Some final photos of my newest costumes - the blue "Sam and Jennet" variations made for two sets of dolls - my own Narin and Lonnie for their trip to Newfoundland this summer, and the second set for a customer's Kaye Wiggs MSD dolls to go with her "Sam & Jennet" KW Tobis.

They still need their studio shots and then their Gallery pages, and then they'll be done. Progress on these outfits has become a bit drawn out because of the kitchen renovations. Even with all the cupboards taped up, and a huge industrial fan pulling all the dusty air outside, everything inside my cupboards is covered with a very fine layer of concrete dust, so every single thing needs to be washed. We've done the floors, windows, walls and ceilings, and the plants have been put back - they were in desperate need of water. I've emptied out the utensils drawer and washed the drawer and everything in it. The main cupboards with the dishes are being emptied into the dishwasher one load at a time, and miscellaneous things getting washed. Then the cupboards need scrubbing and stuff can get put back. I expect it to take another few days for the kitchen alone. I'm certainly getting a good look at everything I own in there, and have started a donations box for things never used that were hidden in the backs of cupboards. After the kitchen, the rest of the house needs a good cleaning too. I'm a "Maximalist" when it comes to decorating, so there's an awful lot of stuff to clean. 

One interesting (annoying) thing about my new plywood floor;  I'm a "penny person", in that my eye is always drawn to lost pennies everywhere - on the pavement, in parking lots, everywhere we go - and my "penny sense" has gone into overdrive with the new sub-floor. The plywood is full of small, round, reddish-brown knots that constantly scream "PENNY!" in my peripheral vision. The floor is going to be like this for three weeks, so I really need to retire that "penny sense", especially considering pennies have been decommissioned in Canada, so I don't really need that skill anymore.

I'm not sure what doll costumes are next. I'm still in negotiations with that one last commission from a year ago. There's also three other requests which should be interesting. There's also a bunch of special days in April that I'd like to take photos for.   But, first the cleaning!

Tillie and Cinnamon out looking for Easter eggs among the crocuses...

..and a few more crocus pictures, just because it's so nice to see flowers outside again...

..and my Iplekids posing for their official Easter portrait with their baskets and bunnies...

Well, I made two leather bags today, and the dust has settled enough that I could take my two girls out for a photo. This time they are without their cloaks and shawls, so you can better see their clothes, especially the embroidery on their bodices. Hope has a lovely turquoise leather bag that matches her bodice perfectly. It even has a "jeweled gold clasp". Lonnie's bag is the standard reddish brown leather, and accents her hair. Next, are the boy's shoulder bags.

Well, as expected, my kitchen is a mess this morning, as the old ceramic floor is getting ripped up. It's rather unusual to be hearing industrial fans, grinders, and sledge hammers in the house. Fortunately it's going to be somewhat warmer today, so when the doors are opened to help with airflow & dust control, it won't get too cold in the rest of the house.

The four "peasant/Hobbit" outfits are looking good and are almost done - they just all need their leather bags. Even with the rest of the house sealed off from the kitchen, everything is still getting a fine coating of concrete dust - I can feel it on my hands. I put most of my dolls into the display cases yesterday so they'd stay as clean as possible, but I can't get to my dining room china cabinet to put the rest in, so am draping the remaining group with a tablecloth. Before they went under cover, I took a quick photo. I really like the blue colour scheme. I wanted both girls to have wine red cloaks, but there was only enough for one smaller one.

This week, I also added extensions into Lonnie's wig. It was a bit sparse and thin on one side, so now it's more equally balanced, and it looks good on her. The new Monique wigs arrived yesterday, and I haven't had a chance to try any of them yet, other than the new one for Narin. He now has a darker blonde "boy" style, as opposed to a pale blonde girlie bob.  

My goal for the next two days is to make the four leather bags - one per doll - and work on my Easter pictures. I'm so glad I took them all earlier this week!!

Took the final opportunity to shoot some Easter pictures with my Iplekids, before my house gets turned upside-down tomorrow for ripping up the kitchen floor. There's a lot of cute photos, and I'll put them all into an album. Here's Elin with all the chickies.  

I love these little yellow chickies. They are still exactly the same as when I was a little girl more than 50 years ago. I always loved getting an Easter basket filled with shredded "grass" and chocolate eggs, and one big foil-covered figure - usually a bunny - but one year it was a beautiful mallard duck. Add a few tiny chenille chicks and what could be better?

My little girls went out for an Easter Egg Hunt, but were distracted by the chicks and bunnies. And who could blame them? There's nothing cuter than baby animals.

I decided the girl's outfits "needed something", so have been embroidering tiny flowers on the front of the vests and along the tops of the skirt pockets. It's actually a pleasant job. The only challenge is trying to get the second side of the vest to mirror the first as closely as possible.

It's a bit difficult to focus this week, as my house is starting to turn "upside-down" with pre-construction preparations. The severely cracked ceramic floor in the kitchen is going to be ripped up this weekend, and that means everything in the kitchen has to go someplace else. It's like a stack of dominos - taking something out of the kitchen first means moving something else somewhere else to make room. The stove and fridge have to come out, and go into the dining room, which means the furniture in those spots has to go somewhere else first. And so it goes. Then there's all my plants. It's still too cold for them to go outside - even for a few hours - so they all have to go somewhere else too. I only have so many windows. I will also need to put all my dolls away as well, so they don't get covered with construction dust.

I asked Iplehouse when KID Peach would be available in their Custom System, and they said next month when it opens up again. In the meantime, Iplehouse is shut down today because they are switching everything to a new International website. To celebrate, they will be holding an "extra heads event" - which means selling off extra heads made during their production process, and not sold as part of regular orders yet. I wonder if they'll have any KID heads? A KID head in real skin - one I like? That would certainly be the more economical solution to my Soa problem.

Well, back to finishing the embroidery.....

It's nice and sunny outside, and the temperature is above freezing, so I had a little look around the garden, and look what I found..... my miniature daffodils poking up through the ground.....

Last year at this time they were in full bloom, but we had spring unusually early last year - but at least there's finally some sings of life out there.   And in the front, on the other side of some large snow-piles, I spotted the early crocuses......the very first flowers of 2013!

Today I'm continuing with the four peasant/Hobbit costumes. The blue shirt for the boys was too crisp and neat for my Narin - I made it from an old permanent press shirt - so I'm trying to crinkle it so it looks better in scale. I've embroidered flowers on Lonnie's vest and skirt pockets, and I've wet and crinkled the skirt hoping it will dry all crinkled so the gathers will look more in scale on it as well. Next job is to haul out the "Heavy Darks" box and choose cloak fabrics.

Today is National Waffle Day, so Soa is treating her little friends with waffles for breakfast.

PS. The "waffles" are actually miniature "stroop waffels" (syrup wafers) from the Dutch store. I saw them two weeks ago and thought they were the perfect size for Waffle Day. Jan's been waiting eagerly ever since for me to take the photos so he can eat the cookies - he knows I'm not too happy when he eats my props before I'm done with them.

Today it's back to boy's peasant/Hobbit costumes, and then cloaks and bags for everyone. The worst job is the shirts - it's just like sewing a full-size human shirt, but tiny - with super tiny collar and neckband. Once the collars are done, then it gets a lot easier. I have just four days this week to finish everything, and that's including a few more "special days" photos - and of course, I can't forget Easter, with all those chocolate bunnies and eggs.

Well, today didn't start off very well. The sky looked clear, so Jan suggested we could go down to the lake and try shoot my last few UFO pictures. Well, the sun would be coming from the wrong direction, but I can flip the photos in PhotoShop, so sure, why not?  Well, first my seat-belt was all jammed and I ended up having to sit in the back seat, chauffeured like a celebrity. Then when we got to the lake, there were fuzzy clouds on the horizon, and thousands of geese bobbing in the water. Well, that's no good, because neither of those were there last time. Well, the sky to the north was bright blue (mostly), so how about going out further on the spit and using Frenchmen's Bay for the background?  Okay. We practiced Jan holding the UFO in the right spot, then we tried to light the sparklers. The wind kept blowing out the matches. After about thirty tries, we finally got a match to stay lit, but the sparklers wouldn't catch. After trying that at least a dozen times, one finally caught, but it burned one of the UFO strings, so it went dangling in a totally awful position!  That was enough - we went home!! 

Next job of the day was to redress Isar after her recent stint as a commission model. When I had her dressed, I thought I'd try Soa's head on Isar's body - just to see how she would look, since I still wasn't happy with how she was working out as a KID. As wonderful as Soa looks in close-ups and by herself, in my opinion she just doesn't fit in with Lonnie and the other little girls, and that is what I ultimately wanted her for. So, even though she was given a young-looking faceup, I think she works much better as a JID. With her lovely oval face, I think she'd look wonderful in something Renaissance-inspired, or maybe even Rococo.  How about "Queen of the Night"?

So now I have a head without a body, and a body without a head. It's back to the Iplehouse Custom system and choose my favourite KID and order her on a JID body, and then do the switcheroo when she finally arrives. I like "Peach", but she's brand new and isn't in the Custom system yet - although one can only order from the Custom system the first 15 days of each month anyways, so I'll just have to wait until it reopens, and hope "Peach" gets added soon. Maybe I should ask them when they will add "Peach" as a JID option.   In the meantime, Soa goes back to her KID body until the right combo becomes available in the IH Custom System.