I got myself situated properly into my day by staying in the inside studio even though a bright sun was calling me outside. I finished making Eliza first of all. I was surprised how quickly the work goes when I am rested and bright into a new day. Even bobbin winding was a breeze. This was a view of the babies that greeted me this morning. Kay and Elsie slept in one of their trays while Eliza waited above them in hers. I was lucky I found a turquoise sleeper that fit her bigger size.

Here she has her eye on her breakfast first of all. Then photos

You can see how she settled right down into posing though she kept her eyes on the prize - the bottle..

 Then Elsie got her chance to lie on the satin fabric. I felt their lovely little fingers got lost too often in the fur.

This baby is so easy to love because her hands are open and her smile never fades.

She looks so ready for winter with her ruffles and red nose. By the time someone picks her for their baby the redness will be gone - almost.

Kay was fascinated by the satin. She kept patting her hands on it as if she didn't believe it was real.

When that wore off she was ready to quit this posing stuff. She is so tiny and sweet I find myself doing whatever she wants even though  I know should have taken a few more images while we had the good light.

We lost our power to a strong wind and a weak tree so the house shone with candle glow until a few minutes ago. Glad to have it, and the internet connection back in service.

With the photo table in the garage, I have to reorganize my day. When the table was in the house, the best light coming in the west windows started about 3:30. At that time of day I was on the downward slope of my energy curve. I would plunk the baby down where I knew it was best, snap, snap x 15 or so and I would have it. Today the sun shone and I knew from that terrible white bar of light the other day that 10:00 was too early. So I worked awhile longer on the computer until 11 and then carried out a baby in a colorful sleeper. I had too much energy! I used the Sony and then switched to the Canon. Then I saw the face painting was not showing up so I redid that on Jim Timm and took new photos with the Sony.
 With three downloads I was able to compare the results.

Sony

Canon

The Sony does have better saturation, but I am more creative with the smaller Canon. I felt the  results were close enough I could use the Sony for the portraits and the Canon for the documentary shots for the blog. 

In the afternoon I sewed two bodies and before dark got Kay and Elsie together and ready to be photographed tomorrow. I tried to push to get Eliza done in the growing darkness but the bobbin ran out of thread and I discovered I had forgotten to stuff her  head yesterday and WR decided he wanted dinner early. Nothing to do but quit. My only hope is that I can finish sewing Eliza's body  and get her stuffing in by 11:00 assuming the Google forecast is right and the sun will shine tomorrow also. 

I tried to down load the photos in the Canon from the body sewing adventure for this blog and it refuses! Communication error. Evidently the Canon did not like being downloaded in the same morning with the Sony. I have tried all the tricks I know to make the computer in the camera work but so far tonight I am still an idiot. The fear in my heart is similar to that which occurs when a cat stays out all night. I am hoping a new day forgive me all my sins and the Canon will give up its photos like a lamb.

I was able to post the best of these photos on Reborns.com so I cannot be too unhappy!

Posting #250

I suppose this corner does not look any different to you, but under that quilt are boxes of babies sorted out according to kit, so all the Samanthas are in one box, and so on. On the other side of the room the box of Ching babies was too heavy to lift or even scoot across the rug so it was packed up next to the other babies.

That one uncovered box is there to remind me of what I did with the other dolls! The boxes are not closed because when the weather settles down and the studio stays warm and dry I will put the boxes on the pines shelves in the NE corner. I plan to leave the boxes in the living room until then. Thus I had to find some way to live with this disarray. I found it so hard to get myself to work on dolls this week, but after I got the living room organized I was very eager to get back to making babies.
Oh, I found this scene on the unused wood stove and did not have the heart to move them.

I felt the little guy was trying so hard to tell Sleepy Sam she should not be kissing a pig. You can see his heart and concern for her in his eyes as his hand reaches for her's. I had the feeling she was not listening to any thing he said.

Even though the conditions were not ideal, I did go to the out-back studio to put the glass beads in the limbs. The puffs of poly-fill are indications that I did pour in the beads and then add a bit of stuffing so the beads don't spill out to scatter over everything.

Back in the house each dolly then got it's own tray. I can see the error here. Elsie's arms are in Kay's tray. When I started to stuff them I caught the error. By tonight all the heads and limbs are stuffed so we are ready for bodies tomorrow. I will paint them with my good in-the-morning energy and then begin on the bodies. I put Morgan up on Reborns.com tonight, but I have decided to separate the babies again. The 8 families of dolls up on Etsy, now in the boxes, will only be offered there. On Reborns I will post the babies I buy so I do not get too bored. So far I have never felt that way, but making babies is so important to me and my well-being that I want to think ahead.

The rain came back and washed away all my energy and good spirits. Maybe it was because I felt better sitting by the heater and stretching my sore muscles only gently. I stayed inside, helped WR some with his book (I may be getting photo shop elements again!) and tried to figure out what to do. I had decided to pack dolls in boxes so all the same babies were in a box so it would be easier to find the right one if I got an Etsy order. In my trips into the outdoor studio I found how easily it got damp with the cold so I lugged in the boxes so they could warm up and dry out. I think I will store these babies in the corner until the studio gets warm and dried.
In the meantime I crocheted peace pals. There was a little time in the afternoon when I could have worked on some real babies but I was too comfortable in the warm house. Here is the basket of peace pals. You can see that when I find a combination that works for me I repeat it until all the yarn in that ball is gone. The red-brown pants and the olive green ones are with the compliments of Bambi's Christmas present and the new blue is thanks to an order from Amazon.

After I took the photo I noticed that behind the basket was a the row of dolls looking as if they wanted to play with them. Not tonight kids, it is your bed time. Begging will not make me change my mind.

A new day and the sun is shining! It's warmth and energy goes directly into my cells lifting my spirit and loaning me the energy I need. After doing the computer stuff I raced (at my hobbling pace) to the outdoor studio to get the full body shots that HarMOMy was missing on the Etsy site. This is Morgan but I felt the best shot was of the Ching baby. I must get over my preference for white sleepers and pick more of the colorful ones if I am going to use that white fur. This shot was done with the garage door open in the full sun.

Then I closed the garage door far enough to put the photo table in its shadow and then I got that annoying white streak from the sun coming in the window. I wish I still had photoshop as I could have gotten rid of the streak with a couple of keystrokes. None of the babies are complaining.

See how colorful jammies jazz up the picture? Am thinking maybe I need to create some pop in blinds for that window streak.

Kameko in the full sun. My back drop is not wide enough for me to move more to the right to get a face-on shot. I need to watch where I set the baby down. Thank goodness they mostly hold still. Occasionally someone will flop over but they are easily to control than real babies!

I learned how to get ahead by going in circles instead of the straight line I was determined to follow. Suddenly this morning all my problems with Etsy became clear to me and what I needed to do to get access to my new site and fill it up with dolls. I tried jumping through all their loops of passwords and emails and ended up at my Etsy page. I was so jazzed that it worked again and again that I ended up posting all nine babies. I took a break to have lunch and went right back before the goddess of babies took a nap and I lost the connection. Another blessing came in the understanding that I could use the images I had of the babies if I knew where their frames would chop off vital parts. I had been planning to rephotograph everything but was able to forget that!  When the sun comes out again I will make some new photos and add just one or two to each listing. That is easier than redoing a whole listing
Tonight I am very tired (for awhile I was wearing the wrong glasses and wondering why the images were so fuzzy) but my heart is quiet. Maybe tomorrow I can return to making the new babies.

Candy greeted me on the work table on this rainy, dark gray morning. I was very glad for her sweet looks to start the day. She has the full length legs which are always a little different to make (you can see the blue circle lying there waiting on its strings). Actually the full-leg connection only takes a few minutes more to make if you do not count the time hand-hemming it.

Before noon Candy was in the try-out chair. I love this moment. Suddenly she is a personality, no longer  just vinyl parts on a tray. I love her 'okay, now what are we going to do?' attitude. She keeps me going, with a smile on my face.

Morgan, because he is such a little guy, goes together very quickly so I had him in the chair before lunch. I am teaching him to smile. Some days he can do it and on other attempts we have to wait while the smile creeps up to his lips. He really tries, You can see him hunching his shoulders with effort. That is part of the training to be a therapy doll so he gives it his all.

I had forgotten that I had not sewn Kameko's body so we had to take time out to do that. Morgan and Candy got a big kick out of watching the machine sewing together the pieces of fabric that would be her. She even turned her head on the tray to watch. Normally when I work in the outside studio no one watches me sewing bodies because that is one step I make in the house alone. There were lots of giggles and whistles while Kameko had to patiently wait for her body.

By late afternoon she was on the chair wiggling into her new body. If you look at her very quickly you can catch her smiling.. At first I thought her cheeks were too rosy but I think it is because of the cold she has a bit more color. Every one picked out their pajamas and let me put them in the harness I use to keep their heads held high while they crawl for the Etsy photos. All of us are hoping for some sunshine tomorrow.
After cleaning up from making these three, (poly fill flies everywhere) I was able to go to the other studio to open a new box of kits from Bountiful Baby that WR had just brought home from the post office. I was so glad to get the kits for babies I want to photograph for Etsy, so I started right in on them. You can see I got the eyes in and off to the side is another tray with arms and legs. All the nails are manicured and I will paint them in the morning. My hands are too shaky by evening to try to apply the polish.

Meet the new crew. That is Eliza on the left, then Elsie, and finally little Kaydance. Looking at this photo I think her eyes are too bright blue. That was the only pair of really small eyes I had so I will have to be happy with the lightness of her newborn eyes.

For those of you who use my blog mainly as a 'sign of life' from me, let me assure you I am alive and fairly well. It is Etsy's life that it is danger. On Wednesday I decided to quickly use some of my inside the house hours to get my Etsy site back up and working. I thought it would be quick because I know how to use Etsy and get around on the site. I did enough work posting the many bead projects in 2009 and even taking part in bead contests and advertisements that I felt I could just pop in and start posting.
Well, first of all I realized that Etsy's framing of photos was using ONLY the landscape mode and all my baby photo are naturally in portrait mode - because they are portraits, not landscapes. This meant rephotographing the babies and teaching them how to lie on their tummies to spread out their legs to fill the whole frame. Thursday I spent making little harnesses that curve a baby's head up the way a child holds it when crawling. It rained all day and I could not try out the idea or but I used it to get used to looking at a baby in that position. In the meantime I started fighting with Etsy. I tried to 'close' the old bead site but it stays there. I took the suggestion to sign in again and I did. I have the url of the new site and can get on it, but I cannot do anything with it. I want to remove the ugly banner but I cannot even find instructions on how to do. Instead, every attempt to work on the site takes me to the supposedly dead bead site.
Yesterday we had a shower/storm every hour, but in between there were moments of pure good sunshine. So I was able to get some photos made of my guinea pig Samantha.

I was unable to get a listing to post, so I did not photograph any more of the other babies. It was too much work.  I was still wavering about whether I could get Etsy to work properly. The good news was that I did get my photo-table organized and usable and moving just that much back into the studio felt very, very good. By last night I had adequate photos that Etsy could not slice the face off.

This morning I woke early because I was so eager to get to posting on Etsy. I had figured out a way to copy in the big chunk of text that got lost with every failed attempt to post so I could drop that in and just fill out the blanks with a minimum of information. I hoped that would help lower my frustration level when posting would not work properly. Finally about noon, after three good tries,  I got the posting option to publish / post. But it put the dolly listing in the bead site! Grrr! Again I have written to the folks at Etsy asking help. It is good I can only contact them by long distance or heads would be rolling. One of my reasons for ignoring the blog all these days was my plan to post a link to the new site and all kinds of hoopla to make you feel my happiness. Well, I do not have any yet so all you get are my grrr-sounds and whining. In the meantime I crochet peace pals to calm my nerves and savagely bite sugar-free gummi bears. Samantha looks good and I am eager to photograph some other babies on their tummies (something rarely seen on photos on the web of reborns) and I know why as it is very difficult to get them to hold the position without the kids falling on their faces.

The weather cooperated beautifully with my promise for a better photo for you. The sun came out, a light breeze sprang up so the studio out back was so warm I did not need to wear a jacket. I felt at peace and had all the time in the world to get the photo I wanted. Ta Dah!

The sun even threw some sparkles on the background to liven it all up. Now I have to figure out how to get the foil on the circle so it looks like a part of the whole event. I was so delighted with light, with warmth, with air, with the day that I brought in the trash bins and again re-dug the ditch around the studio. I got such pleasure from observing the water's eagerness to get into the ocean that my spirits rose even higher. I though I was taking photos but see now I only have pictures from yesterday.

This was the tiny stream that had earlier been going through the studio and trying to get out the door to continue on its ancient way. You can see how in just one day the ditch has filled itself with stones with the help of the night's storm. I see I did forget to rephotograph the stream after using a hoe to pull the stones out of it. I was having such a great time wading through the water that I did not go back into the studio with my muddy shoes to get the camera.

This is a view of the stream ready to flow out into the lawn. That whacked off white space in the lower right corner is the floor of the garage and the white wall.

I am catching up and making up for missing a posting yesterday. It was my B-day and I am happy to report that I survived all of it. This is usually a day I dread and I was correct about it again this year, but all has been forgiven and I am still breathing.
Not wanting the assembly of dolls to get mixed or mired in that B-D mess I forced myself to find other work. I had planned to do my Etsy page but when I could not find it on three different computers I decided the Universe wanted me to chill out instead.
So I worked on my entry into the Surrealism exhibit at Gualala in Febuary. I had sworn off preparing anything for exhibits after all the work I did for the Art in the Redwoods show,(for so little satisfaction) but one day a couple of months ago I found myself, in a moment of confusion, making this piece.

I had ordered a set of arms for some doll whose arms I did not like (I hate those two-fisted babies). But when they came I found this elegant set of adult hands instead of small fat baby hands. Whoa. What to do with those? Without knowing where I was headed, I began to fall into my oldest pattern of making really weird babies by reversing the arms and legs. Adding to the weirdness is the fact the legs look really heavy and large and the new legs are way too delicate. Yet they do give a flipper feel to the 'feet.' You can see it was afternoon (and gray and cloudy) through the window when I got the piece this far. Then I began to try to get a better photo.

Here you can see this is one of those really cheap dolls from China with a full body. It feels so hard and is not cuddly in the least and the way the neck is attached it does lend itself to replacing the body with fabric. Later I got the idea of putting the doll on a revolving display stand and spent another hour trying to get one of those to work properly. The mirror on it was so scratched I tried covering it with aluminum foil but it was too small. In the stack of wrapping paper I found a roll of unused potato chip bag foil and was able to get that to cover.  It seems to reflect fairly good. It is not a mirror but the squishy colors are only adding to the surreal image - I imagine.

Today I am happier with the photos than I was yesterday, which tells a lot about the day and how I went through it. I finally decided to take the whole set up out to the photo table. I was pleasantly surprised how not-cold the room was but dismayed to find out how damp it was under the fur. At least it is airing again.

Catching the view of the piece I wanted while it revolved (today I realize I should have just turned the thing off and set the views I wanted) in low light conditions gave me a lot of fuzz. At least I know today how to do it better. And I need to shoot from higher up to hide the edge of folded under foil.  If I can get out in the studio between rainstorms and have the garage door open, perhaps I will have a better photo made with the Sony to show you later.

First of all is my memorial for Jim Grenwhelge who did so very much for Gualala Arts in every way he could. He was there when I worked there and I came to admire him very much. I remember one Christmas someone made the decision to take goods from the shops in town and to display them as if they were works of art worthy if being in a gallery. Silently with closed lips I had my thoughts about this project but when I saw Jim had done with the items, he had truly made an exhibit of works of art from positioning and arranging ordinary things with the heart and appreciation of an artist. He pulled it off perfectly and from then on I knew he was the best hanger of shows in the center. Occasionally he would make a piece for a show. He raised gourds and tried all different ways of using them for the different themes of the shows. One year he entered this gourd fairy house which was like nothing else in the show, so it really appealed to me.  I bought it for $65., made Jim glow with happiness that his work sold, and put up with the disregard here at home. When I heard the other day that Jim had died on Thursday, due to ALS, the fairy house became even more precious to me. This morning as I was putting away the candles from the power outage last night, I saw in my mind this memorial to Jim. I hope he is not too busy in heaven, to take time to look down and see how someone appreciated his efforts. Thanks Jim, it was a joy to know you.

For some reason the power being out last night threw all my sleep schedules into chaos. I woke at 3:00 ready for the day but the additional rain and gray clouds kept the windows dark until almost 8.
I had planned to make babies today, but by the time breakfast was over I had worn myself waiting for the day and I needed a nap. I went back to bed, piled pillows on me for warmth and slept until noon. Somehow I have the idea that my mornings are my best time and the time I usually give to making babies. Today, with my birthday breathing down my neck and making me wish I had never been born there was not enough good, clean, pure energy for the babies, so here they are waiting . I cannot even hope that things will be better tomorrow, so they wait.

I gave the afternoon to the cradle purses by bringing in the basket from the studio. I finished what I had started and while looking for a new thing to do, remembered Ling-Yen's idea of making little cocoons for them. That went very well and I am happy with the results.

Even these little babies look happy in these outfits. I was able to insert the music buttons so they each play "Amazing Grace."
It rained all day long today but because WR had dug out the ditch around the studio no water at all came in. This was a real test. A few more days of this kind of success and I may be moving back into the studio. This cheers me much more than having another birthday.

You are getting this report a day late thanks to a power outage and then the loss of the internet connection the rest of the evening last night.
I kept busy though, even trying to crochet by candle light. I cannot believe I have gone back to the cradle purses.

I think the arrival of one of the tiny silicone dolls has reawakened my need and delight in these cradles as tinier things. I was so happy making peace pals, so I an very surprised that the 'something' in me that guides my life returned to these yesterday. It could also been the arrival of the little music buttons that play Amazing grace has me again interested in the package of dolls with voice boxes in their backs. Today, when the rain allows the skies to lighten into day, perhaps I will understand my inner directions more clearly.
Yesterday morning I did welcome a new crew washed and all ready to jump on the path of being babies, I even found! and set in their eyes, as you can see. Need to order more eyes. . .

We have Morgan on the left, the baby with an almost-smile for those who find my smiley babies too much to live with. Next is Kameko who was also on sale at BB in December and who I hope will soon be going to Tokyo. Last, but always first with me, is Candy. Doesn't she look like me when sugar-free jelly beans come into sight On another tray are their limbs drying, along with the polish on all their nails.
In the afternoon I was talking with Ling-Yen and realized that I have been neglecting my Itsy shop. One of the reasons I have let it slip is that it is such a big job to post an item and then when a certain baby finds a new home, have the whole process to delete and redo. Then I got the idea that if I post generic babies (now there is a concept!) I could use Itsy to advertise what is available and not just the baby that is searching for a new home. That concept may be the one that will fire up my engines and get me back to taking care of that site.

It feels so good to keep a promise. Yesterday I promised Punkin that I would help him into his new body today. It seems the past few weeks one thing and another came up and the needs of the babies would slip down the list. I was determined that Punkin was first on my to-do list no matter how I felt this morning. I did find that as he and worked together I began to feel better and better, happier and happier. He is so good for my moods. He expects everyone to be as happy as he is.
Even though the weather was slightly warmer today I felt he still needed the fleece sleepers so I brought this one in for him to wear for his official photo. He loved the lion on his heart (I really think his heart is as big as the lion face and surrounding aura) so when I told him the sleeves were too short he could not understand why they needed to be longer. Maybe if his little hands get cold in the night tonight he will comprehend my concern.

Because of the warmth I was able to photograph the two others on his crew. I have decided to use the Sony camera for the portraits but keep using the tiny canon for snapshots of the days. There is certainly more saturation in these new photos!

Here is Charlie Ching Child with a whole litter of gray pups. My I love this one! I fear that soon there will be no more like him. People who do not like his open mouth  give me the willies. I love his smile and his ability to be who he is.

Samantha is so sweet I always feel that all her photo are the same - full of sweetness. How many ways can you grab a photo of sweetness? Here is one baby that always seems happy to see you. No matter what the weather is like, she has a smile on her face.

The automatic date on this entry is accurate, but I am wishing I had written the blog yesterday when I was 'supposed' to. I was working in the morning on Punkin and we were having great time together. I was almost ready to tie him into his body when the phone interrupted us. It was an old friend I had repeatedly invited to come visit my dolly studio. In a whole year she has never found time to stop in on her many trips a week past our house. I was so glad to hear from her and to finally have her coming by that I warmly welcomed her idea for our afternoon. Poor Punkin got put on hold as I dashed around trying to organize the several piles in the living room. Because I knew she was coming at two, I somehow felt I had to use every spare minute to redo this and that, hide those things, bring forward the newest babies to show her.
Two o'clock came with renewed vigor in the rain storm as roads turned into stream beds. She did not come. Water was running or puddling on every surface. I turned on the studio lights hoping she would remember she could come in that way in the rain as it was closer to her car. Nothing. The room filled with my nervousness. I started a peace pal. Still nothing. Nothing helped. So I called her home to see if she had trouble getting out on their unpaved road and only got the machine. I was then quieter as I figured she and her husband were out the storm together. The crocheting on the peace pal went better. The next time I looked at the clock I was shocked how late it was and she still had not come. Then well after 3 o'clock she comes strolling in. Nothing happen, nothing delayed her, she just took her time (and mine!) In my relief that she was finally here I relaxed and let her talk about all the things she was interested in (her various aches and pains). At 4 I was very ready for her to go but more than a little disappointed she had not looked at any of the dolls. So I tried to show her some hoping that if she did not want to see them she would leave. No such luck. She coughed up the smallest phrases, none of praise, about the dollies. She only pointed out my errors in the peace pals instead of appreciating their idea and purpose. In desperation I started edging her toward the door. It took her 45 minutes to put on her coat and shoes! I thought I was going to kip over from my black exhaustion. I just sat it a chair and leaned my head on my hand. Finally she left. And then seconds later came back to tell me my studio light was on. Finally she was gone. I got a drink of water and
hobbled back into the living room studio, plopped in my chair and closed my eyes for a nap before I had to start dinner in 20 minutes.  After one deep calming breath I heard WR coming down the stairs. No, not now! Let me rest the few minutes I have. Don't make me start dinner now. Suddenly I wished for my cold damp studio as hiding place.
I dutifully got and ate dinner and fell into bed. In the middle of the night the pain woke me and would not let me sleep until I had kicked myself around the block for not having the courage to tell her she had come over an hour late and the time for her visit was nearly up. I should have gone to bed and taken the nap my body wanted even in her stream of talk.

Yesterday I had such a good day making babies that I completely forgot to blog in the evening. So here we are with catch-up. The organization of baby bits before assembly really helped my move. It was a lot easier to make the first baby in this studio than it had been in the old one. I remember how I spent most of that day stopping the job to go find little things like toothpicks or string.  Here the three babes are in their trays lined up on the desk by the sewing machine. Jenny Wren is now the keeper of the extra yarns as you can see. She grabbed one of the baby cap looms as her toy for the day. I guess being a keeper of yarns is a somewhat boring job.

I picked a Ching family child because I do love their faces and feel such a connection with the kits, but also because I am not seeing them offered any more on eBay. I had noticed before Christmas that the kits were being offered at around $50.each (instead of the $11 or $15 I had been paying) but were not selling. Not many people wanted a kit for Christmas, but the kits are now re-appearing but not this one. I suppose the market is glutted, I know I have more of them in my backlog than is sensible but I do love that face.

Since I have moved inside I thought I had better start with my new work station. A recliner, the older, bigger one I had left inside is now next to the table on 3 wheels (one fell off) which I had used so much with the beads. The basket on the floor holds the colors of yarn I need for the peace pals. That white space at the bottom of the photo is filled with the two bags of filling. The green mat is to protect the table from spills and scratches which would interfere with the scratches Bu Kitty left there. There are two shelves below which harbor all the bits and pieces it takes to make a doll a real baby. You can see the pink smears of color I use on the faces.

A better photo of Ching ready for his great adventure. By noon I was giving him the cuddle quiz while I waited for WR to come down to lunch. That is the one big disadvantage to using this studio. He walks through it 8 - 9 times a day to get to the kitchen. However I was so happy just rocking and cuddling Charlie Ching that it allowed no impatient ideas into my head.

In the afternoon I was able to make Samantha so she could him from being lonely while he waited to go back out in the old studio to have his portrait taken. Because he had a puppy on his sleeper I tried to give him a small gray animal  but it only made him spit because it was not a dog even though it was a pacifier. Samantha found this funny as she sat holding another cap to see if its color was a better match to her sleeper.  When it came to putting her into her sleeper the process got interrupted because it was time to put supper in the oven. When I do tri-tip WR likes fresh garlic so I did that too. Then I cleaned my hands with a lemon but on the way back to the studio I saw I had left a second garlic lying on the cabinet so I picked it up to put away on my way. Samantha instantly smelled it and refused any sleeper I offered to put on her. There was nothing I could do to change her mind but go wash my hands again and change shirts so no whiff of garlic got to her. The kitchen is right next to the studio so she was teaching me I must take more care in going from kitchen to this studio.
In case this blog sounds bitchy I want to thank WR for going out to mop up the lake in the studio so I did not have to see and cope with that depressing job.

Back to work. There is Punkin waiting on my help to get him into his body. It is not storming, we have power and I have hope to get him into babyhood soon.

This morning while WR was off to RCMS to have his blood tested, something came over me like an uncontrollable urge. I flew to the studio to rescue the few dolls I had not already brought in the house. These were high and dry but the moisture in the room, added to the ambient cold, simply drove me over the edge. I piled my arms high with babies squashed together, and rushed them into the house. Since we no longer are using our wood stove (too much work with wood, ashes and feeding fires) I used it to pile the babies up.

Sorry Eliza's head got cut off in both shots. What you cannot see is an additional pile of babies on the stuffing pile in the corner and some babies added to the floor under the Spirit Child. Somehow with all the babes around me in the house I was quickly able to settle down to making peace pals. As I crocheted on them, the idea and the image of the babies still in the studio waiting with their bodies for final assembly came to me and I was now just as determined to work on them tomorrow, in the living room, not the studio. I crocheted like the calmest little old lady without a care in the world. I knew how to go forward and I was at peace. No conflicts between what I could and could not do. The peace pals began to assemble on the mantle.

I went from this above to this additional poor photo in the evening. I was making dolls and I was happy.

When WR came down for dinner he surprised me by coming over to me and leaning down to say, "I can feel how much happier you are with all these dolls around you." "Can I bring in the others to assemble them here?" I asked.  "Yes." he replied.  Little did he know my mind was already made up but his okay was a sweet frosting on the cupcake. Tomorrow I will roll in the small side table with my supplies to be next to the chair and I will be back in business with the babies.
When I fired up the computer to add this to my blog there was one letter from a very good friend who also has fibro. It was only one paragraph long but written in very strong language (for her) on how bad it would be for me and the babies to be in the studio with it so damp and cold. So she agreed with us without a pow-wow! She was part of the decision and the action though so far away. I feel very good tonight with the decision and the new plan.

I almost forgot to report that Kameko arrived in Tokyo and Machiko saw her smile as she was lifted out of the box. That made my day complete and very happy.