ONE baby ready for the show! Silicone Dawson :)

Wow...finally!  

ONE baby ready for the show!

Please welcome Dawson into the world.

He is a silicone sculpt by Rachelle Ferrel of Chelle's Babies.

Dawson has 1/4 limbs and is SUPER snuggly!

He is 16 inches and weighs 3 pounds, 4 ounces.

I am totally in love with this baby!

He is bald right now but I will offer him as bald or with hair at the show.  

Onward forward!

Moving forward...

I don't have any new pictures to post today.

I've been working on various tasks to get dolls ready for the show, and mohair too.

I've weighted some bodies and partially assembled dolls.

OH WAIT!  

I DO have a picture to share!  LOL

Isn't this just the cutest toddler bum you ever saw??

I just could not resist!

That is "Suzon's" bum.  I was assembling her and thought, "oh my...what a cute bum!"

That is a really great interpretation of her color too. I've struggled taking pictures of her tone but I do a random shot like this and get perfect color.  

I'm rooting a head. 

 I rooted lashes and brows on a silicone that I had not anticipated getting ready for the show.  He will be bald but I am willing to bring him back and root hair if desired by his adopting mommy.

I have been banding and washing mohair locks in preparation for color.

I've been organizing things I will need to pack.

I'm just plain busy!  From morning until bedtime.  

Have a great day!

LOOK! Silicone Pebbles is painted and matted!

Painting and matting silicone dolls takes much time!

It's important to allow the silicone and colors to cure after each process.  

But finally, little 10 inch "Pebbles" is painted, cured, matted and cured!

She will be in line for hair and lashes now.

Pebbles has a full layette with several outfits and combinations that will accent her full limbs.

She is a handful of pure bliss!

Next LIVE class scheduled for 2014

Did you know???

I'll be teaching at the Sauder Village show in August of 2014??

I'm very excited to be teaching my 

"Creating Multidimensional Skin Tones using Air Dry Paints" class over the course of 2 days.

Students will learn all that I have to offer regarding air dry paints and creating layers of skin tones and details using them.

So mark you calendars for
July 31 and August 1, 2014 for the class
 and August 2-3 for the show to which I will participate also.

~SAUDER VILLAGE 2014~

(please note that the above link is the link to the 2013 show which I do not plan on attending)

XXOO

Back to work!

Ahhhh....sweet, sweet REAL babies.

But...it's time to get back to work.  

We arrived home on Thursday evening and spent Friday and Saturday catching up around home and helping two of our kids that just moved to different homes.

Today will find me back in the nursery.

My plan is to finish up the matting on the little 10" silicone "Pebbles", finish the painting on silicone "Dawson" and continue rooting big head Alasia.

I've been spending the evenings since we've been home rooting her.  My that is a big head!  LOL

I have selected the hair I will use for Pebbles and the "Stephanie" silicone.  

SO many head to root yet...and mohair to process.

Last night, I lay in bed watching myself move around the nursery and home to organize thing for the show.  Sometimes this is helpful to me...but it sure does cause for a lack of sleep!  

In this "mock" activity, I chose the different grades of mohair that I'll be processing for the show.  

Today I'll go and pull those choices from my stock to have them out and ready for the processing steps to begin.  I'll be tucking mohair processing into the few cracks of time that I'll have in the next three weeks.  

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

Off to work I go!

She's here! Our beautiful granddaughter is here!!!

Hello everyone!

We left Sunday evening, May 19 to travel to the labor and delivery room of our daughter.

I'm not going to go over the whole deal...let's just say we all worked hard with our daughter and enjoyed the miraculous event!

We were present when Remington Coralee Bentley made her entrance into the world

 on May 20, 2013 @ 9:58 am.

She is 20 inches long and weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces.

 Remington was 8 days overdue so she had ingested muconium while she waited to be birthed.  

She was given IV antibiotics to get ahead of any infections in her lungs and blood.  

Since her lungs had some fluids in them, they monitored her breathing.

She is doing very, very well and her 48 hours is up in the morning (May 23).

So far, her tests have been clear of infections.

 My husband is very much in love with this little girl!

He's never really been a "baby" guy but seeing the miracle of her birth moved him and he can't hardly keep his hands off her. 

 She seems to be quite fond of him too. 

Our kids (the mommy and daddy) enjoyed giving her her first bath.

They are such an awesome team!!!

We are all overjoyed to have her in our family and don't even mind the exhaustion we feel.

We are traveling home tomorrow before the busy Memorial Day weekend.  

We sure do hate to leave....

I'm still here!

Goodness sakes.  

We have called the house, pet and horse care people to go into action more than once. 

We have packed.  And unpacked.  

We have ate all the food in the house and bought/made more food.

WHEN is this baby girl going to make her entrance?!?!?!  

Ahhh...she will be worth the wait though.

So waiting we are...waiting for "the call".

In the meantime, I did a little work yesterday (on my "day off") just to help 

me be a bit more prepared for the doll show.

This morning a snapped a few quick shots.

I have a little on the top left and the entire back to root on this head:

Her hair is so shiny!

Silicone Dawson is coming along nicely:

 I had a hard time learning the technique for coloring the ends of his fingers and toes but I finally got it  :) 

 I am SO pleased with these eyes that I bought from

~Perfectly Persnickety Doll Boutique~

They are designed especially for Ethnic dolls.

I LOVE them!!!

I will begin the sealing and matting process for little Pebbles today. 

Her is how she looks right now.  

This will help you to see what the matting process does.

Having fun waiting for the real baby!

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

I missed posting about my personal collection yesterday but those posts might take a leave of absence until after the Down East Doll Show 

as things are getting very busy for me as it gets closer.

And we are waiting.  

Waiting for the call to travel to welcome into the world our new grand daughter.

I hope we make it in time as my greatest desire is to be in the delivery room when she arrives.  

So yesterday was filled with getting the laundry done, shopping for food for our house and pet care-takers and helping my adult daughter move into her new apartment.  

Needless to say, I was worn out last night!

I will pop in when I can but I suspect we will be leaving either today or tomorrow.

XXOO

Silicone Pebbles work in progress :)

I really needed a break from rooting this big Alasia head so I decided to do a little painting on my

 10 inch silicone Pebbles.

 I should be able to finish her paint today

and can matte her on my next work day. We have not left for the arrival of our new grand girl yet.  She seems to be quite happy where she resides but we are waiting for the call so an unsure of my work schedule next week.  

Here are her two day progression pictures. 

Day 1:

 

Day 2:

 

Pebbles will be available at the Down East Doll Show

Upon talking with my mentor after completing day 1, 

she recommended that I work on more than one silicone doll at a time due to the amount of time that the paint has to cure between layers (2 hours).  

So....

I started on Dawson!

I really don't have much done on him yet at all and I probably won't have him done before the show

but I really, REALLY love this little guy!

Alasia, by Lorna Miller Sands, the Asian vinyl reborn I am working on, has about half of her hair rooted.  I've been working on her most nights along with the couple of full days I worked on her. 

The next big head to root will be Suzon, then I have the two silicone babies to root and a full reborn to paint.  And mohair to process.  I have SO much to do in the next 4 weeks!  

Another gorgeous silicone to look at

I've been waiting for this one to become available.

The sculpt, by Bonnie Brown, is darling and since Kris at 

~The Dainty Loft~ 

painted him....

He is almost irresistible!

~LOGAN ON eBay~

Ahhhh...so many gorgeous dolls!  

Finley Huti...how I love you!

I'm pretty sure, without going back and looking, 

that I posted the auction for one of the other 

Finley Huti silicone dolls but I have to do it again.

You see, this is #5 out of 5 in the edition and I just love this sculpt

and have loved how Claire Taylor created each and every Finley.

~The Final Finley on eBay~

I see Finley as a boy, a precious and darling boy!

OH how I wish I could bid but now is not a good time.  

I will be looking for Finley in the future on the secondary market.

It may take many years before one is available but...

I am patient.

Monday, Monday

I hope everyone's Mother's Day was peaceful, fun and relaxing!

I don't have much to offer up today. 
I've not spent much time online to find anything interesting to share 

and I'm rooting so don't have any pictures to share yet.  

We are expecting a call any time to welcome into the world a little 

grand girl into the world which will take us out of town, and me off work, 

for a couple of days.  

Rose's auction is ending today!

~Rose on eBay~

Happy Monday!

AA Toddler, Suzon, painted for the DEDS!

I have the hardest time taking pictures of AA babies!  

Her tone is actually a bit darker/browner/richer than these pictures show but you will get the general idea.

I have a set of gorgeous ethnic brown eyes coming for her with a tinted sclera. 

The hair that you see on her head is the hair I will be using.  It is curly AA human hair.

She's going to be SO cute!  

Her head now goes into the "waiting to be rooted" line up.  

I'll be working on Asian Alasia's hair today.  

I'm getting there!

Happy Mother's Day!

XXOO

Sharing my collection Friday~A bit of elbow room

Remember this charming picture?

Giovanni is happy to report that he is back in the boy's crib and has a bit of room to stretch out:

Happy, happy boy!  

The others feel better too but I didn't take their picture.

Have a great weekend!

Rooted hair trick

I use a little trick after I root a head that I'd like to share.

It's easy and amazing what this trick does.  

I had not yet used my trick on the "A Rose" prototype when I took her first set of pictures as she opened the box of clothing.

I didn't like her hair in those pictures:

I felt that it stood up too much and didn't lay down.  It also looked coarse which I knew it was not.

My trick is to spray the hair with plain water to get it damp.  

Style the hair laying down, placing the hair where you want it.

When you have the style in place, FULLY spray the hair until it is soaking wet.  

Once it is soaking wet, use your finger to smooth the hair to the head.

The hair will be slick and stuck to the head.  

Set the head/doll aside and allow the hair to dry naturally.

Mohair goes through a lot of stress when it is rooted.  

It's not unusual for it to need a little TLC.  

Eventually, if these steps are not taken, the hair will look better and better as time goes on, but

I would rather give the TLC before the baby leaves the nursery.

Here are the results of the wet-hair TLC for Rose:

It just looks so much better to me!  

XXOO