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New avatar alert. 

This is a fairly true to life picture of how I look now. The previous avatar I had been using here was at least a few years old, and I've changed a lot in the past few years.

In December I had updated my avatar on Ravlery, Flickr, and Den of Angels, but I did not like the severe hairstyle I was resorting to then. It aged me a LOT! This one is at least a bit better.

My daughter-in-law is a hair stylist and she talked me into highlights and "low lights" to add some colour to my hair. As it gradually greyed it was growing drab and mousy looking. I'm not at all against grey hair, in fact I kind of liked a few of my greyer streaks, but the slow turn to grey was giving me a washed out salt and pepper effect that was very unflattering. I was also wearing it in a rather severe, pulled back style that aged me a lot.

I'm still prone to getting a rash on my face if my hair is not pulled back some, but this is at least a compromise.

Fly By Post

Life lately has been stressful and frantically busy and I haven't had much time or energy left over for the dolls or crafting for them. Here and there I have been taking a few moments in the evening to crochet on mindless little projects that don't require too much thinking. In the process, over a period of many days, I've managed to actually complete a few things.

Please pardon the poor photography. I haven't had much time for proper photography and editing either, so what I do get is usually taken with my iPhone camera, in low light, and without much staging or posing happening.

There is this one,

 

---which since the picture was taken has acquired a deep, dusty rose coloured ribbon. It actually looks quite cute now. It was the prototype for the ones that have followed. I based it on an actual baby dress pattern, but I downsized it by using 2/16 weaving cotton and a .75mm crochet hook. It fits the Pukifees but is a little on the short side, which means it will likely fit the Nappy Choo baby that should be arriving sometime in late March or early April.

Then with the same basic pattern I made this one using size #30 cotton crochet thread.



And last night completed a third one, using a combination of green size #30 crochet thread and natural 2/16 weaving cotton.



In all three renditions the ribbon and yoke ruffle were my own innovations to the pattern.

Quite the Combination!

 Modelling today we have Morganna's body, Shannon's head, and Panalaya's wig.



This unusual combination was put together because I needed a small bust body to model a corset I made for a friend's doll. Morganna has the only small bust Minifee body I own, but her red hair and the colouring in her faceup clashed terribly with the grape purple of the corset. 



Panalaya's wig, on the other hand, went beautifully with the purple....but....she's "white skin" and that small bust body of Morganna's is "normal skin". 



So I nabbed Shannon's head, popped it on Morganna's body, and topped it with Panalaya's wig. A winning combination I think!

Happy New Year

These three little ones are dropping in to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! This may well be their very first "store bought" outfits, as crafting for them is just so much fun that I rarely buy clothing! But how can one resist cute little outfits with accessories for only $1.99 per outfit?



They are "Crib Life" outfits found on clearance sale at Save-On-Foods and they fit Pukifee perfectly. Each of the girls got these "Birthday Pretty" sets and a "Sweet Slumbers Sleepover" set. Only Tessa and Serenity ended up with a "Roller Skating" outfit though. Neelie wasn't quite fast enough! I'll keep an eye open for one for her though. She really wants to be part of the Pukifee Roller Derby Team, and besides, that set comes with super cool roller skates that actually fit! The dress-up high heels in this set are a bit small.