Today! It is my blog’s 16th birthday! How crazy is that and even crazier that I remember each year. I have a clear memory of deciding to start/try and what was happening at that time in my life. This blog didn’t start at the very beginning of my doll journey but has documented every doll I’ve made since 2004. I’ve never tried to monetize my blog, except for some Amazon affiliated links and I don’t think I ever made more than about $20 total. But I keep doing it because I think of it as my online record of my art life. And what a crazy, wonderful, and unexpected journey it has been.

It’s been a weird week. I’ve been a bit under the weather and everything is going slower than I would like. Firstly I was cleaning and sorting to switch gears from kitties to tattooed men. I pulled out a pile of sewed up fellows and stuffed up a grouping. Okay, yes, that sounds a little naughty.

I also spent all of yesterday dyeing body parts, mostly for mermen.

As you can see, I want to experiment with some non-natural skin colors for these fellows.

I know I’ve mentioned that I am no expert when it comes to dyeing. I tend to just wing it which often doesn’t work out that well and makes reproducing results very difficult. This time, I went to the RIT website and studied their color formulas (recipes). I picked out ones that looked good to me, bought some new dyes, and I think got much better results! Of course I still had a hard time sticking to the actual recipes and ended up doing a teeny bit of winging it but all in all, I am very happy. So, now I have to sew up all these handsome mermen!

And the quilt is coming along. I am at the very end- putting on the binding.

Have you watched Next in Fashion on Netflix? I’m loving it- so much talent!