Inspired by the BBC proms

Recently we took our girls to three of the BBC prom concerts in the Royal Albert Hall (it was a first time for me and the girls, my husband had gone years before).  Such a memorable experience for all of us.  We didn't take the bigger dolls, though for the last prom (Saint Saens Organ Symphony) the cloth pony and a small china doll my little girl bought at the church fete came with us.

Last Saturday it was the last night of the Proms - we watched the concert on TV.  It was a wonderful concert, with a truly inspiring female conductor for the first time at the last night concert in proms history.  My younger girl wanted to do a photo story with the dolls, then decided to write a script, inspired by setting the dolls up for the prom on TV.

This is her story:

Inspired by the BBC proms
by DollMum's daughter

One day Laura, Miranda and Florence were in a concert. Miranda was playing her viola and the other two were dancing. They were having so much fun that they didn’t notice that they were an hour late home! So mum collected them with a very angry look on her face:  :-/
“I’ve just heard that mum and dad have booked two tickets to go to the Royal Albert Hall to see the Proms!!!” squealed Laura excitedly when they got home “oh I really wish I was going!” “Really, ooooh yey! Shame we can’t go.” Florence said. “Where’s Miranda?” “She’s outside in her tent practising her viola.” Mum answered. “Why is she practising her viola just after a concert?” Florence asked, “well why not?” mum replied.
On the Prom day Laura and Florence thought that Miranda was playing her viola in a normal concert, so they thought mum and dad were taking her to her concert and then going to the station, BUT, no, they were wrong. Miranda was playing her viola in the Proms!!!
When they got home, everyone wanted to ask lots of questions: “how was it?” “how did it go?” and stuff like that, but Laura just said to Miranda “have you ever been to the Proms before?” everyone stopped dead silent waiting for an answer, and then:  “yes, but, I’ve not only been to one, I’ve played my viola as a proper soloist... TONIGHT!!!” Laura just stood there, bewildered. “What ~ when ~ how ~ ?” Laura spluttered trying to think what to say. “Why ~ why didn’t you tell us?” she smiled, trying to turn off her giggles. Suddenly a joy came through the house that evening. Everyone felt very, well, joyful and proud of Miranda.

The End

My girl took some photos of the dolls on Sunday and this photo is the best of them:

Laura, Miranda and Florence celebrating the last night of the Proms 2013

I took a photo while the Last Night of the Proms was on TV:

Laura, Miranda and Florence inspired by Marin Alsop
conducting the Last Night of the Proms

Harriet's new violin

My elder daughter is a young violinist, and recently did very well in her Grade 4 violin and Grade 1 piano examinations. Months ago she told me that she wanted her Gotz doll Harriet to have a violin, but Gotz do not have such an accessory for their dolls. I scoured the web, and of course found that American Girl dolls have violins and music stands, but the cost to ship from the USA was just too much. Eventually I found an equivalent violin on ebay from a US seller, who was also able to sell me a My Twinn doll music stand. The music stand is able to extend higher than Harriet needs, as My Twinn is about 3 inches taller than Gotz. It also came with some miniature sheet music.

Harriet, her violin, stand and the violin case

I bought these items months ago so they were put away. When my daughter's examination results came through earlier this week, I presented her with the violin and music stand. She was delighted and became absorbed with getting Harriet to hold the violin just right. She discovered that the moving turn-key for the music box in the violin resulted in the violin suddenly falling out of Harriet's arms as it caught on her clothes, but as it is a music box sound rather than a violin sound, it isn't very authentic anyway. I've discovered an Australian Girl Doll photo on Flickr with an audio file uploaded that plays violin sounding music, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/37638544@N07/3614916075/ which is much better.

Harriet is wearing a summery set from the 2009 Gotz catalogue, and the crocs / ducs came from the USA via ebay.