A few more photos of Izzy's birthday party this past weekend....
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It was an interesting day weather-wise the day Rex and Bianca arrived at the Fortress Louisbourg. Big storm clouds, with spotty sun, and even the occasional downpour.....and lots of wind...     
  My Kaye Wiggs Izzy arrived three years ago today. I try to throw a birthday party for all my small dolls on the one year anniversary of their arrival, but I guess I didn't think of the bigger children. So I thought it was high time Izzy had a birthday party....       Today, August 25th, is National Parks Day, so Thought I'd share some photos of National Parks in Canada and the USA, which my dolls have been to.... Isar at the Grand Canyon, Arizona....  Kyle, Aeran and Maya at Waterton Lakes, Alberta.....  Isar at the Oxbow, Grand Tetons, Wyoming....  Milo, Lonnie, Holly and Coco, at Mount Edith Cavell, Jasper, Alberta.....  Asa and Byuri at Pacific Rim, Vancouver Island, BC.....  Kyle, Aeran and Maya, at Athabasca Glacier, Banff, Alberta....  Once we were back on Cape Breton Island, I wanted to go visit the historic Fortress of Louisbourg. It's an authentic recreation of part of the French fort that existed there back in 1745. I was really looking forward to taking Rex and Bianca there for photos. So I thought I'd share a bit about the fort itself, before getting into doll photos. The day started out nice and sunny, as we went out along the rugged coast to the town of Louisbourg....  ...to the lighthouse, where we made breakfast....  We could see the Fortress from across the water....  ..but had to go back through town to get to it....   We arrived at the visitor centre to buy tickets, and because of my difficulty walking, it was suggested we could park at the 'handicap/employee' lot right on the premises, instead of having to take the bus and then walk through the main gate. That parking lot is behind the two green, copper-roof buildings on the far left below....  Parking inside the fort would make it so much easier for us, not only for walking distances, but it also meant we'd not have to lug all the dolls, and props with us on the bus, and keep them with us the whole day, but we would be able to take just a few at a time, and return to the RV to rest and have lunch, redress the dolls and gather new props. It was the perfect solution....  So, now a bit about the first itself. Fortress Louisbourg is a partial reconstruction of the French fort as it stood here in 1745, when it was captured by the English. A great deal of research was done to make sure everything was as accurate as possible.....  People dressed in period clothes work in the fort as they would have over 250 years ago...  
They have a summer camp for kids, who get to dress up, and experience life back then....  I was really excited about being able to take photos of Rex and Bianca there....  The two dolls were still dressed as they were back in Burgeo two days earlier for their engagement photos. I wanted to fill in that story here, so started with those - which I've already shared - taking them in the 'King's Garden' right near our vehicle, in front of the Armoury....   Then we went back to the RV so I could change them into their 'arrival' outfits.....
It takes over seven hours to sail the 181 kilometres between Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, and North Sydney Nova Scotia, so it was early evening as we approached port....  "Look, there goes another ferry...."   '..and there comes a cruise ship..."  This week at Value Village I came across this green lace Indian dress, with a gorgeous, heavily embellished bottom. I've been trying hard to resist buying stuff of late, since I already have more than ten lifetimes worth of fabrics stashed away. But this dress was very cheap, and then take another 30% off because it was Senior's Day, so it followed me home....  I like to wash anything I buy second-hand, but wasn't sure how colour-fast the bright pink flowers would be, so I dissolved a bit of laundry detergent in a bowl of warm water and just submerged one of the motifs near the top of the dress into it. Then left it standing there for a couple of hours. Nothing happened, so it was safe to hand-wash. After rinsing, I ran it through the spin cycle in my washing machine just to get most of the excess water out, then hung it up to dry. It needed a lot of clothespins because it was so heavy....  It will make a gorgeous ball gown for one of my bigger girls. It would have been nice if it would work for an MSD, but the band along the bottom is just too wide and heavy.
Now to just find some time to actually make gowns out of some of these Value Village finds! Cookie felt bad for Ringo, and had an idea.....  She went down to the ferry Gift Shop, looking for something to cheer him up...  Then found Ringo sitting near the helicopter pad.....  "I got something for you..."  "I know how much you liked my Labrador flag..."  "...so I thought I'd get you one from Newfoundland too...."  "Then every time you look at it, you can remember all the fun we had!"  "Thanks! That's really nice of you!"  Ringo loved the flag, and went to show it off to Olivia...  It was finally time to leave Newfoundland. The ferry would sail at 11:45, and we had to be there two hours beforehand, so there was just enough time for a quick visit out to Cape Ray.... 
  Then it was time to board the ferry. This time we were sailing on the 'Blue Puttees', which has much better outside passenger decks, so the kids came along....   "Good-bye Newfoundland!"   "I'm really going to miss it...."  *Behind the SceneI don't normally like taking doll photos in public, and had been lucky most of the trip to have been in very isolated places, but a ferry will never be one of them. After taking the photos above, Jan suggested I step back to show the real setting.....  Thankfully everyone just ignored us, although one women who was intrigued, did approach us to ask about the dolls and what we were doing.
I'm working on a whole pile of different stuff, all at the same time. I'm working on four more 'Outlander' style sets (all spoken for) and even though I'm close to finishing the clothes....  ...all the handwork items will still take some time. It takes at least a week (between other stuff) to knit a shawl, and then there's still the arm warmers, the hand-hemmed fichu, and the leather bags. I'm more than halfway with the 'first' shawl. I decided to try and salvage the first shawl I knit on our trip. I didn't realize it was a thinner yarn, so it knit up too small. It seemed a waste to not be able to use it, so I'd been trying to figure out how to make it bigger, and decided to just crochet some extra stripes along the bottom, before outlining everything in black. So, now there's two almost done!  At some point I may tackle the 'Outlander' wedding outfits, so I've been on the search for just the right tartan. The one they use in the TV series is not an authentic 'Fraser' tartan, but something else, which they've modified and copyrighted. I've seen several attempts at Jamie's wedding outfit in doll size, and usually it has a blue tartan, but the one in the series isn't blue. It's brown and gray. It just looks blue under certain lighting conditions. I've even tried dying some...using blue dye to kill the bright orange in the tartan below. It's uneven, but might be usable. But the search goes on.  In the meantime, my little Kaye Wiggs girls are standing around waiting for swimsuits....  They will be going to either the beach, or a pool party soon, so Tillie and Missy tried on the BID and KID ones, but they are too baggy....with way too wide leg holes...  Cinnamon and Talyssa think I should be focussing on making Missy a Fairy costume instead. It's almost the end of August and fall is coming soon, and they still want to have a Flower Fairy party..  And if all that isn't enough, I need to make some bedding for a Victorian cradle.....  So, what am I doing here, wasting my time at the computer!?!?
Better get back to it!! |
AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
January 2026
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