Day 3--- Something you Held

Today's post is going to be a quick one, I promise a longer one tomorrow (including another little photo-story too).

Today's picture prompt was Something you Held.  I had initially planned a different photo for this, but when I decided to take this shot for my photo story, I knew THIS was the one I needed to use!

Abbie has just returned home from her trip to visit her parents and the girls are super excited to see their friend again.  (Even though they are a little bummed that she came home early, and they weren't able to finish decorating the tree.)

As a side note, I am in love with my new Abbie... she is on a resin body that poses very much like Lena does.  I'm hoping to do a comparison post showing the similarities and differences between the 2 bodies.

Also I'd just like to say that I was really stunned that I was able to get all 3 girls standing unassisted in this embrace!  (It was rather nerve-wracking to let them go to take the shots! lol)

Ok, it's late and I need to get to bed, but I promise more tomorrow! HUGS

Gonna try something new

 Like I don't have enough things to do... I'm going to try something new.  A friend of mine shared this list on Facebook, it's for a Photo a Day thing-y.  I don't know where the original list came from, but I thought it would be fun to try.

Since today is the 2nd, I'm just gonna start there, and will try to catch the image from the first another day.

I can't guarantee I'll get them all done, but I'm going to try.  I'd like to do as many of them as I can with dolls, but some might end up me or my family.

So without further ado, here is Day 2!

Today's theme was PEACE. While there are a lot of ideas and visualizations for peace, I decided to do something a little closer to home.
Peace to me (and Nance) is a wonderful comfy blanket, a couple of fuzzy critters and a quiet home.

The lovely blanket was crocheted for me, by the mom of a dear friend of mine in Canada.  Aren't the colors just lovely?

The Girl Plan a Surprise for Abbie

The girls found out that Abbie will be coming home much sooner than expected. She should arrive back home Monday or Tuesday!  =D 

Abbie just loves Christmas, so Lena and Nance decided to surprise her by getting the tree up and the living room all decked out for Christmas! 

 I hope you'll go visit my Flickr page so read their little story! You can find it HERE.

In this picture you can see most of the Living Room set up.  On the left hand side is a large wooden bookshelf that houses the start of an adorable snowman collection!

Then comes the Christmas tree!  I decided I wanted it to be fuller, so I used several packages of 12" long pipe cleaners that are the same style as the branches in the tree.  I also added a stand of battery operated lights.  There are only 20 in the strand, and I might decide to add another strand to it at some point.  But for now I think it'll be fine.

Next up is the fireplace.  This seems to be Snowball kitty's favorite place to hang out! I found this lovely circular wrought iron piece at a local store Friday morning.  It was on clearance for $2!!!!   The mirror is part of a set I found later that day at the thrift shop.  there are about 8-10 mirrors in several different sizes.  Thankfully they are plastic, made from plastic similar to CD's.  And why is this a good thing you ask... well because when I grabbed the one that looked like it fit and peeled off the paper backing (they are self-adhesive) and pressed it in... it went all wonky and fun-house-mirror-y.  The darned thing was like 1/16th of an inch to large!  AND it was wedged in tight so I couldn't pry it back out.  I grabbed one of the smaller extra mirrors and discovered that I could use scissors to carefully trim it down.  So that's what I did. And this time I squeezed out a thick layer of glue and just let it gently rest on top of that.  I didn't attempt to press it down at all! LOL

Also on the fireplace are a pair of silver toned wire trees that I picked up at the Dollar Tree.  They were supposed to be tree ornaments, but I used my wire cutters to trim off the hanging loop at the top, as well as the loop and bell that were at the bottom.  I grabbed a couple of 1/2" wooden blocks, painted them black and drilled a little hole in each one.  Personally I think they look fabulous!

The girls are currently trying to decide whether to decorate the tree in all the cute candy ornaments Abbie has been collecting, or to use the lovely snowflake themed ornaments instead.  they are kind of leaning towards the snowflakes, since snowflakes go nicely with Abbie's snowMAN collection.  Hopefully they will decide tomorrow and get started!

Of Penpals and Presents

Hi Everyone,

It's me Lena. Mom snapped this picture of me while I was writing this blog post earlier, so I thought it would be fun to include. (sorry the pic is kinda bad, Mom used her phone instead of her camera.)

I wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine... her name is Raine, and her and her mom have a blog over at April's Sea of Dolly Sweetness.  Raine is the girl that Mom made that adorable Hello Kitty outfit for last month.  And if you think I looked cute in it, you HAVE got to see Raine in it!  It's just perfect for her!

Raine and I have decided to become penpals, so every now and again she and I will write to each other through our blogs.  I do hope you'll go check out her blog!

Lena

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Hi Raine,

Hope you are doing good.  I'm doing pretty good here, it's been a pj kind of day around our house.  It's been cold and windy here the last few days. What's it like at your place?  Mom says you and your Mom don't live too far from us, so maybe we can get together sometime in the Spring!

Mom went out this morning while we were all sleeping to pick up some Christmas presents.  She won't tell me what she got me, but I hope she got me something fun.  My human brothers got Nintendo 3DS's last year... that might be fun.  Or maybe Mom will get me a sewing machine, or some new books... heck I would even be happy with some new shoes! LOL  Is there anything you're hoping to get for Christmas?

Oh, well, Mom just called and asked me to come help pick out the decorations for the living room, so I better go.  Have a good night and good weekend!

Lena

Leaving the kitchen and heading to the living room

For about 2 months now, I've known I wanted to decorate a scene for my 16" girls for Christmas.  I LOVE Christmas and really enjoy decorating my own house and couldn't wait to set up a room for the girls.  While I love my kitchen diorama, and have scene several lovely decorated kitchens... I wanted to do something more. I decided to do a living room scene! After I made the Trick or Treat Baskets for Halloween, I thought it would be fun to make filled stockings for Christmas!  (of which I have made absolutely zero)  But I realized that I needed somewhere to display those for shots for my shop, hence the desire for a fireplace.  I finished that yesterday morning and got started right away on the next piece of furniture...a loveseat!

 While I didn't really use a pattern for this piece, I did use some knowledge I have from using the book Dolls' House Furniture. The book is written for making 1:12th scale miniatures, but I've scaled up the patterns in it for 1:6th scale and now 1:4 scale.  Sometimes the measurements need  adjusted, but that is why I always make paper models first.  Since I've made several pieces in this style in Barbie size, I kind of just winged it with this piece.  I started off by recycling a shipping box I got earlier this year as the base.  The seats are made from some packing foam that was in a cabinet I bought.  The sides and back are made from 1/2" foam core board.  I used a combination of glue and straight pins to keep in secure.  It is now a permanent piece of 1:4 scale furniture in my stash! :-)  I added 2 matchign back pillows I sewed as well as the white one, which I bought earlier this year.  I had intended to put feet on it, but forgot to take them into account when I made the seat cushions.  So the feet would have made the loveseat way too high so I decided to sip them. *shrugs*

I packed up all the furniture from the kitchen, and started setting up the girls' living room.  I've used the wooden shelving unit I had in the kitchen again here, but this time I turned it so it is standing upright.

The tree stands 18" tall and was purchased at Hobby Lobby.  I hope to start decorating it next week.  Of course there is the fireplace I made in the center of the room.  I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do with all the open wall space in the room, but I am thinking about possible a decent sized framed mirror and maybe a large wreath.  Then of course I plan on decorating the mantle and adding some Christmas decor to the shelves in the wall piece too.  My other decorating dilemma will be what to put inside the fireplace.  I have 2 options right now.... a stack of 'logs' cut from branches that are the right scale. or I could make several candles in what ever color I decide on and do something like the rooms in this LINK.

Farewells and Fireplaces

Monday was kind of a sad day here as Lena, Lily, Nance and I said good bye to Abbie.  She's headed off for a little vacation, but will be back next month feeling better than ever!  (I actually sold my Plaid to Meet You Ellowyne Wilde doll to a wonderful gal in Minnesota, but Abbie is being reshelled onto a lovely Decadent Daydreams Ellowyne Wilde body that has nearly the same posing ability that Lena does!  She should be here sometime before Christmas!!! =D)

Abbie and I did one last photoshoot before she headed out on her trip.  This was the last shot we did and I like to think that she is contemplating her future!  :-)

I miss her already and can't wait for her to get back from her vacation!

(BTW I actually finished the PJ's!  I put tiny green buttons on the front of the top.  I used snaps inside for the actual closing though.)

Last night I made the hearth for the fireplace.  I took a piece of 1/2" think foam core board and cut it to size.  I then carved a bit off the edges to give it that chipped edge that slate so often has.  I then coated it with the paint I used for the fireplace interior.  (It's called Micaceous Iron Oxide from Golden Acrylics and it's a very thick bodied charcoal colored paint that has very fine granules of Mica in it giving it not only a slight shimmer but a light texture as well.)  After it dried I glued the fireplace to the base and weighted it down to dry.

This morning while pondering what to use for  the mantle, I noticed that the shelves in my CD cabinet were almost the perfect size. (Thankfully I had a couple extras! lol)  So I painted the raw edges and once those were dry I glued the mantle in place.  It's currently drying. :-)  I've started the next phase of my living room build by starting on the loveseat. More recycling being done here with more cardboard boxes, packing foam blocks and even some thin flexible foam sheets as padding.  No in-progress shots as well it doesn't really look like anything yet! LOL

Almost time to light the fire!!!

Yesterday I decided to set aside the case of The Fears I had and get to painting!
What are The Fears, you ask?  Well it's that feeling you get when you find yourself asking things like; What if I mess it up? What if it turns out horrible? What if I don't know what I'm doing?   The Fears are also known as What If Syndrome. And I think it's something that many artists deal with. Especially when trying something new.  But I decided last night that, this fireplace is only cardboard.  Worst case scenario I find a new box and start over.  So I mixed up a cream colored paint and painted the entire fireplace with is. I wanted to lighten up the original color of the egg cartons as well as cover up and writing.  Adding the paint also softened up the 'rocks' which allowed me to use a couple different blunt tipped tools to soften the edges of the rocks and add in a few subtle details.

I left it dry over night and this morning did the actual rock painting.  I used a palette of 5 different colors: cream, sage green, light tan, charcoal and a metallic beige.  I used a cheap brush that I dempened, then just started to pounce on the various colors.  I didn't clean my brush out.  If a spot was too dark I added more cream and tan. If it looked too light I added just a touch of black and green.  All in all it was actually pretty easy to do, and I am thrilled with the result!  I let that dry and then painted the inside of the fireplace with a rich charcoal color. 

Next step... the hearth!  I think I'm going to try for a slate look!