Angelica is upright waiting for eyes!

I DID have something exciting to share with you this morning!
(Pictures were taken last night using overhead lights so not real great color but isn't she darling??)

Angelica is assembled (for the most part)!! I've been waiting for 6 months for the correct color of eyes to come back into stock and got notification yesterday that they were available again.

Now, keep your fingers crossed that the 24 mm eye fits her as, even though I used a Masterpiece 24 mm eye on the first Angelica that I did, I currently have 26mm Artistique Life-Like eyes in her now. The new eyes are Bountiful Baby eyes so I am hoping that they run big.

So now, REALLY, you won't hear from me again until Monday.

Hugs!

Sophia Madelina Prototype auction

He is off to a flying start!

~Haku on eBay~

And I could not be more pleased. It is rewarding to an artist to have bids early on in the auction. It makes her smile at all the hard work she has done. Good luck bidders! And thank you!

Today will be my last post for a few days, unless there is something that I just MUST share tomorrow morning.

I am leaving tomorrow for an all girls and horses camp out in the woods. No power, no running water~just a bunch of cow gals and their equine friends. Can it get any better than that? Ohhh...I smell the banana boats and smores on the open fire already!

I'll be back Sunday night and back to work on Monday.

Have a wonderful week-ending and weekend!
XXOO

Sophia Madelina Prototype photo shoot done!

What a wonderful armful of a baby boy he is!
Please officially meet Haku Ibu, "born" on July 25, 2011.
He is 21 1/4 inches long and 6 1/2 pounds.

His auction will start at 11 am today, July 26, 2011 on eBay.
If you would like to see before I get his link posted up here, please do a general search on eBay for TNGUN and it will come right up for you.

Oh happy day!

Angelica #2 is rooted!

PINCH ME!

Just like when I reborn the first Angelica (Kendall), it is unbelievable to me that this head could possibly be rooted/finished! But as of 1 am this morning~it is!

The correct color of eyes for her are still on back-order (6 months now!) but the company tells me that they should be in stock next week. Then I can finish the final details on this big girl.

I am so proud of her :)

In the meantime, my Sophia prototypes body just arrived so I'll see if I can't get that sweet little man photographed and listed on eBay! This time, I'll start the auction at 11 am in the morning. Most of my buyers have been from other countries and the evening auctions are very difficult for them as it is usually around 4 am in the morning their time.

Have a wonderful and productive day!
XXOO

The body parts are....EVERYWHERE!

Oh my! How did I make such a mess?

I try not to work on too many dolls at once but the pictures show that I certainly DO have a lot of babies in the makings!

Some of these babies are waiting for hair, some of them have limbs curing of the glues that seal them off, and some are getting weighted, like Angelica who takes a couple of hours to weight. I've run into the nursery every moment I have to work a little bit on her legs and I'm happy to report that one and one half legs are weighted! LOL Well, at least the vinyl part of the legs are.

I don't always remember exactly how I did something so I've referred to my own
~Weighting Angelica Tutorial~
and I'm so happy that I had taken the time to write down and take pictures of what I did before.
These big dolls are masterpieces and need the time devoted to them in order to make them move correctly and feel right.

The next 5 weeks, up until the first fall show on Sept. 3 will be very, VERY busy as I try to finish up these babies that you see and create a new baby or two for that first show. Oh yes, and throw in 3 major summer and family events plus one trip to see the youngest grand child.

September and October are my favorite months of the year. They just seem so peaceful and calm after whirlwind summers!

Have a great day!

Sharing my collection Friday~Antique baby doll

Isn't she just darling???

This is an early 1900's antique bisque baby doll gifted to me by one of my wonderful customer's-turned-friends. She is truly a treasure to behold and I am in love!

She is fully jointed and about 12 inches long...and chubby!

I love the wool cap she came with but she really steals my heart when her hat is removed!

She brought home her own little Ashton Drake dolly (which I love too!).

She certainly shows her age on her hands and feet but other than that, she is in mint condition.
She does not have a date on her but her previous mommy thought she was nearing 100 yrs old. This is such an honor to have her!

For now, she is seated on the little couch on the dresser but I'd like to find her an antique doll highchair or seat to sit in. I'd also like to dress her in a silky, antique romper that shows off her cute legs.

I'm debating on her name yet. I'll decide after I name her big sister that also came home with her! She's a standing girl doll and just gorgeous!!! I'll take pics of her as soon as I can but I'll be out of town for the next couple of Fridays so won't be able to share my collection at that time. It's the busiest time of my summer right now with many events and irons in the fire.

Happy Friday!!!
XXOO

The Down East Doll Show and Conference is GROWING!

This is just so exciting!
Check out the list of artists attending the
Down East Doll Show and Conference
to be held in Greenville NC June 2012!

CALLING all COLLECTORS to this show! This show is JUST for YOU!

What makes this show so special? Why is it even more special and exciting than IDEX?

Well, IDEX is a trade show, designed mostly for those in the retail business to place their orders for the current year's supply in their shops. Technically, collectors are not permitted to purchase from the show tables until closing on Sunday, and it's a three day show.

There are lot's of tables and booths at IDEX but many of them are filled with manufactured dolls, toys, bears and things for the retail stores.

The Down East show is NOT a trade show and collectors may purchase direct from the artists and take their baby with them at that moment.

There won't be any of the manufactured items that IDEX has~just artist babies, babies, babies! Right now, 34 tables and 8 booths FULL of BABIES!

There will be reborns, one-of-a-kind babies, resin and silicone babies.

There will be a reborn doll contest AND a OOAK doll contest! Collectors will be able to cast their votes for the People's Choice babies.

And this show runs from 10 am to 7 pm on Friday and Saturday, so those who can't be there until after 5 will still have time to browse the convention center for that perfect baby.

As a collector myself, I am excited!

Sophia Brown PT arwork done, body too short!

Please pardon the washed out pictures~things have been nuts around my house with no room and no time to set things up correctly for photo's. But you will get the general idea.

I've tweaked Mr. Haku for two days now and am finally very happy with his artwork. I added the painted hair to his hair line and also rooted more "crazy hair" to his right side.

In this next picture, he is asking you NOT to laugh at him...he is having a bad hair day. He says if you had a hair day like this, you would be grumpy too! LOL

So my problem now, besides that his darling organic hat has not arrived is that his body is too short. I love the chest, belly and arm area of the gorgeous body made by Spearson Doll Bodies, but it's just too short in the leg area and he has no movement in his legs. We are working on getting another body for the little guy.

In this next picture, I took his legs out of the body and brought them down further. This makes him look more proportionate.

Here I am showing where the real body ends:

So little Haku will wait around a bit longer before his listing on eBay.

In the meantime, I assure you that I have a lot of other "projects" to keep me occupied!

XXOO

I am a woman and I can change my mind~changed Haku a bit!

I went into the nursery yesterday to add lashes and gloss to Haku and I had a revelation/inspiration to add just a bit of painted hair to his hair line. I could not put a rooting needle to his head but I could put a paint brush to it! I think this gave him just what he needed.

I did a little finalization trimming on his hair and thinned out his bald spot some so that it looked more realistic and "neat". As you can see, he has begun to grow some of his hairs back :)

I think I'll add just a bit of rooted hair to his right side near the wild hair section and just a bit to his sideburn. THEN he will be ready for assembly! This one has been a difficult birth for me~LOL

The hat I ordered for him is not going to arrive in time for his photo shoot. It was just sent out today via UPS which could take a week.

Have a wonderful Monday!

Secrist's terrible customer service~Banned a customer!

While I was away over the weekend, I received an email from one of my reborn friends and past students. Seems that she demands a higher standard in her doll supplies than what Secrist will offer so they have asked her not to order anymore! Is that not just unbelievable??

Here is the story in her words as posted on the forums I belong to:

Outraged! Secrist just banned me from ordering!

by karenwhitmore » Thu Jul 14, 2011 1:40 pm

"I have been selling the Apple Valley line of dolls on my website for 3 years. I make twin dolls for kids with them. Well, since February of this year, I've sent back 3 partial orders..... 2 because when I received the heads the eyelashes had melted and glue was all over the eyeballs so I had them replace the heads and asked them to send the lashes on the side and I'd glue them myself (less work for them anyway). Now they just sent me the wrong size bodies with my kits and I called them to replace them. They just called me back and said that I would receive my new bodies in the next couple of days and asked that I no longer order from their company since I've had 3 returns since February!!!! To boot,as I was placing an order yesterday, I could not get into my account so it took 3 different calls to them to get my account straightened out (again, not my fault) so I guess they are tired of hearing from me for THEIR mistakes!!!??? Can you believe that? She said that since I seem to have standards that they can't meet not to order anymore. Read that again... 'since my standards are too high' that was her exact words! Uh, hello??? I said "you mean noone else cares or asks for replacements when you send the wrong body size?" She said noone else seems to have the standards that I expect. All I want is the dolls to be sent to me not falling apart with the right sized components! Who the hell orders from them and doesn't?

I asked again "you mean you're telling me that since you guys have sent me 3 messed up orders that I am no longer allowed to order from you?" She said yes. This is the decision her management has made. I asked to speak to her manager and she wouldn't let me. I am selling THEIR product and they ask me not to order anymore? I am flabbergasted! I can't believe it. THEIR mistakes but my standards are too high? What kindof shabby crap are they running? Pat Secrist will never get another penny from me... not even through another distributor. Funny... right before she called I was just thinking to myself that I don't need to mess with these dolls anymore. They take away too much time from my reborns anyway and everytime I get an order something is messed up. I'll take this as a sign from God."

Wow...and I thought I have heard it all.

Just for Nina....

We arrived home last night from our little camping expedition. We had a wonderful time trying out our new little OLD 1964 camp trailer. (It never occurred to me that many people might think that the trailer smelled musty and old...it does not. We would have never bought it if it smelled. Just thought I should clarify that! LOL It is quite a lovely little outdoor home.)

We took our grand daughter and she had a blast!

One of the first things that I did upon arriving home was to go into the nursery and evaluate Haku Ibu. I'll have to say that I was nearly blown away at how wonderful he looks. I came back to look at his pictures and noticed how bright they are....a bit too much light.

I checked the comments about my little Japanese fellow this morning~I appreciate all of your comments! Thank you so much!

Nina had commented that she thought Haku Ibu could use some more blush. That same day, I did take a couple of up close pictures, however, I did not post them. Here they are. Be sure to click on them to make them big and Nina, please tell me what you think upon seeing these:

Here is the main picture that I used as hairline guide when rooting Haku. I added my own "twist" to his hair~that mostly being the thicker hair in the center and back plus I brought it forward a little bit:

I borrowed this picture from the internet and can't seem to make it any larger. Sorry about that.


Haku's body arrived while we were gone so I am going to get him mostly put together.

If I can't capture his adorableness on the camera, I will add more hair. Sound fair?? :)

Tonight, I will be rooting Angelica! I had to order more hair from Australia and it also arrived while we were gone. I could very well finish her hair in two more rooting sessions! I am very excited about that!

Hugs to all!

Out of my "perfect hair" element~Comments?

I let you see all the pictures before I wrote anything so that you can form a judgement/critique on his hair. I'm out of my element and want to find out what other people think of him...so DO tell...what do you think? (He does not have his lashes and gloss yet so he is still a WIP).

I'll be heading out on a camping adventure tomorrow morning for 3 days so I'll check the blog when I get back home and back to "work".

Have a great weekending and weekend!

Hugs!