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A House Elf Halloween

10/31/2022

4 Comments

 
Every year I try to come up with something new for Halloween, and it often falls to the newest arrivals, or someone whose never celebrated Halloween before. This year it was the House Elves' turn. More specifically Avery and Emily's family.

​Winston and Saphira joined them as they all went out to gather pumpkins...
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The dragons came along because pumpkins are very heavy - way too heavy for an elf to lift...
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...and Winston was the only one strong enough to push the cart...
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When the cart was full of as many pumpkins as it could hold, Avery climbed on top....
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..and they all headed for home...
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...with Emily rolling hers along beside the cart...
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When they got the pumpkins home, it was time to carve them....
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Nolan and Gino did the actual carving...
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..while the kids pulled out all the 'guts'...
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...and Daisy sorted out all the seeds...
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Then after the pumpkins were carved, and everything was cleaned up, Avery and Emily got dressed up to go Trick-or-Treating....
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Copyright © 2022  Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved
4 Comments

Happy Halloween!

10/31/2022

5 Comments

 
Halloween seems to sneak up on me every year.  I buy miniature pumpkins in September with every intention of letting a new set of dolls carve them, and then suddenly it's Halloween day, and I've still not done it.  It didn't help that we were gone all day yesterday.  Anyways, I finally got inspired today, but before I post the photos I just took, we'll have a little look at some of my favourite Halloween photos from years gone by....
Layla and Hope back in 2012...
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Carving Jack-o-lanterns in 2013...
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Helping carve pumpkins in 2014....
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The whole crew dressed up in 2014...
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Darth Vadar pumpkins in 2015...
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2017, with ALL my small dolls dressed up -  the most ever....
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2018 saw Trick-or-Treating in the Rain....
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In 2020 just the small KW girls got to carve pumpkins...
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...and they all carved cats...
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Last year, in 2021, Baron & Naomi dressed up as a vampire and his lady...
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...and Lawrence got to cheat a horde of devils out of their gold...
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Copyright © 2022  Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved
5 Comments

Miho & Dominic

10/29/2022

12 Comments

 
Miho was falling hard for her new friend....
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It had been a very long time since she had felt like this....
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..and Dominic felt the same about her...
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..so they spent as much time together as they could...
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Miho was falling in love....
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...and he with her....
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Copyright © 2022  Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved
12 Comments

the Acorn Harvest

10/29/2022

3 Comments

 
It had been a very good year, and the acorns were more plentiful than they'd been in a long time. The mice and chipmunks needed to collect as many as they could to store up for the winter.
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Daisy had come to help them...
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..and had brought the twins...who weren't exactly very keen on 'working'.
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Emily was keeping Muffy distracted...
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...and Avery was just fooling around...
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Everyone else was very busy...
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There was an abundance of acorns...
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..and it was pretty clear that no one was going to go hungry this winter...
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Copyright © 2022  Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved
3 Comments

A Nightgown for Naomi

10/28/2022

4 Comments

 
Naomi needed a nightgown for her upcoming honeymoon....
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It was so quick and easy to make, that I thought I would share the pattern - with instructions.
Naomi's Nightgown
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'Snow White'

When I took her down to the studio for her Gallery photos, I also took the six House Elves for their photos, and when I had them all on the tray together they looked so much like Snow White and the Dwarves, that I had to take some photos...just for fun...
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Copyright © 2022  Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved
4 Comments

Beautiful Hazy

10/27/2022

4 Comments

 
I had Hazy out in early September as she was one of the fairies in the upcoming Fairy Court scenes. She hadn't been out of the display case for years, and she looked so beautiful, that I thought I'd just take some nice photos of her...
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Hazy is one of my few larger dolls. She has an Elfdoll Hazy head, which was modded to fit on a Soom SuperGem body.
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She was painted by Charie Wilson Grenier.
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Copyright © 2022  Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved
4 Comments

Behind the Scene

10/26/2022

1 Comment

 
Having come to the end of Iris and Steve's fall trip, it's time to share a couple of behind the scene photos.

Since it's hard for me to get down on the ground anymore, most of the scenes were set up on picnic tables or rocks. Like the Pizza Dinner scene....
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I tossed some pine needles on the table to help disguise it a bit, and when the scene was all set up, I could get in close, walking around to take the photos I wanted. 
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When we were at the Big Loonie, there were no picnic tables around, so Jan had the idea to use the RV cutting board, balanced on the top of a garbage can, for me to set the dolls up on...
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Then it was just a matter of using a big depth of field, and getting in close to take the photos.
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One of my favourite photos from the trip was the one with the kids on their cellphones...
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When getting ready to take my dolls out for a photo, I'll pile them carefully in as few boxes as possible, to transport them out to where I want to set them up. I have a small container of eye putty which I use to help the dolls hold things - like their phones. After having taken the photos, and having piled the dolls back into the boxes and returned to the RV, I thought the kids looked very funny still looking at their phones, so had to take one last photo....
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The Fall Trip is now in Favourite Photos, where you can revisit it at any time....

Fall Trip Up North

So, what's next?  I have a LOT going on. I'm still working on processing photos so I can finish posting the final episode of my White Cat sequel.  I'd really like to get that story done.

I'm also working on photographing the final scenes for Baron and Naomi's wedding story.  I've shot many hundreds of photos the past two months, but I have to individually process each and every photo I take, and I'm way behind. It doesn't help that I can take a hundred photos a day - that's the easy part - but processing each one takes a lot of time.  And I'm constantly distracted by new projects.
After two years of Covid cancelations, it was nice to finally be able to go to a doll show again. There were two this fall. At the Toronto Doll Show I picked up an old wooden wash tub (which needs some work) and a pewter tea set.  The tea pot itself is a bit big, but I love the sugar and cream pots....
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Then at the Cambridge show this past weekend, I picked up a vintage style Victorian stroller and an extra long wooden cradle. Again, both need some work....
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I've been trying to finish off two needlework projects I started on our two recent trips. I started a small crocheted granny square afghan on our trip to Quebec City. It's nowhere near done yet.  Then I started a sweater set for my new Mini Layla on our recent trip up north. It's done, but still needs buttons. and a scarf. Both are good projects for the evenings while listening to the TV....
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...and I'm still working on Dominic's outfit. I finally finished his surcoat, after weeks of trying o figure out what to embellish it with. In the end I used the same silk brocade I used for the tops of his sleeves. He's borrowing a spare cloak for now, but I still need to make him a coat.
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So...lots to do....

Copyright © 2022  Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved
1 Comment

Pizza Stop

10/25/2022

2 Comments

 
It was the last day of their trip, and the weather had improved nicely as they made their way home through the brilliant fall foliage in Muskoka....
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It was getting to dinner time, so Steve picked up a pizza....
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..and they stopped at a roadside picnic spot to enjoy it....
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There's nothing like pizza, fries, donuts and watermelon for a quick child-pleasing meal on the run.
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Then it was back on the road for the final stretch towards home....
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Copyright © 2022  Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved
2 Comments

the Big Loonie

10/24/2022

3 Comments

 
 Sudbury may have the Big Nickel, but Echo Bay, along the north shore of Lake Huron, has the world's biggest 'Loonie' - our dollar coin, so named because it features a loon.

With the kids getting increasingly bored with just driving around looking at coloured trees, Steve and Iris stopped in Echo Bay so they could get out and pose for some photos...
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Copyright © 2022  Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved
3 Comments

St. Joseph's Island

10/23/2022

3 Comments

 
With another night of rain, and more in the forecast, we started towards home, but wanted to check out the fall colours on St. Joseph's Island....
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Steve and Iris were really enjoying all the fall foliage....
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The sun even peaked out every now and then...
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But the kids had had enough....
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They weren't all that interested anymore. After having seen the first hundred or so red and orange trees, they all started to look the same to them....
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...and they were bored...
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Copyright © 2022  Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved
3 Comments
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    Author

    Martha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes.
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