Elin is especially good at it. Will she be able to pick up all the monkeys?
My girls are having a lot of fun playing "Barrel of Monkeys". Not only is it fun, but it's their favourite colour! The game was a gift from Charie, given to Bonnie to take home and enjoy. Elin is especially good at it. Will she be able to pick up all the monkeys? The first Summer Goddess is almost done - I just have to make a flower wreath for her hair. The second is also coming along nicely. I have to make a cloak for the Elfin Archer, and then I can take photos of everything, and finally change my KW girls into their holiday clothes.
We had a bit of snow overnight, so I thought I'd better take advantage of it before it melts. With two JIDs needing costumes, my focus has been turning to my middle-size dolls of late. Kassia came out of the cabinet for a Colour photo yesterday, and Asa is standing there in her underwear, ready for some shoes - and the rest of her costume. With all the attention on my Tiny dolls, the larger ones have been sorely neglected, and I've almost forgotten just how beautiful they are. It's high time to get reacquainted. So I took Soa out for some photos in the snow..... Soa is currently wearing Aeran's Celtic Maiden outfit. I don't have any spare MSD-size outfits, and normally slim MSDs and JIDs can't share clothes, but I specifically made the costume to fit a JID. Since nothing was tight-fitting, with an adjustable belt it would fit all my MSD girls. I love my Soa. Even though she started out as KID, I've had no problems at all adjusting to her becoming a JID - like she should have been all along. I can't say the same for Peach. Poor girl just doesn't seem to fit in. I may just have to replace her.
Took a group shot of my five little Iplehouse girls this morning. From left to right; Erzulie, Nami, Bonnie, Byuri, and Elin. Both Bonnie and Nami are Normal skin, but Bonnie is a lot lighter. Nami seems to have yellowed quite a bit with time, which is fine, as I like her colouring. The difference in normal skin colour might be a bit of an issue, since I have to talk to Iplehouse about getting some replacement upper arm parts. Both Nami and Elin have cracks in the bottom of their upper arms at the elbow joint. The resin is so thin there that the tension can cause cracks. Elin's right arm is quite bad. Sometimes the crack opens right up, and the tab at the elbow looks ready to break off. Elin has just one cracked elbow, but Nami has cracks in both. I know many other BID owners have had the same problem. It is my understanding that Iplehouse is aware of the cracks occurring in their first BIDs and claims to have addressed the problem. Both Nami and Elin were made in August 2011, so maybe they have since then - I don't know. My Byuri, who is from December 2011, and gets just as much play time as Nami - if not more - doesn't have any cracks. Maybe she will, or maybe she won't - only time will tell. I've read that IH will allow us to purchase a replacement part, but only if we can show copies of the Certificates of Authenticity, plus good clear photos of the cracks - which is why I've prepared the photos above.
Anyway, I thought I'd just mention the problem here, so other BID owners will be aware of the potential cracking problem, and that it is possible to get replacement parts. My Nami will just end up with lighter upper arms, so unless the resin can be blushed to match, she'll just look like she has faint "T-shirt Tan" when going sleeveless in the summer. The free patterns and instructions for my new Holiday Pinafore is up today on BJDCollectasy. It was designed to fit a Kaye Wiggs MSD, but will fit other dolls with similar measurements. *To access the Tutorial on BJDCollectasy, just click on the image below. *Please note that this pattern and instructions are only for the pinafore. The free pattern and instructions for the simple dress underneath will be released on December 12th, here on my
own site. Both patterns will then be permanently accessible on my Tutorials page. I also picked up my Kayla - my Sun-Kissed Layla Elf - last night. I was never able to bond with her, so Charie was going to remove her red nose and black lips and redo them. But, as fate would have it, there was an accident with the sealer, and Charie had to totally strip her down and start from scratch. Like, what is it with my Kaye Wiggs dolls and their bad reaction to the Testor's sealer? So she gave Kayla a brand new, lovely faceup, much like the promo photos I originally fell in love with when I ordered the doll. Gone is the red nose, and gone are the black lips and eyebrows, and her new blush is a much better colour and doesn't make her skin look "green". No wonder I never bonded with Kayla, as she really didn't look like her promo photos at all. But now she does, and I'm very happy with her. Finally she has the face I fell in love with, and it's all thanks to a "happy accident", and a very talented faceup artist! And for those of you interested in seeing how she looked before, here she is last Christmas....
Went to pick up all my dolls at Charie's last night, and as soon as I got home I had to dress Bonnie and choose a nice wig for her. She had some lovely Iplehouse eyes, but I just found them a touch too big - I'm not fond of the size 12 eyes where the irises almost completely fill the eye hole. I like size 10 better, but didn't have a lot of choice, so went with blue for now. I think she's very cute. Charie did a great job on her! So here she is, in her first official portrait.....
I was born in the Netherlands in the days when Christmas was still celebrated purely as a religious day, and entirely separate from St. Nicholas Day which comes three weeks earlier. It was on Saint Nicholas Eve that we would receive gifts, and eat special treats, and not on Christmas Day. I remember the year I was four and a half, and in kindergarten. Saint Nicholas was a very big deal! The whole town went down to the harbour to welcome Saint Nicholas. Everyone waved their flags - both Orange and the red, white and blue striped Dutch flags - as the decorated barge sailed into the port. We all strained to look. And then there he finally was - Saint Nicholas, splendid in his red and white robes, sitting on a majestic white horse, and surrounded by his Moorish helpers. Saint Nicholas came to visit our school, and he sat down on a chair in the middle of the large room. I'm not sure if it was the gymnasium, or another room, but in my memory it was very big and round. All the school children sat on the floor around him. Saint Nicholas would point to a child and have them come up and sit on his lap and sing one of the popular Saint Nicholas ditties. I've always been extremely shy, and the thought of being singled out to come up there absolutely terrified me, so I made myself as small as possible, hiding behind the person in front of me, almost laying flat on the floor. I was so relieved he never noticed me! Our class had made special boxes to be put out for Saint Nicholas, so we could receive a small gift. The boxes were printed out on stiff card, but we didn't have scissors. We had to meticulously use a needle to poke rows of holes along al the printed lines with a large needle. Then we'd punch out the box, and fold it into shape. Somehow I can't imagine four and five year olds being asked to do that nowadays. I remember Saint Nicholas left an orange and a ball for me. In the evening at home, we put our wooden shoes under the Christmas Tree. We had filled them with hay for his horse. We had a small real tree, filled with real candles, and we watched in awe as they were lit. The candles were put out and we went to bed. In the morning I remember a set of beautiful foil-wrapped chocolate tools in my wooden shoes! I guess someone knew even then that I liked making things! That was the last Saint Nicholas Day I spent in the Netherlands, as we immigrated to Canada the following spring. For many years, my parents continued with the Saint Nicholas Eve traditions, until eventually moving the gift-giving to Christmas. To this day many Dutch people still give chocolate letters and bake special gingerbread treats at Saint Nicholas. One of my favourite Saint Nicholas treats is 'Gefulde Speculaas', or Almond-Filled Gingerbread. *To download the recipe, just click on the photo below..... Many years ago I made a Saint Nicholas figure, with head and hands sculpted of polymer clay. My husband puts him out every year. When I started collecting BJDs, I thought I'd take some doll photos with my Saint Nicholas figure, as he was pretty close in scale. I didn't have any black dolls to dress as his Moorish servants, so decided to make elf outfits for my smallest dolls, and let them help Saint Nicholas instead. Not exactly "traditional", but with Christmas stories continually changing and evolving over time, who cares? The photo at the beginning of this post was taken the year I had just two tiny dolls - an Iplehouse Elin BID and my little Kaye Wiggs Cinnamon. Each year the number of little elf helpers has grown. Last year he had five - Elin and Cinnamon had been joined by Nami, Byuri, and Tillie...... This year two more have joined the group - Erzulie, and Bonnie, who should be coming home very soon. I guess I better make them some elf outfits too! Or at least some hats and collars.
Yesterday was "make Your Christmas List Day", so Nami wrote her letter to Santa, asking for what she wants most in the whole world - a kitty (I don't know if she's going to get one of those!). Yesterday was also "Cookie Day" and "Brown Shoes Day"....... Today it was a balmy 15 degrees Celsius, so Jan took the day off to tackle some last minute garden things - plus hang up the Christmas Lights. I also took advantage of the opportunity to go down to the lake and take some photos for some upcoming Special Days. Now I have to take everyone back out of their boxes and redress them, and then I can get back to my Summer Goddesses. I'm at the point where it's all hand-sewing and beading, so it goes rather slow, but it is coming along very nicely.
I'm also working on my fifth knit scarf! I'm really liking working with the thin needle-punch yarn. I also knit a hat for Bonnie to go with her Fair Isle sweater. I'm hoping this weekend she'll finally be home and then she can model everything I have ready for her. I took this photo of Nami and the pumpkins way back at the beginning of the Iplekids Colour Challenge, fully expecting "Orange" to come up some time in October - but it never did. Turns out the group moderator doesn't like orange, so wasn't even going to call it. Well, several people had been waiting for it, and here it is, finally today, a little out of season, but my orange photo... Spent some time this morning "baking cookies" out of Sculpey. For inspiration, I used
the cookie photo that was turned into a Springbok puzzle last year We've been decorating the house for the holidays, and this afternoon I caught my mice trying to make off with some of the ornaments from the bowl on my kitchen table...... Maybe they figured I wouldn't miss a few, but that they'd look nice in their mouse house.... The white mouse had discovered the new xylophone and was trying to play "Jingle Bells"
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AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
May 2024
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