And now for some exciting news!  My sister delivered the first copy of our newest book yesterday. It's a book featuring my fairy photos, starting with the very first ones taken of my Elfdoll Ryung back in 2012, and ending with photos of my Mini Kaye Wiggs Fairies in 2021.

This post is the copyright property of Martha Boers and if it appears anywhere other than on my Antique Lilac website, it was stolen without my permission.

My sister did an amazing job with the layout design....

...with all the fairy photos arranged by year...

 We wanted a nice clean look with minimal text, so decided not to identify the dolls in each photo on every page. Instead we created a Credits page at the end with a thumbnail of every doll that appears in the book, along with the name of the company it was from....

That's thirty nine dolls altogether, featured in one hundred and thirty nine photos, on sixty seven glorious full colour pages.  Thank you Marianne!

I ordered my Narin back in 2013 as part of D-Storic's 'End of Contract' sale, and have done very little with him. He ended up with a blonde Johnny wig, wearing a copy of a 'Hobbit' commission.

He's appeared as an extra in several stories, but after my Butterfly Narae (who was also ordered during that same sale back in 2013) started appearing in stories featuring my Fashion sized dolls, I decided that it was high time Narin was finally given a makeover so he could play a male servant in everyone's castle. I've been avoiding pairing any of my regular MSD and JIDs with my Fashion sized dolls because of the inconsistency in head sizes, but Narae and Narin have much smaller head that most other MSD size dolls, so they would work just fine with them.

So I started by making him a new wig. And he appeared with Narae in the Winter Patrol story...

Then last month I decided to finally make him a better outfit....

So, now I'm coming to the real reason for this post.  This morning, for the second time in as many weeks, I received a message from someone on Facebook telling me about a website that is stealing many of my Blog posts, without permission, or even any kind of credit - toynews.com

I had tried going to their contact page before, trying to tell them to cease and desist, but their contact page would not work.  It's apparently fake, as are all the email addresses. There didn't seem to be any way to contact them.  Then this morning I was given a link to a page by another blogger describing all their efforts to try and stop that site from stealing her blog posts. She had apparently gone to great lengths to try and put a stop to her blog being copied, given the run around at every turn, with no success at all. 

I felt very discouraged, and violated, but there didn't seem much I could do to stop it, and I almost felt like quitting.  But I've decided to try do something about it.  From now on I'm going to put my website name and copyright statement in every single post.  Perhaps a statement like "This post is the copyright property of Martha Boers and if it appears anywhere other than on my Antique Lilac website, it was stolen without my permission."  

I don't know if the admins on the toynewz site actually edit the stuff they steal because it looks like they just copy my entire post, so I'm hoping that statement will show up when they steal my post. Or maybe they'll cut it out, who knows?  But it's worth a try.

Today, a blast from the past...on Star Wars Day....

"May the fourth be with you!"

It was another cold, windy day, so Naomi put on the new shawl I'd just knitted for her, and went out to pick one last bouquet before the flowers were gone for another year....

It's taken 7 years for them to spread and fill out.  The photos of Miho and Winston I posted yesterday were taken ten days ago in that little backyard patch. I had used one of my 'poke-in-the-ground' stands to support Miho so her feet were on the ground. 

The thing with scillas is that they keep growing and getting taller and taller until the leaves completely overtake the flowers. So the best photos are taken while the flowers first bloom and are still short. Each time I take more photos, the flowers have grown taller.

​Here's a photo from yesterday's post, taken ten days ago, and another of my Scilla patch as it looks today.....a totally overgrown mess....

Since the flowers keep on getting taller, I devised a way to deal with that before they do get too tall. I have some wooden disks with huge nails sticking through, which can be pushed into the ground to create a flat surface to stand a doll on.....

The stands add at least an inch and a half to a doll's height, so even if the flowers are taller, the doll rises nicely above the flowers to a better scale. I love the field along the town-line, and feel it provides a much nicer background than what I have in my backyard....basically some huge rocks and an ugly fence. The field along the town-line offers a much more natural setting....

So, as the flowers get taller, the wooden supports come in very handy. I took Miho and Winston there a week ago while the flowers still looked good, yet were getting a bit too tall scale-wise. Both Miho and Winston were supported on the hidden bases hidden in the flowers....

Some photos of The Fairy Queen and her friends in my backyard scilla patch....

My new dragon is finally finished!  That just took five whole weeks, but the way time is flying these days it somehow didn't feel that long. 

We went to the woods on the town-line yesterday and I took Saphira and Phairby along just in case the scillas were still half-decent. They were still pretty nice under the trees, so I took some photos, even though they were back-lit in the midday sun....

Then back at home in the studio. I have Saphira posed with Phairby, since she's going to get a saddle with a little Elf Warrior rider Phairby's size...

Then a comparison photo with Winston. It's not meant to be their first meeting, but strictly a comparison photo. Saphira is a little bigger, but then female dragons are. I added 1/4" in her upper torso to help accommodate a saddle and rider. I also straightened the curves in the neck so that I can bend it to whatever curves I want without popping the seams. And I also added 1/2" to the length of her lower legs and a bit of width to her thighs. Everything else is from the same patterns.  

Then to celebrate a friend's birthday, I had her pose with a cake, balloons, and gifts....

It was a lovely Spring day, perfect for taking the puppies out for a walk....

My dragon has been coming along rather slowly. I had stuffed the arms and legs.  Thank goodness for forceps, since I'd never have been able to stuff them without one....

I sewed the pre-made Apoxie claws onto the ends of the toes...

...and beads onto the ends of all the fingers....

The next step was to build up the ends of the toes with Apoxie...

..as well as the nail-beds on the fingers...

Then I added the knuckles with 3-D fabric paint....

Yesterday I finally painted the feet....

...and the hands....

I'd already started the beading on the upper thighs....

*Note that the colour differences between the photos is due to the different lighting. The arms and legs are nowhere near as brightly coloured as in some of the photos. The following photos of the finished 'dragon drumsticks' are closer to the real colour....

Now I have to put her together....

Naomi went to visit the royal children, and when they took a walk in the meadow they came across some bunnies...