All's Quiet On The November Front

Miscellany:

1.  We've got a good amount of snow here right now, which makes me happy, but not the people who have to drive in it!  :)  I love how a good blanket of snow mutes all the noise of a city, and there's nothing more peaceful than walking along a snowy road with big, fluffy, snowflakes drifting lazily down.

(To be fair, it's much less charming when the wind is roaring away, sending all that snow seemingly directly into your face....LOL)

2.  I've been largely working on Christmas presents the past couple months.  I don't usually make handmade stuff for Christmas, as I like to keep my Christmases stress-free.  However, this year I'm in a Hat phase, so everyone is getting a hat.  I'm on the last one now, for Nephew The Younger.

3.  Of the doll items, I did finish a cute little doll blanket for an as-yet-not-introduced doll.  The pattern for the blanket was this one, and it was excellent.  I used black, white, and two shades of grey, and it turned out just the way I wanted. :D  Definitely a sign of a good pattern!

4.  My sister was visiting, along with Nieceling, this weekend and of course Nieceling brought out Saila and asked her mother to read Saila's journal to her.  There are a lot of Inuit names, particularly placenames in the first few pages.  When I read them, I go with my best-guess pronunciation based on some Internet research, but my sister decided to avoid the problem altogether.  Thus Saila's story sounded hilariously like this:

My name is Saila "something."  I live "someplace".   We used to live "someplace else."  I speak English and "another language."  I go to "a school."

Nieceling was outraged,  and kept saying "Mommy, that's not right, it's *insert word that sounds sort of like what I say when I read it*!"  She knows the story pretty much by heart now.  :)


Some entertaining links:

1.  Eve Studio has a truly adorable baby dragon, with faceplates for different expressions.  It is hilariously cute.

2.  Spampy of Spampy's Stuff has a facebook page/community that is actually quite active, if you are on Facebook.  I mostly just read posts, as I don't much like Facebook for interacting with other humans.  ;)

3.  From the Behind the Plastic Flickr group....Whoa.  This is amazing work!

Fall Has Definitely Set In!

It's just plain cold out there today.  Which works, because I finished Version 2 of the Marigold hat yesterday, and was able to wear it today. :D

Nieceling was here this weekend, and had plenty of adventures with Saila, though we had no time to photograph any of them.  (This happens a lot around small children... LOL)   Saila watched cartoons, tap-danced, slid down the railing, helped with the laundry, pushed elevator buttons, helped Nieceling go through the Wish Book, and had several wardrobe changes.

Her hair was practically standing on end when Nieceling went home, but you know what, a quick light brush and it was hanging as smooth and shiny as before.  Now that's good quality doll hair!

Some Random Things You Might Enjoy

Have you seen these little poseable skeleton figures that are out now?  Zorropirate  was kind enough to direct me to the Amiami site, where you can pre-order them.  Can you say Perfect Christmas Present for my nephews??!  Seriously, they will get such a kick out of these.

Eve Studio Project has their dragon available in two sizes, now, and it is awesome!  I won't be getting one, but I'm hoping lots of other people will so I can admire it.  (The Internet is so great for this - I don't have to own 95% of the things I think are awesome. I can just look at other people's pictures of them!)

If you haven't seen Sharon's transformation of Kidz n Cats Grace, I suggest you go admire it. Sian is now such a perfect little character!

Craftsy has some new entries to their free Mini-Classes, if you're looking to learn a new skill! I've tried a few of the free ones and found them very interesting. :)

The Trixie Belden series is available as ebooks.  I have a budget of one ebook purchase per month, and nothing scheduled for November or December.  I just re-read the six I own from childhood (two inherited from some older relative), so I'm thinking I might need to try a couple of these that the public library didn't have when I was a kid! :)

(I loved these books so much that my eight-year-old self insisted on naming our dog Trixie.  LOL)

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!