Monday Monday!

Oh my goodness...what a week/weekend!

Emily is finished and will have her photo shoot today!  

Eeeeek!  I am so excited about her!

At my project house, I have completed painting the living/dining room!

This is a large space that I used 4 colors on.  Whew...can't believe I have that part done!

(I am also done painting the bathroom!)

What is left is the large bonus room (not as large as the living/dining room combo) and two 12x12 bedrooms that are yet to be stripped of wallpaper and prepped for paint.   

Oh, and some touch-ups in the kitchen as well as painting the trim around the new windows in the other 12x12 bedroom.

I was in-between dolly projects on Friday and had some extra time so that day I went to the project house and washed 12 sets of mini blinds.  Oh my aching back and ribs!  

It has been 6 months since my horse accident in the mountains and my ribs still do not let me forget it.  They say that one day I will wake up and say, "Hey, my ribs don't hurt".  

I am not there yet.  

How did you spend your weekend?

XXOO

Since I am painting walls...

I am painting the interior of the home we moved out of 28 months ago, preparing it for sale.  

I simply cannot help but think about the similarities of paint walls and painting dolls so I am going to share again the post that I wrote on the subject about 27 months ago (the words here are as they were written 27 months ago):

Painting walls is like painting dolls...

How did a whole week go by without me posting?

Oh...because it was a busy and exciting week, plus, husband took the week off!

We got a lot done, including finishing the shelter that was built for the horses, preping the back yard for the dolly house, a huge Thanksgiving feast for the family and...

I painted.

Walls, not dolls.

But there are a lot of similarities.  

Enamel wall paint is in the class of "Air Dry Paints".

It is not baked nor is a heat gun used on it.  It just dries with the air.

And the characteristics are the same.

I had placed a layer of primer on the wall I was painting.  It was mid-day when I put the paint brush down.  

The next day I came back to add another layer of primer (I was covering up very red paint).

My little roller brush end caught the edge of the opposing wall and scratched the paint off.

WHAT?!?!?!?   But I painted it YESTERDAY!!!!!

Was I really shocked?  No.  Although the first layer of primer was dry to the touch and I could add more paint, it still was not CURED.

I have the project finished now with 2 coats of primer, a coat of paint over all and some detail work on one small section of the area.  

I bet I could scratch any of it off today...and tomorrow...and maybe up to a full week or more.

But once this paint has had time to fully cure I bet I can only get it off with something like the edge of a screwdriver (which would take ANY paint off of ANYTHING), but certainly not a scratch of my nails or even the end of the paint roller brush.  

This is true of doll painted with Air Dry Paints. 

ANY Air Dry Paints.  

The paints MUST have time to cure before artists attempt to scratch the paint off.

I get many emails of "freaked out" artists stating that they checked their dolls paint the next day after painting and could get the paint off.

Yes, you can.  Wait.  Be Patient.  Give it Time to Cure.  Breathe.

Rooting, rooting, rooting~and other life events

It is always pretty quiet here on the blog when I am rooting.  

And when I have a lot of other life happenings going on, I don't have time to take progress pictures.

And there have been a lot of those little "life happenings"!  

But I am still making good progress on baby Emily.  I was hoping that her hair would be finished by tonight but since I have to take the dog to the vet in the middle of the day (a life happening) I won't reach my goal.

The weekends are finding me over at my other house getting it ready for sale.  

We are making progress and tomorrow morning I begin priming the bathroom, living room and dining room for paint!  I am excited about that!  So far my/our work has been cleaning (and cleaning and cleaning!), fixing things and working on the yards (ugh, they are a mess!).

Seeing progress over there give me hope and faith that my loved house will once again be welcoming and lovely.  

Have a good weekend!

XXOO

Baby Emily's hair is "growing"

There are always challenges when rooting a manufactured doll but I am most pleased with how Emily's hair is turning out

I am about 1/3 of the way to done.

Happy Monday!

Guess what happened 12 years ago?

They Never Grow Up Nursery was set into motion!

I began working on my first two dolls....

Two 15 inch Berenguer LaBaby baby dolls that I named Abby and Caleb.

That was a learning process that took me clear through the end of March before the first one (the girl, Abby) was ready for sale.  I learned and a I treasure those growing pains.

I wanted to create another one of the little girl, Abby, in honor of my 12 year anniversary and I have even purchased the Berenguer doll.  

But...I have been asked to do a custom portrait doll for a turning 18 year olds birthday.

It will be my honor  :)

XXOO

Baby Lucien (Grayson by Bonnie Brown) is born!

And he's headed home to his "mommy" today!

Whew...another miracle!  

He was named Lucien by his "mom" and I have added the names Albert Ingalls to the end as he looks like Albert Ingalls of the old show, "Little House on the Prairie" to me!

Welcome 20 inch, 4 lb 2 oz  Lucien!

Full limbs

I share his COA first as it was desired he look like the real Grayson that Bonnie Brown sculpted the kit after.  I patterned after the picture in the top middle and left his hair a little longer as per his "mommy's" request.

He has rooted lashes...probably the best I have done to date :)

Albert Ingalls:

Now...onto rooting Emily  :)

Tiny Miracles Emily's little secret

I had been keeping a secret with Tiny Miracles Emily.

You see, my granddaughter, Jena, now age 14 played with this little dolly at my house all the years she was growing up.  

She is the one shown on the right in this picture:

Her arm fell off a few years ago so she has been sitting in the studio all this time. 

I had purchased a new body for her oh gosh, about 8 years ago intending to reborn her for Jena.

Well, you know how time goes.

Since I was reborning the full-size Emily, I decided now was a good time to reborn Tiny Emily, but I didn't tell Jena until last night.  She's pretty excited!

I posted pictures of Tiny Emily in a girl version and a boy version.  

I was SURE Jena would pick the boy version but instead, she is emotionally drawn to the girl version since Tiny Emily was a girl to her when she was growing up.  She would like me to give her a new name though as she babysits a little girl named Emily, who she says looks just like the doll and she thinks that would be "weird".  I am thinking I will call her Amelia, but I will have to give it some more thought.

Her she is in both the girl version and boy version.

(She still needs hair, lashes and final glossing...and assembly!)

Ahhhh Emily.  

She always has my heart.  

Maybe I need a boy version.

Happy Valentines Day!

XXOO