Blog Archives

Aaron's Birthday

4/13/2018

This paste week, Aaron finally had a party to celebrate his birthday.
He had invited all his friends, and had to include his little sister Byuri too.
When everyone was there, his Mom brought in the cake she'd ordered for him....

"Oh, wow! Look at that cake!!" and Lisa took out her photo to take pictures of it...

Milo got out his photo to take photos as well...

"Wow, what a fantastic cake! Thanks Mom!!"

Aaron posed for a birthday portrait ....

Lisa kept taking pictures too..

"And now a picture with your sister..."

"You got some great pictures!!"

More Baby Birds

4/12/2018

A few more photos from 'the Hatchlings' photo shoot. It was one of those situations where everyone was posed just so, and I took photos from all sides, trying to best capture the scene, without changing everyone's poses. It was difficult to chose my favourites, so here's some more...

the Hatchlings

4/11/2018

Everyone gathered round to see Miss Bluebird's newly hatched babies....

"Your babies are so cute!!"

'They are adorable!! Have you named them yet?""

Tired

4/10/2018

Finally, the show was over and everyone was gone. Narae was exhausted. She pulled up a chair, took one of the last few treats, and poured herself the last of the wine....

"Well, that's it. My first Art Show is over."

"You did really well today! Almost everything sold."

"Yes we did. It was wonderful seeing how much everyone liked my paintings.
And I really appreciate all your help today. I couldn't have done it all by myself."

"No problem! I was happy to help. It was a lot of fun!"

Paige & Angela

4/10/2018

Narae had invited Paige to her Show, but then someone came and interrupted their conversation. So Paige helped herself to a cupcake and looked around to see if there was anyone she knew...

Then Benny walked in, and Paige hoped Angela was with her...

So she went to see if she could find Angela....

Angela was busy talking to Lisa, who was with her Dad....

"Hi!! I was hoping you'd be here!"

"Yeah, I came with my Mom, and she wants to maybe buy a painting.....but she's taking forever."

"Well, there's cupcakes and other treats over there..."

So she took one....while her Mom continued to look at all the paintings....

Then she found a chair to sit on, while her Mom looked, and looked....

And looked some more....

I had to step out for a while, and when I came back they were gone, and there seemed to be a few more paintings missing as well, so maybe she did decide on one after all.

Asa & the Kids

4/9/2018

Byuri was so excited to have her Mom and brother come to Narae's Art Show...

"Look! There's the painting she did of me and my friends!! You have to buy it!!""

"It's wonderful, Byuri, and I'll get it, but I'd like to look around at all the other paintings too..."

Byuri was anxious someone else would buy her painting, and wished her Mom would hurry up.
"I guess that one's okay too..."

Her Mom really liked the painting of Moraine Lake...
"I love this one! Remember when we all went to the Rockies, and how beautiful it was there?"
But Byuri was getting very restless.

"Is there something I could help you with?"

"My Mom wants to buy that painting over there - the one with me and my friends!!"

"The one those other people are looking at..."

Knowing that the painting she wanted was going to come home with her, Byuri could finally relax.
"These look yummy!"

"I'd like this painting of Moraine Lake as well..."

Maya took the paintings and wrapped them...

"This one's mine!!"

"And this one is the mountain scene."

"Your paintings are wonderful, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to purchase two of them.
Byuri has been telling us so much about you. She just loved the art classes."

"Well, Byuri has been a real joy to have in my class."

"I hope you can join us again next time."

Another Train

4/9/2018

I've been very busy, the past four days, working on another toy train for my grandson's upcoming birthday. What has that got to do with dolls, you ask?? Absolutely nothing! Except that it's kept me away from my doll work and posting photos here.

So, just in case someone might want to try creating a customized train set for some favourite child, I'll share how we did it.

Our grandson is nuts about trains, so every Saturday his Dad takes him for rides on either the GO train, the LRT, the subways, and sometimes the UP Express. We created a GO train set for him two Christmases ago....

This time we were asked to make a version of the UP Express, which is the train that goes directly from Union Station in downtown Toronto, to Pearson International Airport. I had no idea what it looked like, so went to the Internet to find some photos...and printed them out....

Then Jan removed the tops off six old Brio wooden train cars. he made new train cars out of wood, shaping them to represent the UP Express cars. However, they had to be a lot shorter that the actual train cars, so they could still go around a curve on the wooden train tracks.

The new train cars and engines were painted solid white, and it took a while before I figured out how to paint them. I hadn't been very happy with the irregular windows on the GO train. I can't do straight lines very well, and I didn't find painter's tape very helpful last time. And forget about painting all those tiny details!! So I needed another way. I thought maybe I could use the computer and print out the details, but I don't know how to do art on the computer. But I can scan, and make things bigger and smaller,, so came up with an idea.

I photographed the train car sides and ends straight on, then enlarged them to make much larger 'templates', to trace onto good quality drawing paper....

I drew on all the window and door details, coloured them in with markers, and cut them out so i could scan them. I only needed the windows and doors, since the train cars would get painted in their distinctive coloured stripes, and have the printed windows and door glued on overtop...

After scanning and cropping around each train face, I added words and numbers in Photoshop, then dragged them all onto IPages, and shrank them to the correct size...

After printing them out, I had to cut out all the wagon faces and glue them on...

I had forgotten to put 'UP' on all the end doors, as well as printing end doors on the engines, so had to go print those out and glue the logos on each door individually....

I was quite impressed with how they turned out. Although I did make one 'blooper'.
I thought it would be fun to have a kid waving in one of the train windows - representing my grandson - but didn't clue in that I'd be duplicating it and gluing it on every end of all four passenger cars, and both engines. So there's a LOT of kids waving now.

Now they need several coats of varnish, to help protect the printouts.
And I can get back to my doll work...

A Birthday Gift

4/7/2018

Steve and Lisa have come to Narae's Art Show, in hopes of finding just the right painting for Isis for her birthday. There's quite the crowd when they arrive, and he sees that his brother and Leona are there too....

Steve and Lisa make their way around the Gallery, then notice a painting over on the other wall.
"I really I like that one over there. Let's go over and take a better look."

Steve and Lisa agree, they both love the painting, and think Isis would as well.

But just to confirm their decision, Steve asks for Leona's opinion. After all she should know her own sister's taste better than anyone.... "Oh yes, that one is gorgeous!!"

"So this is the one you'd like to take? It's definitely one of my favourites."

"Yes, please! Lisa and I were looking for a birthday present for her Mom,
and we both think she would love this painting..."

So Maya took the painting and wrapped it up for them.
"Thanks so much! It's been a pleasure! We love your work, and think you'll do really well!"

"No, Thank You!! Thanks for coming and buying one of my paintings!
I hope Isis has a wonderful birthday!"

And as Steve and Lisa left, Maya started to haul off the empty easel....

"Another empty easel!! Soon there won't be any more space in the back storeroom.
But I guess that's a good thing."

Is Spring Ever Coming??

4/6/2018

The temperature has been hovering around freezing for weeks, and it's snowing out there again today. Spring flowers have started sprouting, but they are struggling. Where's Spring??

"I think I need to have a talk with Mother Nature about this..."

"In the meantime we can build a snowman...."

An Anniversary Gift

4/6/2018

Owen and Leona arrived just as the Art Show opened. Leona wanted to buy a painting for their upcoming anniversary, and Owen had agreed to buy one. They loved all Narae's paintings...