The men and dragons had arrived back home nicely in time to help with the final tree decorating...

Emily was busy finishing the popcorn string...

..before Avery ate all the popcorn...

Gino was up on the ladder dealing with the last lights....

Fodder had finally arrived, and was trying to help as well...

...while Winston and Saphira added ornaments to the very top...

Finally, arriving back in their village, the elves parted ways, each going to their own homes.

The little Elven army had been gone for a while, and were finally approaching home... 

The Holidays were coming up, and they were looking forward to getting home...

Archibald and Winston had joined them for the final leg of their journey home. 

But Fodder, their little munitions expert...

"We know you are tired..."

"...but we are almost home."

"I know everyone is excited to get home, and I'm just holding everyone back. Why don't you all go on ahead without me, and I'll see you later..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes.  Just go on without me..."

"What do you think? Should we?"

Well, Gino didn't need to be convinced. He really wanted to get home to Daisy and the kids....

"Okay. We are almost home, so if you are sure, then we'll go on ahead."

Jude challenged Lawrence to a game of chess...

"Check-mate!"

"Well played!"

The test copy of my newest book arrived, and it's wonderful!  

It's a collection of photos taken over the years that feature some of my sister's and my art dolls along with my BJDs. It's a 71 page, hard cover book, featuring 34 of our old art doll figures, along with over 42 of my BJDs....

​Here's a sneak peak at some of the pages....

In the past I was left with several books, so this time I'm only ordering as many as there are people who are seriously interested. So I'm taking preorders for just three days; from today to Sunday January 8th.  The order will go in on Monday, and the books should arrive some time in the next few weeks.

The price will be $100. US plus shipping. If you want to reserve a copy, send me an email at - martha@marthaboers.com

 Continuing on with my medieval gang at a contemporary fantasy, New Year's Eve party...

With Lawrence and Monica as a contemporary couple at the moment, I thought it would be nice for them to dress up and host a New Year's Eve party....

They invited the two couples who did not attend last time (because they were not here yet)

Grace and Jude...

...and Eden and Yvette...

A few more photos of my House Elves as they helped decorate our tree. 

Avery tried to help...

...but it was already a bit too challenging for Gino and Nolan...

It was going to take a man to haul it up the ladder...

Then after Gino managed to hang it in the tree...

...everyone took a little break to enjoy a candy cane...

...and enjoy a job well done....

Here we are on the very first day of 2023, and I'd like to wish everyone a
​very Happy New Year!

For those who had a challenging 2022, I hope the coming year will be better. For those who had a great 2022, I hope it continues this year.

Of course there's no way to know what lies ahead of us in the future, but it's always good to have some plans.  Last year at this time I had three major projects that I wanted to complete:  the White Cat Sequel, Baron and Naomi's wedding, and the tenth anniversary version of the Quest which was shot way back in 2012.

Well, I got one done, but it took so much time that the other two never made it online yet.  However, all the photography for Baron and Naomi's wedding was shot back in September and October, and I finally finished processing the photos from most of that, so that story should be coming very soon.

I'm really hoping to get away from the really long epic stories this year, and get back to shooting short scenes and stories whenever the inspiration hits. It's really not very satisfying taking photos and then having to hold back on posting any of them for months (or years) at a time.  That being said, I do have several short story ideas waiting to be photographed. But ideas are the easy part. Actually following through on them is another matter. I've had one really major photo shoot idea for years now that I'd like to finally address. But it would require a lot of new costumes, so I'll see if it actually happens.

At this point I am expecting three new dolls some time in 2023. 

​Elf Agnes, by SartoriaJ, in Peach Cream (not gray as in the promo photo) 

Matias(ATH), also by SartoriaJ

...and Otto, the Otter, by DreamHigh Studio...

It will be interesting to see how they fit into my doll families and storylines.

But first thing on my To-Do list is to get my Baron back to his handsome self.  He sustained some damage to his faceup back in September, and I was stuck always having to Photoshop it out. I got tired of doing that and contacted Iplehouse about having him repainted like his promo photo so he'd be like new again.  Well, they did an awful job, which looks nothing like his promo photo.  Its' so bad I don't even want to show a photo. It's too embarrassing. When I complained, they said that all their former artists who did all their promotional photos no longer work there, and now they only have some freelance artists, so their work will look "slightly different".  I could pay to send him back again, and they'd redo him.  But if they think what they already did is just "slightly different", there's not much chance they'll do anything better. So why throw good money after bad? I just wish I'd never sent him, because I can't use him in any photos for the foreseeable future, and photoshopping out the damage wasn't really all that big a deal. It's all very disheartening, since Iplehouse used to be such a great company, and they have some of the nicest, realistic dolls out there. But now their quality control and customer service is non-existent.

Thankfully all his wedding and honeymoon photos were already taken well before this fiasco.

Well, with all the family visiting and birthday celebrations this weekend, I haven't even had a chance to photograph my doll's New Year's Eve party yet. They've been standing around in their formal wear just waiting for me to get my act together. So stay tuned!

Happy New Year!
...and so it begins...