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World Penguin Day

4/25/2013

Today is "World Penguin Day", and Byuri has come prepared with a pail full of herring.

I took the photo way back in early March when it was still the "dead of winter", knowing there would be no snow in late April on Penguin Day. I took the last herring out of the fridge, and we went down to the lake to look for some suitable icy background. There wasn't much snow left, so we ended up on the Frenchmen's Bay side, where the wind was whipping icy cold off the Bay. After a few pictures, my hands were frozen, so we packed up, and Jan ate the herring. After my hands finally warmed up, I said I wished I had taken a few more shots from another perspective, and Jan asked if I wanted to go back. "We can't. You ate my props!"

The penguin is a gourd - a chinstrap penguin - the very last one from my days as a gourd artist. I found myself wishing I'd kept a whole bunch, especially of the nicer Emperor penguins.

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Finished at Last!

4/24/2013

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Both Celtic outfits are finally finished! Yay!! Those took forever. Just goes to show I can't do endless repeats, no matter how popular the outfit style is. I'm glad I retired that costume, but I really didn't have a choice anyways as the silver thread is no longer available anywhere, and I was just lucky Charie had some in her stash, and saved the day. Here's Nelly in her outfit....

Today I need to finish the hair-pipe breastplate, and photograph the two Celtic costumes. I'm also behind on making several new Gallery pages for the website, and several other pages need a few miscellaneous photos added. Taking the photos is the fast and easy part. Then comes the processing and creating of albums for them. I guess it's good to be busy, and have things to do.

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Pet Day

4/23/2013

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Last Friday was Pet Day, but with all the construction going on, and my house "upside-down" it was hard to even focus on special days photos. So I took some today. Better late than never!

Erzulie is posing with her budgie. My favourite pets have always been birds, so it's no wonder my little girls like them too. When I was young, my Dad had a chicken coop in the backyard. The chickens occupied the lower level, while above them were dozens of colourful budgies, some doves, and a cockatiel. My favourite was the beautiful Chinese Golden pheasant. In later years I've had budgies, and then lovebirds, and even though the birds are all long gone, I still use their feathers in some of my costumes.

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More Travel Photos

4/23/2013

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I've completed another days-worth of photos from last May, and am now finished with the state of Oregon. The next day is May 29th, the day we visited Mount St. Helens in Washington.

Vista House, Overlooking the Columbia River

Mount Saint Helens

Yellow Flags and Snow-Covered Mountain

If you are interested in seeing all the photos I have in my album from
last spring's trip so far, just click on the photo above.

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Beautiful Ryung

4/22/2013

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I'm almost finished the SD-size Celtic Maiden costume, and I'm really liking the navy blue and brown combination. I originally bought the brown tartan with the intention of making a "Braveheart" outfit for Tedros, but decided it would look very nice with the navy blue for this costume too. I just need to add the beads and feathers to her bag, and replace her bright red shiny Mary Janes for some rugged boots, and she'll be all ready for photos.

Today is "Earth Day", and up until today I had every intention of skipping it. But then I started thinking about who had the most respect for the Earth, and I thought "First Nations" people. They lived harmoniously with the environment. So I thought, now that I'm working on jewelry today, beading necklaces and hairbands, I could also finally make the hair-pipe breast-plate for Byuri's "Little Bluebird" Cheyenne regalia. On our fall trip she borrowed the necklaces from her "Little Beaver" Northwest Coast regalia, but each outfit should have it's own accessories, and I bought the hair-pipe beads at a trading post on the way home just for that purpose. Of course, it won't be done in time to take photos for today, plus the bright blue cloudless sky is not conducive to taking photos where I want to anyways, so it will just have to be after the fact.

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Princess and the Frog

4/21/2013

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One more photo from last week's flower shoot. If Elin kisses him, will he turn into a prince?

I'm still working on those belts and wrist-guards. I've never struggled so long to finish an outfit before. I'm so glad these are my very last Celtic Maidens! It's time to move onto other things.

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Celtic Accessories

4/20/2013

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Today I'm working on the leather accessories for the Celtic outfits - setting eyelets, sewing silver bead "studs" onto the belts and wrist-guards. It's something small and easy to work on while kitchen renos are underway. My hands are rough and dry from the dust in the air, and my head is weird from the tile glue fumes. It's way too cold to open the windows to blow the fumes outside - every now and then a mini-blizzard blows by - so let's hope I manage to sew the beads on in a straight row.

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Older Dolls

4/20/2013

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I've decided to thin out my collection of OOAK sculpted dolls. My family of BJDs continues to grow, and I need space to display them, so some of my older dolls need to be "voted off the island". Among those I'm willing to part with are several from the very beginning of my doll-making career - some of the very first dolls I ever sculpted - as well as a few of the last dolls my sister and I made together. Once I've completed the two Celtic costumes I'm currently working on, I will take some time to put the old dolls up for sale. Here's a sneak peak at some of the dolls that will be offered.....

Sapsorrow

Titania

Shipwrecked

Red Riding Hood

Bo Peep

the Marquis

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In the Scillas

4/18/2013

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The rain had stopped and it looked like hazy sunshine fighting with the clouds, so we went to take photos in the field of scillas. Each year the old orchard is getting more and more overgrown with dog-strangling vines, so I'm limited to shooting just in the areas beside the path where it gets mowed later in the year. I love the blue flowers. They have just begun to bloom, but the flower stalks and leaves just keep getting taller and taller as they continue blooming, so for the smaller dolls I need to go there right near the beginning. Here's a few of my favourite shots....

No complicated little stories this year, just lots of pretty portraits.
I'll probably end up posting all of them together in one album.

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Dreaming of the Pacific

4/18/2013

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Still no new doll photos to share. Work on the Celtic outfits is going slower than slow, and with kitchen renovations it's hard to focus. But I did manage to process another day's worth of trip photos from last May. The coast of Oregon is so spectacular - the rocks, the beaches, the giant trees, the crashing waves! The scale is sometimes overwhelming - just look for the tiny people on the beaches to get a true sense of the scale of the scenery.

Stormy Seas

Cape Lookout, Oregon

Giant Driftwood, Cape Meare, Oregon

Sea Stacks, Canon Beach, from Ecola State Park Overlook, Oregon

Walking on the Beach, Ecola State Park, Oregon

Hopefully I'll get somewhere on the Celtic outfits today, and maybe there will be a break in the weather for doll photos too. If not, then I get to post more photos (including the ones above) in my trip album, and hopefully finish that day.

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