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St. Nicholas at Miho's Castle

2/29/2024

After taking photos of St. Nicholas visiting the Royal castle, it was time to change the set to Miho's castle. Which meant switching some of the furniture, all the wall hangings and the table coverings.

There were a lot of dolls, and I do try take a few photos of the entire room with everyone in it, trying to take al least one with everyone clearly in the photo and not blocked by someone else.

Then I move in to take the closer up photos, to draw attention to the various parts of the scene....

I'll keep getting in closer and closer....

Unfortunately, my castle walls aren't that high - just the height of a sheet of foam core - so whenever there's a wider group of dolls, the photos usually end up with the tops of the walls and the edge of the table showing.

Then it's just a matter of cropping in...

Then finally, with the last of the Christmas dinner photos taken, it was finally time to clean up all the Christmas decorations for another year.

Play Time

2/28/2024

Just a collection of photos of the Avery Twins and baby Mika, to show their size comparison.

The baby elves were first released last May, and I ordered one, not really having worked out in my head where it would fit into my doll families. Then in September DHS released the baby elves a second time, but with an assortment of different faceplates. So I ordered a second one with all the faceplates - laughing, straight, grumpy, and sleeping. The first baby arrived last summer, and had already been adopted by Agnes and Matias, and the second one which was due any time, was going to end up with the House Elves, so I wanted to see how it would fit in with the Avery twins.

A Family Dinner

2/27/2024

With all three babies there, the entire family was complete.

Baron was thinking about how much his life had changed during the past year.

He had a beautiful wife who he loved very much.

...and two beautiful babies.

He had discovered that his father was still alive, and that he had a brother...

..and he was an uncle to two sweet little girls....

He felt very blessed.

More Babies

2/26/2024

A few minutes later the maid came back again.

"I'm sorry, but the twins are awake now too."

"...and the cook and I are too busy with dessert to really keep an eye on them. I was hoping they'd be happier here."

Naomi smiled at her children, "Well, I suppose Christmas is far too exciting to sleep the day away."

Miho reached out to take Daniel. "You can sit here with me,"

And Naomi reached for her daughter.

And then the entire family was together at the table...

And Naomi couldn't help but think just how blessed she was.

Awake

2/25/2024

Everyone was enjoying dinner, and then the maid came in...

"I'm sorry to interrupt, my Lady."

"The baby is awake, and many of the servants have gone home to be with their families today, so we are a little short staffed."

"So I was hoping that she could join you."

Dominic reached out for his granddaughter, "By all means. I'll take her."

"She can sit with me...."

"...right here at the head of the table, where she can have a clear view of everyone."

Sitting Down to Dinner

2/24/2024

It was finally time for dinner. All the babies were asleep, having a late afternoon nap...

...and everyone was looking forward to a nice peaceful time together.

Lisa was considered as part of the family, and was there too...

It was Naomi's third Christmas in this world, and so much had changed during the past year. She was so thankful that Baron had survived his terrible ordeal last winter, and that they now had two beautiful children together.

Baron had been reunited with his father, and discovered that he had a whole family that he never even knew existed.

And it was so nice with everyone being all together like this.

They were all looking forward to a lovely dinner together.

Candy Canes

2/23/2024

Dinner was still a way off but the girls were hungry, so Miho took them to get a treat to help tide them over. There was gingerbread and almond pastry....

....but Olivia went straight for the candy canes.

Miho thought candy canes weren't exactly the best choice, but it was a special day after all...

..and she didn't say anything, even when Olivia reached for a second one.

Dominic's Granddaughters

2/22/2024

Dominic was enjoying having his son's family around.

He had really missed his granddaughters...

They were both growing up so fast.

Baron and Naomi were enjoying their visit as well, and with Lisa helping with the babies, they could sometimes take a moment just for each other.

"I'm hungry, Grandfather..."

"Is it almost dinner time?"

"Not for a while yet."

"But my tummy is all growly right now already."

Miho felt sorry for the child. As Dominic's partner, she was now a Grandmother to his son's two little daughters as well.

"Why don't you come with me, and we can find you something to eat?"

"Yes, go with your Grandmother, and she can get you something."

But Olivia was a little uncertain. She had only met Miho for the first time a few days ago. Her parents had told her that Miho was going to be her new Grandmother, but right now she was just a stranger.

"Go on now. It will also give the two of you a chance to get to know each other better."

A Quiet Afternoon

2/21/2024

Back at Miho's castle, St. Nicholas had left, and Dominic was catching up with his son and his family, while the children played with their new toys...

Miho watched, while contemplating just how much had changed during the past year....

..especially for Dominic.

Naomi took Baron aside, "You have such a lovely family."

Creating a Tiny Stamp Collection

2/20/2024

I loved collecting stamps when I was a kid, and with National Stamp Collecting day coming up on February 13th I decided it was finally time to feature this special day. Which meant having to make a miniature stamp collection.

I started by photographing the cover of one of my old stamp albums...

I had two tiny Micro Binders from Staples, which were different proportions than the stamp album cover, so I had to widen the album cover in Photoshop, and enough extra for the album cover to fold inside the ends of the micro binder cover.

My second, much older stamp album was in rough shape, so I just photographed the cardboard inserts from the cover...

Then I created a properly proportioned cover in Photoshop, with extra on both ends to fold around the ends of the micro binder cover...

I also photographed several of my favourite pages from the stamp albums, and added borders so they'd be the same proportions as the pages in the Micro Binders, and allow room for punching the binder holes...

Then I printed out the covers and pages to scale. I used clear packing tape over the cover printouts to seal and protect them, and give them the proper shiny look. Then it was time to cut out all the album pages and punch holes so they'd fit in the binders. A regular standard hole punch would make holes way too big for the tiny binders, so I used one of my leather hole punches instead.

Half the fun of stamp collecting was saving stamps from envelopes that came in the mail, and then later soaking them off. So I took some photos of stamps still on their envelope corners....

I printed them out at quarter scale and carefully ripped them apart. Did I mention that I LOVE my colour printer?

So I had albums and stamps....

Then I still needed some loose stamps that had already been soaked off their envelopes, and ready to put in the albums. I printed out a couple of the most colourful pages from my stamp album, ones where there were lots of stamps in neat rows. Then I ran the printouts under my sewing machine needle (without any thread) to create the perforations...

...and carefully separated them. They look a bit rough when blown up in a photo like this, but the stamps average just around 1/4" or less so the perforations work quite well.

When I was ready to take photos for Stamp Collecting Day, I set up the interior of Byuri and Aaron's living room in one corner of my castle set which was still on the table...

..and the kids could spend a nice afternoon sorting and adding new stamps to their albums...

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