Today is 'Inspire your heart with Art' Day. 

​My dolls have had lots of artistic opportunities over the years, but none quite as inspirational as the story about my artist Narae, which I started two years ago at this time....

The story had so many great photos.....
​...starting another painting in her studio....

Advertising her art classes.....

The first art class....

Finger painting in the second class...

Painting a 'Kandinsky'.....

Mounting the student's work....

Drawing their favourite Stuffie....

Button trees....

Laurel Burch cats....

Narae's studio....

Framing her paintings....

...and her Art Show....

To revisit the whole story, go to Narae's Art Studio

I've been working on several things the past two weeks, and things are very slowly coming along. Rather too slowly in my opinion. I wish everything was finished!

Jan made me another set of foam-core walls a while back, which I wanted to make into 'interior castle walls', with an irregular stone design. I had painted the background the colour for the 'mortar', and yesterday finally stamped on the stone work. I had cut up a package of sponges from Dollarama to represent the different sizes of stone blocks.  When the paint dried, it seemed a touch too 'blue', especially with all the brown furniture, so I brushed over the entire wall with some very diluted brown paint, to kill the blue and warm up the wall a bit. I've done the lower right side...

The green gown keeps fighting me every step along the way.  I sewed the underarm seams yesterday, so was also able to sew on the skirt.  Then I had to try the dress on Bianca, and the skirt was WAY too long.  How did that happen?? I had measured it before I cut and hemmed it a few weeks back. But it was way too long, so I had to cut off an inch and a half, which meant the two days spent hand-hemming it also went out the window.  Now I get to do it all over again....

I had thought about the sleeves a lot before starting on them, whether to make the lower end overlap and close with snaps, or insert eyelets to lace them up, or to just sew the narrow sleeve shut so that the doll's hands would need to be removed to put the gown on and take it off. As much as I find it a bit frustrating (and need an assistant) to remove a doll's hands when putting on or taking off an outfit, sewing such narrow sleeves does look a lot better than having snaps or lacing.  So this gown will also require removing the doll's hands.

When the gown was on the doll, I tried on the hanging sleeves to see how they'd look, and I decided I preferred the gown without them.  So much for two tries, and three evenings spent beading partway around the edge of the first one!   But I like the gown better without them, so maybe they'll work on one of the other two gowns I have planned.

​However, without the hanging sleeves, I need to finish the beading at the top of the 'under-sleeves' since I hadn't bothered to complete the beading pattern because that part of the sleeve would have been hidden under the hanging sleeve. I also need to finish the beading around the wrist.  I had only done the middle part of the sleeve, after hand-stitching on a very narrow lace ruffle, because my sewing machine doesn't like stitching anywhere near beads.... 

I sewed the inner bodice yesterday, tried it on the doll, but the neckline was way too high, so I had to turn it back inside out and make it a lot lower and wider. I wanted to bead the neckline and chose tiny green and gold beads, thinking they'd match the colours of the gown, and got halfway round before deciding that I wasn't sure that I liked it.....

So now I have to decide if I want to remove it all and start all over with tiny gold and pearl beads.  We stopped in at Michaels to see if they had tiny pearls the right size, but they only had gold and black beads in the size I need.  There is a bead store in Toronto that has them in pearl, but it's not that easy to get to, since it requires taking the busiest highway in North America, and that's often nothing more than endless stop-and-go, and seems a rather overwhelming trip just to get a $3 vial of beads. The other option is to sew a row of bigger pearl beads around the bodice opening up against the row of green. Maybe I should try that first to see how that looks. If I decide that I still don't like it, it will be just a bit more to remove.....

And here I thought this would be a quick and easy gown....

But on a positive note, while I had Bianca undressed, I tried on the test bodice for the next two gowns. They will be like the ones I made for the bigger Iplehouse ladies, with an underdress that closes in the back, and an overdress that laces up the front. The test bodice fit perfectly....

The green Medieval gown is coming along nicely, although slower than I would have liked.

Like usual lately, I'm finding that I'm often making the wrong choices and am constantly having to redo things. I had the trims hand sewn onto the upper sleeves, but because the velour was so stretchy, it got stretched too much, so I had to remove all the trim and start all over again.  

I wanted sheer hanging sleeves, but didn't find anything useful in my stash, so we went to Fabricland for their sale on Saturday, and I got two different colours of a fine mesh.  I made up the sleeves, then decided I didn't like the texture after all, so ended up going back to my stash and using some nylon tricot that I'd rejected the first time round.

The velour is an interesting colour. The flat background is the same colour as the green of the bodice, but the 'plushie' part of the velour looks different depending on the light - sometimes dark green, sometimes turquoise blue.

I've designed the pattern for the under bodice, but haven't cut it out yet. So that's my job for today. And it's probably going to take all week to bead the edges of the hanging sleeves. I'm using the finer gold beads this time, so it goes a lot slower.

In the meantime, I finally finished the two new wall hangings, and painted on the heraldry designs.

They are a good match to the one I made 30 years ago for my daughter's Barbie castle.

​I also made a matching table runner for the Medieval table Jan made. It sits on the end of the kitchen table for now, along with the chairs, candle stands, and the wolf.  I couldn't resist taking a photo of him sitting there staring down the dinner as more items get made....

Every day of the year is a special day for something, and today is no exception, and I've taken photos for two of them in the past.  First, one of everyone's favourites....Thomas Crapper Day. Today we celebrate the life and handiwork of 19th century master plumber Sir Thomas Crapper. Although he is often credited for it, he did not actually invent the flush toilet, but did much to improve it. So, today we celebrate indoor plumbing....by remembering what it was like without it..

Today is also Chocolate Cake day....

And that's the end of the Christmas stories for this year. To see the whole Cookie story, in the proper order, go to Iplekids Christmas 2019

In addition to some cookies, the children were interested in purchasing recipe book...

"This is my recipe book. It has recipes for many of the cookies I sell in my shop."

Aaron took a look...

"Is the gingerbread men recipe in there too?"

"Yes, it is..."

"..and lots of other great cookies too..."

"So, you'd like a copy then?"

I painted the three Medieval entrees today, glued them to plates, and added some garnish....

And I was inspired to take a photo of all the cookies in the Bake Shop....

There's a few items from Our Generation accessory sets, but most are made from Polymer clay.
​I wasn't especially concerned about creating the proper 'cookie' textures.

I started a second dress based on the same design as Monica's wine red gown.  This one will be green.  I found that I still had the exact same fabric that I'd used for the bodice, but in green.  And there was also quite a length of the same gold-edged velvet ribbon, but in dark green. The basic bodice is the same so far, but the details of this new gown will be a little different...

And for anyone wondering what's happened to Rex and Bianca after they left in the limo..... nothing yet. They are still stuck in the limo.  I hope they are having a good time as I work to create the venue and food for their destination. It could still be a little while.

I researched what kind of food would be served at Medieval and Tudor feasts - mostly meats and pastries -  and have started to recreate some miniature versions.

​I like to keep the polymer clay as thin as possible, so first built up forms out of wooden disks and aluminum foil. Everything had to be wrapped with florist tape, since polymer clay won't stick to the bare wood. I thought I'd start with the three most elaborate items....

I mixed up some 'pastry-coloured' polymer clay, and spent much of today building up the 'pastry'

These are probably meat pies, and there was likely a bird baked inside the pastry on the top...

...and this one would of had a roast peacock inside....

They've been baked now, and need to be painted, and then I can start forming the bases for the next batch of food items.

Cookie and Olivia wanted to buy a cookie, so went into the shop too...

"I'd like one of those gingerbread men in the front, please."

"Me too, please."

"And what about the rest of you?"

"We were also wondering if you sold any recipe books, so we could try making some ourselves?"

It was a very snowy afternoon when Aaron, Byuri and her friends went to visit the Bake Shop....

"Look at all those yummy things"

"I love all those cookies in the front.."

"Wouldn't it be great if we could make cookies like that?"

"Maybe she has a recipe book..."

So Aaron and Byuri went in to ask....