Four years, Forty Follows. And a Giveaway to Celebrate! (Long post, you'll want a huge mug of tea and music on)

Four years ago today, my oldest sister created this URL as a surprise for me. Seeing as I wasn't old enough to have a google account at the time and had been using hers for a few months. If you'd like to see that first post, you can click here.

(My mum made Kit and I semi-matching outfits ^ from a long skirt back in 2008, that was back when our hair was actually the same length.)

The things that have changed since that November night are incredible, I've made and lost friends, gained 40 incredible supportive followers, published over 200 posts, 419 comments, added six dollies to my collection, and many others things.

(Kit and Me in 2007)

Over the four years, I've met a few people in particular that have been incredibly supportive and really good blogging friends.

Marisa, was one of my first bloggy friends, I "met" her back in 2013, through a comment, and since then she and I have been fairly tight. I just want to thank you Marisa for showing me that it's okay to like dolls as a person over the targeted age. Even though your dolls have not been very active, you helped mine to speak more fluently without fear of being judged by others.

(Her Blog's button^)

Melody Silverleaf,, and her owner, and sisters, you have been an amazing support beam to lean on, with your amazing posts inspiring me, and your comments on even some of my lamest posts. Thank you for that.

Elliee Blue, I don't remember the particulars of how we connected, but thank you for being a light on my strand of fairy lights, lighting my posts with your comments, and encouraging me through chats, You haven't been active lately, but I hope life's doing fine for you.

(Chicago, 2015^)

That's just three of you, I want to thank you all, but it would take very long to write in detail how you have each made the past four years magical for me and my dollie adventures.

(2013 ^)

Not only will this post be filled with memories and pictures from the past and present, but also, if you read to the end, there's news on a special giveaway for you all as a thank you, the actual giveaway post will be up some time next week, because I am currently recovering from a nasty cold, and I don't want to accidentally get any of you sick from a package, so yeah, hang in there with me.

But in the meantime, the dollies have a few things they'd like to say--

(Kit and I in Dallas, 2010, the day Ruthie came home with us)

Kit: I'm not sure exactly what Lu has in mind for me to say...I guess I could say how I knew Lu'd do great things from the second she took me out of my box--but that's a little expected. I never had the slightest idea that I would have so many sisters and playmates as I do today, back then it was just Kirsten and Me, and later Emily joined us, those were great days. This Thanksgiving will make nine, yes NINE years, since Lu got me. I can hardly believe it's been that long. I'd say I'm still Lu's favourite, after all, I've been on the most adventures, but Saige is getting rather close, not sure how I feel about that. Of course, Saige is Lu's sister's favourite, and Lu is very bad at making up her mind, that might have a thing to do with it. XD Of course I don't hold it over the others, I am the youngest, and that would just be mean of me. Ruthie has a few things she'd like to say.

(2011, I think.)

Ruthie: Well hey, Ruthie here. As most of you know, I'm the one doll Lu has gotten that she got to pick out in store. Dallas day adventure, that was a fun day. Kit was such an awesome sister to welcome me into the redhead's family. I wanna thank each of you for being so encouraging with Lu's photography, it took her a long time to warm up to taking pictures of me, but now, I'm an often model, and you guys helped her see better ways she could use my hair and eye colour to work with outfits and angles. It's been a cool adventure seeing the ways things have grown around here, I can't wait to see what the future holds. Lissie, onto you.

(Grace and I looking all cool in 2016)

Lissie: Well I don't have nearly as much to say as those two did. So Ania and I are going to talk at the same time.

Ania: yeah, it's me. I personally want to thank every one of you who has commented on a post,

Yes, every comment Lu gets makes her face light up with a smile, and it makes her day--

Sometimes her week. Hey Lissie, it's almost like we're advertising.

Yeah, I guess it kind of is. it's not like we're asking them to comment, we're just saying how happy it makes the redhead--

Yeah, we're advertising.

Alright Ania; Saige, Marie, and Rose have some things to say.

Gotcha, Aloha lovelies!

(Kit, Grace and I, 2016, same link as the one above.)

Saige: Well if it isn't your favourite Gold girl. It's Saige here. I feel like I play an important part in the story of this blog, because I came to Lu's family in 2013, and 2013 was kind of the year that Lu's blog actually began getting attention, which I'm very proud of. As you may have noticed, I kind of show Lu's fandom-y side of things, I'm the girly-tomboy. Yes that's a thing. You don't get to judge this ginger. Alright, you can type, hold on Marie, my gosh--don't push.

Marie: Hullo dears, Marie here, sorry for Saige being so talkative, somebody let her near the coffee pot this morning while Lu's mum wasn't watching--bad things happen when Saige gets caffeine in the morning. XD When I came to Lu's family, I was very shy, it didn't take me long to warm up to the dollies here, and the audience of a camera. All of your lovely comments on my photo-shoots are always so encouraging. It's kind of hard for me, having been discontinued so soon after my release, I know GOTY's only get a year, but Cecile and I had been told we would run longer than we did. This was a lovely home to come to after such sad news. Thank you all again, alright Caroline, you can have the floor--er, keyboard.

Caroline: Oh boy, you can hardly see this font, that's fun. Go put on your glasses if you have them so you can see what this princess has to say. :) Wow, what a milestone of four years. I must say I am proud. You all have been a lovely audience, coming to a family and audience who love, or put up with Regency costuming as much as I do. It's been good fun. I hope to do some cosplaying in the future, I won't say who, for fear of spoilers, but if all goes to plan, you should see soon. Farewell darlings, onto you Grace and Ada.

(Easter, 2016)

Grace: Congrats! You're nearing the end of the dollie rants. Just me and Ada left.

Ada: Hullo.

So Ada and I are the most recent dollies in this growing family. As you may know from posts, or lack of information on the 'The Dollies' page,

Lu sure does get busy, doesn't she?

Indeed she does Ada! But she's also a very bad procrastinator. Which is why neither of us have official rooms in the dollhouse yet.

Yes--she is working on it though. And I'm very excited for when they're finished.

Anywho, Ada and I are thankful to have you lovely followers as an audience, even when Lu and we--(is that the correct way to say that?) disappear sometimes.

We always come back, don't we Grace?

Yes we do, we aren't very easy to get rid of.

Back to you Lu.

(May, 2016)

Thank you girls. Aren't they sweeties? Let's move on with the post.

(May, 2016 )

Before we get to the giveaway sneak-peeks, I asked for questions from you all on G+, so now, I shall answer them!
Answers will be this dark purple colour:
From Evie:

Q 1.) If you could be in any musical what would it be?

A: Ooh, tough question, currently I'm wanting to say one of the Schuyler Sisters from Hamilton, but the list of characters that I'd adore to play has grown long the past three years. That could be a fun post--hm, we'll see.

Q 2.) Favourite ship?

A: Hmmmm, Sherbert, or Catherine and Henry, or Amy and Author. But I don't know, how can you pick favourites out of all the babies? XD

Q 3.) Undervalued Character?

A: And Peggy! Excuse me, I don't know what happened there...the first one to pop to my head, after Peggy was Ruby Gillis or Maggie from Little Dorrit. Gosh, I'm just stuck on Little Dorrit tonight, aren't I? But also Kitty Bennet, Eleanor Tilney, Stella and Phyllis from the Anne books, there's so little ever said about those two kindred spirits. I could go on for days of minor characters who don't get enough media.

And guess what, I couldn't even find picture for the other two. My point stands.

Q4.) What are you currently writing?

A: Well, besides this blogpost-- :P. I've been working on writing this massive fanfiction for three years now, I'm considering changing it to Victorian times to make it more original. That's just one of many projects. :)

Q5.) Favourite thing about louisiana?

A: Probably some of the food and definitely the history. There, I thought of something that I enjoy about this place. 

From Rachel R:

Q 6.) If you could meet one youtuber, who would it be?

A: This is a very difficult question, a lot of the celebs, or whatever you want to call them, that I enjoy, or would call myself a "fan" of, are also on YT, not as active, but still. But as an active YT-er, I'm going to have to say Dodie Clark, Carrie-Hope Fletcher, Mixiepixie7, AGChloeAndZoe, and Evan Edinger, although, out of the couple hundreds of people that I'm subscribed to that is a very challenging call.

Q 7.) What is your favourite colour?

A: My favourite colour since as long as I can remember has been pink. But that is my go to answer, I to this day will argue for hours on how a rainbow should have pink in it, I was sure that it did when I was nine and my artist of a sister got so mad at me about it. However, to be more specific I love emerald-jewel tones and pastels. My four top colours are pink, purple, blue, and green, and silver is my favourite out of gold and silver. So yes. 

Q 8.) What is your favourite season?

A: My favourite season is anything but summer. I live in a state where summer lasts from March to Nov. Which is not fun, because that doesn't mean we're out of school like you're supposed to be in summer, it just means that we have mosquitoes for longer. and mosquitoes are the bane of my life. So Winter is my favourite, but Spring and Autumn are at a close tie behind Winter.

Q 9.) What is something you've learned about blogging since you've started?

A: Very good question that I was hoping someone would ask, so thank you Rachel! I think the top three things that I've learned, or improved in since I began blogging are simply, or not so simply. 

1.)  It doesn't matter how often you post, or how many people read or comment on your posts, I'm not in blogging because I want an audience, I never have been. 
I've watched a dozen blogs over the past three years gain 200+ in two or less years, and I always sit back and wonder why and how is my blog growing so slowly, but then I pinch myself, I've never been a crowd girl, I want few and close followers, friends, readers, and dolls. 
I started blogging because I had pictures storing up that I had taken of my best friends, my dolls. Ever since I was eight and my mum gave me her old phone with just camera abilities on it, I would set up Kit and my Webkinz for a photo-shoot, but I never had any way to share them. (Example down below)

This is actually a photo-shoot that I'm very proud of to this day, it was taken in 2009 with just a little phone camera. 

Plus my sister had made a blog, and you know how little sisters are when big sissies get something new. ;)

2.) My spelling (I just mis-typed that before correcting myself XD) and punctuation have improved over much hard work and groaning from my parents, sisters, and teachers. And although I'm not perfect yet, and the keys on these keyboards seem to re-arrange themselves every night so I continue to mis-type things, and I know friends and sisters groan still at my punctuation faults in my writing, I'm doing my best to get to a steady place where comma splices and they're and theirs don't get so mixed up, I'm not there yet, and that's something reading other blog's has shown me. It hurts when I see someone make a simple mistake, so I pound on myself to fix it in me, and hope they see it soon and fix it in themselves. 

3.) Blogging is a passion. Just like every other passion, it sometimes has its blocks and allowances for procrastinating, as you've seen from my blog if you've been following for any amount of time, I'm a procrastinator, and sometimes, I get blogging block. Another thing, I have followed many bloggers who soon after I followed, or years after I followed, stopped blogging, for whatever reason, or they took a break, sometimes unofficial, other times they let their readers know. It always hurts to see a favourite blogger leave, but we continue on and soon more will come and leave; and that's how this platform, like many others works. 
I've been fortunate enough to never meet a rude person through blogging, or even a spammer. Watch, I probably just jinxed myself. I always found it strange when people would talk about the hate they were receiving. I could never understand why someone would be hateful to another blogger, or why in such a kind community why we'd have that issue. And I completely forgot where I was going with this point. Oh well. 
Quality is top priority with photography and writing posts, all my posts, I try to have some reason for posting them, I often fail. but whatever, sometimes I don't meet deadlines and fall into a back load, and you readers get washed away with posts all in a week after months of silence from me. I do my best, but by golly, even Unicorns make mistakes. Thank you for reading through that rant, my thoughts while sick are always so random and unorganised. 

From Catie D.
Q 10.) Why is all the rum gone?
A: Obviously because someone's drunk it all. It was probably Rigaud. There's Little Dorrit again, gosh Lu.

Now, the reason you're all here. The rumoured giveaway. *Spooky fingers*
Four years, Forty followers, so of course, Four winners.
Yes, there will be four, say it with me, four, winners. So you can all enter, and there's a fair chance you could win! That being said, I'm going to have to keep it to the US States, I'm terribly sorry, I know I have several international readers, I'm sure you understand what a bother order forums for different countries are. So much trust in this world, isn't there? So terribly sorry about that dears. If I had an owl things would be much easier. :)
So four packages, which means four different themes. Like I said, you don't get pictures in this post because I'm still a coughing mess, but next post, you'll get to see the rules and prizes and everything. So until then, stay close for the update.

So thank you for four years, thank you for following, reading, and or looking at my pictures on this blog of craziness. Each and everyone of you have made these past four years more full, and I can't thank you enough for that.
Keep living, keep loving, keep being who you are, keep your chin up and 'even the darkest nights will end and the sun will rise.'
Until next time darlings,
~Lu&NineDarlingDollies