Little Anisa: Custom Natural Doll from Child's Art Work

By Aisha of Braid with Me

How adorable is this doll? Does it remind you of anyone? It should! It's Anisa!! Actually Anisa has chosen to refer to her as Little Anisa. Little Anisa was crocheted with care by the talented Aileen Robinson of Leen Green Bean: Our Love in a Ball of Yarn. Aileen Robinson is the owner of this wonderful shop on Etsy that offers a large array of ready made and custom made crochet items. 

 Anisa drew the following picture last year and I absolutely loved it! I contacted Mrs. Robinson about making a custom doll for Anisa and she was more than happy to make it.  She was always very prompt and courteous when answering any questions that I may have had. 

A few weeks later, we received what would be one of Anisa's most prized possessions.  Can you say BEAUTIFUL?? I love how Mrs. Robinson captured all of the little details in Anisa's drawing. Check out her twists!! 

The following description is from a different listing on her Etsy page: 

Your Doll will be made in the softest acrylic yarn, in the colors of your choice. It is stuffed firmly with polyester fiber fill. This would be the perfect lovey for your little girl. She is a little over a foot in length. Her limbs are tightly crocheted but not stuffed, so they are bendable. Her bright eyes and heart shaped mouth will make your lucky girl absolutely fall in love. She is machine washable since she is bound to end up dragged around everywhere by her braids.

This is made to order so just let me know what ethnicity or complexion and what color scheme you want (you can request one exactly the same as pictured, or you can be as detailed as you want and let me know your color selection for skin, eyes, hair, stripes on dress, leggings, shoes, flowers). Since this is made to order, check with me to find out my lead time.

Have you ever found yourself searching store after store for the perfect doll that resembles your child? Search no more! Leen Green Bean is the shop for you! 

Need more convincing? Check out some of her other dolls:

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Her prices range from $5.00 for a Giant Crochet Flower Headband to $110 for a crochet 6 piece set of Winnie the Pooh characters. Seeing the excitement on Anisa's face when she saw her doll made this purchase worth every penny! 

Do you want to see more from Leen Green Bean? Head on over to her Etsy shop and Facebook page and let her know that I sent you. 

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Little Girls Natural Hairstyle: Cornrows & Twisted Bangs with Pigtails

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First of all, how adorable is she? This is another one of Miss A's cousins. We will call her Lil Bit. She saw  her sister get her hair done earlier in the day so she asked me if I could style her hair as well. How could I say no to this face? 

As always, I started off by washing her hair. I used Kinky Curly Come Clean Shampoo and Herbal Essences Hello Hydration conditioner (old ingredients). I applied moisturizer immediately after rinsing her hair (Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer). After moisturizing, I began styling (on wet hair). First, I parted a square shape on the top, middle section of her head. I tied the rest of the hair back. This style is very simple and quick. I parted small sections coming straight down toward her face and cornrowed them, at the end of each cornrow I started doing a basic two strand twist. I used Bee Mine Curly Butter on each section. The plan was to give her some cute twisted bangs. After I finished up with the top, I parted the remaining hair straight down the middle and placed them in pigtails. I twisted the hair in the pigtails as well (4 twists in each ponytail) and added a couple of bows. I used Kinky Curly Curling Custard to slick the ponytails down and to smooth her edges down in the front.

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Side Cornrows with Two Strand Twists

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You all probably remember I styled a couple of Miss A's cousins hair about a week ago. Click here if you missed that post. Well, she had another sleep over this weekend and I was once again pleasantly surprised when her cousin asked me if I could do her hair. I love doing hair so of course my answer was yes! :-)

First, I washed and detangled her hair. I washed with Kinky Curly Come Clean Shampoo and conditioned with Queen Helen Conditioner. I could tell her hair would immediately soak the water up so I hurried and applied and generous amount of Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer to her wet hair. See the picture below.

She wears small ponytails or cornrows with beads, barrettes and knockers most of the time. She told me she didn't like the knockers and would like to wear her hair curly, like Miss A's. I showed her some pictures in our Facebook Style Gallery and she eventually settled on side cornrows with twists. We planned on doing a twist out but she had to go home a little early because she has a doctor appointment tomorrow. I told her she can come back over this week and we will do the twist out.

On to the style, I kept it fairly simple and did some basic cornrows on the side. I don't think it's any surprise that I used Bee Mine Products for this style. I know you're probably tired of me mentioning them but I find that they work well on all hair types. I applied a little Bee Mine Curly Butter to each section before cornrowing. I ended the cornrow with a rubberband and twisted the remaining hair. After cornrowing one side of her hair, I moved on to the rest of her hair. I simply grabbed small sections of hair with my fingers, added some curly butter and twisted until I was all done. I added some claw clips to jazz the style up a bit.  She absolutely loves how it turned out and she really enjoyed having a little mini photoshoot.


Edited to add: I used a tiny bit of Kinky Curly Curling Custard to lay down her edges ("baby hair"). :-)

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Wet, moisturized hair.

Funny side note, she kept asking me if I was braiding her hair and I kept telling her yes. She was so surprised that she couldn't feel me braiding! lol

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Click here for details on Miss A's style.