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.

Heart-sick was a good word to use for the flooding in the studio. It made my heart sick on several levels at once. I am always looking for omens that God (or the Universe or my Higher Self ) wants me to be doing this business with dolls (that I seem to love so much). Having all that water run off the mountain into my studio gave me a pause. Or is it only the small creek that flows through our property remembers running through the portion of the land that the original builders made into a garage and insists, when it has enough water power, to resume its old ways? Dollies do NOT make good dams.
I have brought all of them into the house, in the living room where they are not allowed to be, where they are dry and protected. The wide swath is for WR to walk through to the kitchen. That is Lester sitting on the un-used wood stove waiting on me to change his Christmas sleeper. A lady wrote from Reborns.com to ask if he had other clothes to wear besides this holiday get-up. Means I need to get that done and photographed.

Actually there are two piles.

This group fills the corner where the Christmas tree was until Thursday. Just the day before the water ran in Amazon delivered all the poly-fill I had on order at once. So that is securest in the farthest dry corner. The collection on the other wall got richer when all the studio babies piled in. Thank Goodness the Spirit Child blesses and watches over all of them.

This makes the studio look even more cold and childless.

You can see the sun is pouring in the windows but so is water on the floor. Water is still flowing down off the mountain. It is hard to want to work with this damp outlook on life. So I have been healing my heart by taking many naps and crocheting peace pal dolls in the much warmer, and cozier, house.

I had heard the  phrase "sick at heart" and there were a few times in my life when I thought I had experienced it. Today I know what it means and how it feels.
Over half my morning was given to trying to reach customer service at the bank with the hope of someone finding the error in my bank statement that was their fault and not mine. After a dozen attempts I finally called the local branch and got a lovely lady who did everything she could by telephone to untangle the statement. In the end I accepted the blame and sucked it up. This was guaranteed to give me the screaming willies and lower my self esteem a couple more notches. However I determined to keep my head high and continue with making babies - after lunch. I did get two bodies sewed and was holding myself in check with the idea of that pleasure. The address Annie needed to head her box in the right direction had come, I had printed it out and feeling proud to get that box finished up and in the passenger side of the car. That exhausted me so I plopped in the recliner to catch my breath and get started on the fun  part of the day.
As I leaned over to look at the rug under the chair it was darker than it had been and over waves of heart-sickness I knew  El Nino water was leaking in across the floor. Four years ago we had had this trouble and put in a French drain along the studio side which faces the hill. Three summers of drought made it look as it this had solved our problem. It didn't. Finally the storm last night pressed enough water through a crack under the cement floor and up into the studio. Werner was napping so I did not want to wake him to this kind of news so I started moving what I could to get to the water source. I was able even to shove the recliner to the drier garage side and wiggle the rug out the door.  I even got the babies all carried into the warm dry living room. This is what greeted him in the studio
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He agreed to keep the car outdoors as long as we are having these repeated storms so I could drag more stuff into the even drier places on his side of the room.

He helped me put the chair up on blocks and got the bamboo rugs upright so they drain.

The living room looked like this. Or this.

And we soon had babies slithering all over the floor as if on holiday. I was thankful Annie was in a box in the car. I got everyone and everything (on the other side of the room are bags and boxes of poly fill) as safe as I could. I was able to mop the floor of the studio so it was dry again and there was no where we could see water soaking in. The couple hours of sunshine did help to dry all the floors but boots are going to be at the top of the dress code the rest of this week. I still have three babies waiting on their bodies. . .

Annie is eager to  be on her way to Florida (the studio does get cold at night) so she helped me get her dressed up the trip. She couldn't stop turning her head this way and that so I would admire her new wig. It looks great on her but I was too tired to make a new portrait and replace the one on the web. So tonight she is in her box and it is all my fault. I forgot to get a postal address so the USPS can take her home.

In the morning we had sunshine warming the window and shining on the limbs. Through the viewfinder the reflection of other babies on the shelves showed up better. It was a good feeling to have them observing how they had come into being.
By afternoon, as the next storm moved in on us with its darkness, I was able to get all three of the new babies stuffed and ready for their bodies tomorrow. They will have to wait until better light with the day so I can paint their faces. Here they are, waiting.

 What a merry band of kids ready for their  painted faces. After I took this photo I realized it looked too neat and organized, so I lowered the camera for another shot of the work table with Sweetie overlooking the tools. She is still wearing the funny glasses from BB that make lights look like gingerbread men. I do not know if I can take them away from her or just let her enjoy them until she tires of the magic. She still had her blanket from the night.

My world is back in order, like this sleeping baby I photographed today only because she looked so peaceful which was the way I felt inside. At first when I saw the rain coming down in gusts, the trees thrashing about, and the house as cool as it was I was afraid I would let the elements keep me from doing what the big urge inside of me wanted done.
Although I had bought Annie a new wig last night on eBay, it was the idea that everything I wanted to do to her to finish her that depended on finding a wig that satisfied me. I made one more pass beside the sitting babes and there it was. The wig that was big enough, hair long enough and cap small enough that would please her and me. We tried it on and that was it. Strange how perfection can feel so right.

Oops I see I took a photo of her sitting among her clothes, still waiting on her wig and not one with the wig making her complete. You see I let her play with the peace pals while she waited on me to make up my mind about the wig so we could get on with things.

There, even with bad lighting, isn't that better? Even she, without a mirror, can feel that this wig is right for her. Thank goodness I did not have to go far to find this photo. She was sitting in the kitchen with other parts with glue drying.

In front of her is this week's crew doing the gluing the eyeballs in straight act.  Though you can only see them by craning your neck over that is Samantha, Punkin and the last one of my Ching kids. Behind them is the monkey standing on his head supported by cans of ginger ale while his neck strengthens.
Now it is 4 o'clock, dinner is in the oven (boneless pork chops with a yam and an apple), I did get Annie on her way to being ready to go this morning with a new hairdo. I was then able to go over Kameko and all the things in her box to make sure nothing had crawled in with her. She was still perfect so obviously she has already taken on the national attitude of Japanese with neatness and the ability to hold still for long periods of time. I even found a smaller box (cost less to ship) into which she fit perfectly and was able to print out her address, tape it on, and lay the box on the passenger seat of the car with prayers for a safe arrival. If the storm does not get worse, I am trusting Werner can take her to the post office in the morning.

It really unhinges a blog when you take a week, drop a two-day holiday in the middle of it,  add a weekend on the end of it, garnish it with three generations of family, and slip an order for a new doll in between it all while waiting for news from Germany of the arrival of a new great-grandson.
First of all, photos of the family. Hans, and his son Ian flew over on the morning of New Year's Eve, bringing Han's wife Carol and Conner, Ian's son. Here is Ian, taller than ever before, and his son, Conner deep in Lego kits.

Hans still looks like the little boy I remember him being. It is so amazing to hear him talking about the boat business in numbers I cannot comprehend and to know he is my child - or at least that ornery little brother who bugged his sisters.

Carol handled everything so beautifully that I was completely astounded. She and I need a good talk without the guys listening to every word.

At least Conner got to see whales "in our front yard" and that made his day. He is a great kid to take on trips and is so well-behaved!

 Everything is calm today and all is in order, yet I cannot settle down to work in the studio. Well, it is very cold in there because there were three days without heat so the urge to stay in the house is overwhelming. I have compromised by bringing Annie, the new doll headed for Florida, into the house in an attempt to finalize her. I have her clothes spread all around my chair and yet I want to crochet. My interior self knows babies are to be worked on in the studio, not the living room anymore. I really want to work on Annie as I love that work the most but the cold has herded me inside. So I whine and walk in circles. By tomorrow the studio should be warm again and Annie and I will have our day together and my blog will be caught up until we get new baby pictures from overseas.