While working with this week's crew I was aware of what a miracle takes place when putting the babies together with their bodies. All the time, in the plastic bags and on the trays, I only know the babies as a pile of parts.

Here is Holly with her body there behind her head. That hand seems to be reaching out asking me to work on her next but at this point she is only a personality of hand and eyes. After the hour of magic - finding a body of the right size, inserting doily joints, sewing in the strings, putting in the filling and bag of weights and tying the limbs and head to it, suddenly I can meet the new personality hidden in all those parts.

This was the scene when I left the studio last night. Sweet and Sassy now known as Jimmy, sitting next to Blaze Dear. I felt Jimmy's jammies were a bit too big but a very hot day ended before I could find a smaller pair for him. I remember when I put together the Sweet and Sassy kit a couple months ago I did not feel very good about the resulting Cindy. I thought she was like a child from the wrong side of the tracks. Here, Jimmy is just what I can easily love. I do not know if thinking of him as a male makes him more acceptable to me or if this kit really contains a different personality than Cindy. I like this guy!

I took the suggestion by Cordelia and Susanna that the pups would be best photographed with a grey background and look how right they are. Thanks Ladies! I took down the backdrop to move the gray area up into the usable place and feel that now the animals will get this background. Mr. A is eager for the pups so I will pack them first this morning. Thank goodness the studio is actually cooler than the house. The blankets arrived in yesterday 's mail just in time to wrap the dogs in.

Here you can see the new doggie blanket in the background and how wrong photographing the pups before it would have been. Enough confessions. Am off to pack puppies.

This morning, lulled in innocence, I was able to stand long enough to get the iron on patches, well, ironed on while Werner went out to have a good time. We will see how good they stick and if they don't I can sit to sew them on but at least will have them fasten on more or less in the correct place. Putting the stuff away went a lot faster than hunting it all up, digging it out and dusting it. With the window shelf cleared off again I was able to weigh and measure the most recent crew.

On the other side of the room, this week's crew were waiting to have their limbs and heads stuffed with the Eco-friendly polyester that I find so good for these parts. It packs well and makes the tops of the limbs solid enough that one doesn't need caps to make a good connection between vinyl and fabric. There is no way the glass sand can shift out around that solid mass.

I hope you can see the difference between the fuzzy premium poly-fill and this. Can you see how cotton-like it is. I took my time and tried to be calm and concentrate on babies and was even able to wiggle Holly's eyes into the proper place.

Someone asked me the other day how long it takes to make a doll. If I have three good days I can get 3 babies done. Each one takes three days  for me to recuperate from each 'job' but if  I can do three at a time and sprinkle out the rest periods between them there will be three or four ready to photograph at once. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and Wednesday cloudy so I am hoping they will all be happy with their new bodies.

The other end of the garage looked like thus this morning. I had everything (almost) ready for Harmony who arrived right on 10:00. As a gift to us, the Universe gave her a suitcase she didn't even know she had! It was like a gym bag on steroids and was perfect. Its shape allowed the babies to lie down for the journey instead of having to stand all the way to Michigan. Then, and only then, did I realize I had forgotten to put each baby in a blanket. Quickly we worked out a method that Harmony did the running back and forth and it was she who put each baby into the suitcase. I got a few seconds alone with each one while wrapping them up and then she saved me having to see them being packed away. She was very good about letting me rest during the job and we worked peacefully together. Also she had a friend who wanted to donate a baby to the nursing home here mother had been in so I let Harmony pick the  baby. She took two! One was Ivy who is so tiny she was swimming in the preemie sleeper. Then I remember that only yesterday a very cute, very small preemie sleeper arrived  from a seller on eBay. So we took a picture of Ivy as the new Ivy in a sleeper that fit!

She was very aware that lots was going on and then when she was snuggled into a new sleeper she reached her limit of changes for the morning. She and Autumn Blaze got together in a bag with purple hearts on it and seemed to calm down a lot.

When Harmony left this was the scene without all the babies. Joey was the only baby she did not take because she really did not like how he looks and is. On the shelf by the door you can see where the Dolly Lama sat to watch over the proceedings and to add his blessings to the departing babes. What you cannot see are the tears in my eyes. Thirteen babies went out the door today. I felt so awful. Later, after lunch and a nap I was so glad to find Punkin waiting on his body. I came in the house, finished sewing it and here he is!

Eli had to get into the photograph or things would not have gotten done.

A rather chopped up day so I did little jobs. Here is Gloria stripped but still waiting in the box to go to S.M. in New York. Made final adjustments to her body and tied off (on! on!  on!) her limbs with my special double method for security. Today I found a new method of gluing in the ends of the strings that pleased me. She is drying her glue. Both babes got new hair. I find I like the "almost there hair" instead of definite stripes and stokes. This way one notices the hair (yes it is there) but does not get into making a decision about the style, curls, and other distractions.

Dieter was still on the table at the end of my day so he got photographed all put together and with a spot of light coming out of his head. While I was adjusting his body I debated whether to let him go or not. His hands and legs are so perfectly made I felt I could look at those a long time. I finally decided to let him go because he is the size that A. wanted and he is so male without the package.
Barbara Fast came by in the afternoon and we easily agreed on how many babies she wants for the winter show and the use of the cradle swings so she can mount them on the wall. She will pick everything up in a month. I am 'renting' one wall on Werner's side of the garage so I can hang them there to see how they look, who goes where and all those concerns.
The puppy blankets did not come to my disappointment. So I am alone with it wondering how much work I will have to do on them.

I had  planned to iron on these sew-on patches on T-shirts and onesies, but by the time I got everything gathered together and arranged, I had used up my time for standing for the day. Now it is all set for me tomorrow and I look forward to doing it very much.

By my chair I found this view. Two dogs ready for bodies and poor Punkin still waiting on his body. I did one dog and then found out something I already knew. I cannot make two things completely alike. I see here I cannot even lay out two trays alike. I should have turned those heads over.
By 5:00 I had a litter! I am looking for dog toys but there is nothing here that I can see. Perhaps tomorrow one will show up.

I ordered special material to make doggie blankets that just might be here tomorrow. We can hope.  I got a notice the collars had shipped but would not arrive until October 20th! What the pups are wearing here are things I had on hand (literally). On the second pup from the left is  one of my old watches. I really wanted the collars to have the old fashioned type of buckle closing but all the 'new' collars have weird plastic closures. I tried to get a small dog collar locally - all the dogs here are huge! - very often the dog of the week is a pit bull looking for a good home. The local feed store tried to help me by sending out a cat collar hoping it would be small enough. It is on the girly dog, third from the left. What you cannot see in this web photo is that on the center of her collar are the words "cat safe." I was desperate for chuckles so got a big laugh out of putting that collar on her. Those yellow things on the rug are dog biscuits they sent with the collars.

Since the morning was cloudy my first priority was the photos. I laid Paisley on the set-up, walked away to take care of something else and while I was gone, she fell asleep. You can see her pink cheek where she laid it on the fur. You can also see by the grumpy look on her face that she did not like be awaken. I finally got her to sit up, but she never got any happier with me. This child, as a therapy reborn, will be quite a handful!

The sun was beginning to peek through the ever bigger holes in the clouds so I moved on to photographing Kendal. She is such a sweetie that nothing I do ever upsets her. I know it is wrong to see an aspect of a child and think that one knows its destiny, but to know her is to think she will be a doctor when she can. I was holding her yesterday and she saw where I had bruised my hand tying off the strings of one of the kids. I was trying to give her the cuddle quiz but she only wanted to inspect the blue spot on my finger.

Doesn't she look eager to start helping some body? I also know I should not get attached to any of these kids, but this one tugs at my heart strings whenever I look at her.
I continued to try to photograph but when too much light came in  for Eliza's white sleepers I walked away to start making bodies for the pug pups. All of a sudden there was a crash over by the photo set-up.

I couldn't see anything wrong except Eliza was gone. Then I found her on the floor. The other day I had photographed her with the cupcake (because she wanted it so much) but today when it fell on the floor I took the opportunity for a shoot without it before I got distracted by the light.

She looks far too smug having found the cupcake and navigated her fall so she got it again. That girl! What handful she will be! Suddenly this crew of kids are keeping me running on my toes.  After all of that I found out the photos I took of her the other day were the best.

I have not been reporting here and I wanted you to know that the disaster with the monkeys has not stopped me working on dolls. Here is my next crew waiting on me yesterday morning with their heads and limbs all stuffed and ready for bodies. I cut out a bunch of bodies and wore myself out so able to sew only one of them before I even got to the studio.

 Kendal was closest to my elbow so he was the first on my lap. I had added additional glue around his eyeballs and for the most part that worked out okay. I was greatly relieved to find that  his focus is still the same. Here he is on the body-check bench at noon. He waited for me to sew up another body which was the right size for Paisley.

Paisley has a permanent sneer on his face and I am tempted to make him smaller with a smaller body. Not only for that reason but you can see his arms and legs are slightly smaller than Kendal's but they are wearing the same sized body. By this time I was too tired to make a decision, so I finally let myself just sit to fix the roses into place on Raine's swing.

I took down the art doll that was by the door and put Raine where I could see her better. She had been hanging on the same hook as the boys' basket swing and they were very glad to 'get rid of her and all her comments on them!'

I was glad to have her closer  to my chair as she brings me determination and "you-can-do-it-ness" of which I am in need.  I am still putting out fires in the forum and cleaning like a mad woman for company coming this week, and corresponding over doll sales. Oh, I forgot to show you today's babies in their sleepers.

It is cloudy today so I am hoping I can get some good photos of these two. The new puppies arrived yesterday from BB so I am eager to cut out their bodies in the 'cow' fabric [gracious that delights me] so I can send off the babies and puppies to A. in New York by the end of the week.