I see I skipped yesterday. I hope you can too. I did get the three bodies cut out and sewn and then the day deteriorated into my silence.
But today we have sewn bodies and kids ready to jump into them. Every time I have the thought, If God wanted me to make dolls he would have given me three hands." As I work I find myself using knees, boobs, and chin to hold the parts in place while I tie the strings. I often start with the child with the most pleasing expression as I need that lift to get me started. You are not surprised to see a Ching child. This one's name is Jasper. Seeing him here in just his body, he sits like a girl and he is holding his right hand like a girl. We may have to have talk later.

 After a good lunch, the supermarket got their chicken cooker replaced, I wanted to start the second child. I thought that maybe I should do the smallest one since I had done the largest child and this would help me judge the sizes. So little tiny Morgan was next. When I sat him on the bench I did not feel right about him.

Jasper was laughing so loudly and so much I felt I was not able to think. He knew what was wrong, but knew that I did not. He tried to give me a hint by saying, "My bod, my bod." Finally it sank in the gray matter that the body on Morgan was too big. I asked if he was okay to trade. He gladly gave up the too big body. Then I tried it on Leon and it seemed to fit better. Still Jasper was laughing about something.

I picked up the body lying on Leon's tray with the plan to lay it aside for next week with a note about its size and then I would go to cut out a smaller version for Morgan. This was supposed to be one of the bigger bodies but it was too short. Then it dawned on me that I had put the wrong body on Leon's tray. This was the smaller body I had originally planned for Morgan. So it was already cut out and sewn. What blessing.
Morgan was so happy to get into the body that was made to fit him. See him here with Leon.

You can see the difference in sizes and why these two could not trade bodies. Leon knows how disturbing it is to switch in and out of bodies so he is trying to comfort little Morgan. We still had time so we got out the sleepers. After much trying this one and that one, everyone was satisfied.
As we walked through the kitchen to get to the photo setup, it seemed all three at once spied the box of candy canes. A unified howl went up. As I tore open the box I asked Jasper how they knew what these were. This will be their first Christmas. He turned his head and mumbled, "We've been here before." They remembered candy canes! So they became the bribe of the day.

Here is little Morgan clutching his candy. He really did not want to sit here doing what I tried to get him to do. The candy cane was a lot more interesting than I am.

Leon was next. All of his photos show his displeasure when he found out what it says on his sleeper. As I read it to him his face got more and more unhappy. He would sit in a weird position so no one could read the message. I think he is more interested in finding a good mommy than a daddy. Only at the end of the session did I catch him with his arm down in place.

Jasper kept sticking out his tongue instead of giving me a pleasant smile that I wanted for his photo. When I turned around to stop another child from climbing back on the photo table and then looked back, this is what I found.

Knowing taking the candy from him would start a screaming war, I walked away to see if there was an assistant with the chutzpah to keep him from getting that wet and sticky and smeared over everything. When I came back, knowing it was my job to avoid a loud mess with this, I found. . .

Leon was trying to help (or get another candy cane). Needless to say two pairs of sleepers are in the laundry tonight and I have two very tired, but happy, babies with very clean faces.

The morning started beautifully with a phone message from a woman in San Francisco who wanted a therapy reborn to donate to a nursing home in honor of her mother. She had already picked out Holly Berry! What a delight was to talk to her on the phone. There were so many parallels between our lives, it was a bit like meeting the other side of myself.

Then my big task for the morning was to go over Holly to make sure she was ready to be adopted out. Thanks to Harmony bringing me a whole box of priority boxes I had the right size for her. By noon Holly was packed and even USPS cooperated by allowing me to print the postage label.
As always my only real comfort after packing up a baby to ship out was to get out new kits to start the new babies for the week. As I sat by the table waiting on the alcohol to dry in the sun, I gazed at the tray full of parts.

As I numbly stared into space, I realized that this is one of the happiest scenes I could wish for - many baby parts ready to be made into even more babies. I was even more blessed by the eyes going in the heads of all three so easily. All the hassles with stemmed eyeballs the other week have either made me a better eye-installer or just more thankful for the 1/2  round eyes.

Here we have, on the left, the next to the last kit from the Ching family. This means I will have to endure EvilBay, as the doll makers call eBay, to find an auction in my price limit. Next to Ching is Morgan from BB who is new to me. I was glad to see she is a tiny baby as it seems I do need more of the smaller ones to fulfill those requests. Last is Lilly. This will be the third week I have her in my crew. I gave her brown eyes this time so she feels different from the others. Tonight the glue on their eyes is drying. I look forward to tomorrow,  painting their faces, and sewing bodies.

Blaze Dear spent the day teaching Thistle, the baby pig, how to absorb therapy instruction from a big crystal that hangs on the shelf near her. He seemed very happy in her company and slightly interested in the crystal. I am not sure he will make a therapy reborn as his paint job is not one of which I am proud.
I made it a day of rest by only crocheting diaper covers.  Have 7 new ones now.  I was exhausted by the news from Machiko-san that her doll, mailed on August 19th had never arrived! I did make a claim to the post office and was told that they must wait 17 days to hear from the Japanese post office. I do hope they find the box and the doll, but if they do not find her there will be insurance money due to me. Small comfort. I should have had the self esteem to check with Machiko-san earlier. I was afraid the doll had arrived and she had not liked it and so choose to say nothing. How wrong I was! I do have another Kameko kit. I had wondered why I had saved it back. Now I know.

200th Blog Entry

I cannot believe these things were on my work table today. I was painting a pig. The kits cost 29.95 unpainted and 39.95 factory painted. Of course I thought I knew how to save $10. per pig. At first I used the Derwent pencils the way I do the faces on babies. The pig needed a stronger color. I got out the kit of Baby Fx paints (those tiny bottles lying in among the other stuff). If I used it thin enough to please me the way it went on it dried too shallow and faded. If I put it on thick enough to cover it was dense and full of paintbrush marks. I would paint all the parts in one color at one thickness, and when that was not pleasing I would paint them all with another technique. I got really frustrated with the Fx paint names like "lips," "brows," or "skin" instead of  pink, brown and cream. In the end I got out the Derwent pencils to add the true colors. All in all a very frustrating exercise. I think I will be buying the factory painted pigs as soon as BB gets them in.

I was somewhat pleased with the 'cow'  fabric but I think I was wrong to try to duplicate that pattern on the pig.

All day I kept having the feeling that I should be doing something else. I finally figured out the big voice inside of me was wanting to make babies, not pigs. I refused to give in to start a new crew but I am really looking forward to tomorrow.

Before lunch I was able to get Lilly into a body that fit her. After lunch the other two endured the same process. I was aware how much work it is to stuff a body. Or maybe my body was only having a good whine.

Jesus got another haircut and thinning but the mohair was not very curly like I wanted. It looks more like Negro fuzz than Jewish curls so I have not photographed the results of the haircut.

I was able, thanks to another shipment of sleepers, to get everyone clothed and ready for photos tomorrow. All are soft and cuddly in fleece.

Barbara did stop by for the babies so I got to watch another box-full  of babies go out the driveway. I lost all desire to work on babies so I glued business cards to the new calendars until it grew dark.

This was the scene I found this morning. I think these two gals talked all night. They sure wore out Ben. I felt like him all morning. I just could not get myself started. I knew this was a body day but I felt I was not up to it. So I did a hundred little jobs that I had been neglecting.
I did do a new photo-shoot of the dog as I plan to put him up on Reborns.com asap.

I hope not every one sees him as I do. He looks grumpy, as if her wanted to be a pit bull and some one gave him that short nose. Maybe I can sell him and not have to look at him.
I laid out Thistle, the pig, and as soon as I can I do want to do him. He looks a lot friendlier. I looked at a lot of images of pigs to see how they are colored.
In the afternoon I cut out, sewed, and assembled three bodies for the crew of kids. Hopefully my morning tomorrow will allow me to begin stuff them.

I never know what goes on in my studio after I turn out the lights, but I suspect parties, especially when I find scenes like this in the morning. This baby jumped a good two feet from her perch five feet above the floor, She is still smiling so it must not hurt - yet. She also dropped her pink pumpkin and paci, but does not seem very worried about them.

I stuffed limbs and heads of the three in the crew and also Kimi who will be playing Jesus in a Christmas scene. I was delighted to find a BB body that had the cuffs for full-length legs. Then I discovered the full length arms but decided to sew the arm caps down so they made cuffs. I felt very smart to overcome that problem. After I got the whole thing together I saw the only position the legs would assume was this froggy one. Kimi needs front loading legs. I do not have any and I do not want to wait for an order.

Then I found this body and also found that I could position the legs in a more natural position. Success! Not quite. Then I saw

That big hump in the back which I have seen before on BB bodies. I took off the head, pulled out the filling and sewed a big seam in the front! Idiot! That seam needed to be in the back. So I redid that and removed the front seam in the studio. As I was catching my breath I remembered Werner had brought home mail at noon. I was shocked when I pulled out this package from Tina in China,

I carefully photographed the box from all angles in case the merchandise was damaged. Suddenly I could hear music boxes, and laughter as I pulled out

one of the babies from China that I have had my eye on for a very long time. She started out priced at $159. and slowly the price, after many auctions settled out at $118.00. I set my mind to pay only 50 - 55 dollars. Bid on at least twenty before this dropped into my price range.  Now she was here! Look how well packed she was with all limbs encased in extra sheet foam. Included was a real bottle and she had a magnet paci. I loved her clothes and felt so happy discovering each facet of her. People bitch about 'factory-painted' but they use air guns and get marvelous graduations in their colors. The skin is not hard like the USA baked heat-set colors but stays soft and pliable.

Ta-dah! Here she is in all her glory. With the paci gone you can see and delight in her smile. I love the frilly pink on her outfit. She even came wearing a diaper! Someone has been peeking at Western box openings and had included so much with her. No one would have know she came all the way from China. I loved her as she is. I was not tempted to tear her apart and reconstruct her as I was the other two dolls from China. 

I am very happy with this new face on my shelf to watch over me. Tina, you did a great job with the baby and her packaging. I think the box had gotten wet and that is why it caved in so. But you had also packed her in that lovely plastic bag with hearts on it that kept her dry and happy.

I was so excited about the new baby, how shall I name her? that I had a senior moment and forgot to put the roast in the oven at 4. At six when Werner came down for dinner, the oven was cold, the dish was still in the refrigerator. He graciously agreed to have supper at 8. Suddenly I had more time to finish my blog so went back to the studio to photograph Kimi getting his boy part glued on.

He sure makes the baby from China look good. I felt so smart that I  was able to drill holes in the poly clay so I can sew it fast tomorrow. Feeling smart and delighting in a new baby I only had to order, and my day is complete with the roast in the oven.