CHAOS!

Counting down the days now until I leave for the Con. My sewing room is getting messier and messier but I don’t want to take the time to clean it up.

Prima (60 cm Obitsu modded to 55 cm, Gretel head) and Adam (Dream Realm Rad Correco) model new outfits on the cutting table.

Prima will be very upset if this dress sells.

I bought Adam because his sculpt was so manly, but when he arrived he was just….very sweet!

My Number One Model Giselle (Elfdoll Soah) takes a much needed break wrapped up in Adam’s sweater.

Girls in white show some attitude. (Fantasy Doll Nina, DollZone Lotus)

The chaos extends to the bulletin board where I stick all of my pattern pieces.

My trims and laces. It’s a miracle I can find anything.

My sewing machine table.

A stack of summer yukata robes ready to go.

I hope I survive this! Please stop and see me if you go to the CC Con in Fresno on May 15th.

Prisoner of the Sewing Room…

First of all, no I have not been living under a rock since my last post which was…four months ago? Getting through the holidays is always intense, and then comes a slew of birthdays, interesting weather and the resulting power outages, adventures in plumbing, recession doldrums, and so on.
Then there was an announcement on Den of Angels about a BJD Convention that is going to be held on May 15th in Fresno. ( http://www.ccbjd.org/ ) . The Central Valley is a pretty friendly place and hopefully the Con will draw on people from not only the Fresno area, but also LA and Sacramento/San Francisco areas as well.
So I took the plunge and decided to go as a vendor. Yikes. Since then I have been locked in my sewing room trying to produce enough stock to make it worthwhile for me to go.

Niki (Elfdoll Red) surveys the damage on my cutting table.

Three outfits ready to go.

Rack of finished clothing.

Escaping outside- four of my models escape from the sewing room for a little fresh air.

If you are planning on going to the Convention, please stop by the Lastochka booth and say hello!

Is it December already?

It seems like a common theme in my posts is OMFG HOW DID IT GET TO BE _______________ ALREADY?
The year has flown by. It has been difficult, rewarding, sad, happy, and always challenging.

Garden of Dolls Nabiya in the garden.

Little Emma (Garden of Dolls Nabiya) has been walking in the Autumn Garden.

The leaves have fallen off the trees and everything seems dead and cold.

But a ray of late afternoon sun lights a golden path for her to follow.

Something glints at her feet…..

When was this left here?

People have told her that Christmas is coming.

But in the brown and gold of the garden, it’s hard to imagine the winter fantasy of Yuletide.

But maybe the mysterious object is an omen of changes to come…

Scary……

Is it already 2/3 of the way through October??? Scary. How did that happen? The month so far has been a blur, and it will be over before I blink. And then starts the roller coaster to the Holidays. I love Autumn for the weather and the beauty of the landscape, but I hate the intense level of commitments and activities.

Bobobie Sprite

Pumpkin is my Bobobie Sprite. She normally doesn’t wear dresses but put one on for the Halloween party.

Soul Doll Apple

Apple is normally camera-shy, but also showed up for the party.

DIM Odelia

Ivy (DIM Odelia) arrived with a pumpkin trick or treat bucket.

Doll Zone Feilian

Kalina (DZ Feilian) wore her skeleton dress to stay in the theme.

Apple pours the tea.

Treats on the table…

The four girls together.

I had bought the fabric to make these outfits to sell on ebay, but the events of the past month prevented me from finishing them in time to list, sell, and ship by Halloween, so I didn’t post them. But if you are interested in buying one of them, please contact me by leaving a comment. All outfits except the skeleton dress include dress, hat, stockings, mitts, and petticoat and are $25. The skeleton dress includes dress, hat, stockings, mitts, apron, and an underdress of vintage lace (below) and is $35. Prices include shipping. Dresses should fit most MSD dolls.

Vintage lace underdress.

Vintage lace underdress included in price of skeleton dress.

Happy Trick or Treating!

Crazy Apples…

The crazy apples have arrived and now it’s finally starting to feel like fall.

Little Ben is finding the Doll House stuffy today and opens the door to go outside for some fresh air.

And he finds that the crazy apples are everywhere.

The Bistro is empty today except for one single customer.

Pumpkin is Little Ben’s best friend. There are times that they both feel out of place in the Doll House. Little Ben is gay, and Pumpkin has elf ears. That has brought them close.

Sometimes an uncomplicated friendship is exactly what you need.

On the way back to the Doll House Pumpkin and Little Ben find that someone else has decided to escape into the cool air of Autumn.

“‘Sup Dawg?” Niki is the Doll House’s laid-back surfer and philospher.

Out and about. Autumn is a paradox. It’s a time for quiet and reflection as the world gets ready for winter, but in the human realm it is the sling-shot that flings us towards the Holidays- back to school, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Sometimes it feels like all we do is run from Labor day to New Year’s.

In the meantime, if you can grab a moment here and there to stop time and enjoy the apples, it’s a real blessing.

The crabapple tree was a sapling when we moved here twenty years. Every year it would flower and fruit, and I’ve never known what to do with the apples. They fall to the ground, ferment, and the whole yard is filled with the sweet fragance of apple cider. One of them sprouted and grew into another tree, and now we have twice as many apples.

I don’t water, fertilize or prune them, and yet they continue to grow and fruit with gusto. Now every fall the ground is covered with the yellow crabapples. I have no idea what to do with them. It seems like such a waste. At the same time, I love to see the ground covered with the cheerful yellow globes when the rest of the yard is going brown and dormant, and I love the scent of the garden on the soft moist air of fall.

If anyone has an good recipes or ideas for what to do with them, please let me know.
In the mean time…..
Crazy Apples.

* * * * * * * * *
Little Ben is a Dollzone Megi. Pumpkin is a Bobobie Sprite. Niki is an Elfdoll Red.

The Dregs of Summer

It has been a long summer. Mendocino Music Festival, my daughter’s Bollywood wedding, getting a rental painted and cleaned for new tenants- I’m tired.

Some friends of mine are out of town and so I am watering their large garden for them. After the business of the summer, it’s nice to spend some Zen time dragging around hoses. I took Alice with me. Alice is a 50 cm Obitsu (the new lovely body) with a Haruka head.

Alice walks down a row in the garden

Most of the garden is still lovely, but there are signs that the end of summer is near. The peas are done and the vines are wilted.

The garden reflects my current state of mind: tired, dusty, wilted. August is always a difficult month for me. Most people get seasonal depression in January- for me, the end of summer has the same effect.

August is neither here nor there. The excitement of the beginning of summer is over. Generally by now we are feeling the lack of rain, and dust has accumulated on all of the bushes and trees in the forest. The last two weeks of the summer are like the stretching pull of a slingshot aiming towards fall. Once labor day has arrived, it is Full Force Ahead until New Year’s, without much of a chance to breathe. But August is anticipation for the rain, the change of seasons, the start of school, and the craziness of the holidays.

In the meantime, we wait and watch as the summer slowly disintegrates.

One of the tiny lizards that scurried around the garden as we watered.

My dog hates Mozart…

I’ve decided that Otis the Wonder Dog hates Mozart.

Otis the Wonder Dog

Yesterday I asked Otis if he wanted to go the beach, and as usual he started jumping around and wagging his tail. But when I opened the hatchback of my VW bug, he simply stood there staring at me.

Granted, Otis the Wonder Dog has the mental capacity of a crustacean. He is 100 pounds of stupid but affectionate black muscle. As with all of our animals, he is a rescue dog from the Mendocino Humane Society, and since his parentage is uncertain, I tend to describe him as “labbish”.

Anyway- as he stood staring blankly into the back of my car, I realized that his reluctance to get into the car may have something to do with the fact that for the past two months, Mozart’s Requiem has been blasting from my car stereo every second I am in the car. This has helped me memorize the entire piece, a good 45 minutes or so of Latin and tricky musical passages. When you don’t have actual talent, you must rely on cocktail party tricks, like the ability to memorize words and music.

The concert this Saturday night is the finale of the Mendocino Music Festival, and dedicated to the memory of a dear friend of mine, Marion James, who was universally loved by everyone who had the pleasure of meeting this wonderful and incredibly talented woman. She is also the mother of Carolyn Steinbuck, incredible and loved in her own right. Carolyn has been the Fearless Leader and chorus director who has somehow managed to wrangle over 100 free-range singers into a cohesive group for this concert.

In honor of this pleasant but unusual immersion into music, my first love, I did a short photoshoot with my musician, Marie. I made her a dress that I felt would be appropriate attire for a demure pianist (for some reason pianists seem to always be meticulously groomed).

Marie’s new look.

I moved the piano outside because it was so hot.

She tries out the keys.

Before long she is fully-immersed in the music.

And now, she is no longer aware of the world around her.

Marie is a Haruka head on a modified 60 cm Obitsu body*

Libera eas de ore leonis….*

Marie has new hair (see photo) and I am feeling completely uninspired and unmotivated. It’s partly the time of year. To me, seasonal depression kicks in during the dregs of summer. Yes, the weather here on the coast is pleasant (better than inland, where it has been hot hot hot). It’s more the light- it’s harsh, bright, bad for photography til about 6 o’clock, and by then I’m not interested.

Marie is my classical musician. I’m not sure there actually are any classical musicians with flaming red hair, though. At least none that come to mind.

Very few people know that music is actually my first love. Because I’ve always been an artist, I think everyone assumes it would be that. But really- I’m a wannabe musician. I was a music major in college for about two weeks, til I got to my first music theory class. I was away from home for the first time, from a small dustbowl town and at a small private college on full-scholarship. I was basically self-taught on the instrument of my choice- the flute my brother had abandoned when he graduated from high school (just as I had abandoned the clarinet, which I never wanted to play anyway, because we had one that my oldest brother had left at home when he went off to live life).

Suddenly stuck in with all these kids who had been getting private lessons practically since birth, who had actually been to professional symphony concerts. When I tried to play my hands shook so badly I could hardly hang on to the flute. That was bad enough, but the very first day in my very first music theory class, the teacher made us all stand up, one by one, and sing something.

It was brutal and horrifying. I don’t think I went back to the second class. I changed my major a month or two later. But still- the lust for music has never left. This summer I was given the opportunity to sing in the Mendocino Music Festival Chorus. We’re doing Mozart Requiem: very heavy, heady stuff that is meaningful because it is dedicated to the mother of the chorus director, whom we all loved so much. She passed away earlier this year.

I posted a picture of Marie because she is my classical musician. She has a piano, and if I manage to find any energy I’ll take a shot of her with it. Meanwhile- the concert is in a little over a week. Two weeks later my daughter will get married in a Bollywood-style wedding in Monterey. I’m also trying to put my guest house/sewing room back together after getting a new window put in, and of course dealing with the book. So while it is all good stuff- I’m feeling a bit stressed by all of it.

Libera eas de ore leonis indeed!

*Deliver them from the mouth of the lion.

The Contortionist- link to Youtube video

Here is a link to my youtube video of The Contortionist. If you scroll down you can see a post showing the making of this slideshow.

Prima in the Garden, Raven at the Mission, Lucette at the Light house.

Thought I should add my next three youtube videos.

Prima at the Gardens: Shot at the beautiful Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg, Californina, on Mother’s Day, 2009.

*****

Lucette at the Lighthouse: A quick climb up the stairs at the Point Arena, CA Lighthouse. The final shot has the lighthouse in the distance, but you can barely make it out.

*****
Raven at the Mission: this was a quiet morning at the Mission in Carmel, California.

******