Life in Fifteen Minute Intervals

Work has been...well, let's say busy, and leave it at that.  I keep reminding myself that this project won't last forever.  Till next June, but not forever.  And I'm getting paid, which means I have an apartment and food and yarn and Nieceling's gymnastics and Nephew The Elder's Football camp covered, and these are all very good things.

At any rate, I haven't had much time for anything, and this is the time of year I have small visitors (my sister's children) part of every week as well.  LOL Posts may continue to be sporadic.

However, there are are a few things I can work on in 15-20 minute bursts, and one of them is a doll sweater for Nieceling's birthday in September.  I was hoping to get two completed, and it is still within the realm of possibility... If I get this first one done!

I'm actually further along on this now;  I've reached the point of joining and knitting the rest of the body in the round.  So it is possible (maybe?) that I might hit my self-imposed deadline of the end of July.

I also purchased a Gingermelon kit the other day, when there was a sale, so I will be sewing up the most adorable little cat for Nieceling as well:

The decision was made this year that Nieceling, who has done a great job taking care of her Journey Girl doll and co-owning Saila with me, would get to pick out her very own Maplelea Doll for her seventh birthday.  She's picked Alexi, who just arrived this week!  She was allowed to pick an outfit as well, and of course picked the gymnastics outfit.

Nieceling started gymnastics in the spring, and is loving it, so I think that impacted her choice of doll!  I knew from Saila that the dolls are actually great quality and very cute, but I was pleasantly surprised when Alexi arrived.  In pictures she is one of the ones that tend to have the "staring" or "startled" look, but that isn't evident in person at all.  She is actually adorable.

Now I just have to wait till September to be able to give her to her very excited new owner...

I have today off, and intend to enjoy every minute of it, starting with catching up on blogs and Flickr this morning! :)

A Litte Exploring...

Sometimes a doll just needs to go outside and have some adventures, which Saila did on the weekend.  She put on the Clam Digger digger outfit, as she needed the boots to go exploring around the stream.

This outfit for some reason doesn't come with a shirt under the sweater, so she's borrowed the one from her High Country Hiking outfit - it works really well.

The area I live in is very different from what Saila would be used to - for one thing, we have trees, trees, and more trees!

Nunavut Now!

I love the Nunavut Now outfit for Saila.  It fits well, and everything seems to be finished very thoroughly.  I like that the separate pieces will mix well with the rest of her wardrobe, too! Both the long-sleeved grey shirt and matching leggings will be used a lot, I think.

The only thing I noticed was that the buttons were very out of scale on her cardigan, but that is obviously to make it easier for kids to manage the cardigan.  Right now, they are too stiff for Nieceling to manage, but with use they should get easier.  Also, she's under the target age group for the dolls, so fair enough!

I love teal on Saila.  I'm not that big a fan of purple, to be honest, but the teal...lovely..

Saila is clearly a doll person. ;)

This little Mooshka doll, plus one of my old childhood dolls, plus a second-hand American Girl Mini Doll now make up her doll collection, along with a miniature My Little Pony that was always a little too big to be to-scale for the BJDs and a couple knitted animals.  I figure that is probably enough for her, as it didn't sound like Saila's home was very big, and the expense of shipping would be a serious consideration.

Because I always like to make up a backstory for everything to do with the dolls, Nieceling and I are saying that the Nellie doll is a gift from Saila's older sister Ceporah.  Ceporah, according to Saila's book, is in Ottawa attending Nunavut Sivuniksavut.   We've decided one of her classmates was parting with some old dolls, and remembered Ceporah  saying she had younger sisters.

Ceporah sent Nellie and Ruthie, and Saila picked Nellie and Ruthie went to her younger sister Meeka*.  (Malaya, the youngest, is too young, Nieceling says, with great sympathy!  LOL)  Saila read both books, and decided she loved Nellie the best.

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* The Ruthie doll actually went to Nieceling, who was enchanted with the idea of a doll for her doll.  ;)  Thank goodness for Kijiji!

Pirouettes and Pliés

This was Nieceling's pick for Saila:

It's the Pirouettes and Pliés set from Maplelea.   While I was dubious about this choice, I have to admit it is just gorgeous in person.  The pieces are well made, and the fit is great.  While I wasn't sure about the colours for Saila, she actually looks quite pretty in the pale pink!

The bun maker worked quite well, though we did have to watch the video to figure out how to use it. Nieceling was a big fan of this, as her hair is often done up in a bun.  (But her hair is very curly, so basically, a "messy ponytail" comes out looking like a neat bun... LOL)

I like that the sweater, skirt, and leotards/tights could easily be used separately with other outfits as well. The little sweater even has the proper two buttons for closure, one on each side. The skirt has a tie, but actually closes very securely with velcro. I like the double-layers to it, making it just a bit fancier than a plain wrap skirt. :)

I was indifferent to the towel and bag that came with the set, but Nieceling really enjoyed them, and had fun packing the shoes and towel inside the bag for Saila to carry.  As always, because of the way her hands are designed, Saila can carry the bag herself.  I just forgot to take a picture of that!

High Country Hiking Set

The High Country Hiking set is a big hit!   I love how versatile it is - the pants roll up to be capris, the hat changes from a sunhat to a rainhat....

I really like the t-shirt too, but my favourite parts of this set are the backpack and shoes!

The backpack can hold a lot!  But its major charm for me is all the teeny-tiny buckles and straps.  LOL  Seriously, it seems like it has all the fasteners of a full-size backpack!

The shoes are similarly realistic:

If it doesn't rain, Nieceling and I have plans to take Saila out for a short hike Wednesday and Thursday evening.  She says Saila can carry our snacks for us in her backpack!  ;)

Saila is a pretty good ambassador...

The Maplelea dolls all come with a journal that contains information about their life  - things like their birthday, where they were born, their family, what they like to do for fun...  And then the outfits come with pages to be added to the journal, which is a pretty sturdy little binder.  All of the dolls and outfits come with the pages in both French and English; Saila and her outfits also include the pages in Inuktitut.

Five-Year-Old and I read Saila's journal yesterday evening (sample from Maplelea here), and quite enjoyed it.  She's looking forward to filling in the empty pages with her own information next week as well.

The information provided was at a good level to provide a very general overview of how people live in Iqaluit, where Saila lives.  Nieceling really enjoyed that Saila's family and friends all had names, and the little details like the jobs they work and the games they play.  She was very pleased that children there also play tag, though it is called "Not-It" there.

From the perspective of an adult reading it, I also enjoyed it.  I loved the level of detail, and the glossary at the end.  Nunavut is an area I really don't know much about, which is one of the reasons Saila appealed to me.  I love that it gave us a lot of "jumping off points" as well.  Nieceling asked about Narwhals (she enjoys the Narwhal in "Whale Gets Stuck" too), so we looked it up, and later she asked about why Saila's house was built on stilts above the ground....so I'd say it did a pretty good job at encouraging her natural curiosity. :)

It does touch very gently and briefly on the Residential Schools...Saila's grandmother went to one, and so learned many of the traditional Inuit skills as an adult.  At Nieceling's age, the full details would probably give her nightmares, so that is enough.  But I thought it was good that it was at least mentioned.

A good online starting place for information is the Nunavut Tourism site.  There's all sorts of interesting information there... it sounds like it would be a really cool place to visit someday.

Maplelea Superstar Sneakers + Current Project

One of the things I knew Saila would need is a good pair of running shoes that would go with anything.  After searching the Maplelea site, I decided on the Superstar Sneakers.

I really like them!



They feel very sturdy and well made, and she stands in them with no problems at all.  I love the colours, which should ensure that the running shoes go with just about any outfit.  My favourite thing, I think is that the laces are elastic.  No fussing with trying to tie tiny laces!  LOL

This a double bonus as Nieceling is still working on reliably tying her own, regular scale, laces.  She can take these on and off herself.

You can see, if you look closely in this picture, that there is a slight jog, where the white sides join, but to be honest, my own shoes have a similar jog, so I don't think it's a defect.  It's not something noticeable unless you are taking a close up view of the shoes like this one. :)

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I'm currently working on the Mock Smocked Dress pattern for Nieceling's birthday.  It's different construction than I'm used to, so it's interesting!  I think it will be cute when it is done.  This one's in a vivid purple.  I need to sew a couple decorative buttons on the hat I made on the weekend, as well.  I used the yarn leftover from a pink dress from last year.

Birthday Presents....

I made a couple Rainbow tunics for the Birthday Girl, with Saila modelling one here:

This is from the Ready for Spring Top and Tunic for 18 Inch American Girl Dolls pattern on Ravelry. I really enjoyed this one as it was simple, and very well written. I'm often knitting in ten-minute-bursts before the next interruption, so something that I can pick up and know where I am immediately is a boon. 

The other thing I really enjoyed about these was the yarn!  I've admired the Knitpicks Chroma for some time, but it's more expensive than my usual yarn.   So it was lovely to have an excuse to buy it!   I just love the gradual colour changes - there's no worrying about switching yarns, or weaving in 400 yarn ends when you finish, just smooth, cheerful colour.

Once the birthday presents are done, I will definitely be making Saila one of these to keep. :)

Here's what it looks like on a Journey Girl:

A little looser, but still good!   I also found that the pants I got the other day from Etsy fit the Journey Girls really, really well, much to my surprise.  :D

Saila's Settling In...

So Saila has arrived, been opened, and has tried on all her gear.  I have to say, I'm utterly thrilled with her!

I found her the most appealing of the dolls in the company photos, but in person she is so much prettier.  Look at those eyes!  Her outfit is very well made too.  The jeans are lined, the zipper on the vest works smoothly, there are working pockets... even the non-doll-person in the apartment was pleased with the quality.

Her hair is very nice - smooth, sleek, and with good coverage.  I  played around with her hair a bit and didn't run into any place where the wig cap showed through.  Coming from the land of BJD wigs, this is practically miraculous!  LOL

See?  Her hair braided easily, and I think it looks very realistic. You can also see that I quickly tried a few outfits on her.  The shirt is from an outfit from QTπ Doll Clothing on Etsy, which I quite like.  As I'd read ahead of time, it takes a bit of patience to get American Girl doll pants over the backside of the Maplelea dolls, but it's worth the extra minute!

For the first order, I only got one of Saila's official outfits, though I'd love to have more eventually.

The Katajjaq Giggles outfit is charming.   I really like the dress, which is simple, with just enough detail to be interesting.  Once she was out of her kamiik and into a different pair of shoes, she stands quite well, I found.  I had to try out the ability to "lock" her two hands together which makes for a cute pose.   I really like the shoes that came with this outfit;  I think they should go with just about any dress, and they are an excellent fit.  The silver detail looks like it's embroidered on, which is much nicer than the metal I thought they would be.

These dolls have a reputation for being hard to photograph, but I actually find the opposite with Saila, at least, so far.  Obviously, I have some practice to do, as they are very different from the Fairyland BJDs who are my usual subject, but I really think she is quite photogenic!

Who could resist that little face?  I was really impressed by the coat.  It's fully lined, and honestly it seems like a pretty perfect miniaturization of a real child's coat.

The "Welcome Saila" Reading List

As Five-Year-Old is a little too young for her own Maplelea doll just yet, she is going to share Saila with me.  With that in mind, we looked up Nunavut this week, and started reading some books to get to know about weather, people, and stories of the area.

Since there aren't a lot of picture books based in Nunavut, we had to expand our search area to cover the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and even Alaska.

Here's what we found at our local library:

Missuk's Snow Geese

Mikissuk's Secret

Kamik:  An Inuit Puppy Story

Snow Bear

Kumak's House:  A Tale of the Far North

We're also going to re-read one of our favourites, "Whale Gets Stuck" with Saila next week.  Five-Year-Old is pretty sure Saila will like it too! :)

We'd love any recommendations, particularly those with a modern day setting!