This week's Iplekids Colour Challenge Colour is BLACK, so it only seemed appropriate to post it today. None of my dolls have anything in solid black, so it took some creativity. Peach's black jumper with the rose print, makes a surprisingly nice formal dress when it's worn by itself. Add some black accessories, and she's all set to perform with the band at her school concert.

This week's been another rough week, so I didn't get much done - at least not what I had planned. A few photos, some new scarves, some tutorials, and that's about it. Hopefully next week will be better!

Last year my delight at finding the Hallmark Fisher Price ornaments turned to disappointment as I learned it was the final year for that series. Well, just by chance I came across some pictures of some new Fisher Price Christmas ornaments online - the "Fisher Price Holiday Classics" - available at Target. And now that we have Target here in Canada, we went to look, and sure enough they had them - and they were even at half price! 

They are not of the same quality as the Hallmark ornaments from previous years, as they are painted resin, but for $8 who is going to complain? The xylophone is the perfect scale for the BIDs, and has a separate stick. The stacking toy and phone are a touch big scale-wise, but no one here is complaining. Anyway, I thought I'd let everyone know, as I really would have loved to have picked up all the Hallmark Fisher Price ornament series had I even known about them.

Today is Thanksgiving in the USA, and I'd like to wish all my American friends a very Happy Holiday! My girls are getting into the spirit by making some traditional Thanksgiving crafts.

Every time there's a few flurries or a bit of snow, what's on every child's mind?  Making a snowman, of course! My girls are no different. There wasn't a lot of snow, but it was reasonably wet, so out they went....to roll big balls of snow....

I better get busy knitting more scarves, and making more mittens, so the others can join them.

Well, we did get a touch more snow last night - one of those beautiful wet snows where it settles on all the branches ..... so I went out early to take some photos before the wind blows it all off the trees and it melts away. Unfortunately there's not a lot of good places in my backyard to take  nice photos where the fence doesn't constantly overpower the background.

I took Miki out for some photos.....she's such a cutie....

The browns and earth tones look amazing with the fresh snow.....

I wanted to try something a bit more dramatic, but she refuses to hold a pose, 
and her arms just fall down. I think she could use some wiring.

I've started knitting some nice stripy scarves for my little girls. Last year I made do with some scarves cut from fleece, but the fringe falls apart too easily. I really enjoyed knitting Bonnie's sweater out of the yarn from Value Village. It turned out so nice and soft, and quite a good scale. And, since I have lots of those spools of yarn in quite a wide range of colours, I thought they'd make nice scarves. It takes several evenings to knit one, but winter lasts forever around here, so they'll all have one well before it's over - maybe even by Christmas.  Nami claimed the first scarf, a nice rust and yellow stripe. The next one will be magenta and lavender.

I finished Miki's bow and her single pointy arrow, so that outfit (and tutorial) is now done. Now it's time to get back to the Summer Goddess costume all in pinks. I need to choose a model so I can design the bodice and sleeve patterns, and get sewing. 

Well, they are predicting a big storm starting later today and going through the night into tomorrow. I sure hope we get it, and that the temperature says down so it all comes as snow. I don't want rain. I want a winter wonderland!  Something beautiful for doll pictures. 

I've decided to share a photo of the upcoming free pattern tutorials. On December 8th BJDCollectasy will release the pinafore pattern, and on December 12th I will put up the dress pattern and tutorial as my contributions for that day's Resin Cafe Christmas Calendar Project.

Today I'm trying to finish Miki's bow. The forecast is calling for a bit of snow overnight, and that would be perfect for some nice mood shots tomorrow morning. So I want to take advantage of it, which means I better get back to the painting.

Ooops! Just checked the forecast, and the snow has moved to Tuesday night now. Oh well, that means not such a big rush, and even if the snow doesn't materialize, the outfit isn't going anywhere just yet, so there will hopefully be another opportunity.

I've put up the tutorial for making a Bow and Quiver full of arrows. The bow isn't finished yet, and neither is the tip on the loose arrow, but the Apoxie is curing and I'll continue tomorrow. In the meantime there's plenty there to keep anyone busy in the meantime.

We had our first real dusting of snow last night, and because we've also broken the record for coldest November 24th, at minus 12 Celsius, the snow is staying even though it's a bright sunny day. Byuri and Nami wanted to go out and explore, so I dug out the bag with last year's mitts and scarves, buttoned up their sweaters, and let them go out. 

They were all excited, thinking they could make a snowman, but when it's this cold the snow won't cooperate. So they went to check out the elephant in the bird bath. There were tiny tracks in the snow from a bird who had come looking for a drink, but all the water was frozen solid.

So now we are all back inside warming up.

I've started Miki's bow this morning, shaping it out of wire, and taking photos of each step along the way. It's ready for the Apoxie Sculpt now. I finished two of my four upcoming tutorials yesterday, and am hoping to get the remaining two done soon as well. 

I'll give you one guess as to what this week's colour is.  That's right, it's blue!  No, of course not, it's YELLOW!  So here's Peach and Elin starring in this week's Iplekids Colour Challenge photo......

Yellow is such a warm sunny colour and it's been anything but that here lately. None of my dolls have anything in plain yellow, and with it being such a light colour, it's so easily overwhelmed with other colours - mainly orange and green. So I gathered every bright yellow prop I have, and ended up with a scene that would be more appropriate for early spring, instead of the freezing cold, dead of winter right before Christmas, that it is right now.


We are supposed to get some snow today, which is always exciting. After all the gardens are bare and empty, I'm ready for a foot of snow, right through to the end of March. I have to see it to believe it though.

I have to finish my tutorials this weekend, and then I can get back into my commissions. I think I'm also going to start knitting some tiny scarves - that would make a nice project for the evenings, while I listen to the TV.