Doll

See that dot on the left side of the head of my new girl? Yeah, it is not suppose to be there. My Canon G10- which I have loved since I got it last December, is making me unhappy. We are thinking (around here) that it is dust on the sensor. The store where I bought it- for full price, I might add- was amazingly unhelpful. Gee, sorry, send it back to Canon. How much? We don’t know. How long? Who knows! Why?! Standard usage- What? This is not a camera that you can open in any way. How can it possibly be my fault?  Anyway- I’m pissed. I will not be buying anything from there again.

This camera thing is incredibly bad timing. Remember this back in March? Well, it is going up next week- August 26. I am nervous and excited. I wanted to give my regular readers a heads up because there will probably be some odd, explaining kinds of blog posts when the video goes up. We’ll see. Of course, now I feel like I am about to have a party or my in-laws over and the vaccuum cleaner is broken!

Also, after sort of limping along all summer, I am getting a rush of ideas- so why does my camera have to break now! Waah! Okay- I think I feel better.

One more thing- I had been hoping to go to the NIADA conference in Tennessee in September. It is now obvious that it is not going to happen. Just wanted to let anyone I’ve talked to about it know.

Summer weather has finally arrived. It is hot and humid here- which can make getting inspired to work on wool dolls a bit of a challenge. Everyone looks hot to me today. I am trying to think back-to-school fashion thoughts.

My girl in red-

With a green shrug, because that is my favorite color combo. And, she has a felt shoulder bag.

Here she is with her stuff.

I finished her up this morning and have spent the afternoon putting faces on the rest of the partially finished dolls that have been lolling around on my desk.

My work motto- uninspired? Just do something.

Having the faces on them will really help me figure out who they are.

update- 9/20- I redid her mouth and updated all the photos.

I am actually working in the room now. The move got to a certain point of trying to get things arranged, and I realized I had to start working in the space to know where things should be. The result is that the room doesn’t look great but I am essentially moved and back to work. I will probably do a blog studio tour in a month or so when things have settled a bit.

The desk area-

This is working pretty well, although I have been rearranging the drawers as I try to find my tools. I moved my sewing machine off the desk and onto a smaller desk. The big desk will be my main work area now.

The shelf above my desk is still rather empty. I haven’t brought any of the dolls that were on the attic studio shelf down yet.

And I have to work more on the wool storage bins. They still seem disorganized, but what can I do? It is so hard to decide what is the right way to organize. Color? Material? (wool, cashmere, etc) Size of the fabric pieces?

On another topic- I will be in the Columbia, SC area around Labor Day. Does anyone know of any not-to-be-missed crafty goodness in the area?

I taught another tiny world class yesterday. It was a great day for it- overcast and cool. Perfect to gather with friends and do a project! There were 9 students all together, but, as usual, I forgot to take photos and only have a few of the projects to show.

In the morning, we all worked on little houses-

After lunch we made our “hills” and put them all together. Here are some that got finished- sorry for the not-so-great photos.

Betsy’s-

Greta’s- glue drying in progress-

She added a side garden- isn’t it adorable!

Crystal‘s- she wrote more about the class here-

And my son, Julian, took the class too. Here is his-

Everybody did really well. Each person was able to do something unique which made it their own. It is so much fun to see what people come up with.

I will be teaching again on Saturday, October 17. Space is limited to 8, so let me know if you are interested.

another doll gets finished despite the chaos!

the studio is coming along-

doesn’t really look much better then a week ago, but things seem much more in control. These photos were from this morning-

My desk- see- I’ve got some dolls going!

And this is the fun part- I’ve been organizing my threads.

All those colors make me so happy.

I have my next tiny world pincushion class this Thursday. I have had a request to hold another Tiny World pincushion class in October. If I scheduled a class for October 17, would anyone be interested? Email me if you are- mimik@pobox.com. I will need 3 more people to make it a go (min. of 5).

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

3

Timestamp: 2009-08-06 16:09:45 UTC

*** Drumroll please***

Sister Diane!

If people are interested, I can check into how much printing would cost and then get some more of these into my Etsy shop. Would people rather have an academic year calendar or a 2010 year calendar?

Finally, a finished doll! It has been almost a month since I posted one.

Little bird baby-

this morning-

Looks pretty bad. Getting the shelf and some bulletin boards up have helped a lot and this evening things are looking a bit better. I actually spent the afternoon working on a doll.  I need to get some creative work done and I think that working in the space will help with the set up.

The Orlando CHA show was probably 80% scrapbooking related, at least. Scrapbooking is not really my thing, but I still managed to find some booths that caused me some serious crafty supply lust.

When I saw this booth, I literally gasped. Why do I love this stuff? I have no idea! It has no application for the work I do, but… I just love it!

The Clover booth was the only sewing related company I saw at the show. There were lots of fun gadgets to think about. One thing I was intrigued by- a light to attach to your rotary cutter. Sounds like a very good idea. I watched a demo of their new rose making devise. Can’t have too many fabric flowers!

And then there was the May Arts booth. Please, can I have one of each?!

You see these spools? 100% silk. Sigh. I have got to find a place that sells it in the Boston area.

Other fun happenings- I got to say hi to the famous Crafty Chica.

It is strange how you feel like you know someone after you’ve listened to a few podcast interviews. Hope I didn’t come off as too stalker-ish. She had a photo box (not sure what they are called?) in the iLovetoCreate booth-

Mimi as Chica- not quite sure it works.

And speaking of podcasts, I also met and talked with Margot Potter, The Impatient Crafter, who was recently on Craftypod. Carol Duvall was somewhere in the building, but I missed her.

That will be all for now on the Florida trip. I was hoping to have a finished doll to post today, but instead I have one shelf and 2 bulletin boards hung up in the new studio. That took me all day!