My Swap Doll Is Here!

A package arrived yesterday from Florida. Inside was a lovely doll from Moriah Betterly of MLB Studios! In a previous post I showed you the doll I made for Moriah, now I get to share with you the doll Moriah made for me. 

I just love Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos. Moriah made me a lovely La Calavera Catrina style doll. She's so hauntingly beautiful!

To give you an idea of her size, she's just slightly under 12 inches tall. I don't know how Moriah works on a face so (to me) small and gives it such amazing detail.

I have small hands so this gives you a good idea of her head size. She has a beautiful crown of black and pink roses.

She has a sweet stitched bodice with black lace.

Her skirt has beautiful ruffles with a sweet tieback over skirt. The photos are coming out really pink but the color is more a lovely dark magenta with sparkles.

Moriah also included one of her new snowman ornies. I love snowmen and this is a great piece. He has a paper clay head, hands, feet and I believe buttons too with a sewn and stuffed body. It's a work of art in itself.

I will treasure both of these always!

If you'd like to see more of Moriah's art check out the links below.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MLBStudios
http://mlbetterly.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BluMudd

A Tour Of My Studio - 2013

I moved everything around in my studio a few months back but never got around to taking pics. I was starting to have some serious anxiety issues with my lack of space. This new configuration helped relieve some of the anxiety for a while but I'm running out of space again. Anyway this is as clean as it gets. Let's tour shall we?

This was my original plan. Things changed slightly but it's mostly the same.

My studio is in the dining room. I have my large couch blocking part of the entrance because the living room is weird and there is nowhere else to put it.

Behind the couch there is a small bookcase that I use the top of to iron small things. Books and magazines are stored on the shelves. Next to the book case is a wire shelving unit that holds my printer and printer supplies.

Computer desk with cushion underneath for the cat.

Large wire shelves that I moved from the window wall to in front of the kitchen door. Everything is neatly labeled so I can find things but now I'm running out of room so things are piled in front of the shelf.

Clay table with shelves I moved over on the wall. I always meant to make a table skirt so all the crap under the table was hidden...oh well.

My main worktable is now in front of the window so I have better light during the day. A portion of the table is taken up by my new sewing machine.

Next to that table is my felt storage. The small boxes on top have trims and things.

As you can see I'm really packed in here tight. And this is after a good clean out. I won't tell you how much I have stored in the garage too. My brother has said he intends to move out this summer so I'm trying to hold on til then. If he does move I'll take over his room which is the Master bedroom. It's not a huge room at all but just big enough so I can spread out and breathe a bit. Keeping my fingers crossed this happens cause once I'm in there I'm not moving back out.

A Year In Review

2012 wasn't the greatest year for me health-wise etc. I know for some people it was way worse so I'm not really going to complain about my little life. Looking forward to 2013 being much better and will work hard to achieve that for myself.

Going to show a photo review of the year. Some notable highlights of the year were: I was published for the first time in Soft Dolls and Animals Magazine. I was accepted into Art Dolls Only Group and I really did some of my best work so far. Pretty darn pleased with those. I also jumped out of my comfort zone kicking and screaming. Was one of the best things I've ever done for myself.

Custom Ornament

Paper Clay Valentine Bunny

 Paper Clay Snow Kids

Vintage Easter Swap

Vintage Circus Challenge

 300 Penguin Wedding Ornaments

Native American Doll

Elsa and Frank Topsy Turvy Doll

 Prim Doll Challenge

Day of The Dead Challenge

 Big Frank Plush

Vintage Halloween Swap

Halloween Ornament Swap

Christmas Ornament Swap

Fall Themed Swap Doll

When I have them all on one post like this I see how much time and energy I spent on these so I guess it was a good creative year even though it wasn't a quantity year. 

I wish you all a fantastic 2013!

A Finished Project I Can Now Share.

 My blog has been pretty quiet for a while. I haven't had much to show. I had been working on a doll for a couple of months for a dear friend. It was for a doll swap. The swap was for a Fall/Autumn themed doll, whatever Fall means to you. It took a while to complete and I didn't want to show it until she received it but now I can share. Part of the reason it took so long was I designed a completely new pattern for the doll. I also spent tons of time on the accessories to make everything just right. My swap partner Moriah Betterly is such a great friend and has been so supportive of my work. We actually met in an online swap years ago. So it's like we came full circle. She loves the doll and I'm so pleased.

 I borrowed photos that Moriah Betterly, my swap partner, took cause they are so much better than mine.

 I made the doll a little prim doll to carry.

 Messenger bag with appliqued fall leaves.

 Little matching capelet with appliqued fall leaves.

Also a matching Tam hat.

 Especially for Moriah I made a little ADQ magazine that had pages of her dolls that have been published there and tucked it inside the dolls' messenger bag.

 Here's the dress she is wearing under the capelet.

And a close up of the boots. I modeled these after my daughter's Uggs.

Now that Christmas is over I feel the need to get back to work so will hopefully will have more to show soon!

A long over due update

Well November turned out to be the one month a year that I have very little pain and I actually feel Human again. Unfortunately it was also the month I had the full body wracking cough that had me worried I'd crack a rib. Very little sleep, trying to sleep sitting upright against a wall, waking up everyone in the house at night with my coughing and explosive sneezing. Some kind of virus or allergies? I didn't get better until my sinus' got infected and I got an antibiotic. I still have a dry hacking cough but at least I can sleep now. And still compared to October it was a good month.

Didn't get much done since I can't sew when I'm hacking up a lung. I managed to get one special Ornament done for the ADA's Christmas Swap.

He's a sweet little felt and paper clay Santa. I received the loveliest Santa Cat ornament from Trish Powell.

I took advantage of Cyber Monday and purchased a brand new sewing machine for a fantastic price and free shipping. It's a present to me from my wonderful mom for Christmas only I get it now.

I played around with it and so far I don't hate it, it's pretty easy to use and it seems to like me fine so we are becoming fast friends. Hopefully this baby will help get a good stock of doll bodies built up so I can do some shows next year. Fingers crossed.

My poor daughter just had a cyst or cysts on one of her ovaries rupture and has been in so much pain. So even though she's 20 years old she still needs mom to take care of her.

I put some of my older Holiday Plush dolls in my etsy shop and a couple of them sold...yay!

 These guys are still in my shop. I made them last year. I make a new set of holiday characters in a new design every year. Just couldn't make a set this year.

These 2 are the last of the holiday plush dolls from 2010 and are also in my shop.
 

I'm currently working on a doll for a swap and a custom order and I'm making a Super Hero doll for my youngest nephew and a girl doll for my brother's new girlfriend's daughter. I have a bunch more challenges coming up and I'm just tired thinking about them. Actually I'm physically exhausted. But of course I'll do them anyway.