Olivia's TreeShip Adventures


Olivia's TreeShip Adventures
Originally uploaded by LegoMyMamma


My Alternate build of Olivia's Treehouse set #3065 using ONLY bricks & elements from that set.
What adventure have you built? :-)

Heather's Dollhouse


Dollhouse 2
Originally uploaded by Bill Ward's Brickpile

A reminder of the amazing detail "Heather LEGOgirl" - Heather Braaten used in her creations.

Heather Nicole Braaten...you are loved


Heather Nicole Braaten...you are loved
Originally uploaded by Lino M

            You will always be remembered.  
      You were an inspiration to all LEGO girls!

Mariann's post about Heather

Pinker Cottontail


Pinker Cottontail
Originally uploaded by LegoMyMamma

"Here comes Pinker Cottontail, hoppin' down the bunny trail ..."

Hoppy Spring 2012!

Friends Of The Sea


Friends Of The Sea
Originally uploaded by LegoMyMamma

One time near the LEGO sets in a store, a Lady was looking for a Mermaid for her Grand-niece's birthday. That was my inspiration for creating this one :-)

Created using mostly pieces from LEGO Friends sets.

Friends Express Train in action! (video)

Girls just want to Build!

Heartlake City comes to LEGOLAND® Florida!

Join the LEGO® Friends as they host the first-ever LEGO Friends Weekend, a daytime party that celebrates girls and their individuality.

Activities Include:
•Olivia's "Girls Just Wanna Build" Event
•Andrea's Heartlake Cafe
•Stephanie's Dance Party
•Emma's "That's So You" Fashion Show, presented by Saks Fifth Avenue
•Mia's "Mad About Animals" Scavenger Hunt
•And additional LEGO Friends Activities!


Best of all, LEGO Friends Weekend is included with general admission or a LEGOLAND Florida Annual Pass!

Samurai Winter Cottage


Samurai Winter Cottage
Originally uploaded by LegoMyMamma

Where the Samurai Mech 'may' stay sometimes.

Is she there now ... ?

Nya of NinjaGO -- She is the Samurai






NinjaGO Samurai Mech MiniFig spinner - Nya
Image copyright TLG

Set: 9448-1: Samurai Mech

Female MiniFigs are equal in this set

Each year The LEGO Group creates a Community Workers set -- the female to male ratio is very equal in this 2011 version.  This would be elusive truth to some people who choose to ignore facts.  A few fringe hangers would rather skew the truth, re-mix other people's creations, and promote their own agenda along the way.  What a sad way to make a few bucks.

Count them for yourself.

To those people online who say merely creating more MiniFigs as females will get more girls building, well, you are mistaken.  Girls are way more complex than that.

To those people who contradict themselves by saying, "sets are limiting imagination" (they're meant to be re-built, using owner's imagination) and yet complain about sets not being "gender equal" somehow when they follow a canon of a specific movie or book: here's an offering by TLG which is gender equal.  You probably didn't know about it because, in truth, you really don't know much about LEGO bricks -- except what's been misrepresented online by a few spammers, attention-getters, and agenda sellers.

Buckets of bricks are available everywhere!  Go buy one and educate yourself.

See details of this set here.

LEGO Friends airplane & boat - 2012

photo courtesy of Kocke Club
During Toy Fair in Germany.  Second wave of LEGO Friends sets to be released Summer 2012.




Olivia showing her support for Alex's Lemonade Stand!


Olivia showing her support for Alex's Lemonade Stand!
Originally uploaded by LegoMyMamma

The LEGO Group, along with Toys 'R' Us joined in supporting Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation in an effort to fight childhood cancer. Kids were able to build the Lemonade Stand at their local TRU Feb 4, 2012.

TLG donated $1 to Alex's charity for each set built.

For more information on Alex's Lemonade Stand, visit: www.Alexslemonade.org
**note: Olivia mini-doll did not come with the promo set, simply added for perspective.

LEGO Friends build at event Toys 'R' Us


LEGO Friends build at event Toys 'R' Us
Originally uploaded by LegoMyMamma

The LEGO Group will donate $1 for each Lemonade stand built to support the fight against childhood cancer.

The charity for which TLG will be donating to: Alex's Lemonade Stand

Fun event and a great way to raise awareness & support for an issue no child should have to face.


Winter Village: Woodcraft Shoppe


Winter Village: Woodcraft Shoppe
Originally uploaded by LegoMyMamma

Clarifying Friends place in the LEGO world

 My copious reply to a comment on an article on which a person asks for clarification, due to the commenter not owning any Friends sets of their own -- to evaluate first-person -- yet relying on some images online, which appear to show Friends as over-sized/pre-built:

"While I don't know which pictures online you looked at (there are a lot of distorted images & data regarding Friends) I can tell you the bricks are System bricks (meaning *not* DUPLO) but in fact, the same type/size which exist in *all* other LEGO sets and brick buckets.  I own several Friends sets, so this isn't me merely reading it somewhere.

What is sadly being over-shadowed by this myopic "backlash" is how innovative this theme is, in relation to overall LEGO products.  If you watched the robotic sorting machine in the LEGO factory on National Geographic channel this weekend, you would have a glimpse into the mind-boggling, complex packaging process for these sets.  The current trend in building structures has gone toward what it called "modular" -- which *does not* mean pre-fab, yet, each 'section' is build brick-by-brick and 'then' can be combined in several different configurations.  The most well-known modular LEGO set is the Grand Emporium http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Grand-Emporium-10211

Olivia's house was designed and packaged the same way.  Rather than randomly dumping all the bricks into a bag into the set box, groupings of individual bricks are sorted into various bags -- so the owner can *choose* to build one specific section of the house -- *brick-by-brick* -- and/or continue on building the entire house in one sitting.  Due to the anthropological research TLG garnered, being able to "build" with a several bricks -- along *with* imagination play -- is offered for the purpose of keeping some girl builders attention long enough to continue interest in building.  In today's busy lifestyles, this may also be a practical application; building the entire house in one sitting takes even experienced adult builders a couple of hours.  Also, the modules are meant to be rearranged to owner's taste.  Also, the owner can re-build the entire house into something completely different.  What you may think of as "limiting" by TLG producing sets, most LEGO fans thrive on because it is a chance to obtain new colors and pieces.  Also, since Olivia's house is LARGE, so for *stability* purposes, there are a few 1x5 bricks -- which are the *same size* as found in Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and several other sets!

Please take time to answer your questions visually with this meticulously photographed, detailed review of Olivia's House  -- for a much better understanding of the actual build and the way it's packaged, plus, it is written by a female, Pandora: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=64270
It is *very* long, as it is a large set (695 separate pieces) and it provides analogy of this set in relation to other sets of equal degree in building challenge.  Pandora has added in a nice mini-doll analysis in comparison to the traditional MiniFig :-)

The kids who build Friends (kids = boys who also appreciate real-life settings) will definitely build spatial, math, and engineering skills while engaged in play!"



"Build Yours"


Nice, whimsical print work from Pereira & O'Dell for that most classic of toys, the LEGO block. A series of print ads that appeared on four consecutive pages show a LEGO brick, accompanied by an imaginative scenario, much what kids (and okay, adults) see when they look at a brick. The shop used kerning typography contrasted with tracking to get the reader more involved in the copy. The fourth ad, seen on the bottom right, featured a yellow brick with blank, notepad lines, with the tagline -- "Build Yours."

I have put them in reverse order, to share the blank template first.

and


 and