More Dolls and Kids in College

Whew! Just finding time to breathe is a chore these days. Physically, I'm seeing symptoms that I need to slow down and regroup.  But the youngest is now in college. She and I are dealing with the separation anxiety - maybe she's dealing better than I am.  It's hard to tell. I'm finding ways to move on with my life and that's helping. I always intended that when my major child-rearing years were over, that I would branch out, learn new things, go new places. I'm starting now.

Katisha and the BJD Convention
I attended my first ever BJD (Ball-Jointed Doll) convention a few weeks ago. I was fortunate enough to meet Paulette Goodreau, the designer of my 2 MSD (1/4 size) dolls. I bought a new doll and some outfits from her. While wandering the sales floor, looking for a wig for the Goodreau doll, I chanced upon this beautiful ResinSoul Dai repaint. She came home with me to join my Elfdoll RuRu SD (1/3 size). I love the name of the antagonist in The Mikado, Katisha, although, of course, I don't love the character! So I named this doll for her, but changed the pronounciation from "KAH-ti-sha" to "ka-TISH-ah".  But she's still Kat for short. I've since changed eyes and wig on her.  I need more photos!

Raja and Her Tiger
Not too long after acquiring Sanctuary, the Sybarite in the posts below, I acquired yet another beautiful Syb - Raja. I've had such fun dressing and photographing her. First is her in a photo my husband worked on. I brought her downstairs from the studio to my computer to upload photos I'd taken. I wasn't pleased with any of them, really. Ming was asleep in his bed and I got a crazy idea to see if he would allow me to pose her beside him. Suprisingly enough, he did - he must have been very asleep!  One of my doll board friends titled this shot "Tiger, tiger in the night" and another captioned it "Be still, my pet. Mama's thinking..."  I love them both!

I made a second version of the dress featured in the post below: the dress made from an article in FDQ (Fashion Doll Quarterly) about drafting patterns from vintage fashion photographs and drawings. I loved the resulting dress, but decided to alter it and make it more exotic for Raja.  Here's Raja in a red wig modeling the result:

I finally acquired a black wig for her.  Again, I need to have another photo session with the dolls!

I think I'll close this post now, but post again soon. The art world finally opened up to me! It's been a long journey - too long in coming, actually, but I couldn't be more pleased!