Another Face Wipe Coming Up!

My granddaughter always asks me what my dollies are saying. Well what Petunia is saying right now is, "Wipe me, Wipe me! and someone keep this talentless newby away from me!". Heh.



So yeah, I'm going to wipe her again and give it one more shot before I admit defeat. I liked the blushing, and I'm pleasantly surprised with how the eyebrows came out. The eyelashes weren't even too terribly bad at first but then I made the fatal mistake of thinking I could pull the black from the inner eyelid out at the corner....then I added an "eyelash" or two with the same paint....aack, big mistake!

And the lips....oh my, that was another whole torment session. I haven't come anywhere NEAR being happy with those. I wiped the area so many times that I lost some of the blushing along with it. Never could get her looking anything other than that she had just eaten a very messy jam tart! I want her to have much more defined lips that the usual Pong default faceup, but not like THIS! I couldn't get enough colour where I wanted it on her lips while using the pastels, but clearly paint isn't the answer either.

Back to the drawing board! Or faceup board....'er whatever. Petunia isn't successfully through her cosmetic surgery yet.....

Blushing

I didn't want to become a custom faceup artist. I have enough hobbies as it is, but the sad state of Petunia's face just could not be ignored any longer. Here's how she looked before I wiped her.



And here's how she's looking with just the blushing done. Of course while I was actually working on her I had the eyes and wig removed. I only put them back so that I could get a better idea of how she was coming along.



I have to say that I'm really liking how she's looking so far, but this is only the beginning. The hardest part is yet to come and I'll admit to being very nervous about it. I still have to do all the line work and if my trial brushstrokes on the back of a sandwich plate can say much about my "talent", it says that I don't have any! I need fine, tapering lines and I get big, blobby, inconsistent ones. Aargh! Never mind the nightmare that attempting two mirrored eyebrows is going to be.

When it's not so humid I'll "save" this layer by giving the faceplate another seal coat, and then see what I can do about making Petunia look a little less like Odo from Star Trek, Deep Space Nine. Yep.....she definitely needs eyebrows, lips, and eyelashes!

Little House Guests

Mr Magoo and Ms Muffet have been supervising not only Petunia, but also her four house guests.



The extra kids are in town for a modelling gig. The actual photo shoot for the soon to be released knitting pattern set for Pukipuki sized dolls will start tomorrow!



While they wait the boys, Huck and Elroy, have been a bit rambunctious.....



....and poor little Maddie has really been missing her Mommy.....



They've been busy practising their poses and hamming it up for the camera.

Meanwhile, even with a houseful of guests, I caught Petunia still running around with a grubby faceup that is sloughing off! Boy oh boy, when I catch that girl......!



I'm thinking she's going to have to sit in "Time Out" while the other kids get to do the modelling, and then when I have a spare moment I'll have to completely wipe that look off her face! In fact, once she comes clean (a little Windsor and Newton brush cleaner should do the trick.) I think she'll hardly be recognizable as the Petunia we once knew and loved.

*sob* I'll miss her.

First Three Done

Done! This year's reno project is complete.

The 3 windows on the top floor, and the garage door on the lower floor, have all been replaced.

Next year the windows on the lower floor will be tackled.

A Labor Of Love

I finished the qiviut hat a few days ago. It was well received but it took some cajoling to get a modelled photo.



I spun the yarn myself from fibre that was a gift from a friend. Qiviut fibre (the ultra soft undercoat of a musk ox) is very hard to come by and commercially spun qiviut sells for $70 - $80 per ounce! This hat, with its folded up brim, weighs about 2 ounces. A rare and pricey hat for a very deserving man.

A Balancing Act

Lately I've been juggling various responsibilities along with my numerous hobbies and it just seems like there are not enough hours in a day! Upon further reflection I have come to realize that far too much of my time is eaten by my all too accessible internet connection. It seems that several times a day I sit down "just for a minute" and an hour or more passes!

Well, no more! Since I seem to have no self discipline in that regard I've been trying a new approach. Each day after I check my emails and various forums ONCE, (which is usually by 9am or so), I shut the computer OFF. I don't allow myself to turn it back on again until much later in the day, usually while I'm preparing dinner.

Yesterday, with this new approach, I managed to vacuum, wash floors, do several loads of laundry, walk the dog, do my much neglected physio exercises, AND knit this little dress:



It takes me one step closer to publishing a series of patterns for Pukipuki sized dolls.

Qiviut Toque in Progress

Lusciously soft qiviut slipping through one's fingers. Knitting doesn't get much better than that.

Handspun Qiviut

3.6oz (102g) of handspun qiviut*.

*The super soft wool lying beneath the long coat of the muskox.



The fibre was a gift from a very dear friend.



I picked, carded, spun and plied it myself.



And I plan to knit it into a wonderfully soft and warm toque (watchcap) for my husband.

One Button Puki Cardigan

I've been working on getting a batch of basic, Pukipuki knitting patterns ready for publication. This little one button cardigan will be one of a set of about 5 different styles in the pattern.

3 Minutes Left

Canon EOS Rebel T3

We bought a new camera and I spent a fun afternoon yesterday just playing with it. These are photos that I took with all the settings on automatic. I've yet to read through the manual to figure out how to use all the manual settings to optimize the image results.

If you click on the image below and then select "Actions" and then "All sizes" you can view the pictures larger....and still beautifully clear!

New Threads

I spent some time yesterday making jeans and a few t-shirts for the teeny, tiny couple.

They're Back!

Mr Magoo and Ms Muffet's faceplates have come back from Ban Sidhe's faceup spa and they are absolutely gorgeous. She did an amazingly detailed job on such a small scale!

 Here's a second "box opening" of sorts for the new and improved pair:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Look everyone! There's a little parcel on the table. It came from New York."



"I wonder if it could be our finished faceplates? Oh I do hope so! It's rather embarrassing going out like this."



"Okay, everyone sit out o' the way so tha' Wovenflame 'as room to open the package."



"Oh, 'tis a charming dog!" (I do hope he was well behaved and didn't chew on our faceplates while he was travelling!)



"Petunia dear, he seems to have taken a real shine to you. Would you mind holding him out of the way while Wovenflame searches for our faces? I'm sure they're in there somewhere. Tha's a good girl."



"Ahhhh, now tha's better! Don't ye think so me dear? I feel like quite the 'ansome fella, and ye are the prettiest wee lass I've ever set me eyes on."



"Oh now, look 'ere. There's a wee gift for ye, me beauty."



'Tis a fae crown! Now aint that fittin'? A beautiful crown for me jewel of a lassie."



"Thank you so much Ban. It's exquiste! I think I have the perfect dress to go with it."




Introducing Mr Magoo and his lovely sweetheart, Ms Muffet.

The Window Saga Continues

In all fairness my husband had this much done several days ago and I'm just getting around to uploading the pictures and posting them.

The exterior finishing while it was still in progress:

The exterior finishing completed:

There is still more work to be done on the inside, but that can wait. Two more windows need to be done before the fall/winter rains set in.

This inner finishing can wait until all the other outside work is done. It's not pretty like this, but it won't leak. The scaffolding has been moved along to the next window that needs replacing.

Hijacked!

Blogrolling (dot) com, you're despicable.
I hope no one ever does business with you.

It was recently brought to my attention that my blog had been hijacked by the above mentioned website. Trying to get to my blog by direct link, or by typing my website address into your browser would bring up my blog for a brief second only to redirect you a moment later to their site which had a little notice at the top that the domain name was for SALE. Nuh-uh!!

Thanks to a few suggestions on Blogger's help pages I was able to fix it, but not without losing all the customizations I've done to my blog over the past many years. Most of it is stuff I can live without or replace, but it's annoying nonetheless.

Things I remember having but have now lost include a "hit counter", links to various blogs, including my granddaughters', a Flickr badge that showed my latest photo uploads, a link to favourite sites like Knitty.com and so on.

I'm ticked! Why do people/companies have to be so rotten and despicable?!!

Won't Somebody Pull?

Both want to go for a ride but it's so hot that no one is volunteering to do the pulling.

First Window

We're in the process of replacing some (most? all?) of the windows in our house. When I say "we" I mean my husband. Any help I might be giving is limited to fetching, holding, and refraining from asking questions or making any annoying comments while he is actually scowling.

The first step took all day. It was the building of the extra sturdy, and hopefully movable, scaffolding.



With that in place he was able to get up close to the second story kitchen window and start cutting away at the stucco. No, he didn't use a craft knife, there was a cement blade on a grinder involved.





When the old window was lifted out I was amazed at how large the hole seemed! If only there was room for a window that large. Unfortunately the window frame takes up a lot of space.





After getting the window out.....he put it back in for the night. Admittedly there were good reasons for that.

First, more stucco had to be cut away and that was a dusty procedure. Second, wasps were being attracted by the smell of dinner cooking. Third, it was almost time for company to arrive for a 30th birthday celebration. (Not mine.....I passed that milestone a couple of decades ago!).

Anyway, after an evening of visiting with "children" and grandchildren he was back at work today.



The new window is securely installed, but needs trim work inside and out.




Any questions? Well...don't ask ME! Like I said, I was just the hold this, fetch that, keep quiet and outta the way, kinda gal.

.

Barbie, Barbie, and Barbie

Today the blog post is all Barbie dresses. It's even the same dress, just in different colours.







These are being knit for my grandnieces. Four down (I have another striped one done) and 2 more to go. The final two, yet to be knit, will be for my granddaughters next Christmas. Shhhhhhh! Don't tell!

She's Lovely!

Ms Muffet has had her day at the spa!



And I must say she's looking marvellous, even if she had to borrow a wig and a body for her photo-shoot.



And with a beautiful face like that.....



I don't think she has anything to fear from Mr Magoo's squealing "groupies".



They plan to stay another week at Ban Sidhe's resort before returning home by.....um.....mail? I guess it's more affordable than a airline flight for two? I hope they have a safe "landing" and don't suffer too many delays along the way.