On my way to the studio this morning, as I went through the garage I saw this on the floor that I am sure was not there yesterday. To me it looked as if a very large centipede had met its end. The marks to the left look like stomach segments. To the right it looks like the footprint of a lizard who stepped in centipede goop while having a midnight snack. I know we have a resident alligator lizard family in or under the porch. I welcome them being my watch-dog for insects. Many years ago, when my studio was a ceramic workshop I had many spiders for a long time. Then all at once they were all gone. Many days later while, sweeping up rain water that had leaked in, I found, under an overturned bowl, the big old granddaddy of the lizard family. I gently helped him go outside. Enough about the wild life.
I finished first preparing the babies that will go to Point Arena. Tommy was the last one. I took the time to iron the outfit and it looked so much better.

I asked her if she had seen the death battle of a lizard and centipede. Here you can see her girly response to bugs and lizards!
I kept looking at the corner where the Blonde Blaze always sat as she kept her eye on me, and everyone else, while I worked. She was no longer there and I missed her so much that I got out another Blaze kit, put it in a tray in line with the others.

I feel so much better knowing that in a day or two this sweet face will be back on the shelf with me. I stuffed the limbs and heads of the other three on the crew. Would love to make tomorrow body-giving day but Mary comes to clean.

As I was wishing the babies good-night I saw Eli was not spending the night alone. He had his puppy. Mr. A wrote that the puppies arrived yesterday in New York and every one was very excited about them. Already they were being given out. Little does he know I still have one here for Eli.

Ta-dah! Here is the crew for the week with their eyes already in by noon today. On the left is an unnamed baby with EH only on the back of his head, Camryn in the middle and another Holly on the end. I thought I took a photo of arms and legs but the camera does not remember me doing that. I had told myself I was going to have enough 'work' this week to keep me busy without adding a crew to it but something in me was unhappy until I started this batch. Now my heart is happy.  They are the last of my kits in this size.  I have 3 of those tiny babies I do not really like to do but they will be better than nothing at all next week. I got out the basket of kits with stemmed eyes (5 of them) and will slowly work on finding a way to make them usable. Then my back will be against the wall which becomes a rock and a hard place. I need to buy babies!
At 3:00 Lena arrived and almost immediately she fell in love with one of Ching babies. The first person I have ever met who liked that open smile as much as I did. We are on the same wave-length! She picked out 12 babies for the local Senior Citizens which will be delivered by the meals-on-wheels volunteers. I asked to keep the babies a few days to give them their diapers and check their tie-ons and to have one last goodbye with them. Just last night I had checked Elijah so I knew he was ready to go. I wrapped him in a blanket and gave him a goodbye hug and handed him over to Lena so she has an example for Micheline. On the birthing table were the others she picked.

I couldn't get them all in the view so here are the rest of them.

The blankets never arrived from SF and Amazon. This morning I did do the packet for the customs people. Maybe the blankets will be here Wednesday.

I picked Rieke to start with so I stayed inside after breakfast to make her a body with the new untried pouches for her full-length arms. I was so glad to just sit in the recliner that I took my time basting in the area for strings. With them flattened a bit by basting I was able to sew them more neatly which pleased me.

Rieke with her new body waiting on her to jump into it. You can see the dolly joint in place on the arm pocket and how different the leg caps are. She was pleased to be this close to her new body, that the sun was shining and that I felt like working.

I still find the heavy vinyl on the ends of the arms too think or sitting wrong, but this was the best I could do for her. Then she got her lips repainted and black hair painted on. She did need more help to get back into her pink pj's.

We even had time, after lunch for her portrait photos and here she was a lot more relaxed and happy. I wished her sleeper did not have "I love Mommy" in English written across the chest. Here we got the idea of hiding it with her hands. I hope her Japanese Mom will immediately buy her new sleepers.

Here is Rieke taking DeeDee's place in the line-up to go to Japan. It looks as if she is reaching out to clasp the hands of the babies on each side of her. That is so like her personality.

Back in the studio I was able to finally put Holly together. She was such a dear child she went together with no trouble. However, finding a sleeper was more difficult. I had one really cute one but when we got it on it was too big for her. This yellow one fit her perfectly but she did not like the pink whales on it. I put a pink cap on her hoping it would make her happy and pull the outfit together. She only wanted to pull the cap off.

This is Holly's idea of a dirty look! She just cannot get that smile off her face no matter how angry she is with me for photographing her in an ugly sleeper

The poor babies all got put on hold today. I was finally able to get into RCMS's urgent care, which took two hours again today, and I got a warning that THIS is for urgent care only, not infected ingrown toenails. Anyhow I went out with a bunch of red pills and the good news that my sugar numbers are normal.
Back home after lunch I tried to fix Rieki's long arms to fit into her body but finally had to give into reason and cut away the whole thing. She is still smiling in a cloud of her stuffing.

I will try to sew her a new body tomorrow if the antibiotic does not make me feel worse. On the table is Holly waiting in all her gentleness. At least she has her body. Hmmm. I wonder if it would fit Rieki? The question of the day awaits us all.

Here are the last 4 babies to fulfill the order for Japan. Now all ten are ready to go but I would really like to send them in matching blankets so I hope that order arrives on Monday and I can begin to put them into a box for their journey.

I was pleased that I was able to work on these, after spending 1 1/2 hours at RCMS waiting to get into urgent care for the ingrown toenail. After I got these done I returned to fixing Rieki's arms. I tried to save the joints in her body by crocheting new small arm caps. I got both on, after a struggle, when I saw the one was already slipping off. I was glad I was able to catch it! I am hoping I can take her upper half apart and make new arm caps with new joints for her today. In the meantime Holly is still waiting on me to get to her.
DeeDee, the one in a white sleeper above, is a bit fat and I think the Japanese would prefer the slimmer Rieki if I can get her arms secure in new caps. That is why I am finishing her instead of helping Holly into her body. She is a patient child I hope.

Got an order from Japan for 10 babies in specific sizes so my first job in the studio was to make sure I had either girls or boys in those sizes. I did and I had enough that I could exchange out any that did not shape up the way I wanted them to be. By tonight I had these 6 ready to go.

On my table as works in progress that I could not finish tonight was this group. That is Candy, she needs her hair drawn on, checking out Gabriel whose glue was drying. Tomorrow he will be done and I am hoping with fresh morning energy I can draw Candy some nice hair without making errors as I was doing tonight. 

Since I know these babes are going to Japan, all the babies lacking hair are now getting black hair so they fit in. This is example of why I often do not completely finish a baby until I know where it is going. Left on the table are these babies for tomorrow. Holly still waits in her tray to be "born.'

One of this group will not go to Japan and we will let the morning light decide which one should stay here.

I had planned to send Rieki but today I discovered I had ignored her full arms and need to crochet the caps for them. So she gets to stay even though her name is right but her arms are not.

I got a card from Lena and we talked then on the phone. She is going to be the contact go-between for the local Senior Citizen and me. She will come on Monday to pick out some babies to take back so the ladies can see what they are like and get their hands on them. Again I have requests for something for the gents, too. BB still do not have their  baby pigs in so I am stuck with monkeys and puppies.

It seemed that my whole day went into this box. I finalized the puppies and wrapped them in their new blankets which made very nice packages for mailing. In the bottom of the box are Dieter and Gloria. I had no trouble saying goodbye to the dogs but parting from the kids was terrible again. By noon I had the box closed and then I tried to make the mailer with USPS.com. I must have entered the information 15 times and each time it would fail to flip to the next page for billing and printing. I could have gone postal! I am ashamed how angry it all made me.
The weather was as google predicted. The fog rolled in making our day cloudy and nicely cool again. In an attempt to settle down to work again I came in to photograph the three babies I had ready. Holly is still in her tray waiting on me to find my good mother soul to bring her into being.

I automatically picked Punkin 4 first because it is so easy to relate to him and his kind. Those sleepers are fleece which felt very good today and it was a joy to cuddle him. I see I should have picked this photo. Here his open mouth looks slightly smaller. Maybe I should try again. How could I miss that?

Once while resting in the morning I tried to find smaller jammies for Jimmy but this, the only pair for boys, is now too small for him. I really need to go shopping for new sleepers, but the lady I like to buy from is not on eBay and did not answer an email. I was sorry to put him in grey but it was either these or pink ones.

I am so thrilled with Jimmy's merry being that I may make another bid on a kit of his kind. I had been ignoring them since I was so unhappy with Cindy and had sworn not to buy another. He even makes gray sleepers look great. What a cheerful child.

By the time I got to Blaze Dear everything I had was aching and I did not notice the bit of her blue body showing at her neck. As soon as I came to photograph the sun came through and I had to move everything to make my own shade. One would not know the sun was blazing down on us when this was shot. She has such a gentle, quietness about her. It feel unable to be upset about anything when I look at her. She spreads out peace like a wide pool. Here I am already doing the write-ups for the portraits in the Therapy Reborns' file when I should be shooting this photo again. This makes me long for my old Photoshop where I could had hidden the blue with a couple of clicks.

I could no longer remember if I had photographed monkey boy with his Santa shirt, but here he is again. I have jeered at doll makers who focus their attention on the part of the picture with their own addition (like the Santa iron-on) instead of moving in on the face of the doll and here I did it too. As soon as I stopped photographing the sun went away to let the fog roll right up to the window.