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It was Smuzhka Raccoon's birthday, and the mice were throwing him a party. Mr. Ropuha and Tiana were the last to arrive...  He introduced Tiana to all his friends....  "So nice to finally meet you!"    "Tiana is my fiancé."  I had brought Byuri, in her native regalia, along on our trip, with the intention that my Fantasy gang would meet up with her at some point. Things being what they were, they never did meet up, but I did take a few pictures of Byuri alone, and with her horse. I had pictured some kind of scene with Byuri leading her horse along the banks of a river. One of the most spectacular rivers anywhere, is the Colorado River as it makes it's way through Utah in the vicinity of Canyonlands and Moab. I was looking for just the right spot, with some river access...but most of the banks were overgrown with a dense, invasive shrub...  Until we arrived at the end of Potash Road where the rafting expeditions set off. There was a nice sandy bank for Byuri to lead her horse across....   The first photos of my new little Chloe, were taken in the new Diner....  
 "Want to share my fries??"   As much as I loved all the food and accessories that came with the Diner, a lot of it needed a little help to make it look more realistic, and work better in photos. Take for example, the basket of fries shown in the last post - it's just one undefined mass of something yellow. So I got out my paints...  Fries - added some brown shading
Spaghetti - added some definition to the pasta, and made the sauce more red and orange Pancakes - added light brown shading to centre of top pancake Banana Split - 'aged' the banana to make it very ripe, changed the red ice-cream to pink, touched up all the chocolate chips which were just partially painted, and painted the stem of the cherry Strawberry Sundae - touched up the edges of the sauce, and added more definition Fish Sticks - added brown shading to give fish sticks more definition Cake - didn't like the dark red icing (like dried blood) so repainted it a lighter raspberry Pie - added light brown to make it look 'baked' Tomato Soup - added orange swirls Brownie - cherry on top wasn't properly painted, so fixed it Cookies - added shading to make them look more realistic On our recent trip into the US, we visited several Target stores to see what kinds of Our Generation stuff they had. I've always loved their Diner, but in Albuquerque all I did was look - and dream. Look at all that food! Then again in Colorado, all I did was look. Then on the way home I decided I really wanted to splurge on it after all, so the search began for an easily accessible Target along I-80. Found one in Indiana, and went in to buy the diner. Wow, was it big and heavy! We were so busy last week catching up, that I wasn't able to unpack the diner until Friday. What a lot of great accessories! All kinds of different diner food and condiments. There's a light around the counter, and the juke box on the bench table even works. So Jan went and brought some dolls over to try it all out.....on the kitchen table, in not the best light, but you get the idea....  My BIDs fit perfectly into the booth seats and on the stools. KID Peach was the first to practice behind the counter. She plans on applying for a part time job as waitress there.   It even comes with money. I had a good chuckle when I looked at the paper money - it's supposed to be American money, but one side is printed in French! LOL  Totally gives away the fact that Our Generation stuff is all made in Canada, where everything
has to be bilingual. Then I noticed the sign on the phone is also in French and English. The new diner will be a lot of fun. Now to find a good place to store it. This week I picked up the two Iplehouse dolls from Charie, that I purchased last spring during Iplehouse's special sale on dolls it was discontinuing. They arrived in June, but with the terrible weather we had all summer, she couldn't paint them until now. They are both beautiful! First is BID Chloe. She is Special Real Skin 
Then there's JID "I" (who desperately needs a better name). She is Glow Real Skin  I want a name that starts with "I", and it's a toss up right now between 'Iris' and 'Isis'  I don't have any spare JID-size clothes, other than the native regalia, so put her in one of
the dark fairy costumes I'm working on. I like it on her, and think she may just keep it. I'm in the process of cutting out the six sets of wings, and am hoping at least one set will be ready in time for some Halloween pictures. But I don't know. The cactus had long nasty spines, and as hard as he tried to avoid them, Winston got one imbedded in his finger....  .....and it really hurt.....  Holly pulled out the spine, and bandaged up his finger, as well as a second spine stuck in his tail...  "There, now it should feel a lot better."  And they continued on their way...  The gang made their way through the beautiful red, weathered rock formations of southern Utah, being careful to avoid all the large, spreading mats of cacti with all their sharp spines....   These photos were taken high on the cliffs at the end of Potash Road, near Moab Utah. The area is now part of Canyonlands National Park, and there's a very rugged gravel and dirt road which winds it's way into the heart of the Park, and ascends out of Schaffer Canyon. It's only for high clearance, four-wheel drive vehicles, which our RV is not. But we ever-so-carefully climbed the initial hill above the rafting put-in point along the Colorado River there, and made our way up to the first plateau.
It was a sunny day, but there were hazy clouds, making for some great soft lighting, and we had to take advantage of it. While we were taking pictures, a jeep came roaring past, sending up clouds of dust, adding to the atmosphere in the top photo. While all the others were busy packing for their adventure, Holly and Winston went to check out the stream behind the castle one last time.....   One of our favourite places to stop on our journeys out west, is the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It's a small public park full of weathered red rock formations, tucked into the eastern slope of the mountains.  We arrived in late afternoon, the sun was low in the west, ready to sink below the mountains, and there was a fierce wind blowing. So we only took out the dolls with the shortest hair - and Winston. I managed a couple of group shots, even though Jan had to keep running after Winston, who kept being blown away....      |
AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
July 2025
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