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Bonnie and Owen

8/31/2013

Jan ordered two new dolls for me from Iplehouse today; BID Bonnie, and JID Owen. I've loved both since they were first released earlier this year. Bonnie is a real cutie, with a touch of a smile, and she will be the normal skin like Nami. She's coming blank.

Owen is IH's most mature-looking JID guy. Their promotional photos don't really do him justice. I've seen owner pictures of him with facial hair and he looks amazing like that. I've decided I really prefer the smaller dolls, and Owen will be the doll who gets all the costumes I'd always wanted to make for Tedros. I'm still keeping the larger dolls purely as costume models, but for myself I think I've already mentally scaled down. He's been ordered in real skin, and blank.

I also ordered a pair of high-heel feet for Asa. The older IH JID girls didn't come with the extra feet. Iplehouse started including them when they switched to the newer girl bodies two summers ago. Asa will be borrowing Soa's high heel feet for now, but she really needs her own. However, since doll orders from IH generally tend to take 8 weeks, I can't wait. Even so, eight weeks isn't really that long. Not like dolls from JPopDolls. My little mice that were supposed to come in July, have now been even further delayed to sometime in September. It's already been well over 5 months, and I certainly wouldn't bet the farm that they actually do arrive in September.

Toasting Marshmallows on the Beach

8/31/2013

Yesterday was "National Toasted Marshmallow Day", so it seemed only appropriate that when the girls went walking down on the beach, they came across some characters sitting around a fire toasting marshmallows. At first they were a little afraid of the fierce-looking griffin, but there was already someone else sitting with him - a dwarf knight - so Erzulie came a bit closer. They invited her to join them, and offered her a stick and a marshmallow.

Seeing that it looked safe, Elin approached, and was also invited to join them.

Finally Nami, who was being unusually timid for a change, came and joined them...

Everyone had a great time toasting marshmallows with their new friends.

Passion Flowers and Mask

8/29/2013

Had to share photos of some gorgeous unusual flowers. When we went to Windsor last weekend, my daughter had these growing all over her backyard fence. They are passion flowers.

My Mom always loved passion flowers, and she had them in red, and the normal purple and white. I've only ever known them as house plants here in Canada where winters are severe. I've never seen them this colour, or growing outside - except once in California. So my daughter dug up several smaller plants and I brought them home and have them potted on my porch for now.

Never did get to bring my dolls away yesterday, which turned out to be a good thing, as I totally forgot Asa will need a mask to go with her Queen of the Night costume. I definitely wouldn't want to make a mask on a freshly repainted head, and ruin the eyelashes and possibly damage the faceup, so it was good I remembered while I still had her here. I covered the head with plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil, and sculpted a mask with Aves Apoxie Sculpt. I find the apoxy very hard to work with - it's like trying to sculpt with old chewed gum.

But the Apoxy dries very strong and light-weight, is easy to carve, and doesn't have to be baked in an oven. And it's amazing to paint. So I just deal with the inconvenience of working with it, and now sculpt in layers. Because I find it so hard to work with, I only applied the base mask and a row of flames across the top. I've already taken the cured mask off of Asa's head, and today I hope to fine-tune the basic mask - even out the eye holes and sand the edges. Then I'll mix some more Apoxy and add more details. I'm taking step-by-step photos as I go.

Soa at the Falls

8/28/2013

I love the photos of Soa at the falls on Chickanishing Creek in Kilarney. They were taken early in the morning before the sun came over the trees. It's the same small falls Elin tumbled into two days later. Anyway, I've put all the photos of Soa and Maya into a Favourite Photos album.

*Just click on the photo above to go directly to the album.

Today it's about continuing to sew those last two shirts, and catch up on photo posting. I'm up to date with my Photo-a-Day album, and I've made good progress on my Family Photos album. All three KID sweater sets still need to be photographed and posted in the Gallery. It's a good day for computer work, since it's so humid out that my windows are fogged up on the outside.

This evening I'm looking to bring away a bunch of dolls, so I need to strip them all down (of their clothes) and find their boxes. Asa and Narae are going to be redone, Maya tightened up, and little Byuri needs a fresh coat of matte sealer since she's become so shiny from constant play.

Maya all Dressed Up

8/27/2013

I'm continuing to make some progress tackling my "To Do" list for the week. I took a few close ups of Maya in his "more mature noble attire". I had only two choices for Maya's new clothes, as I only have two other guys in "historical fantasy" outfits, and Kyle's 'Boromir' outfit would have been way too big - plus he's in the story wearing it. So that left Adrian's outfit, and Maya may be stuck with it now, because Adrian seems to have taken a liking to Maya's clothes.

I think I'm going to make a Favourite Photos album with all the new photos of Maya and Soa taken at Kilarney recently. There's quite a few really nice ones - especially of Soa at the falls - and they can't be added to the albums from last spring, so I'm thinking a new album with just the photos of the two of them. I'll post a link when it's done.

I really like Maya. He's from Doll Leaves, one of the less expensive, smaller companies. He has simple ball joints that used to hold a pose really well, but he's been out and about on a lot of adventures, and needs to be tightened - or restrung with new elastic.

Another Sweater Set for Peach

8/26/2013

Finally finished the top, tights and slip for the last sweater set, as well as a few miscellaneous pieces for some of the other sets. This colour combination is the first one to actually look better in real life than in photos. Now I need to decide whether to keep this one, or the green set.

Peach is finally starting to grow on me. After that rocky start a few months back, it's nice to finally start enjoying her. She really is a very pretty doll.

I'm hoping this week to finally get to the bottom of my "To-Do List" and finish off everything that's been keeping me from moving on and finally starting some new outfits. I can't believe how slow I've become! It would be nice to start September with a clean slate, and finally get to some of the things I've really been wanting to do.

I think it's also finally time to have my Narae and Asa redone. I ruined Narae a year and a half ago, by accidentally getting hairspray on her. Fortunately I had protected her face with a paper towel, so the hair spray reaction is all down the side of her face near her ears and down the sides of her neck. I've been hiding all the damaged areas with her hair in photos, and by shooting from certain angles, but it really is time to get her a new faceup. Problem is, she is so beautiful, and a new faceup will never be the same. Asa is my oldest Iplehouse doll, and the only one who came with a factory faceup. A large piece of her lip paint flaked off quite some time ago, and she really needs some freshening up too.

A New Hat

8/25/2013

Last week while up north, I crocheted a hat to go with one of the KID dresses that's still available. This morning I took some photos which I'll add to the For Sale page..

And, for a certain someone whose tired of everyone always wearing hats, I thought I'd
take some photos of Lonnie and Peach practice their amateur hair-dressing skills...

...and from another angle.....

Reminds me of a bunch of "Tribbles" playing dress-up.

My Daughter's Wedding

8/24/2013

Yesterday my only daughter was married! It was a very small civic ceremony at City Hall in Windsor. It was a beautiful day, and the ceremony was held outside in a small shady garden at an old church beside City Hall. Only a maximum of ten people are allowed at a Civic ceremony, and that includes the wedding couple and the official. So it was just the bride, the groom, his two young sons, and both sets of parents. My daughter never liked being the center of attention or making a big fuss, so this was exactly what she wanted. To her it was all about making their relationship official, with a focus on the marriage and not splurging on just the one wedding day.

Marianne made a beautiful small wedding cake....

The whole family - my daughter, new son-in-law, and two new grandsons...

OOooops! Fairy in Training!

8/22/2013

Today is "National Tooth Fairy Day" and I caught one trying to get Nami's tooth out from under her pillow. I think she must be a new one, in training, because she doesn't seem too professional - she knocked over her basket with silver dollars when she was reaching under the pillow.

Oh well, everyone has to start somewhere, and she'll only get better at it.

The Girls in Kilarney

8/22/2013

Finished putting all the weekend photos into an album. There's not a whole lot, since we were just up there for a few days. Just click on the photo to go to the Kilarney album....

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