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Elin's Brush with Disaster

8/21/2013

Monday morning as we started for home, I wanted to take a few last photos of my little girls at the rapids on Chickanishing Creek, after all, little kids love water......

We were getting ready to leave, then suddenly Elin was in the water, being swept away in the rapids! I watched in horror as she pummeled downstream.......and disappeared! Jan jumped into the river and watching the direction of the current, rescued Elin from the bottom.

I checked her over, and she hadn't been damaged in any way - no scratches or dents from the rocks. She even had her wig still on! I guess, being hollow, she rode in the top of the rapids over the rocks, but once out of the fast current, she quickly filled with water and sank to the bottom.
The poor girl looked like a "drowned rat", like she was totally in shock.....

The others quickly came to her aid...

They wrapped her in a thick towel, Nami hugging her closely,
and Byuri offered her the blueberries she'd picked earlier......

I had to take Elin completely apart - at least as far as I dared - and stuffed her with paper towels so she could dry inside. I combed the wig back into shape and put it on Nami so it could dry.

By the time we got home several hours later, Elin was nice and dry, and back together again. There was a package waiting, and in it was a pair of lovely turquoise sandals - which I gave to Elin - and soon her whole brush with disaster was completely forgotten.....

Together at Last

8/20/2013

I also took along Maya and Soa to take some photos for the final scenes of my big adventure from last spring. After Maya had found Little Beaver, the lost native child, they developed a certain connection. He knew there was something very special about the little girl, and after finding her people, and returning her to her mother, he found himself sorely missing her. Ten years later, leading another expedition into the wilderness, Maya encounters an eagle - the same one who led him to find the lost child ten years earlier.....

And for the final shot, I wanted a nice sunset, but we didn't have one this past weekend, so I tried practicing my PhotoShop skills.

Weekend in Kilarney

8/20/2013

We just got back yesterday from four days up in Kilarney, on Georgian Bay, Lake Huron. We love the landscape up there - the red granite rocks of the Canadian shield and the wind-swept pines. My four little girls came along, and for the most part had a great time, but more about that later.

One morning I went out with Jan in the canoe out Chickanishing Creek, and the water was calm and flat like a mirror. It's a real treat when conditions are like that.

I'm not allowed to paddle due to my arthritis, so I'm just "ballast with a camera", sitting in the bottom of the canoe taking photos as we explore in and around the red rocks along the coast.

The girls amusing themselves on the rocks near the lighthouse....

The water was so clear and calm, we could see all the rocks below.....

In the evening back at the campsite, the girls gathered on the rocks to watch the sunset.....

Now it's back to "real life", doing camping clean-up and laundry, unpacking the dolls and
putting their props away, and then finishing off a few new hats I made on the weekend.

Potato Day

8/19/2013

Today is "Potato Day", the day to treasure the potato, do something creative with it, and possibly have some for dinner. Nami prefers hers in the form of French fries - with plenty of catsup....

Byuri enjoys playing with her "Mr. Potato people", so thought today would be perfect for that....

Elin and Erzulie like their potatoes baked and served with butter and sour cream,
but they both also like to play....

Well, I'm just back in the door after being away for four days, so now it's time to help unpack and put everything away, and then upload all the photos from the weekend.

Sand Castle Day

8/16/2013

Tomorrow is "Sand Castle Day", but I'm away for the weekend, so Nami went to the beach
a few days early and made a fabulous sand castle for me. Who knew she was so creative?

Exchange Student

8/15/2013

Been switching around some doll's clothes, and I really like how Maya's shirt and sweater look on Adrian. He looks good in casual modern. Now, if Maya would just look as good in Adrian's outfit.

The Gift

8/15/2013

Managed another photo from my story this morning; Aeran is presented with a gift for the return of the lost little native girl. It's the "Heart of the Sun", the Stone of Power, the very thing her father sent her on a quest to find. (like you didn't see that one coming?)

I'm so glad I waited this long to take all these last photos for the story, because I've had a lot of practice this past year with all the fun Iplekids photos, and it has really helped me to put more feeling into my pictures. I can really see the difference from those very first photo shoots at the beginning of that trip, when most of the poses were stiff and uninteresting travel photos. By the end of the four weeks I was getting a lot better, but the past year has really loosened me up.

Little Beaver all Grown Up

8/14/2013

At the end of my photo story from last spring, I need some photos of Byuri as a teenager or young adult, and I was going to shoot just silhouettes of Asa in the sunset to represent Byuri all grown up, but then it dawned on me that I now have another lovely Asian girl who could be an older version of Byuri's character - my Soa. So I gave her the dark human hair wig and dressed her in parts of the "Little Beaver" regalia for a quick photo. She's perfect for the character!

Soa really is a beautiful doll. I got her in the spring as part of a failed KID experiment, and haven't really done much with her yet. I think she looks so much like my Rosy in this photo.

I was planning on dressing Soa in Asa's leather dress and using parts of Byuri's regalia to customize the new look, but I'm really liking the look of the "Chilkat blanket" and want to see if there's a good way to incorporate it without altering it in any way.

One Final Sweater Set

8/13/2013

Yes, this really is going to be the final sweater set - for now. It's the last of the variegated colourways I like and it's called "Balloons". I didn't choose this colour at first because I thought it might end up too much like Lonnie's sweater set, so went with the green/blue ball. But this is turning out to be a much warmer colour combination, and I really like it. Just goes to show that I should always go with my first impression, and not try second-guess myself.

It's another week of finishing off projects so I'll be able to start some long-awaited new projects soon. I'm working on my last two shirts, but have to redo the buttons on the two I finished last week, because I overlapped the front plackets the wrong way (they're "guy's" shirts right now)

I'm also making an early start on Hallowe'en costumes for my granddaughters. I'm altering and reworking three existing gowns so they'll be fresh and new. Then there's still a few story pictures needing to be taken, then two dolls need to be redressed for the final photos which I hope to take this coming weekend up north. And there's two "special days" coming up this weekend while I'm away and I'd rather have them done beforehand for a change. And of course the "For Sale Dolls" which I still haven't finished and put up. I have so many things going on at the moment, and each thing takes so much time. Better get ba

Too Many Zucchini?

8/12/2013

You know how it goes, you plant some zucchini, just wanting a few for stir-fry and some zucchini bread, but then the plant takes over your whole backyard and produces dozens of gigantic gourds as long and thick as your leg. What to do with them all? Well, last week, August 8th to be exact, was "Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbour's Porch Night". I thought it would be fun to take a photo, but I didn't know what to use as my zucchini, since I don't know anyone growing some. And cucumbers are just too prickly. So I gave up on the idea. But this evening while grocery shopping I spotted some miniature Zucchinis in the veggie aisle, which rekindled the idea, so I bought a few.

Then at home when it got dark I let my girls go out and unload them onto the neighbour's porches. Elin took the flashlight and immediately took charge, letting the other girls pull the wagon and do all the heavy lifting.

I forgot to set the flash for the first photo, so took another. Not sure which I like best.

Looks like tomorrow I'll be baking zucchini bread, or making stir-fry for dinner.
Good thing the zucchini are just tiny doll-sized ones!

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