Thought I'd take a look back, to five years ago today, when I took some photos of my JID Asa as a Winter Fairy out in the snow. It was my very first photo shoot in the snow.

I went back to the original files from 2011, and saw that less than half the photos had ever been processed from RAW - I don't know why, as there were some really gorgeous photos - so I worked through several of them, so I could share photos that have never been seen before....

There's a snowstorm forecast for tomorrow, and if we actually get it, it will most likely be the biggest snowfall we've had all winter so far.  Of course as soon as it's March and everyone is more than ready for spring!  Oh well.  Maybe I can take some photos of dolls in the snow.

With it being another nasty, cold day outside, without any snow, I thought maybe the kids could help me out with some 'spring cleaning'.  Like dusting everything in the china cabinet....

"This pot has some beautiful roses on it..."

But it isn't much fun wiping down all that porcelain.....

..and there's nothing like a bored big sister.....

"Stop it!!"

"Duster fight!!'

"You guys better stop that, before you break something!"

"Oooops! Now you've gone and done it!  You're lucky none of them broke!"

I've wanted to have another Fair Isle sweater for one of the new small dolls for some time, and have finally started one.  This one is red, with gray, white and navy patterns. I'm using very fine needle-punch yarn, and can only knit a few rows per day, so it goes a bit slow.  

The pattern is pretty much the same as the one I used for the purple sweater.  It's really interesting seeing just how different the pattern looks when it's knit in totally different colours.  I messed up the top of the pattern, but because I didn't want to start all over, I just left it as is.  But now I still have to design the pattern for the yoke, but I still have plenty of time for that, since I first need to knit the second sleeve and the entire body of the sweater, before I need the pattern for the yoke.

The other day I received an email from Mastermind announcing their big sale on everything 'Our Generation'. They also introduced three new dolls - two of which were their standard face - but one was a brand new sculpt - a little Asian girl, May Lee. I really liked her!

Well, with a big sale on, I just had to go see if there was anything I 'needed' - like a white horse to turn into a unicorn. So we went to the mall to take a look. Mastermind had a large display of the dolls at the front of their store - and they even had one of the new girl, May Lee!  Just one!  Well, I'd been seriously resisting buying an Our Generation doll to use as a clothing model for my granddaughters, so before Christmas I'd borrowed a doll from my daughter-in-law.  But now there was an Our Generation doll that I'd actually like to own. And she was on sale!  Of course it didn't help that due to our low Canadian dollar, I hadn't bought myself a new doll in almost nine months, and I was in a total state of "new doll withdrawal", craving my next 'fix'.  My resistance was at an all time low. So I bought her.

I did look for a white horse, and they did have one, but not in the breed I wanted. After all, if I'm going to turn a horse into a unicorn, I'm going to need one of the finer breeds, and not a big chunky one. Mastermind also had a whole new stock of accessory sets, and I found one which will be perfect for a certain granddaughter's birthday - so I bought that too. Now I just need to make a 'scientist' outfit to go with it.

Yesterday some of the kids had an idea for making some fun snowmen, so out they went...

It sure was a good thing they made their snowmen yesterday, since the temperature
​shot up overnight, and today it's 12C and not a flake of snow is left out there.

When I do a group photo shoot, I always try remember to take individual portraits of the various dolls. I took lots of Holly and the dragon, but also took some of Lonnie and Milo. Unfortunately, some of the angles were bad, and the dolls looked like they were leaning backwards too far, or Milo had Lonnie's bow in his face. I can't usually see the details when I'm taking photos, so sometimes things like that get past me, and then I don't process the photos.

So there's just a couple with Lonnie and Milo together, but their individual portraits turned out great. I love the snowy trees in the background, and how it seems to highlight Milo's blonde hair

A few more photos of Holly and the dragon, from yesterday's photo shoot...

After discovering the woods up Church Street the other day - the ones with all the hiking trails - I decided to go back with a few of my Fantasy crew. The lighting was much better than the day before, but it proved so much harder taking photos of a group of much smaller dolls.  With Asa the other day, I just stood far back and shot with my tele-photo lens, but with the small dolls the only way to get a decent picture is to either sit or lay right down on the ground. I did bring a rubber mat, but it was ever so slippery, and I ended up soaked from the snow anyways.  So I didn't get exactly the photos I'd wanted - at least not the little story I was hoping for.  

​But here's a few miscellaneous photos I did get...

I'd have liked to have gone back this morning and try fill in the intended story, but today it's clear blue sky with sunshine, and that just won't do. Then the next few days the temperature is going way up with rain, so that will probably be the end of the snow. 

We actually had a bit of snow yesterday, so I wanted to take the opportunity to go out and take some photos of my Asa.  I made a cloak for her way back at the beginning of January, and have been waiting for a nice snowfall ever since. Unfortunately the car was in for repairs, and by the time it was back from the shop, it was already getting late in the afternoon, and we were losing the light, so almost half the photos ended up blurry from too low light. I did get a couple of good ones....

For Valentine's Day, Jan gave me a black resin wolf, and mini carnations. The wolf is nice and big - the perfect size to go with all my MSD and smaller dolls. I didn't want to take his photo with any dolls right now, since I'd first like to paint him to make him look more like a 'real wolf'.

Even though he's a static figure, and can't be posed, just turning him around to different
​angles will help for any kind of story.  Like Red Riding Hood, for example.

I'd like to paint him like a Timber Wolf, and make a Red Riding hood costume for one of
​my little girls. Then when spring eventually comes, I'll be all set to take a little photo story.