Blue Face Monkey "reborn"

I had the joy of rooming with the most spectacular reborn monkey while at the IRDA conference.

I only wish I would have had better lighting and my SLR camera to snap shots of this reborn wonder. His face was much more vivid blue then seen here but you can see the many, many colors in his fur:

Here is an image of a real blue faced monkey:

"Gin's" artist, Diana Mosquera, did an amazing job on this little Bountiful Baby kit. The light tufts above and behind his ears are spot on and very realistic.
And his eyes...oh my they are so real and gaze at you with endearment.

The palms of his hands and soles of his feet were built up with many layers of texture and when touched felt just like the leathery skin of a real animal. Incredible!

It was my joy to "live" with little Gin for the week. Thank you Diana, my sweet friend, for bringing him along!

XXOO

Sharing my collection Friday~New OOAK!

I did not plan on buying a new baby at all at this show, but I simply could not resist little OOAK Jeremy by Kristine Reid! My friend, Laurie Sanchez is holding him here. She loved him too and I did not know that she intended to adopt him as well! I let her babysit for me during the IRDA baby shower. Someday I'll do a photo shoot of Jeremy.

I haven't done an official photo shoot of my newest reborn, Annie but she did get all dressed up for the IRDA baby shower, so I took some pics there:

Isn't she just precious????

IRDA Conference Report with pictures~My class

Here I am...back home again! You cannot imagine how tired I am! But after a longer nights rest than I've had in more than a week, I feel that I can post at least the report on my IRDA painting class.

I had a total of 5 students in my class. Some of them took just Day 1 of the class so that they could enjoy a different class on Saturday. One of my students flights got changed so she came in later the first morning. Due to mixed up flights and other things that I added to the class (such as opening nostrils) I felt that we were running behind on the painting so I offered to come in early on Saturday and spend 2 more hours with all the students before Day 1 students went onto their next classes. I am glad we did and felt satisfied with how things progressed.

These first few pictures were taken randomly. I had asked any IRDA members that if they came into the class to evaluate to please snap some shots. :)

Teaching the proper way to mix up LDC paints:

This is Teri.

She did such a beautiful job on her precious little sculpt by Stephanie Sullivan. Her goal was to gain the same tone as I had on the doll in the color guide that we used for the class:

She gets an A+!!! Everyone loved Teri's baby; not only for the sweet sculpted face but also for how she colored him. Yes, we all agreed it would be a boy :)

This is Diana hard at work:

I decided to use the Stephanie Sullivan "Quads" for this class and had such positive feedback on the sculpts and the vinyl that I have arranged with Stephanie to use her Quads in all my classes until she decides to no longer produce them in vinyl.

We were a bit rushed at the closing of the day 2 class that I asked the two 2-Day students to bring their little heads to the IRDA baby shower so that we could take ending photos. Here are myself and Teri with our painted heads:

Of course you understand that the lighting in these conference rooms are not that great but I can vouch that Teri's head and mine are both beautiful! (Mine is on the L, Teri's is on the R)

Diana, myself and Teri:

This is Sarah. She was a Day 1 only student but she snuck into our class on day 2 whenever she could.

Sarah's little WIP:

I thoroughly enjoyed my 5 students and the little Quad sculpts. We laughed, shared tips and ideas and I had door prize drawings with some wonderful gifts to be enjoyed by the winners. I thank everyone for making this class happen, from the president of IRDA and IRDA organizers, the hotel staff (who were amazing! I love Embassy Suites staff!) all they way down to my students.

I have left my heart in San Fransisco!

XXOO

OHhhhhh PS....TWO new prototypes will be on the way this week! Dee Stastny's "Sweet and Sassy" and Bonnie Browns "Sophie Magdaline"! I'm very excited! I'll be putting Zasha's auction up on Thursday morning (tomorrow). He was a HUGE hit at the IRDA conference and through all my travels.

I should be fired!

Hi Everyone!
I am back from San Fransisco and SO tired my eyeballs are twirling around in the sockets!

I will eventually get caught up but those who did not attend the IRDA Conference in Walnut Creek missed out!

Hello from San Fransisco!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY!!!!! Not only did I make it into the city (TWICE now!!!), I have pictures to show it :)

Here is my roommate, Diana, figuring out the train ticket machine. (I actually did better on this train ride than I did trying to buy my ticket from the airport to the hotel...except none of my debit or credit cards would work so I had to try my hand at using cash in the machine). We are headed for Pier 39.

HELLO SANFRANSISCO!!!!!! I so wanted to see the cable cars and the first thing we see when coming out of the train station is a cable car!

And a real shoe shiner.

I found this toilet to be hysterical. You have to push a button to open the door (which none ever worked). There is a 20 minute time limit~tehehehehehe!

Gateway to the piers:

There is a market going on in the middle of a Thursday! Cool!

The city skyline.

I thought this might be the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was not. By the time I found it (not very far away), the sun was shining right toward me as I faced the bridge and I could not get a picture.

Another cable car:

We are getting closer!

There are so many things to do here!

Wow, an opened topped bus!

There is the ferry that goes out to Alcatraz. We won't be going there today due to lack of time.

Of COURSE we stopped in for a sample :)

Stephanie Sullivan, Diana Mosquero and I have arrived!

Whew! Need a break after that long walk. Not really, but it was a beautiful place for a picture.

Stephanie wanted her picture taken by the boats:

The Aquarium:

...people line up for hotdogs???

I did not know that there was a REAL Bubba-Gump shrimp company!!

Imagine my delight when we happened upon this store!

This is a beautiful double decker carousel:

LOOK at the size of this ship!


There is Alcatraz!

And...

There is goes!

We ate a delicious meal at a lovely sea food restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves walking and spending time on Pier 39. To finish off our San Fransisco experience, we thought we should ride a cable car. Each of us wondered why! We were packed in like sardines and the ride is very jolty.

With no regrets in the end though, we took a quick picture of our little yellow subway and told the city good bye for a short time.

Friday morning began the actual IRDA conference with excited students raring to learn all we had to give. I'll share pictures from the conference in the next couple of days. We went into the City again on Friday night to watch a live play called "Reborning". THAT was a dramatic and theatrical event. Wow. More on that later as well.

Goodnight from eyes that now need toothpicks to hold them open...

Debbie

Tried to post....

But for some reason the blog won't post the pictures correctly.

I'll try again when I have time but it won't be tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the busiest day.

Those of you who are my Facebook Friend, you can see my pics there.

Many hugs!

Hello from California!

Hi everyone!
I am here in lovely Walnut Creek, California~just about an hour from San Fransisco.

This is the view from my hotel window to the outside...

And this is my view from the INSIDE of the hotel just outside my room door! Isn't that beautiful? There are koi fish in that water!

My flight to San Fransisco was delayed more than an hour. I was SO excited to have my first ever direct flight, thinking I would arrive here in the late afternoon, but the delays put me here around 7:30 pm. Sigh.

While placing all of my things in the trays at security at the airport, I looked down to unlatch the baby carrier that I had Matthew in and saw his leg on the floor! LOL I really cracked up over that but unfortunately, no one else really saw it. It's okay, I took him to the bathroom afterwards and did a little surgery. I just did not have the zip tie tight enough.

In my hotel room, I unpacked. The babies were happy to get out:

The close ups are:
Zasha~

Baby Abi. Hehehehe, the flash fired on the camera and she always looks like "deer in the headlights" when the flash fires!

Matthew does too but maybe it's the trauma of loosing his leg~LOL

Sheriff Luke who probably won't go to Alcatraz after all. I did not take into consideration how to get TO Alcatraz and how long the day was. I carried a baby to the mall with me yesterday and my shoulders just can't do it another full day. More on today's plans later.

Dimples~

Tiny Jacob who my friend made. He will go to the class with me~

Another shot of Zasha as I just think he is so precious. I am falling for this one pretty bad!

So yesterday, instead of touring San Fransisco, we ended up at the mall...all day! My roommates glasses broke when she first put them on in the morning. We located a LensCrafter's in a nearby mall and by the time she had an exam, we did a little shopping, had a leisurely lunch and walked to the grocery store, the day was used up. Oh and it took an hour for the shuttle to arrive to pick us up.

So today we are going into San Fransisco to walk the piers and Chinatown. I don't know if I will actually be able to tour Alcatraz but I'll be able to see it from the shore.

The conference begins tomorrow morning and I am excited!

Take care everyone~I'll be back as soon as I can.