It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas....

Yesterday was my last day of work till January 2nd.  That is a truly awesome thing.  I try to take at least a week off at Christmas every year, because I think the best Christmas present you can get is time to do the things you love!  Whether that is baking with my sister's kids, or setting up some doll pictures. :)  You can see that Flake wasn't being much help though, she was just trying to get into the presents I think!  Pixies!  Can't keep them out of anything!

The residents of Forest Hills are once again getting ready for Christmas, as you can see!  Emily has organized Samara and Kipling to help her make a new garland for the tree.

Edith is very helpful, as always! I hope Kipling has a good grip on that string!

Where's Cairo in all this?

Decorating the tree Properly, of course!  She knows just the right spot for the big yellow star ornament.

It's All About Edith!

Edith had the main room to herself, and was entertaining herself with one of her toys....

 

But then some better entertainment came into the room!

 

Honestly, we're not sure if Samara is now pulling the duck on purpose to play with Edith or not...she always seems surprised!  And Edith has surely realized by now that Samara's duck is not alive!  LOL

Samara moves on to another toy.   There are advantages to being the early bird, as Kipling and Cairo are not up and running about!



And Edith finds a comfy spot to nap. :)

 

It's nice to be back to these smaller dolls! They've certainly been very patient in waiting for their turn, while I knit for the play dolls all summer.

All Your Chairs Are Belong To Us

Not dead.  One of my beloved nephews passed on some sort of virus, and it's been circulating through the family.  Oy vey.  We really have to reconsider teaching kids to share, you know?  LOL  Three weeks later and a course of antibiotics, and I'm still coughing!

I got my order from Brennil (Her Delicate Strength) last night, and I'm so thrilled with the items.  It took me a long time to pare down my wish list for Claire to match my budget, but now she has a blouse, dress pants, a Spring/Fall Coat, and a winter coat!

You can see her modeling her new Business Casual look here (very useful for meeting with Donors, you know!):



But what's going on in the background there?

The Mysteries Of Scale

Edith is very curious about anything Claire is working on.  Today it is the ruler that caught her attention!

I find it fascinating the range of scales that can work with the Minifee.  Minifee are 1:4 scale, which can be hard to find, so a lot of the things I use in the doll world are meant for other sizes of dolls.

The ruler looks perfectly proportioned for Claire, yet it is in 1:6 scale the same as the pencil, which is really too small.

The box of cupcakes is actually 1:12 scale, which shouldn't work at all, but somehow does!  The spools of thread and the scissors are from an Our Generation (18 inch play doll like American Girl dolls), and the are perfect for her!  But nearly everything else from that set is too big...

It's a mystery! LOL

Interesting Things

1.  This artist did the most spectacular job painting some of the BJD cats.  Seriously amazing work! She added WHISKERS.  More pictures here.

2.  Daniel Bingham's got some patterns for 16 inch fashion dolls on Etsy, which I think might work for Minifee.  I have my eye on this sweater for sometime in the future.

3.  I really love these boots for Minifee that Atelier Momoni made.  They would definitely suit Claire.

The Trials Of Being An Only Cat

Edith has more than made herself at home here, and is universally adored.

However, some of the residents here are quite young, which can lead to situations like this:



Fortunately, Claire was quick to explain that it is not comfortable for Edith to be picked up like that, and Cairo must support her hind feet as well:



Really, though, Cairo is just too small to be carrying Edith at all right now.



Edith requires a lot of petting to recover from the indignity. ;)

P.S.  Typing this post with my real-life cat not only on my lap, but lying on one arm.  Cats are so high maintenance! LOL

P.P.S.  For those of you who enjoy the BJD cats, have you seen this awesome cat tower and toys someone made for theirs?

Catching Up!

It's been pretty busy at work lately, so anything "not work" is pretty slow going right now.

I did finish this little cardigan for Claire, though:




I worked on this sort of "off the top of my head", so there's no pattern, and I didn't take any notes. I just started off and then tried it on her as I went.  Generally, that doesn't turn out too well for me, which is why I didn't bother to take any notes;  now I wish I had!

I used laceweight yearn on larger needles (2mm), which resulted in a very nice thin fabric.  The idea was to have an open-front cardigan with shaping so that it would lie nicely over the at-least-a-cm-the waist of these jeans add to her waist measurement.  I didn't really get a good picture of the sweater, and it is very simple, but it is exactly what I wanted! :)  It's nice when things work out.

Currently I'm working on a dress for Kipling.  I got this lovely laceweight yarn from Knit Picks in "Wonderland Heather", but it is pretty much exactly the colour of Elsa's dress in Frozen, and that's all I've been able to think of since!   I'm using Wovenflame's lovely Lace Pukifee Dress pattern.  I'm thinking Kipling needs a little matching hat and maybe a little white coat to wear with it.  (Winter's here to stay, so might as well take the snow as a theme?)

I don't think I can manage mittens...but wow, that would be cute, wouldn't it! ;)

I leave you with Samara and Edith having a little nap....

The Cat Bed

In some parts of the world it is already 2014, but we've got another nine hours to go...

In the meantime, have some pictures!



These little boxes contained Christmas presents, and looked like just the right size for a bed for Edith, once the lid was cut off!



Of course, like any self-respecting cat, she has no interest in actually staying in the specially-designated "Cat bed."



Claire's lap is much more comfortable. :)

Early Morning...

Claire's body arrived home a little after 8pm yesterday.  LOL  I'd forgotten how tall she is with a body!

This morning, she's rushing around trying to wrap a few last presents (and finish off a knitted toy, oh dear!):





Edith, of course, is "helping."  Scissors and wrapping paper, tape, and yarn and thread....it all looks pretty interesting to her!

It's snow flurries as far as the eye can see this morning, but at least we seem to be ice-free now!

Waiting for Christmas...

It's been pretty busy here this weekend, with cookies and visiting, but I had some time today to take some pictures.

 Emily is trying to entertain herself in her room, when Edith comes in to visit. Edith is slowly being allowed in new rooms, as Claire read that this keeps cats from getting overwhelmed. (It also makes it easier to find Edith... LOL)



Edith has to check out all the important places...under chairs, on top of chairs... so many things to look at!







Maybe a nap will make Christmas come faster...

Edith is irresistibly drawn to the craft room, of course...

No self-respecting cat can resist craft supplies.  It's in the genes....









Typical cat, isn't she!  She found the knitting project quick as anything, and promptly claimed it for a nap.  Hopefully Claire is prepared for this aspect of cat ownership.  ;)

I did say I was going to take a lot of pictures, right?

They're not the best pictures, as I was rather rushed to catch the last of the daylight. But I was good all day, and had to get to trying things out!

Meet Edith:



She is a 5cm Oriental sculpt from this company.

She's not "offically" here in the Dollverse just yet, as I'm waiting on Claire's body so I can take those pictures.  However, I had to get some pictures with the various sizes of dolls I do have here right now, because that was something I found hard to find when I was deciding to get Edith.

Thank You Canada Post!

Canada Post is running all sorts of crazy shifts right now, trying to keep up with all the parcels.  What that means is that I got my BJD cat last night!

However that also means they called up after I'd gone to bed, so I had to get up, get dressed, get the package, open the cat, admire the cat, and then go back to bed.  LOL  So no pictures yet!

However, I'm really very pleased with it!  First off, the package was marked down, and there were no customs charges.  Since I had planned for a hefty customs fee, it's like magically getting money back into my budget! LOL

I haven't actually held anything that was 3-D printed before, and it is interesting stuff.   The cat is quite light, and the surface has almost a papery texture.  It doesn't feel delicate though;  I'd say it is just as sturdy as Flake, my RealPuki!

It came well packaged, and it also came with two tiny cat toys and a water-or-food dish!  It is seriously cute.   I played around with the posing a little last night and this morning, and it holds a pose extremely well.  I almost brought her to work with me, but decided it would be hard to work when I could be playing with the posing some more. ;)

So long as I'm home while it is still light today, I will be getting some pictures!  I'm still thinking about the name, but I'm leaning towards Edith.  Because she kind of looks like an Edith to me.

~~~

P.S.  Claire's body has shipped from Denver Doll Emporium!   At this time in December, it will either get here really promptly, due to the US and Canadian Postal Service pulling out all the stops to get people's purchases to them for Christmas....or it'll get lost in the truly overwhelming volume they are dealing with and show up in January.   Either way, I'm so happy to know it is on its way.  This is obviously a very good week!

P.P.S.  Aren't these printable Gingerbread Houses cute?  So much easier than the real thing!

Wip

Good news!  The tracking was updated for my bjd cat, and it is now en route to Canada.  What a relief!

I have not finished any of my projects...some of them are waiting on Claire's body, Flake's sweater is so tiny that I can only do a row or two at a time...and I keep starting new things! Lol

So I've made a deal with myself to finish weaving the ends in on the scarf for my sister and knitting Flake's sweater, then I will re-evaluate the pile. No more starting new things!

Bonus Link:  Remember the person who has those awesome tutorials for stairs and kitchens, and other really neat diorama stuff?   She has a "Corporate Office" tutorial now.  I find this stuff fascinating!

An Assortment Of Random Things

Still waiting on my BJD Cat.  Actually, the tracking shows that it was processed in Russia on Nov 28th, and there have been absolutely no updates since.  I'm trying not to worry.  Maybe there was a holiday in Russia and so it didn't go anywhere?  Or perhaps they missed scanning it a couple times and it will suddenly update that it has arrived in Canada.  I should look up Russian holidays.

No news on Claire's body being shipped yet, either.  I guess Fairyland just got overrun during all the events they've been running.  It looks like they are going to have another, smaller, one this year as well!

In more cheerful news, I had so much fun putting together a pinterest board of inspiration for Claire's clothing for 2014, that I made one for Emily as well.

A neat thing:  See the perfect 1/4 scale fireplace at Debrah's Daily Dish.  If you scroll back through the entries, you'll see it's origins.  Mostly made from things you'd have around the house!  I would never have thought of egg carton as good brick material, but it looks really great!

Also fascinating, this tutorial to make a bow and arrows, from Antique Lilac.

I'm torn on my doll plans for 2014 - on the one hand, I'd like to make living room furniture, so I have another "room" to work with for the dolls.  On the other hand, I really want to focus on making clothing for Claire, and maybe a few patterns for Littlefee.  Someday when I am retired, I will have copious time and not need to prioritize!  (Or, you know, my list will expand and I will still have more projects than time. LOL)

Anybody else have a Doll Goal for 2014?

Happy Day!

My BJD cat is shipping!

How awesome is that?  Not only is it on its way, but it is the 5cm size, which is closer to what I thought I was ordering at the time (result of sleep deprivation and a lack of common sense on my part.... LOL) rather than the 7cm.

Oh, I can't wait!  I need to make some little extras for it, too.

I'm really surprised and impressed that it is arriving before Claire's body, which was ordered almost a month earlier.  I can't wait to take pictures of the arrival story. :D

...wait, I need Claire for the arrival story.  Well, I can't wait to take tons of pictures with all the dolls anyway, and I'll do the arrival story once poor Claire gets her body again.

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We got about three feet of snow over the weekend.  While many people are annoyed  by the snow, I love it!   (Of course, I also don't have to go shovel a driveway, so I'm sure that helps!)

I saw this picture today of a Littlefee with an 8cm bjd cat (1cm bigger than the one I ordered), and I don't have a problem with the size at all.   I am so, so looking forward to my cat's arrival!  By the sounds of their Facebook page, there will be a big group of completed cats going out soon, though I don't know yet if mine will be one of them.  :D  Even if it is not, it at least means we will get to see more pictures!

Plans, Plans, and More Plans

It's not long till the last weekend of November now. That's when I get to put up my Christmas decorations and delight in Christmas as much as I like.  I try to limit it to just the one month, in order to not annoy my family members into rising up and killing me.  ;)

It is my favourite holiday! 

My Christmas shopping is done, but I still have cookie baking, present exchange with a friend, small people to take to see Frozen in the theatre, and if the snow stays on the ground, we've got plans for tobogganing!  Various familial visits to make.  And of course there is the actual Christmas Day - few things are more fun than watching small children opening their presents.

I've got the dolls's tree all ready to go again this year, and I want do do lots of doll pictures like I did last year, as it was so much fun. The challenge will be not repeating things! Now if my BJD cat should arrive, I am totally set...Cats and Christmas are a hilarious combination to begin with.



I want to make all sorts of little things to be presents to open, rather than last year where I just wrapped up existing props.  I want to do a milk and cookies for Santa picture, most definitely!  If the weather cooperates, I'd love to do some outdoor shots in the snow.

...I wonder if I could do gingerbread houses out of craft foam?  I think I have more plans than I have time! :D

Work In Progress + cat news

 Before I get into talking about my latest sewing project, which may not be of interest to anyone but me, I wanted to make sure those of you who love the BJD cats had heard this bit of news:  They are planning to open a shop with in-stock cats.  That means if you don't want a specific, custom cat, you will be able to order and have it ship out in days, rather than three months!  How awesome is that?  There doesn't seem to be anything about it on their site yet, but it was in their newsletter. :)

On to the project!

It All Ends In A Cat, Anyway!

I really, really love these cats. (And they've updated their website, too - improved the clarity and amount of information.  And for you dog lovers, they have a drawing of the first dog they are making!)

But I really, really wish there were just pictures of the various size of cats with the various size of dolls - clearly labeled.  I absolutely intend to rectify that by taking pictures with every single doll that I own once my cat gets here! :)