Thursday, March 31, 2011

Daisy meets Mommy~and is not appreciated much.

At least not much by that little fella!
(Gotcha didn't I??? After all, how could anyone NOT love Daisy???)

He just did not understand how something could divert his "mommy's" affection from him! He looked completely betrayed~poor puppy!
This is not a great shot...I should have not used the flash but none-the-less, Mommy loves her new baby and cannot believe it is the same Berenguer doll she gave me to reborn.

She said that she is perfect, just perfect.

And I am one happy lady too.

***********NURSERY NOTES************

Been having a great time with my grand daughter around. She has been helping me change the babies from their Christmas clothes (Can you believe that??? Poor kids are still ready for Santa!) in preparation for writing an exclusive picture story for Discover Dolls. This will be something I will do from time to time and the only way to get these exclusive stories is to purchase the magazine. Although Discover Dolls runs late most of the time, it is a wonderful doll magazine. In fact, I am a feature artist in issue #27 which is off to the printer right now.

I am still rooting and rooting and rooting Prototype Hillary. I would love to have her done by bedtime Friday night but I'm not too sure I can meet that goal. When I have her finished, I will show her day-by-day paint progress all in one post. I am always still so amazed at the process and progress!

Painting is coming along great on the custom order MacKenzie by Annie Kiely. I should be able to finish her paint today.

Have a wonderful Thursday!



Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Driving Miss Daisy...home

It is an exciting day here at TNGUN! We are taking sweet Daisy to meet her mommy!

"Mommy" has not seen her yet as "Mommy" does not have the internet~that makes it even more exciting!

Until Wednesday.....

XXOO

Monday, March 28, 2011

Having a good time with OOAK Grand Girl


Aren't we just cute??? We did that self portrait after church yesterday. It was kindof funny getting Gramma on the table in a semi-Aline skirt before the camera timer went off!


And isn't she just BEAUTIFUL???


She's always been photogenic so I love taking her pictures!

I took a photography class on March 19th which really helped me with some of the settings on my camera. Although I had some lighting issues in the picture of the two of us, I think the ones I took of her are great. Here are a few shots I took the day of the class. (Mind you, this class was not targeted on photographing people or dolls, but I still got a lot out of it.)




So what's going on in the nursery??

Well, I started paint on a the 2011 New Years Day Drawing yesterday. Marilyn finally decided on the kit she desired~Anna Kiely's "McKenzie". She's going to be really sweet.

And last night I began rooting hair on Prototype Hillary. It's going pretty good so far!

I am dreading next week. Not only will I be without my little girl around, I have to do our taxes!

Ick...I better thing of more pleasant things!

XXOO

Friday, March 25, 2011

Sharing my Collection Friday~Tommy's new clothes


I did a little bit of Doll Fan shopping for Tommy and his new outfits came in the mail the other day. I found these two adorable shortalls that were new with tags. But Tommy informed me that it is a BIT cold yet and that whiteness out the window behind him tells us that it is not time for shortalls. (mind you, this picture was taken on March 21st~good grief! It snowed ALL DAY that day!)

But he says he will happily wear this fuzzy long-all and hat set!


The shortalls are a bit bigger than I anticipated so they may not go on Tommy at all. They may have to go on his bigger brother, Daniel. Have I ever introduced Daniel to you??
He is a reborn "Daniel" sculpted by Maribel Villanova and beautifully reborned by Yolanda Gomez/Blossom Baby Nursrey. He was purchased by a sweet friend of mine and given to me as a gift. I love this big boy!

And this One-of-a-Kind kid is my precious now-8yr-old grand daughter (she was 6 in this picture). She adores Daniel as well...to the extend that she's asked that when I die that Daniel will be able to go live with her! LOL You have to love the honesty of children!

I am leaving today to go and pick up that One-of-a-Kind girl~it's time to spend spring break at Grama and Grampa's house! We love our week together and I've got several babies in need of a change out of Christmas clothing. She's an excellent baby changer!

Have a great weekend!
XXOO

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Prototypes!

Wow the prototypes are rolling in now!
Hillary by Cathy Rowland was 2 weeks ahead of time so she is already a work in progress. I should finish her paint today. Here she is as of last night:
I will do a full post with picture of her progress in a few days. I like people to see just what a reborn looks like after one day of painting, then two, then three and then four or more. I've been taking pictures of her each day.
Hillary is available for Pre-Order now.


Next week, Sweet Zasha by Claire Taylor will arrive to Claire and then be forwarded onto me.
Zasha will be available for Pre-Order as soon as Claire approves the prototypes:

Sweet and Sassy by Dee Stastny will arrive at just about the same time as Zasha or shortly thereafter. I am SO excited about her! She is available for Pre-Order now.


Then at about the same time that those two will arrive, so will Suzon by Laura Tuzio Ross!
Look at all those teeth!!! She is going to be so much fun and is available for Pre-Order now.


I should have a little break then before any of the next four arrive.

One is a baby that is yet to be sculpted by Laura Lee Eagles of Peapod's Nursery. This will be her first vinyl kit so we are both really excited. I met Laura at IDEX 2011 and her babies are stunning!

Azlin by Nikki Britt.
Azlin will first be produced into a small silicone edition and then be produced into limited edition vinyl kits. She is just precious! Pre-Orders are not available at this time.


Little Lauren by Jorja Pigott of Pigott's Playpen is getting different limbs than you see here as these limbs were produced on the Silicone version of Lauren, and Jorja wanted to have different limbs for the vinyl kit. The vinyl kits will come later. Pre-Orders are not available at this time. This picture of the OOAK sculpt.
And THIS picture is of my personal Lauren in Silicone. I loved the OOAK so much when I saw her at EXPO in 2010 that I just HAD to have her in silicone. I am thrilled to be able to reborn a vinyl prototype of her.


And last but not least is darling little Huggy Bear by Dianna Effner. Poor little guy. His production has been a nightmare for Dianna. She called yesterday and updated me that she had to make new limbs for him in wax so it is going to be a while yet. IF his kit is produced sometime during the nice weather, maybe than I can go to her studio and fulfill our plan of me teaching her to reborn while her staff video tapes the teaching so that I can produce a DVD.

So with so many coming all at once, I have decided that I won't try to have a show table at the IRDA Conference in June. I simply won't have the time to get babies ready. I'll be there for the class though and can't wait!

Hmmmm....tomorrow is Friday. Whom shall I share??

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

IRDA Conference Update and Class INFO








I've been doing some planning on my upcoming "Creating multi-dimensional Skin Tones Using LDC Paints" class that is quickly coming up in June in Walnut Creek California.

I have decided to drop the minimum of 6 students in order to hold the class. I am going to the conference regardless so I will be there to teach 1-12 students.

My classes are always fun! For this class, we will be painting one of Stephanie Sullivan's Micro-Preemie Quads. Each student will receive one complete kit including body and eyes. I will bring all the different sculpts and allow the students to pick between the 4.

Here is the really exciting news:

IF all goes as planned, I am going to be reborning Katharine before the June class. I will video the process and hopefully, I will have a DVD for each student to take home. The technique I use on Katharine will be just like the technique taught in the class with the only change being that Stephanie was out of stock on kits and sent me what she had which is the head and arms in the old darker vinyl and the limbs in the new light vinyl. I will order all kits for the class in the new light vinyl but the DVD will show me neutralizing the dark vinyl to match the light vinyl...a little bonus for my students! Along with the DVD, each student will bring home a printed color guide of the colors used in the class. And each student will bring home the LDC paints that were mixed up in the class for use on more reborns.

I have door prizes all during the TWO DAY class and at the end of the class, I do a drawing for the jars of LDC paints that we used in the class. Those little jars go a long way so the lucky winners of these trial sets will be able to reborn many dolls with what is left from the class.

I love teaching classes, whether group or one-on-one classes. Recently, I shared a gift I received in the mail from one of my one-on-one students. Heather enjoyed her class so much that when she set off to reborn her first baby solo, she felt it important to give him (Jacob) to me to use to show interested students the results they can achieve from my teaching. So in honor of Heather, I am again sharing little Jacob, sculpted by Jessica Schenk and reborned by Heather. He is WONDERFUL! A precious and realistic addition to my collection.





If there are any questions on my upcoming class, don't hesitate to email me at tngun05@gmail.com

I am tentatively planning on having a table of reborns for the Retail Room during the conference but the way things are looking, I don't think I will be able to get any reborns done for that show. The prototypes are coming in...by the truckloads it feels like! I'll tell you more about those tomorrow~it's exciting!!

Happy Wednesday!


Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Daisy is NOT going home today~Pictures!


And Daisy is sad about that! It's all my fault~when my DH told me that he was going to the city on Tuesday, I did not realize it would be this NEXT Tuesday! Daisy will have to stay here with me for another week.






I am so pleased with how Daisy turned out. Her mommy wanted fair skin and the auburn hair. What a lovely combination for this sculpt. And I did a pretty good job matching her orangish limbs to her creamier colored head~if I do say so myself!

I've got a slide show of her on my website.

Speaking of my website, things are going well with it. I've learned a lot and finally know how to put up a full slideshow and page for each baby in the Reborn Gallery. I do not have all of the slide shows up yet...it will take me a long time to get everyone done and right now until June, I am pretty busy with orders and prototypes...oh yes, and that IRDA show and class in June. Yikes, June is coming very fast!

Well, I DID record a video yesterday and actually got it onto my computer. I learned a little bit how to edit sections out...like the section where I am coming back from turning the camera on. During learning comes mistakes and mistakes create learning. I accidentally edited out my introduction! Overall, I am happy with how the video turned out but I am going to re-do it the next time I have a baby ready for a photo shoot as I left out some key points. That baby will be Prototype Hillary by Cathy Rowland. She is coming along nicely~I think she will be SO sweet!

Until tomorrow~Have a great Tuesday!


Monday, March 21, 2011

Dimples kits are finally in stock!


Remember Dimples Prototype???
It seems like I reborned her ages ago. Everyone has been waiting and waiting for the kits to come in and finally, they have arrived! You can order them directly from Melissa Palesse at
~Divine Treasures Nursery~



There were only two prototypes of the Dimples kit. Emma Cousins of Emma Rose Artistry reborned the second prototype and has her listed on Ebay now. Great job Emma! She is so soft and sweet! (Did you all see those eyebrows?? WOW!)

As most of you know, I ended up keeping my Dimples prototype after she did not meet reserve on eBay. I call her Sammie. I LOVE this sculpt and my reborn of her. She is so spoiled!




Florida was SO nice...Sammie (Dimples) can't wait until warmer weather back here in the west. She wants to show off her darling limbs and that sweet head of hair. Currently, on March 21, 2011, it is snowing...with accumulation. Brr.


Back to Emma Cousins. At IDEX, she shared and advertised for the new doll art magazine that she is producing in the UK. Doll Artistry Magazine is due out in April. I am very excited!

In other news....

The reborn Berenguer (Daisy) is finally complete! I will be taking the day off tomorrow to deliver her to the city a couple of hours away. I can hardly wait! To fill my day today, I will take her photos and while I do that, I am going to record a video regarding setting up a studio for pictures and photographing a reborn doll! This will be my first video so I am pretty excited. Please think of me as I learn the technological end of downloading the video and posting it..somewhere! (This may not happen right away as I have a lot going on right now but at least I'll have the filming done.)

I am also starting paint on the Hillary Prototype by Cathy Rowland.

Until Wednesday, Happy dolly collecting and reborning!

XXOO

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Reborn Doll Kits (RDK) is shut down! Halaluja!

I have so much I want to share with you but I am going to start this week out with the fact that Reborn Doll Kits (RDK) is FINALLY shut down!

~Read the report on Colliii.com~


RDK HOME PAGE

SIRK....you are next!

It's interesting that SIRK/Emma Castle (AKA Cindy Kohlscheen) has not been active at all on any of her sites.

While we are on the subject of scammers, there is a group on facebook called Reborners Unite.

Peggy Scearce owns the page and to belong, you must send her a message or friend request. This group is for those who want to stop scamming, not those who make it a practice to scam. Scammers on this group will be quickly found out and...quickly put down. :)

There. THAT news report is done. Tomorrow's subject promises to be a much funner one!

Hugs for the day~
Debbie




Friday, March 18, 2011

Sharing my Collection Friday~New clothes!


Did I ever mention how much I love shopping for baby clothes?
I also love putting outfits together. At the Doll Fan Baby Shower at IDEX, I received the pink kitten top and dot legging set by Gymboree. (I also love Gymboree!)
Upon my return home, I found the matching socks and hat for a really low price on the Gymboree website so ordered those.
The other day, while in Portland, we just happened to be at the mall where there just happened to be a Gymboree store. I popped inside and found the matching bib....on sale! So of course I had to have it.

Sammie (Dimples) loves it. It is so soft that she even holds it to feel it in her sleep!

And while I was in the bargain section, I found this darling long-sleeve onsie...on sale...for Lauren. It's not often that I find preemie sized clothing on sale so I was thrilled.
We also popped in over to REI where I could not resist these wonderful sock. They were not on sale.

I'm not sure if she's earned the status of Daddy's sweetie just yet, but she sure is Mommy's sweetie!

Alexis did not get new clothes. In fact, she's not yet awoke from her Christmas slumber...I'm going to have to fix that!

Sweet, sweet babies.
Have a great Friday and Saturday. I'll be see you on Sunday~

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Has it really been a week??


44 minutes and 38 seconds...

That was my official recorded time for the 2011 Shamrock Run/Shamrock Stride 5K walk. I had set a personal goal of 45 minutes :) It was difficult simply because there were 5000 walkers who were all released at once. Most of them were simply on a Sunday Stroll to enjoy the walk (in the rain). I must have passed 3000+ people in order to keep up my pace. I was slowed several times by road blocks and being trapped in corners so all in all, I am very delighted with my time.
The Shamrock Stride event did not have a real competition. There were no placings as it was all for fun. The only competition was amongst oneself.
Here I am with my dear husband who ran the 15K event and beat all of his previous competition and training times. I am so proud of him!

You cannot see the rain in the above picture but the ground proves that it WAS raining. I was not sure my new NIKE shoes would recover but they finally dried out.

After the run/walk that day, we treated ourselves to a wonderful Moroccan dinner. We sat on cushions on the floor, were served an amazing 5 course meal and ate with our hands. I really appreciated the cultural experience and will do it again in a heartbeat. The food was SO good!

I was home for a night and was back on the road again on Tuesday. It was mom's 70th birthday. The unfortunate and tragic thing though was that my little sister's husband suddenly passed away due to a heart attack.

In spite of our sadness and grief, we still managed to pull of a pretty nice party for mom, having many of my siblings, my Aunt and Uncle and mom's best friends present.

Yes, I even put 70 candles on the cake!


And with the help of my twin niece and nephew, got them all lit without burning the place down.

And Mom blew them all out in a flash! She was MOST impressed with herself!

A good time was had by all.

Today will find me organizing and putting new supplies away. I'll prep some new kits and just get myself ready to fully go back to work on Sunday. The next few evenings will find me finishing up the hair on Daisy, the custom Berenguer with the reddish hair.

I've got lot's of dolly related news to share and will be covering that over the next week so be sure to check in!

Hugs!