Meet a Salty: Georgia

 Hello, lovely readers!  A few of you have been asking to hear more about Georgia, which is understandable.  So, for the first time in our blog history, Georgia will actually be writing a post!  Chrissa and I did not expect that she'd even want to, but apparently that's not the case.  Anyway, I shall pass the keyboard to my sister...

 Hi!  I'm Georgia Katheryn Edwards.  I wanted to write this post because I should know myself better than my older sister, right?  I like to spend my time sketching up outfits, playing volleyball, sitting in a sleeping bag (slightly weird, I know), and playing the violin.  My favorite color is peach, and I love to knit!  Oh, I think I should add that Chrissa (as usual) slightly exaggerated when she said I "stubbornly refused to be on the blog" in her last post.  I just didn't feel safe at that point about telling the world stuff like my sisters do.  I don't mind now, though.  Elizabeth says they usually end with a question, so here's one for you:

How do you like to spend you time?

P.S. Chrissa helped me make a "sign off".  Do you like it?

Great (and Surprising) News!

 Hi all!  I have some news which most of you will find very surprising!  I have a second older sister, who is named Georgia!

 Here's a full picture of her.  I bet you are asking, Why haven't I ever seen her before?  Well, when we started our blog, Georgia simply decided that she didn't want to be on our blog at ALL, not even mentioned.  Elizabeth and I vainly attempted to change her mind, but she stubbornly refused.  Finally, we managed convinced her that it was perfectly safe and no one would steal her identity or anything like that.  So, please help her feel welcome.

P.S. Do you like my new "sign off"?

P.P.S. Elizabeth wanted to let you know that voting for the contest she entered as been pushed back to the 30th. (http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2014/08/summer-2014-fdc-posts-update.html)

The Doll Wardrobe Summer Design Contest

 Hello, lovely readers!  As I mentioned in this post (http://thesaltysadollblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/joy-at-joanns.html), I'm entering the Doll Wardrobe Summer Design contest.  The outfit I made is called "Behind the Lens".

Chrissa was actually the one who helped me come up with the idea for the design.  What do you think of it?

Besides the cropped shirt, gray tank top, and flowered capri pants, the outfit is accessorized with a fully-lined camera bag, two lens wipes with cleanser bottle, our camera, gray braided bracelet, flip-flops from the Sunny Isle Outfit, and a five-strand braided headband.  Enjoy the rest of the pictures!

If you look carefully, you can see the glitter/sparkle paint on the camera design.

Chrissa was taking some pictures of the leaves when she noticed one leaf had tiny little yellow dots on it that looked "like bug eggs".

Do any of you know what these are, or have any guesses?

Voting for the contest starts on the twenty third of August, and I would appreciate if you voted for me!

What are some of your favorite hobbies?

We're Home!

 Hi all!  As the title says, we are back from North Carolina!  We had such a great trip.  Since it would take around four more posts to show you all the pictures we took, I just decided to make a collage for the picture-heavy (i.e. interesting) days of our family vacation.

 Our vacation stated on the first, so we headed up Blue Ridge Parkway to Linville caverns (on the left) and, after lunch, Linville falls (on right).  I think the caverns were cool, but also a little freaky.  All the rock was actually still growing, so you weren't allowed to touch the sides. Bats used to live inside, but they all died off.  Eight deserters from the army lived in it during the Civil War, but they were found because the smoke from their camp-fires seeped through the rock out of Grandfather Mountain.  The falls were pretty, but after all that hiking I was ready to go back to our cabin hotel!

August second I was a little sick, so we just hung around the cabin and did a little window-shopping.

 Mount Mitchell was majestic!  Once we drove to the visitor's center, it was only a short climb to the top.  I felt like I could see the whole valley from there!  In the middle of the viewing platform there was a stone compass that pointed out where we were.  Did you know that Mt. Mitchell is the highest point east of the Mississippi river?

After a yummy lunch, we headed out on the balsam nature trail.  It was so beautiful!  The sun had come out, and a cool breeze blew through the trees.

 Biltmore was amazing and the overwhelmingly large home of three people: George and Edith Vanderbilt plus their daughter.  Today, it's owned by two of their descendants, who have made it open to the public.  That place is HUGE!!

We were able to get tickets because if you bought two adult tickets, the kids got in for free.

"If we lived here, I could have my own bedroom!" I said, starring up at the giant roof.

"Since there's only the five of us, you could have three!" Mom replied with a smile.

If you're wondering why there are no pictures from the inside of the house, it's because they don't allow it.  There was a sign that said, among other things, "No indoor photography".  I asked Dad if I could take a picture of that sign.  He just laughed.  ;^)

On http://www.biltmore.com, you can see a few pictures of the inside, which are amazing.  If you're ever in the area, I would totally recommend going there.

On our drive back to Florida, my parents surprised Elizabeth and I by re-routing our trip through Atlanta, so we could go to the American Girl Store!  (Mom and Dad, if you are reading this, thank you so much!!!)  It was so fun seeing all the resent releases, hanging out in the store, and buying a new outfit (I got the Coconut Cutie Outfit!).  

What fun things did you do this summer?

Fun with a Friend

Hello, lovely readers!  Yesterday our pen pal, Kit P, came over for a visit.

"Kit!"  Chrissa hugged our friend. "It's been forever!"

"I know, right?  I wish we could see each other more often." Kit replied.

"It's so good to see you!" I added.  "Do you want to come up to our temporary room?"

"Sure!"

After we were seated on the bed, our friend pulled two wrapped gifts out of her bag. 

"Chrissa, this one's for you, and this other one is for you, Elizabeth." she said, handing one to each of us.

Inside mine was a pretty pink dress and a "E" pillow, while in my sister's was a "C" pillow and a blue dress.

"Thank you so much." I said, admiring the dress. "Now I feel bad, because we have nothing to give you."

"That's okay." she replied. "I'm just glad you like it."

"What do you want to do?" Chrissa asked.  "We don't really have a long time."

"I don't know." I said.

Suddenly my sister smiled and exclaimed, "I know!  Why don't we get out all our clothes and have a fashion show?"

"Oo, that sounds fun!  We could have a runway and everything!" Kit said excitedly.

Everyone helped bring out the shirts, skirts, shoes, pants and dresses.

 We didn't take as many pictures in the first round, but here they are!  By the way, do you like my new dress?

 In round two, Kit went first, ...

 ... then me, ...

 ... and Chrissa wrapped it up.  When she was walking down the runway, my sister did a very silly strut (or dance, it was hard to tell which), making Kit and I laugh.

"You're so funny, Chrissa"

"Why, thank you.  I try to be."

After she had finished, we all went "backstage", changed outfits, and redid our hair.

 Here's round three.

 After round three, we ended our show because our friend had to leave.

"Group hug!" Chrissa said. "I'm going to miss you, Kit."

"I will too.  Thank you for coming over!" 

"Thanks for letting me! I had such a great time with you two!" 

We walk Kit to the car where her mom was waiting, and sadly waved goodbye to our pen pal.  It was so fun seeing her again!

What do you like to do with your friends?

The Museum of Life and Science

 Hi all!  Guess what?  We're in North Carolina!  Well, actually, we've been here since Saturday.  Anyway, we came here mostly for my mom and dad's work, and also partly for vacation. Yesterday afternoon, we drove over to the Museum of Life and Science.

 After we bought out tickets, my family and I discussed where we wanted to go first.

"Girls, since it looks like rain, I think we should start outside." Mom said.  "Is that okay with you?"

"Sure!" I replied.

"Absolutely." Elizabeth added.

 "Than let's go!"

 Our first stop was "the farmyard".  There were pigs, a donkey, a cow and other such things.

 The cow was just standing in the corner of it's pen, in a slightly strange position, as you can see.

"I wonder why it's doing that." Elizabeth pondered. "That seems unnatural."

"Maybe it's stuck." I offered.

"No, that cow isn't stuck, it's exercising." Dad joked, making us laugh.

 Here's my sister and I in front of the butterfly house.

 It was kind of hot inside, but the prettiness made it worth it.

Almost everywhere you looked, butterflies were floating and flying thought the air.  Some of the pictures we took were a little blurry, but most of them were just fine.  Elizabeth stood still for nearly five minutes, (how, I'll never understand), and a butterfly actually landed on her shoulder!  It flew away before we could get a picture, though.

 After the butterfly house, we went on the Dinosaur Trail.

 One thing I noticed while we were walking is that North Carolina has many more trees and bugs than Florida.  On the bright side, there's less humidity.  It's still pretty hot here, though.

 You can't see it in the picture, but by this time, I was sweating.  When the trail ended, we moved on to the "in the wild" section.

 This is the black bear area.  We didn't really see any bears, but the waterfall was pretty.  I think if the bears were out in the sun they would have overheated.  I sure felt like I was.  

We couldn't really see any of the wolfs, either, except one whose head was sticking out of a cave.  By then, my whole family was ready to go back into the air conditioning.  There was a deep leather sofa next to one of the indoor exhibits (called "Falling Sand"), where we sat down to rest for a couple minutes.  It felt so good after the heat.

 "Falling Sand" was basically a projected screen with a little stream of particles going from top to bottom.  Every so often, a stream would 'dry up' and a different color would start falling.  What made it so cool was the "sand" would interact with your shadow.

 You can move your arms to throw the sand up, or gather it on you shoulders.

 It's so fun!  I could just stand there and do it all day!

 Next, we moved on the the "science" part of the museum.  Both Elizabeth and I thought the Cloud Basin was really neat.

"I feel like Elsa." my sister commented, lightly blowing on the mist and making it swirl.

 "This is fascinating and fabsome!" I laughed.

 After that, we walked over to the flying area.  The museum had a paper airplane launcher, so of course I tried it out.  We checked out some other fun stuff too, but I kind of forgot to take pictures of that.

Over all, I had a great time.

Where would you want to go on vacation?