Her art classes were over for now, and her Art Show was coming up soon, so Narae was busy framing all her paintings...

Her two new still life paintings still needed frames....

She framed the Tea Time painting, and had just the Wine & Cheese one left....

Looking good

All done!!

Lily and the girls were waiting for Winston and Willie....

Willie waved back at them....

The ladies had a cart ready and waiting. With Willie being so small, she'd have to be running all the time just to keep up, so they had made a comfortable seat in the cart, on top of the luggage...

"This is quite comfortable. Thank you!"

And off they went....

I had some ideas for some photos down by the lake, so we packed up everything and drove down there. But what a shock!!  There were crews cutting down EVERY SINGLE TREE !!!!  The big ones, the small ones, trees hundreds of years old, everything!!!  We had always loved that area.  So much for one of my favourite doll photo locations!! 

​So, after some scouting around, I found a few other places that might work.  

​Then Winston invited Willie to sit on his back so he could fly her around for an aerial tour of the place....

They circled nice and low a few times, so Willie could get used to it....

"Wheee...!!! This is fun!!!"

Then Winston headed up....

...and away they went......

Narae took photos of each child with their two cat drawings....

(Nami's cats by me and Jan)

(Erzulie's cats by Teagan & Jan)

(Byuri's cats both by Rachel)

(Coco's cats by Jan & me)

(Elin's cats both by Natalya, with a cast on her good hand)

(Eric's cats by me and Teagan)

Looking for some inspiration....

Working hard....

First picture finished...

Working on their second cats....

And Nami is finished one too...

"Those are looking great!"

"I'm guessing you really love blue?"

Narae's children's art classes ran for six weeks, but there were so many kids who wanted to come that she had to run two separate classes per week. Both classes did the exact same things, but I only photographed one of each project - so three projects per group.

On the final week, Narae introduced her students to the work of Laurel Burch

"This week I want to introduce everyone to the world of Laurel Burch.
​She's famous for her very colourful paintings of cats."

"I will take you step by step through drawing cats like hers, "

"...and then you can decorate them any way you want,
​with any patterns or colours you like... just like she does."

Paige handed everyone two sheets of paper...

Then Narae did a step-by-step drawing of a cat's head with everyone....

Then she showed everyone how to draw the body of a simple seated cat....

....as everyone followed along...

"Now, everyone take your second sheet of paper, and we will draw a standing cat.
​First we draw the head, just like before..."

Everyone followed along....

"And now we draw the simple body, like this..."

"And now for the fun part.....you may decorate your cats in any way that you like. You may use one of these designs for inspiration, or you can make up your own.  And then colour your cats."

This year Spring has been very slow in coming. It's been bright and sunny every day but temperatures in the daytime hovered barely above freezing. So the spring flowers have been ever so slow in blooming.  Crocus buds first appeared almost a week ago, but they haven't opened - until yesterday.  So Willie went out to investigate...

My Byrui and Aaron needed a Mom for where my story was headed. I have two 'Asian' JID ladies - Soa and Asa, my Queen of the Night. At first I just assumed Soa could be their Mom, but when I took her out of the display case, she just looked way too young.  So that left Asa. She had been Byuri's Mom in a photo story 6 years ago, and would be again. However, her over-the-top Queen of the Night costume was not going to do. She needed to become a 'contemporary' person. Which meant making an entirely new outfit for her.

I had started on a sweater two weeks ago, just planning on going with what I always do, but then decided a nice flouncy dress underneath would give her a 'Boho-chic' kind of look, so went to the scarves aisle at Value Village last week. I found a lovely printed scarf in colours matching the sweater I was knitting, and made two simple sleeveless dresses out of the scarf ends (might as well use both ends while I'm at it.  

But then the sweater looked WAY too bulky. However it's still way too cold to be going sleeveless, so I designed a jacket to go with the dress. I cut out two right away, and struggled with the black fabric.  I don't see details in black.  But I got them done.  

But then she needed a hat.  I crocheted one and felt it was too dark, but I'd already sewn in all the loose ends, so couldn't unravel it. I didn't have enough of the main, dark blue thread to make another, so off we went to Michael's with a coupon in hand. Bought a package of thread that had two skeins of the dark blue I needed. So finished the hat, and I like it better.

I only had three dark brown wigs for Asa to try on, but Effie had claimed one of them. Which left two. She ended up with the brown/black Ginger. 

I find Asa looks very elegant in her 'normal' everyday persona. She has heavier makeup than all my other dolls, but what can one expect from an opera star?? Anyways, Byuri and Aaron are happy to have a Mom.

Yes, I know she really needed some elegant black high-heel boots, but I don't have anything that comes close, so those are just going to have to do.

​Now to finish off the second and third outfits made from that scarf.....

A few more photos from yesterday's photo shoot. First, before Holly arrived...

Then Holly joined them....

Winston was busy pouring tea for Willie...

"May I have some tea too, please?"

I love the concept of the photos, but found the sloping garden a very awkward spot to set up the dolls, so unfortunately there wasn't a lot of changing of poses. They'll just have to have tea again another day.

I had the idea to have Willy having tea with Winston today. I also wanted to try include Holly.  It was a struggle out in the backyard, with sun coming through the fence, and trying to pose everyone on a downward-slanting garden. But I did get some photos I was happy with....

It was interesting in that Holly just seemed so 'static' and 'doll-like' with the other two, so I tried some photos with just Willie and Winston....