Today is Peach's birthday, but she wanted a 'Princess Party' when the crabapples are in bloom, 
so her party isn't until next week. So, just her two best friends, Lisa and Lonnie, came to 
celebrate the day with her

Nothing says "I love you!" like a bunch of dandelions.....

....although they are prone to wilt rather quickly.....

...but Mothers love them just the same.....

The granddaughters came again this morning, and Rachel, who isn't much into dolls, was all excited about me taking some photos of her stuffed 'Winnie-the-Pooh' flowers.  Well, I can't very well disappoint her, but what to do with a bouquet of stuffed flowers?  My Toad was only too willing to help me out, so we went out to the garden to look for some appropriate-scaled flowers....

It was going to be one hot humid day, so first thing- after taking photos of Rachel's flowers 
- we all piled in the car to take some dandelion pictures over at the high school. I brought 
along my box of 'Picnic' props, so the girls could choose things for their toys to eat....

And of course we needed a group shot of everyone with their doll, ponies, and flowers....

Back at home, Teagan's doll changed into her tutu, and it was time for dance class.....

It was another fun Saturday morning!

It's a lovely spring day, so Holly & Byuri decided to have tea out in the garden....

I found the vintage wicker chair set at the doll show two weeks ago, and made some thin seat covers, some colourful cushions, and a matching table cloth. Perfect for relaxing outside.

I have way too many things on the go right now, that I'm finding it difficult to focus. It also doesn't help that spring is finally here, and now there's all kinds of things needing to be done outside. As far as doll costuming goes, I was waiting to hear back from Iplehouse about their annual Photo Contest. This year they want people to come up with a short story relating to their ongoing 'Carved Heritage' series of dolls.  Well, I don't own any of them - mostly because I'm not into the larger dolls, and they never bothered to introduce a JID male character - which is about the only one I might have been interested in.  But I did have an idea for a side story with my other Iplehouse dolls, so thought I'd better ask first before I go wasting my time. Here's what they said....

We want you to include at least one Carved Heritage doll. 
If Carved Heritage doll isn't included, it will be excluded from the prize. 

Okay, all I can say is they don't seem to have much imagination, and are severely limiting the people who can enter then. So good thing I asked. But of course I posted my question on the first day of their five-day May holiday, and it's obviously taken awhile for them to get back to work and answer.

While I was waiting, I couldn't really start on my next doll costume, so I spent my time starting a tiny crochet afghan using the needle-punch yarn. There's no specific colour pattern, just a 'go with the flow'.

In preparation for some fantasy costumes, I also decided to take apart the chain-mail glove my son gave me three years ago. Up until now I've just used four of the fingers as sleeves on two separate outfits, but the costumes I have in mind now need larger sheets of chain mail. It was surprising after everything was cut (one welded loop at a time) into flat sheets, just how much there was. 

All I was left with was the thumb of the glove, and I wondered if I cut the top cap off the thumb, would it work as a chain-mail collar?  So I tried it on Miles, and yes, it would! Of course the doll's head has to come off in order to put it on, but that's easily enough done.

So now it's back to Peach's birthday cake, crocheting some more Granny squares, planting up my hanging baskets outside, choosing fabrics for the next doll costume - after I decided who I'm going to make something for first.  Lots to do!

With the warmer weather comes all the flowers, and most are very short-lived, so I've been out and about taking photos. My magnolia trees are bursting into bloom. The purple star magnolia with it's delicate double flowers blooms first....

...followed shortly after by the magnificent saucer magnolia. The saucer magnolia didn't have many flowers last year due to all the damage from the Christmas ice storm that winter, so it's especially nice to see the tree blooming like it's usual self again this year....

Almost forgot it was Star Wars Day today......

Two more photos of my girls in the late-day sun....

Neither of these two girls gets out much. They are so big, and dressed in their Medieval costumes they don't fit in many places either. But they really are very beautiful, so I should make more effort to photograph them this spring.

I had redressed my three biggest girls earlier in the week in hopes of taking them for photos in the blue flowers. The interesting thing about scillas is that the leaves keep on growing, while the flowers don't, so the leaves will overtake the flowers and after about ten days after starting to bloom, the flowers become hidden in a sea of tall green leaves. So there's just a short window of opportunity for doll photos, and each time we go I need to bring taller dolls, so they fit scale-wise with the plants - my smallest dolls when the flowers first start to bloom and there's hardly any leaves, then ever taller dolls as the leaves grow taller and taller.  I'd been waiting for a cloudy evening all week, but it was always clear with way too harsh sunlight - until last night.

I brought my Asa (Iplehouse SID)  and Hazy (Elfdoll hybrid on Super Gem body)...

The girls helped set up for more doll and pony photos yesterday morning. First they were mesmerized by the blue scillas blooming in my grass. (We planted a lot of bulbs in one end of our backyard last fall in the hopes of creating our own scilla field eventually). 

Teagan and I had gone out front to pick a bouquet of dandelions off the neighbour's 
front lawns. The yellow bouquet included a daffodil someone had picked from our 
garden and just discarded on the boulevard.....

Then Teagan and Natalya drew tiny hopscotches on the sidewalk.....

...for their doll and ponies....