The first two days were long and hot - over 34C - and endless farmland. Over 2,100 km of endless cornfields, first through Michigan, then the tip of Indiana, then all of Illinois and Iowa. I was so ready for a change of scenery, so today was cool and rainy! Not exactly what I had in mind!  On the Snowy Ridge Road in southern Wyoming, we were caught in a blizzard in the mountains. Owen and Bonnie dared to venture out in it, but we're frozen and covered in snow in no time. Later, Peach and Bonnie went out to explore Marie Lake high in the mountains.

No photos yet, asI haven't figured out how to do that yet. I did create several blank Blog posts before I left and stuck them in 'Drafts'.  My IPad doesn't have 'drag and drop' features, but I can edit previously dropped text boxes. Like my son says, "There's usually more than one way to get around stuff on a computer. If something won't work one way, try another,"

Everyone whose staying home has gathered at the window to wave goodbye to those lucky enough to be leaving on vacation.    "Have a good time, and see you when you get back!"  

My kids love chestnuts, but it's hard to find any even though we have a huge chestnut tree in the backyard - the squirrels hijack them before they even fall. But Ringo did find one - 'stashed' in a pot of geraniums. The shell was quite dry, and the prickles very sharp.....so he hurt himself.....

But there were two nice shiny chestnuts inside.......
.... and he gave one to Elin to thank her for bandaging his finger.

Today I had the unpleasant task of deflowering all my indoor plants. They are used to being outside and getting water every day, so in order to make the transition to inside easier, it's best to prune off all the flowers - and the buds too. It's not a nice job, but needs to be done.

The girls saw all the cutoff flowers and asked if they could have them. They took them outside to the patio, where Ringo had put all the pumpkins, and made bouquets of all the flowers.....

Byuri liked the pink geraniums and the red rocket fuchsias.....

Nami and Erzulie admiring each other's bouquets.....

Before sending off the Musketeer outfit, I thought I'd take advantage and try some group shots of Tedros and the ladies. Before long, things got a bit heated...Asa was not happy that Tedros had turned his attentions to Carina - who was definitely trying to flaunt her status as 'favourite'.....

..but Tedros remains unmoved...in fact, a bit annoyed, that she feels he owes her anything....

...and Hazy just watches from the sidelines, knowing she doesn't stand a chance with him....

Okay, so I changed two wigs, and made Peach some jeans. Owen now has Narin's dark blonde wig, and Peach is back in her regular pale blonde mohair. I then designed a pattern for some KID-size jeans, and made a pair. It took a lot of fiddling around, with trimming edges, and taking in seams, but I finally had a pair of decent-looking jeans. So, out we all went to take a new group portrait......

So now everyone is all set to go hiking in the mountains. I'd like to take them up on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, near Denver, and I also want to go to the top of Pike's Peak further south near Colorado Springs. Both are over 12,000' elevation, and I'm hoping I'm not too woozy from the lack of oxygen (I start getting altitude sickness at 7,000' already) We've been to Pike's Peak twice before, but could never go to the top, as it was too early in the spring and the road up was still buried beneath mountains of snow.

Now that the warm outfits for the cooler regions are all done, I just need to gather and bag everyone's cooler clothes for the warmer areas. Then collect all the props. I was feeling very frustrated first thing this morning, worrying I'd never get done, since two dolls were just not working, but I pushed ahead and now everyone seems ready to go, and I'm surprised I got it all done so soon, with several days to spare. Yay!

I thought I was done, but there's nothing like taking a photo to point out what isn't working. How things look in real life may not be how the camera sees it at all. Which it proving very true here. Leona, Bonnie and Efreet are fine, even though I know there's going to be a lot of extra post-processing because Bonnie is so light so she gets blown out.  Even this photo needed it, so I'm pretty much guaranteed every photo I take on our trip will need it too. 

The other two dolls are proving extremely challenging. Wigs being a major concern. I tried every wig I own on Peach and Owen, and though none seem perfect, in the end it comes down to which looks best from what I have available. Owen ended up with Maya's wig, and in real life it actually looks pretty good on him.  I like the style on him, but the camera turns the colour into a brilliant orange (my camera has 'orange issues'), and I'm not liking that very much. I momentarily thought about dying it, but it's Maya's wig, so I can't change the colour. Does that mean I have to try make a new wig from scratch?  It's so much work, and the result is always far from a sure thing, and I'm seriously running out of time.

Leona's sweater turned out nice, but I'm not happy with the way the dark brown rows and front placket seem to accent her bust line. Or is that just me being picky?  I borrowed Narin's shirt and Maya's sweater for Owen, then spent all day yesterday sewing him a pair of jeans.

Efreet's sweater turned out very nice, but it took making two new turtleneck T-shirts before I had one that didn't make his skin look green. After looking at Fabricland for light blue jersey, and at Walmart for T-shirts the right colour, I actually ended up cutting the bottom couple of inches off my nightgown, since it was the perfect light blue. Efreet also has his old wig back, so the colour doesn't make him look as 'Asian', and it better matches Leona's.

Peach looked best as a blonde, but I'm thinking I may just have to go with the wavy blonde mohair after all. The straight blonde just seems too 'straight' in the photos. I had thought her 'denim' jumper might work, but from the photos I see she really needs some jeans too. Sigh. And I'm not even sure she works with the others. She seems to have a smaller face, or maybe she just doesn't have the full rounded cheeks everyone else has?  I better try make her some jeans, and switch her wig, and then see what I think. Maybe I have to switch her for one of my other KIDs after all. But the whole point of including her was because I've always had a difficult time bonding with her, and I was hoping this would be the opportunity to really get to like her.

I don't know. Everything seems to be so difficult right now. Nothing seems to be working out how I envisioned it, and I'm wasting so much time having to redo stuff, and I'm seriously running out of time. Maybe it's time to give up on a 'family group' and just go back to what I always bring - replace Owen with Kyle, and replace Peach with one of the other two girls. But then I still have to make several more pairs of jeans. There's still a few days left, so I'll see what I can do so I'm happier with things.

Even though it's been a nice warm weekend, it is the final weekend of Summer. Fall officially starts tomorrow, and Ringo was not happy about it. He missed out on most of the summer, and isn't ready for the cold yet.  So I took him along to the fruit market and let him pick out a pumpkin.....

He had his eyes on the big ones. "It can be any pumpkin you want, as long as you can carry it."

"Okay.....can I have this one then?"

Some people are never happy!  But then I knew he was like that before I adopted him.

I've not taken many doll photos recently. With the risk of frost a few days ago, it was high time to address all the houseplants I still had outside for the summer. It always takes a lot of work to repot them and lug them all back inside. Plus, the garden looks so nice this time of year, it's always disappointing to have to mess it up by removing so many of the plants. Everything is almost back inside where they'll stay until they can finally all go back out at the end of next May.  That's 8 whole months inside. Summer is way too short!  I do love fall, but it goes by even faster.

I spotted Tedros in the back garden trying to woo Carina this afternoon. He had presented 
her with a large bouquet of flowers, but she was trying very hard to resist his charms

When he presented her with a single rose, she finally gave in....

However, she still seemed a bit hesitant....

Maybe she was still a bit resentful that I gave him her wig.

They do make a beautiful couple, even though she's not dressed in the same period as him. But maybe she likes to run around in hundred year old heirloom gowns passed down from her great, great grandmother. Who knows?  I had wanted to take more photos, but I was getting so exasperated trying to pose them. Years ago, before I really got into the smaller dolls, these bigger ones didn't seem to be much of a problem. But then, they pretty much just stood or sat around looking beautiful.  I know I complain about their lack of posing a lot, but after two years of posing the little dolls in all kinds of adventures, I guess I was expecting the big ones to behave the same way. They certainly don't, and if there's trick to it, I haven't discovered it yet. 

I've been frustrated by my knitting today as well. I'm working on a sweater for Leona, and had knit the sleeves from what was left from an old ball after knitting a sweater and hat for Nami last year.  When I got to the main body of the sweater I decided to knit it in the round, which was a whole new experience for me. I had to start with the new ball, but after several hours of knitting, I noticed the colour ways seemed odd. Sure enough the yarn on this new ball was wound in reverse from the first ball.  Sigh. What to do? The patterns on the sleeves weren't going to match the body now. So I unravelled everything I had spent hours knitting and started all over again. I'm still not where I was at this time yesterday.  I better get back to it......

Fairies Tillie and Elin were so preoccupied admiring the flowers in the garden, they inadvertently ended up being caught in a trap. The hostess put them on display in a cage as a conversation piece for her afternoon tea, and went inside to welcome her guests as they arrived at the door.  Cinnamon came along and noticed all the goodies on the table, and sat down to enjoy them.....

She was especially partial to the little cinnamon swirl cookies, and seemed oblivious to her friends.

"What are you doing just sitting there eating those cookies?" said Tillie.

"You want one too?", and she tried to hand a cookie to Tillie....

"No, you silly fairy! We don't want a cookie! Get us out of here! See that key over there...."

"What, this one?"

So she let them out, but before flying off, they thought they'd try some of the treats....

"I wonder what coffee tastes like?"

They flew off just as the ladies entered the garden. Cinnamon had saved the day!