I really like Lonnie in the Victorian outfit with the hat, so have to post a few more photos. I think she looks wonderful in both wigs, as they each say something different. 

Kassia is proving a bigger challenge. She is looking so sad. I chose her because I needed a light-skin, younger-looking girl to go with Adrian, and because she and Lonnie looked related - like they are sisters. But it's hard to get past the image of Isar in the white "Blanchette" gown because she looked so spectacular in it. It doesn't help that Kassia is wearing the same wig Isar wore too. I think I really need to make her something lighter out of mohair, and maybe she'll cheer up a little when I introduce her to her prince.

One thing for sure, the lighter skin-tone is a lot more challenging to photograph.

Went to pick up Lonnie and Kassia this afternoon. That had to be the fastest doll-painting service ever! I just brought them both to Charie Wednesday evening. Both girls turned out beautifully. I especially love Lonnie, as she's a totally new size - the first KID in my collection. As soon as we got home, I tried on the "Little Mary" dress I made for her the other day. I envision Lonnie with light hair - light brown, red or blonde - but I only have a selection of brown wigs. So, in the next few days I need to make some lighter wigs.  Anyway, here she is in her very first photo....

My Festive Elf Hat and Collar Tutorial went up on BJDCollectasy today. The patterns and Hat instructions are up today, and tomorrow the collar instructions will go up. The hat and collar were designed to fit my BIDs, which have a 6.7" head circumference, not including the wig. The hat will fit other dolls with a 7" head circumference. All the other parts of my elf outfits were already covered in Simple BID Dress Pattern, so you can now make the complete outfit. Or just make a hat and collar and wear them with everyday clothes for that extra special festive touch.

To access the tutorial with complete patterns and instructions, just click on the photo above. 
I also have a link to it on my Tutorials page.

I'm in the middle of freshening up some old cloth dolls I made years ago, to give as gifts - washing all the clothes, pressing them, replacing elastic that's lost it's stretch, making new accessories - and I wondered if the outfits would fit any of my BJDs - at least well enough for a photo or two. So, here's Layla in the plaid Holiday dress with fluffy-edged velvet hat and cape, and nice warm muff I made 25 years ago. The marabou is a bit overpowering, and she would have looked nice outside with some snow-covered trees in the background, but she's still very cute.

Today I took a few photos of Tillie and Cinnamon decorating the tree. 

I have quite a few dolls, and many would like a turn at Holiday photos, so I'll try take some each day, and post the photos in the appropriate albums in Favourite Photos 2012. By the time the Holiday

Today I'm working on finishing a "Little Mary" dress for Lonnie. It's the third, and final, doll dress made from Mary's fifth birthday dress. When I made the first one for Hope, there was enough fabric for a second one exactly the same, but then I thought "what's the point of having two identical ones?" and so I made a tiny dress for my smallest girls, being careful to leave enough border prints for one final dress for Lonnie. This dress has the double skirt like the original.

I brought away Lonnie and Kassia to Charie Wilson's last night. It's so nice to have a doll friend, whose also a skilled faceup artist, living so close by. It's always nice to have a little visit and see everything she's been up to - like her new Dollmore Alexia and Narsha, and Iplehouse Amy, all in their pretty holiday dresses. I always get to see and play with the newest Bo Bergman dolls too, since Charie is one of Bo's main designer/seamstresses. Charie has already sealed Lonnie and Kassia, and hopes to start painting them tonight. Maybe they'll even be ready on the weekend!!  That would be amazing!!  Getting a new doll is great, but then there's always a bit of a let-down because they always come blank, and it's hard to really appreciate a blank doll. I want to see them with a faceup ASAP, but of course that isn't often possible.

It's getting to "crunch time" with Christmas just five days away, and still plenty to be done - like last minute gifts and baking. I don't expect to be able to do much of anything new doll-wise in that time. I had really been in the mood to make a "Queen of the Night" ensemble for my Asa, but I couldn't find the fabric. I looked through the entire blue metallics box three times - and the satins and brocades boxes, but couldn't find it. So, I think I'll just take the time to tie up some loose ends, like make some tights for outfits where I was borrowing them from others, and make a leather bag and sword hilt for Isar, since she was borrowing Narae's. And I bought special bone beads, at a trading post on our fall trip, for a hair-pipe breastplate "necklace" to go with Byuri's "Little Bluebird" Cheyenne ensemble. I was in a hurry in September and borrowed the necklaces from the Pacific Princess ensemble. Each outfit should really have it's own complete set of accessories, should I ever decide to part with them.

There's supposedly a big storm heading this way, and there's a bit of snow in the forecast. I sure hope so, and hope it's not rain AGAIN, otherwise it will be the third, dead, brown Christmas in a row.  Here's hoping for a decent snowfall!!

I'm taking Lonnie and Kassia away to Charie's this evening for faceups and body blushing. It's been nice to have Lonnie here for a few days before she goes away, so I can design some patterns and start some clothes, so they'll be ready for when she comes back. I had always suspected Lonnie would fit the Victorian dress I made for a small porcelain doll many years ago, and it was a pretty good fit. The shoulders were too wide and the sleeves too long, so I picked the yoke trim off and removed the sleeves, shortened them, made the shoulders narrower, and then sewed everything back together. Now it fits perfectly. 

I'm thinking I should make one or two tiny Victorian dresses for the smallest girls, so that next time I make some more Victorian Evening gowns for the Iplehouse JIDs, I can take some interesting "family photos" with the children watching their Mommas getting ready to go out.

I'm also working on a "Little Mary" dress from the last fabric from Mary's yellow birthday dress. Then Lonnie and her little sister can wear matching dresses. I think Lonnie will be either a blonde, or have light brown or reddish hair, but I only have one Tibetan lambskin wig the right colour and size, so that's what she's wearing for her first portrait.

I'm planning on having Kasia wear the elaborate white "Blanchette" dress, and she will also look best in blonde or light brown hair. I think I better make a few new wigs while the girls are away.

My daughter sent me this photo today....

Mary said she and James went out for lunch at the mall, and stopped at Hallmark to look at the ornaments, and saw my puzzle front and center in the Christmas display. She said they got funny looks as they both took photos of the puzzles in the display and on the shelves, so James told the saleslady those were Mary's cookies, but of course she didn't believe him. So they explained about how I had won the Springbok photo contest and pointed out my name on the box.  Cool!!

Lonnie and Kassia finally arrived today. They are both blank normal skin. I love the new KID body, and since Iplehouse gives everyone the option of choosing any of the JID heads on a KID body, I thought I'd satisfy my own, and so many other people's curiosity, and see how they looked - even though the skin-tones don't match. I marked the background with masking tape so I could crop in and make each image of each doll the exact same size in order to better compare.

What a group!!!  Kassia and Asa's heads look way too big. Both those sculpts are the 7.2" diameter heads. Isar's head is smaller - 6.7" like Lonnie - but her sculpt is way too mature for the KID body. However the size looks okay. Just for fun I tried a Narae head too, and it's probably the best of all of them.  So, now all of them again, but with the same wig on....

Well, with wigs on they do look a bit better. Kassia's head is still too big looking. Isar's head size is okay, so the other 6.7" Iplehouse sculpts would probably work, although the neck does look too long. Personally I think Narae works best of all of them.

I was also very interested to see how a BID head would look, but it turns out it's impossible to put a BID head on a KID body. The two dolls have oppositely engineered neck joints. Whereas the KID, and all larger dolls, have a rounded dome-shaped neck, and a concave hollow in the base of the head, BIDs are the opposite with a ball protruding from the bottom of the head, which fits onto the concave neck.

Now I have to design some KID patterns so I can make Lonnie something to wear while she goes away to be painted.

Managed to take a few more individual portraits of the little girls with the creche figures. My favourites are the small pearly angels playing the musical instruments, which I bought when I was young. It's so nice to recapture some of those old sentimental feelings thru doll photos.

Yesterday afternoon a mail truck pulled up, and I thought for a moment my girls were here, but no, it was a package of sample eyes from Pabol in China. I asked the mail lady if there was going to be Saturday delivery, and she said "No, but they are delivering on Sunday". So maybe tomorrow morning. Here's hoping.

There were some really nice eyes in the sample package, and what was extra nice, was that they sent "pairs" as opposed to just single eyes. I especially like the two small 10 mm blue ones - esp the oval glass pair. Pabol makes eye sizes from 4 mm and up, and I really could use some more in the 10 and 12 mm size, since that's what all my MSDs and smaller dolls need.