My Little Pretties

I made a blog post! Not too deep, just a recap of what I've been up to. Sometimes it helps to take a moment and realize I have actually  been checking things off of my list...

I really do intend to blog more. I feel a unsure of my audiences and I want to keep it an open space for my art but also maybe babble about dolls? I dunno. I miss doll babble in general.

Things here are quiet and Spring feeling. We spent Saturday with my parents and that was really nice. They invited us out to dinner and a movie.  The Jungle Book is very good! And I generally don't go for 1.Disney 2.computer animation 3.animal movies so that's saying something. They did a very good job of making Shere Khan terrifying and keeping the animals pretty animal-y. King Louie was odd though. No medical news about Mom, yet.

I spent the afternoon at a friend's house and we had a lovely lunch and chat and it woke me up a bit. This weather has everyone peeping out their doors and stoopin' or meeting up in the park with a bottle of wine. All good things. I feel like I need to start making regular dates with friends. Now that the kids do their own thing, I don't see the momma pals often enough and time keeps getting away from me. It's almost May! I'm not sure how.

I need to buy some cloth napkins and I want to buy some ceramic tumblers from my other momma pal. I need to up my summer hosting game.

Nothing else. I got a new shirt for tiny Mat that is exactly the sort of shirt actual Mat wears all the time. And tiny Kat has new pants like a pair I have an new hair like I have and they have tiny phones now so they can worry about trying to stay "in the moment" with each other. :P Did you know the grey in Mat's beard are from the real thing?? I'm so gross.



Happy Wednesday. Come over. Bring a doll.

The long weekend was long.

We had plans to get out and get drinks and go dancing with friends Friday night but my bestie had agreed to sit with the boys and she was sick and exhausted and I felt her relief when I said we'd cancel. Toby hadn't been sleeping well all week and he was still sniffly, so I felt the pull to stay home and baby everyone. I think it worked.

We spent went out both Saturday and Sunday searching for a kitten to adopt, but came up empty handed. Saturday we checked the adoption centers at a few Petco/Petsmart stores. Sunday the boys spent most of the day with their uncle at Dave & Buster's (a big restaurant/arcade) so Mat and I tried some shelters. It was fun to drive to new parts of the city, but that's a lot sad animals and disappointment. I remain steadfast in wanting a very young cat for Vincent's sake and I want long hair for my own. I have begun to poke around breeder sites a bit. I dunno

We almost spent Monday at the art museum, but Gideon had a lot of homework to do (sigh) so Mat and I just spent the time planning dinners and got groceries for the week. We tend to fly by the seat of our pants with meals and shop daily, but that's not ideal. I made granola bars for the week and we got caught up on Downton and finished Hemlock Grove and read. All good.

We even had some snow! We had just been seriously contemplating what a winter without snow would feel like and we had flurries on Sunday. There is a huge storm forecast for the end of this week. I'm excited.

I have been at the bottom of a blue funk lately and I need to stop. I think it has been a lot of things swirling around but mostly I think it's the tipping of the scale away from creating and towards consuming. I need to make and to share. I need to check things off of my list. I am also fighting off Toby's sick with only limited success. Mat says my curls fall out when I get sick which is funny and also true.

I think I have a fever right now maybe?

I need to put a hat on my flat hair and get back to painting.

Saturday was our annual Halloween party!

I haven't talked much about it here because I have been so preoccupied with the house that I sort of let the party just come together on its own. We asked friends to bring snacks or drinks and we bought a few things the day of, but otherwise there wasn't much party prep. The house was already decorated and our costumes were sort of deliriously easy this year. The theme was myths, monsters, and legends. Toby planned on being zombie Michael Jackson from Thriller since *last* Halloween, he had the outfit and just needed a wig. Gideon decided to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, so we thrifted two dress shirts and a suit jacket for him and Mat brought home a small lab coat. I sewed half the lab coat to half of the suit jacket and did the same with the two shirts. I gave him a piece of fabric as a rough ascot and he wore a top hat we had and uniform pants. Mat was Bigfoot and he just bought a costume because buying that much fur would be way more expensive than a finished costume. I wanted to be Medusa, so I bought a boatload of rubber snakes that I wired and painted black and just wore a black Victorian dress because I liked it. I bought a good makeup kit and some sealant last year and they came through again this year. (Best Halloween purchase ever.)

The last minute cleaning scramble was real and I finished everyone's makeup with literally no time to spare, but the party went off without a hitch. My friends are all amazing sports and they brought food and looked great. The weather was perfect, around 60 degrees, clear and crisp, so we were mostly set up in the alley. The kids played a scavenger hunt to find printed pictures of cryptids hidden on the block and otherwise roamed in a creepy gang. They are getting so big. My kidless friends boggled that these were the same kids from last year, as they have begun to grow taller than some of the adults. There were littles in the mix too, which meant that I had to keep them from roaming too far. I honestly have begun to wonder if they'll ever not want to party with the olds...

I've made some mental notes about things I'd like to do for next year. I think we need to switch out some light bulbs inside the house and make it moodier. This year everyone wanted to see the new rooms and stairs, so it worked out, but I think we can do more to make for a creepy atmosphere everywhere. We might do an ocean theme next year, so lighting could be huge. I wanted to get some spotlights with moving filters for outside this year, that would be the perfect excuse to. There's always more.

Anyway,pictures!



( Thissssssssss way )

I have never had any trouble turning Gideon into a doll. He has big puppy eyes and super straight hair and he translates well. I have realized, though, that Toby's face is a changeable thing and he is in constant motion and his eyes are not quite hazel and not quite brown and his hair is not straight but not wavy... I can't catch him the same way. A friend said that Toby is like a real life emoji an it's the best description of him I may have ever heard. I considered a Pukifee Pongpong for obvious reasons, but that sculpt is really just too fey.

So, Toby doll is just serious. He is trying not to be caught in a lie or he's about to toot. I need a lighter wig and a whole wardrobe and to make his freckles darker, but  he's in there a little. Real Toby likes to be little, so he likes doll Toby a lot. He sings songs and refers to himself as "The little TT" because it cracks me up every time.
I have to get him a little iPad so he can play Minecraft and ignore Kat doll when she calls him.

Long weekend was long! Made longer by a snow day. Even longer by kids skipping a half day today because Toby is a bit sick. Long weekend has not ended.

Friday the 13th was nice. Valentine's was fun. Monday was awful. To tell the story, I'd have to talk about frozen pipes and towed cars, but it is all resolved now, so why do that? I felt like we spent the day teetering on real disaster so mostly awful was fine in the end. Bonus: we cleaned 1/4 of the basement.

We also discovered iMovie. Toby and I made this:


Mat and the boys made this:


Friends are visiting this weekend and we are going to the Lego art exhibit at the Franlkin Institute.  We also absolutely *must* get to the Ritz to see What We do in the Shadows (Successfully funded!) Now I need to go clean and take some pictures and feed some kids.

So, I succumbed. On Tuesday of last week I was walloped by the flu. I had one *awful* night and a few days of achy exhaustion. I felt much better this weekend, but I somehow strained my lower back yesterday, so I'm nursing that a bit now. Generally, I'm just feeling like my body is not cooperating and that has me a bit low, but I think it is all the same viral annoyance.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

I cancelled my costume meeting last week, so that's back on for tomorrow. The boys have 3 half days this week and Friday we have a report card conference for Toby. Valentine's day is Saturday, we have one of Gid's friends staying with us for the weekend, and the boys have a 3 day weekend. We are also currently watching MIL's dog while she is in Florida with new boyfriend. Sadie is easy, so we don't really mind, but goddamn, how do people live with short haired animals?? She was stinky and obviously a bit dirty, so Mat gave her a bath and that made the shedding worse for a bit, but I think it leveled out. We just have to vacuum a million times and I keep telling the boys to stay off of the living room floor. It's only until tomorrow. Toby loves to take her for walks, so that's cute. I really want to take a picture of her with Vincent, but Vincent isn't sure he wants to get too close. Sadie does no react to him at all, so he's been testing out how close he can get while she is sleeping, but man, I want them to cuddle.

Anyway, I did finally take these pictures of us dolls! I have to tame Mat doll's hair a bit and I might actually blush them some more? I do have to make me some more clothes. They're funny.



( Us )

I am cold. I just want to sit and huddle and think about being cold. But I've got to get things done. I've gotta host a party tomorrow! We made it just a Friday night dessert family party to keep it short because this crowd gets antsy quick. They don't like to linger in our wee house. Mat's brothers are very tall and always in a hurry to go somewhere else to drink beer. Or something.

I'm going on a neat date! A one man production of Frankenstein in the Mütter Museum! It is going to be amazing no matter what becuase we'll see parts of the museum I haven't been to before. Also because it's a date.



So, this wee thing, Baby soldier Gaikochu, is my new favorite thing ever. He is made in super small runs so I have been stalking the seller on IG and was able to score both a glow in the dark(!!) one and a cream one. (I ordered him on my Birthday! He arrived on xmas eve!) I lightly customized my GID one to look more like Lemon and the pair of them make me very happy. I think his name is Basil. I do sort of want other colors now though. I also need to take more pictures of my dollhouse...





bleodswean We also now have 4 pose skeletons and the dog and the coffin set. XD I want to dress them and let them live in the monster house.  Some might have to be servants. I have a problem. (skeleton doll hoarders anonymous)

I hope you are well. What's for dinner?? I should put something in the crock pot but I don't want to go shopping. It feels like -5 out there.

Halloween!

We had a wonderful Halloween. It's always such a whirlwind, trying to make all of the things and doo all ofthe things and watch all of the movies. I think I was much more relaxed this year, but this past week did get nutty. I was sort of terrible at managing all of my pre party time, but the important things got done. Like the boys' costumes!



Toby's was the 10th Doctor! Everything was store-bought so that was easy. (He's already worn the heck out of that suit) I made him a Tardis trick-or-treat box becuase I had a really hard time not making him anything.) I found the idea online but theirs used rigid felt which my craft store was all out of, so I covered a small box with layers of regular felt inside and out instead. I wanted it to be sturdy because they always get a serious haul and I'm sure he's going to want to keep it after Halloween. I'm happy to report it totally held up! It may have helped some people ID him too, even though he did get a few "are you Harry Potter?" questions. He wanted me to cut his hair to look more like David Tennant's and was so happy with it being "up" all day that he wanted it styled again on Saturday. He's gonna be an insufferable teenager.





Gideon's was a skeleton knight!  It was totally his idea, and I left the construction up to him and Mat. We started with a store-bought costume and Mat built fun foam armor to wear over it. Gideon had the idea to make it look like he had been run through with a sword, so we cut one of their old toy foam swords in half and attached it in the front and the back. After everything was put together, shaped with heat and fitted, Mat sealed the foam with white glue and water and then used rub n' buff to give it a metallic shine. I used acrylic paint to age and rust everything and I added blood splatters and drips to the sword. Finally, we aged the actual costume with the airbrush on the "chain mail" parts and I tore and painted the hem to look like mud and blood splatters. We bought skeleton gloves which I had to take in to fit properly and then I painted them too.

I finally caved and bought a good set of face paints and had the wherewithal to try them out for the first time the *night before* Halloween. I learned a LOT about using them and I'm so glad I did it, because we had to get up at 5 the next morning and do it again for school. I used Wolfe paints with a sealer on top and I was totally impressed with how well it wore -- he made it through the entire day of school PLUS trick or treating without touch ups! Really impressive. He actually had a skull half mask that looked great on, but he couldn't wear it to school and his make up help up so well, we didn't use it for trick or treating. This was the first year he had friends who opted to not dress up and he was a bit disappointed with the too cool for Halloween energy, but he was happy with his costume and all he got a lot of great compliments. We went trick or treating with his 2 besties (one now attends a different school) that were totally dressed up all day and are just as goofy as he is and that helped a ton.

Trick or treating was fun! I never know why parents don't want to go, we always have such a great night. Our neighborhood is pretty amazing on Halloween. Most people sit outside to hand out candy and within 20 minutes, they usually have overflowing bags. There's a yearly block party nearby that everyone winds up at and a lot of adults get dressed up. I was a last minute Bride with pleated leggings, my grey biker jacket, and a silver spray streaked updo. Mat wore a mask and cloak and we went with a friend who was an amazing No Face from Spirited Away. He even had chocolate coins he handed out -- he stayed quiet and freaked a LOT of people out.





( Onward to los Muertos )

We've been sick. We, meaning Gideon, then Mat, then me. It's just a head cold and bit of fever, it hasn't really grounded any of us, but it is sure making me sleeeeeepy. Toby doesn't get sick. He licks everything and is always dirty so he has a pretty badass immune system. Also, he always has a deep raspy voice. At open house, his teacher told Mat she loves his deep masculine voice. Ha, what?

I am editing pictures as I type. I sent the doll off to Australia! I am nervous and excited. I had to pack her without her crown or cape on, and I braided her hair, so I'm nervous about her being displayed correctly. (I included a note with instructions, I think it is pretty straightforward.) I also made a custom stand I'm stoked on, but I'm worried about that making the trip too.





These are just quick phone pics. I have better shots that I think I'll put up closer to the show.

I have another Calavera Blythe on my table that I'm hoping to finish by next week and sell directly. I have some fun ideas for her, I think she'll  glow in the dark and in a lantern. We'll see if I can make that work. Also! I had another idea for a custom Blythe, on a chubby body and covered with tattoos. It's super cute in my head.

October is like a shot of adrenaline for me.  I spent yesterday cleaning the studio so I can reset a bit and it is glorious. I've also decorated, of course. We've officially announced to friends that the party will be on Dia de los Muertos and everyone seems really excited, which is great. I am thrilled that I do not have to worry much about costumes for me and Mat and can focus on the boys for Halloween. I'm even gonna make friend craft nights out of decoration prep, so we'll make papel picado and paint some papier-mâché skulls and won't need to do much else besides cook/bake. This year the boys' Halloween costumes are even easy. Gideon wants to be a skeleton knight so I am sort of leaving it in his/Mat's hands and I'll help them build/paint whatever is needed. (Not sure if we're buying or modding or making armor yet.) Toby wants to be the tenth Doctor Who, so he gets another suit and a sonic screwdriver and he will wear them both out far beyond Halloween, so I don't mind buying it all. (He wanted to be the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz until he realized that if he was the Dr. he'd get a "real" sonic screwdriver and a new suit. He's been wearing his *other* suit and using a flashlight.) Dr. Who is his new obsession. It's all about the fashion for him.

I want to go see the Box Trolls this weekend and I want to watch scary movies. Have you seen the opening for the next season of AHS? AMAZING. It's all so on the nose that I'm worried I won't like this season. I probably will though. I am easy to please.



Last weekend we went to a sewing birthday party for our friend Rodney (at a sew shop, and we made fanny packs, it was totally amazing) and I met an atist who is working on a small stop motiong film. Why aren't I? Let's address that, world.

I hope you are well. It is Friday and it is October, there's always that. <3