I was playing around with some of my older photos recently, and turning them into black and white - or sepia tones. It gives the photos an entirely different look and feel, and many, especially the ones of my BIDs in their dresses and sweaters, remind me of photos from when I was little. Back then most photographs were just black and white. 

See what I mean....here they look like real little girls back in the late fifties and early sixties.

And this next one reminds me so much of a photo of my baby sister and brother and me, 
sitting in the grass long, long ago, back in Holland, before we immigrated to Canada. 

It's amazing how a photo seems to say something completely different when it's just in black & white. Some look like vintage photos from over a hundred years ago, while others remind me of old postcards, and still others remind me of my own childhood photos.  have a folder full of interesting B&W photos, and have been thinking of creating an album for them.  But I thought I'd start sharing them here first - when there's nothing else new to share.

I've been wanting to take some more photos of my dolls out in the snow, but it's been so ridiculously cold again all week, that there's no way I'm going out there if I don't absolutely have to. On the weekend it's supposed to be a bit milder, and maybe we'll even get a fresh dusting of snow. I hope so. I'm tired of the dirty, rock hard snow and ice - if it isn't going to melt and go away, then  it needs a nice fresh white coating. 

I'm trying to think of warm weather clothes for some of my girls, but it's so cold out that it's not the least bit conducive to even thinking about spring and summer clothes, let along taking my dolls out of their nice warm winter clothes so they can try new stuff on. I'll get cold just looking at them with their bare little arms and legs! Maybe next week will be better.

I promised to make my grandson a crib quilt and a play mat, so that's what I'm currently busy with. I went to the fabric store for some quilt batting, and noticed some wonderful prints for babies. There was a crib quilt panel called "Alphabet Soup", with the cutest little animals, and I just had to buy it. I sewed it together, and this morning I finished the topstitching, so now it's all done......

I figured the animal theme would work really well with the mural my sister painted for 
Elliot's room, as many of the animals on the quilt are also in the painting.....

Today I have to tackle the backing and quilting on the play mat for the floor. I sewed all the squares yesterday, and stitched them together, but now I have to layer it with batting and do the top-stitching. It's going to be a bit more difficult since it's twice as big as the crib quilt, and it's a pain rolling up the layers of pinned fabric and making them fit under the arm of the sewing machine.

While working on the two quilts, I'm trying to figure out what dolls to take on our upcoming trip, and what clothes I need to make for them. Something suitable for sunny, warm weather, and to wear while sight-seeing, and on the beach. Although I heard on the radio this morning that one needs to go as far south as Miami before it actually gets warm.  But "warm" doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. What most people consider "warm" I'd consider downright HOT.  Warm is good enough for me. Today it's -14 C outside here, and it's going to go down all day. It's been the coldest winter in over twenty years, and I'm really ready to see some spring - anywhere - especially some flowers. All my dolls have sundresses and hats already, but it would be nice to make them something new for the trip.

In the meantime, I'm trying to get used to all the changes to my computer. The system was updated on the weekend, and many things aren't quite working properly yet. I hate change, mostly because there's always so many things that show up afterwards, that need further updating, and I'm not the least bit technically-minded, so have to wait for someone else to fix the stuff for me. And they don't have time to help for awhile, so I'm stuck with it all for now.  Every time I walk away and my screen turns itself off, my External Drive and Time Machine shut off too. That's not supposed to happen. I can't get new emails to automatically show up, and the screen colour has changed (even though it's still the same screen) and my photos now show up looking sort of dead and a touch greenish.  And in a totally non-brilliant move, I decided to give an updated version of PhotoShop a try at the same time. Well, my IT son was here and available, so why not take advantage of it? What was I thinking, dealing with all of those things all at once? 

The computer is so much faster now, and the new keyboard doesn't stick, and the new cordless mouse is okay too. And those things are good. I actually like the new RAW picture processing in CS6, BUT there are so many other changes that will probably be deal-breakers. For one thing, the new cropping system is crazy, much harder to use, and actually makes me motion sick!  And I can't open more than one photo at a time anymore. And where's that 'Perspective' button I sometimes need? And then there's all the little things, like where's the SpellCheck for Word, and why does everything now have 'Auto-Correct'?  I hate 'Auto-Correct'!! Let me decide for myself what I want to write!  SpellCheck is necessary to catch the occasional typo, but forget that dumb 'Auto-Correct".

Computers!  Can't live without them these days, but they sure can be a challenge!!!!

Well, better get back to that play mat.......

I finally made Owen a wig on the weekend. I used some really nice golden light brown mohair from a goat named 'Pharaoh'. I really like the colour, but the style still isn't perfect.  I do really like the look when he's wearing a hat, but when he's bare-headed it still needs some work. It may take some time and lots more little trimmings to make the wig just right, but I want to go slowly so as not to ruin it. There is no other mohair this colour in my stash, so I have to be extra careful.

I made him a leather vest yesterday. It will work for both a Musketeer and a Fantasy Hero. His sword was made by a friend many years ago, for a Musketeer figure that was never made. I still need to make a belt and scabbard for it. Without the hat, the vest is a good start for a Fantasy or Adventure character. Stain that pristine white shirt, give him some wrist-guards and a cloak, and he could go off with Kyle on some big adventure.

Now that Owen is finally presentable, I'm going to take a break to make a crib quilt and play mat for my new grandson. I bought some super cute fabric for them last night.

I took a new photo for "Carrot Day", which was earlier this month. Problem was, I had been lazy and unknowingly used the exact same photo I'd already used for 'Rabbit Day' some time earlier last year.  So I needed a new photo.   Elin was only too happy to oblige. "Here bunnies, want a carrot?"

So, with this photo, my 'Year of Special Days' project officially comes to an end. I started around this same time last February, and have filled five whole albums full of fun photos. I'm going to have to come up some other new project now, but in the meantime, there's still possibly a few days that were missed last time, or that I might like to redo. Then there's half of June and July when I was away on vacation. Maybe it's just time to focus on some of my other dolls which have been sorely neglected during the year-long  'Special Days' project.

Right now I'm sort of between jobs, not sure what I want to do next. My shoulders and arms are still trying to recover from knitting that baby shawl, and making my Queen of the Night. I knew they'd come at a price, and they did. My arthritis and fibromyalgia are really bad right now. I need to take it easy for awhile, but I started a leather tunic for Owen this morning, and I need to make some vacation clothes for whomever I decide to take along on our next road trip which is coming up quite soon. I would really like to be finished the last few commissions for people still patiently waiting, but unfortunately it's still going to take awhile longer. Once those are finally done and I hit a bad stretch it won't matter to anyone if things slow to a crawl and stuff doesn't get done. 

Today is National 'Walking the Dog Day', so I found my girls a puppy. Of course they all wanted to take him for a walk.  I don't know how long this enthusiasm is going to last, but for now this is how they all look traipsing together through the neighbourhood.....several times per day......

Now that my Queen of the Night is finished, it's back to the 'real world' and my other dolls. I knit Lisa a scarf this past week, to go with her sweater set, then took a photo of all three of my KID girls outside before the big rain storm the other day.     From the left; Lisa, Peach, and Lonnie.

I love their colourful scarves! They are knit from very fine needle-punch yarn, and are so soft. All three sweater sets are knit from variegated sock yarn from Michaels. 

Today I'm continuing to sort and clean up all the supplies from Asa's costume. While I was at it, I also partially sorted some other bins of leftover miscellaneous stuff. I'm not sure what doll project I'm going to start next, but Owen still needs a wig, and maybe a vest over his shirt. Then I need to tackle another of the last few commissions still patiently waiting.

I'm finished!!  I've wanted to make this costume for so long, it's hard to believe it's finally done! I spent the whole day yesterday taming the mohair pouf-ball and turning it into an elegant hairdo. I took photos of what I did and added them on the Tutorial page. 

By evening I was ready to add the embellishments, but it was too dark to take any more photos, so there are none of that process. First I stitched on the tiara I'd made earlier in the day. Then I proceeded to hot-glue in all the embellishments I'd prepared earlier in the day between working on the wig, while waiting for it to dry between stages. After everything was glued into place, I brushed on glitter paint, then spent hours gluing tiny stars all over her hairdo and costume.

This morning I took her down to the studio for some photos.  First, a close-up of her hairdo....

I decided to make the wig as tight and compact as possible, so as not to make Asa's head look too large. She's not human proportions, so I needed to keep her wig small so she would look elegant, and not "bobble-headed".    Here she is with her cloak and collar....

...and her whole dress....

She's so much more beautiful than my original art doll, but then, I could never sculpt pretty women - just make exquisite costumes for them.  Which is why I love ball-jointed dolls!

So here she finally is....my Queen of the Night....

I stripped down my Asa so I wouldn't get mohair and plant debris all over her beautiful gown. I covered her head with plastic wrap, a layer of Kleenex, and another layer of plastic wrap, then hot-glued the mohair wefting onto the wig cap. She now looks lost in a giant hair-ball.....

As much as it does look like one giant mess, I did glue on the wefting in very strategically-placed rows, and today I get to try turn it all into an elegant hairdo. 

Recently there was an "Umbrella Day", so the girls took an umbrella out to walk in the snow....

But they decided they didn't want any protection from the falling flakes 
- they love the big flakes drifting down on their nose and eyelashes.

I was getting fed up with combing mohair yesterday, and got side-tracked looking at photos of the fabulous ice caves at Apostle Islands off US Lake Superior, so I felt inspired to go for a little drive east along the lake to look at the ice shelves that have formed this winter. I brought along Nami and Byuri. They were surprised to see all the ducks, geese and swans overwintering along the icy shore in any areas where there was still some open water....

It was bitterly cold, with the wind whipping in from across the lake, so the girls went back into the car while Jan and I went for a walk out along the shore to see what that solid formation in the distance was (just right of Nami's hat). 

Turns out the spit that protects the harbour has small trees growing partway out along it, and in addition to creating a massive ice shelf, the waves hitting from the west side have been sending up spray, which totally covered the trees with thick layers of ice...

I found an "ice cave" between two of the trees....backlit by the setting sun....