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the Little Pastry Chef

6/19/2015

Tomorrow is Tillie's 'birthday' and Cinnamon asked if she could make a cake. I said to go
ahead, and she's been very busy all day. When i asked if she needed any help, she politely
refused, saying she knew what she was doing, and had everything under control....

I think Cinnamon did an amazing job! Who knew she was so talented?
I think Tillie will be very pleased.

After she was done, she said she changed her mind, and could use some help after all. I sent her to get cleaned up, but she hasn't come back - I think she went out to play.

I guess I better go clean up the huge mess, so I can make dinner.

Fairy Laundry

6/18/2015

Yesterday was such a nice day, perfect for doing the laundry...

Looking Back

6/17/2015

I was going through some old photos of my JID Asa as a fairy, and discovered that I'd only processed and posted very few of the photos I took of her as a blue fairy in Kilarney Provincial Park back in 2011. So I processed a couple. Asa was only my fourth BJD, and she was my very first doll from Iplehouse. She arrived back in December 2010, the only one of my IH dolls to be ordered with a factory face up, because that was before I knew Charie Wilson did face ups, and lived so close.

Redoing the Old Living Room

6/15/2015

My office/doll room is next on the seemingly never-ending series of main floor renovations. It used to be our fancy living room, but was never used, so when I was told to avoid stairs as much as possible, we swapped out the sofa and replaced it with a desk for my computer, so I'd have an 'office' on the main floor. Jan built the display cases on either side of the fireplace many years ago, and they were filled with my art dolls - until my BJDs started moving in as well. Here's how the room looked at Christmas a few years back. It still looked pretty much the same, except for the addition of several BJDs....and without the decorations of course....

The room is getting repainted, with new crown moulding being added, and the doll cases are getting rewired. Back when the cases were built, the only viable lighting option was to have fluorescent lighting at the top and bottom, which in addition to giving my dolls a distinctively creepy look, is also not good for resin dolls. The old lighting will get replaced with strips of LED lights mounted on the backs of the vertical wood frames, which will make for much softer, evenly distributed, and complimentary lighting. And then my BJD collection will move in.

My doll collection is currently residing in the dining room. The BJDs and some of my favourite art dolls are all packed tightly into the china cabinet, and all the rest are standing on my extended dining room table.

With all this going on, and my house upside-down, it will be a miracle if I get any doll work done. It's very hard to concentrate on anything right now. I have cakes to make, two doll outfits to sew, four bow and arrow sets to make, several doll photos to take, and some patterns to turn into Tutorials. We'll see if any of it actually gets done.

the Old Singer

6/14/2015

Ever since I shared that 'Sprinkle of Fairy Dust'' picture of the fairies with the sewing machine on Facebook last week, I've wanted to try take a picture like that with my dolls. So I hauled out my antique Singer sewing machine and set up.

My old Singer is not a 'treadle' machine, but a very old 'crank' version that you have to turn the handle with your right hand as you steer your fabric with the left hand. It's what I used to sew my Barbie clothes on when I was a kid. Today my fairies are using it....

That 'antique' looking portrait in the background is our family portrait taken at the CNE at one of those dress-up photo booths, the year before we had Mikey (30 years ago).

I really toned down the 'contrast' and the colour in order to recreate a 'vintage' look.....

I took close-ups of all the fairies working at the sewing machine....

I had to laugh at this one. It's funny how a doll with a static expression can
still convey so much emotion. She looks totally exhausted, poor thing.

Anyone else want to turn the crank for awhile?

Rainy Day in the Garden

6/13/2015

Everything is growing so fast, but with all the rain it's difficult to take doll photos
in the backyard. So I thought I'd just go shoot my garden by itself.....

The side walk into the backyard

Goutweed, which does amazingly well in the shade

Clematis

Clematis blooming on the kitchen

Impatiens drenched after another downpour

Water droplets on the giant hosta

And my backyard picnic table 'photo studio' where I take many of my outdoor doll photos in summer. I'm sure many of you will recognize the urns with dragon-wing begonias which appear in the background of many of my doll photos. Of course, later in the summer they will be a lot bigger.

Well, here's hoping the sun comes out and dries things up later today, before all the
rain we are expecting tonight and tomorrow. I have doll photos I want to take!

"Want a Cookie?"

6/12/2015

Thought I'd take some photos to show my little elf outfit better, and now that my small dolls have turned to the 'Fantasy Side', I can have then interact with some of my old fantasy figures....

The little Goblin 'Bomb" was made by my daughter Mary many years ago when she was just a teenager, and she left it here when she moved out. I have a feeling a lot more of my old 'Wee Folk" and 'Goblin" collection will be appearing in photos now.

the Littlest Elf

6/11/2015

Well, another fantasy costume is finished! That makes four so far. Problem is, I'm doing my best to resist taking pictures with Miles (or Milo) until he gets a face up. So I only took photos of the girls. I had been using Bonnie as my model while I was sewing the costume, but Bonnie looked too washed out - the outfit needed someone with red hair, so now Holly is my little elf.

A photo of the two elf sisters, together....

When I initially painted the bottom edges of the dress, the green dried too light, so I redid it with a darker, brighter green. It's a bit bright, but then this elf is just a little girl, so it works.

My three little fantasy girls together.....

Byuri in the Celtic outfit, with Holly as an elf...

I'm at a point now where I need to take a short break. There's another doll birthday coming up, and I have nothing made for it. It's Tillie's birthday coming up, and she has nothing special to wear, and I also thought I'd do a tutorial when I make this next cake. So I need to take a short break from the fantasy costumes. But maybe it would be a good time to fit in some bows and arrows while I'm wiring on the new projects. There's a lot of drying time involved with bows and arrows, so maybe I can 'multi-task'.

Painting an Elf Dress

6/9/2015

I've washed and painted the elf dress, and am hoping it dries the right colours. The dress itself looks dark because it's wet, and the painted edges look light green right now, but will dry darker.

The two small curved pieces are the 'short sleeves' of the dress, but will be sewn into the jacket armholes. It would have been too difficult to make those short little 'sleeves' fit through the jacket sleeve - they'd only end up all bunched up - so I'm sewing them into the jacket, so the long sleeves of the dress will slip right through with no fuss.

Another Tiny Elf

6/9/2015

The second little elf costume is coming along nicely. It doesn't go very fast since there's a lot of hand-sewing involved. I find these days when I can't see that well, it's better to first baste everything before feeding it through the sewing machine. Then I'm at least sure it gets sewn correctly.

The little underdress is a chartreuse crinkle gauze, and I've roughed up the bottom of the skirt, but it still needs washing and staining - yes in that order. First washing to relax the fabric, and then staining to add some extra colour to the ragged skirt bottom.

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