I'm continuing to work on the two Tedros outfits. Right now I'm in the middle of embroidering and beading the two hooded caplets. It will be nice to see these outfits finished at last.

Next week is Hallowe'en, and there will be no Hallowe'en costumes again this year. It always seems to sneak up so quickly - or maybe it's that annual fall trip that makes the time fly from early September to the end of October in the blink of an eye. Well, maybe next year!

I finished the last few photos of Isar, so her trip album is now complete.

 Just click on the photo to go directly to her album.

I was watering my plants this morning, and picked off a spent hibiscus flower - it was covered with aphids! It was a nice warm day - probably one of the last this fall - so outside they all had to go for a pruning and thorough spraying with insecticidal soap. The spray totally wrecks the flowers, so I cut off every one that was blooming, and took a photo of Hope with them all.

Hope just came home yesterday as well. She was away with Asa getting a body blush, manicure and pedicure. Charie gave her some very light freckles on her hands and around her neckline as well - to go with the freckles on the face - but they don't show in this dress.

I picked up my Asa with her newly-blushed SID body yesterday. I almost forgot just how beautiful she is, as she's been gone quite some time, and before that she was just a "floating head". The SID body seems to pose so much better than the slightly larger EID body she was sharing with Carina. I have no spare costumes for her to wear, and no time right now to make her anything, so for now she'll just have to wait in one of the robes I made specially to modestly cover dolls waiting for something special of their own.

I really love the Iplehouse girls with the Asian features. I'm thinking eventually I'd like to make this Asa a "Pocahontas" costume. Not the expected native Indian, but in all her Elizabethan finery when she travelled with her husband John to England, and was presented in high society as the Lady Rebecca Rolfe. I've always loved Elizabethan fashion, and this would be the perfect opportunity to make an Elizabethan character who is not the Queen herself. Another idea is "Queen of the Night". I made an art doll several years ago with the most fabulous dark blue fantasy Rococo gown, that would also look stunning on a BJD.

It's the last day of the first work week back home, and I think I finally have a grip on things. Most trip things have been cleaned up, I've made good progress with my trip doll photos, and I've started working on finishing my two Tedros commissions. I need to design embroidery patterns for the designs on the hood collars, then get to the beading. Fortunately there's no machine sewing yet, other than fixing a Hallowe'en costume or two, as my sewing foot is still extremely sore - not that I actually sew with my foot - it's the foot that drives the sewing machine foot pedal. I'm hoping it's not a repeat of the torn ligaments I had 23 years ago from the badly-designed foot pedal on the machine I was using back then. At that time I had to give up sewing my cloth dolls which were at the height of their popularity, and reluctantly make the switch to experimenting with the much more hand-work intensive polymer clay dolls. After switching the foot pedal on that sewing machine to a better designed one, it still took two years for my foot to heal. However my current machine is pretty much a "computer that sews" and we can't go cutting cords and splicing in a new pedal like 23 years ago. So, the last dozen or so commissions are now on hold as I wait to see how things develop.

I worked through all the photos with Byuri and Nami, and they are all in the Favourite Photos album now. There's some really great shots in there, and now I'm wishing I'd taken more.

*Click on photo above to go to "Byuri and Nami go West" album

I'm still very busy with photos, and I still haven't finished unpacking everything. Yesterday was spent on scenery shots, and separating all the doll photos out into a separate folder. Hopefully today I'll get some more doll images done. In the meantime, here's a few more scenic shots.     

Pilot and Index Peaks along the Clark's Fork River at the Northeast entrance to Yellowstone.

Morning reflections of the Tetons in Jenny Lake. We weren't quite early enough, as the wind starts up right after the sun rises and soon the reflections totally disappear in the ripples.

Because it was so warm and hazy everywhere, I often used my polarizer lens to help cut through the haze, and as a result many of the photos seem so much more colourful - the rocks are redder, like they appear in real, and the skies are bluer - maybe too blue.

Jet boat cruising up the Colorado River near Moab.

Sunrise at the picnic pull-off on the way to Cape Royal, North Rim, Grand Canyon.

The Zion-Mt. Carmel Scenic Byway into Zion National Park - an unbelievably scenic road!

Bryce Canyon at sunrise, with the sun's first rays highlighting the fantastical red rock spires.

Red Canyon, with it's unbelievably red rock spires.

Many of the scenes in my photos don't even look real, but they are. The southwest is an amazing place with unimaginable vistas one has to really see to believe.

My sun-kissed Kaye Wiggs Layla elf arrived while I was away, and this morning I finally dressed her for her first photo. She is the same sun-kissed resin with the lovely matte finish as Tillie and Hope, and she has the cutest pointy little ears. I don't know yet which wig she'll eventually adopt, and as an elf she should get some wonderful fantasy outfit, but for now she's a redhead, and she's borrowing Hope's yellow dress. 

Today it's more unpacking and putting things away, and more photos to go through. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be able to get back to some sewing. I did bring along parts of my two Tedros commissions just in case I needed something to do during our trip, but other than unravelling the edge of the second cloak, and starting the embroidery around the edges of one of the hoods, I didn't get much done.

I'm working my way through the dozens of trip photos, and posting them as they are done into one of the two new albums in Favourite Photos 2012 - "Byuri & Nami go West", and "Isar in Canyonlands". I'm loving how the photos turned out, and really want to share them, but I shoot in RAW so it takes a bit of time to process them all, so I thought I'd just make the albums open - even while I'm still adding new photos.  Here's another shot of Isar at dawn at the Grand Canyon.

I also have lots to unpack and put away, and piles of laundry - so much to do!  

I took Isar along in hopes of finding some fantastical settings for single photos, and I wasn't disappointed. Again, it was almost always very bright and sunny, so I tried to take photos either very early in the morning or very late in the day, at dusk and dawn. Her wig is a very soft fiber and kept getting "pouffy" in the wind, so I applied some hair gel to help hold it in place, and give her that "rugged" look. Here are a few favourite shots - I'll post more in an album later.

In the Beartooth Mountains of Wyoming..

Sunrise in the Tetons, with Mount Moran reflected in the oxbow....

Dawn, along the Colorado River Scenic Byway...

Schaffer Canyon overlook, Canyonlands....

Dawn, Park Avenue, Arches National Park...

Sunset, Garden of Eden, Arches National Park....

Dawn, Lake Powell...

Sunrise, at the Grand Canyon...