An Elfing for Kate and the Olympics
It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted and I’ve been working on Dolls the whole time. I have a brand new niece, born on Saturday, August 2nd at 10:32 am. Kate Sinclair Nelson weighed in at 8lbs, 4 oz and 21 1/2″ long! What a big girl!
I’ve been working on another of Barbara Schoenoff’s patterns for Kate. This pattern is Shar Lilia and is a fully articulated doll, which I didn’t know before I got going. That’s what I get for not reading the instructions.
I’ll post my in process pictures another night. Here’s the finished doll.
This doll uses up a lot of fabric. She has lacy panties and stockings, plus a petticoat, an under skirt and an overskirt. Did I mention her joints are fully articulated? Wrists, elbows, knees and ankles all move. This doll took me just over a week and I like her so much, I’m making another one for me. I started the second one Saturday and got all the body parts sewn and stuffed, the arms and legs assembled and the face sculpted and colored by the time I went to bed yesterday.
I watched the Olympics from the opening ceremony on Friday night through to the swimming this evening. The opening ceremony costumes were so cool! I haven’t been sewing as fast because I’ve been watching Team USA. I am just watching the medal ceremony for Michael Phelp’s 3rd gold (200m Free).
Ups and Downs since EDAC
It’s been just over 2 weeks since EDAC and it’s been a bit of a roller coaster. I have been working on Morris, my doll from Barbara Schoenoff’s class, most of that time. I finished him tonight, with the exception of painting his stand. He is such a fabulous character doll. I was almost completely intimidated when I printed out the pattern, but it’s been a reasonably easy (for a relatively experienced doll maker) doll to make. I just love him. I can’t wait to take him to work and show him off.
I loved Barbara’s dolls so much, I bought 5 more of her patterns. I plan to make one for my niece who is due into the world any day now.
Work has been up and down. I got an award for an issue I worked for a customer back in the spring. That was followed up by a huge reorg yesterday in which my old boss lost his job. I feel really bad for him and all of the others in the US who continue to lose jobs. This is such a horrible time to be out of work.
It has been so terribly hot and dry here. We are on our 39th day above 100 degrees and August is just started. I expect will hit 45 before the end of the month, barring another weather event in the Gulf. My garden is withering, the birds are consuming water as fast as I can put it out and the grass is pretty much dead. The trees are suffering and my electric bill is pretty bad. The cats don’t even want to be outside.
Moira the Fairy of the Mirror
I finished up Moira this evening and took pictures. I will be in Albuquerque this time on Wednesday and I can’t wait!
Spent the evening cleaning up and talking to Michigan Pam before finishing up Moira of the Mirror and taking pictures.
I debated pulling out the lighting setup again, but did it anyway and got some decent pictures. I’m going to have to practice more to figure out the lighting scheme I like, but it’s not going to badly considering my amateur status. Of course, it helps that I have consultation rights with my friend Dave D. He looked at my pictures on my blog today and gave me some more pointers. He also gave me his blog address: www.roadreport.blogspot.com.
Another coworker of mine, Geries, is heavily into photography. He has taken a lot of really cool pictures. Check out his blog at www.geries.com/blog!
Now for the unveiling: drum roll, please!
Moira!
Woohoo! Lights, Camera, Action!
I ordered a spot flash from Alien Bees last week so I could take pictures of my Dragonfly before it flies away and I never see it again. The light kit came in Friday, but I didn’t discover until last night that I needed an adapter to connect the sync cord to my camera. I picked that up today and spent an hour or so this evening taking pictures. A sampling of the pictures are below. I’ve almost finished the fairy - I’m just working on her wand. I’ll post pictures of her tomorrow or the next day. I’m not in a huge hurry as I’m bringing her home with me. Thanks to my friend Dave D for his help with the lighting questions. The picture above was his idea, too.
Welcome to Blogland!
My mom set up her blog yesterday: Sylvia’s Stamping Corner. She did it completely by herself, without having done anything like this before. It looks great! You should check it out and leave her comments. She has this fabulous picture of a Monarch butterfly on it.
I have been a slouch the last couple of evenings. I haven’t worked on my doll at all. Last night, I helped with a technical problem on Mom’s blog and read a book. Tonight, I finished the book and had a conference call. Tomorrow, it’s back to the grind!