Picked up Isar from Charie Wilson's last night, and she looks amazing! Charie gave her a beautiful, natural-looking faceup, a total body blush, manicure and pedicure. Charie and I had liked size 8 green eyes, which looked very beautiful in the bare doll, but once she was dresed, they just seemed too "beady". So, I switched to a size 10 hazel brown. The only spare outfit I have is Asa's Topaz Fairy, so that's what she got to wear. The bodice is a bit tight since Isar has a larger bust, but it still laces up and will do for now. I took a few quick photos in the backyard this morning before the sun came over the house. 

I find Isar looks so much like my Carina now, in fact, in photos it's hard to tell that 
she's just a JID-size - except for those small JID hands.

Today is another day of tying up loose ends. Aeran's Celtic maiden photos have been taken, and her Gallery page made. She really is such a lovely doll, and stands so well on her own. That being said, I'm still trying to figure out some unobtrusive wire stands to support my dolls on uneven hard ground where regular stands or the "poke in the ground" ones won't work. Most of the dolls could stand on their own , but with up to five in one photo and many places being subject to strong winds, I'm not taking the chance. Last time my poor Ryung was blown face-first into the gravel, and she even had a stand.

Took a group photo of the five dolls that will be coming along on our cross-country road trip. Kyle, Maya and Aeran will be three fantasy adventurers, and Asa and Byuri will be Northwest Coast native characters whom they meet. Quite an interesting group.

I've completed three Gallery pages for the newest outfits, and the KW Picnic page. Today I need to make special boxes with pillows for the five dolls coming along on our trip - and make copies of all their pertinent paperwork so I can prove to Customs that they are all mine and I didn't buy them on our trip - just in case we get searched. 

Yesterday afternoon my Kaye Wiggs girls had their annual tea party. They each brought some special treats - Nelly brought her famous raspberry tart, Layla made her triple-layer chocolate cake -and some brought their dolls. They had their tea party out on the balloon-decked patio among the falling crabapple petals. Even though some of the girls don't look too thrilled - they did all have a great time - they just got fed up with me constantly interrupting and making them pose for photos. In fact I took so many photos, I actually filled an entire memory card. Once I choose the best ones I'll make a Favourite Photos page.

Today will be another photography day. I have to take studio shots of the four last outfits and make webpages for them all. Then make boxes with liners for the five dolls that will be heading off on our big adventure. I do have boxes I use to take dolls around with me locally, but I need some new ones specifically designed to fit each individual doll, so they'll pack into the RV better.

Had a chance to photograph Hope in her new yellow dress. It's made from the last one of my daughter's dresses that I saved. There's still enough fabric left to make a second dress, and at first I though for Nelly since I could probably use the original embroidered collar, but Nelly already has a remade baby dress, and when SK Layla comes she won't have one, and this is the very last of the saved dresses - at least the ones I made myself. I need to decide.

You can't keep little girls away from water, especially when it's full of pretty pink petals.

Happy Mothers Day! 
 I was given a bouquet of beautiful yellow roses, my favourite chocolate mouse cake,
 and another hard-drive and a surge protector thingie.  "I never thought I'd be buying 
my Mom electronics!" said my son. Well, five years ago I wouldn't have believed it either.
 But they say it's good to keep challenging yourself and learn new things as you get older 
- you don't want dust settling on your brain cells from lack of use.

Many of the crabapple trees are glorious clouds of pink blossoms right now, so we went in search of an accessible tree for some blossom photos. Our usual tree down by the lake had already finished blooming, so we found some at a nearby high school - ones with really low branches. 

We couldn't help but notice the entire property was covered with millions of dandelions which had all gone to seed. Ever since the ban on weed-killers a few years back, dandelions have taken over everywhere. Every field, lawn and boulevard was a sea of yellow the last few weeks, and now they are all puffy white seed-heads. Today the seeds were wafting skyward like clouds of little fairies on the wind.  Which means any spots not already covered by dandelions this year, will certainly be covered next year. I do like the carpets of dandelions - just not in my lawns.

I'm working on remaking the last of the saved dresses I made for my daughter many years ago. This one is a lovely drop-waisted dress with double ruffled skirt with floral border prints, which she wore when she was a little older, so there's enough fabric to make two dresses - one for Hope, and one for Nelly. I cut apart the entire dress - which was a bit harder from a sentimental standpoint that the last two. I don't know why. The lace on the collar is way too big to reuse, and the embroidery on the collar is just a bit too big for Hope's collar, although it may work for Nelly.  I'm disappointed as I really had wanted to use the original, but I had this same issue with the yellow chickie dress for Nelly when I really wanted to use the cross-stitched chickies from the original bodice on the doll bodice, but it was just too big. The reality is that little girls are a lot bigger than dolls, and there's nothing to be done about it. So, I'm trying to "shrink & copy", and started by roughly drawing the design onto the collar with coloured pencils the same colours as the flowers and vines - that way the lines won't show through the embroidery.

I finished Asa's Eagle hat this morning. Jan cut the tiny bits of abalone shell for me last night - four for the decorative collar, and two very tiny circles for the eyes. I varnished the inside of the hat with matte varnish in order to protect the seams in the wall-paper, but I decided against varnishing the outside of the hat since the 'matte' still has a bit of shine, and it would be a lot easier for photography without it. I glue-gunned the Eagle parts onto the hat, and a bit of hot glue ended up seeping out underneath to the front. Shine alert!!  A bit of the matte varnish over the glue cut the shine right down so it's almost invisible now.

Now that the native outfits are done, I need to figure out some doll stands for photography. Regular doll stands are too blatantly obvious and hard to hide - plus they blow over in strong winds. I've made "stick-in-the-ground" stands which work very well in soft ground, but what about rocky surfaces?  I'm thinking some kind of adjustable wire support attached to a sturdy wire tri-pod. I have a huge collection of wire coat-hangers, so it's time to experiment.

But first, I want to remake the last of my 'heirloom' baby dresses. The violets are in full bloom, and still nice and short, and the crab-apple petals are starting to flutter down, so it's time for the annual Kaye Wiggs Tea Party.  Hope needs a party dress, so I better make her one - fast.

Asa's hat is coming along, albeit quite slowly. All that tiny detail work is very time-consuming. Yesterday I sculpted an Eagle mask for the front of her hat, but with it being so humid, the paperclay took a long time to dry. It dries so much faster in winter when I can put paperclay items on the heat registers and the warm air dries them in no time. 

All the individual attachment pieces need a couple of coats of matte varnish and then they can be glued onto the hat. The Eagle mask will get abalone embellishments - in the eyes and around the backing - I even have authentic bits of abalone shell. I'm really looking forward to being done!