Saturday, January 28, 2012

Saying hello from Orlando!





I've not much time to chat with you all right now but I wanted to post a couple of pictures and let you know that I am alive, well and having a GREAT time in Orlando!

Here are a few pictures of our adventures into Down Town Disney on Wednesday:

Me and Billy:


The stroller rental guy and Joylynne:

The crowds doing a double take and nearly tripping over each other while we played:

One of the adorable pictures that were taken during the day:

Oh my...what do I most need to tell you. Well, first is that I have now had 3 personal invitations to go and visit the UK. My housing would be provided by my great friends over there, one in particular, Emma Cousins. Watch out Emma...my planning gears are in motion! I am so excited!

The other and most elating thing to tell you is what happened when I ran into Jack Johnston yesterday on the IDEX floor.

He instantly wanted to hold my baby Billy and checked over every square inch of him. He had nothing but good things to say (even though Billy is not my best work IMHO) and stated that he is the best reborn he has ever seen.

Jack gave me some very useful advice regarding the upcoming production of my Reborning DVD and I just really enjoyed talking to him and networking with him. Awesome.

And...this little angel is coming home with me. Meet Aubree by Kellie Beckett:




Okay, gotta run...the show floor opens in 30 minutes!

Hugs!

Monday, January 23, 2012

My guys did a crazy race!

The Wilson Creek 50K Frozen ultra trail race was an experience!
Both my husband and son have either competed in Marathons (26..2 miles) or just gone out on their own and ran this long. Neither of them expected the trials that were found on the trail of the Wilson Creek 50K (31 miles).

They began early in the morning...in the dark.


The tiny lights you see is the line of runners going up the trail into the dark:


Pictures on the trail. They expected mud but not this much mud and not such sticky, icky mud! This mud had a clay base and just stuck to everything. I know, I helped with the dirty clothes and shoes and oh my...that mud stuck to anything it came into contact with and it did not just rinse off. It had to be scrubbed! This part of the course was 20 miles and most of it was like this:

The 31 mile race started with a 20 mile loop. Here are my guys coming inn from that first 20 miles:

My husband coming in:

My son:

At that point they had the option of being done at 20 miles or continuing onto the final 11 mile loop. They decided that they had enough fun for one day! My son's knee was blown out so going another 11 in the mud was not an option for him.

Even after more than 6 hours in the mud, my DH is still smiling!

The back of my son's legs:
They felt a little defeated until they heard from many other runners~runners who do this kind of event on a regular basis~of how overpowering the Wilson Creek race was.

Here is a great report from a running blogger:

~A racing bloggers view~

I'm very proud of them for completing the 20 miles in that goo. Atta boys!

(I'm leaving for Florida in the morning!!! Whooo!)

Friday, January 20, 2012

Sharing my collection Friday~Active Babies!


Wow, I am not really sure that I can leave all these guys alone for a whole week+!
Michael is climbing up to get the bottle of milk:


Timmy is pretty active too:

Buddy is pretty relaxed but he sure likes that stuffed toy that Timmy has. I hope there is not a fight:
As long as no one tries to take his baseball, Giovanni will be okay. He loves anything baseball and is pretty possessive:

Tommy thinks the boys are just too rambunctious and wants OUT!

Daniel does not want to play at all. He just wants to cuddle his special things and look crabby:

Gianna just realized that Mommy will be gone for a week and is very concerned:

Tika doesn't know what to think. She just wants a cuddle:

Bethany says she will just dance the time away...

Oh boy. This is one I really have to watch out for, my little spit fire Jena!


Look, she already has Sweet Pickles thinking she can climb out too!

Brooke does not care. She is just delighted that SHE got to wear the coveted giant purple bow:

Kami will take care of Louisa. Hmmm, that's the most alert I've ever seen Louisa...things could get out of hand!
Joylynne is MAJOR excitied! She's all dressed in her running clothes and going to IDEX. Mommy hopes to get out on a walk or two so Joylynne wanted to be ready:

Molly will be good. She loves to play with her dolly so won't cause any trouble:

Lisa asks if I REALLY have to go:

These sweet babies won't be a problem...all they do is sleep!
Olivia Grace:

Kenji:

Laurel:

Beata. She's still dreaming of snow in her precious snowman dress set:

Good bye mommy....we will miss you!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Baby Billy is ready for Orlando!


He might be a bit overdressed though as it's going to be in the high 70's when I arrive on Tuesday. When I leave it will be in the 20's! Guess he will only sweat when we get there.

But since I am carrying him on the plane with me and it will be a long day with two plane changes, I decided that a second hand sleeper would be best. That way if I spill anything on him, it won't matter.


Billy is just as cuddly as they come. That is one thing I love about 1/4 limbed dolls.

I ended up not working yesterday. I just could not get in the creative groove and both of the ends of my thumbs are cracked from the long, cold winter months. I was trying to get them healed before I had to root but it just did not happen.

We had a snow storm yesterday that left 5 inches of snow but it's quickly melting off. In fact, it's almost gone this morning. ~sigh~ Oh well, that will make the roads good on the way to the airport which is 2 hours away.

Alright....Debbie is on Vacation! See you from Orlando!

XXOO

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Baby Laura is painted!


Baby Laura just tickles me pink!






What a sweet and delightful baby doll.
I'm done with her coloring now and I've got today to root on her hair. Then I will be on vacation until February 2nd! Whoo!

Oh I'll pop in tomorrow and show off my new baby Billy and I'll pop in while I'm in Orlando to share the excitement and fun with you but I won't be "at work"...I'll be AT PLAY!
Sorry, I'm just a little bit excited!

Hugs!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Portrait Laura progress 2


At closing time, in the dark, on Sunday, I knew I would have to take another look at Baby Laura in the daylight to be sure I had all of the brown/orange neutralized.

Upon opening time yesterday, I could see there were high spots on her face that were still orangish and also her limbs were still too orange.

I used white paint to cover the high spots on her face and then coated her entire limbs. That did the trick.

Usually I would then do a layer with my Newborn Flush color I mix up but since it has brown in it, i decided that was not a good idea so I used a rose and red blush color and applied it with the oval poured sponge. It's a horse bathing sponge that makes great oval and round shapes for texture.

For her creases, I used the red version of my crease color as opposed to the purple version.


I did her nails as well as began layering her brows.

Look at these cute little piggies!


Today I will blush her, do her undertones, brows, veins and give her that final highlight coat.

Let's hope I don't run out of day in order to finish her coloring.

Happy Tuesday!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Custom portrait baby WIP



Did I ever mention how very much I love doing portrait babies? I've not done one for a customer in a long while (I've done some for myself) so I am delighted to have this custom portrait of Baby Laura!

Here is the real Baby Laura who is now 60 years old:



I searched hundreds of sculpts and came up with this Rieke kit by Linde Scherer.
The vinyl was a dark brown/orange and I sure was worried about getting it neutralized. Very worried! I didn't want to ruin this baby and neutralizing is not my greatest gift.

With some advice from my good friend Angie of Lil Dumplins, I am quite pleased with the neutralizing layers! I've done just a little bit of detail work on her as well:

In the process of painting, I found two tiny teeth in her gums! This is perfect as the real baby picture has teeth.


What a sweet heart!
I have coated this baby with Genesis Matte Varnish and am using LDC paints on her.

Angie suggested that I use a couple of layers of blue to start but the blue just made the vinyl darker. I tried cyan but again, it just accentuated the darkness of the vinyl. Even the color wheel says to use blue to green blue but it simply did not work. The baby in the picture is fair skinned so it was important to lighten the vinyl, not darken it.

I settled on mint green created with green and white. I applied one layer with a mop brush, followed up by a wedge and then thinned the paint and added a little more white to a lighter shade and did another layer in the same manner.

The next layer was a mixture of light flesh, yellow and white. Using a sponge cloth, I applied two layers of this, pouncing each layer with a wedge.

One thing I always forget is that on these brown/orange kits, I can't use my standard purple on the nail beds. Cyan works wonderful for prepping the nail beds. I then used a light blush color of rose and red to color the nail.

When I do the creases, I won't use my standard purply/red color~I will use shades of red so that I don't bring back that orange.

I am excited to get to work on this precious one today!