Hey! Things look different! The spam problem got out of control- somehow old posts were turning into ads for casinos and on-line medication sites. We shut down all comments and posting, changed over to WordPress and now hopefully all is better. There is still work to do, and I lost some archieved posts, but we’ll go forward.
Here is the article about blogging that appeared today in our local newspaper. Only slightly embarrassing.
Hey! Things look different! The spam problem got out of control- somehow old posts were turning into ads for casinos and on-line medication sites. We shut down all comments and posting, changed over to WordPress and now hopefully all is better. There is still work to do, and I lost some archieved posts, but we’ll go forward.
Here is the article about blogging that appeared today in our local newspaper. Only slightly embarrassing.
It is suppose to get really cold tonight, a real hard frost, so I have picked the last few flowers in the garden- the ones that made it after the last, not quite so cold night. These roses are so fragrant- they perfume a whole room… but they won’t last long.
Here are pics of some more mini dolls. I think I’ll have about 20 for the show on Wednesday.
I am so impressed by what Kerstin of At My Knits End has been writing since the election. I’d link to a specific entry, but everyday since election day has been excellent. Wow!
I am working on inventory for my next event- a sale called
Girls Night Out. I did it last year and it was an exhausting but successful event- that was when I sold my first doll!
I am working on bug pins and the little dolls. I hope to get a photo gallery of 2004 inventory finished over the week-end. I will post when it’s up.
I have to admit that I am finding working on these production items a dead bore… so I’m working on all kinds of things at the same time- that’s how my work area gets to be such a mess. I do bugs for a while and when I can’t stand it anymore I go over to the mini-dolls. I have all kinds of partially finished projects spread on every flat surface.
What I really want to be doing is making more big dolls, so I am letting myself work on these 2 kiddos, a little every day. It always amazes me how different they look in a picture- it really helps me to figure out what areas of the painting still needs work.
Don’t they look kind of sad and cranky? That’s how I’m feeling!
Have you noticed that cool little map on the bottom of the links? It shows what parts of the world readers are coming from- really neat!
I have been working on my links- adding and subtracting… sometimes I think I curse people when I link to them- I add them and they never post again! Pretty amazing considering my (not) vast readership.
I get tons of spam comments. Many every day. I have decided to close the comments on any posting that is more then a month or so back… if anyone is desperate to contact me they can email. We also get tons of spam on our stats… It is really no fun to try and figure out the stats when obviously it is all image theft and on-line gambling… but I can’t do anything about that.
I appreciate any blog that made me laugh today.
and here for some inspiration…
Japanese Dolls on the Western Toyshelf is an amazing site with tons of reference pictures. I love these dolls.
Dollmasters has a beautiful catalog, full of large, color pictures of some wonderful dolls and toys. It is always a treat when one shows up in the mail. You can also see it on-line but it is not quite the same. This is a picture of a doll by the German artist, Peter Wolf.
They have some Gail Wilson dolls and animals and one of them-
made me think of Loobylu’s A Month of Softies challenge… which I am thinking about doing- way in the back of my mind. This is such a busy month already…
Okay, this is the closest to politics I will ever get on this blog- don’t read if you don’t want to know… I am feeling very sick this morning.
I am back from the college trip to Philadelphia- I’m exhausted. I took lots of stuff to work on and got to work on some of it. Here are mini-doll bodies on the hotel bed…
Here they are, back home and getting some clothes.
I have put a gallery together for my vitual open studio. I am not satisfied with it yet, but have had trouble with my camera- about half the pictures I take are out of focus for some unknown reason, and now I am going out of town and won’t be able to work on it anymore until Thursday… so I figured I’d just post it. Studio!
I have been working on the photo gallery for my virtual open studio, but after I took the first set of pictures, I realised you couldn’t really see much except piles of stuff (ADD decorating). So… even though I had originally thought that the beauty of a virtual tour would be that I wouldn’t have to clean up, that is exactly what I worked on all day yesterday!
I am always trying to be organized as I work, but it is a constant struggle. I make parts of the doll and then, a month later can’t figure out which of my patterns I used. As I work on the dolls, paper pattern pieces are always disappearing- where did this disappearing paper come from anyway??? When I sew the cloth pieces together and stuff them, they can change shape dramatically, so trying to match paper to 3-d form usually doesn’t work.
I have made a lot of baby steps towards being organized with the patterns. I have all my doll pattern pieces numbered and organized in a notebook in plastic sleeves. I mark the pieces as I cut them out- but that part of the fabric ends up on the inside so that doesn’t help. I have tried marking the dolls on the bodies, but it seems like messing them up.
This is my latest idea-
I got these file sleeves at Staples. I put every piece of pattern paper and muslin mock-up into it. I trace the body pattern pieces onto a new paper and put that in also. I could use the outside to make notes, but haven’t gotten there yet. I use it as a way of cleaning as I go along… just put everything in the sleeve and then when it turns out something I need is lost, well, I know where to look!