Well, this three day weekend is shot.
A great chance to be productive has been lost due to a miserable chest cold and sinus infection :P
Since I can't seem to lay down to get some sleep, but I don't have the energy to do anything else, I thought I could catch up on my blog.
I've been a bit busy since after the holidays. I got my kitty spayed in the beginning of January. She has since forgiven me :)
I was busy practicing on my flute and guitar for our annual Memorial Service for the families of our deceased Cancer patients. This was especially hard as one of my co-workers lost her Mom who had been a patient and friend for many years - a wonderful lady. Another co-worker is out due to her 22 year old son's battle with Cancer. My sore sinuses seem so trivial in light of that :P
Each year for the last 5 years I have played the music for this Service, and each year I got nervous and choked in some way. Well, finally I made it through and was even better than any of my practice recordings. You can see some of those on my Youtube : http://www.youtube.com/user/5timesstray
After I got past the stress of the Memorial Service, I tackled another stressful task .... opening up my Blythe doll for her customization. I should give a little background history here.
I never played with dolls as a child. I was the quintessential Tom Boy. But somewhere along the way, a friend's custom doll and browsing Flickr, I became interested in buying a doll strictly to customize her. For those who know ... I got Cinnamon Girl. She is a doll with a sun tanned complexion, sweet face but gaudy orange make up :P Even with the gaudy make up, I fell in love with her fast and procrastinated the custom work.
This is what she looked like when I first got her home.
A great chance to be productive has been lost due to a miserable chest cold and sinus infection :P
Since I can't seem to lay down to get some sleep, but I don't have the energy to do anything else, I thought I could catch up on my blog.
I've been a bit busy since after the holidays. I got my kitty spayed in the beginning of January. She has since forgiven me :)
I was busy practicing on my flute and guitar for our annual Memorial Service for the families of our deceased Cancer patients. This was especially hard as one of my co-workers lost her Mom who had been a patient and friend for many years - a wonderful lady. Another co-worker is out due to her 22 year old son's battle with Cancer. My sore sinuses seem so trivial in light of that :P
Each year for the last 5 years I have played the music for this Service, and each year I got nervous and choked in some way. Well, finally I made it through and was even better than any of my practice recordings. You can see some of those on my Youtube : http://www.youtube.com/user/5timesstray
After I got past the stress of the Memorial Service, I tackled another stressful task .... opening up my Blythe doll for her customization. I should give a little background history here.
I never played with dolls as a child. I was the quintessential Tom Boy. But somewhere along the way, a friend's custom doll and browsing Flickr, I became interested in buying a doll strictly to customize her. For those who know ... I got Cinnamon Girl. She is a doll with a sun tanned complexion, sweet face but gaudy orange make up :P Even with the gaudy make up, I fell in love with her fast and procrastinated the custom work.
This is what she looked like when I first got her home.
This is what she looks like now.
I still haven't glued her back together. I want to be ABSOLUTELY sure I have done everything to her that I want to that requires having her head opened up. For the doll geeks this is what I have done so far ....
Sand matted her face
reapplied make up on her face and eye lids
applied freckles
changed out all 4 eye chips ( foiled and painted )
replaced her stock eye lashes
gave her sleep eyes
gave her new pull strings and pull rings
Washed, conditioned and soft curler set her hair
Put her back together ... mostly ;>)
My Doll's name is A.J. ( Amanda Joyti )
Amanda = Latin for worthy of Love andJyoti = Hindu for Light.
Of course it's hard to stop at just ONE Blythe, so I had a game plan ....
I bought two Pullips :D A boy and a girl, and I bought a bunch of wigs for A.J. to switch in and out of, thus making her seem like more than one girl ( but hopefully not making her feel like Sybil )
One of the really fun things to do with these dolls is to photograph them on adventures, and the three of them had their first adventure out of the house on Valentine's Day.
Am I crazy to put my dolls in such peril for a photograph ? Especially considering the cheapest Pullip was about 55 dollars and the Blythe was over 100 dollars ??
I think the photos were worth it :)
Do you ?
