Seemed like most of the other fairies had left, leaving just a couple for a few last photos.....

The nursery had been home to three babies already, and was in need of being 'refreshed'. 

"I'm really liking this wallpaper..."

'I just need to put up a bit more of this trim..."

"and do some final painting. Then I can move the furniture back in, and you can decorate."

I decided to go with more traditional Victorian colours, and stay away from what one would expect in a baby's room nowadays. I also wanted to stay away from any pure or bright colours. When making miniatures it's important to keep the background colours 'in scale'. In other words, a lot darker and duller, like the paint in a real room would look in the shadows.

First thing was to choose a paint and wallpaper. I went to Michael's and chose one of their scrapbooking papers - one I thought looked most 'Victorian'.  It was a grey-purplish-blue leafy vine on a pale, blue-grey background, with shading around the edges. The paper, being 12" square, wouldn't be high enough, so I chose a dull, dark blue, starry sky to go above it. Then I took the papers over to the paint department to find something that would work with it for the lower walls. I ended up with 'Plum Suede', which is a purply taupe. Definitely not something anyone else would have chosen for a baby room, but I figured I knew what I was doing. After all, the 'room' would be set up on my dining room table, and the yellowish light from the chandelier above it would make all the colours work together.

I had decided to customize the fireplace, and add two hinged foam-core walls. The scrapbooking paper had to be cut strategically so the darker shading would end up around the outer edges and in the folded corners. I also shaded around the wainscotting with pastel dust and a brush. I just needed to add the painted trim.....

Some photos from another of last week's fairy photo sessions.  This time with Hazy and just a few of her friends. I also decided to take Miho's green wings and give them to Lily....

As some of you have noticed, my Owen had a new wig in the Thanksgiving photos.  I've never been all that happy with the blonde 'Johnny' wig he's been wearing the last few years, and had been meaning to make him something out of mohair.  But making wigs is nowhere on the list of my top thousand favourite things to do.

But we had been thinking of taking a short fall trip, and I thought I'd take Owen and Leona on a private getaway by themselves.  So that was my motivation to finally make him a new wig.  

The first miserable job is always making the wig cap, but I already had one waiting, so couldn't use that as an excuse. So I went through my drawer of mohair, and chose the one I thought would work best. It was Light Antique Brown, from a goat named Gloria, and wasn't too wavy.

So one morning I just decided to force myself to start, sewing all the mohair fringes, gluing the stitching, and cutting the strips. Even thought the mohair didn't look all that wavy, I still had to cut little bits with the hair going in the proper direction, and glue on really small bits at a time.

​When I was done, Owen looked crazy wild.....

It took a lot of trimming, adding some more mohair, then working in some hair gel for it to start looking closer to how I wanted. It's times like this I wish I had some hairdressing skills!

 The sideburns and part were a major pain, with glue showing, but it was as good as it was going to get, and still much better than his old Johnny wig.

​Anyways, I've learned that once a wig is 'close' to how I want it, it's best to stop and leave it for a while, so I don't go too far and destroy it. Hair can be cut off, but you can't make it longer. I can always trim a bit more later. 

In the end, we decided not to go on a trip after all, but at least Owen has a better hairdo.

Today is Thanksgiving in Canada, a time for families to come together and give thanks.
​And since I finally have a doll-size turkey, there was no excuse to not celebrate this year....

We went for a little drive up north Thursday to have a look at the fall colours....

I brought along Rex and Bianca in case a suitable setting might present itself. It was a bit challenging shooting against the backlit fall foliage, but I think it turned out quite well....

When I shoot a really big scene with lots of dolls, I always take photos of all the small groups and individuals who might otherwise get lost.  So here's a few more.....

A brand new Fairy scene, inspired by the James Christensen painting, and featuring Hazy as a Fairy Queen. I also added Leona and Isar in their fairy costumes,  as well as my three tiny mice...

And a few close ups of some of the fairies....

A friend commented that my Fairy gathering photo reminded them of a painting by James Christensen.....his 'Fairy Court' ....

I thought 'Wow!  I wish I had that kind of setting', and then it occurred to me that he had included all kinds of sizes and shapes of fairies, including some really big ones. That gave me an idea!  I remembered that I still have some big fairy wings I made for fairy costumes for my granddaughters when they were little. One was light pink, and the other was a darker, more magenta pink....

I wondered how it would look to pin one on the back of one or more of my three larger ladies. My Hazy's costume was the best colour match. Asa's and Carina's didn't work with the wing colours.

Hazy is a hybrid, with an Elfdoll Hazy head on a Soom Super Gem body, and although she's a bit slimmer than the Iple ladies, they can all share the same clothes. I even considered changing one of the two Iple ladies into Hazy's gown so I could post photos on the Iplehouse sites, but in the end I decided to go with Hazy anyways.  She's so beautiful, and rarely ever gets out for photos., and the other two recently each had a turn. 

So Hazy was going to be the biggest Fairy in the new scenes. I did a couple of different photo sessions on two separate occasions, with as many as nineteen fairies (including five other new ones). But before posting any of those, I wanted to just introduce Hazy as a fairy on her own...

Eric was especially excited to see what was in the package that had arrived....

"Aunt Donna says she made a blanket ...."

"....specially for the new baby..."

"But it's PINK!!"

"She says she made it pink because she thinks it's going to be a girl."

"But I wanted a boy!  I already have enough sisters!!"

"Well, she says that she's almost always right.  She just 'knows' these things."

"Well, if it is a girl, I'm sure you'll be the best big brother she could ever have!"

"And I won't have to share any of my toys!  So that's a good thing too!"