As I promised, here is a better picture of Regina's hair. To me, nothing in this photo looks "dolly-like" but that could be because I really love Regina. When I pick her up and feel her extra weight, I think, "That is what I love about her - this is real."
This success got me on a wig path today that involved playing with the babies until noon. I would try out various hair styles and then be inspired to try on other outfits. First into my lap was Big Ben.

You see I have changed my set-ups so Big Ben gets the animal print to go camping with his Daddy (whoever that will be). I love the reddish color of his hair but I think his tongue is too red. I think I can fix that tomorrow. Out in the studio I decided to use all the available wigs on babies I am keeping. Often when I order a certain wig for a baby I will also order two or three in other colors. I always pick the blonde wigs so I have all these other colors in the basket. All the rest of the morning I had a play-time with the babies but forgot to photograph the results.
All this was because I was missing Ming-Yen so much. Finally I took her sister down from the shelf just so I could pretend Ming-Yen was here. Her sister had gained weight! Now I know where all those chocolate chips have gone! I did not think I had eaten that many! She knows! Her little tummy shows what will happen to me if I keep nibbling away on them. I put a larger sleeper on her and gave her the blonde wig. Somehow I feel the Chinese girls, of this kit, look better, even happier, as blondes. I saw on the news that the Ty Beanie Baby company made a new lion in honor of Cecil the lion the poacher in Africa killed so here is our darling with her lion in remembrance of Cecil.

Last night I found more videos on YouTube from the Doll Show in Denver so was able to watch Bean Shanine get Doll Artist of the year for her zombies, aliens, clowns, etc. at The Twisted Bean Stalk Nursery. This morning, to my surprise I looked in the doll buggy and there was this guy.

Somehow the light caught in his iris so there was this glow. I did not know if seeing Bean Shanine's work sensitized me so I was aware of this or if weird alien babies are showing up every where.
I had a hard time finding my way back to work on a new baby so finally Werner gave up to go to town to get the mail in hopes the flowers were there for The Spirit Child. They were! Just the right ones to make her garland.

I think I need a few more pink roses in the garland but WR thinks I have enough here. I called the local florist to find out she does stock artificial pink roses! We will see if Spirit Child and I can convince WR to buy more flowers! I do need to add her eyelashes and draw in her eyebrows. The new nail polish can yesterday so I am set to do that in the morning when my hand is steady.

Sunday was dedicated to Ming-Yen because on Saturday, at Reborns.com. she sold. Like most reborners, a sale is a double-edged sword for us. On one hand it is an honor and confirmation of your skills to actually have someone pay money for something that you have made and on the other hand you have to give up the baby. Every cell in my body was screaming "Don't send her away." and reason kept reminding me the money was already in Paypal.
I checked her over, began the paper work on her, decided what to include in her package. Too soon it looked like this.

I could not get my heart rate low enough to work on the new Benno baby so I cleaned the studio and finally settled down crocheting butterflies and Peace Pal babies.

I had lots of trouble, on Monday morning, getting USPS to help me ship the box. I must have re-entered my info into the computer 20 times (and got 20 different prices!) before something finally worked at the correct price. Werner took her to town and said he, too, put a prayer on her box. I hope there was one for me with the hollow heart.

Only in the afternoon was I capable of turning my attention to the new baby. When I put him together I found his arms and legs much bigger than his brother's. If I had not opened the box from Germany and started directly working on the kit, I would have sworn I mixed up his limbs with another baby. There is still a chance that someone who packed him and Rieke did mix up the limbs. I am calling him Big Ben at the moment but need to check things out tomorrow.
I saw the wig from Sandie's for Regina so found my delight in that. I was tired and now see that all my photos do not really show the wig but that I focused on making her look good.

My last act was to drop a wig on Big Ben and he is so cute. I suspect my Tuesday will go to wigs.

I see I continued to try to find a way to photograph Kay so she looks as if she is lying down. She is such a tiny baby I hardly know how to hang on to her, but I love her smallness. Ling-Yen came by and she, too, loved Kay. I think I shall go post her photos on reborns. com.

Instead of making more new babies, I have been working on The Spirit Child ever since her new doll stand arrived on Thursday. I could not get her chin in the right position and it seemed she leaned forward with her head hanging down. Very much my own  personal attitude but not the one I wanted to exhibit. So I laid her out on the table and prepared her to lose her head.
I found out the pipe insulation that had been holding up her head caved in with the weight of her stuffing. Werner felt her one eye needed correcting so I did that yesterday and glued it in place. Then this morning I re-stuffed her head and reattached it.

 I got her  back up on the pedestal (which has left the living room in shambles) which made it easy to work on her and is the height I want her to have when she is exhibited. The wings were in the wrong place so I took them off and completely re-worked them so they are now tied to her back only in the back and not around her arms. I felt the red roses on her tulle skirt were too harsh and too much like the white ones on her under-skirt. I found I still had some beads in the  cupboard in the living room and among them were a bunch of stars. I sat and sewed each one one individually. I was thankful that I still have a week before taking her to GAC.

It is worth a peek to see the back of her dress. Here the wings are on right. I even sewed the arms of the frog to them. It was really a hot afternoon - so rare for us here. I kept wanting to take a good photo of her but even with the car taken out of the garage there was too much distraction for a full shot.

I carried her out to the tower of jewels bush in the yard. She is still missing her garland of pink roses in her hair but this was as good as it got today. Her face is too dark in this light and I need to think more about what I want. I am thinking that I will go back to making Benno tomorrow and set her aside until the flowers for her hair arrive and then try with morning light.

I found this photo of Regina in her body suit and wanted to show you how the crocheted caps work - very well, I think. In my new policy of keeping up with things. I stopped to repair the bench, which has no bearing on this photo except seeing the bench holding her reminded me.

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Now you can meet Regina showing off her new diaper covers! She is one big baby and I love her. She needs hair and none of my wigs were big enough for her so I sent off for the biggest one Sandie offers. I did get her done on her 'day' but I lack hair and shoes big enough for her. I guess I need to loosen up and accept that everything will not come together for me on the day I finish a baby. I started one of the Benno kits that came from Germany and then I ran out of steam before I even got it photographed. The day was not as hot as the two previous ones but I fell into a depression by suppertime that I could not climb out of. Only cashews brought me back to singing in the shower.

I tried taking new shots of Kay so she looked as if she was lying down and not sitting up, but I am not happy with her whites on the white rug. Need to work on this idea. Watched videos from the doll show in Denver and they had the same trouble of finding the best way to photograph babies!

I am trying something different this week. Instead of picking three (or more) babies to be done at once as a crew, I am concentrating on doing just one babe at a time. I opened the box with this kit and noticed the difference in the two sides of the head, and wondered if I could use this kit. I needed first to see if I could repair this. So instead of piling on a crew, and since these warmer day have slowed me down so much, I decided to do him as the only baby-in-progress.

You can see that with the afternoon warmness and stuffing with awareness I was able to get the head to appear normal. Those full length arms and legs mean I have to crochet the caps but I am glad to do that as they fit better than the circles of doeskin that BB uses. Now I am off to sew up his body.

I realized I never showed you how the babies are registered. Here is Raine being watched over by the Dolly Lama for the process.  On the counter at the window is the mail scale which I use to weigh each baby. This is Raine getting measured for her length. I put the head against the wall and my clipboard against the feet and use a tape measure. I record the date the baby was 'born,' its body type and clothes size and what kind of hair, if any. Then we proceed to the living room for the portraits. I usually take about 15 shots of each. There are moments when I feel I make them all alike but I do make some changes. This time, Kay Dance was so tiny I felt she needed to photographed lying down so I arranged that. However, when I look at the photos I see she looks as if she is sitting up like the others.

She is 18" long and weighs just under three pounds but seems so tiny.

Raine is sitting up, you can tell by the where the shadows fall.

This is Nolan, the Dolly Lama's brother. Only after photographing did I find the yellow caps. It is good to have a brown-eyed baby again.  You can see the little mark where I accidentally cut through his eye. I have no idea why or how that happened. There seems to be no way to cover it.