Touring with Colleen Babcock

While in London I got a chance to finally meet up with Colleen! She took me on a great trip to Great Missenden. We shopped at Rainbow Silks and other stores, ate lunch, talked and talked....and had a grand time. I was so happy to meet Colleen in person as we have only known each other through email.  I probably would not have ventured out of London on the train without some help so it was an added bonus to get to visit Great Missenden. Below are pics of Colleen...we were very taken with the little doors of the old buildings.

Stone Henge

Just got back from a great trip to Europe.  I will post more pics, but for now...here are my Stone Henge pics...I was able to get inner circle access...the only way to tour Stone Henge if you get the chance!!

Morning at the creek

I love my back yard....the wild flowers are blooming..its really ice plant...the flowers open when the sun hits them. And there is a nice collection of critters out almost every morning...including my dog, Elle dee.

Doll Retreat 2012!!

Here is my WIP doll from this year's Sisters of the Cloth doll retreat. The teacher this year was Brenda Gehl. The class name was "Gratitude" and the objective was to understand how the face and hands are part of the costume and theme of the doll and really belong more to the "costume" then to the body. I probably spent the majority of the class time just working on those two things...particularily the hands.

I had hoped the class would focus more on the rest of costuming, but as usual with classes...you never really have enough time to get to the costume. I worked very late Saturday night after the teacher, and most of my club, and gone to bed to get the costume worked out on my own and she is really just pinned here. As each doll was different we got to invent our own costumes to match our doll. There were no clothing patterns. Each person's doll turned out great.

We each had to come to class with our doll bodies already made and we could use any pattern we wanted. I chose to make Arley Berryhill's Le Femme pattern. I am very pleased with how she turned out!

Brenda uses paperclay on top of the cloth to sculpt the features instead of needlesculpting. I really liked that and hadn't tried it before.

I have more work to do, but my doll is going in the right direction.

Of course...the most fun of the yearly Retreat is really my fellow doll makers and time spent gossiping, sipping wine and staying up way too late...oh...and the snickerdoodles...ummm, ummm, good!

A new home...finally!

It has taken me over a year to find the perfect house...I have probably looked at hundreds of houses! But finally the right one appeared. Marv and I moved in on December 13th. Things are still in boxes but at least we have all our belongings in one place now!  (These are the photos from the listing..not our furniture)