I immediately switched out their eyes for a smaller size 10, as the 12mm eyes they came with just filled their eye holes way too much. I don't have much choice in this size eyes anymore, so just ordered some new 10mm glass eyes last week, never expecting the dolls to come so quickly, so Bono has temporary eyes for now. Coco may keep his.
Actually, they arrived yesterday. I had been expecting them all day, but tracking didn't say "Out For Delivery" until almost noon. Oh, no, I had an appointment to leave for at 2:30, so I was anxiously watching for the mail truck. But it didn't come, and we had to leave. Which meant I'd miss the delivery and not be able to pick the parcel up from the Post Office until the next day. But, when we went out to the car, I spotted the mail truck making a delivery down the street. Jan ran down the street, and the post lady let him take my parcel. Yay!! So, in the car with us it went, and after we got back home, I was finally able to unpack them. But it was too late and dark for pictures. So this morning some of the others got to welcome the new arrivals.... Bono is Normal resin, and Coco is Real Skin. Both are the newer opaque resin Iplehouse switched to this past year. Coco is my second Real Skin doll in this new formula, so I knew what to expect. Bono on the other hand is the first in their new normal resin. She seems a bit lighter, and not nearly as yellow as the older 'normal' resin. Right now without a face up, she's rather difficult to photograph. Coco's little face is much easier to see in photos. I immediately switched out their eyes for a smaller size 10, as the 12mm eyes they came with just filled their eye holes way too much. I don't have much choice in this size eyes anymore, so just ordered some new 10mm glass eyes last week, never expecting the dolls to come so quickly, so Bono has temporary eyes for now. Coco may keep his. It's always a bit bittersweet getting a blank doll. It's exciting they are actually here, but now they need to be painted, and with it being the Holiday season, everyone is very busy, so it's difficult to say how long that will take. Oh well, it gives me a little time to knit them some nice warm sweaters.
With the warmer temperatures, the snow from last week was fast disappearing, so Tillie and Cinnamon thought they'd take advantage before it all melted, and make a snowman..... Their new friend, Sven, came outside with them..... "Well, what do you think??" "But he's not Olaf! I miss Olaf!!"
The other day when we had so much snow, I was trying to come up with something new to photograph - instead of always the same old thing. I thought maybe two girls making their way home from school. So I pulled out the backpacks and took the girls outside, and took a photo in one of my usual places.....there's not a lot of choice in my backyard.... Okay I guess, but I really wanted something a bit different. It was 3:30 and the school down the street should be getting out, which meant several school buses going past my house. So I conscripted Jan, who was working from home that day, to come out front and hold the dolls while I waited for a school bus to come by. I tried to ignore the neighbours who were out shovelling their driveways. We didn't have to wait long, a bus very soon came around the corner. I had to shoot fast, since the bus wasn't exactly going to 'stop and pose' for me - so there was no time for careful positioning - just aim and shoot, and hope for the best. I got three pictures.... I had to shoot fast, so there was no time to change poses.... Then a quick spin around to catch the bus heading down to the school.... I was really happy with my 'Schoolgirls' photos. So much more interesting and realistic.
I was in the process of putting together an album with all the photos from St. Nicholas Eve, and realized I'd not taken any of when the kids brought their shoes into the house, or when they were hiding, waiting for St. Nicholas to appear. So I set up everything all over again, and took a few more photos to fill in the story.... first, bringing in all the shoes...... Hiding behind the tree.... ...watching for St. Nicholas..... The whole story is now up in an album - 'A Visit from St. Nicholas'
There's nothing like freshly fallen snow to make Christmas lights look even more magical. So Efreet went out to have a look at the lights on our house..... ....He loved the stars.... Some exciting news! Yesterday evening I was surprised to receive a shipping notice from Iplehouse. Bono and Coco are on their way! That was very fast - I just ordered them three weeks ago. Of course, they will be coming blank so they'll still need to be painted, and when they arrive it will be just one week before Christmas, so there's probably not much chance that they will be able to join the others in their holiday fun. But then there's always next year. It's still super exciting!
We woke up to a Winter Wonderland this morning. It's been snowing all night, and it looks beautify out there. We were only supposed to get a few centimetres, but the storm has apparently stalled over the city, and it's continuing to come down heavily. So of course, the little ones had to go out in it, but first I had to go tamp it down, otherwise they'd have been stuck up to their necks in it. Nami went with Ringo to give some of his stuffies a ride on his sleigh... Lonnie and Elin made sure the bird feeder was topped up... ...catching the snowflakes....
Everyone enjoyed their chocolate letters from St. Nicholas.... Elin was so happy to see that St. Nicholas had filled the wooden shoe for her Dad too.... She couldn't wait to bring it to him.... ...and then, enjoyed her own chocolate letter..... I made the chocolate letters out of Sculpey III, mixing it until it was the colour of milk chocolate. After all, the boxes say 'melk' so I couldn't very well make dark chocolate. I think the letters ended up a bit big. I did measure them against the 'boxes' - which are just painted blocks of wood with printed front and backs glued on - but I forgot that the chocolate letters come in a sealed envelope inside their boxes, so are actually quite a bit smaller than the box. Oh well, everyone loves chocolate, so I'm sure no one is going to complain!
The children decided to stay up and wait for St. Nicholas, and surprise him when he arrived.... Everyone received a chocolate letter.... ..and all kinds of treats in their wooden shoes.... Bonnie loves chocolate and couldn't wait to open hers. "This is the BIGGEST chocolate letter I've ever seen!! It's going to take me a whole day to eat!" Ringo looked everywhere, but couldn't find his wooden shoe, or a letter 'R'. Then St. Nicholas approached him. He had been saving it to give it to him in person. "You've been such a good little boy, that I really had to meet you, and give you this myself. I'm going to make sure you have a wonderful Christmas, and if you are especially good next year, I'll come visit you again." That little frown turned upside down and Ringo smiled from ear to ear. But my
memory card was full, and by the time I got a new one, St. Nicholas had gone, and Ringo was off playing with his toys. Last week I needed some fancy little cookies for my Kaye Wiggs dolls for their 'party' photo shoot. As luck would have it, I have several kinds of small cookies in my cupboards, but they weren't fancy enough, so I mixed up a little bit of icing and decorated them up. But then I came down with the flu, and the KW photo shoot shrank to the bare minimum, and the cookies were never used. So there they lay on a tiny cookie sheet on the toaster oven, until yesterday, when I noticed most of the really tiny cookies were gone. "Jan!" He must have helped himself to them. So when he came into the kitchen, I gave him my accusatory glare, "Looks like some 'mice' have been into my doll cookies..." fully expecting him to confess. But no, he hadn't taken them, and he was as surprised as i was. It really had been the mice! We've been having ongoing issues with mice of late, but the thought of a mouse making off with an entire cookie - even though they were very small - gave me an idea for some photos...... I still find it difficult to imagine a mouse making off with a whole cookie, even if it was a very small one - like the two my brown mice are holding. That would have been most interesting to see!
Anyway, the remaining cookies went into the garbage, and next time I make some real cookies for doll props, I'm just going to have to store them better so the mice can't get at them. Today is St. Nicholas Day in the Netherlands. Whereas children in North America put out cookies and milk for Santa on Christmas Eve, children in Holland when I was young, used to put hay, apples and carrots in their wooden shoes for St. Nicholas' horse on St. Nicholas Eve. Then if they'd been good, they would find the hay and apples gone in the morning, and replaced by some small gifts and treats. My kids wanted to see if St. Nicholas would come visit them on this side of the ocean too. So they took their wooden shoes outside to find some hay. Efreet brought over a big pile.... They started stuffing the hay into the shoes..... Ringo couldn't help but notice that Elin had WAY bigger wooden shoes than he did.... " No fair, you have such a big shoe! You're going to get WAY more presents than me!" "No I'm not! These are my Daddy's shoes. I'm stuffing them for him, so he'll get a treat too."
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AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
April 2024
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