Wedding Day Snow Ice Cream

Hi everyone! Elsa here. Even though I got no requests for this craft, I'm doing it anyways. It's the snow ice cream that we made for Steve and my wedding, and I mentioned this recipe in my blog recently. We were able to catch this recipe from She. Turns out that she went north, so there's lots of snow up there to make as many snow ice creams as you wish. You can use real snow or snow created by magic, if you can. This easy ice cream recipe is both edible for humans and smell-able for dolls. Either way, it is a delicious wintertime treat for weddings or otherwise!

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Step 1: First, the above picture contains all the things you will need to make your snow ice cream.  Let me make a list:

- Two decent sized plastic cups

- A large plastic container or two (not shown)

- Two teaspoons

- One larger serving spoon

- Half and half (or an equal amount of milk and creamer)

- A flavored syrup of your choice (She used Torani syrup)

Step 2: Once you have all of that stuff gathered, you'll need to get your snow. Which is kind of an important ingredient of snow ice cream. If you don't have magic to make your snow, locate a safe spot in your yard where you know that the snow is clean and untouched by anything gross. The red glider bench on She's back desk was the perfect spot, since nobody ever sits there (I think it might be broken!) and it holds snow pretty well. The best snow for making snow ice cream is twenty to thirty degrees Fahrenheit. That way, it's cold, but also powdery and makes a good mix-in later.

Step 3: Take one of your other plastic cups from earlier and scoop up all that snow. Well, at least get enough to fill your cup. I don't really feel like I have to explain this any further. I trust all of you are capable of putting snow into a cup yourselves.

(Again, pretty self-explanatory. This is She's end result with the snow from the red glider bench in the two plastic cups. Of course, you may only need one cup/container depending on its size, but  at the time, She was also making the snow ice cream for her sister, hence using two. You can always change your recipe to fit one person if you're just making it for yourself.)

Step 4: Once you've got your snow in the cups, just leave them outside while you go back inside to prepare the other ingredients. After all, wintertime basically turns your backyard into a walk-in freezer already. So why not? Anyways, fill your indoor plastic cups with half and half, only about the height of a human's finger or a doll's hand. Of course, this depends on the size of your cup again, but even though the amount of half and half may vary, it's still pretty much the same, so I wouldn't worry.

Step 5: Next for the Torani syrup, or any other flavored syrup of your choice. You can even use chocolate syrup! She tried this once, but I think She prefers using the Torani brand, since She makes that one more often. For these pictures, She used the hazelnut flavor. Next, carefully pour the Torani syrup onto your teaspoon and put it in with the half and half in your cup. You'll want to do two teaspoons of this. If you have a really sweet tooth and don't mind stirring your mixture to dissolve it, you can always put one or two teaspoons of granulated white sugar in your cup, too, but we didn't do that, because Olaf plus sugar equals... I don't really want to find out.

Step 6: Now you can bring your snow cups from the outside freezer now. Using your bigger serving spoon, scoop the snow from your outdoor cup into your indoor one, stirring after each amount with your smaller teaspoon. Now this is where it gets important. The amount of snow that you shovel into your mixture will depend on the consistency of your ice cream. If you prefer soft serve ice cream, use less snow. But if you like your ice cream thicker, put in a lot. She uses almost all of the snow from her cup, but you don't have to. Also, another important thing. This snow ice cream is a lot colder than any regular ice cream, so just... just be aware of that. Wouldn't want you to get a brain freeze or anything.

Step 7: Once you're done with putting on the snow, stir, stir, stir! The best method is folding, which is using your spoon to bring stuff from the bottom onto the stuff on top, over and over. Also, take a look at the color changing cup She used! I just wanted to point that out. I thought that it looked pretty.

Step 8: Once you're done folding, you're good to go! This is what your ice cream should look like in the end if you followed all the steps correctly and used a flavored syrup with a light tint to it. I have to admit it looks pretty good. So go ahead and dig in, but not too quickly! Also, a quick trick for those humans out there who get frequent brain freezes, (dolls don't get them, ha ha!) whenever you have one, just pinch the top bridge of your nose.

Wishing you good snow for good ice cream,

Queen Elsa

A Winter Wedding Part 2

Two weeks before I married Steve, we worked on all the preparations, mainly in quiet.  We didn't need much time to plan; we wanted a simple wedding, or at least that's what we thought we were getting...

***

On the first day of the month of love, I sat alone. But I wasn't really alone, I had my thoughts. And at the time, they were swirling around my head faster than the snow that was falling outside of She's window. In some ways, it was gorgeous sight, but also a very messy one. 

"Elsa?" Steve, my fiance, asked. He had secretly climbed onto the desk I was sitting on, appearing to be concealing something behind his back. "What are you doing up here?"

"Just thinking," I murmured. "What are you hiding?"

"I thought you might want some tea." Steve offered shyly, revealing the present to be a teacup.
"Aren't you the sweetest?" I beamed. "What kind?"
"Vanilla cinnamon chai."
I sighed dreamily and took the mug from Steve's hands. Perfect for a day like today.
"Woah, are you nervous?" He asked suddenly.
I looked down at my tea and found that it had been turned into snowy slush. "A little," I admitted. "I guess I forgot to turn off my switch from earlier today. Moana and Pocahontas wanted to have an indoor snowball fight," I shrugged. "Want to come join me?"

"Sure, I've got time," Steve replied, and relaxed on the desk next to me, folding his legs and watching out the window as snow continued to fall. "Tell me what's on your mind."
"I don't know. I'm just worried," I reached out to grab his hand, and rubbed my thumb over his knuckles. "About our wedding."
"How so?" Steve asks. He's not offended. I feel like I've dodged a bullet.
"It seems like we've just had Olaf and Idina's."
"That was December."
I blinked. "Oh. Well, I just published the blog post about it. That could be why."
"I would guess so," Steve said. "Are you worried we're moving too fast? Because we don't have to get married yet."
"No, no, that's not it at all! I do want to marry you. I really do. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
"You will, regardless of martial status or not." Steve smiled.
"You know what I mean," I rolled my eyes. "It's not my feelings I'm having a problem with. I'm ready as I'll ever be to get married this month, if you are. But..." I turned my head a little, watching the shelf behind Steve's shoulder. It was bustling with activities with all sorts of dolls doing all sorts of things. Magneto, Arthur, and Westley were playing cards with Benny and Napoleon. Bob Ross was walking the other Funko Pops through a painting class. Anelle and Pocahontas were taking turns training our animal friends to sit, roll over, and shake hands. They were happy. They were... untroubled. We still hadn't told them about our plans to wed on February 14th. Letting them know now would be like dropping a bomb.
"I'm afraid they aren't ready. A wedding takes a lot of work, and we'll need all the help we can get. How do we know they're ready to help plan another one so soon?"
Steve cocked his head, watching our doll family with me. "Maybe..." he began. "Maybe we'll know when the time is right when Moana and Pocahontas, two dolls we know to hate the cold, are having an indoor snowball fight. They're bored, Elsa. A winter wedding would be a welcome activity for them. For everyone."

I laughed lightly. "Yeah, I guess so."
"So we tell them now?" Steve stood, nearly breaking away from my grasp before I pulled him back down.
"No! Wait. I have a better idea. We should make official save-the-date invitations for everyone."
"Everyone? I'm marrying a crazy person." Steve teased.
"Hey, I love crazy," I said. "But really. I think paper invitations would make our wedding more elegant."
Steve noticed my genuine excitement and was quick to agree. "Oh, why not. Let's make it as elegant as possible. After all, I am marrying a queen," he pulled me to my feet. I was finished moping. "Does this make me a king?"
"Sure," I giggled. "Please follow me to the craft room, Your Majesty."
He did, and minutes later we created our very own wedding invitation card prototype.
"Now to make the rest of them. All 33...34 of them." Said Steve, finishing the swirl on the last line of cursive.
"30," I said, "The animals don't need invites." I replied, smiling.
"Right," said Steve. "They'll come on their own. By the way, did we ever discuss who to make as our best man, maid of honor, flower girl, and bracelet bearer? I don't think we did. Anyways, they should get special invitations."
"Well, we'd have to get my sister as the maid of honor."
"Yeah. And I was thinking of Olaf as best man."
"Oh, he'd love to do that!"
"Exactly. And... bracelet bearer? Your choice."
"Hm. Gotta go with Kristoff. I think he and Anelle have a thing going. Maybe if he participates in a wedding, it'll give him the courage to ask her out."
I grinned. I had noticed Kristoff giving Anelle the "special treatment" over the past few months. Maybe he was finally getting over his bristly personality after settling down in a forever home with She. "Sure. And I've just got to have Nessa as our flower girl. Aside from Anna, she's my best friend."
Steve-pseudo pouted. "I'm not your best friend?"
"You are. But you're a different best friend. One that I'm going to marry."

The cards were complete, and it was time to go and distribute them. Steve would handle the guys, and I, the girls. I was pretty proud of our work. The pink half-heart shape was reminiscent of the national holiday, Valentine's Day, but the text inside was a lot more personal. The date was set for February 14th at 11:00am (so that we could have lunch together after the ceremony).
Steve was already halfway out of the basement with his basket of invites before I stopped him with a question.
"Steve- did you want to have an indoor or outdoor wedding?"
"Huh?"
"You know... it's February. There will be plenty of snow outside."
"Ah, I get what you mean."
"Yeah." I sighed, already caught up in a dream. I couldn't help but pine for a true winter wedding. With fluffy white covering all of the earth, and gentle snowflakes floating down, gently marking my veil and dress with glittering snowflakes. It was a grand dream, albeit and impossible one. I knew that the well-being of my wedding guests were more important, and I also knew that some of those guests had a big problem with colder weather.
"Tell you what, snowflake. We'll have a honeymoon in the snow."
I nearly gasped. "What?"
"I mean it. Just you and I, navigating the world together, trying to find our whenever. You told me once before there's an entrance into the woods at the edge of She's neighborhood, is that true?"
I nodded. I haven't been down there in ages. Probably not since my first Christmas here, when I'd thought I'd accidentally frozen over everything outside. Not exactly a happy memory, but still, it was a beautiful and quiet place to explore. Perfect for a honeymoon.
"Then we'll make it happen. I promise." Steve gave a tiny salute my way and went the rest of the way upstairs.
I loaded the rest of my invitations slowly into my basket, one at a time, lost in my mind again. Even if we don't get a snow-covered honeymoon, I thought, I'll still have the man of my dreams.

"No. Freaking. Way."
"Yes way. It's happening." I could hardly hold back the girlish squeal in my voice.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Elsa! I've always wanted to be a flower girl! I mean, I'd rather be a bride, eventually, one day, but a flower girl has to be the next best thing, right? I promise I won't let you down!" Nessa took the miniature card I gave her and hugged it close to her heart.
"Elphie, here's yours, too. And Anna-" I turned to my sister, eagerly awaiting an invite of her own. Nessa had already given away the secret that it was for my wedding, but what Anna didn't know is how important of a role she would be playing in it.
I passed the card off to her secretly and gave her a look that told her to remain quiet. We wouldn't want to make Nessa disappointed that she wasn't my maid of honor.
Anna took the card steadily. Her eyes grew wide as her eyes scanned the paper. She locked eyes with me.
"You really mean it?" She mouthed silently.
I smiled and pretended as though her reaction was just as everyone else's had been. Elphaba was asking a question about what kind of music selection we would have, and she put herself in charge of creating the playlist. And, just like that, we had to do this whole charade with job-finding all over again. Luckily, I had Steve to help me, and things were going quickly. I'd just given Dorothy and Bell their invites when Steve came into the room, breathing like he'd just run a marathon.
"Did you get all of the guys, Steve? You look... stressed."
"Yeah," Steve wiped her forehead with the back of his hand. "The PSA was a little hard to track down. I swear, they're all over the place. And with Jocasta, they're even more untraceable."
"Jocasta? What do you mean?"
"Remember? She's training with them now. After showing off her 'White Shadow' stuff at Christmas, they took her in."
Oh, yeah. Right. That was a thing now. Poor Loki. He must be exhausted. Or maybe he was enjoying the new experience. I had to hope it was the latter.
"Well, I've got to get them next. Thanks for the warning."

When I found the PSA, they were just as Steve had described them- untraceable. Only darts and smears of color- some in the air, some across the ground- could be seen. It looked like they were rushing Jocasta one at a time to see how she would react to their offenses. But she wasn't alone with just her powers. The PSA had also given her a sword, and she used it well. Far better than I certainly ever could. And far better than I had ever seen anyone use a sword before.
Suddenly they stopped. Hawkeye, their leader, knelt to the ground and starting gathering arrows to reload into his quiver. "Good work, Jocasta," he panted. "Master Westley has taught you well."
"Yes, but he hasn't taught me everything." Jocasta sighed. She put a finger at the end of her sword, testing it. It was blunt and made of plastic, but still effective if you were to hit someone hard enough.
"Remember to have patience. You can't learn everything immediately." Natasha, the Black Widow figure, shrugged. She began helping Hawkeye collect his arrows. Their hands touched, and Hawkeye searched for Natasha's eyes, but she had already moved on to the next arrow. He looked away, disappointed.
"But I know I can-"
"Hey, guys," I said, finally rounding the corner so I could be in their view. "Mind if I interrupt?"
"Hey, Elsa. And sure," said Loki. "We just went on break."
I noticed that Hawkeye also had a pink paper heart stuffed into his quiver, and, looking a bit longer, saw more of them placed on the armrest of the nearby couch. "I assume Steve's already been around here?" I asked.
"Ah, is it the wedding?" Thor asked. "Congratulations to you and Captain America The First. I know the gods are smiling down upon your marriage."
I blushed slightly. "Thank you. Here- I have these for Wanda, Natasha, and Jocasta. And then that's everyone!"
Natasha and Wanda both thanked me, but Jocasta had a different reaction. She stared down at the heart in her hand like it was speaking to her and she didn't know if and how she should reply.
"Um... I don't know if I can fit it around my training."
"We'll have time off. It's a wedding!" Chris, the mini-Steve, cried. He turned to confirm this with Hawkeye, who crossed his arms and nodded.
"Okay. Well... congratulations."
For some reason, Jocasta's well-wishing did not seem genuine, but I didn't care. All of the invites were officially delivered, and now we could move on to phase two of our wedding planning.

The rest of the week went by in a flash. Everyone had their job assignments by February 7th and they were more than happy to participate. Well, everyone except Jonas and Jocasta. I had a feeling they would be a little lost. The problem was, we didn't quite know them yet. They'd only been in the house for about 44 days, and that's hardly enough time to get to know somebody properly. I made a mental note to set up a Doll's Life File for them one of these days. Maybe later this year, when all the excitement died down.
Everyone did basically the same job they had for Olaf and Idina's wedding, with a couple of alterations. Since Steve and I wanted to have a winter-themed wedding, we decided Benny and Napoleon should decorate, with all of their knowledge on Christmas. Arthur was helping them too. The three of them seem to get along pretty well, after all. Napoleon and Benny swapped jobs with Anelle and Kristoff, who were now doing table preparations for our feast of a lunch. Jonas and Jocasta were tagging along because Steve and I agreed it would be a good idea to involve them in more things with the rest of our friends.
The last part was to get She involved. Last time, She was our ordained minister and nothing else, but recently, She volunteered to take up the job of baking our wedding cake. A chocolate cake, of course, with snow ice cream on the side. (Recipe for the snow ice cream we made will be coming shortly after this post!)
We were watching her sketch and dream up ideas for our cake in the kitchen with Bob Ross and Nessa. Midterms were fast approaching for She, with her spring break in March, and She looked very happy to do something besides studying.
"Good thing they're doing this now. We nearly forgot to give Olaf and Idina their wedding cake." Steve remarked.
"I know," I agreed. "Aside from that, everything's all set and place and ready for Valentine's Day," I reached over and squeezed his hand. "Are you nervous? Excited?"
"Hm. Nexexcited."
"That isn't a word!"
"But you said it once!"
"Just because I said it, doesn't make it right."

"Sure it does. The women are always right in a relationship."
I giggled. "Let's hope you're kidding about that."
Steve shrugged. "Depends on what we're talking about," he stated. "Hey, did Idina fit you for your wedding dress yet?"
I groaned. I just knew we'd forgotten something. "No. I didn't even ask her about it yet."
"Better go do that. Idina will need more than two day's advance to make an entire gown."
"True, true. Don't come find me, okay? If Idina starts making my dress today, I want it to be a surprise." I pulled myself away from Steve and started towards the basement. Idina usually hung out there. That's where the craft room was, and She had plenty of ribbon, felt, and thread to work with. It was a dressmaker's heaven. Hopefully the master dressmaker could work wonders for me.

***

P.S. The lovely Treesa from the blog Fashion Doll Memoirs (link here: http://fashiondollmemoirs.blogspot.com/) emailed me a couple photos of Ginny, her 16" singing Anna doll, with a handmade card in celebration of Olaf and Idina's wedding on December 24th. From everyone here at A Doll's Life For Me, we'd personally like to thank Treesa for her kind gesture. I always enjoy reading her comments whenever she replies to one of my posts! It's nice to know that the doll blogging community is still active, albeit small.

This is Treesa's Ginny with the card. Hmm... maybe I should tell Anna to let her hair down every once and a while. It really suits Ginny.

And this is a close-up of the card. The flower has to be my favorite part. It's reminiscent of Norwegian rosemailing, with Disney animators and artists used in the creation of Frozen.

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Anyways, that's all for now. Stay tuned for Part 3!

Looking forward to writing about the big day,

Queen Elsa