the ground was okay for filming, it was still super duper cold and I was sick, so spending hours in the cold didn't seem like a good idea. But now, finally, I'm not sick and yesterday the weather was perfect and I got to film!!! Yay!

In this episode, Hazel spends her first night in her tree home in Elkwood Forest. If you look closely, you'll see someone in the background (hmmm...could be important...). In the morning, she goes on a walk and meets her neighbor, Mrs. Glauchester, a woman who has lived in the forest all her life. She invites Hazel for tea the next day. And that's where we left off!
This was the first video that I filmed in the awesome tree piece I've been keeping a secret! I will probably put up a behind the scenes video to show you all how I made it.
Anyways, super excited about this video and the series :)
Click here to watch the second episode!
Or here to watch the playlist!

Get the Look for Less! Lea Clark

I filmed a crazy little video on a snow day and here it is! It is a parody video of the Get the Look for Less videos by beauty gurus. It's not making fun of them, just of how we can't actually get the look for less. Anyways it's just silly.
*One thing we did discover actually looked okay was using a small dog collar as a belt with big buckle (like hiking outfit).
Click here to watch the video!

February 2016

This year is already going by so fast! Where January even go? I have been really inspired lately though. I have spontaneously filmed little videos on snow days and weekends. It's been really nice. Additionally, I've been sewing a lot lately and really hope to make an etsy soon. That would be awesome. Also, we want to change  our YouTube name from centertree AGSM to centertree creations but I don't know if that would be complicated/confusing for subscribers.
Series Updates: Elkwood Forest has been on hold because of in-climate weather and me getting pretty sick. The combination of super wet, cold weather and sickness has not been good for outdoor filming. When it gets drier outside, I will definitely get back to filming that.
That's all for now! Stay tuned for some upcoming stopmotions :)