Sharing my collection Friday~Dressing for Christmas

My Granddaughter, Jena, and I have been working on getting the babies changed for Christmas.

MY what a BIG job!  

We have many more changed than this, but this is whom I've taken pictures of so far.

Matthew and Tamara.

Matthew was a bit upset that we would not let him wear his chaps, but I wanted to see his cute Wrangler jeans.  He usually has them covered up by chaps.

Jena giggled herself silly as she did Tamara's hair into a "Pebbles' style.  

She just thought it was so funny and cute!  It is...but not as cute as Jena!

Brittany looks adorable in her snowflake dress and hat:

Other than whom I've posted recently, this is it for now.  

More next week!

Have a wonderful December weekend!

Can't decide what to do!

I know my posts this week have been so boring and lacking of pictures~I'm sorry about that!

Since I took 3 days off last week, that made this week so short and I didn't get anything "finished" or at a point even to share.

It is taking FOREVER to root little Ashleigh's head!  I have worked for 5 or 6 days rooting her hair, at about 4-6 hours a day.  Ugh.  It is looking great...I just have a hard time ending a week without "finishing" anything.  The truth is though, I probably have another 3 days of work left on her hair.

So I might just put her aside and finish the paint on Nala Faber today.  At least I think I can finish her paint.  I may just end up not "finishing" anything at all this week even if I try!

I'll pop in tomorrow to share a bit from my collection. 

Have a good weekend! 

NOT going to Orlando in January???

For the last 6 January's, I have left my frigid, chilly Oregon and headed for Orlando, Florida.

Oh how I love Orlando in January!

Odd as it feels and seems, I will not be going to Orlando in January of 2013.  

What inspired me to go to Orlando each January was the 

International Doll Expo (IDEX).  

IDEX is not in Orlando in January this year, it is in the middle of April.

I am not inspired to go.  That is simply a bad time for me and I truly loved the little reprieve from the frigid January weather.  I like Oregon in April!

Well, just think of the extra doll that I'll get started during that nearly 2 weeks I take off before, during and after IDEX.  :)  

 

 

 

Art and Magic air dry paints~LARGER sizes available!

The Art and Magic (A&M) Water Borne Air Dry Paints are going over very well for 

HunnyBuns so Stephanie has begun to offer larger jars of the paints.

They are now available in 10 Gram jars and still are very reasonably priced!

~HUNNYBUNS ART AND MAGIC PAINTS~

The feedback I've received from these paints has been wonderful! 

Ladies are finding them very easy to work with and love not having to bake their babies.  

I am working on a sweet little girl (who is currently on the back burner for the moment while I root) with the A&M paints.  I wanted to see what would happen if I coated her with the FolkArt Glass and Tile Medium BEFORE I painted and I am really loving how she is turning out.  The texture on her vinyl is soft and she has no shine. 

If you love red-heads, you will want to see this little one when she is done!

Hugs for the day!

Back to work!

I am delighted to be back to work today!

I had a lovely and relaxing time off with my family.  Wednesday found me preparing for Thanksgiving dinner and cleaning up the house.  And I had time to go over to my daughters for my granddaughters cookie decorating party  :)

Me, in the middle, with daughters Jesse (L) and Jill (R)

 That's my grandgirl, Jena, on the Right.

 They are all good decorators!

Thursday morning found our family trotting with the turkeys (hehehehe) at the annual Turkey Trot to Feed the Hungry 5K run/walk.  Last year, my grandgirl and I signed up to walk the race but she ran most of it so this year, she and I signed up to run.  She is a good runner and we broke my current pace record in this 3.4 mile race! 

This was daughter Jesse's first walking event and she did great!

Of course, we had to wear silly turkey visors!  

Son Bobby, husband Calvin and friend Alan. 

We had a GREAT time!

We had a large dinner around 2 pm.  The kids all went home around 4 pm and hubby and I parked on the couch and spent the rest of the afternoon into the night watching "Once upon a Time" episodes on NetFlix!  LOL  I can't remember the last time I sat on the couch for that long and did...NOTHING!

So thankful for the entire day and for my family!

I decorated the house on Friday and bought a few gifts.  We actually did go to one store on
"Black Friday" which we usually don't do.  But it was okay since we are a small town/city.  

Saturday found us out in the woods searching for the perfect Christmas Tree.

 This one is IT!   HAPPY!

 Jena wanted to drag it to the truck!  LOL  She did GREAT!  Atta girl!

 Pretty little tree in the house.  Do you see the trouble that lurks just below the branches?  

Oh my!

 The handwriting was on the wall having a new, curious kitten in the house so we didn't put up ANY glass ornaments and since the branches are so tender, we only put on the ones that were super light...and nothing on the bottom row of branches except for bells to warn us that the kitten was under the tree.  She has already tore down the garland and messed up the lights.  Poor thing might not survive Christmas (the tree that is, not the kitten!  LOL)

Yesterday we put up the lights outside and had 1/4 of a load of firewood delivered for the back-yard fire pit.  Wonderful things happen out in that fire pit!

Jena also came over yesterday and we changed a couple of babies into Christmas clothing.  

I'll save those pictures for later.  :)

Today I listed the new batches of mohair on Artfire and I'll be rooting little miss Ashleigh. 

 Moving forward to Christmas! 

Tika will not be going to the trash bin! Oily Secrist reborn

Remember my poor little Tika who I discovered to be all oily?

Well for now, she is oil free and no longer sticky!

I used 91% rubbing alcohol and a hot bubble bath to remove the oil.

I took her apart and discarded the plastic pellets in her limbs and all the weight and stuffing in her head.

I used the 91% alcohol (strongest I could find...use 100% if you can find it) and cotton balls inside and outside of her vinyl.   

I bathed her in a hot Dawn dishsoap bath and let her dry for many days.  

Then I did it all over again.  

I am sure I will have to do it again in the future.  

I had Tika since 2008.  It took 4 yrs for her to get oily...let's hope it takes that long again. 

(Not at all would be better!)

She has a bit of sheen in a few places on her face but they are not as evident as the camera shows.  

I used two different camera's and two different light settings to take her new pictures.  Ethnic babies can be so hard to photograph!

Anyway, I was sure I would have to throw her away when I found her in that oily state 

and I am delighted and thrilled that I did not have to do that. 

And look...she's back  just in time for the holidays:

I'll be taking Wednesday through Sunday off this week for Thanksgiving.  

I will be having fun with my family and decking the halls for Christmas!

Have a great Holiday and I'll see you on Monday!

Creating a baby with my great niece

Back in August, when I visited Ohio and the Sauder Village Doll Show,

I brought a long a Create a Baby kit to assemble with my

3 yr old great-niece.  

I think it's time to share her pictures and story!

Now my sister, like I, LOVES dolls, but her granddaughter really does not.

I was not sure just how creating her own baby would go, but I think it gave my little great-niece a sense of pride and love for her new special dolly.

The pictures are quite a bit blurry~my sister had a hard time with my camera!  LOL

Please enjoy Marley creating her Create a Baby kit!

AWE!

Thanksgiving Week Agenda

As much as I hate to, I am putting Nala Faber aside this week.

I only have 1-1 1/2 days of painting left to do on her but I'll be taking 

Wednesday, Thursday and next Sunday off for Thanksgiving and I MUST get some

 mohair processed and I need to start rooting little Ashleigh.  

So that is the plan this week:

Mohair processing

Rooting Ashleigh.

*I* won't be doing any of the crazy after Thanksgiving shopping but I 

WILL be out in the woods with my family hunting for the perfect 

Christmas tree!

Speaking of Christmas, yesterday evening a few of my babies got into

their Christmas finery  :)

Friday Funnies! "Naughty or Nice?"

I know....a Christmas story BEFORE Thanksgiving??? 

Totally against my rules.

It's Kellie Beckett's fault though, as she made and sent darling little Santa sets to my set of

 Kellie Beckett OOAK twins, Austin and Aubrey.

I'd say that Kellie Beckett is both naughty and nice!  

Now, how about these two??

So far, they both look NICE!  

It is Aubrey that I am concerned about.  She can be SO NAUGHTY at times!

But I hear her saying, "Wook mama!  I is being a berry nice girl...I has to be tause Santa is alweady watching!"

She knows that it's not this adorable "Santa" that is watching either...

 And I know that I don't have to worry about this little man as he is always NICE!

 Well, would you look at that...

"WOOK mama, I is wetting Austin pway wif the new toy Auntie Kellie sent.  See, I is NICE!"

We will see how long THAT lasts.  She is ALWAYS taking all of the toys from poor Austin.  Right now, he looks in total bliss.  

AWE!!!!!

Okay, maybe she DOES intend to be NICE.  

We shall see!

 "Better watch out, better not pout..."

Create a Babies...Created! New ones in the nursery

I have five sweet Create a Babies...Created reborns available for loving homes.

They are GREAT Christmas gifts as they are so much more affordable than my fully reborned babies.   These babies are $150 plus shipping  :)

Beth

The name Beth is Hebrew for "God directed".

~BETHS WEBSITE PAGE~ will give you all of her details and more pictures

Rhett

Rhett is the name of a little baby that I babysat when I was 10 yrs old and it 

is American for "Romantic".

 

~RHETT's WEBSITE PAGE~ will give you all of his details and more pictures

Bald Zeke!

Zeke means "friendly" and I think that suits him just fine:

~ZEKE's WEBSITE PAGE~ will give you all of his details and more pictures

Petal!

I ALMOST named this one "Pebbles"! LOL  

 ~PETAL'S WEBSITE PAGE~ will give you all of her details and more pictures

Gabe:

Gabe's name is Hebrew.  It is short for Gabriel which means "devout".

~GABE'

~GABE'S WEBSITE PAGE~ will give you all of his details and more pictures

These babies are so fun for me to create!  

I know that more Create a Baby faces/sculpts are in the making.  I can't wait to see the new faces.  

Have a perfect Thursday!

XXOO

Air dry Tile and Glass Medium works nice on shine!

Remember sweet little Ashleigh and how sheeny/shiny she was when I got done with her paint?

She is MUCH better now!

I used the air dry FolkArt Glass and Tile Medium on all her vinyl parts and am very satisfied with the results!  

LOOK!

Although you can pounce-apply the medium and leave it wet to dry into a matte finish, I had better results pouncing the medium with a clean wedge until it was dry.  It seemed to push the medium into the paint instead of allowing it to flow on the top.  I felt this method gave the vinyl better visual texture.  

I've recorded an application video but have not had time to edit it yet...and it's got a lot of bloopers so needs a bit more time to edit.  

I can tell you this though...it was easy to apply!

Finally!  An air dry product that reduces shine!

Please meet Thomas "Truman"!

Truman was "born" on Veteran's Day

November 11, 2012 

Due to the date of his birth, I could not help but think of my ex father in law whom I deeply loved.

He was a WWll Veteran.  He survived the war but he left this earth far too soon.

Truman, both the man and the doll will always hold a special place in my life.

 

I was pretty pleased with myself.  My husband suggested that I start to make video's of the dolls so I got a little creative (and learned more about my video editing program!) and made this cute video of Truman:

 

And you can read his full write up on his page on my website:

~TRUMAN'S PAGE~

I listed him as available and he was adopted just moments later!  

How fun is that?