I am so excited to share my newest photo shoot I did with some of the newest items from American Girl this summer. We were inspired by Kit’s new gardening series and decided to make a fun garden scene to celebrate – just in time for fall harvests.

A little backstory: My kids were originally saving up for Kit’s new garden stand as soon as they fell in love with it in-store, but for this shoot we ended up doing a little garden stand DIY with some items we already had on hand and a clearance piece we found at Hobby Lobby {the corrugated roof topper}. We found this in the 75% off section while shopping for the raised garden bed craft for American Girl, and I knew we could use it for something, but I wasn’t planning on making my own stand so that thought never crossed my mind. For our stand, we simply used a wood crate you can find at any craft store {we painted it to match the other pieces, but it was plain wood when we bought it} and filled it with little metal bins we got on Amazon {Design Ideas Mesh Utility, Stacking Bin, Small, Silver} that was originally for storing small items like paperclips. I’ve been staring at those bins for months now wondering how I was going to use them in the American Girl school I built since they were larger than I thought when I bought them and don’t work well in the classroom. So instead, they were sitting on the window seat in my bedroom and my little one has been using them to stack small toys in, making all sorts of messes only a three year old can make.

Here’s where you remind me to measure twice, buy once.But wait! If I *hadn’t* bought them without measuring first, I probably wouldn’t have tried my hand at making my own stand, and I would have missed out on all of this cuteness.  I mean, the Kit stand is much, much cooler, and it’s got all those fun accessories, but this was all basically made with stuff we already had, and so I’m going to consider that a pretty big win. It’s a more rustic version of the American Girl garden stand, but for now we’re having fun with it while they save up their money for the stand they really wanted. 

Featured in our garden shoot

On our beloved Kit doll is the new Gardening Outfit that came out this summer. I love Kit’s whole line so much, and this new outfit is no exception. I mean, I would actually wear this whole outfit, especially the boots. Also in the shoot is Kit’s new gardening accessories, like the basket and fruits pictured above, as well as the flour sack apron Kit is wearing gardening. These adorable little Ball jars are also included in the set {you can see the old American Girl canning set in Kit’s line in the background on top of the garden stand} so you can pretend your doll is canning after the harvest.To fill the metal bins in the stand, we used a few Safari Ltd Fruits & Vegetables Toob sets we picked up at a local toy store. They are the perfect size for playing supermarket so they end up in play a lot of the time, and luckily they couldn’t be a better fit for the garden stand. I must admit, the stand with all its fruits and veggies *is* pretty cute, and we’ve ended up playing with it quite a bit. The American Girl Kit’s Garden Stand still has my heart because of all the fun accessories that come with it and all the play value, but I kinda love our rustic version, too, and so do the kids. All the playing with the market stand in the store made me think of ways to really extend our play, and that’s when I came up with the idea of making a DIY raised garden bed that we could “plant” faux plants in and then harvest the fruits and veggies just like a real garden.

Since my kiddos love gardening of all kinds, and they love thinking of ways to extend the play value of each toy we own, they were all about helping me make a garden bed so they could plant, water, and then harvest each of the items they sell at the market stand. You can find all the details of how we made our garden here, in our American Girl DIY garden post.

An American Girl Summer

We have just about spent our entire summer at our local American Girl store, what with their new summer book club, the AG movie nights, and because we have a small American Girl gift card burning a hole in our pockets and just want to “check on the new items” frequently. And, all this hanging out in-store has been delightful. Imagine, if you will, an entire store devoted to the things my kids love the most, that they never tire of playing with, and it is constantly getting in new products for them to marvel over.

This is exactly what the American Girl store is, and it’s designed so that it allows them experience everything first hand and really get a feel for each of the products, new and old. But, the best thing about the American Girl store? Being an excitable and enthusiastic kid is never, ever discouraged. In fact, it’s encouraged by every single employee of the store.

They will clap for my daughter when she and her baby twirl in front of the mirror, even though she’s been doing it for over 30 minutes and “her baby” is actually the display doll that she insists on taking out of the display stroller, and they will stand with her while she sets up Maryellen’s trailer for the 800th time, complimenting her on her skills and how quickly she converts bed to bench.

Quite frankly, there are a whole lot worse ways to spend a summer {especially as we’re stuck indoors this week with bad air quality from the wildfires}, and this summer has truly been one of the best.

Check out the DIY American Girl Garden post for more inspiration