Today I met a new neighbor! What a surprise! We had so much in common. Well, she collected dolls and had disposed of her Madame Alexander dolls but still had all her ethnic dolls from around the world. I was so relieved not to have to accept the Madame A. kinds. I much preferred the dolls made of local materials and representing various cultures. She gave me the whole box of them. I was so glad to get them that I, late in the afternoon when I was done napping, cleared another shelf on the bookcase and here they are!

And looking into the right corner where the sultry lady reigns.

I think the day thought it was done so it did not have enough light to loan me any for photos. I did not want to wait until morning to show you what was making me so happy tonight. Tomorrow I can got back to making babies and get some of my happiness that way.

Lester in his box, which is in the car for the trip to the post office to begin his journey to V. on the other side of the continent. I think he is trying to wave good-bye to me here but he hasn't understood that one must open the hand to do it right. I will leave it up to V. to teach him that, and everything else.

And tiny Elsie. This photo was taken just before she spent her last night her on the photo-table. She rang her little bell so much the owl flew in to protest her disturbing his sleep but she just kept smiling. S.K.G. she is in her box, also in the car, headed for Gualala. The USPS website had a hussy-fit and would not print a label so we are making an end-run around them and going directly to the postmaster. I am finding that if I make a typing error the form will decide I am unreal and not the person I logged in as, and refuses to do what it is supposed to do. Modern times in a computer ruled by Google and its suspicious ways.

Yesterday (I am doing catch up this morning) was a very special and busy day at the Seaside Orphanage. First of all, Blonde Blaze arrived at Carol's farm and she already sent photos of herself holding Blaze. Now I am paid in full. She also showed where they are hanging Blaze's stork nest. It is right next to the filmy white curtains by the window. I can already imagine Blaze twisting around so she can see the milking cows in the meadow from her perch. She looked a little wobbly in her photo as if it had been a long journey, clear across the continent, but she was also beginning to smile. I think she liked Carol's room, and the lovely things around her and is eager to settle down. She will meet the grandnieces and grandnephews soon and then the family will be complete.

This is Blaze on her last day with me. She looks so ready for an adventure.

Susan and I had been trying to find the right baby for her to give to her Mom in a nursing home. They both had picked a Rieki, but she is already out being a therapy baby. I tried to find someone I had on hand with the same gentle smile since I never know how long my body will last and if I have time to order a new one from Germany. Susan looked at Eliza but didn't like her brown eyes. I looked and all my Eliza babies had brown eyes except one.  While Susan was thinking about her, I went back to work in the studio. I kept hearing a peeping sound. As I walked by the babies I realized the sound was coming from Elsie trying to say "me me me." As I looked at her I realized she too had a smile very much like Reiki's, so I sent her photo to Susan.

Bingo, Elsie was right! She was the right baby for Susan so she will be made ready today for her trip. She is smaller than Eliza so a better size for that family.  I get to give her hair and many final hugs and squeezes before she gets into her box.
Also almost ready for his box is Lester going to Vanessa. The other day, when I was having such a bad day with the fibro, I picked up a doll I thought was Lester and started to finalize his strings. When I got to his name on the identification bracelet on his ankle I saw I had picked up Glenn. Then I put my head on straight and found Lester. It was as if Lester made sure he was not Glenn and that I got his message right. He knew he was meant to go to Vanessa.

Oh, and the shoes came for the Peace Pals. Aren't these great? The top tips of the hearts, when sewn in place, look like a pair of feet in little wooden shoes.

Meet Fay, the baby from yesterday, with shoulder problems that I neglected to  photograph. Today because I went through the same process trying to decide which shoulders were right for her, I remembered to photograph her in each reincarnation. Here she is in the wide screen version of a tiny baby that weighs less than a couple of pounds with football shoulders. Look at the width if her biceps - a few too many steroids  even in preemie size in her formula. . .
Then I took off the shortened big doll body to squeeze her back into the small baby body. Her one leg was still too big but I made a cut in the leg cap and was able to get it in place and the strings tightened around it. Now I need to do some hand sewing magic to fix that change of mind that one can only see when she is in her birthday suit.

Doesn't she seem to be smiling more in this photo? Look at the distance from the sleeve seam to the outside of her arm and you can see how much smaller her biceps are. I got this far before it became afternoon, the stars moved into alignment and three different people stopped by to visit. That is all the folks I really know so that meant everyone came by with a different objective but none of them were involved in getting a better photo of Fay.
Werner had gone to Santa Rosa to take the car in for its yearly check up but got home before all the visits were over. He napped until dinner time and he too, was not interested in Fay's photo. So all of that is now put off until tomorrow.
In the mail I got the buttons to make shoes for the Peace Pals that work beautifully and which I can only promise to show you tomorrow because the day ended too soon after the trials.
Oh, now I remember back to morning when I was unhappy with the slowness of the Nikon to download its photos so I got out the old Sony, recharged its batteries to make comparison photos. The upper photo was taken with the Nikon and the lower one with the older Sony. I am feeling a case of buyer's regret coming on. . .

I owe the USPS an apology. They were right. I did have Carol's address wrong. In the morning I woke up with the thought that I should check it. I looked in the Tanka Society of America's mailing list and found they had changed the house number. So I was finally able to create the mailing label and print it out. Before Werner could drive to Gualala, I already had an email from Carol that the box was being tracked. Now that is service.
With the good sunshine of yesterday I was able to photograph Lilly who is seeming more like an Allan as I work with her.

It was good to have the car out of the way. I worked longer on the photographs. Then I put together Fay, the tiny fairy-fay baby. The first body was way too big so at lunch time I made one of the smallest patterns and that was too small. The Goldilocks syndrome. I wish I had taken pictures of her in each body but I didn't. I am getting very unhappy with the way photos are managed by the new Nikon. They are stored wrong (they do pop into the file) so I have to do a search to find them and only later, do they appear where I want them to be. I love the little camera, but the fight to find the photos is making me reluctant to use the camera.
So today I am recharging the old Sony to see if I can be happier with it.

The past couple of days have been spent getting Blaze ready for her journey. We had a big debate about sleepers. I like the looks of the newborn size on her but she thought they made her look fat so refused to wear them by throwing them on the floor. I think these pull across the hips but she likes the look and the feel. She is very cuddly and folds very neatly into the crook of the arm. I will give by saying the feet on these sleepers fit her better so maybe she is right.
This morning the storm was really over so I could get a good shot of her in her stork nest. I decided that since Carol said her room was small it may be lacking in flat surfaces so I would include, without checking with her, a stork nest. I wanted to show that to her before she finds this weird crocheted thing wrapped around Blaze in the box. So Carol here is how she will look in the stork nest. I hope there is an extra nail in your wall where you can hang her. I hope the little dream catcher, made by a Lakota Indian, keeps away bad dreams for her and for you.

I found a comfortable chair so I had a good time wrapping all the little gifts for the nieces. I hope they will enjoy them. When I send babies to nursing homes I never get to enclose bottles and bibs, hair conditioner and extra outfits along with some diapers. So I had a ball this morning getting it all ready and making it pretty.

Blaze is wrapped in her blanket and underneath the packages which are all lightweight and filling the rest of the box. At noon I tried to create the mailing label and one button on the form would not allow me to choose when to mail it. With a few unkind words for the post office I left my dismay lying on the keyboard and returned to the studio to work on Lilly. She came together beautifully and I had a good time giving her the cuddle quiz and just enjoying my newest baby. As it got darker, I came into the house and decided to try once more with USPS. This time the button was working and I got even farther into their maze of details before they informed that this address is not valid. I have only used it for well over 20 years and now it is not valid? Suddenly I understand what "going postal" means. A couple sticks of sugar-free black licorice evened out my mood. Food to my emotional rescue.

I got a doll order so my juices are flowing again. Happy, happy, happy. Carol P. wrote that she would love to have one of my dolls to entertain her (she is in an iron lung) and her nieces who come to visit her. So I went to the studio to ask who wanted to go live with Carol and her family. Lilly was the loudest and nearly fell off the shelf trying to get my attention. I love her face and thought Carol would also. Thinking of children holding her I wanted to make her more interesting so I found a wig for her but then heard another voice from the other side of the rack. Blonde Blaze! Her hair was rooted in and would be a lot more fun to comb and style. So I asked her if she would like to go where little girls were. "Yes!," she squeaked, "but you have to fix my arms." She knew I had not been happy with the way her full-length arms fit to her body so this was an excellent time to fix them and make her child-safe at the same time. She was very patient sitting on my little table, playing with the peace pals, while I waited the glue on her neck to dry.

Here you can see the problem with her shoulders. She does not look very happy having to wait on me even though she seemed to enjoy the peace pals.
Later I was able to work on her limbs and did find the long dolly-making needle to carry a string from one arm to the other. The idea worked. Here she is on the test bench with her shoulders looking a lot better to me. They are certainly much more secure.

Now you can see her beginning to smile, though she complained about it being cold without her jammies. I also found a couple of outfits I had been given that therapy babies normally do not wear to send along with the bottle or milk and hair conditioner, toys and hair clips. Today I will see which pair of jammies fits her best and make a going home photo. I am thinking that since Carol said her room is small that I will include a 'stork nest' so Blonde can be hung on the wall and out of the way.